Kevin's Watch

I just added a new structured interview to the official site - October 2008 from WKSU (Kent State). There's also a link to their web site where you can listen to an portion of the actual interview (they cut it down since the whole thing was over 45 minutes long).

Thanks, Romeo. There's good stuff in there, I'm about half-way through it.

Thanks Romeo! That is a fantastic interview!

I am having a two sided reaction to this interview. What SRD says, how much thought is put into his responses are wonderful but one of my pet peeves are people that conduct interviews from a list of questions. Many of SRD answers were openings to expound on the initial question. Instead the person conducting the interview just switched from one question to the next. There was no continuity in the questions, he or she just hopped around. Of course, there may have been restrictions placed on the interviewer that the reader is not aware of.

That being said, the interview was a really good read. He discussed many things that really hit home.

How did you not get discouraged after forty-seven rejections? Did you ever say to yourself, “It’s not going to happen?”

“Perhaps I haven’t made it clear; I live in a constant state of discouragement. I never believed I was good enough, and every professional I consulted in the business, all forty-seven of them, told me I wasn’t good enough. I was raised to believe I’m not good enough. For me the question wasn’t one of believing that I’m good enough, it was one of being so completely inflamed with storytelling that I couldn’t let it go. The story that I wanted to tell and the experience of writing it were the most exciting thing I had ever done in my life and the most exciting thing I could ever imagine doing. And I simply decided to go to the wall. I thought, if this is not what my life is meant to be, than I’m not meant to live, because there cannot be anything for me better than this. So, I’m going to keep trying. My alternative is some form of emotional, mental, or perhaps even physical suicide. So I was actually contemplating that. At that time, the new editors at Ballantine Books wrote back to me and said that they were interested in publishing Lord Foul’s Bane."

I think many of us that don't live their life's purpose commit a form of emotional suicide.

lorin wrote:I think many of us that don't live their life's purpose commit a form of emotional suicide.

I'll certainly agree with that!

Absolutely. This is the first time I've heard SRD's experience of going through that. It's actually quite encouraging to me, in life in general, that success is possible even with constant self-doubt. My father always taught that self-belief is everything - but I find I have limited reserves of it, which in turn further saps those reserves.

Re: the Covenant movie

"There is a group of real serious movie people, the producer of Saving Private Ryan, the producer of The Patriot"

Looking them up, it looks like Mark Gordon and / or Gary Levinsohn.

Interesting - I didn't know it was them

Also, "god, it was going to be a beautiful looking movie because they worked up a bunch of the art for it and I was really impressed."

I wish we could see the art

I, too, would like to see that art. I enjoyed Donaldson's reparte in this part of the interview.

So it’ll never happen you think?

• “I think it will never happen."

Because of the ring?

• “Because of the ring."

Even though the ring in your book is completely different than the ring in Tolkien’s book?

• “Absolutely."

What they said. And I think this is the most I've ever seen him say about the Kent State shootings. Interesting stuff. Thanks for posting it, Romeo!

SRD wrote:The endings of all the intervening books are all cliffhangers, they're not intended as stopping points in the story

I guess that means we can expect yet another one at the end of AATE

Anyone care to take a wild guess?

Relayer wrote:

SRD wrote:The endings of all the intervening books are all cliffhangers, they're not intended as stopping points in the story

I guess that means we can expect yet another one at the end of AATE

Anyone care to take a wild guess?

I know you are all rooting for Linden to die.

Relayer wrote:Anyone care to take a wild guess?

I bet all things end.

Cheater.

rdhopeca wrote:

Relayer wrote:

SRD wrote:The endings of all the intervening books are all cliffhangers, they're not intended as stopping points in the story

I guess that means we can expect yet another one at the end of AATE

Anyone care to take a wild guess?

I know you are all rooting for Linden to die.

Yes, though we're hoping it comes well before the end.

Relayer wrote:Cheater.

Pirate.

Just don't call me Briny!