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Ask Misty Archive - Writing Writing | Games and Gamers | Birds & Animals | Books in Progress | Music | Books & Movies Arts & Crafts | Conventions and Fandom | Valdemar | Companions | Miscellany 2005 Q: Hi, Misty, I'm a huge fan of your books and your music, and I was just wondering if, since Music to my Sorrow will be released next month, you will be doing any book signings or a book tour? Especially to the Gulf Coast around the AL, MS, FL, GA area? I tried to find the information on your website, but I couldn't locate anything. Thank you A: Well, we haven't done a book tour since the early 90s....basically, we could tour, or we could write books, and I suspect you all would prefer more books.2004 Q: When writing fiction seriously, how much experience do you think one should have before submitting a manuscript to a publisher like DAW? Is there a right or wrong way to start writing and submitting fiction? A: There's no "right" or "wrong" amount of experience, because everyone develops at a different pace as a writer. What you must have are: A good grasp of grammar and sentence construction. A good grasp of spelling---or at least, a good spell-checker. An understanding of what a professional manuscript looks like. After that, it would be a good idea to have someone else, preferably more than one person, read the manuscript over. You do not want someone who will only see the good parts and enthuse over it. You want someone who reads a lot of the same sort of literature who will give you an honest critique. For instance, at the local college, one of the professors is a published mystery writer----I would feel perfectly comfortable in telling people to ask him to look at anything in the sf, fantasy, mystery, western, or romance lines, because as a genre writer himself, he does not have the contempt for genre fiction that so many literary writers seem to. There may be a writers' group that you could join, but there is always the danger there that outsiders will come in for more than their fair share of critique while the established circle engages in egregious back-patting. Poul Anderson was selling novels at 19. Two contributors to anthologies I've been in first were accepted at 12 and 13 respectively. Misty 2003 Q: Dear Mrs. Lackey, I have a question not directly related to your books. I attended your signing at the U-Bookstore, in Seattle, and am now trying to apply your advice about riveting your butt to the chair and writing. The problem I am having now is that I am losing interest in the story I am writing. So my question is, do I push on through my current story till it finishes? Or do I instead start a different story? Thank you for your time A: If you are losing interest, your readers probably will too. You have to write things that you are excited about, or your boredom will show. Either the story itself is just not compelling, or something about it is boring you. You either need to figure out a way to make it more exciting or try a new story. Just remember Mickey Spillane's mantra, "Two guys bust through a door, guns blazing." Q: Response to several messages that have come in requesting Misty to read, critique, advise, and find an agent for their work. For the record none of these messages get passed on to Misty. Not even the one with the complete novel sent as an attachment. Firebird A: In regard to reading other people's work or getting them published, this is all I can tell you. Writers write, editors edit, publishers publish, agents represent people. I am a writer, not an agent, an editor or a publisher. Being an agent, and editor or a publisher is a full-time job; I have my hands full with being a writer.Marion Zimmer Bradley enjoyed being an editor and a publisher, and as a result spent about sixty percent of her time doing those jobs with her anthologies and magazine, with the result that after MISTS OF AVALON she published about one book of her own every two to three years at best. I have a book schedule of two solo and two collabs a year and as you can imagine, even if I liked being an editor, I would have no time for it. However, I absolutely hate being an editor; this is why the Valdemar anthologies are edited by Martin Greenberg and his staff, not yours truly. And since I don't happen to have a couple million dollars lying around, I have no intention of starting a publishing company. Even if I did have a couple million dollars lying around, I have a lot of other things I'd rather do with it than start a publishing company. My reading time is taken up 100% with research reading; I don't read fiction unless it's related to the research I'm doing. I do not read unsolicited fiction or synopsises or story ideas. Ever. Even if I wasn't about fifty books behind on my research reading, the legal ramifications of reading any kind of unsolicited work are too great. If you want good advice on professional writing, get Ray Bradbury's ZEN AND THE ART OF WRITING or Stephen King's book on writing. If you want good advice on how to get professionally published, get Cory Doctorow's book THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO PUBLISHING SCIENCE FICTION. He says everything that I would or could, a lot of things I hadn't even thought or or had experience with, and says it better. If you just want people to read what you write, either post it on your own web-page, find an online or paper fanzine that publishes the kind of thing you want to write, or try going to www.baen.com and clicking on "Baen's Bar"---there's a "Slush Pile" section there where you can post small pieces of your original fiction and the other slushies will help criticise it.
Q: Dear Misty, I don't actually have a question for you, there are just some things that I want you to know. I am in your debt for writing the books you have, the way you have. Your books--and through them, your ideas/ideals--have helped to shape me in a way that I don't think any other influence has. I was discussing with a circle sister last week the authors and books that have had the most influence on our lives, and all I could think of was you, and all of them. (Ok, Twain made it in the conversation, too...) A: Wow. My stuff in the same conversation as Twain? That's heady praise indeed! Very, very, cool. Makes me feel like I'm doing my job right. Q: Dear Mercedes. First off, I just wanted to thank you; I love all the books of yours that I've read (which isn't many, as they are a bit hard to come by down in Cornwall, UK - or maybe I'm just not good at finding them!). I absoloutly adore Vanyel and I'm itching for my order to arrive so I can finally read the third book! Magic's Pawn is one of my favourite books ever, and is important to me, as it helped me come to terms with my bisexuality at the age of 15 - I'd always denied it and told myself that "that sort of thing" was disgusting. On reading Magic's Pawn, I realised that love of any kind is beautiful. Anyway, enough of my fangirl chatter, I'm sure you get tired of it after a while! Apologies if these questions have been already been asked. I was just wondering, firstly, what is your favourite of your own books, and why? Secondly, I love the covers of your books, the paintings are just beautiful - and as far as I can tell, mostly true to the story. It always annoys me to read a book and look at the cover image, and the artist has completely changed what the characters are supposed to look like, but this doesn't seem to happen much with yours. Is there some website where I can look at the work of the artist(s) who did those covers, do you know? And thirdly - I love to draw. Is it okay to draw pictures of your characters and post them online? I've a feeling that with some authors, there are copyright rules preventing this. Thank you very much for your time and your wonderful stories! A: A couple of years ago I got to visit part of Cornwall, and I thought it was wonderful, and I can't wait to get back there to see more of it. However, finishing the books comes first, and I have a lot on my plate right now! First question: Usually the favorite of my books tends to be the one I just finished---in this case, it would be a tie between MAD MAUDLIN with Rosemary Edgehill and THIS SCEPTER'D ISLE with Roberta Gellis. Second: I'm not sure if you mean the UK covers, or the US covers; if the former, I couldn't tell you, but if the latter, the artist for the Valdemar stuff is Jody Lee, while the artists for the rest of it are many and various, including Larry. Third: draw and post as much as you like! Q: I've been writing in my head for a long time now, and shortly after this began, I started wondering if I was just insane or if other people wrote their lives down on a mental pad of paper as well. I asked my mom and a couple friends, but if I remember correctly, everyone told me sorry, I'm just insane. As I was reading through your FAQ section, I started thinking, well, maybe this was a writer thing. So my question is, do you write in your head? A: When I was an artist's model, which invloves 2-4 hours sitting very still (and you can't read) I wrote in my head all the time. Q: Heya from a Huge Canadian fan. I love all your books, especially the Elves in LA and Valdemar ones. And I can't wait for joust and mad mauldin to come out. I was wondering if in the Eric Banyon books, if there is going to be any more interaction between Eric and Tannim. I was really disapointed when he only made a small appearence last time. A: Well, we don't know yet. We'll have to play that one as it goes. Q: I happened to stumble onto Mercedes' website today after finding it through Baen Books, and one of the first things I read was "The Last Straw". I know that it may not seem like much coming from a humble fan of her novels, but I wanted to take a moment and say a couple things on the subject. It saddens me to see things like this happen to good people and authors, but sadly the truth is that it seems to be happening more frequently these days. I am a small-time author with friends in the writing circle, and nearly every author I know has been treated like that before -- and it certainly does not make them feel welcome or myself. I am glad, though, that Mercedes continues to write despite all that has happened so far--and I want her to know she has a whole bunch of fans in Indiana and Michigan who support her 100%! On that note, I do have a question for her--if it is ever passed onto her, I'd love to hear her answer: In the Urban Fantasies novel line, I notice that there seems to be a gap involving Eric Banyon's life and studies. By the end of Beyond World's End, Eric is just coming into his own as a Bard, and yet when Spirits White as Lightning opens, Eric has returned to the world and is a full-fledged and trained Bard. Is there currently, or will there ever be, anything written on what happens to Eric and everyone else when they go Underhill? Thank you! A: In regards to stalkers and so forth, the sad truth is that anyone with any public visibility these days can get a stalker; the prime example that I know of personally being the sweet English/writing professor at the tiny little college of Rogers State University over in Claremore who got a seriously, dangerously demented stalker only because she had a half hour TV show on the college UHF station. The best thing you can do is to prepare yourself beforehand and learn to recognize the danger-signs (and as I have before, I must here recommend the book "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin DeBecker).
Firebird has these for sale: Now, as to more fun things, part of the discontinuity between the Lackey/Guon books and the LackeyEdgehill books is purely the result of the gap in time between them and the change in authors. So we're kind of retrofitting "reasons" for that discontinuity, and rather than find we've managed a major faux pas, we're leaving Eric (and Kayla's) time Underhill as kind of a vague blur. The hazards of changing horses in midstream, I'm afraid, but Ellen has her hands full with raising two rambunctious daughters at the moment, and I don't see her getting back to writing for another sixteen or so years (and I doubt any of you want to wait that long)! Q: Thank you for taking the time to read this. I have just finished reading the third installment of the Halfblood Chronicles. This is DEFINATELY my favorite series of all of your works. In it I think I may have jumped to some conclusions, and though they are probably VERY wrong I wanted to run them past you. In it Lord Kyndreth's bodygaurd is named Keith Jared and is approximately the age that Shanas uncle/Serina Daeth's brother Keith is. He is trained in the same thing(assassin) as him AND he was Lord Dyran's property...not even to mention that Serina's dads name WAS Jared...Is this all coincidence and my mind is creating more complications then necessary or was my hunch right? A: And you win the gold star! Yes, Kaeth Jared is Serena Daeth's brother!Q: Hi! I'm pretty sure you get this alot but I'll say it anyway: when I picked up The Black Gryphon in nineth grade (the first book I'd read purely for pleasure and not school in long, long time) Things just came into focus and I found the outlet for the stories in my head. Since then I've been writing, developing my own little world to set things in (it's changed so much in the last five years that I'm amazed at how silly it started out) And while I would give a few appendages and a pint or two of blood to have an author of your quality examine, prod and strip down my recent work I understand all the legal stuff with that I won't waste time asking. What I did want to ask though was how you developed the system of magic in the Valdemar series? I could see it evolve by looking through the books in the order they were released but I was wondering where you came up with all the complexities that developed in the Owl books. Thanks for your time; hope you get everything you ever needed. A: The basic rule behind the whole scheme is that we postulate that magic is a form of energy, so it's going to obey the same physical laws of energy (including conservation). Everything else followed from that. If you are seriously interested in getting professional instruction and critique for your writing some day, I strongly recommend the Clarion or some of the other sf-pro run workshops, which are taught by SF professionals who are good teachers as well as good writers. http://www.sff.net/people/hmm/clarion.html These workshops have consistently produced successful writers. They aren't cheap; the average tuition is about $1100 and doesn't include your travel-expenses or housing or meals when you get there. And you'll have to dedicate about six weeks of your full time to it AND go in person to the workshop. These are very intensive workshops and not for the hobbyist or the faint of heart. A pint of blood and a couple limbs is just about what it takes to get there and handle the pace. Well, read up on them at that site and you'll see what I mean.
Q: I've been a fan of yours for ages now (since High School and a fondly remembered but badly battered copy of Children of the Night). I've read most of every series that I could lay my hands on. Right now, my favorites are the Urban Fantasies and the Bardic Voices, I'd love to see more of both, but more specifically will be get to see more of the Kitsune? There is something just so loveable about the mischevious FX. A: You'll be happy to know that FX is definitely on ongoing character, in every sense of the word, in both series. Q: As Everyone that E-mail or snail mails you. I am a big Fan your my fav author. Now the thing is (1) Are ye ever going to continue the bard series? It was my moms favorite series. (2) How do start a character? I always have trouble with that. (3) I like the new world you started with the Earth air fire Water mages. please continue. A: I'd like to get back to the Bardic Voices series eventually, but right now I'm concentrating on the collaborations. Characters are all around you; you can start with someone you know, or a public figure, or someone you'd like to know. I'm taking a short break from the Fairy Tale/Elemental Masters series for the new JOUST books, but there's at least one more in the series, and probably more.
Q: I was rereading Werehunter the other day and I wondered if Misty had thought about doing a full-length novel based on the exploits of SKitty and/or SCat. I know she has a very full plate of writing projects, but I wondered if this was something that might turn up down the road. A: I've thought about it, but part of the difficulty is that such a novel would be science fiction, rather than fantasy, which would automatically loose part of my existing audience. The other part of the difficulty is, of course, that I already have an awful lot of books still under contract to do! Q: Will a sequel ever be written for The Ship who Searched? A: Although I never say "never," I can only say that there isn't one even in the planning phase at this point.
Q: Hello Mrs. Lackey. I hope you're well. Just so you know, I LOVE your books! I can't wait for Elvenbred! I have a few questions, mostly pertaining to co-authored books. When you decide to co-author a book, do you just randomly pick the person you're going to write it with? Do you split the book up? Or work on it together? How often do you have to get together, which must be hard since authors live kinda far away from each other? Also, how do you decide whose name appears first on the book? And, on average, how many books are you working on at a time? Thanks so much for your time! I just can't tell you how much I appreciate your books! They've given me so much. Never stop writing. Thanks again! P.S. If you ever come across a gryphon here, in our world, would you please let me know? I'd love to meet one! A: I have always very carefully chosen my coauthors, except in the rare case when an editor has asked me to work with a particular author or authors (and all of those were with Baen). I don't work with someone I don't know---and if (as in the case with Baen) I don't know them, I take pains to GET to know them before I agree to work with them. Actually, my agent does not want me to work with anyone new anymore who doesn't already have a publishing track-record---Flint and Freer, Rosemary Edgehill. Roberta Gellis and James Mallory all had books under their own names (in the case of Roberta, probably as many as I have!) before we worked together. We (the coathors) generally work out an outline for a plot well in advance, get it hammered into shape, then decide which parts each of us likes best and take those. Then both (or all three) of us go over the whole book a couple of times, doing tweaking. When we're all satisfied, it gets turned in. I've met physically with Dave and Eric once, with Rosemary and Roberta once, with James Mallory never, with Andre several times, but it's so easy to work by email that it really doesn't matter whether or not you're meeting physically with someone. I did just as well never even meeting James as I've done working with Rosemary, who I've met and talked to on the phone. Email is a wonderful thing; it's exactly as easy to work by email as it is when I work with Larry, who's in the same house. Instead of handing a disk back and forth, we mail files; instead of working out an outline by talking about it, we send annotated emails back and forth until the outline takes shape. The senior author in the genre always gets top billing on a book. Working with Anne McCaffrey, I went second---with Rosemary, first. I'm usually working on at least two, and sometimes as many as four or five books at any one time---I can be writing both a collaboration and a solo at the same time, while I am editing something else, tweaking a third book, and possibly doing galley-proofs or editorial corrections on still another. I'm very lucky in that my brain seems to be able to work that way; maybe it comes from having to essentially do the same thing when I was a computer programmer (we call that multi-tasking).
Q: I am (of course!) a big fan of your books, well most of them anyway :) I have all the valdemar books so far except Exile's Honor, which I'm going to pick up asap. Also have the Diane Tregard series (yes I liked them in spite of the fact that she's a witch, and no, I'm not a psycho, I just don't believe in witches being "the good guys") but that doesn't stop me from watching (and enjoying) "Buffy" either, I just happen to disagree on the concept in "real", as in "real witches" as opposed to fictional ones. I DO know the difference so am not bothered by it in fiction. I also have the three books of "short stories" (I loved the Diana story about the romance writers convention with the "tall dark stranger" congered up by one of the other writers who "forgot" to include "human" in the description. What a HOOT!!!) and the Serrated Edge and Bedlam's Bard series except the Spirits White as Lightning which I only found out about today (is it even published yet? I'll be looking for it and Honor of the Regiment, too) I have two questions...first, are you ever going to write the "Tempest Fugit" novel for the serrated edge (I've been waiting for years for the band Tempest to appear in one of the books) and second, I saw on the Q & A page a listing of some of the books that are in the works, one of them was named "this rough magic"...the question is, are you aware that there is already a book by that title (written many years ago by Mary Stewart)? I'm not sure if there is a trade mark on titles or not, but I thought you might want to know that that title HAS been used in the past and might be confusing to your fans. I look forward to many more Valdemar, Serrated Edge and Bedlams Bard books whether you write about old characters or about new ones. I love your style of writing, you seem to write the way most people think - the characters reactions, humor and basic thought patterns - which makes your characters seem so much more real than many authors. Thank you and please don't stop! Sincerely, A: To answer the second question first, I was very well aware that there was a Mary Steward mystery by that name, since I have been reading Mary Stewart mysteries since I was in my early teens, and we debated whether or not to use that Shakespearian quote as the title. But because all four of the "Heirs of Alexandria" books will be using titles from Shakespearian quotes (THE SHADOW OF THE LION, THIS ROUGH MAGIC, MUCH FALL OF BLOOD and GREAT DOOM'S IMAGE) we decided to go ahead. Titles cannot be copyrighted or trademarked, but that would be doubly so in the case of THIS ROUGH MAGIC, which is from "The Tempest" ("This rough magic, I now abjure," says Prospero). In point of fact, there are four books on Amazon.com with that title; the Mary Stewart mystery, and books by Jane Robinett, Daniel A. Lindley, and Heather Graham Pozzessere. Any time you use a quote from Shakespeare as your title, you're probably going to duplicate someone, and this particular quote was just too apt for the subject of the book (ancient magic on the island of Corfu).Since the Mary Stewart book dates all the way back to the seventies, is a mystery rather than a fantasy, and is not going to be listed under my name, I doubt that anyone is going to be confused. SPIRITS WHITE AS LIGHTNING is out in hardcover, and will be out in paperback some time this year, at the same time that MAD MAUDLIN comes out in hardback. Now, as for your first question, until Larry's schedule frees up enough that he can work on SERRA books, those are on hold. ----- Original Message -----
Q: Dear Misty, Hi. I am 13 years old. I had a question I wanted to ask you, but looking through the other questions that have been sent in to you, I saw that it was already posted, and answered, so I guess I'll ask another one. I'm trying to become a writer, but I don't think any of my ideas are good enough to be published, so I was kind of wondering. In the Owlflight series, you had a co-author. I've kind of been wondering.... how does that work, having two people write one book? Like, my friend writes, too, and I go through her stories and edit them. Would that count because I give her ideas and rewrite parts of the stories, or would I be editor? Probably the latter. And, how long does a short story have to be to qualify for a novel? Just wondering if you could help me. If not, that's okay. By the way, I've been trying to read your Valdemar books since my mom got me hooked on them last fall. I loved the Vanyel series, and I saw th! at you don't read fanfics, so I'm not even going to bother writing one, besides the fact that it'll probably be against the copyright rules. That, and it'll probably be so bad it'd be more of an insult than anything else. I've been waiting for my mom to get the Winds series back from whoever she's letting borrow them right now, and I'm really eager to read them. This email is a lot longer than I intended it to be... sorry. Anyway, if you can help me at all, thank you. And even if you can't, thanks anyway. You're my favourite author. You're in the SCA, right? I know it's a VERY slight possiblity, but maybe we'll see each other. I'm in it too... unofficially. Thank you again. Your fan, A: Well, that's a fair number of questions for such a short letter! I'll see if I can give you the information you want. Collaboration works differently for every two or more people that go into it. In some cases, the "senior" author works out in short form how the book should go, and the "junior" author does all the actual writing. In some, the senior and junior work out the plot together, and the junior does the writing. In some, the plot is worked out such that there is a kind of split in the action, making two or more subplots, and each author writes his or her own piece and the two are woven together. Usually my coauthor and I work out the plot together, we pick the scenes we particularly want to write, then we pass it back and forth between us until it's done, then both of us take a final pass on it to smooth out the differences in our styles. Depending on how much actual writing you are doing with your friends' stories, you could be either a collaborator or an editor. As for your ideas "not being good enough," well, the only way you get better at writing is to write, and the only way you get better at coming up with ideas is to write them out and see if they work. Just because I don't read fan fiction doesn't mean you shouldn't write it if you want to; there are plenty of other people who would be happy to read it, and there are whole fanzines and websites with peoples' fanfiction on them. The categories for length are, in general, short stories are 5-10,000 words or less, novellas are 10-35,000, novellettes are 35-60,000 words, and novels are anything over 60,000 words---except that absolutely no one buys any novels that are less than 100,000 anymore, except for the very short "category" romance novels. It is also quite difficult to place novellas and novelettes, as they are not a comfortable length for magazines or short story collections. Generally, for paying markets, novellas and novellettes are either specifically asked for by an editor or publisher, or else are from a very, very prominent and award-winning author indeed. However, fanfiction editors like them very much indeed. I hope that answers all your questions!
Q: Greetings and Salutations! In about 5 or 6 years, I'm going to have to provide a reading list for several of my friends's kids. Sort of an addendum to the public school curriculum, but nothing as formal as Home Schooling. I've been told already that if I don't put at least some of the Valdemar books on the "required" section of the list, I should leave the country. Preferrably under a different name. If I wasn't getting that reaction from them, I'd be the one insisting Valdemar get represented. Tarma and Kethry have almost as much to teach our little GUYS as they do our little girls. Thanks for making a mom's job of teaching life lessons a little bit easier.
One theoretical question, though. If you learned that a character in a
completely non-Valdemar, non-SERRA, non-Diana Tregarde fan fiction had
quoted a line from one of your books and properly attributed it, would it
offend you? Since I have no way to ask Spider Robinson, I just thought I'd see if you'd answer it. No offense taken if you don't, either; I'm pretty flame-proof after very diplomatically telling a couple people that what they had couldn't be mistaken for a decent outline, much less a real story. Lowlight A: Since most of us out there that call ourselves professional writers are already quoting other authors in our prose at some point or other, getting offended would be not only pointless, but potentially embarassing! Not hardly am I going to be offended! By the way, my current favorite quote in everyday use is from Bartok the Bat, in the animated Anastasia---"This can only end in tears!" Amazing how many "someone's about to do something stupid" situations this applies to.... Q: I have a question for you: I really want to be a writer, to have my stories published as novels. (Of course I realize that it's really difficult, but it's just a cherished dream.) Anyways, I want to know...how do I phrase it? Ummm... I like reading about romance, and would love to incorporate it into my stories. But, being all of thirteen, I've never experienced anything even remotely romantic, but for movies, books, and one play. I can imagine what it would be like, but it wouldn't ring true in a story. So what's your advice? Should I forget about it until I'm older and have the experience to put a little romance in there, and wait, also, to even THINK about publishing anything, or what? Thanks, A: Busy, aren't we? What's with the flood of questions? Or have you been saving them for me? (g) Well, when it comes to this question, my advice would be what every writers' guide says, and this is to write what you know, and if you haven't got any romantic experience of your own, then don't write anything with romance in it. As you can see from all of the books out there, you don't have to have romance in a story for it to be successful.
2002 Q: First the flattery... not because it is neccisary, but because it is true. I have immensely enjoyed all of your works so far. Though I must say the serrated edge and Bardic novels are my favorites. That said, I recently (and for reasons having nothing to do with your books) went looking for origional folklore regarding the Seleighe and Unseleighe courts. I remembered much material on them in your books, and found even more material in various recent roleplaying suplements, but can find no reference to them among the classic folklore. Indeed the only references I can find to the Sidhe are vague in the extreme, and although occasional reference is made to their King and queen, no reference is made at all to the court. I would be extremely greatful if you could point me in the direction of any classical works regarding the two courts, or failing that the contemporary origins of the courts. Thank you very much for allowing me the use of your valuable time, and I look forward to many more enjoyable books. A: The classical origins of the Seleighe and UnSeleighe Sidhe are in Irish and Scottish fairytales and myths; in the Irish version they are referred to as the Tuatha Da Danaan. Contemporary authors of urban Faerie are Emma Bull (War for the Oaks) and Charles de Lint. 2002 Q: I just wanted to thanks for all of your depth and breadth of writing. I am an emergency medicine physician, and I have been reading your works since I was in highschool (1986). I love everything you have written. I have nearly all of your works. I like to read your books after a long shift -- takes away some of the immediacy to what I have just dealt with. Anyway, you probably hear this a lot. Keep up the great work! A: Oh, my! That certainly brightens my day! 2002 Q: Marion Zimmer Bradley edited an annual Sword and Sorceress collection, printing short stories from new authors as well as old. Her Darkover collections were the same. I know you have mentioned that your Valdemar collections are closed anthologies - through Martin Greenberg, but do you have any intentions of creating a series of anthologies similar to Bradley's, with a list of criteria for submission as an "open" anthology? Thanks A: Nope. Reading hundreds of unsolicited manuscripts takes more time than I have. Marion was as much an editor as a writer, and rately put out more than one book a year. I'm doing four. Enough said, I think. 2002 Q: I wanted to know if you are aware there is an online rpg of your work in Yahoo! Clubs, soon to be Yahoo! Groups. There is also a website dedicated to this rpg, links supplied below. I know your policy three years ago was "no rpgs" I don't know if that's changed. I do know that I was a member of this club until recently. I went through someone trying to claim something I wrote was their own, and it gave me an all new respect for rights. This club uses the settings of the valdemar books, so I don't know if that is included. But I have a feeling that the setting, political system, schooling system, and everything else being the same still equals a big no-no on the list of things to do. I know I would feel enraged if a fan ever did with my writing universe something I had asked repeatedly for fans not to do. I just thought you should be made aware. A: Heh. All it takes is having someone plagiarize YOU to make a believer out of you, doesn't it?2002 Q: Any plans for domestic conventions? Also would you please write something about the hardback/paperback publishing system? I'm getting a lot of questions about availability of older books, and people wanting hardback versions of older books have been published in paperback only. Hi! Misty, your books are great! I picked up Arrows of the Queen on a random stroll through my school library back in 6th grade, and have been hooked since. :) It's terrible the way that people have treated you and Larry. I'm around Atlanta, Georgia, and am wondering if you'll ever be attending a convention or holding a book signing anywhere near here? A friend of mine went to dinner with you at DragonCon 1999, but I didn't yet know about DragonCon at the time. (Missed you AND Star Wars. No fair!) One other question, where can I find hardbacks of your books? (Not the new ones, but some that have sold out.) Also, I think that some of them have only been released in paperback, are there any plans for hardbacks? Also, a note to Larry: One of the things I love about your art in Misty's books is watching how much BETTER you get each time. It's great! (Heehee, says the aspiring artist herself.)
Thank-you for your great work! When a book goes into print for the first time ("first printing") a decision has already been made whether it is going to go into hardback or paperback. The less known a writer is, the more likely it will go into paperback immediately---only a very few writers go into hardback when they are not well known. Hardback are very expensive to produce and to buy, and book companies assume that few people are going to buy something costing $25 for a writer they don't know. That, of course, in our case, that is what happened to our books up to the Winds Trilogy. None of those books is ever going to appear in hardback from the original company; book companies don't go back and reissue books in hardbound (unless you happen to be J.R.R. Tolkien, who is the only author that has ever had his books reissued in hardback by his original publishing company). The only way you can get them in hardback is from a few 'specialty press' companies; some of them are in omnibus editions from the Science Fiction Book Club (both the "Arrows" and the "Last Herald-Mage" trilogies). About 6 months after the hardbound edition is published, the paperback comes out. Eventually, as the stocks of books published in hardback run low and there doesn't appear to be any real demand for the hardbound editions, the hardbound edition is allowed to go out of print and if there are any left, they are sent off to places like Barnes and Noble at a substantial discount ( this is called being remaindered) and you'll find them in their sections of similar books, for between five and ten dollars each. At that point, the book will never go into hardback again. Once again, they may be available in hardback from something like the Science Fiction book club, but that's the only place. If you are looking for books that have gone out of print in the hardback edition, the best thing to do is check used book stores or Ebay, or join the book club. More on conventions: Although Larry and I had been thinking about going back to conventions again, in the light of recent events, we have decided not to. Traveling has become that much more difficult; when you add the 3 to 4 hour process of going through security checks to the rest of it, that means we would essentially lose two entire days of work just in the traveling process---a total of five lost days of work for the entire convention. It just isn't worth trying to struggle to make up those five lost days given the heavy work schedule we have.
2002 Q: OK, this is a comment not a question so I don't really expect a reply. I already asked my questions in a previous email. You have stated several times that beyond the harassment you experienced one of the key reasons for not writing any further Diana Tregarde books was that they didn't sell. You have stated that you believe that they didn't sell because they were not what people wanted. While your lighter fantasy may have more of a fan base than the darker Tregarde books I would like to point out another factor: Marketing. I came across a copy of Jinx High while browsing at a small local bookstore. I loved it! When I found out that it was part of a series I immediately set out to acquire the other two books. It took months even though both were still in print at that point (or at least there were still plenty of them available). This was before I had access to things like Amazon.com and had to rely on bookstores. I had to special order them and the first book store told me after 2 months that they just couldn't get one of the books so I had to go to a second store. The books were not well publicized at all. I continue to meet people who have read and enjoyed the Valdamar series but don't know about the Tregarde books. It is because of the Tregarde books that I went on to read your other series. I really like your Serrated Edge books and I just recently found out about the Mark Shepard books that are spin offs of that series. It took 3 months to get both of them even going through Amazon because the publisher has allowed the first book to go out of print. I find more and more that publishers are printing new installments in a series but it is impossible for a new reader to jump on without a lot of work because the earlier books are only available used. I was happy to see the resent reissuing of the several of your series even though I already own the books. By reissuing these books your publisher is increasing potential sells for your future work by bringing in new readers. A: It gets complicated. If there's no personal issue involved, two things can happen when a book goes out-of-print. Either it's genuinely not selling, and not worth another print-run, or it's only technically out-of-print, that is, it's fallen between print-runs, which has happened to a lot of my stuff at DAW---the warehouse is out and the new printing hasn't come in yet. Sometimes stuff is reported as being "out of print" at either a bookstore or a distributor when in fact it's still in print. In the case of a bookstore, it's often a lazy employee who can't be bothered with a special order. In the case of the distibutor, THEY are out, and they haven't reordered yet, for whatever reason. Note: Sometimes a mistake creeps into a major data base. Once this happens, it is nearly impossible to correct the information. Case in point Garrison Keilor's "Song of the Cat" CD. This album is in print, and has been in print continuously since the first release. Despite this there is a entry in one of the major music industry data bases indicating that it is out of print. The publisher has to go back every 6 months or so to correct the mistake, which somehow doesn't seem to take. Teri
Mark's books have been allowed to go out of print for lack of sales. Only completists
seem to want them. 2002 Q: This answer is speaks to a number of questions that have come in on the subject of copyright. Mostly reasonable questions from well intentioned people who don't want to take liberties, but don't really understand the copyright situation. Given that intellectual property rights is a subject onto itself and the lawyers who practice in this field get the big bucks, it is understandable that Misty's loyal readers might be a bit confused on the subject. Here's another attempt to shed some light on the subject. Firebird A: Thought you could use another short missive from me on the subject. Copyright, fair use, and complications far beyond the ken of mortal man.... Ah, the Internet! What a wonderful tool it can be! And oh, the innumerable cans'o'worms it's opened up for those of us who make our living entertaining people. Let's journey back in time to a point BI (Before Internet), when all that a wordsmith had to worry about was Stuff On Paper. Mind you, even then, there were problems. People who literally printed thousands and hundreds of thousands of copies of pirated editions of books, without the author's permission, contracts, or payment, sometimes editing to suit themselves, sometimes printing entire bogus books under the author's name. That's still a problem in third-world countries where Internet access is severely restricted---for instance, at this veru moment, a bogus Harry Potter book is being sold in China! This sort of thing cost authors money---and sometimes, reputations. Charles Dickens, for instance, once reckoned that if it he'd been paid for all the pirated editions of his work that were sold in the US (yes, US publishers were some of the worst about this), he'd have been able to make a good living without having to resort to the long and grueling lecture tours through which he supported himself and his family (and which probably shortened his life). Tolkien's reputation as a fantacist was nearly undermined by an abbreviated pirate edition of Lord of the Rings, also in the US. But in the days of BI, for the most part, fan "use" of an author's work was not a lot to fret over. Fact is, it's expensive and tedious to print out and distribute derivative fiction. A fanfic novel had to cost as much or more than a mass-market hardback, and it was printed on clumsy letter-size paper and bound (if at all) in report-covers. There was the mailing to deal with, or getting to conventions to sell it at your dealers' table. It was also a lot easier to make sure that things of---an "adult" nature, such as "slash" fiction---didn't get in the hands of 14-year-olds. As for games, well---you could tailor whatever you wanted out of whatever worlds you cared to for paper RPGs for yourself or your friends, but printing modules meant you ran into the same problems as fanfiction. Computer games? Didn't exist, or at least, not in any form that adapted well to gaming. So authors generally (with a few exceptions) generally gave fans the all clear to do what they wanted to. It wouldn't hurt their sales, their reputations, or cause any real legal ramifications. The first fly in the ointment directly in our field happened to Marion Zimmer Bradley, after the wild success of MISTS OF AVALON, when a (former) fan threatened to sue her for her adaptation of an idea the fan had come up with for a Lew Alton Darkover novel. The situation rapidly involved lawyers and got expensive, and in the end, no one won (except the lawyers) since MZB elected to scuttle the novel altogether, and the fan got nothing but a bad metaphorical black eye. At that point, agents and authors began looking at the concept of fanfiction with a more critical eye. Some agents elected to try and eliminate it altogether; most cautioned authors against giving permission for it. This, by the way, is why I do not, and will not, read any fiction sent to me unsolicited, nor any "story ideas." Ah but now, 2002 AI...oh, how different things are. Authors of fanfic no longer have those pesky printing and distribution problems---just write and post, and make sure you list your stuff with the search engines! Coding games may not be a breeze, but it's a whole lot easier and within six months or less you can have a MUD, MUSH, or online RPG going, and as big an audience as size. bandwidth, and interest permit. OK, it's not very likely that fanfiction is going to cut into an author's sales, but now the opportunity for a lawsuit is expanded far beyond what it ever was in MZB's case---how can a writer prove she DIDN'T happen across the story online??? And as for the new opportunities to ruin a reputation---upstream in the "Ask Misty" section, you may find a question I just fielded from a youngster, asking if it was true that I had written a book with a bestiality scene in it! There was enough detail in the question to make me think that SOMEONE out there had written "that book" and had posted it online! There are already a lot of things being attributed directly to my authorship being posted online that I had nothing to do with--- There is no control over fanfiction with adult themes being restricted to age-appropriate readers. If Motley Crue can be sued by the parents of a suicidal teenager over something that was alleged to be in their songs---not the lyrics, but supposedly "masked" or "secret" messages!---it doesn't take a leap of imagination to see that parents of a youngster who find "adult-themed" Valdemar fanfic on his or her computer could decide, not to sue the author (who might be anonymous) but sue me instead (especially if some idiot decided to put MY name on it instead of his/her own). Yes, the case would be dismissed, but it would still cost time (fewer books for you) and money (belt-tightening for me). The same holds true, only more so, for online RPGs, MUSHs, MUDs....I haven't yet heard of a single one of these things where people didn't start using it for adult purposes---and the problem is that short of getting the site blacklisted on Parental Control software, there's no kind of policing going on---the game creators I've seen don't have the time or the inclination. I'm not sure how many of my readers are under 18 (sorry, folks, but that's the legal-definition cutoff, not mine), but there's a lot of them. And oh, brother, would a Valdemar-themed place be a prime cruising-ground for a pedophile! Who would be sued, if something went horribly wrong? Who would the lawyers look for, who has money? Better believe it would be us. More time, more money, flying out the door, never to return. I know none of this occurs to any of you when you want to do something to let you live in my creation a little longer. I know the real fans would never, ever do anything to hurt us. But these are things that a creator has to think about these days when making decisions about what she or he has created, because there are greedy people out there, with no thoughts other than to profit, profit, profit, whatever it takes. As Larry has said, "Greed kills cool things." All we're trying to do is to protect ourselves and our work so it doesn't get killed by the greed of others.
2002 Q: How do you go about writing your stories? Do you just sit down and start typing away on chapter one? Or do you sketch out the plot for the whole book/series? Writing a book is one of my life goals. Whether it gets published or not is immaterial. I'm after that sense of accomplishment. A: Every author goes at writing a book differently. For instance, David Brin sits down and writes the whole book, shelves the manuscript, and writes it a second time without reference to the first draft. Steven King just sits down, writes the whole thing, then rewrites the whole thing. I use a 40-80 page scene-by-scene outline, except in the cases where I'm working from something like a fairy tale that has a known plot. 2002 Q: You co-authored a Darkover novel. The ending of that book was a bit open-ended. I know that the Bradley estate has autorized one book already. Do you think ther would ever be another Darkover book? A: I have so many contracts out for my solo name that I don't have time to do another Darkover novel, and that's the honest truth. 2002 Q: First. I don't know if you actually have any say in this matter but... Have you and Larry every considered putting out a book of the drawings and prints and cover art that has been done for your Valdemar books? I remember seeing at a con one of the paintings (by Jody Nye I think?) that is the cover for Winds of War -- and discovering the book cover is only about half the painting. I would imagine there would be several of your fans that would like to have such a collection of 'Valdemar Art'.
Second. The only frustrating time is when someone gallops through a given book, missing some salient points, then complains that those same salient points aren't in there. (I make a real effort not to repeat myself, or to treat my readers like 8-year-olds and put circles and arrows around all the important moments in a book.) Or that I didn't take enough time with them. Like people are going to enjoy three chapters devoted to a character's horrendous and agonizing descent into madness and death. Like I'd enjoy WRITING three chapters devoted to a character's descent into madness and death. 2002 Q: You stated that the Diana Tregard series didn't sell well and it seemed your reasoning had something to do with the whole Guardian thing and Diana's beliefs. You did, however, add Guardians, the Wicca, and several other similar thing to the Bedlam Bard series. Any ideas why people seem to like those books while the Diana Tregard didn't sell? I can certainly understand not wanting to write book the people just won't appreciate. A: I have a couple of theories on why they didn't sell well; partly I suspect it was a case of being "ahead of my time" since Buffy and her ilk are doing well these days. Partly it was getting lost in the crowd of all the other horror writers who were flooding the market at the time. Partly it was that the books were not Classic Fantasy, which was where my market was building. For whatever reason, they did all right, but not spectacularly. I might try to revive the series some day. 2002 Q: Here's a generic answer from Misty. Over the last few months several people have either asked for Misty to read manuscripts, or sent them the Firebird as attachments. Here's why you don't want to do this. Teri Lee, Firebird A: I know that people would really like it if I could look at their work, even just to comment on it. I can't. I won't. Here's why. Legal liability: If I look at your work, and some day one of you goes bonkers and decides that I've "stolen your idea" and takes me to court, even though it's been proven time and time again that you can't "steal an idea" in court, I will still be faced with spending a lot of time, effort and money on proving myself innocent, all of which we would all rather spend on writing, not making lawyers happy. I already get the occasional letter claiming I "stole an idea" even though I have been loudly proclaiming for years that I do not and will not look at other peoples' unsolicited fiction. Practical issues: If I look at your work, I have to look at everyone's work, and that will take up time when I could be writing. I'm not an agent, and I don't make recommendations to my agent because he is not taking new clients. If I wanted to be an agent, I would be doing that, not writing. Hurting your feelings: I am a professional, and I take my job seriously. I could, if I were to look at your work, give you a professional critique, but it would hurt your feelings. This is what Rosemary Edgehill says, "I can be nice, or I can be professional, I can't be both." As for Teri Lee, she is not an agent either, nor a fanfiction publisher, nor will sending your things to her somehow bypass my ironclad rule of not looking at your work. The best thing you can do, if you want people to look at your work, is to publish it in fanzines.
2002 Q: Misty, several people have asked for your e-mail address or Post office box so that they can send you manuscripts of their fan fiction. Where do people get the idea that you are a first reader for fan fiction? The only saving grace is that most of them seem to be young. Teri A: Sigh. How many times do we have to say "I don't and won't read fan fiction"? 2002 Q: I think I have read all your books and series, and especially enjoyed the Bedlam's Bard grouping, as well as the Diana Tregarde books. Thank you so much for the tie-in to an MZB favorite of mine in her Light series. Who would have thought I'd find good ole Morton's Fork in a book about elves? Cool! My question concerns Rosemary Edghill, your co-writer, and one of my favorite authors in her own right. What makes you write a book together, and do each of you take your favorite parts, or just divide it up and let the words fall where they may? Also, with a writer like Rosemary that seems to write with everybody anymore, well, do you know why she is doing this. I really have enjoyed her individual novels, and would like to see more of them too.
If you ever want a Firecat for yourself, I would suggest the
Siamese
Rescue center at Topeka, KS. They usually have several,
KSsrc@siameserescue.org. Misty, I'm not sure what the letters about "problems and harrassment by the terminally narrow-minded are about, but just let me say HANG IN THERE! I live in the Midwest, too (Kansas City area), and sometimes it is enough to make you run screaming into the night, but don't even think of giving up your power to help and heal. A: You can thank Rosemary for that!
Ah, now this is a pairing that I am totally thrilled with; my personal feeling is that Rosemary is a hundred times the writerly-writer than I am, and she's got the ability to handle cast-of-thousands stuff that I have trouble with. She's also a sterling editor, truly a master of the craft. She's just as fast as I am, too, which is an advantage! What usually happens is that we plot the book together, divide it up with each of us taking our favorite parts, then both of us do several passes over the whole book. Rosemary is very well known in the business as a person who can get the job done, no matter how difficult the job---not just as a creditied collaborated, either; you'd be surprised to learn who she has ghost-written for, but my lips are sealed on that score! She's also a gas to work with, having a fantastic (and wicked) sense of humor and always willing to pitch in to do MORE than her share if things suddenly get rocky. Not that I let her!
Kudos to you; those who do animal rescue are doing a lot of unsung heroics. Rosemary is involved in Cavalier King Charles Spaniel rescue. Thanks! Ah, I'm having too much fun to give it up!
Q: Heyla! I'd like to start with saying how much I've enjoyed *all* of your books, although I've never read the Diana Tregarde ones. Maybe I should, just to see what sparked all this controversy you talked about in "The Last Straw." (I enjoyed that, by the way, as well as "Camel's Back" - I've never seen such raw anger on my screen before. I'm sorry that all had to happen. . . . ) My little brother was six when I first told him the stories of the Gryphon Trilogy, leafing through the chapters to refresh myself on the order of events, and he adored the illustrations. That said, my "FAQ" is this: would you allow other authors to publish *books* in Velgarth? I've noticed that the release form says "manuscript for a short story or novel." Reading the release carefully, I find it does not prevent an author from reaching an agreement with you on the subject. It does cover what would happen if you accepted a short story into an anthology - could a similar arrangement be made for a novel? (Just a note - I'm asking out of curiosity. I have no Velgarth manuscripts, and don't plan to write one; you're something of a tough act to follow.) Zhai'helleva and thank you very much, A: It's been so long that I read the thing that I'd forgotten about that. Publishing a Valdemar novel would be a Bad Idea. I'm afraid my agent is inclined to go ballistic on the idea of someone publishing a Valdemar novel other than me or Larry. You don't want my agent to go ballistic. He's a very polite shark, but he's still a shark. The release form was copied wholesale from Marion Zimmer Bradley's fanfiction release form and covers the occasion when she used someone's idea (with their permission and signature) in one of her Darkover novels. It also covers the novels that another author finished after her death. It probably shouldn't be in there, considering how our agent feels about fanfic in general and fanfic novels in particular, but if someone ever does take me to court that's one more item to get the case dismissed before it gets into high legal fees. I really hate having to do things this way, but given the grief that Marion went through, and the fact that I've already had hysterical letters accusing me of "stealing" someone's fanfiction, I'm just not willing to take the chance anymore. As for getting manuscripts accepted into professional short story anthologies---the best thing to do is to write to Martin Greenberg and ask what anthologies he edits or co-edits are accepting short stories. He's the co-editor on all of mine.
2002 Q: I've read your book "Children of the Night" several times, and I just wanted to ask... in your research on Gakis, which books did you find the most useful? Thank you, A: It's been so long ago now that I don't remember, and in any event, the books that I used at the time are probably all out of print by now.Q: When you send in a manuscript to a magazine or publisher, is there any advantage in sending postage to cover the return of the manuscript or is it merely an unnecessary expense? I have not been able to find any indication that there would be a critique of the work, so it seems to be mostly sentiment. Am I wrong? A: If you expect to get the manuscript back, send the correct-sized envelope with the return address on it and the postage pre-attached to it. Otherwise, if they reject it, they'll pitch it in the trash and send you the standard rejection letter. Q: I am in the process of writing a fantasy novel, and I would prefer to have the protagonist to be gay, since that is my interest and experience. On the other hand, I don't want to sabotage the commercial appeal of a first novel with something that's not essential to the plot. My first question to you is "What discernible effect, if any, did the sexual preference of Vanyel have on the commercial success of 'The Last Herald-Mage' trilogy?" A: It depends on your book. If you make the gayness the focus of the book, it's not likely to be bought by anything other than a specialty press. If it's just another not-very-important aspect of your character, it probably won't affect things. 2002 Q: What I would like to know is this: Is there a chance for a cross over between characters from two different series. Such as the Di. series and the Serrated Edge series since characters from both have been mentioned in the other series?? A: Answer: we don't know. We were thinking of crossing Di Tregarde over, but the current outlines didn't fit her. 2002 Q: Hi! I am a big fan of your Valdemar and Diane Trigade novels. I just finished reading one of Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake novels, and I was wondering if you had ever thought to do a cross-over with the two characters? I just seems like they're kind of in the same supernatural business and together they could kick alot of bad guy hinny. I was just wondering, I'm not trying to be presumptious or anything. Thank you lots! Courtney A: Since those are copyrighted characters we could not do so without permission from the author. Q: This is the answer to a whole series of people who have written over the years volunteering to "help edit", "help write", and "just in general get their fingers into the pie" of Misty's books. A: How to become an editor. 1) Move to New York City. Although there are editing jobs available elsewhere, at small press houses, for instance, or regional magazines and newspapers, the major book publishing houses are all in New York City and only Big Name Editors with a proven track-record of decades are permitted to freelance and telecommute from elsewhere. Prepare for the following conditions. You will share a 300 sq ft apartment in an aging building with no less than two other roommates. You will not be able to afford to own a car, since there is no on-street parking, parking spaces do not come with your rent and the rent for a parking space in a garage is more than the rent on your apartment. You will walk, take the bus or subway, or cabs. There will be no big supermarket close by; you will make do most of the time with mom'n'pop groceries or take-out. 2) Make the rounds of all the publishing houses looking for work. for about six months. You will not be offered an editing job. You will be offered a job in the mail room, the production department, or as a secretary. Editorial assistants come from among those who have already served their time in one of those capacities, and editors come from among the editorial assistants. Did I mention that your salary will be about the same as the average fast-food wage? 3)Work at the job you are offered for about four years. At this point, you may be offered the job of editorial assistant. You will then be able to afford a 400 sq ft apartment with only one other roommate. You will still not be able to own a car.
4) Work as an editorial assistant for six years. Wait for one of the
editors to quit, die, or be fired. Q: Iım impressed by how well all of the stories intertwine and work with each other. My question is this, how to you keep it all strait? There are so many details in the stories but you never seam to forget any of them. Reading the stories it is hard to believe that they did not all come to you at once. So how do you remember everything about Valdemar and the people and places in it? A: I don't, I get it wrong now and again. Q: I was wondering if authors gote the same royalties from someone buying an online copy of their book. (like Baen offers) Before I actually do this, I want to make sure that the authors get their full royalties. A: Actually, so far as Baen goes, we get better royalties. Less overhead, you see. Q: I just heard about your new project, THE COLLEGIUM CHRONICLES, and it sounds pretty cool. But I would like to know where in the history of Valdemar it will be set. Pre- or rather post-MAGE WARS. I think having Gryphons teaching magic at school would be rather interesting. A: This will be set in the "current age," tho we don't plan to have much magic or interaction with the more exotic characters until fairly deep in the series. Q: Hi. I was ecstatic to learn of your upcoming series about a newly Chosen going through the Collegium. (I'm one of the adults who is as hooked on the HP series as the kids!) I just hope this won't take 8 years. Please? :( It's such torture waiting between books that I don't know how I could stand waiting 8 years. It's bad enough waiting 3. A: I'll see what I can do about turning them out a little faster. But please be aware that while it only takes you days to read the books, it takes me months to write them. Q: You said somewhere that the third book in the Halfblood series was being worked on, and should be out a year after you turned it in--sometime in the second half of 2000. Has there been any progress on that, and should I be looking for it soon? I really loved the first two, and am eager to hear about what is happening among the rebellious elven youth, as well as the wizards. A: I got sidetracked; as it happens, I'm working on it now. Q: First of all, I need to say that I just found out about your strict copywrite laws. I've been working on a fanfic novel for wuite some time now, though I had no plans for it. I was considering sending it to you, but I won't now that I know you don't appreciate that sort of thing. Which is understandable, considering your prior experiences with that. Anyway, my question was, would it be okay to publish my fanfic on the net? I don't know if that would be violating copywrite laws or not. I wouldn't be getting any profit from it, and I would most certainly give you full credit for Valdemar and such, but I don't know if that's enough to make it legal. If it is at all possible to legally publish my novel on the net, what exactly would I have to do? Thanks for your time in answering this, and I apologize if I'm just being extremely ignorant. A: Pardon me if I come out sounding a little irritated about this question, but I must have answered letters similar, if not identical to this one, at least a dozen times, and those replies should still be available for anyone who bothers to look through the old answers. First of all the reason that I do not and will not read fanfiction has nothing to do with "my" strict copyright laws. The copyright laws are what they are and I didn't go to Congress and the International Copyright Covention in Berne Switzerland and ask them to write laws just for me It also has nothing to do with the interpretation of those laws, nor with the vigor with which my agent Russel Galen defends our copyrights. What it DOES have to do with is the fact that if I read fanfiction, someone, somwhere out there, someday, will drag me into court claiming I "stole their idea." Actually, this will probably happen anyway at some point---I've certainly been accused of doing so already in letters that I have received from time to time---but at least if I am on record as saying and have witnesses that I don't read fanfiction I have a better chance of having the case dismissed before it becomes expensive. Are we all perfectly clear on that point now? Secondly, at this point, it is not legal nor permissable for you to publish any fiction based on my copywrited works on the net. Nor is it legal for you to publish a novel-length work in ANY form. My agent reluctantly permits paper publication of short fiction in fanzines; he is inclined to go ballistic over anything longer than a short-story. He has not yet granted permission to anyone to publish net fan-fiction. If you would care to go head-to-head with him directly, you may write him at: Russell Galen, Scovil Chichak Galen Literary Agency, 381 Park Avenue South, Suite 1020, New York NY 10016 If you expect to get any answer from his agency at all, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope. You may very well get a letter, not from him, but from the agency legal department. In making him my agent, I legally delegated the responsibility for administration of my copyrighted material to him. If he does not defend those copyrights, they may lose value. Defending and administering that property is how he makes his living. You should not be surprised, hurt, or offended if he takes exception to people who attempt to interfere with his ability to make a living. I might add that (as you may have inferred from the Park Avenue address) this is not some idiot in Dubuque who has an office and letterhead and calls himself an agent; this agency handles clients like Norman Mailer and Johnny Cochrane.
Note from Firebird. This is the second message from the same fan, the first one I answered, and did not forward to Misty. Not taking a polite no, this message came in and was answered directly by Misty, who was more than a bit testy about being asked the same basic question for the millionth time. Q: A few questions for Ms. Lackey: It is understood by me that you mightn't have published materials online, IE if I were to have a roleplaying chat and we published the storyline (Exempt from names of characters in specific, though including Valdemar, Karse, Heralds, Bards, etc.) without a license. By licensing do you mean a disclaimer or written permission from you, or something else? A: To license an intellectual property (ie, the universes depicted in our books) a person would contact our agent, Russell Galen of Scovil Chichak Galen in New York, and negotiate a contract to purchase the license for that specific property and purpose. In other words, a license requires a contract and money from the person wishing get a license. Q: Well, I guess I'm one of the few, the proud, Diana Tregarde fans. However, given the kinds of nutcases you've described, I understand your decision not to write any more DT books. However, they're getting hard to find in the used scifi bookstores and my copies are falling apart. Have you considered publishing them online? Baen Books has started offering a few of its titles online, usually the first book in a series. Eric Flint wrote a very persuasive essay on why online publishing is a good thing. Here's the URL: http://www.baen.com/press.shtml. When is Skif's book likely to come out? A: Well, every publishing house has its own ideas about whether or not to publish an old book online, and thus far Tor isn't interested. Since they own the rights, I don't have a lot to say on the subject. When I do the new vampire novel, which is obliquely related, they may reissue the DTs. I already know friend Eric's opinions on the subject, and I share them, which is why I believe Baen is going to put my old Reap the Whirlwind online Real Soon Now.
Q: Could you please pass on the following to Ms. Lackey and Mr. Dixon. I would just like to thank you both for the amazing books you have written. I picked up the Last Herald Mage Trilogy in an out-of-the-way bookstore while on vacation years ago and have been an avid reader since. I make it a point to go out and purchase all of your new books and find that I can no longer wait until they go into paperback but must now purchase them in hardcover. While I love the Valdemar series and will always remain faithful, I have really enjoyed the series that have been set in present day times. The Serrated Edge and Tregard novels are wonderful and I really look forward to the new book "Beyond World's End". The part of reading your stories that I like best is that there is a lesson about life to be learned in each book. From "The Ship Who Searched" in which we learned we can overcome any obstacle to "The Black Swan" where we found that doing what is right is the most important, there are strong female characters who make decisions and live with the results of their actions. Not only can I escape into your books, but at the same time read about a woman I would be happy to be or be pleased to know. I regret that the two of you and your staff have had problems with some of the fans and wish to reiterate others' protests at this. Not all of us are nuts. While I realize you probably receive a ton of fan mail I wanted to say my piece. I know that the purpose of a business is to make money, and though we try to choose a career in which we can make money and do something we enjoy it does not always happen. Obviously you enjoy your work because you keep doing it, as long as you do it my friends and I will keep buying your books. Thank you, A: Nicole, thank you for a very articulate as well as flattering letter! If I were ever to say that I would like to model myself on a particular author, it would be the late Dorothy L. Sayers, the author of the Peter Wimsey mysteries. She had a lot of interesting things to say about what fiction should do that I agree with. Of course, I'm nowhere near as brilliant as she was (Oxford scholar, translater of Dante and medieval manuscripts)! But she was someone I wish I'd had an opportunity to get to know because we seem to have so many of the same attitudes about writing. Q: Misty: If I understood correctly about the problems you had with the 'Diana Tremaine' novels your publishers may be causing another one. This is a copy of what's written about your new book 'Beyond World's End" on Barnes & Noble's website. Did they check this blurb before they sent it out? A: Afraid that's endemic to the business. Most blurbs don't have a lot to do with the interior of the book. We did resurrect the Guardians for this one on purpose to drive home the message that THEY AREN'T REAL---no more than Elves are. I figured that on the whole that was the best way to take the wind out of the sails of the nutcases.
Q: I am currently trying to write a novel based on the Dungeons & Dragons RPG game. I have written about 4 chapters - taking about 6 months- and I want to know- how long does it take for you to write a book? I am 32, an at-home- mom, and don't seem to find much time to write. I love writing, and when I get started, I don't want to stop, but the constant interruptions are annoying. (I have a 2-year old son) I usually write a chapter at a time, then smooth over the rough edges as I consider the next chapter. I basically know where i want to go, but everything is flexible enogh so I can change directions without confusing the reader. I would like some advice, however. I was reading a self-help book on writing and the book suggested I take my favorite author(you) and try to write like her. Isn't that 'stealing' your style? I want my characters to leap off the page like yours but I don't want to 'copy' you. What is your advice on this? Thank you. A: First of all, if you are considering trying to actually sell this book, you should be aware that you cannot legally submit it to ANYONE except TSR, the people who have the copyright on Dungeons and Dragrons (TM). Because you are basing your book directly on the game, you are likely using many, many copyright-protected conventions and terms, and there are those who claim that TSR actually stands for They Sue Regularly. That said, It usually takes most people about a year to write a book; don't take me for an example, as I am unusually fast, due in no small part to the fact that I type fast. A number of folk in the writing biz are stay-at-home moms, and they usually find a time of day when they won't be interrupted---Marion Zimmer Bradley used ro write between 3 or 4 AM and 6 AM when she had to get the kids up. Some block time out at naptime; some arrange with a willing spouse for two or three uninterrupted hours in the evening, and some write after the kids' bedtime. Personally, I can't vouch for any of these methods, since I don't have any children. I'm not sure it's possible to 'steal' someone's style without direct plagarism. No matter what you do, your own ideosynchracies are going to come through, the more so as you continue to write. So I would say that on the whole, you're probably going about this in a logical manner. I would suggest that you read Ray Bradbury's ZEN AND THE ART OF WRITING however, which will give you much better advice about the "art" of writing than I can in a couple of paragraphs. Firebird: Pick up a copy of The Outlandish Companion by Diana Gabaldon. One of the best books for working moms who also want to write. Diana Gabaldon writes BIG books-running 800-900 pages, and is 4 books into a Fantasy/Historical Fiction/Time Travel/Science Fiction/Romance. Great stuff, wonderful writing well worth reading. Q: Hi. I am a young writer looking for anthologies that would accept some of my writings. Would you happen to know of any? I really want to become a published fantasy writer, and for now, I'm looking for anthologies to help me along the way. (I'm in the middle of writing my own book right now). I really love your books. I've read almost all of your Valdemar series. Thank you. A: The best thing you can do is to subscribe to Writer's Digest, Locus or other publications which list anthologies that are opening up. Many anthologies are actually "closed"---which means by invitation only. However, Martin Greenberg at Techno Books in Green Bay Wisconsin seems to have a stranglehold on editing every possible anthology going in the sf/f field, so you might try a polite letter to him to discover if he has any that are open, and what the themes are. Q: To Whoever it may concern: Q. I'm 15 and for a occupation later in life, I'm very interested in going into the writing field. I have been published once in a High School magazine for young writers. I'm now older then they allow in their magazine, and was wondering if you knew of any other magazines of this sort that I could submit my own work to? If not, thank you for taking the time to read my question. And I have one more. Q. I'm interested in doing something in the writing field later in life. Whether it be an editor, writer, or somethin along those lines. My mom suggested (I'm 15.) that it would help if I became "known" somewhat in the writer's "world." Do you agree with her? And if so, do you know of a way(s) I could do this? Thank you for your time. A: This is going to sound very, very discouraging, I'm afraid. Of all of the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, only 5% make a living writing and the same holds true for all other genres. Of that 5%, most write other things besides sf/f as well in order to live. The odds are better to make a living playing cards in Las Vegas than to make a living writing, and the odds are getting worse, not better, as publishing houses are being devoured by larger businesses. Just as an example, when I started, Ace, Doubleday, Penguin, and Putnam were all separate publishing houses, each with its own science fiction line. Now they are all under one concern, with the science fiction budget divided among the separate lines, or sf/f lines closed out altogether. Another point of impact is the advent of the megastores and superstores; they can cut deals that allow them to deeply discount the cover price of books and are driving out the little independent bookstores---especially the specialty stores---and they tend not to carry very much by unknown or new writers. As for becoming an editor...once again, as publishing houses are consolidated, the jobs become fewer. If your heart is really set on that route, you have to be prepared to move to New York City (which is where all the jobs are), become an "editorial assistant" (glorified secretary), share a 300 sq foot apartment with 2 other roommates (you would not believe the rents in New York City), and live on about the same wages paid to a MacDonald's employee. Bottom line here is: find a career you know that you can make money in and that you think you would enjoy and write in your spare time. That's what 95% of the writers in the world do. If you happen to have the unique combination of a lot of luck, talent, and the ability to write what a lot of people like, you can always quit your job later---but even then it is likely that you'll have to have been published for at least 10 years before you can get to that point.
Q: I was wondering if you would allow me (or anyone) to write any of your novels into screenplays. I am an aspiring graphic artist and screenwriter who thinks your books would make _wonderful_ movies if the market was tested. I also understand that you write for a living, and to spend the time writing your own screenplays and mailing them out would detract from paying jobs. Unless of course a studio was so interested as to sign a contract with you, correct? With contracts negotiated and signed, awarding you the copywrites and royalties agreed upon, would you allow me (or anyone) to do this? A: Movie (and other associated rights) are handled entirely by my agency, Scovil, Chichak, Galen of New York. That said, the way that one aquires the rights to create a screenplay (or game, or whatever) is to contact the agency and negotiate a contract for options. This involves a payment to the agency for the right to produce a product based on a specific book for a predetermined period. Option-fees are usually in the area of five figures and allow the production of a specific product (screenplay, stage-play, game, etc) for a term of (usually) five years after the contract is signed and the fee is paid. After that time, the right to produce a product lapses unless the contract is renewed on payment of another fee. Unless a book is on the best-seller lists in the Number One position for several weeks, it is unlikely to be optioned for a movie. Authors very rarely write their own screenplays; Hollywood prefers that people versed in that skill produce the screenplays. I think perhaps the best thing you could do at this point is to educate yourself in the subject by reading several books on the mechanics and business of screenplay writing. Q: Who are your favorite authors? Do you ever have any time to sit and just read for pleasure? Also -- you once wrote a rather unusual Christmas story -- basically a ghost story about a man who holds a feast for his dead wife. I hope I'm not out of line asking, but what kind of religious background do you have? I've always enjoyed the wide variety of attitudes your books portray -- but it does seem like you dislike most organized religions (you portray a lot of church officials as corrupt, particularly in the Bardic series). Thanks -- and please keep writing -- I look for your books first everytime I go to the bookstore. I've carried them with me to Thailand, Germany, Korea and all over the United States. My father had to send them to me in Macedonia, when none of the bookstores had anything in English. A: In no particular order: Jane Austen, Elizabeth Goudge, Tolkein, Elizabeth Moon, Patricia Wrede, Charles de Lint, Anne McCaffrey, Tanya Huff, Elizabeth Scarborbough, Saki, Sheridan Le Fanu, Kipling. The concept of the "Dumb Feast" is an old English tradition, going back hundreds of years, and the opportunity to use it was too good to pass up. Q: Hello. I am a graduate student considering a thesis on the presentation and reception of gay and lesbian relationships in the Valdemar works. Specifically, I hope to prove that these works have provided positive support for some readers. Has this been done before? Would I be allowed to begin my research (after asking for permission, of course)? This idea is still in the "thinking" stage, any feedback would be most appreciated. Thank You!!!! A: As far as I am aware, this hasn't been done before as a thesis topic or as a topic for any articles or papers. I think it would be lovely if you could have this accepted as your topic---perhaps, though, it might be best to widen your scope to include authors like Marion Zimmer Bradley, Gail Baudino, Samuel Delaney, Elizabeth Lynn, Tanya Huff, Fiona Patton, and others who provide gay-positive fantasy and science fiction that is not specifically written for gay/lesbian audiences. I would suggest---bearing in mind that what you will get is anecdotal information---that you could go to the fan newsgroups online and either lurk or specifically request fans to write to you. Good luck! Q: Please, would you tell me when the next Valdemar book will be out?? I love them! A: BRIGHTLY BURNING, the Lavan Firestorm book, will be out in May. Q: I do not know if this has been asked or answered...but Is Velgrath the name of the home world of all the heralds and such? And is Alanda the name of the world of the Bards? And also...is the heralds and the bards in the same time period/frame? A: Velgarth is the world of the Valdemar books and the Heralds, Healers and Bards, the Shin'a'in and the Tayledras, the Black Kings, and so forth. Alanda, an entirely separate world, is the world of the Free Bards and has no connection with Velgarth. Q: Dear Misty, I am writing a short story that is looking more and more like it could become part of a novel. Should I still try to get the short story published, or should I wait? Would the choice of incorporating a previously published story into a novel belong to me as the author, or would it belong to the magazine who published the story? A: It would depend on whether you can make the short story stand alone. A novel based on the short story would not have its rights tied in any way to the short story. Q: Hi! wanted to say i think you are a truly unique author with storylines that are never the same. i really like how you manage to mix romance, adventure, mystery, and action together without it being overwhelming. one book usually fixes whatever cravings i have. i read quickly and i am always impatient to get my hands on your next book(s). i have not found anyone to come close to your style and i have read A. McCaffery, J.L. Nye, T. Huff, and many others....do you know of anyone who can match your unique style in a similiar fashion? i could really use an alternate author for a fix in between your new book releases. many thanks if you answer my question. i think you do a T-rific job. A: Well, I can tell you who I read that you might not have picked up: Tanya Huff, Charles de Lint, Barbara Hambly, Elizabeth Moon, Elizabeth Ann Scarboro, Mary Gentle, Elizabeth Goudge, Vera Chapman. Q: I read on America Online that you work for an airline. I was just wondering if you still do this. Are you a pilot or what? A: I used to work for American Airlines as a computer programmer for the reservation system. I quit to write full time eight years ago. Q: Your books are very exciting to read! I wanted to ask you a question. Do you have a favourite character, and if so, who is it? Thank you for your time. A: I really don't have a favorite character, honestly! I enjoy all my characters for different reasons. Q: If I send you a story idea will you write it for me? I don't want any money or credit. Will you read my story? A: Writing guidelines: Professional writing: These days, the only people I am doing collaboration with are (1) people that I know personally very, very well (3) people I have done collaborations with in the past and (3) people that my agent suggests as collaborative authors---in this case, Eluki bes Shahar and Esther Friesner. In the case of (1) the only collaborations we would be working on are SHORT STORIES, because my agent does not want any more collaborative books with unknown authors. As for working on someone else's ideas, and calling that collaboration...the ideas are the easiest part. Any time I have an ongoing series, I have at least 3 synopsis and another dozen 1-paragraph plot ideas for it at any given time. I have three or four ideas for new books or series at any given time. And I usually have outlines and contracts for four to six books that I am already set to write. As I said, the ideas are the easiest part. The hard work is in creating the synopsis, then the outline, then writing the book. I look at it in terms of the work of one hour (the idea) versus the work of four months, 8 hours a day, 7 days a week (writing the book). Not exactly equal collaboration, is it? Which is why when someone says that they have a great idea for a book and they'll split the money if I'll write it, I try not to laugh hysterically, but gently suggest that they really ought to write it themselves, since it is THEIR idea. Reading and critiquing fan fiction or original fiction: We don't. No exceptions. Here's why. Some time ago, Marion Zimmer Bradley ended up having to cancel the idea of EVER writing a particular book, because a fan (who shall remain nameless) demanded equal collaborative credit and money, if she used a particular "idea" that had come from a fan-fiction story. It got to the point where the fan threatened to sue Marion if she did not get equal collaborative credit and money (and remember what I said in the paragraphs above). As the fan actually had somehow gotten an agent and had the resources to do just that, Marion scrapped the book altogether---one which was greatly anticipated and would have been integral to her Darkover series, may I add. When I was co-writing a Darkover book with Marion, the same fan had the chutzpah to send ME a manuscript---which, needless to say, I returned unopened. As a consequence, our agent (I have the same agent as Marion, Russell Galen of Scovil Chichak Galen) wanted us to forbid people to write fan-fiction altogether. And lest you think that can't be done, there are several authors and their publishers who have successfully done just that, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro for one; all it takes is a lawyer. Neither Marion nor I wanted to deprive people of the enjoyment of playing in our worlds, so we compromised; anyone who publishes their fan fiction in amateur fanzines has to send us a complicated release form saying basically that they know this is MY intellectual property and that they understand that their work essentially becomes my property, so long as it references my world and characters. Not that I would ever take advantage of that, because the second part of the compromise is this: I NEVER READ FAN FICTION. There are no exceptions. It gets filed away unread, in the presence of a witness. So if, by any chance, something in one of our books looks like an idea in someone's fan fiction, it is purely coincidental, and was arrived at by logical extrapolation from previous plots. I can and will prove in a court of law (if I have to) that I could not possibly have "stolen" anyone's ideas. I also NEVER READ OR CRITIQUE UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS for the same reasons. All unsolicited manuscripts are returned unread to the sender by my secretary. Once again, I can and will prove in a court of law that I could not possibly have "stolen" anyone's ideas. While we're on the subject of "stealing ideas"---here is an example of synchronicity, the kind of thing that can make people decide an "idea" has been "stolen." During the 50s and early 60s, a particular Big Name SF writer kept getting his stories bounced back by the editor of one of the magazines on the grounds that he'd just bought a story from another Big Name writer on the same subject. This happened so many times that the Big Name Author "A" was not only getting frustrated, he was beginning to wonder if Big Name Author "B" was somehow linked to him telepathically! The real answer came when he finally caught up with "B" at a SF con. It turned out that they both subscribed to EXACTLY THE SAME SET OF SCIENCE MAGAZINES. Since they had similar interests, and almost exactly the same areas of expertise, it was inevitable that they would choose the same subjects to write about. The stories themselves were very different---and eventually, all of Big Name "A"s stoires were published elsewhere. Which only shows that you can't really "steal" an idea anyway, since what two authors do with the idea will be two very different things. Nevertheless, because trying to defend myself against accusations of poaching would be aggravating, time- and resource-consuming, we've made it our policy to just avoid any possible way that we could be vulnerable to those accusations.
Q: Hi, I'm 16 years old, and I started reading Misty's books two and a half years and have since read almost all of them and became addicted to fantasy and science fiction. Ever since writing a fantasy story for English last year (which was loved by both my teachers and 99% of my class) I've had a desire to write. I even took a creative writing class this year where more of my stories received many compliments from teachers and students. I really want to write but I don't know where to start. I get ideas but I'm so busy (school plus I have dance class four nights a week...16 hours) I never have time to write...or read for that matter. Plus, I have trouble developing my ideas. Also, I really want to write fantasy, but I'm not sure whether to start with that or something I'm more familiar with...like reality(not them I'm familiar with that either) So, I would really appreciate it if you have any suggestions or could recommend any 'How to' books for me. Thanks. A: There is only one way to become a writer: glue your hind end to a chair and write. When I began to write professionally, I also had a full-time job that often required much more than 40 hours a week---very often as much as 60 or 70. I managed to write by giving up everythin except writing and work; I would come home, take my dinner with me to the computer and write while I ate. I wrote until midnight or later, went to bed, got up at 6 and went to work. Marion Zimmer Bradley did the opposite; she went to bed early and got up at 3 or 4 in the morning to write while her kids were asleep. I'm not saying that you have to be quite that extreme, but if you really want to write, you'll find or make the time. Write what you enjoy; when teachers give the advice of "write what you know," they aren't referring to the setting so much as to use your own experiences as a basis for your characters. The only way you get better at anything is to practice; that goes for writing as well. To get better at developing ideas, you have to write them out. It's not as if you have to discard those ideas once you've tried to do something with them---you can always come back to them later, when your skills are higher. There are a number of "how to" books available on writing fantasy and science fiction; I suggest that you go to a bookstore, and get one of the clerks to look up "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy" in the catalog and order one or more for you---or do the same for yourself in an online bookstore. One good book that does not have the words "how to write" in the title, is Ray Bradbury's "Zen and the Art of Writing." Good luck!
Q: I was just wondering where (in Born to Run) the character Rob gets the idea for his evil imaginary twin Skippy. I think it was supposed to be from a movie, but no one I've asked knows where it came from, and yet I've seen references to Skippy the Evil Twin quite often. Every time I read this book, I wonder more and more where the reference came from. Could you help? It's driving me NuTz! I also wanted to say that Tannim's psychological torture techniques in Chrome Circle got me hooked on They Might Be Giants. I'm just sorry that their work is no longer being released in Canada! A: Rob got the idea from--- The original Rob, a friend of ours that we wrote into the book, together with his evil twin-Skippy Rob. Perhaps one of our other Southern fandom friends will enlighten the Curious Canadian with the story? Rob also came up with Eyeblinder, the Tie-Dyed Taledras. Don't ask. Firebird: The Evil Twin Skippy was lifted from the cartoon Doonsbury, in a bit of sharp political satire about George Bush and Iran-Contra. Q: My name is Melissa and i am 15. I was wondering if you know any thing about young people getting there own books published (publishers taking them seriously). I am writing a book (i know i have like the smallest chance of the world to get it published but this is a project for school mostly.) Meaning are there any laws against it or do i have to be 18 or what ? I hope im not babbling or being confusing. Thank you for your time. A: The best way to get a publisher to take you seriously is to present them with a professional-looking manuscript; there are plenty of guides on the nuts and bolts of fiction writing (usually with titles beginning "How to Write...") to guide you through this. And no, there is no reason why a 15-year-old can't get published; one of Marion Ximmer Bradley's contributors first got a story published at 14. Just remember that a parent or guardian will have to cosign all contracts with you. Q: I have been a fan for a long time, but my question is about writing. I am writing a book and it sortof "took off" with me... but I don't like the direction my characters are going in. What would be the best way to change the flow in the middle of writing it? A: Someone asked a writing question---how to change the flow of a book in the middle of writing it. The answers to that really depend on the book...you could go back and rewrite from the beginning, you could figure out where it "went wrong" and rewrite from that point, or you could just finish it and see where it takes you. Obviously your subconscious has SOMETHING it wants to get out, if the book took off in a different direction so drastically, and I'd opt for the third answer, which is see where the book goes. You may not like the book, but it might be something that you need to address, if only for yourself. Q: As an author, do you tend to create the characters you use from elements of people you know, or do the characters tend to *be* people you know/theories about people that you have seen? I write myself at times, and have found myself writing a mixture of both types of characterisation; both composite characters built from traits I have observed independently, and characters who step out of my mind the spitting image of someone I have met. It would fascinate me to know if you use one or both or a different method of characterisation, and if you have any 'preferences' or feelings regarding which mode creates the more real characters...
A:
Both. Fortunately I have not known many people as evil as our villians,
so Larry and I play psychologist to get inside their heads.
Q: I was curious as to how you come up with character and place names. Does it ever become easy? A:
Actually one of the ways is to take a name out of the phone book, and if
it "feels" like it fits the character, re-spell it slightly!
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