INTERVIEW:
The Dying Kingdom

This is an "interview" for The Dying Kingdom.  It ran in highly abbreviated form on a web site, but I thought fans might like to see the whole thing.  It tells a lot about me and my work in the gaming/writing/art fields over the last 20+ years.

Editorial comments by me are enclosed in brackets <<>>.

***

How did you become involved in Dragonlance in general? Were you a fan before becoming involved? And what did you need to do to prepare yourself for  actually writing in the Dragonlance world, which has already been quite   heavily developed over the years?

Now, preparing to work in the DL world, after being off staff for many, many years, was a bit tricky. Fortunately, the YA series is set in the time I know best -- the time of the original books (when I _was_ on staff). Writing in that time period was kinda like learning to ride a bike again. It’s all in your mind, somewhere, you just have to bring it out again. Writing The Dragon Isles -- after, literally, twenty years of accumulated history (and much more than that in the lives of the characters & world) -- was much trickier. I did a lot of struggling with that, though I’m proud of the result. Hopefully, those fans who liked DI will like this book, too. And those who didn’t... well, they may like Dying Kingdom anyway, as it's a return to "basic" Dragonlance.

So, tell me about THE DYING KINGDOM, its heroine Nearra, its cast of great iconic characters like the ranger Davyn, the kender Sindri Suncatcher, the elf Elidor, the warrior woman Catriona, and the mysterious Scarlet Brethren in Arngrim. How soon after TEMPLE OF THE DRAGONSLAYER does it pick up, what elements from the first book does it expand on, what new revelations about Nearra's forgotten past can you hint at?

Dying Kingdom picks up shortly after the end of the first book. The characters are headed west over the mountains, to find some wizards who can restore Nearra’s memory. (A storyline form the fist book.) Of course, not all of the characters actually _want_ her to get her memory back. Some in the group, like Davyn, have very conflicted emotions about the whole thing. Others, Elidor particularly, are in on the adventure for their own selfish reasons. Even Catriona, our loyal knight, is out to prove something. Finding the wizards proves trickier than our heroes had hoped. IN the search, they get involved with a moody warrior named Alric and the royal family of Arngrim. Arngrim is the "dying kingdom" of the title, and our heroes will be lucky if they get out of it alive. I don’t want to give too much more away, as there’s a strong mystery element in the book. I will say, though, that we get to know all the characters better as the book progresses -- especially Catriona.

I know that some of the other authors I've interviewed before usually have a character or two, a scene or two, even a line or two in their work that they really, really like. How about you? Favorite scene or moment from THE DYING KINGDOM that really satisfied you as the creator?

As to scenes, there’s a great fight scene in the rain at the beginning of the book, then a huge and exciting climax at the end. There’s also some romance, which may be a bit unique for this type of book. Hopefully, people will enjoy it, as it really is vital to the story, and the growth of the characters. Oddly, one of my favorite scenes involves Catriona waking up in a castle. She’s not wearing her knight’s armor for the first time in ages, and she’s in this big, comfy bed, with breakfast waiting for her on a side table. And she gets to let her hair down a bit, and just be a teenage girl -- at least for a little while. I liked seeing that side of her. It’s interesting to put these kind of tough warriors in situations that are opposite to what they’re used to. Like in my comic serial, The Twilight Empire(tm) -- which ran in Dragon magazine for over 4 years -- I made Finella, my warrior elf, go to a fancy dress ball. It wasn’t the kind of thing she usually did, and it was a nice change of pace. It was good to see how she reacted to it. Same thing with Catriona.

So, what kind of pressure did you feel, being an author for this launch of a new direction in the Dragonlance books? What were your initial thoughts about how to really connect new readers to the world, get them engaged and willing to explore the world in greater depth? Have you written to a younger audience in the past? (I believe you wrote a Thunderbirds novel recently, yes?)

I’ve actually been writing younger audience books a long time. My first one came out even before The Scorpion. In fact, I’ve written a dozen books in a well known YA detective series. I’m working on my 13th even now. But they’re all under a house pseudonym, so you’d never know it. Plus, I’m working on two YA books of my own at the moment -- one’s a fantasy, the other SF. So, I’ve got quite a bit of experience in this area, and it’s an audience I really like writing for.

The Dragonlance authors tend to find new followings--and in this case, you might even find a younger audience than you've had before. How can fans learn more about you and your work? (Would you like to send them to a homepage, for instance?) How about fans who'd like to write to you or get a book autographed?

Fans who want to write to me can get my email from my web pages. I try to answer everyone -- though I can’t always do so immediately. (And it’s sometimes hard to sort the fans from the spam!) I’m happy to autograph books any time, and if people want to send me a book to sign, all I ask is that the volume come with return postage and packaging.

You have your own children, Julie and Kendall, is that correct? How old are they? Are they old enough to read your work?

Julie is nearly thirteen, and Kendall will be ten in a month. They’re both voracious readers -- which is what happens when an author marries a librarian. Kendall has read all of the Harry Potter books through on his own. More than once. (First time he read them, he read along with the audio versions.) Julie’s read Harry as well, of course (eveyrone in the family has), and she’s worked at her school newspaper, too. Both children seem to have a bent for writing as well as reading. Which is not surprising.

As to reading their dad’s stuff... Well, let’s just say that they’ve been resistant to it so far. This despite the fact that I’ve dedicated books to them, and that they both appear (in some form) in each one of my ghost-written detective volumes. The all find it pretty boring in a way -- as if their dad was just an assembly-line worker. Ha! However, they have asked to be villains (or, actually, have some villains named after them) in my current detective book. Maybe they’ll read that one. ;-)

Is that complicated to keep track of characters and plots, or to simply develop them, when you're part of a multi-author series? Do the three of you plot the whole series out in advance? And the obvious question that kids will want to know, how come multiple authors instead of one author writing it all?

Tim, I’m sure, had the beginning and end of the series in his mind when he started. Those of us writing the "middle books" had the job of developing the characters, moving the plot forward, and not stepping on any of the other authors’ toes. In this case, there wasn’t time for a big "authors confab" -- where all the writers get together and has things out. Fortunately, our editor kept us all on the same page. Usually, authors working on "shared world" series are very generous with each other. We all want the series to be the best it can be.

The reason that these things have multiple authors rather than just one is time. That’s it, just time. Look how long it takes for a new Harry Potter book to come out -- or how long the Lord of the Rings took. If only one person were doing DLYA, it would take years to come out. With three of us working on it, it takes months -- which is better for the publisher. I was thrilled to find out that DK would be coming out the same time as the first book. That way, the fans can really jump into this with both feet. It should be fun for everyone.

So, do you have a favorite character in the series? Each of them comes with his or her quirks, particularly Davyn in THE DYING KINGDOM, I thought. Is it difficult to work with such a large cast of characters and keep them all separate?

This is like asking an author which child is his favorite. I really liked all the characters. I found something in each one of them that "sang" to me. Each of them has a longing that I think makes them very human. If I had to chose, I think Catriona probably stands out in this book -- in some ways, it’s really her story. I suspect, though, that other people reading the book may have another opinion. Maybe it’s Davyn’s book, because he has to come to grips with parts of himself that he doesn’t like. Maybe it’s Nearra’s, because we find out more about her peculiar problem. Maybe it’s Elidor’s, as he struggles to figure out where he fits in. Or maybe it’s Sindri’s because he progresses in his "magical arts." I suppose you could even say it’s Alric’s -- because the story is called The Dying Kingdom, after all.

Can you hint at what comes in future volumes?

So, anything I could tell you might be completely inaccurate. Let’s just say that I’m looking forward to reading the final books and seeing how they turned out!

So, do you see yourself writing in the Dragonlance setting again in the future? Do you feel you'd have more tales to tell there? I know you've already written a book in the Crossroads series in the past (The Dragon Isles), so you would seem to be comfortable in the world!

I hope that I’ll be able to do more work in the DL universe. I’d love to write another book with this set of characters -- and I’ve even had ideas about a sequel for Dragon Isles. (I actualy got to create all those chacters myself.) Whether the Powers That Be are interested in such things, only time will tell. I’m definitely interested.

What are you working on in the future that your new fans might look forward to?

At the moment, I’m working on another detective book. My agent, Frank Weimann, is also shopping around the SF book I mentioned. And I hope to get him a manuscript for my fantasy book soon (it only needs a final polish). The big news is that Thunderbirds should be out around the same time as Dying Kingdom. Fans of one will probably like the other. I also have a bunch of stories up at the Mage Knight site. I had a lot of fun writing those last year -- and two are multi-part stories. (And they’re FREE online!) <<See the navigation bar at left!>> One, Podo & The Magic Shield, is even up for an Origins award this year, 2004. (Vote for me!)

And finally... so many young people out there would no doubt love to write further adventures of your characters or develop their own fantasy characters and worlds. What advice do you have for, say, a ten year old who's just finished THE DYING KINGDOM and has had an epiphany: I want to be a writer when I grow up? When did you know what you wanted to do? And how did you get there?

My advice for aspiring writers is the same, whether you’re 10 or 100. To be a writer, you actually have to sit down and write. Some of us write with computers, others with typewriters, others with pen and paper (and some, like me, put notes on yellow pads before solidifying them on computer).

The more you write, the better your chance of becoming a good writer. When I was a kid, I used to make "books" out of sheets of typing paper, folded in half and stapled along the spine. I’d write and illustrate stories in those books. (Now my kids do the same!) Little did I know that, one day, I’d be doing something very much like that to make a living.

So write. Write books. Write letters. Write emails. Just keep writing.

The more you work at it, the better you’ll become.

Good luck!