Yes, I am still alive... even after exams. I'm back home for the summer. In the interim, Ray has had a lot to say about the first Tales of the Riftwar novel, Honoured Enemy. So here we go. The first post deals with the creation of the Tales series:
I met Janny at World Fantasy Convention in '83 in Chicago. My first reaction was very much 'single male,' as in 'hey, this is a very attractive lady. 'I was introduced by her ex-boyfriend (and now current husband), Don Maitz. Short version of a long story: got to know Janny and decided she'd be a great friend even if not a romantic possibility, she and Don got back together, and she and Don have been great friends of mine for the last 17 years. In the process of hanging with her, we'd talk story some times, and at one point I mentioned the idea for the start of (what at the time I thought was one book, Servant of the Empire). She jumped in and said, 'You know, you could do this, that, this other thing,' and the ideas just kept rolling. It took me about five minutes to decided I needed her to collaborate. It too me a year to convince her. I loved the results. Great experience.
As for the three I'm doing now, that was a completely different set of reasons. Midkemia has always been about 'other voices' but you guys never got to hear any of them.The story telling that evolved out of the gaming sessions, the 'history' Steve and Jon and others dreamed up, all of that was of a piece, and I wanted something along those line.
I approached a half-dozen writers who I respect, including Janny, and three of them had the time now to make a commitment.
I'm five chapters through the book with Bill and I'm finding it great; I think you'll enjoy the efforts and find the presence of other voices in the Midkemian narrative refreshing and rewarding.
Next, Ray describes the writing process with Bill Forstchen, the co-author of Honoured Enemy:
It varies with each writer. With Bill we talked about the overall outline, defined some characters, and he jumped in. By chapter 3 I had some sense of where he was going, so my rewrites became more consistent with his mood and tone, and by then he had a better idea of what we needed to do to keep the book consistent with the other Midkemian stories.
Next, we get the names of the other Tales novels:
Honored Enemy, the book I'm doing with Bill Forstchen is all new characters, as is Murder in LaMut, the book I'm doing with Joel Rosenberg. Steve Stirling and I will work on a book called Jimmy the Hand.
Finally, Ray gave this tidbit about the plot of Honoured Enemy:
In the Northlands.A Tsurani/Kingdom skirmish is interrupted by a whole lot of Moredhel, and the two enemies have to unite temporarily to survive.
I will say no more.
In another post, Ray said that the books will be listed as authored by 'Feist and...' ie 'Feist and Forstchen.'
