These were enjoyable monsters to create. The fact that they all had something in common, something to help illuminate one of Nerak’s weaknesses made the journey more fun for Jay and me. Again, our goal early on was not necessarily to send this manuscript off for consideration. We were more engaged with telling the story, manipulating the layers and creating a wild ride for a willing reader.
Having ghouls and critters with a subtle common denominator was something we did on purpose. We didn’t necessarily know when we would use it, but it helped pave the way for Mark’s character to play an important role inLessek’s Key and The Larion Senators. Like Steven’s mathematics knowledge, Mark’s deductions help the partisans decide how and when to bring the fight to Nerak.
Q: Mathematics and engineering have always been weak points for me (same with those types of problems you have Steven loving to solve) the magic in these worlds are based on certain principles. Were any of these principles taken from our sciences that people might recognise? Or have they just come from your fertile imagination?
On that subject, Jay was our expert. He insisted that we have parameters within which Eldarni magic would be confined. And it was about confinement. I remember him saying how much he disliked books in which magic underwent a transformation just at the moment when the protagonist needed something more powerful or more insidious. Why hadn’t it been that powerful all along? How many sidekicks had to die before the square-jawed hero discovered that, in fact, he could level a mountain?
Without spoiling Lessek’s Key, there is more than one mystical force at work in Eldarn. Jay and I were careful to establish specific ceilings for each. At the conclusion of The Hickory Staff, there is some suspicion among the main characters that greater powers have come into play, but we have yet to see the limits of anyone’s abilities, Nerak and the staff included.
We found that the most challenging part about writing different kinds of magic over three volumes was deciding how much to expose and when. We didn’t want readers getting the end of Lessek’s Key and saying, ‘oh, they just added that ability, because they were in deep shit.’ We needed magic to evolve like a character, with glimpses of the future included in the text from early on.
What are those neon signs Mark keeps seeing? Why didn’t the hickory staff shatter when Steven slashed that pine tree in the Blackstone Mountains? Have we seen the sum force of Nerak’s magic, and why didn’t it destroy Gilmour on "The Prince Marek"? How did Steven start that campfire when the staff was out of reach? These are all questions that eventually lead to a broader and more comprehensive understanding of the different forces at work in Eldarn. By the end of Lessek’s Key, most everything will have come into focus. Yet, there are a few threads that are not entirely explained until The Larion Senators. It wouldn’t be any fun to have everything worked out too early.
Article comments
1 - pam holby
I was wondering if you could give me the e mail of Robert Scott the author of Like Father Like Son This is in regards to the crystal stedman murder. Thank you very much
2 - Margaret
Good review. Good interview. Thank you. I am waiting in impatient anticipation of Lessek's Key and the Larion Senators. The Hickory Staff I read over a week-end; could not put it down.
Thanks for your review.