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Originally Posted by dwndrgn Be careful, your head may swell  |
LOL! Any pretences I might have had were put into perspective over the last 5 days at Worldcon. One look at the lines of people queuing for some of the big name signings showed me what I have to aspire to.
Let me carry on and tackle a few more of your questions, Dwndrgn.
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Originally Posted by dwndrgn 7. Knowing your military background, it is easy to see some influence there in your writing, especially that of the military recruits. How much of that training sequence in The Forging of the Sword is based on real-life experiences? |
I think it's fair to say that I drew very heavily on my real-life experiences for the training sequences in The Forging of the Sword. I have often been told that it is good to write about what you know. There is no doubt those sequences were the ones written with the most passion in that early
work, however, the only character who was based on a real person was Sergeant Brett. He was based on my old training Flight Sergeant, whom I knew had retired and I thought I would never meet again. As I thought it highly unlikely that he would ever even hear of my work, I didn't think it would matter if I used him as a model.
Anyone who says God doesn't have a sense of humour is sadly mistaken. I was signing at an airshow about 3 years ago, when I was embarrassed to find that the Flight Sergeant in question was running the charity stand next to mine! I had to make a very red faced confession when he bought a book.
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Originally Posted by dwndrgn 8. Relating to question number 6, you've moved away from the magic element into more of an espionage tale. Was there a specific reason for the switch or did the character of Femke just interest you enough to delve into her experiences more? |
I more or less answered this in my reply to Rune, but I will add that Femke did come alive as I wrote The Chosen One. It's strange how some characters do that. I cannot deny that I felt strangely compelled by her character to give her more of a role and that led to the desire to give her a story of her own.
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Originally Posted by dwndrgn 9. I know you are terribly busy with the re-release of your first series and the impending release of the first of your next - in addition to your busy home life; however, I feel the need to ask when we can see the story of the Dawn Dragon? (sorry, had to ask ) |
LOL! My plan is to write Dragon Pact between Imperial Assassin and Imperial Traitor. You will be pleased to hear that the Senior Editorial Director of Gollanz appeared very interested in the story when I mentioned it to her at Worldcon. I hope to finish the draft by about March/April next year, maybe earlier if I get on a roll. It's difficult to know how fast I will write now that I'm full time. The story details have filled in a lot over the last few weeks and I now have a strong desire to write the story, which is always a good sign that I'll write it quickly. However, I still have just over a half of Imperial Assassin to finish first.