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This is my first post with any substance, although I have lurked for years.
Here are some questions and anwers from SE's book signing at Milton Keynes on 9th July 2008, as well as some other bits of information he gave us. I am paraphrasing, of course, but hopefully it is fairly accurate.
Q: Will we see Whiskeyjack again in the books?
SE: Not in any mortal form.
Note that this does leave open the possibility of seeing his ghost or some other form/version of Whiskeyjack. Or it may just have been SE not wanting to give too direct an answer. He seemed to be being quite careful about how he phrased his answer, though.
Q: In an earlier book there was a scene with an otataral dragon. I thought this was going to be really important but there has been no mention of it since.
SE: It is important. Read and find out.
Q: Since Erikson is not your real last name, did you pick it so that your books would be stored on the shelves right next to Ian Cameron Esslemont's?
SE: No, but it is cool that they are. He went on to explain how he had never intended to use a pen name. The story goes that he had a previous, contemporary fiction, book publishes previous to the Malazan series, with a different publisher. When he then got a publishing deal for GotM, the first publisher said that he couldn't use the name Steven Lundin, since it would confuse people who knew him as a contemporary fiction writer. So, he chose Erikson, which was his mother's maiden name. Interestingly, when he got his fairly well publicised 9 book deal for the Malazan series, the first publisher was suddenly quite happy for him to publish using Steven Lundin (for the interest it might raise in his first novel). By then, of course, with GotM already out, it was too late.
Q: there is talk on the internet about there being a film in the works, based on the chain of dogs section of DG. Is this just a rumour?
SE: not entirely. He said there is a 300 page manuscript floating around, but he doesn't have time to even think about it properly until he has finished writing the 10 books.
Some questions about his writing habits:
Q: Do you often write all night, or anything like that?
SE: No, I write 4 hours a day, in the afternoon
Q: Do you have to do lots of rewrites once your book is done
SE: Not really. The first part of the 4 hours I spend reading and editing what I wrote the day before, so I edit and rewrite as I go along
Q: Do you ever go back and add/remove/rearrange sections earlier in the book you are writing?
SE: Not really. My writing is fairly linear. Sometimes I might go back and change a description or some detail if I later realise I got it wrong, but that's about it.
Q: SE had mentioned that he and Cam created the Malazan world in gaming sessions for years, and so knew all about the history etc. Questions were asked about if any of the gaming characters had made it into the books, what the other players thought about their characters in the books and so on.
SE: Yes, lots and lots of the gaming characters are in the books. He pointed out that he and Cam (and it was pretty much just the two of them) would game in a very different way to what people might think of as gaming. It was much more narrative driven, all about the plot - not monsters, treasure etc. Apparently some of his friends (most of whom are advance readers) took part in some gaming session with them a while ago, where they played Fiddler's squad. SE said they all seemed happy with the books.
Q: In RG Shadowthrone seems to be losing his marbles a bit.
SE: (seemingly surprised) Shadowthrone has always been like that. He went on to explain that Cam had played the character of Shadowthrone in the games, with Dancer as an NPC. Cam had played Shadowthrone's madness "to the hilt", and Dancer was there to reign him back a lot of the time.
Q: Will we see more of the Stormriders and Korelri?
SE: They will be in Cam's third book I think... called Stonewielder? which is set on Korelri I think.
I asked a fairly rambling pseudo question about the Crippled God. I talked about how most fantasy series have some 'Dark Lord' character that the heroes are fighting against, who is very central to the plot, and unmistakably evil. In contrast, the CG is in it relatively little, and there is even debate about whether he is really evil or not. Yet, the series seems like it is building towards its climax as a confrontation with the CG. SE agreed this was the case. I pointed out the the final book being called 'The Crippled God' was something of a clue to that. SE agreed again. I asked if he was worried that people might feel let down if, after reading 10 massive books, the climax turned out to be a somewhat anti-climatic confrontation with the CG who turned out not to be evil after all. SE said that he was confident that the ending would deliver a payoff that would make everyone happy. He also commented that Book 9 would be the only book with a cliffhanger ending. His reasoning for this was as follows: in his previous books you get about 700 pages of setup, then 200 pages of climax as the payoff. For the end of the entire series he needs more than just 200 pages for the payoff - the whole of Book 10 is the payoff, with Book 9 being the setup. He said that he has had the last 4 scenes in his head for years, and is looking forward to being able to actually write them.
He said that he has a deal in place for 2 further trilogies - one which would take place previous to the current series (perhaps the Anomander Rake trilogy previously mentioned?), and one which would follow a thread that he would leave unresolved at the end of book 10.
At the end, while getting my books signed (the whole series!) I asked him about Grallin:
Me: Is Grallin actually real, or just a myth?
SE: Sorry, who? K'rul?
Me: Grallin. The guy who tends the Gardens on the Moon.
SE: (looking a bit blank) That sounds like just a myth to me.
Me: Ok. It's just that there has been all sorts of speculation and discussion on the internet about him
SE: Really??
So, I think that probably kills all the 'Grallin is the CG' theories and the like.
There was probably much more if I think about it, but that seems more than enough for now.
Anyone at any of the other signing sessions have any good information?
