Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

The group is reading The Curse of the Mistwraith March 15, 2018, and Janny Wurts has agreed to stop by for a Q&A (likely closer to that read date)!

Put your questions here, and please be mindful of hiding spoilers for those who haven't had a chance to read all of her works.

THANK YOU JANNY! :D

Thanks for setting this up, Niki. And of course thanks to Janny for being cool enough to hang out with us and answer our questions.

I'll repost this here, as it might answer some early questions and spawn some new ones: https://www.tor.com/2018/01/26/an-app...

Here are some words from Janny to readers that are considering her work:

"Just a note that MAY be helpful: if you are getting Empire readers or folks JUST STARTING out with my work who have never read my stuff, before: Wars of Light and Shadows is really really shoving off at the deep end! UNLIKE EMPIRE, it is not a 'linear' story - you CANNOT SKIM. Because of unreliable view point, AND, the fact that NOTHING is at all what it seems at the start - Mistwraith is the ground floor stage setter, and ALL OF WHAT YOU SEE is not as it seems....it will blow the doors off and shift the markers, again and again - a peeling down of the layers - and a raising of the vantage point, so it is a book that SPIRALS, and continues to re-define the readers' perceptions. The concepts are adult; it is NOT Y A, and it cannot be skimmed. For readers accustomed to 'easy immersion' or 'quick take' reading, it will be like hitting a wall. The story WILL define itself; it has direction, it just isn't the simple take one, and given my style builds to a half point resolution, then blows the bottom out, and goes for the serious second stage build - you have to give the book that scope and space, and if you do, convergency is strong and the ending, explosive. I don't want to disturb the readers' opinionating, one bit - some may fall off the horse way way too soon to realize what it is about. And if so that is OK....this is a work that has height and depth/slow burn development to breakneck climax. It may help them to know that going in. Most teens don't get it, it generally favors some life experience.

If you think of it this way, there are many layers between the lines: WHO is speaking, and what do they know. WHAT is their goal (you may have NO clue) and if you know (when you uncover their motivation) WHAT did they MEAN when they said that. Then add on, Who is Listening, What do they know, What is their defining motivation (you may not know it yet) and HOW did they INTERPRET what was said....then, what is truth??? Truth will change its face, many many times, throughout the series as this is NOT classic Light VS Dark, or EVIL vs GOOD. Nor a medieval european world IN ANY WAY. Your assumptions will get explosively busted. (Nor is this 'earth', either, but we get to that).

If a reader is looking for a linear story (only at what happens, not why it happens, or who was driving to what end, really?) You can see they'll get entangled in their own (and the characters') assumptions very quickly and get lost. It will not reward the casual read.

I say this NOT to warn anyone off, but because skim readers and ones coming off Empire who 'expect' more of the same tend to get a bit pissed off....so it may help them to know that my work has OTHER BOOKS that may suit them better, off Empire, until they get the drift of how I plot - then the plunge won't be so shocking. OR, if they are warned, they may be more inclined to be patient and stick with it (a look at the reviews will show that patience IS rewarded, you never, ever have to take my word for it)....I was not writing Light and Shadows casually, at all. Other books of mine are more forgiving. (the standalones, there are three of them, and the earlier Cycle of Fire trilogy are easier crossovers)."

Well, that's fascinating, I have this book in paperback.

I love the little details in a story. The little allusions dropped here and there in a harmless looking sentence. I love to hunt for clues and omens.
And I love the added little things like say in Deadhouse Gates for instance, the behaviour of the horse who would recognise an insult and punish the perpetrator; or the small exchanges between characters that seem simple at first but are laden with meaning.
And from Mrs Wurts' words above it looks like her series will be "just my kind of book".

I have only read the first book of Empire till now (with which I have fallen in love). And bought a few more books by Mrs. Wurts following that. I'm starting on To Ride Hell's Chasm today and am eager to see how Mrs. Wurts writing alone feels. I liked Magician but loved Daughter of the Empire and I have a feeling that was because of Mrs. Wurts' writing.

Here's some more great info from Janny:

"Here are some links/introductory material:

The series breaks down into 5 arcs. There are no cliffhanger endings to any individual book -- each arc handles a different phase of development. Arc I sets the stage, Arc II deepens characters and conflict, Arc III lifts the entire vantage to world view, Arc IV stages for the mysteries, and Arc V is the finale. Expect each arc to ramp up to a tipping point at center (just as each volume does in microcosm) - so arc starts will tend to 'gear back' just a bit until the staging is redefined. Expect arc finishes to hammer home the finale of that phase.


WARS OF LIGHT AND SHADOW

Book List:

Arc I
The Curse of the Mistwraith

Arc II
The Ships of Merior
Warhost of Vastmark
Note: if you have the US hardback edition, it includes both titles.

Arc III - Alliance of Light
Fugitive Prince
Grand Conspiracy
Peril's Gate
Traitor's Knot
Stormed Fortress

Arc IV - Sword of the Canon
Initiate's Trial
Destiny's Conflict (also available in audiobook, Colin Mace narrating)

Arc V
(Song of the Mysteries - final volume in progress/forthcoming)

Link and directions for the INTERACTIVE MAP of ATHERA
(click the link at the page bottom for the map itself)
http://www.paravia.com/JannyWurts/web...

Back history sattellite short stories (in chronological order) - these will shed light on back history events, and illuminate the series backdrop with greater nuance.

The Sundering Star
e book format found at www.paravia.com/catalog
Print version in anthology:
Under Cover of Darkness

Child of Prophecy,
e book format found at www.paravia.com/catalog
print in anthology Masters of Fantasy

Black Bargain
print only, found in anthology
Evil Is a Matter of Perspective

The Decoy
print only, found in anthology
Unfettered II

Reins of Destiny,
e format at www.paravia.com/catalog
print found in
The Solaris Book of New Fantasy

If you are a past reader rejoining the series, there are refresher timelines posted for the earlier books at www.paravia.com/JannyWurts

Translations are available for the Arcs I and II in
French, Russian, Czek, Hungarian, Polish and German."

From the main discussion, I pulled Veronica's question.

Veronica wrote: "Is this available on audiobook?."

Chris wrote: "From the main discussion, I pulled Veronica's question.

Veronica wrote: "Is this available on audiobook?.""

Infuriatingly, no - only one volume (vol 9, Destiny's Conflict) has just been released in audiobook. Colin Mace is the narrator, and he did a stunning job.

I have been told that IF Destiny's Conflict's audiobook sells 10,000 copies within the year of release (starting March 1, 18) they will put the rest of the series in audio format. That is a, let's put it mildly, 'heroic' number to meet. If the series readers have the enthusiasm, go for it. I'd be thrilled to win the match set on this one.

Five other titles of mine (as well as Empire with co-written with Ray Feist) are released in audio - they are simpler stories than Light and Shadows (and unrelated) but two are standalones, and make a fine introductory look at my style.

I ought to have added to the list above: the anthologies listed as print only are also available in e formats.

Thanks, Veronica - a pleasure to answer your question.

First of all, thank you so much Mrs. Wurts for agreeing to answer our questions. It is a privilege for us to have you here.

I realise this Q&A is for Wars of Light and Shadow but still I'd like to ask a question about another book of yours, which I have recently read To Ride Hell’s Chasm
This story has come very close to my heart and I cannot even begin to express how much I adore it!

My question would be about Mykkael. I found quite a few of the characters memorable, and the horses were simply astonishing, but Mykkael simply holds my heart.
How did you come to write him? What motivated you? I mean (view spoiler)[crippled in body because of his knee and wounded in heart and soul because of his failure to protect Orannia, as well as outcast and spurned by all, he still clings to duty, right and honour with a vengeance. He is fantastic as a warrior and yet not infallible. You made him look so human and so real! You made him amazing! (hide spoiler)] Were you inspired by someone or something in particular when creating him? And is there any character like him in Wars of Light and Shadow too?

Then there is the barqui'ino I was wondering about. Is it based on a real fighting style?

Laura wrote: "First of all, thank you so much Mrs. Wurts for agreeing to answer our questions. It is a privilege for us to have you here.

I realise this Q&A is for Wars of Light and Shadow but still I'd like to..."

Hi Laura, huge correction: it is my privilege to be here for you readers, and a rare bit of fun to be allowed to share your experience in any way. (This should not prevent folks from expressing their opinions, that I respect absolutely - the book is YOUR experience, now) - always thrilling to hear if it strikes a chord.

I will answer your questions out of order and take the one for Wars of Light and Shadows, first - YES there are more characters like Mykkael. YES YES YES! Important to know, however: you may meet them first from the wrong person's point of view - so they may appear through other eyes different than they really are (Imagine if you met Mykkael first through Lord Shaillon's stuffy and stilted opinion...I do take awhile to tip my hand in these books (for reasons you will see plainly as you go along) - some characters are defensive (for HUGE reasons) and may seem cold.

One thing to note: I NEVER write dystopian fiction, nor cynical philosophy, or shock value grim. I prefer to take the stance that giving up hope is the biggest enemy, and the cop out, a betrayal of love. So there will always be that thread of holding out for ethic and seeking to overcome adversity. Nihilism is not my thing - so there will be lots of characters striving for purposeful outcomes, win or lose. Their actions will have meaning, every time, even if other characters don't (yet) realize it.

So what I did with Mykkael in Hell's Chasm - a character making choices in the midst of crises that OTHER characters perceive from their particular stance (also making the best choices they can) create a tangle (what is right, the LAW or the SPIRIT OF THE LAW?) will happen again and again, on many levels. Just a LOT deeper and a lot more complex. You will have the characters AND in Light and Shadows, then, you will have the FACTIONS.

What motivated To Ride Hell's Chasm - was many things. You can read the actual seed outline that sold the book to HarperCollins in Chris Haviland's The Synopsis Treasury, it was published in a collection of authors' actual outlines and notes and proposals submitted to publishers.

The inner motivations: I totally HATE prejudice. Injustice is such a hugely complicated subject - there are many who treat it as a hard, fast rule, but there is always an individual exception - until really, justice is a concept that is always limited in the moment by point of view. The wider that point of view goes, the more difficult it is to abide by a fixed rule. So the golden rule must apply - 'do unto others' or there is that one thread that only the heart knows: how does Justice and prejudice change when each case is taken individually, and each flawed view is involved? This is a theme I play with alot in writing, and in Hell's Chasm it takes a central position.

I wanted two characters, opposed, BOTH RIGHT in their way - but only one will make the right decisions all the way down the line.

That was one thing...another was my total admiration for horses, which is a lifetime love - they are so often misrepresented in Fantasy, and even worse, underestimated in real life. I wanted a book that memorialized their best aspects and treated them as the individuals they are - and trusting ones, that if they accept you, they WILL give more than their all if they're asked....so Hell's Chasm in its way is also a tribute to all the horses who have elevated Mankind's achievements throughout history. I wanted them to be recognized as fully as important as any character - without them, all would have been for naught.

I guess I am in love with moral dilemmas: the other thing that played heavily in Hell's Chasm - central, actually - is the use of violence in war and defense - killing. Not simple. Never unconflicted. I wanted that hair split and split again: WHO is responsible, ultimately, for how a weapon is put to use: is it the one who gives the orders, or society's 'Law' or is it the individual who actually wields the blade and effects the blow that harms. Where does the real responsibility lie, and what are the consequences - NOT simplified/not just shoved in there for tension, but a real unwinding of what happens when blood is shed.

And the final bit, cultural misunderstandings and the prejudice of limited experience. THAT is huge - it is why we have wars and conflict, and why our fears play against us when we act on them before love, rightness, equity, truth - when truth has more than one facet depending on where you come from and what you know.

The very last motivator was anger - yup....(and a wry grin)....writers must be professional at all times and NEVER retort. Well. Our retorts sometimes take the forms of books! At the time I sold Hell's Chasm, I was in the process of writing the middle arc of Wars of Light and Shadows....when you read the series and you get to books 4 and 5 (the opening salvos of Arc III) you will see that the story re-stages for world view....there is a widening of the stage that is VERY deliberate (I spent two decades planning these books before Vol I ever got sold)....it was all intricately in control, building towards the 'tipping' point of that arc (Peril's Gate) - but - other epics being written concurrently hit that crucial vol 4 and started to expand and sprawl. So I got a bit tarred with that brush - complaints that I'd 'lost my way' etc - which now that all the OTHER books are out, is quite evidently not the case....but as an author, you just deal with stuff and don't comment -- the proof HAS to be in the pudding, and I had to be patient and just keep going until readers caught up with what (then) was still being written and saw for themselves the convergency in the latter half of that arc is mighty as hell, and ALL of the little stuff plays huge on the stage. It is all going to hit max and hit it hard - no space wasted.

That didn't stop the little comments of "she's lost her way/she can't finish a damned story to save herself' kind of getting under my skin and stinging (grin) - (readers of my earlier work and Empire know better, but) I decided to put that angst to use.

After Peril's Gate I was very very emotionally exhausted (for reasons) and I wanted to do a standalone, badly, for relief. A lot of my earlier work was going out of print and I needed an 'opener' for folks to give things a try without investing in the very deeper series. So I wrote this little standalone to pack a MIGHTY punch and show that: yes, I can end a book and wrap it all in one volume.

What to take away from this: Hell's Chasm does in 'microcosm' what each of the books in the bigger series does, AND what each of the arcs does: that pattern of build to half-point to explosive action, and that sensitive exploration of each and every character involved around the main characters - it's the same template. JUST in Light and Shadows I take a bit longer to tip my hand, sometimes, and as a result, when it happens, it will pack a good deal more punch. The intensity is magnified by that slower build; you only have to wait for it.

Last of all: Barqui'ino is not a 'real' fighting style - I put that bit in the appendix....but it does take the concept of 'being in the zone' and launching it into the fantasy of what 'might be'. I absolutely did not want to appropriate any martial art style - but to create a fantasy one that was plausible and interesting and explosively fun.

Thank you for your question, if I've failed to answer anything, shout. And I truly hope you come to love the characters in the longer epic - they have Mykkael's qualities, hang in there and watch for the shoe to drop! Some are very guarded at first and they will wait for THEIR moment to show you their heart. That is part of what makes Light and Shadows tick - that wicked, perfect moment of discovery.

Hi Janny. Thanks for doing this.

I just finished The Master of Whitestorm last night which was fantastic. I really loved the way it was a series of escalating challenges rather than a buildup to one battle at the end. How did you decide on that format?

I don’t know how much of this you can answer without going into spoilers but you said that you spent two decades planning the series before book 1 was sold. How much of your vision for the series has changed since then or have you stuck to that original outline?

How would you like to see the publishing industry change in the future?

I always enjoy seeing your recommendation threads on /r/fantasy on Reddit because you always mention more obscure or forgotten authors rather than what’s popular now. I’m trying to get into some older works and was hoping you have some from before maybe 1970?

Bill wrote: "Hi Janny. Thanks for doing this.

I just finished The Master of Whitestorm last night which was fantastic. I really loved the way it was a series of escalating challenges rather than a buildup to ..."

Hi Bill - totally pleased to hear you enjoyed The Master of White Storm - the original form of the concept was to have been 13 short stories. I enjoyed reading the old sword and sorcery books - but they always felt lacking in that, the characters were so 'surface' oriented. So I wanted to string those stories together in a way that gradually unveiled the characters' depth, and also, widened out his impact on his circumstances. The stories also were designed to pose ME a challenge: I was working on the huge concept for Light and Shadows at the time, and showing the most important characters in 3rd person omniscient. So a lot of 'what is going on' in their heads is hidden (at first) and you are only seeing them and their actions from an outsider's point of view. I had to surmount this, bigtime, in the bigger work - have fullest command of what I showed/when/and how I chose to reveal the innermost workings of the characters' emotions and motivations. So the Whitestorm stories were a way to test and practice how to manage the best and worst of an omniscient style. What happened: I actually only wrote out 4 of the original stories before I had an editor who wanted them done as a novel...so I converted what I had into novel form (barring one story that I never used, but may fuss with as a graphic novel some day - hah! - in my copious free time!!). A lot of the episodic feel is still woven into the novel - but that actually is how many of those older sword and sorcery tales worked - they moved their characters through challenges that are very much episodic in nature. The difference, as you saw, is in the way the story wove itself together at the half point - fully novelized for the finish, as you gather knowledge of the characters' inner workings. The last point to Whitestorm that may or may not have had a thing to do with how it came out: I did most of the conceptual writing to YES albums. (Music has always been big, for me) and some of the stranger non fiction reading I was into at the time probably bled into the weave.

Your second question regarding the decades of planning: yup, this is serious, and it was ongoing for a LONG time before the first novel was completed and sold. I had the seed idea for this series in 1972, but had the very good sense to realize I had nowhere near the hardcore life experience OR the craft to tackle it. More, I knew it would never be what it could be if I set off with it prematurely. So the decades involved research, serious research - both out of books (weapons, tactics, and a whole LOT more nonfiction) - also life research - serious life research - offshore sailing, hands on working with old technologies, reenactment, outdoor time in the wilderness, in hay fields/farming literally - world travel to SEVERAL continents and major time exposure to other cultures - the prep list was huge!!! The vision for the series has stayed straight on track, absolutely, right down center line. What I could not plan for (but what has gone into the OTHER two decades of work that followed) was the altered perspectives gained from time. I wanted a book that could be 'timeless' - read at many different levels, from any age perspective (beyond too young) and from any cultural perspective - and have it still 'work' and have reveals from that vantage that were not apparent from another. That has stayed solid, too. Where the challenge gets steeper: when you've written this many books with these characters (who DO massively grow and change throughout) - how do you keep it 'original' and fresh. If you started that perfect chapter with a bar fight - you can't DO that bar fight again in that way....so how do you demonstrate the unfolding action in ways that the reader has not seen before? The early easy ideas to illuminate stuff get cherry picked....I could do an essay on why doing a long form work is very very tough/why a writer may slow down to keep up the quality - no space for it here. The original vision is very much intact, never more so, than in the reveals just set down in Vol 10. I had many of those scenes composed in draft thirty years ago, even more. Note also: I had nearly everything IN DRAFT up to the ending of Peril's Gate; before I ever sold volume I. And volume I was sold, intact, finished. The earliest outline I have is 1 single spaced page, covering all of the 'major events' to the finish - that page still holds true. How I filled in the spaces between those major events, or particularly, in the last three volumes, which characters stepped forward - some of that comes along as I go. One of the complexities that still taxes me (writing the last volume, now) is that the time line of this story is always CURRENT or FORWARD - there is no 'let's flash back in time to see what this other character/faction is doing' - never happens. All of the action is current or forward - -there is no looping backwards to pick up the stitches. So in every way, this monster has been through the meat-grinder to depict what is there most efficiently.

How would I like publishing to change in the future? Less emphasis on the hype, the 'hot today gone tomorrow' - eliminate the damage (tremendous damage) that algorithms are doing to works that are ahead of their time or too off the beaten to even be seen, before they are buried. I'd like to lose the worst of what the internet has given us (massive losses to midlist authors' income) and keep the best (wider outreach/more books!) I'd like to see 'career' editors again - there was a time that an author teamed with an editor and stayed together like a marriage - long term thinking, long term creativity, and a plan and a love of working in a compatible relationship - in this world of consume it today, forget it tomorrow, and in the big corporate mash up where editors come and go like revolving doors - it gets very difficult to have a longterm plan or do a huge work and hold the consistency throughout. Such security for the 'non rock star' author would bring out the fullest potential of their life's work and talent - and right now, I see a lot of that falling into the cracks and getting lost, particularly with younger writers starting out. That assurance that 'we will build your career together' has been supplanted by 'make it now, do it instantly, or you're tanked' - and no, I don't think self publishing has filled this gap - I applaud the flexibility and laud how the authors have choices and a way to continue on without dragging the weight of corporate expectations along behind them - there is SO much merit in that freedom! - but the long term working relationships I am speaking of - they are not happening in the way I could wish. Life goes up and down, creativity waxes and wanes and hits rough spots - a good working relationship can do so much to ease productivity when the crap hits the fan. But even I got my start too late for this era - it pretty much disappeared in the latter half of last century.

Your request for pre-1970? Definitely early Roger Zelazny. Tanith Lee's flat earth falls in there. Conan/Robert E Howard. Fritz Leiber. CL Moore (Hounds of Skaith/Ginger star stuff). Early Le Guin fits in there. Andre Norton. Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast, Austin Tappan Wright's Islandia, Evangeline Walton's work in Celtic Myth, Mary Stewart's Arthurian suite....probably the Darkover stuff. You'd find a treasure trove if you look up Ian and Betty Ballantine's Ballantine Fantasy series - they published a lot of fantasy/reprinted some, to reach Tolkien readership with other works that were contemporary. I am probably not the best person to ask for this time period because I was still a kid, reading from my public library - and we had about ZILCH for SF/F. So I was reading a ton of mainstream, and even, the red, blue and green, etc, Fairy books. I read Tolkien at 14, but there wasn't much else on the shelves, school libraries, either. So a huge batch of my childhood and teenage reading was hardback fiction, general shelves. We had no specialty genres. What found its way to the used book shops, too, or what my Dad was reading (old thrillers - John D MacDonald, Morris, of that ilk, even Irving Stone) -- I swiped his books every chance I got - pretty much read everything. I made up for lost ground pretty fast when I reached college age, and after, discovered paperback book stores.

Thank you so much for your reply Janny. :)

As readers I believe we have a tendency at times to forget that there are real people behind the books we enjoy. Most of the times we see the stories but not those who wrote them. How much of feeling and struggle and hard work goes into a book we can only guess. But there are a few books that strike deep chords and then we want to know who wrote them and why. Your answer makes me appreciate your amazing book even more. And also makes me look forward to Wars of Light and Shadow!

One more question I would have though. Hope that's ok. Among the books you have written, which is the one that strikes a cord for you personally?

You seem to put an extraordinary amount of research in everything and I don't believe you would be able to come up with such fantastic writing if you didn't love each and everyone of your characters or stories. But is there one in particular that means more to you? One closer to your heart than the rest?

Janny wrote: "Bill wrote: "Hi Janny. Thanks for doing this.

I just finished The Master of Whitestorm last night which was fantastic. I really loved the way it was a series of escalating challenges rather than ..."

The importance of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series can't be cited enough. If it weren't for the Ballantines and editor Lin Carter, we might not have adult fantasy being published. That series introduced Walton, Katherine Kurtz and her wondrous Deryni series, Joy Chant and others and paved way for Terry Brooks and David Eddings.

I love the covers on the original HC editions. Wish I could find which box my copies are packed in. ...sigh.

Laura wrote: "Thank you so much for your reply Janny. :)

As readers I believe we have a tendency at times to forget that there are real people behind the books we enjoy. Most of the times we see the stories but..."

Hi Laura, first of all, there is absolutely no limit imposed on how many questions it is OK to ask. I drop in here in 'breaks' between writing and I am at my desk pretty intense long hours. So consider this 'fun' for me, too.

Every book I've done had a different purpose. I am very very easily bored, so writing the 'same' story twice would dry up the well of my creativity stat....so I had a 'favorite' reason for every single one of them, and they were done to the very best of my ability at the time - no regrets. So it is hard to pick any one favorite out of the batch; each one answered a creative question I was just burning to answer. Or it would never have been done.

Light and Shadows is surely going to (?) become one magnum lifetime opus, just because, there won't be time to do another work of this depth and scope. The sheer amount of labor and the massive commitment of time and mental energy involved has been consuming, in so many ways. So I have, absolutely, put everything I have into it, no barrel left unfired (you will see by Arc V, totally).

For the rest: some books write easy, and some write like pulling rusty stuck nails out of old oak, with a lot of banged fingers and stripped skin....the trick is, making them all seem effortless. Creativity waxes and wanes but deadlines do NOT....sometimes life is hard on you, sometimes it's not, and sometimes life changes/menopause/family can play havoc with your energy.

So it really becomes which books were a 'joy' to write - which were just 'effortless' - and most, trust me, only went on fire in sections!

The only books that ran on the rails all the way through were my first: Sorcerer's Legacy, which was a pretty simple story, told in cliffhanger chapters - so it ran in a rush because I had such tight focus on the characters' situations, period.

The other is To Ride Hell’s Chasm, which outlined in 5 minutes, and ran like a house on fire, faster than I could write it down, start to finish. That was a stellar run, so astonishing, I can't believe it ever happened. I'd finish the day, still writing, cramming down notes, go to bed, still cramming down notes, wake up in the morning, cramming down notes....who knows why?

If we knew, as authors, what makes a work effortless, what makes the ideas flow unrestricted - trust me, we'd bottle it and sell it!

So there is no one book closer to my heart, but there are definitely books that gave me gray hair, wrestling them into final form and making them appear just as seamless as those that just flew in and tore it up in flames and glory.

Gary wrote: "Janny wrote: "Bill wrote: "Hi Janny. Thanks for doing this.

I just finished The Master of Whitestorm last night which was fantastic. I really loved the way it was a series of escalating challenge..."

Beyond any doubt, Ian and Betty Ballantine were the forerunners of creating modern fantasy and giving us the foundation that launched the genre as we know it today. Same with Donald Wollheim and Judy Lynn Del Rey - their like shaped an era, and we just don't have that 'signature' editorial touch, today, except, perhaps, Gardner Dozois in short fiction, and Ellen Datlow, in horror. I've had editors like a merry go round - and Wars of Light and Shadows - orphaned beyond a dozen times! It has survived major mergers on both sides of the pond, and the acquiring editor - so so long gone!! their name will be less than a memory, to most.

So yes, we really need something to kick over a new trend - we need today's innovators and the near mystic genius that Ian Ballantine brought to the field. His outlook was totally unique, and his way of looking at where books were going - no modern editor I've yet talked to has nearly the visionary scope he (and Betty!!) brought to the field. It is a different world, entirely.

I loved hitting the bookstores looking for the latest from the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Line, and later replaced by DelRey. Then there was DAW. I still have DAW number 1 Spell of the Witch World by Andre Norton..why aren't the first 3 Witch World books in print....grrr...Sure I have the ACE paperbacks, but they are books that should always be in print. I'm showing my age...I had a neighbor friend of my parents who was happy to loan me her copies of various ACE doubles. She was more into SF than fantasy. This group should buddy read the Witch World and Deryni books. Thanks for the response Janny.

Question from the main discussion thread:

Is it OK for us to read FAQ like the following taken from your website after just 2 or 3 chapters in the first book or are they meant for later on in the series?
"Is this information that will come out over the course of the series or is it just detailed backstory that the author has worked up for herself but that won't necessarily be spelled out in the books?"

Q: Why was Rauven so unfeeling toward Lysaer?

A: (view spoiler)[The Lady Talera of Rauven married Lysaer's father, who was King of Amroth. The marriage settlement was gifted talents to be assigned to her unborn children. (Had she more of them, yes, there would have been more elemental masters). When the King of Amroth later indicated, through a political slip, that his insistence on this form of dowry and the marriage itself had been for expediency, in gaining an edge with his feud with the pirate kings of Karthan, naturally, the mages at Rauven were not so terribly pleased.

Talera made threats that if the childrens' gifts were to be used for gain in war, she would retaliate. Her immediate obstruction made itself felt: no more children would be born to the marriage. Once her husband reached the point where he would impose his will upon her regardless of what she threatened, she left, and had her liaison with Avar s'Ffalenn. This was not supposed to be a love match, but grew to be so. When it became plain that the war between Karthan and Amroth would only be exacerbated by her indulgence, she broke off the relationship and returned to Rauven. Arithon was born there. Lady Talera died only a few years later, some said of grief; others of exhaustion and stress, since the years she had endured as Queen of Amroth had never been happy ones for her, caught as she was as a gamepiece between feuding factions.

The High Mage of Rauven had the raising of Arithon. As the boy was also the most gifted apprentice he had ever trained, and much of his love for his lost daughter was invested in her child, it is natural that his sympathies should have fallen to Arithon, the grandson who was close to him, and not the one who had been born as an instrument of war (whether or not Talera's obstruction prevented Lysaer's use on the battle front, at least until the time of Curse of the Mistwraith's opening. The fact that exile fell upon both grandsons, equally, was a "fairness" of the nature of the code by which the Rauven mages live, which is an evolved and different code than the tenets of the Major Balance by which their ancestress Dari received training from Sethvir. Years of isolation on Dascen Elur would ensure change; would promote change; which was the lynchpin of the West Gate Prophecy. (hide spoiler)]

Q: How did the blood feud between s'Ilessid and s'Ffalenn originate?

A: (view spoiler)[Dascen Elur is a world of oceans, with small population, and widely scattered volcanic archipelagoes. Communication was slow and difficult, with all goods carried by ship. With no major continents to break up the wind, weather patterns were dangerous, quick to change, and the dangerously fierce storms could cause widespread damage. Fishing was a major staple; salt fish, in particular, carried folk through winter where soil was stony and crops subject to storm damage. Spruce forests on the mountainous slopes and the straight trees in protected valleys were used for ship building, and the houses warmed by gathering peat or sea weed.

The s'Ahelas lineage had been trained to the rudiments of power by Althain's Warden. Upon their small islet, the descendents made craft their byword and their trade.

S'Ilessid had the largest population and the wealthiest holding of land, best protected for agriculture.

Karthan and s'Ffalenn had very little arable land, and the severe storms at the wrong season often caused the crops at low elevation to fail. So they made their way by using what timber they grew to build ships, and move trade goods by sea in exchange for coin to buy what they needed.

The inception of the feud did not involve the royal houses at all, at first, but began when a grain merchant engaged s'Ffalenn ships to move a surplus crop to another islet. This merchant was subject to Amroth, from the largest island in the richest archipelago ruled under s'Ilessid. The grain shipment was outbound for smaller islet where crops had failed due to drought, also subject to s'Ilessid, and under the royal treasury's auspice, and funded by Amroth's council as relief to the realm's subjects caught in hardship.

The grain delivery was accomplished in the teeth of a rising storm, and the sacks of barley, oats and wheat placed into a dockside warehouse. The stores should have been removed to the security of high ground immediately, but the factor's son in charge of the lading was injured in the rushed unloading, and the underling who took over for him made off with a portion of the shipment for blackmarket profit. To hide his nefarious tracks, he got the overseer drunk, and paid off a corrupted harbor official. So the rest of the grain languished at harborside, and the s'Ffalenn captain, ignorant of skulduggery, had already laid his deepwater vessel offshore to escape the dangers of riding out a bad gale in an exposed, inadequate anchorage.

His ship rode out the storm elsewhere and returned to Karthan, unaware of anything amiss.

The grain in the warehouse molded, dampened by leaks from a storm-damaged roof. In desperate efforts to hide the mishandling and the shortfall due to theft, in fact to deny the fact that the relief grain had arrived at all, the guilty parties jettisoned the spoilage in the harbor by night to avoid vigilante justice at the hands of the hungry. The lading lists, the records, all documents appertaining to the shipment were destroyed; and in the famine that raked the isle, many of the key witnesses sickened and died.

Karthan sent to the King of Amroth to collect its due fee for shipping; and s'Ilessid paid in good faith; while the islet suffered, unknown to anyone, until the desperate appeal reached Port Royal that folk suffered, with children dead, and no relief grain received to ease their condition.

A s'Ilessid cousin was dispatched to investigate. He was received by officials unaware they were covering a lying colleague's dishonesty. No grain had been delivered, they insisted. No paperwork existed in the harbor master's office.

A now angry delegation was sent to Karthan to demand redress, not just for payment for a delivery paid for by the royal treasury, that was apparently never made, but to claim blood fee for the dead, and fines to settle the devastated islanders, with the additional demand for another shipload of grain to replace the one (apparently) absconded at sea.

S'Ffalenn denied all charges. Under questioning their captain swore he had made a proper delivery. The time of year being winter, there was no surplus grain in Karthan to spare, and Karthan's wealth, being ships, the demand in gold was too great to pay, even had there been cause for redress.

The quarrel grew heated. The s'Ilessid ambassador sailed back, unsatisfied, but bearing the original ship's log, and the stamped excise papers with the island factor's sign off for receipt of the shipment.

The ambassador was murdered in Port Royal, enroute to the s'Ilessid King, and the papers he carried disappeared. Whether this was the unrelated work of footpads, or the long reach of the corrupt island official, who now feared to hang for treason, is not clear.

But a second delegation, by two of the royal family, was sent from Amroth to Karthan to demand immediate redress. Without the original proof, the s'Ffalenn decided there was no way to swear to their honesty without sending their own ambassador to the King of Amroth, so both parties set sail together for Port Royal, including two sons of s'Ffalenn descent to earnestly match the two sons of Amroth's king, returning empty-handed to their father.

Mishap struck at sea, a common occurrence with Dascen Elur's violent weather. All four royal sons died of bad food from spoiled ship's stores. The bodies were heaved overboard by the captain, who ordered his ship, and his sickened crew, back to Karthan.

Amroth's s'Ilessid king was told by a corrupt council member that his sons had been murdered by a bribed councilman, paid off by the blackmarketeer on the islet. Both royal houses were devastated with grief, and for their own reasons, stayed annoyed with each other – s'Ilessid, believing s'Ffalenn corruption had caused a whole islet's population to suffer cruel deprivation, and s'Ffalenn, for believing they had been set up, since the original state papers had vanished in Amroth's capitol with no explanation.

Negotiations broke down again over the grain, and s'Ilessid's response was a demand, in coin or in kind, for damages to both the islet domain's families, AND now the royal house, for two sons dead on a s'Ffalenn ship. Reparation was promised if the settlement was not paid immediately in full.

Another meeting was attempted, with discord and hot words on both sides, and again, the issue was clouded by the dishonest factor who ditched the grain, and the harbor officials on the islet, now terrified to disclose the (likely) unsavory truth, with royal deaths involved on both sides.

The end result raised contention enough to send an army out of Amroth, which invaded the sparsely populated archipelago of Karthan and sowed the fields with salt to punish its villagers in like fashion for the starvation of Amroth's cheated subjects.

So began the feuding between the kingdoms on Dascen Elur, which lasted until the last s'Ffalenn prince was exiled through the Worldsend Gate. A peace was accomplished – with the eventual annexation of Karthan as a subordinate colony under Amroth's crown (hide spoiler)]

What would you advise Janny?

Thanks for the great detailed answers Janny.

One of the reasons I tend to read sword and sorcery a few at a time is that while adventures change the characters tend to stay the same. You really did manage to add an extra layer of complexity. The last reveal really did make me look at the characters in a completely different way which makes me excited to jump into Curse of the Mistwraith.

It amazes me that you were able to stick to the outline throughout. I always hear of authors who get a few books in and then have to change major parts or end up rewriting much of the book.

I think the instant and hype nature of society is a problem in many areas of life these days. The internet has really changed how I read. When I was younger I would read series straight through and really live in the worlds for however long it took me to get through all the books. Now I jump from series to series without much time in between. I would really like to get back to how I used to read.

I read an AMA from an editor and he didn’t solely edit fantasy. Is this true for all editors or are there editors who do specifically fantasy? It seems like it would be a severe disadvantage to work with an editor who wasn’t interested in the genre to start with. It also would limit the amount of impact an editor could have on the field like Ian and Betty Ballantine. It’s a shame they did away with the process of trying grow and build careers and replaced it with the one a year plan.

Thanks for the recommendations. I looked into the Ballantine series and there a few I already own so I will start with those.

Laura wrote: "Question from the main discussion thread:

Is it OK for us to read FAQ like the following taken from your website after just 2 or 3 chapters in the first book or are they meant for later on in the ..."

Hi Laura - here's my take. The FAQ on the Paravia website was compiled over many years, mostly taking questions readers asked me by e mail, and making them available to the readership. Yes, some of them would be spoilers, so do be careful; no, I don't think anything in there is a MAJOR spoiler...but I haven't looked in on it at all to check. Mostly, the in depth answers posted there will NOT be in the books - what shows in the books is 'tip of the iceberg' because there is a lot of underpinning that structured the details - it may never show, or I may use it in the satellite shorts (which were written to illuminate certain points in history because readers 'oversimplified' and assumed.)

In the case of the Dascen Elur history - it will never occur in the books, you are probably OK reading it, and yes, it will shed light/give you a little more sympathy for the characters and their current situation - but it will absolutely NOT give away any of the major, big reveals.

The Law of the Major Balance, I believe, is referenced lightly in the third Chapter Set of Mistwraith/it will be brought in stronger, later - and it will play very strongly indeed as you dig into the layers behind the Fellowship's motivation. So a clarity here will give you a little more insight, a little earlier, but not truly spoil the major impacts - because if you read into that tiny detail in Set Three, it is ALL THERE. In fact, if you know all the reveals, it IS ALREADY ALL THERE - just - your asumptions carry you over it. Vol I will totally reconfigure itself (even the points of suspense will change - the story itself will shift emphasis) when seen from the finish point of ANY of the arcs. That is part of the magic - what happens when vantage widens and changes.

My take is, if you are going to read this series very carefully, then use the FAQ only if you want a point illuminated more fully. If you are a pressured reader and have to move quickly, then the FAQs may enable you to move through the story quicker and not lose those fine points entirely.

The ones posted above are very harmless: only thing I'd note, those answers were posted in e mail responses, and just like anything answered off the cuff - they may also be simple surface details, and the real depth of, say, Talera's full motivation - may not be there (because that was not what the person questioning asked for). You can certainly ask such questions here, as you wish. I will tag and warn spoilers for What point in the story you should not open them, as need be.

SOME people don't want to wait for the full depth of the world's secrets or characters or factions to 'unfold' - some want the answers now. The story has explosive enough reveals all over it, that likely, you'd still get the intensity of the unveiling because often those questions were asked BEFORE many of the volumes were released. That section of the website has not been updated in about a decade, and I think Brian Uri who did the Paravia Wiki (yes, there is one, you can help contribute to it if you like) - I think Brian arranged it by volume to avoid spoilers for the readership.

The interactive map, also, is WELL spoiler marked - if you read the directions it explains how the spoiler layers work.

Always feel free to discuss here or ask/anything regarding what you may encounter. Happy to help!

Bill wrote: "Thanks for the great detailed answers Janny.

One of the reasons I tend to read sword and sorcery a few at a time is that while adventures change the characters tend to stay the same. You really di..."

Bill, you're welcome.

Life events do change people: in every way, or they will dig in and insulate themselves to the point where they are, still, not the same as the person they were before. All of my books deal with this. A character going in will not be the same coming out the other side, and if there is a sequel, they will develop as the books progress.

I spent a very very long time with the concepts of this series, something maybe some authors don't. It had a 'weight' and a 'heft' to it early on - there were serious themes stitched through the story line - an those were the drivers. So the 'events' carrying that came to the fore straight away. I then spent YEARS working those concepts through exactly so that when I began to put them down on the page (once they are published, you CANNOT backtrack and fix!) I made sure the ideas were developed enough to have that certainty. It's a point of careful pride that the inconsistencies readers have found are extremely small - miniscule - nothing major. I could not wait to write them all before publication; but I did wait long enough to have that surety.

Yes, you are right - I do see a lot more skipping around with series these days - when the work is being created and you have to wait between volumes, that's unavoidable. But there does seem to be a smorgasbord attitude, little o this, little o that, with so many finished out series to choose from and new ones cropping up (and on sale!) every day. I admit to some of it myself, in trying to 'keep up' with contemporary publication - trying to acquaint myself with the newer authors coming in. I cannot read everything, period. However, when I get one that is special, right up my alley, I will always pursue that straight through.

Some editors specialize only in SF, some in Fantasy - and yes, sometimes an incoming editor inheriting a list will take to some of the works, and not others. That's individual preference, and one of the harder things to overcome in doing a very long work - publishing and personnel are changing far, far faster than one can produce. Not something I banked on when I started an 11 book series! It was such a different picture, then. I've just had another editorial change - YET another - and so I am writing along, keeping my details very very straight - because I have no idea where things will stand when I turn in Song of the Mysteries. Part and parcel of being a working author post 2000.

Janny, I already know that you have such great taste in music, having mentioned before that you listen to such fantastic bands as Yes and Rush and Tangerine Dream and October Project, so I can't help but ask what bands were primarily playing as the muse penned her thoughts to paper for the each book of the Wars of Light and Shadow.

Brent wrote: "Janny, I already know that you have such great taste in music, having mentioned before that you listen to such fantastic bands as Yes and Rush and Tangerine Dream and October Project, so I can't he..."

That would vary from scene to scene, and volume to volume. For Curse of the Mistwraith, I listened (often) to:
Soundtrack for Chronos by Michael Sterns
Yonnondio by Peter Buffet
Eariler David Arkenstone
Mike Oldfield (Islands/Earth Moving/)
Vangelis
Spinfield
Synergy (Larry Fast)
Tangerine Dream and also solo album, Froese's Stuntman
for some of the more upbeat moments:
a lot of early Clannad, because their albums were all in Gaelic
DeDannan, Planxty, Silly Wizard
Big fan of celtic traditional music long and long before it exploded.

This, for Mistwraith/others for the other volumes, ask as you go.

Thank you so much for the reply Janny. :)

And as you allowed us to pester with further questions regarding characters and events in the series I'm already gonna start with another 2. :D

Would you please let us know about Talera's full motivation?

We seem to have different opinions about that. I personally don't believe she was either stupid or vengeful and mean when deserting her husband. Did she act because of her farsight ? I suspect that; but was I wrong? That scene in chapter 1 (view spoiler)[when Arithon makes Lysaer remember the night his mother left clearly shows to me that Talera loves her child but also shows a deep fear at being left alone with the king (fear of conceiving the second child with him?). Did I get it right or was I seeing only what I wanted to see? (hide spoiler)]

And regarding foresight in particular. There is a paragraph in chapter 9
(view spoiler)['Our Teir's'Falalenn has the sensitivity imbued in his forefather's line, but none of the protections. His maternal inheritance of farsightedness lets him take no step without guilt, for he sees the consequences of his every act, and equally keenly feels them.' (hide spoiler)]

Farsightedness, in that case, means a whole lot more than just seeing into the future. Could you please let us know more about this gift?

If I may offer my own insight on the your last question Laura's, from the context clues in the novel I understand farsight to be more related to long range thinking and planning, knowledge of cause and effect, understanding the consequences and ramifications of yours and other people's actions, that sort of thing.

And now I eagerly await to be proven completely wrong by Janny *grin*.

Well, if Talera acted only on the basis of long range thinking and planning without any SURE vision or insight of what the future will be like, then I'll agree with Shaitarn in saying she was "totally screwed up"!

But she was a mother! And after that vision in chapter 1 I don't really want to believe she was that bad! :(

Laura wrote: "Thank you so much for the reply Janny. :)

And as you allowed us to pester with further questions regarding characters and events in the series I'm already gonna start with another 2. :D

Would you..."

Hi Laura, here you go regarding insight into Talera's situation. I have to be careful how much to reveal as some of the 'backdrop' information on her mind-set may open up too much of what will be coming in later volumes; where I skirt things, I'll do so in a manner that you know there is an issue, you won't know the content of it, but it will give you a heads up to watch for it.

First out: there is a LOT more back history involved with why the families are on Dascen Elur to start with. Big time issues at play here that all tie into the greater situation on Athera. At this moment in history, the folks on the splinter world have been totally cut off and separated from their roots. Record keeping and history in many cases was sketchy - some of the progenitors of these offshoots were sent offworld (from Athera) at very young ages; and other disruptions happened on top of the first, that sent them out of the line of fire, as it were. One of these disruptions is shown in its aftermath state, in Mistwraith's main Chapter III. You will encounter more of the originating forces and factors in later volumes, there will be details filled in.

Of the heirs sent through the Worldsend Gate, who arrived on Dascen Elur (centuries past, I do have an exact number, but that will get filled in also, later) - the Rauven mages were the extreme exception. The reason is mentioned by Asandir in dialogue with Dakar in main Ch IV, a direct mention, but it is only one line, and could have been passed over (regarding Sethvir's work with the distaff line of both Arithon and Lysaer's heritage: follow references to Dari's'Ahelas in the glossary).

Talera would have been TOTALLY cognizant of the connections between her heritage and the histories at Rauven ARE accurate...Mak s'Ahelas (the high mage at Rauven) would have totally known the greater connections and most of their ramifications. I say most - because after five centuries, even the best written knowledge would not be complete enough to keep everything totally intact.

So her deeper reasons to maintain the balance of power were critical to this history - she would NOT have been acting (all) upon her instincts as a mother. More, farsight DID play. She absolutely did not want her son to grow up and become LIKE his father....what she saw in that moment, playing the probabilities forward - what would have happened IF s'Ilessid gained the greater portion of her bride gift by force - was not going to be pretty, and the impact on the FAR future (how that played into the greater issue on Athera) would have been: devastating.

If you want the 'complete' picture of all the political pieces, and how they fit at the opening of Mistwraith, you can find them in the short story Child of Prophecy - two things to note: it takes a close up shot of the backhistory that will open up a wider view into the political tensions present at the opening of Mistwraith - a very tight view. This will affect how you 'see' the picture, ongoing - you will have insights the books don't allow yet. I wrote this story because readership tended to WAY oversimplify events as they happened - they regarded a singular event as 'instant' - when in fact, those factors played over decades or even, a century in the making. More, SOME readers who plunge into Mistwraith were not taking the care you guys are - they were 'missing' way way too much - and assuming even more, until what they took away (probably skimming) was so distorted it affected the impact of the story in vol I. So the short was written as a 'bridge' into the series to illuminate the political stresses that are still ongoing....so IF you read it, you will see from an advanced perspective - which is OK, entirely, but your call to make at this early stage. It was designed as an 'opener' to the series. It will explain a lot of the tensions in lots more depth.

The last point to raise with Talera's situation - given the above that I have to skirt - WHY would she have married the s'Ilessid king. For that, you'd have to parse the economics of Dascen Elur and (sigh, time!) see the map of that world that I have, but not in a publishable form (yet - I began that process last year, but two new story deadlines kicked it to the curb).

In short: Dascen Elur is MOSTLY ocean, scattered with small islands/clustered archipelagoes. Land there is very scarce, and not at all distributed equally. LARGE islands are very few - arable land that is not affected by wind, by salt air, by rainfall, etc - even more scarce. Amroth has the lions' share by a wide mile. In the early centuries of settlement, this was not a problem (in fact, it was decided by council/given the s'Ilessid royal line and its endemic traits). Rauven had the least (see Dari s'Ahelas and her attributed assets). Before things descended into blood feud with s'Ffalenn, before there was this power play creating a fissure that affected everything worldwide - there was a functional economy of sorts.

Post blood feud, things shifted - Amroth wanted POWER at any cost to suppress their enemies, and RAUVEN had no viable source of food production (beyond FISH! and they had little timber, small population for being much of a nautical strength).

So Talera's marriage was a 'trade' off alliance that SHE could control.....how her dowry played out was in HER hands, not her husband's. His madness progressed as years went on - he was not the crazy man he is at the opening of Mistwraith, when she married. And, in his off the rails fury, he threatened to use force to take what he wanted...

She was not stupid, she was faced with a terrible, terrible choice. And the weight of it made a tragic outcome, for her. Remind me: when you get farther along in the series (into ARC III by one or two volumes) OR if you read Child of Prophecy and want to dialogue with me inside spoiler tags - I am happy to go into more depth.

The short answer: it's NOT simple. I had to make terrible, terrible choices, in Mistwraith - how MUCH to show and not - because the full picture would have bogged down the story impossibly, at this stage: and even the 'small details' that had to be shown make the first half of Mistwraith very dense, because the reasons why are not (yet) apparent. They will be.

The nature of the s'Ahelas farsight will be revealed, later on. It is a lot deeper and more complex and tied into other forces than you can yet imagine. Watch for it!

Brent wrote: "If I may offer my own insight on the your last question Laura's, from the context clues in the novel I understand farsight to be more related to long range thinking and planning, knowledge of cause..."

Brent - you are only at Vol I. (grin). There will be reveals regarding the s'Ahelas attribute of farsight ONGOING throughout the series - even in Vol 10 that just published....watch for it. You will certainly get an in depth/inside view.

That goes for ALL of the magic in the series - what you see on the 'surface' in Vol I will be unveiled by stages until you perceive it from the 'inside' view - full depth and scope and workings.

Thank you so much for the reply Janny!

That is a wonderful insight you gave me and I am eagerly waiting now to discover what those specific farsight attributes are and which of them Talera's children inherited.
You said you had to make terrible choices in this series, like the one with Talera. To me these choices make this read absolutely gripping and unforgettable.

I will leave Child of the Prophecy for later I think and stick to the series for now. I love to wait for clues and slowly set them together like a little puzzle.

And yeah. I also have to mention: I'm happy that I got it right! (*huge grin*)
I'm happy that Talera (a mother) didn't simply leave her child behind and run to the enemy on a whim and that she had a solid reason for that terrible choice.

You do write amazing characters Janny!

Laura wrote: "Thank you so much for the reply Janny!

That is a wonderful insight you gave me and I am eagerly waiting now to discover what those specific farsight attributes are and which of them Talera's chil..."

Thank you, it's my pleasure, always!

Thank for for taking the time to talk to us Ms Wurts. I havent read any of your work but just last week I clicked Want to Read on The Curse of the Mistwraith!

Jess wrote: "Thank for for taking the time to talk to us Ms Wurts. I havent read any of your work but just last week I clicked Want to Read on The Curse of the Mistwraith!"

Hi Jess, the privilege is totally mine, so thank you and all in this discussion group for the invite to interact.

I hope you enjoy the read ! For the sake of your sanity and what piques your personal taste - do check the earlier post in this thread, noting that Curse of the Mistwraith is jumping off the deep end of my career - it's a subtle and complex story. The buddy read here is very likely a perfect entry point to give this a try, since by their perceptive questions, the readers here have very sharp eyes and rapt focus. If you find this book as a starter too steep for your tastes, there are other titles I've done that are much more linear in style, in simpler language. I believe they are talked about a little in this Q & A thread.

I am always happy to answer any questions, or clear any difficulties you may be having under spoiler tags.

Anybody who's read Erikson, Stephenson, Gene Wolf, Donaldson, Kay, and enjoyed the prose and plot twists of Hambly or Berg ought to have NO difficulty with the layers and complexities in this series.

Didn't want to take you by surprise! Exciting, very, to see a new reader joining in. Thank YOU!

This is not a question, just a statement. I am a new reader of your work. Read the first two Empire books just withing the last two months and am at the moment over half done with The Curse of the Mistwraith, and now I am a fan for life! Your writing is so well planned and thought out, but at the same time emotionally charged, that it has hit every button of what I appreciate and I just have so much respect and enjoyment of your work!!! Thank you soooo much for the quality of Fantasy you gift us with!!! I don't want to sound like a gushing fan-girl, but here I am:)

May you always find inspiration and may you always turn it into the rich gift you return into the world! And may you have many, many years to keep doing it and receive the pleasure of the creation and sharing! Thank you!!!

Hi Choko - were you trying to bring tears of joy to my eyes on this beautiful Saturday morning? Thank you!

I doubt you realize how wonderful it is to see a group of readers like you have here - who are willing to read this book without rushing over the fine points. You are EXACTLY the audience it was aimed for, and in an instant gratification world, it is like gold to have a reader like you.

I have had to fight the hard fight to keep this series in print, over the course of its creation. There have been highs and also very very low moments regarding its making its way through the hoops and challenges of as the publication scene has gone from small, family businesses to multinational corporate outlook, then the collision with internet algorithms.

If you feel this way THIS EARLY (before reading the ending of Curse of the Mistwraith!!) I can barely hold still, knowing what is coming as you progress through this book (and the sequels) because, truly, you are still at the ground floor scraping the surface....this will be so much fun!

That the book found you after Empire, with just about nothing by way of backing support, is truly wonderful. Thank you profoundly for taking your time to post how much you are enjoying it - you have, in three words, made my day!

I have NO plans to stop writing. It is an unforgiving field, and one where an author is 'only as good as your last book release' - so thank YOU for making this title visible. It makes all the difference, and surely helps as I draft along on the final volume of Wars of Light and Shadows.

(as a general note: anybody know why your buddy read thread 'disappeared' from the book's main page, here? That anomaly cropped up yesterday, and it seems a shame, since readers visiting that page won't know of your wonderful group.)

Writing, as most of the arts, are not only competitive, but so very subjective, that it is almost impossible to do it unless you really love it. I would never presume to refer a read to you, but to me, the most successful study on the phenomenon of art, the publishers and the public was Ericson's "Crack'd Pot Trail" novella... Most people either hate it or love it, not much middle ground there, but to me, after he indulges in some loquacious excess in the first 20%, the story, as stark as it is, breaks down most of the components of the relationship between the creator and the world at large... I can never read anything anymore without thinking about that short story...

And I am so glad you got to smile because of us! FBR has been a wonderful place to discover new authors and to try things we have never thought of before, just because the BR's are so much fun! I am very happy to have found this group and your work because of it!

Thank you once again for taking of your time and joining us here!!! Good luck with everything!

Janny wrote: "Hi Choko - were you trying to bring tears of joy to my eyes on this beautiful Saturday morning? Thank you!

I doubt you realize how wonderful it is to see a group of readers like you have here - wh..."

There's a Goodreads bug where it randomly disconnects the book links from threads sometimes, and the mods have to go back in and re-add it... from what I understand, the dev team is aware of the problem, but are struggling to resolve it...

Choko wrote: "Writing, as most of the arts, are not only competitive, but so very subjective, that it is almost impossible to do it unless you really love it. I would never presume to refer a read to you, but to..."

Thank you for the recommendation - I am thoroughly aware of Erikson's work, and Crack'd Pot Trail. :) Works of this depth and insight are all too rare, and where they are not rare, they are often buried and hard to find. Erikson's works did not have an easy road on this side of the pond, either, and it is so very gratifying to see them reaching their readership, now. I've been a reader for life, long before I set pen to paper - it's hard to find books that shift perspective like this. And harder to find ones, now, that I can't second guess. So I value those qualities highly - always have - long since before I discovered fantasy and SF.

And a benchmark I put into my work, always have. That, and sticking the endings....you'll see. Every book must have a finale that lives up to the concept, and ideally, it must build from the opening - the biggest bang at the finish.

You are so very welcome, seems a great group, and reading with others can make the experience very rich.

Iain wrote: "Janny wrote: "Hi Choko - were you trying to bring tears of joy to my eyes on this beautiful Saturday morning? Thank you!

I doubt you realize how wonderful it is to see a group of readers like you ..."

Iain wrote: "Janny wrote: "Hi Choko - were you trying to bring tears of joy to my eyes on this beautiful Saturday morning? Thank you!

I doubt you realize how wonderful it is to see a group of readers like you ..."

Oh, dear, that's not good to hear....I did wonder/had seen threads disappear from a book's page before. Doesn't it take the person who started the thread to fix it? Anyway, thanks for letting me know it was just a glitch!

Yea... we just need to get the thread creator to go in and re-add the link...

This time I don't have a question either.

I just finished Curse of the Mistwraith and wanted you to know that I simply adored it.
I'm not one of those professional readers who are asked to review ARCs. I'm neither very good with words nor can I pride myself on having read thousands of books. I'm just one of the little readers who prefer to lose themselves in the pages of a good book rather than watch a movie or play computer games. My opinion is a very small one among many but I'd like you to know that this book you wrote is very special to me!
It made me feel so much! Your writing made me live with the characters and see some of the scenes as if I was in them. I was literally biting my nails while reading one of the chapters :). I still don't love Arithon as much as Mykkael (who has become my favourite hero ever to be written I think) but Curse of the Mistwraith has already become one of the books I will always treasure and probably reread lots of times. And I am already itching to start the next in the series.

So thank you Janny! Thank you for writing a story that kept lingering in my thoughts even after closing the book! Thank you for amazing characters and a fabulous world that I can get lost into! Reading your books is a pure joy for me! And as Choko already said

May you always find inspiration and may you always turn it into the rich gift you return into the world! And may you have many, many years to keep doing it and receive the pleasure of the creation and sharing! Thank you!!!

Laura wrote: "This time I don't have a question either.

I just finished Curse of the Mistwraith and wanted you to know that I simply adored it.
I'm not one of those professional readers who are asked to revie..."

Wow, Laura, thank you for the uplifting feed back - you don't need to be 'one of those professional readers' - your paragraph of honest opinion means so much more, in so many ways. Getting lost in the pages of a book - making what is on those pages dimensional and real - is what it is all about! I hope you have the courage to value your own responses - they are entirely valid and worth sharing.

This was always designed to be a read that you finished and never forgot - that sense of returning to thought after the last page was done, even a year or a decade later.

Arithon - I have a very serious patch of duct tape over my mouth at this stage - :X - my personal emoticon for sealed lips - this is VOLUME I, and NOTHING is fully developed yet...all of the characters in play - there is SO MUCH MORE coming. And the world....I look forward to your discoveries, lying ahead.

Thank you for sharing your enjoyment, I hope you all get a lively discussion at the finish, there IS a lot of stuff that falls on the line - what is the comfortable ethic - with more and more coming.

I appreciate the time and depth of your care in the read, and only hope that as the hammer falls in those last two sets, you didn't run past too many details - though if you did, no worries, everything will come around again, and from a different angle or added vantage, so the insights will evolve constantly.

Best to you, and I hope the group will go on to read the next volume - if you do, Ships and Warhost were designed as ONE BOOK, originally - they both have 'finish points' but if you take the template of Mistwraith with the half point punch, then the convergency to the extreme finish - the convergency is all in Warhost. Best read together if you can.

THANK YOU! I am blushing.

Thank you for the time you're taking to answer our questions. I've stumbled over your work maybe six months ago on r/fantasy, where a fan gushed about having read the first three books of the Light/Shadow novels in 72 hours. That's when I decided to give them a try and now this group is reading the Empire trilogy and the War of Light and Shadow...so obviously, I dived right in.

I love your prose. It's a challenge for me as a non native speaker, but it's very beautiful. I love the world building, the characters, everything is very intriguing, and I can't wait to uncover more.

Thank you!

Now, my question:

How did you decide from which POV to write? I love old Classics told from the point of view of an omniscient narrator, but these days most books are written deep third or first.

Did you as an author play around with different styles? Or how did you choose "how to tell" this story?

(I ask as an aspiring author, who struggles with that aspect.)

Olivia wrote: "Thank you for the time you're taking to answer our questions. I've stumbled over your work maybe six months ago on r/fantasy, where a fan gushed about having read the first three books of the Light..."

Lucky for me you saw that reader's post at r/fantasy - the more folks mention the books and why they liked them, the more folks like you will discover them. I have noticed that people who are not English speakers often 'get' these books much faster, as a matter of fact! They cannot skim over the prose, for one thing, and when they can't rush, when they have to look at the actual words carefully, like you, they perceive the bits that start to unravel their assumptions, earlier. I totally noticed your discussion here discovered the humor very quickly (oh, wait for Ships of Merior!) - where some readership would fly right by. I think, given how precise the language is for this work - you deserve a medal! Native speakers sometimes complain about the language - but you have encountered the nuance. Brava!

If I had one wish, it would be to convince my publisher to release this title in Audiobook - that format would really bring out the subtleties and make the nuances shine.

Now, your question: First: How did I decide which POV to write?
You many not have noticed, but the timeline of each chapter was simultaneous, or forward. No 'backtracking' to see what other characters were doing while action moved on ahead of them...therefore, choice of POV (point of view for those who don't write) was ticklish. It had to start with Logistics: How long does it take to TRAVEL from point A on the map to point B - and in that time span - what ELSE had to happen, plotwise, in the interrim....so if an 'event' was separated by a travel time lapse, and another event had to happen in between - then that 'event' had to become 'split' to keep time line current. Next, which character had the MOST to lose/which emotional moment was the most illuminating/and which character's take was going to advance the movement emotionally or actionwise - or - which character's view was most WRONG - so the veil stayed up, and the 'misdirection' of assumptions for reader or characters stayed intact....this has been, often, one of the most challenging aspects of writing this series - picking the precise moment, the precise character view, the precise angle of reveal. It's been like one of those Chinese number puzzles, slotting this or that to get the other, until all the pieces slide into place. Often it can take me a few DAYS or so to get the correct angle. Sometimes I missed, had to rip up and start differently. The longer the series goes, the more delicate the choices to give the highest tension read that I could (you will see past series tipping point (at Peril's Gate) exactly what I mean, here. What info had to be there, but that had very little 'tension' - it was just a fact you needed to gain - I did not burden it down with a fully fleshed scene - that is what the one liners are for - to grant that quick view fact without bogging the story down. A downfall of many series - those scenes you have to show, but can't ramp up - so I tried to solve it this way, and as a 'tribute' to Roger Zelazny, I put those one liners in bundles of three (as he did with REPETITIVE lines, in his book Lord of Light) - that is just one of the 'tributes' embedded in the series - to authors I've admired along the way. There are others....

Why omniscient viewpoint?
Easy to answer this one. To keep the characters' motives veiled - if the scenes with Arithon, or Asandir, or any really - were done in tight third person you would see FAR too much, far too fast - I wanted you to see surface actions and plain dialogue without the indepth view of motivation - factional, character, emotion - all that - as we live in this world, you HAVE to figure out people from your own viewpoint - you are guessing on impressions - because you can't have that clear an intimacy in real life. Omniscient view let me show something of what ALL the characters were seeing - because one character's view was just too constraining for making it ALL THERE from the get go. This is one of the piquant things readers gain from a 'second read' or a third or fourth - you will always discover more on that page than you could possibly get with one pass - and omniscient view makes that possible. The drawback being: it is MUCH MUCH harder to write than tight third person - because the characters will always seem 'colder' at the first plunge - it takes much more time to build up the intimate view you can create instantly with 'tight third' - so some readers won't be able to warm up to the characters as fast...they will with time have enough information to get that intimate view - but it doesn't happen on page 1, or even, (in some cases!) volume I. There is a whole lot more to discover to get TRULY intimate with these characters - and that makes the discoveries down the line MUCH more intense. There are constant reveals as the series unwinds - and in fact, that IS the way we react and assume with every stranger we encounter who becomes a friend or an enemy.

Did I play around with 'styles' - I do write in more than one style or voice, and it tends to be matched up to the story I am telling. I didn't so much play around with 'styles' here - or anywhere....I used the voice that befitted the tale. For THIS tale - I pulled out all the stops, I am putting in ALL the layers and levels and complexities and nuance I possibly could as a writer - I pulled NO punches, made no allowances....it is the best and richest story I could tell, given my born capabilities - it 'shows' you in real time on the page how a 'visual' person or a musician perceives; it brings in ALL the nuance of wilderness experience and sailing....tied into the characters' conflicts and the world - but it 'runs rich' to intensify the experience and it WILL shift how your brain perceives (slowing things DOWN actually shifts how your brain works - why the style starts to flow after a few chapters - your brain shifts to match the intensity of the detail). More, I pulled NO stops with the prose - I used with extreme precision PRECISELY the word with PRECISELY the meaning I wanted to impart - no Thesaurus! No pretense - I wanted very very refined accuracy in the language to impart PRECISELY the meaning I intended. Pulled no punches there - I have 'read the library' - so many books over this lifetime - I have the working vocabulary in my head - and I used it with surgical care. If readers want a simpler style, or a linear plot without so many overlays - my other books provide that. There was no pretention on my part, choosing how this book is written - THIS is the language the story demanded, and an attempt to simplify it caused me to writers block, THAT quick....the way it is told has a purpose to it, and I do realize: it may not be for everyone. Or folks may be 'caught by surprise' not expecting a work of this magnitude.

There I rely on your readers to share your experience, good or bad, so the right sort of reader finds these books and hits them in the right sort of mood. Sometimes we are stressed and want a stress free read; sometimes we are ripe for a challenge or a work that has depth. Hitting the frame of mind for this series' audience makes the match fall on target.

Nice to hear you are an aspiring author - If I can be of any help answering questions, feel free. I think style is something that comes naturally when you stop questioning yourself - finding the voice that is YOURS will emerge when you turn off expectations and other folks' criticism and write in your own way. You can always edit later for clarity, but letting that flow happen, finding your own zone - putting it down without worrying what ANYBODY thinks when you draft, then LATER, paring it and shaping it for clarity - to make it final and smooth. You cannot do both processes at once. You are either drafting (creating) with NO inner critic/all 'expectation' shut down - or you are editing (destroying) to shape that idea for clarity and finish...you cannot do both at once or you will totally kill your inspiration. ONE or the OTHER. Style will emerge on its own with practice and experience.

I can't thank you enough for taking the time to write such an elaborate answer!

May I ask if you had outlined the entire series before you began writing? Or did you know where your end point was, but were flexible in the middle? If you outlined (which I'm almost assuming considering it's such a planned and elaborate world and story), how detailed was the outline for the sequels before you started the first book? And did you change bits halfway through the series? And maybe wished you could have gone back to re-write parts of the earlier books?

Every book is different. Some, I just started writing and by the time I got to a third of the way, they resolved very neatly and I knew where I was going.

With a huge series, no way....I had the seed idea (that I wanted to take the traditional trope - tall blond charismatic 'hero' - and turn it upside down. The moment I had that, yes, I wrote an outline. The original is 1 page long, tightly single spaced, and yes, it encompassed all of the major arcs with their culminating events.

As the ideas kept pouring in, and little scraps of scenes started 'writing themselves' and my notes piled up, I recognized that this 'idea' was going to be huge. So I sat down straightaway and developed THE WORLD, because for a long scale work, much more needs to be there than you actually use for the story to make it credible.

I realized, just as fast, that I did not have the life experience necessary to do this work - not even close. (I was just out of high school). So - I began to travel to see other countries, other cultures, at first hand. I went offshore sailing in small boats. I sought the 'real hands on' experience I'd need to write parts of this work and make it real.

I also researched subjects far and wide, because the 'backdrop' of how this world developed - what underlies its existence - is a far step from Earth. (You'll see). There are reasons why this or that has developed this or that way, and stuff about the factions and society that you have not yet even scraped the surface.

More, the typical Epic Fantasy has war - so I researched THAT every which way and in doing so, hit the Massive Epiphany that made this story what it is. (could go into that if you like).

So that outline continued to flesh out. I actually wrote 17!!! 'openings' to Curse of the Mistwraith - until I hit on the one you read. I had most everything in draft up to the finish of Peril's Gate (but in a very early form) before I sold Vol I, and vol I was completed when it was bought by its first publishers (Roc in the USA, then, and HarperCollins in London).

Had a very sharp sense of what I was doing as the idea was fully evolved.

What did I 'know'? Usually the trigger for a major event, and its final outcome. Not all the steps in between, necessarily - THAT is where the magic happens. You have this cliff of a problem - you step off - KNOWING where it solves - the how of it comes by inspiration. The spontaneously posted a quote from an older interview that Brent put up yesterday in the other topic shows pretty clearly what I knew and what I didn't - what I aimed to accomplish and how it panned out - if you read that, it would give you a tight shot of my working process, but WARNING to any who have not read the last two chapter sets of Mistwraith, it is a massive spoiler.

If what I posted here didn't cover your question, feel free to ask for more detail or clarity.

Thank you so much for your detailed response. Can't wait to dive into the next book :)

Janny wrote: "Laura wrote: "This time I don't have a question either.

I just finished Curse of the Mistwraith and wanted you to know that I simply adored it.
I'm not one of those professional readers who are ..."

Thank you so very much for your kind words!

Now I'm curious to see how Arithon develops! (*huge grin*) I think the reason I don't love him as much as Mykkael FOR NOW is that he still feels a bit too fragile and insecure and does what needs to be done because he MUST and not because he WANTS TO. But then he is still young and that's just my impression for now and after your reply I'm eager to dive into the next book!

I also hope I haven't missed too much in the last chapters and we will try to read the next 2 books together next month.

Now would it be OK to trouble you with 2 more questions?

Fist - The Worldsend Gates. We didn't completely understand them. To me, they seem to be a sort of network of portals to pass from one world to another (like the ones in Stargate SG1 - only there you had to punch in a symbolic address to select the world where you wanted to go.) Did I get it right?
Did the mages build them or someone else? And is there the same number of Worldsend Gates on Dascen Elur as in Athera?

And then the 5 Towers. - Will their existence and purpose be explained later in one of the books? I am curious what the connection is between them and the gifts given to the kings.

Thank you. :)

Olivia wrote: "Thank you so much for your detailed response. Can't wait to dive into the next book :)"

You are totally welcome - and this whole thread has been a most wonderful bit of synchronicity - for me, actually. I am drafting the final volume, Song of the Mysteries, at this moment, and during that process, doing a slow, careful re-read of every volume come before to be SURE I don't inadvertently miss any stitches, or lose the PRECISE recall of any significant point. I have very very good notes and timeline spreadsheets - and a sharp memory for where and what and when - but tiny details in earlier volumes sometimes need picking back up - a reference here or there.

So actually, I was reading vol I right along with you - and if you continue, count on it, I can time my review read with yours. (Helps that way if you ask a question on a certain thing, that I know what Set you just read, and its precise content, so won't put up an unmarked spoiler).

So thank YOU for that, it made my review read much more fun with such enjoyable company!

If you can get the mods to re-connect this discussion to the book's page, I will always see if new questions pop up (no matter how much later) - so no question will go unanswered if any readers are coming in from behind the front runners.

Laura wrote: "Janny wrote: "Laura wrote: "This time I don't have a question either.

I just finished Curse of the Mistwraith and wanted you to know that I simply adored it.
I'm not one of those professional re..."

First, your questions are always welcome, there are NO limits, it's pure pleasure to answer you. These books don't have the following (yet) of some of the other complex series - so I am in no way overwhelmed (yet) and the responses here may also be of interest to others who are too shy to post themselves. So no worries, it's my delight, too, OK?

The Worldsend Gates - were built by the Fellowship Sorcerers after Mankind settled on Athera....no, man was not native to this planet....this is ALL I will say on that issue, as it will unfold in due course, how and why. There are things about Athera herself you do not know yet, so, promise me: you will ask this question AGAIN later on, when that's a bit more unveiled....then I can answer in a lot more depth that would be premature for you at Vol I.

These Gates are direct to destination: they cannot be 'dialed' to direct a traveler anywhere else. They are dedicated portals. Athera has FOUR, you can find them on the map. (Look at the 4 major compass points to locate them). EACH was created for a different purpose. West Gate on Athera links to Rasinne Pasy (the planet of the red desert - and that world has 2 gates - the one leading TO and From Athera - and the other (directionally sealed) that leads (currently) OUT of Dascen Elur TO Rasinne Pasy (but was closed for the return by the Sorcerers) For Reasons. Dascen Elur is the 'ending' destination, there is no other gate to elsewhere on that world.

This is a pretty surface explanation. The FAQ on the Paravia site or the Paravia Wiki may have more info up; but peruse AT YOUR PERIL, the spoiley knowledge may not be clearly marked.

You WILL see much, much more - the subsequent volumes will develop your understanding as these features come into full play.

The Five Towers at Ithamon were built by Paravian artisans; and the Five Kingdoms and their respective royal lines do have a 'connection' of sorts - let the books unfold them in their natural time (I don't 'drop' all the cards at once, sometimes, in fact, not until there is a very deep and thorough understanding to make that unveiling have its moment of stunning impact). So for the towers you may have to wait through several arcs....but yes, there is much, much more to this. And to the gifts given to the kings - and a LOT more to the fabric of how Athera's human society has been set up/where it failed - all coming. NOT what you think, either... :)

For Arithon - and Lysaer too - so SO much in store. Be wary of your assumptions. There is a lot of ground to cover, yet, so much depth coming, that the cards you are seeing from the surface take may not be tipped all at once! I can promise, though, they will be in the course of all 11 volumes, what's promised in the prologue will be delivered. Just not all at once!

I just got a copy of The Curse of the Mistwraith in the mail. I am guessing this thread will be a big help as I read so I know it's a bit late, but thanks for answering so many questions, Janny!