Will you write more Imager Portfolio books about Rhennthyl”

I can understand the wishes of a number of readers who have posed this question, but it’s highly unlikely that I will do so.  That’s because the challenges that face Rhenn in the years after the events in Imager’s Intrigue will be of the subtle, tedious, and wearying kind that will drive men — and readers — to tear out their hair, without that much in the way of true excitement.  Any book that provided gripping excitement and increasing tension that could be relieved by heroic action would be false to Rhenn and the world in which he lives, and any book true to him and the world wouldn’t be that much fun or hold that much interest for most readers… and I’m not interested in writing either of those books.

Are you thinking about creating another totally new fantasy series?

I’m not to that point yet.  I’m still working on finishing the last Imager Portfolio book about Quaeryt [not necessarily the last Imager book, just the last one about him], and I’m committed to another Recluce book after that.  When that’s done… well, we’ll see.

Have you ever considered setting a novel — or a trilogy — in one of your fantasy worlds in a more technologically advanced time period, when the technology either approaches present-day levels… or even higher levels, with computers, nanotechnology and/or space travel?

I have to admit that I haven’t considered writing a fantasy in a high-tech setting, although I can see that such a setting would have serious adverse repercussions or limitations on every magic system I’ve thus far created. Imaging in space would be almost impossible, for example, as would handling order and chaos or attempting to find any lifeforce on which to draw.  Still… it’s an interesting idea, but I’m not about to promise anything… at least not yet.

Could you give a run- down on the approximate equivalents for your time references in the Imager series?

The week is seven days, based on the French equivalents:  Lundi, Mardi, Meredi, Jeudi, Vendrei, Samedi, Solayi.  A “glass” is roughly equivalent to 100 minutes of our time, and a quint is a fifth of a glass.  There are five two-month seasons [Winter, Spring, Summer, Harvest, and Fall].  The ten months are Ianus, Fevier, Maris, Avryl, Mayas, Juyn, Agostas, Erntyn, Feuillyt, and Finitas.  Each month is thirty-five days long.

Can anything be done to fix SyFy (formerly the Sci-Fi Channel)?  Anything good gets cancelled, and only “reality” shows stay on the air.

I have my doubts.  The problem is that, in general,  reality-style shows cost less to produce than what I’d call more solid shows. These days, everything in the entertainment field is based on attracting the widest possible audience with the lowest possible cost — unless the network/channel has a huge guaranteed audience for a specific show or the show is the very occasional blockbuster designed to drag in a wider audience to justify sky-high advertising rates (directly or indirectly). Even in niche markets, the suits want the widest chunk of the niche with the lowest cost.  This pretty much guarantees lots of low-cost, lower quality program with an occasional “show-stopper.”  Until these economics fail, I don’t see anything changing, at least not in the near future.

Will you ever start another fantasy series with another different magic system?

That all depends on too many factors to consider.  Right now, I’m committed for almost a year in advance, in finishing the last book about Quaeryt in The Imager Portfolio and then to another Recluce book.  After that… I just haven’t thought that far ahead.  I wouldn’t be opposed to it, but I’d have to develop a very different magical concept… and that’s far from easy.

Why are your blogs often so depressing?

I think the paradoxical answer to that is because I’m an optimist.  I really think that if I discuss difficult issues and problems people will consider them, and I hope that such discussions and thoughts will help lead to solutions.  One thing that I do know is that you can’t solve a problem that you refuse to acknowledge even exists… or one that you accept as a “fact of life,” rather than as a problem.

What is your opinion of fanfiction? Do you see it as theft of intellectual property or copyright infringement or is it simply a flattering way of saying “I really love your work”

Technically speaking, fanfiction is an infringement of copyright, and if someone gets paid for that, without the permission of the author, that’s definitely a violation of copyright.  At the same time, I don’t have a problem with fanfiction that’s restricted to a comparatively limited number of fans and not used in any commercial fashion. Fanfiction in that sense is a gesture of appreciation, but I would hope that it might be the first step for many of those fan writers toward creating their own worlds and characters, because we can always use more good writers.

In reading the “Ghost” novels several times, I’ve wondered if Vanderbraak Centre is near Colchester, Connecticut, in our universe.  If not, where would it be located?

Actually, the location of Vanderbraak Centre in our world is that of Plymouth, New Hampshire, the site of Plymouth State University, where I taught for several years in the early 1990s.  I obviously changed the arrangement of the town to a certain degree, but not that of the river or the bridge, or where the main streets are located, simply because in towns such as Plymouth/Vanderbraak Centre there’s usually a geographic and practical reason for their placement.  The university in the “Ghost” books is also located in the same place as Plymouth State is in our world.

When will The Green Progression be reprinted?

At this point, I have doubts whether it will ever be reprinted, given that it was, charitably stated, far less than a commercial success despite favorable reviews — and, for what it’s worth, was my father’s favorite of all the books I had written.

Now that Scholar will be released in the next week, can you tell us when the  next Imager Portfolio book will be available?

Princeps is currently scheduled for a May 2012 release date, but I don’t know yet whether that will be early or late in the month.

How many editors have you had?

That’s a question to which the almost any short answer would be misleading.  In the strictest sense, I have no idea how many editors I’ve had, for several reasons.  First, I have no way to determine how many editors looked at my early stories that were published by various magazines, only that they had to number more than four.  Second, while all but one of my novels have been edited by David Hartwell,virtually all of them were also edited by whoever his assistant editor was at the time.  The only book for which David was not the head editor was edited by John Douglas, who had been David’s assistant editor at Timescape and who bought my second novel for Avon at a time when David was between editing positions. Since David has been my editor for over thirty years I can’t even remember, let alone count all of the editors who have worked with him and me… except I can say that the vast majority turned out to be good editors in their own right [while I may not recall all the faces or names, any writer recalls a bad editor or copy-editor, and I don’t recall any bad editors, but I still recall the one terrible copy-editor].

In “What I’m Writing,” you seem to imply that there will be other Imager books beyond the second subseries? Is this so?

No… I did not mean to imply that I would be writing a third “subseries” in The Imager Portfolio.  What I meant was that the second subseries will have four books, rather than my typical two or three about a given character or set of characters. That doesn’t mean I won’t write another Imager subseries at some point in the future, but it won’t be in the immediate future after I finish the fourth book in the current subseries.

I’ve read somewhere that Tor furnishes and supports your website.  Is this true?

Tor/Macmillan did design and set up the website initially and provided technical support for somewhat less than two years, but that arrangement turned out to be unsatisfactory to both parties for a number of reasons, and Tor agreed to turn over the website to me and generously paid for the transition to a new server and for the registration of the domain to me for a number of years.  For the past several years I’ve been totally responsible, but the more technical aspects are handled by the Nebula-winning writer Eric James Stone — who’s also a great web designer and maintainer.

Will you ever have a brewer as a main character in the Saga of Recluce?

Alas… probably not, not because I have anything against brewers, but because I couldn’t possibly do justice to such a character.  It’s not beyond the realm of possibility, however, that I might work in a strong minor character who’s a brewer, but that will have to be several years from now, at the least.

Are there going to be any more Recluce books? Say one about Southwind? Or Suthya?

As I’ve noted earlier, but will repeat since I’ve received so many questions about this recently, there will be at least one more book in the Saga of Recluce.  It will be, however, several years before I finish it, for a number of reasons, but especially because I’m committed to finishing the current subseries of The Imager Portfolio first.

Why isn’t The Death of Chaos available on Kindle, when all your other fantasy novels are?

I asked the good folks at Tor about this, and they report that the electronic format was sent to Amazon six  months ago.  They’ve also contacted Amazon about this, over a week ago, but so far it’s still unavailable.  While I’d be the first to admit that often publishers have not been as speedy or responsive as they should be, not all glitches are on the part of the publisher.  A number of times Amazon has been slow to change prices [downward] on my ebooks, even though Amazon was notified well in advance, and many readers have immediately jumped on Macmillan for price-gouging and the like.  Just remember, both the publishers and Amazon have agendas… not just the publishers.

For your next Recluce book, will you follow your pattern of two books per main character and write again about Saryn?

Is there a chronology for the Corean Chronicles?

There is not an “official” published chronology for the Corean Chronicles, but the three “choice” books occur first in “real” time, beginning with Alector’s Choice, Cadmian’s Choice, and Soarer’s Choice, followed roughly two hundred years later by the duology of The Lord-Protector’s Daughter and Lady-Protector.  Some 1500 years passes after the duology before the beginning of Legacies, Darknesses, and Scepters.

Why was there no February Question?

Let’s just say that the distractions in my life temporarily overwhelmed my organizational abilities.

The advance review for Lady-Protector from Library Journal is quite favorable, but the one from Kirkus isn’t.  Did they read the same book?

I would think so, but when in doubt, I tend to rely more on either Library Journal or Booklist because their reviews are written by librarians, and I tend to trust librarians more than critics or reviewers.  But then, since I’m trying to be honest, the librarians have generally liked my books, and what author doesn’t prefer reviewers who are positive about his or her books?

I am re-reading the entire Recluce saga, this time chronologically, and I have always wondered why the city of Fairhaven was renamed Fairven and finally Frven as time passed? It seems to be the only city whose name changed throughout the series.

Actually, the name of the city never changed, not while it was a city filled with living, breathing people.  What changed was what people called it after its ruination. The name was shortened to Fairven and then Frven because it was passed on largely by oral tradition.  Justen, in The Magic of Recluce, refers to it as Fairhaven because he knows its name, which might just be another tip-off about Justen, but most people just know it as an old and bad place to avoid.