Book 4 promotional material

The questions and answers here were prepared as part of the promotional material for Book 4. They cover a wider area than just book 4!

Why do you think mainstream media rarely reviews Fantasy novels?

Since the Second World War, it has been widely believed that 'good' literature is that which grapples with the grim realities of life. The shock and horror of Hiroshima and the Holocaust led to a general feeling of existential despair. This meant, however, that any stories which generally dealt in happy endings was considered puerile, 'escapist'.

Fantasy of course draws strongly upon the grand tradition of fairy stories, most of which end with the words 'and they all lived happily ever after.' The very best fantasy, of course, has a very serious purpose. The 'happy ever after' is never achieved without a high cost. Tolkien coined the term 'eucatastrophe' to describe the 'piercing sense of joy' and epiphany that comes at the end of a great fairy story or fantasy, the sense of having perceived a truth beyond that usually understood in our lives.

Not all fantasy achieves that moment of epiphany, of course, but there is no doubt the literary establishment persists in thinking fantasy fiction as somehow lesser than other forms of literature. One of the major criticisms levelled at fantasy is that it can be highly derivative. There is no doubt this is true of many fantasy novels, though it is a criticism that could be levelled at many works of contemporary fiction as well. In literary fiction this is called 'hypertextuality' or 'pastiche'.

The truth is that all artists create from what they carry inside them, all that they have ever felt or heard or read or seen, been thrilled by or disgusted by. Art is not created in a vacuum, and indeed, should not be. Much of fantasy's power comes from its resonance within our collective unconscious, the instinctive recognition of certain mythic archetypes that have stridden through the human imagination since the very dawn of time. James Joyce was very conscious of the potency of such archetypal figures, as were most of the great writers in history.

Do you think that we've lost sight of the importance of magic in our everyday lives?

Whenever I see one of those car stickers that says 'Magic Happens' I want to salute the driver, both for their belief and their bravery. Having faith in magic can be hard in this mechanistic world. It is like trying to protect a butterfly in a cyclone. The more the scientists, mathematicians, economists and anthropologists define, classify and circumscribe our world, the harder it is to believe in miracles and marvels in the face of their unshakable certainty.

Yet the deeper we delve into the universe, the less certain we become. There are black holes into which we could fall, holes in which all the supposedly irrefutable laws are warped. Who knows what worlds exist beyond the boundaries of what we accept as real and true?

When I was a little girl I was sure that if I wished for something hard enough, it would happen. More often than not, it did. I'm 34 and I still wish on the first star of the evening - even though I know it is really the planet Venus, a hot, inhospitable place clouded with gases of sulphuric acid. I wish on the evening star because I believe in the sometimes mysterious power of the mind. I believe we can make things happen if our will is strong enough. So I believe in magic.

People who believe in magic are often mocked and derided. This may be because magic seems to belong to a time when gods walked the earth and a thunderstorm was feared as an expression of almighty rage. We now know thunderstorms are atmospheric disturbances caused by the rising of hot, moist air. It may be more interesting to imagine angry gods throwing bolts of lightning at each other but these are merely colourful fancies, not hard, cold fact. This is an age that likes it's facts both cold and hard.

Perhaps it's because magic, like art, disturbs us. It is indefinable, unclassifiable, without limits. It pushes out the boundaries of what is real and true. The French artist Georges Braques wrote, 'Art upsets, science reassures.' And humans want to be reassured. We want to think the cold light of reason shines upon the world, extinguishing the shadows of the unknown and the irrational. We want to be cosy and comfortable in our certainty. Or at least, some of you do. I myself am perfectly happy in a world where everything casts a shadow of mystery and endless possibility!

Magic obviously plays an important part in your works. How disciplined do you have to be when deciding how much magical powers each character has?

When I first began playing with the idea of writing my own fantasy series, one of the things I most wanted to do was grapple with the whole concept of magic.

On the one hand, I wanted to cast a spell of enchantment over my reader, drawing them into my world and making it so vivid and alive they never wished to leave. I wanted to make them think and feel and wonder, to chuckle, to wince with pain, to hold their breath in anticipation, to be choked with tears. I wanted to weave magic with words.

I also wanted to make the ideal of magic seem so real that none could doubt it really existed. I have always disliked the way most fantasy books addressed the question of magic. Too many writers simply have their sorcerers display their power with a wave of the hand or the inaudible muttering of a spell. There is no scrutiny of the magical power, its source, its consequences, its checks and balances, its cost to the wielder.

Magical power is often available to only a select few, and usually passed down through one or two lucky families. There are no limits on what they can do, yet for some reason they choose not to demonstrate their power until page 564, just in time to save the hero from certain death. If it was so easy, why didn't the sorcerer do it 370 pages earlier and save everyone so much trouble? So I decided I wanted to develop a theory of magic that was rooted in the real. Why is it some people can calculate pi in their heads and others, like me, can't add up primary numbers? Why is some people, again like me, are all thumbs and others can make beautiful things with their hands? Why can some play the violin so beautifully it makes all who listen weep while others, no matter how long they study and practice, cannot? Despite all the rhetoric, people are not born equal and people are not born the same. This is not to say that some deserve greater rights and opportunities than others; it is simply saying that we are all individuals with our own particular strengths and abilities.

So I wanted magic to be an inherent talent, that nonetheless had to be trained and developed to reach its full potential, just like any talent. I wanted my characters to all have their own personalities and their own unique magical gifts. I wanted there to be a price for their power, sometimes a very high price. All of my characters have a long apprenticeship indeed and they do not always know where it is their road is taking them. I wanted to explore the source and nature of their power, and show how they draw upon it and focus it through rituals and rites. There are lots of spells in my books, as well as songs, riddles, and ceremonial chants.

In the world of Eileanan, my created world, just about everyone has some kind of paranormal ability. Most just don't know it, just like in our own world. This paranormal ability manifests itself in a number of different ways. Some of my characters can conjure fire, while others need to light their candle with tinder and flint. Some can manipulate the forces of the weather, while others could no more whistle up the wind than call a bird to their hand. Some can talk to dragons, if they dare, while others don't even have the wisdom to listen to their own cat.

The main difference between our world and my created world is that in Eileanan, these paranormal abilities are sought out, developed, trained and celebrated, rather than mocked and feared as they are in our world. At least, in Eileanan, these powers were celebrated, until the king of the land was ensorcelled into marriage with a stranger who had her own reasons for hating and fearing magic...

What sort of research do you do for your books?

I do a great deal of research into every aspect of the books. I like to make sure everything is right and besides, I find the research itself often sparks off ideas which I would not have had otherwise. It helps make the world seem real and alive, and gives an extra punch to the writing. Generally, I borrow piles of books from the library and read through them, making notes on all that interest me. I often find the junior section of the library the most helpful because the books there have illustrations and diagrams, and describe things simply and concisely. For example, if I'm writing a battle scene I want to know everything about armour, weapons, siege machines, tactics, logistics - a book on mediaeval warfare from the adult section would be too long and heavy, but a selection of books from the junior library give me just about everything I need to know. I have membership to about four different libraries so what one won't have, another will.

Sometimes the librarians give me odd looks because the range of subjects is just so wide and the subjects so peculiar - anything from how to make cheese to homing-pigeons to Wiccan beliefs to music sheets of old folksongs. As well as that, I browse a lot through second-hand bookshops and so have picked up heaps of books on all sorts of different subjects, so I have an excellent reference library of my own. Again the range of subjects is rather startling, but it means I can always be sure my facts are right.

G K Chesterton has said 'Fairy stories tell children that dragons can be killed'. How important do you think Fantasy is for children?

Tremendously important! And not just for children. Jung said fantasy is the living union of our inner and outer worlds. He means it is the bridge between our conscious lives and that great, shadowy, dreaming sea he called the unconscious, the place where nightmares lurk and inspiration is born. It is through fantasy that we work out our place in the world and in society. It is a place where all things are possible, where a frog can become a prince, a hobbit can become a hero, where all of us can face and defeat monsters. To barricade ourselves off from the wellspring of fantasy is to become a desert.

You've created a very strong heroine in Isabeau. Do you feel that fantasy writing tends to be more 'male oriented.'?

Once upon a time fantasy fiction was certainly strongly chauvinistic, there's no doubt about that. And I'm not just talking about the classic sword-and-sorcery tale that was all bulging pectorals and helpless half-naked women waiting to be rescued. Even Tolkien created a strongly male-dominated world. The only female hobbit of any note was Lobelia Sackville-Baggins who stole all Bilbo's silver spoons. And although there are some brave and beautiful elf-queens in The Lord of the Rings, they appear only briefly and play only a very minor role.

However, times have changed. In the past twenty years or so there has been a growing charge of women both writing and reading fantasy. This has resulted in quite a few books where strong, interesting women predominate. On top of that, there is a new sensitivity among many contemporary male fantasy authors. Some books still make me grind my teeth in irritation, but I think most of the really good fantasists are now creating really strong, interesting characters with their own individual foibles and flaws. I certainly hope Isabeau is a strong vivid character with great depth and complexity that comes alive for my readers. She certainly has her fair share of faults and weaknesses!

The trilogy begins with witchcraft being outlawed in Eileanan. What parallels are there with historic witch-hunting? Do you subscribe to the view that witch-hunting was one way of subverting women's power?

When I was studying my BA at university I read Margaret Mead's work on the mediaeval witch-hunts, which I found absolutely fascinating. Although much of Mead's work has been discredited these days, her work on witchcraft and the Inquisition remains as interesting and startling as ever, and as led to much revisionism of this period of history. She was the first to suggest the witch-hunts was one way for the strongly patriarchal society of the Middle Ages to subvert women's power, and I certainly feel there is a great deal of truth in the hypothesis. It was not merely a patriarchal conspiracy theory, however. The medieval church was concerned with stamping out any remnants of the old pagan religions, where women had often held positions of great power and respect. I was very interested in this whole period of history and in the idea that an ancient and beautiful religion had been crushed out so ruthlessly. So I was very much concerned with drawing parallels between the witch-hunts of our world and those of Eileanan.

In the series you have created a whole complex new world. How do you keep track of the characters and places?

I don't really know, to tell the truth. I mean, I have maps and glossaries and time lines and so on which I developed as the story grew, but most of it is contained in my head. Particularly the characters, who at times seem more real to me than the people in the street!

The Forbidden Land delves quite deeply into religion, particularly the differences between the religious beliefs of the Tìrsoilleirean and those of the Coven. What comments are you making about today's religions?

I have used this aspect of the books to express a number of passionately held beliefs, and so this is a question I could write a whole essay on. However, I am in some ways reluctant to do so. My ideas on religion and philosophy have been one of the driving forces behind the whole series. I chose this method of expression simply because it did enable me to both confront and circle around the whole question of religion, without growing too didactic. I get a great deal of e-mail from readers wanting to discuss this aspect of the books with me but I am a writer, not a philosopher. I have no desire to create a new religion or even to laud one religion over another. What is important to me is understanding the deep instinctive desires that drive human beings to create gods and goddesses, and then examining the often cruel consequences of those creations. My own beliefs are there in the books for the readers to puzzle out and that seems to me intensely more interesting and satisfying than spelling it out.

What question do you most frequently get asked from your fans?

When is the next book out? After that, I get lots of questions from readers wanting to know what happens next, to which I always reply 'you'll just have to wait and read the book.' After that, I get a lot of e-mail from people wanting to know where I get my ideas from. Quite a few dream of being writers too, and others are just amazed by the vividness and strangeness of my imagination. I do get a lot of e-mail from readers wanting me to settle an argument over character motivation and so on, which I always really enjoy because I love to know people are discussing my books and even getting into heated arguments over them.

The Witches of Eileanan started as a trilogy and now you're up to book six in the series. Was it the case that you liked your characters and settings so much that you couldn't bear to part with them?

Not altogether, though that is true to some extent. I tell people that the epic grandeur of my vision proved to be even grander than I had imagined, and I'm not altogether joking. The story itself did not grow. It still ends the way I had first envisioned it, I have not extended the plot line further in any way. It's just that my world stage was so large, I needed more room to do the story justice. One of the things I was attempting to do was to describe the motion of history, to show how the many small stories of small people weave together to create this magnificent tapestry which is the big story of life.

To achieve this I had to follow the stories of a number of minor characters as well as those of my protagonists. I had to show how the relatively insignificant choice of one person could completely alter the destinies of many. And then I grew to love my characters so much, I wanted to tell their stories properly, I wanted to make the reader love them too. And I happen to be someone who hates to see loose ends dangling. Everything had to be neatly and properly tied up, and it had to have that sense of rightness and inevitability about it, which meant I had to take my time over it. I am just lucky that I was given the time and the space to do it the way I knew it had to be done, instead of being made to conform to a series of only three books.

Who is your favourite character?

Isabeau, of course. Though I feel passionately about them all. The ones I don't love, I hate, and the ones I don't love or hate, I feel a great pity and tenderness towards and a wish that their lives might have been different.

Have you noticed a change in your writing style since the first book?

I hope that my writing is better. I have learnt so much during the course of this series that I would be bitterly disappointed if it did not show in my writing style and in my control over my tools. I feel it is in the structure and plotting of the novel that I have learnt the most. Looking back at Dragonclaw now I find it quite uneven in its structure (some chapters are 2,000 words long, others are 12,000, for example).

Can you give us a sneak preview of what happens in books 5 and 6?

In Book 5, The Skull of the World, the narrative focus again returns to Isabeau. She has remained in exile on the Spine of the World, for Lachlan has not forgiven her for saving Maya from death and giving the Ensorcellor back her daughter Bronwen. Isabeau is unhappy that her actions should be so misunderstood, but gains some measure of peace getting to know her parents and spending each winter with the Khan'cohbans as the queen-dragon had commanded. The time comes when she must undertake her journey of initiation to the Skull of the World, where the cruel and enigmatic Gods of White will reveal her destiny to her. On this journey she will face many dangers but by overcoming them, will finally discover her true Talent. She is at last free to return to Lucescere and the Tower of Two Moons, where she plans to study to be a sorceress. Meanwhile, Iseult and Lachlan have been busy with the invasion of Tìrsoilleir. While they are away fighting the Bright Soldiers, Margrit the Thistle kidnaps their son Donncan, the heir to the throne, and her grandson, Iain's son Neil. There is no-one but Isabeau left in Lucescere to try and save them. Alone, she has to try and vanquish Margrit, the cruellest and most subtle sorceress in the land ...

Book 6, The Fathomless Caves, deals with the final confrontation with the Fairgean. Before his death, the blind prophet Jorge had foreseen the conjuring of a tidal wave by the sea-dwelling Fairgean, the people of Eileanan's bitterest enemies. Driven by ancient hatreds, the Fairgean have called upon dreadful powers to aid them in their quest to totally annihilate all those that dwell upon the land. As the time of the comet draws ever closer, Lachlan and Iseult try desperately to avert the terrible fate the seer had prophesied, testing their strength and love to the utmost. Meanwhile, Isabeau must travel a dark and dangerous road to fulfill her own destiny. On her journey she must prove herself worthy of both the scar of the Soul-Sage and the ring of the sorceress. Facing old enemies and new, the most difficult challenge of all will be conquering the ghosts of her past. For if Isabeau is to heal the land, she first must find the way to healing her own troubled spirit ...