Interview with Katherine Kurtz

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- What was the spark that generated the idea which drove you to write the Deryni series in the first place?

It was a dream, Honest! I still have the 3x5 cards on which I jotted the notes right after I woke up. A few things changed in the course of developing the outline for what became DR, but it’s pretty much all there. Interested readers can look at a transcription of those original notes, the unpublished short story/novella that was later expanded into parts of Deryni Rising, and the original outline that sold the first trilogy in The Deryni Archives, which also contains the first few short stories I wrote in the Deryni universe.

- What would you say was/is the hardest part of the entire process involved in the writing of the Deryni series? Each new addition reveals yet more depth to a series which has shown just how rich and complex it truly is.

I don’t know that I can pin down the hardest part. Some parts of some books are just harder than others, and there’s no way to predict, in advance, what those will be. But part of the enjoyment of the creative process is figuring out the puzzle. Resurrecting Camber, after I’d said he was dead, was a challenge-but I can’t use that device again. Having Dhugal turn out to be Duncan’s son, while still preserving everyone’s honor, was also a challenge. And there were others, of course. As long as I still get to resolve puzzles, I’ll probably keep writing the series for as long as I can.

- For obvious reasons, many authors steer clear of religion. And yet, you have made religion an integral part of the tale. Was that a deliberate choice right from the beginning?

I’ve always been interested in religion and the history of religion, especially Christianity. When I wrote Deryni Rising, I wasn’t sure one could go there-and if you look at the original edition, I really hedged my bets, and was careful not to be too specific about the religious aspects. And yet, what was being reinforced in my graduate studies in history was that in the real middle ages, religion was inextricably interwoven with everything else that was happening, and permeated virtually every aspect of life-and like so many other forms of power, religious power was sometimes corrupted. So I got bolder in DC, and bolder still in HD-and I knew that there was this Saint Camber guy who had to have his story told.

- What extensive research did the writing of the Deryni saga entail?

Well, I have an MA in history, so I’d already done a lot of that-and knew how to do it. As for the rest, one delves deeper when there’s a specific need-like deciding to use a corruption of minution-blood-letting designed to help monks suppress their bodily passions-so that it became a weapon in the hands of unscrupulous men who justified what they did in the name of religion. And of course I did research before writing an excommunication scene, for example. Part of the challenge is interweaving these things into context, so that the flow of the story isn’t interrupted. I try to avoid information dumps; but I do try to leave my readers knowing more about a subject than they did before. An author’s first job is to entertain, to tell a damned good story; but if you can also open minds and educate along the way, that’s an added bonus.

- In light of the current market, are you tempted to write one of those enormous fantasy epics which continue to be the most successful series at the moment?

Er, am I not already writing a multi-volume epic fantasy?-and began doing it before most other writers had really thought about it. Tolkien was the first, of course-and between the two of us, we apparently managed to convince an entire generation of writers that trilogies were the only way to go. But it isn’t. It’s astonishing to me that so many aspiring writers think they have to write a trilogy. That’s a big bite for folk who’ve mostly never even managed to complete a short story in coherent form. I don’t mean that to sound harsh, but too often young writers get wound up in creating a world, and do that at the expense of learning how to create compelling characters who can speak in believable dialogue. There’s a definite place for stand-alone novels-says the woman whose books almost all touch on a very few common threads.