ROC interview

The following is an interview that Kate did for ROC books before the release of The Witches of Eileanan in the US circa 1998. This appeared in the May 1998 ROC Newsletter.

Roc will be publishing The Witches of Eileanan, a striking new fantasy epic from Australian writer Kate Forsyth. Braving the International Date Line via the wonders of e-mail, Kate sat down with us to discuss Witches.

ROC: Why yet another fantasy? Why yet another coming-of-age novel? Why another trilogy?

KF: Can there ever be enough fantasies? Seriously, I've been reading fantasy since I was a toddler and I still haven't satiated my taste for it. Of course, I read lots of other things as well - from biographies to literary fiction to murder mysteries - but still love finding a new fantasy author who can keep me up till three in the morning, unable to put their book down because I'm dying to know what happens. Of course, there are many bad fantasy novels published, just like there are many bad literary novels or bad crime thrillers, but that's what makes the discovery of a good writer such an exciting thing. Besides, human beings have been telling fantastical tales since language was first invented, and no doubt shall keep on as long as civilization endures.

I thought there was room for me in there as well. As to why another coming-of-age story - it's one of the seven great plots of the world! Besides, the journey towards self-knowledge and wisdom is one of the great archetypal stories, tapping into the deep well of myth and fable we all carry within us. This archetypal resonance that fantasy can create is in many ways due to the fact that many of its tropes are familiar to us. I like to think, of course, that The Witches of Eileanan is much more than just a simple quest tale or coming-of-age tale, but only time will be the true judge of that. Deciding to write a trilogy was rather cheeky, I must admit. Aren't all fantasies trilogies?

ROC: The setting for this book seems to be very heavily influenced by Scottish history and culture. Why Scotland?

KF: Although I'm sixth or seventh generation Australian, I come from Anglo-Celtic stock, much of it Scottish, with both my grandmothers' families coming originally from Scotland, one Mackenzie, the other Macdonald. In addition, I am married to a Forsyth, so you see there's a strong familial connection to Scotland. When I was a child, I used to stay a lot with my maternal great-aunts, both of whom were very proud of their Scottish ancestry and used to tell me many stories - about William Wallace, Rob Roy MacGregor, and Bonnie Prince Charlie, Jacobites hiding in the heather, selkies and ghostly pipers in castles, and so on. Having a romantic imagination, I was naturally enraptured and a lifelong fascination with all things Scottish was born.

All my life I've read about Scotland - from Walter Scott novels to Scottish history and folklore. My favorite Shakespeare play was Macbeth -- I played one of the witches in our high school production - and loved the mad poetry of their incantations. Also there's a grand tradition of 'second sight' in Scotland which we often used to joke about in my family. Despite all this, I did not think to use the Scottish tradition until I was quite a way into the first draft. One of the things that troubles me about many fantasy novels is the way they use a pseudo-medieval setting that mimics certain societal conditions and hierarchies while being set in a very obvious 'otherworld'. How did these humans get to this world, and why is their society and history so static? It was important to me to root my 'Perilous Realm' in the real - to give it some kind of substance - so I was searching for some way to link my world's culture to human culture, while still being free to indulge my imagination.

Watching a documentary on witchcraft one night, I heard about how King James VI of Scotland brought the savage witch-hunts of Europe to Britain. On the way home from his wedding to Anne of Denmark, a turbulent storm almost wrecked his ship and he became convinced it was caused by satanic witches aiming to undermine his throne. There was, of course, a strong tradition of paganism and occult lore in Scotland, and it has always been a strongly superstitious culture - the witch-hunts that James VI instigated were brutal and widespread, and many aristocrats were accused as well as the usual poor old woman with a pet cat. I wove my world around the idea that a group of 'witches' fled the Scottish witch-hunts in the late 16th century, enacting a spell that took them to another world where they could practice magic and worship their pantheist, pagan religion in freedom, much as the Puritans did a hundred years later. Of course, they went to a different planet, as opposed to merely crossing the oceans to a new continent. Consequently, I tried to imagine how this history would shape the new society - its language, political structure, religion, mores and folklore, and that is why so many of the words, names, speech patterns and so on have a Scottish feel to them.

ROC: Tell us something about the main characters. Are they based on actual historical figures?

KF: No, born purely of my own vivid imagination!

ROC: If you were to be cast back in time to the historical period that inspired you, do you think you would like living there? Or would you be screaming for hot running water and your computer within two days?

KF: If I had the powers of my witches, I could heat my water with my finger, as Isabeau does, and no doubt I could conjure a magic book that recorded my thoughts and ideas even more quickly and efficiently as my computer. No doubt I'd have ended up as fuel for a bonfire, though, or at least been ducked a few times. If I was my own sweet self, I would have been illiterate and uneducated, married as a young pubescent girl to a old man who never washed and who considered me on much the same level as his pigs and cows, and no doubt I would have had to wear a scold's bridle for being too outspoken. If I didn't succumb to the smallpox, I would have died in childbirth at a tender age, and if I managed to outlive my husband, I would have been a despised widow, forced to live on my family's charity. Who would be a woman at any other time but our own! No, I'd soon be hunting for a time-bending spell to get me back to modern times, I promise you!

ROC: What fascinated us the most about the book was how natural it was to read characters speaking in dialect -- something too often attempted, and not often pulled off. Was it difficult to create those speech patterns?

KF: It was very important to me to try and create a vivid, alive world that had its own internal coherence and consistency. So, although I knew the dialect was dangerous - in that it could jar with some readers - I decided I had to try to create a natural speech pattern that would be close to what could have developed if the events and people of my book were real. The Scottish accent and dialect is very hard to shake off - I know people who left Scotland when they were five and still have a very strong accent, plus there are many parts of the world where generations after their ancestors emigrated from Scotland, the syntax and accent still endure. So I took the risk and tried to develop sound patterns that the reader could soon adapt too. I listened to Scottish people I knew and read Robert Burns again, and watched films and TV set in Scotland, and tied to develop an ear for the sound of the speech. Some people love it, and think it's one of the most interesting things about the book, but others hate it and found it hard to get used to.

ROC: Has it been difficult, working with two publishers on one book? (Kate is published in Australia by Random House/Arrow)

KF: Not at all, both my publishers are darlings and I've learnt a great deal from both. Hopefully, I'll one day have many more as my books are translated into every language from Swedish to Swahili - and may they all be as supportive and encouraging!