QUESTION 1: I know that you do a little planning and a little “seat of your pants” writing, but did you expect or anticipate the way the characters would develop to reach your overarching plot for the series? For example, early on in the series, Pritkin is presented a very particular way, and later on in the series, there’s not necessarily character development so much as a revealing of who he is and his motivation. Do you already know who your characters are or will be upon creation, or does your interpretation of characters evolve as you continue to work on the series?
I knew the basics of Pritkin’s backstory all along, as with all the characters, but the details less so. It surprises a lot of people, but I have to be able to tell myself the story as I go along in order to make it fun and real for you. Too much planning can actually be detrimental, as I lose interest once I know every little detail (the story is then finished for me). And if I’m not engaged by the work, how can I expect you to be? So I deliberately sketch out the basics of things, and leave the rest for me to fill in as I go along.
As for the evolution of the characters, I have certain places I need for them to be at certain times, in order for the plot to work out. So they pretty much have to move along their story arc. I never liked characters that stagnate anyway, because they just don’t feel real. Especially when going through big life or death situations. We all go through some of those, and while we may come out the other side with a whole skin, we don’t come out unchanged. Good characters shouldn’t, either.
QUESTION 2: Did you always want to do the Dory series, or was it an outgrowth of a side story and/or subplot that you wanted to follow up on?
Dory was always in Mircea’s backstory, but I only decided to do the book after Claimed by Shadow, when I realized that there was no place in the Cassie storyline for the other half of Drac’s story. And that there would be a lot of other places where that would be true in the plotline. Plus, the novels tell Mircea’s story as much as anyone’s, and I wanted to show another side of him.
QUESTION 3: I know you work with an artist to create images of your characters — how close are the artist’s interpretations to what you’ve envisioned and how do you communicate what you’re looking for, i.e., do you use photos or are you more descriptive?
Some of the images are very close, some not so much. The ones that miss the mark are not the artist’s fault, by the way, but due to an issue with the process used to create them. A lot of people don’t know this, but most book covers these days are done through photo manipulation combined with artwork, and for that it is necessary to have a photo as a base that roughly resembles the character. Once you find it, the artist can then work her magic with hair, clothes, background, etc. But finding those photos…God, I would never have started that if I’d had any idea how hard it would be.
Ida and I must have gone through—no lie—about 10,000 photos looking for the right models. And, of course, those have to be people from whom you can obtain releases, because I can’t just take someone’s photo off the internet and use it. That sort of thing is illegal, and after complaining about the number of people who have stolen my work through the years, I am certainly not going to do it to anyone else! So there went a few photos I would have liked to use, but couldn’t get releases for. I’m still mourning Andrei Andrei for Mircea, for example, but then, I don’t blame the guy. If I had an exclusive contract with Armani, I’d be leery about letting some crazy novelist use my image, too! But I like the Mircea I finally found, especially on the cover of Masks. It took a lot of work to get that image, as it is not a stock photo, but I thought it was worth it. That’s pretty much spot on how I see him, although your mileage may vary, of course.
Anyway, that’s a long way of saying that Ida did a great job with what she had to work with. I particularly like the Claire image—I described what I wanted there, and she rendered it perfectly. I also love Francoise—again, we were pretty darned close on that one—and Pritkin, and more or less Cassie and Billy Joe. The rest, we just did the best we could. It doesn’t matter, really, as people are going to see them as they see them, but it’s nice to have pretty covers for the shorts. I’m anal like that.
QUESTION 4: Is there any way you could make your latest short, “The House at Cobb End,” available at Smashwords? I’d love to be able to re-read it on my ereader.
I will eventually. I have it on the to-do list, but I am swamped right now and it may be a while. The Smashwords conversion process actually takes a while to do properly, but I will get it up there sooner or later. Probably not before the first of the year, though.
QUESTION 5: Are we ever going to learn where Pritkin got the scars on his shoulder? Can you give us any hints?
Yes and no, in that order.
QUESTION 6: You’ve told us where Pritkin got “Pritkin”, but what about “John”? Did he just grab the most commonplace name he could find?
Well, really, before the twentieth century, there were far fewer names in regular use in England. Among the aristocracy, it was literally a handful for women and men, most taken from the royal family (it was thought that you’d get patronage easier if you named your baby after the king or queen, although I’m not sure how that works when everyone’s doing it). Anyway, you ended up with a truck load of Annes, Marys and Janes for women and Williams, Roberts, and Johns for men. There were a few more options for commoners, but still, not a lot. And I couldn’t really see no-nonsense Pritkin going for one of the more flamboyant Celtic names, no matter how fun having him be Gawain would have been! Besides, John had the added bonus of pissing off his father (it’s a Biblical name).
QUESTION 7: What is the significance of Pritkin’s locker number?
221 B Baker Street. Pritkin was a Conan Doyle fan, back in the day.