Interview with Carol Berg

SFFW: How are you coping with all the accolades you've been receiving?

CB: I like few things better than hearing from readers who say that my books have touched their lives in some way, inspired them to write, or just given them some hours of exceptional pleasure. But all I have to do is read something by an author I admire or take a look at best seller lists, award lists, fan groups, or other such dry statistics to stay quite humble. I appreciate the good words immensely, but try not to take any of it for granted. Each book is a challenge. Though I want to please those who love my current books, I can't write the same book over and over again. And though I want to write something new and edgy that will make people go "wow!", I do love the "romantic" tropes of fantasy fiction: shapeshifting and uncertain identity, swords, princes, empires, and other worlds that lie just beyond the everyday. Creating a character that is complex and "real" and setting him or her to explore these old stories is just a delight.

SFFW: When you begin a book, how complete or detailed of an idea do you have about where it will go and how it will end?

CB: Quite sketchy. I always begin with a character: the arrogant, unlikable prince with a great destiny, the gentle, lyrical musician brutally imprisoned, or the woman who is living outside of her own life because of grief and guilt. And then I decide what happens to change that person's life: buying a slave, being freed from prison, meeting a man whose circumstances tweak every painful memory of a tragic past. That's when I start writing. Though I have an idea of what I call the "shape" of the book¾for example, Aleksander will have to fall very low and learn some important things before he becomes worthy of his destiny¾I often don't know the answer to the fundamental mystery of the book when I begin. I didn't know what Aleksander's destiny was or why Aidan had been imprisoned or who Aeren was until much later in the process. It is so much fun to discover such things along the way. But, of course, I had better get some idea where it's all going to end before I go too far.

SFFW: Have you ever felt any anxiety that a story that started with characters you love might not come together in other ways, at the end?

CB: Yes, definitely. Both before I start and after I'm in part way (that's the worst!) But as with any writing dilemma, writing is the only thing that cures it. You have to be willing to put words on paper. And you have to be willing to throw some of those papers (and words) away. A tough thing.

SFFW: What has been your experience with the process of editing your books? Have you had to make dramatic changes?

CB: Fortunately I have had excellent experiences with critiques and editing, both from my critique partners here in Colorado and my editors at Roc. I actually enjoy editing and revising, as the process forces me to look at my work with new eyes, giving me the opportunity to explore my characters and their actions in new depth, clarifying in my own mind what I'm actually saying. I told my new editor at Roc that I consider a "revision list" or a critique as a list of symptoms. Oftentimes the true problem uncovered is not the one the critiquer identifies. I suppose that appeals to the engineer in me! When my books emerge from a good editing cycle they are always stronger.

SFFW: Has the editing process ever influenced the very plot of your stories or the development of characters?

CB: My editors at Roc have never asked me to make sweeping changes to plot or character. The changes I work on in the professional editorial cycle tend to be nuances. Tightening or expanding scenes or backstory. Clarifying the choreography of action scenes. Smoothing the arcs of rising tension. Characters and plot don't change as a result, but become better defined. The only whole piece of prose I have been urged to cut was an epilogue that I had tacked on to "Transformation". My editor suggested that everything in that epilogue would be found in the opening chapter of "Revelation". She was exactly right. Aleksander's gift was a much better place to stop.

SFFW: Would you consider yourself to be your harshest critic, or your editors, or maybe your fans?

CB: As I instigate more changes in my work than all my other readers put together, I suppose I am my harshest critic.