Interview for Deep Magic

This interview was conducted for the Deep Magic ezine - February 2004 issue, and is reproduced with kind permission.

Age: 49
Residence: Toronto
Marital Status: Married
Children: 2
Hobbies: Obviously, doing online interviews! No, er: film, travel, single malt scotch, baseball...
Personal Quote: "I would rather the Romans ask why there are no statues to Cato, than ask why there are." (Cato the Elder)
Favorite Book or Author: Too many to start singling out.
First time you tried to get something published: 1980-81
Authors Most Inspired By: A myriad of them
Educational/Training Background: Philosophy and law
Schools Attended: University of Manitoba, University of Toronto
Degrees: B.A., LL.B. (Law degree in Canada)
Website URL: (Authorized site, not my own) www.brightweavings.com coordinated by Deborah Meghnagi

Q: Tell us the story of how your first book was published.
A: I had drafted about 7 chapters of The Summer Tree when the man who was acting as my agent (we'd met during the promotional launch for The Silmarillion, which I had helped edit) decided enough was in place for him to send it off. It was accepted first by David Fielder of Allen & Unwin in London, then by David Hartwell at Arbor House, NY, and Linda McKnight of McClelland & Stewart in Canada. This, incidentally, established the separation of all three major English language markets (Australia goes to the British, usually) from the start of my career, which has helped me immensely.

Q: How has the internet affected your relationship with readers and/or publishers?
A: In significant and ongoing ways, yes. Some good, some... time-consuming! There's been a huge change in reader expectations over the past decade (more or less) in terms of the belief that it is possible and even appropriate to be in direct touch with a writer whose work one admires. When I was growing up, or in university, it didn't enter my mind to have such a personal communication. Today, I receive emails from readers saying that they have JUST finished a book of mine and have various comments and queries. These are very often seriously intelligent (I have seriously intelligent readers) and that's a problem ... because clever queries and comments pretty much compel a reply! In addition, it goes the other way: many writers wade into usenet discussions actively, even discussions of their own books. One author I know threw out a query to the usenet sf discussion group as to the merits of splitting a book of his into two volumes, how they (the readers) would feel about this. The back-and-forth is staggeringly different today.

Q: Your worlds and kingdoms are very rich in the arts (music, poetry, artwork, etc.) and have a very Renaissance feel. Were you a history major, and what has been your inspiration for the settings?
A: I majored in Philosophy, then did law, but history has always been a passion, in many different forms. My major reading, both leisure and professional is in history. I often say that if you are doing a fantasy based on a period, a variation on a theme, as it were, you have to KNOW the theme before you try variations! Only one of my books is actually'Remaissance-based' and that's Tigana (and even there, the idea blurs, because I introduced a Politburo-style dictator in one of the invaders). I've done medieval Spain andThe Last Light of the Sun, due out in March, takes its inspiration from the north of Europe well before the Norman Conquest of England. And yes, indeed, the interplay of power and the arts is a recurring theme for me. I like to play with this in various ways, showing how it spins itself out differently, in different cultures.

Q: Do you have any favorite characters?
A: That sets up the usual, 'How can a father choose amongst his own children?' reply. It happens to be true, though. Hmm. I suspect if pushed I'd name Dianora in Tigana the most tragic figure I've created. Um. Well, along with Darien in Fionavar. (See what I mean?) I was very happy with Styliane Daleina in the Mosaic as a creation ... someone you genuinely dislike all through but (I hope) are compelled towards a grudging respect for by the end. I had a lot of fun with Bertran de Talair in Arbonne. Actually, a lot of the figures in Arbonne appeal to me ... it was probably the most enjoyable book to write, a love song to Provence, essentially.

Q: What influences have helped you become the writer you are?
A: One of those questions that requires an essay not a paragraph. Without dodging it, I'll say one obvious, powerful thing, is getting older. We think and feel differently as time passes for us, and we write differently, accordingly.

Q: What have you been reading lately?
A: I'm currently re-reading Shirley Hazzard's The Transit of VenusThe Great Fire) - her first book in 23 years! Transit of Venus is exquisite, stylistically brilliant, deeply compassionate ... one of my favourite novels back when, and I am so relieved to find I still love it, two decades later. (This is not a fantasy book, by the way, and won't be everyone's cup of tea.) I'm also immersed in my usual slew of books on various periods of history and was just sent the new Gene Wolfe novel, due out in the spring, by his publisher.

Q: How much of your time do devote to writing?
A: All my work time is writing now. I'm at it every day, pretty much, when in the middle of a book.

Q: When you have a time where you don't think you can write another word, what is it that gets you going again?
A: Terror? In truth, I stay at the desk. Don't get up. Muddle it through. Remind myself that inspiration is overrated, is often an excuse for dodging the work. Books are marathons not sprints, there will be days, there MUST be days when you don't feel razor-sharp, and you can't just take those days off. Or, I can't.

Q: Your work has strong sexual themes (Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, Lions of Al-Rassan, as examples) - what has been your reader reaction to the explicit material in your work?
A: As you might expect, response varies widely. Sexuality is one of the touchstone issues that makes one conscious of how much fiction writing (all art, really) is a dialogue, not a monologue. The reader/consumer brings his or her own history, taste, passions, antipathies to the table. One reader's eroticism is another's boredom and another's pornography. One reader will pick up on the 'point' of a given scene, write a thesis on it, another will think it is cheap salaciousness. You cannot, as a writer, control this. And it doesn't only apply to sexuality. Quick example: the sexual elements of Tigana are a central motif of that novel, spun out of the ways in which being conquered, subjugated politically, can ripple down to the smallest, most private elements of human existence, and many people have written and spoken of this (read Milan Kundera's early fiction). It felt entirely right to me to make use of this in the novel, in a variety of ways. Some readers have responded to the theme, others haven't been able to 'see' it because they react too viscerally to the fact of sexuality in the novel. On the whole, I think that over time an element of self-selection operates in this, after a writer has been around for awhile: readers come to know whether a given author satisfies their own needs in terms of the reading experience. I feel very lucky in my readers, around the world. They offer a measure of affirmation that keeps me exploring the themes and motifs that engage me, knowing that they seem to also engage a great many other people.