Interview with Deborah J. Miller

Hobbit: Favourite character (this week!)

DJM: Thomas Covenant. It’s amazing that wherever writers gather and the subject of TC comes up, the discussion goes along similar lines… "Man, he was such a miserable b*****d." "Yeah, but we really suffered with him!"

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant were the only books that I would go into the store and pester the living daylights out of the assistant until they checked on the release date, again. I just couldn’t wait for the next instalment. It was the same sense of anticipation for me then that I know many, many George R R Martin fans have been suffering/enjoying waiting for Feast of Crows.

I had the pleasure of seeing Stephen Donaldson at a signing in Edinburgh for the release of The Runes of Earth and I gave him a copy of Talisker, which I inscribed, "Look what you made me do!" He seemed quite bemused by this but he accepted the book graciously. One of my friends pointed out that he might never read it, just pop it into a drawer somewhere – to which I responded that I don’t really care – just the knowledge that SD has a copy of my book is an outrageous thrill to me! You see, I’m just an old fan-girl still, no question!

DJM: To be honest, I never even considered any other genre. I write what I love.

I started reading Marvel Comics when I was about nine or ten. At the same time I started reading writers like R E Howard, (encouraged by the fabulous comic-book versions drawn by the late John Buscema), H Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Edgar Allen Poe and Michael Moorcock. It never occurred to me that these writers were not contemporary either with the time (70’s) or, one another. All I knew was that I loved the otherness, that classic sense of wonder in their books. Science Fiction came slightly later for me – but even then, it was the more Science Fantasy writers like Zelazny and Herbert, rather than hard science types like Clarke or Asimov.

If someone had asked me what I read at that time, I doubt I would have said Fantasy – there was little self-awareness about the genre then, at least that’s my memory of it.

Also, I was reading really erratically, anything that caught my attention. I remember hearing the lyrics of a song by Styx (yes, I am that old!) which were: "…ageless and timeless as Dorian Gray…" and I thought, I wonder who Dorian Gray is? Luckily, my older sister was a fellow book-worm and she knew. In fact, she bought me the book, which introduced me to the wonders of Oscar Wilde… (Thanks Lou!)

DJM: Well, I guess it could have been a combination – although only if beer counts as bribery! I suppose I was lucky in that my first novel landed on the desk of an editor who liked it a lot. That was John Jarrold, who, at that time was creating the Earthlight list for Simon & Schuster. Sadly, the list was cancelled just as it was establishing itself, which was a real shame, because during its brief lifetime it launched quite a few new authors.

Perhaps you should add "patience" to the list in your question, Hobbit! Writers need patience! Before JJ accepted my manuscript, it was "under consideration" by another UK publisher for eleven months. It’s extremely frustrating when that happens but, polite persistence is the key – and while you are waiting, press on with your next project.

DJM: I was only ever an Editor in my previous incarnation as a Technical Author – yes, it really is as dull as it sounds. I wrote computer manuals and training materials for a car insurance company.

"Wake up, Hobbit!" (Pokes Hobbit with a stick). "Someone has to write manuals… don’t they?"