What caused the change, why writing novels, specifically fantasy ones?
Well, it wasn’t really a change. I always felt I could do both acting and writing. What happened was that I got disillusioned with acting. So many knockbacks, so few opportunities. I was in work and doing well and my books were starting to get real interest from publishers.
It was a simple choice to concentrate on the writing and it’s proved the right one. It’s funny, despite being an actor, it never occurred to me at the time to write plays and screenplays. I wanted to be a novelist.
I wrote, and write, fantasy because that’s what I have read throughout my life. You should always write in the arena in which you are most comfortable. For me it was fantasy and I felt I could do an equivalent if not better job than other authors out there and set out to prove it. It’s not for me to judge whether I have been a success in that.
I also grew up playing role-playing games and that merely cemented the love of fantasy.
Where did The Raven come from?
The role-playing. A particularly rich few years of gaming in the Dragon Quest system with a consistent group of friends gave rise to some wonderful characters. I played Hirad Coldheart, by the way. I could see the dynamic in the group and wanted to bring that to the written page.
The idea of a band of heroes isn’t necessarily a new one but I think my take was what interested publishers. The Raven were already established as the best and were in fact slightly long in the tooth. The banter, the bond and the method of fighting just worked.
Was it always going to be six books – a sextet?
No. In fact, I didn’t even think of a trilogy at the outset. Dawnthief was written as a stand-alone and it was only when I was in talks with my publisher that I developed ideas for the other two books in the first trilogy. The second trilogy suggested itself as I wrote the first set and because the Chronicles sold well, I was able to write the Legends series.
You've gone from a series of six regular sized books to a duology of massive proportions — I mean, Cry Of The Newborn is over 800 pages long. Was there any particular reason for that?
There are a few reasons as it happens. The Ascendants idea had been rolling around in my head for the best part of 20 years and it was only a couple of years ago that I felt able to deliver on the premise and do the idea justice. I always knew it was going to be a big epic.
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