Interview with Brian Ruckley

Slightly linked to the last question—which characters have changed the most from your original idea of them to how they've appeared on the page?

A: That’s an interesting spin on the ‘characters coming to life’ issue. It’s quite hard to remember what you had in mind the very first time you dreamed up a character, because it gets overlaid by what that character became in the final manuscript. As a rule, my characters are quite well-behaved: they do what I tell them to, and on the whole that means they’ve stayed pretty close to the way I originally envisaged them.

That’s not to say nothing ever changes, though. Particularly in writing Bloodheir, Book 2, one or two characters have assumed a slightly larger role in the story than I originally thought. As a result, they’ve expanded as characters, coming to life a bit more. An example is Tara Jerain, the wife of Mordyn the Chancellor, who’s now a viewpoint character in Books 2 and 3. Another is Aewult, the heir to the High Thane, who I’ve had more fun writing than I expected, and partly as a result of that he shows up in more scenes in Bloodheir than I expected back when I was outlining it. He’s ended up being a bit nastier and cockier than I originally intended, but also somewhat more incompetent. He causes a lot of trouble in Bloodheir, and characters like that are always fun to write.

Again to do with your site-- you have a section called The Gazetteer where you post bits of additional background info (such as timelines, ancestry, etc) from the world of your books. When you write, do you have to have all this stuff in front of you to set it all in perspective, or was it just created for your site?

A: I’m actually really bad at the whole making notes thing. I have virtually nothing written down in terms of background information, it’s all just sloshing around in my head. The one exception to that is the timeline, I think. Oh, and I have some lists of Thanes (though I’m not sure I could lay my hands on them quickly) and some rough drafts of various maps. Apart from that, I’m dangerously reliant on my (generally but not invariably reliable) memory, and on what’s contained in the text.

The Gazetteer is there just because some readers might find some of that background stuff interesting. When I want to add something to it, it’s mostly just a matter of organising what’s in my head, though some of it gets expanded and added to as I’m ‘gazetting’ it. None of it’s strictly necessary to understand what’s going on in the books, so it’s more like the extras – deleted scenes or something – you get on a DVD. A bit of light fun for me to do, and hopefully of interest to one or two readers.

I'm sure there are many aspiring fantasy authors out there (most people who run blogs for example!) so are there any precious nuggets of writerly advice that you'd like to share?

A: I’m wary of dispensing advice because my experience is still relatively limited, and what works for one person won’t necessarily work for another. Still, there’re some suggestions I think are unlikely ever to be bad advice. Read lots, including stuff outside the genre. Write constantly (and finish at least some of what you write! – the one thing that’s for sure is that you can aspire all you want, but you’ll never be a published novelist if you don’t actually finish a novel).

Patience and practice are at least half the battle: for most of us ordinary mortals it takes time to get the hang of writing, not just because of the requirement for practice, but also because you gradually accumulate more life experience and more reading experience, both of which help. And don’t pay too much attention to the cynics out there who imply there’s some vast unspoken conspiracy amongst agents, publishers and booksellers to prevent new writers from getting published – it’s not impossible, it’s just not easy. I think there were something like six debut fantasy writers, including me, published by major genre publishers in the UK in 2006, which isn’t exactly a huge number but equally it’s definitely not zero.

Thank you for taking time out of your writing to take part in my first (but not last!) ever interview! It's been a pleasure talking to you. Winterbirth is a terrific read, and I wish you all the best for the following two volumes in the Godless World Trilogy. Is there anything you'd like to add before we say adios amigo?!?

A: Nope, we’ve covered plenty of ground for now, I should think. It’s been fun. At moments such as this, I always invite everyone to check out the website at www.brianruckley.com, so consider yourself cordially invited, whoever you are. Adios amigo.

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Interview by Chris, The Book Swede
http://thebookswede.blogspot.com/