Ask the Author: James Islington
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James Islington
I gravitate towards immersive sims and RPGs (Dishonored, Deus Ex, Witcher 3, BG3, that sort of thing) - so in a dream, unlimited-budget type scenario, a story-rich game that settled into those genres would be my ideal. Something where you have to make difficult choices and can approach problems the way you want, rather than just having to hit every obstacle until it dies!
James Islington
For sure - this is something where the full explanation kind of got cut in WotM, but will be clarified briefly in SotF - in short, she's both trying to remove him as a future rival in Military, but also gain favour for her father (who is technically also Military but as the Proconsul in Sytrece, depends heavily on Governance to operate). So her family have a foot in both camps - their loyalties are very split, basically.
James Islington
Thank you, and yes! The short story is that all hardcover editions of The Strength of the Few are going to come with reversible jackets, with the newer art on one side, and a cover in the original style on the other - so, hopefully, everyone will now be able to have the series in the design of their preference. You can check out the original-style cover art, if you haven't seen that yet, either in my post about it here on Goodreads, or just on the Amazon page. Hope this is some good news - I'm really pleased with it as a solution!
James Islington
Thank you, that's lovely to hear!
I think an arc's truly finished when to add more to it would risk it becoming less satisfying or interesting, rather than more - it's definitely more related to the 'feel' of the story than anything technical.
Not specifically - but finishing off an arc that you've been working towards for months, maybe years, is always pretty special, so in a lot of ways that excitement and emotion is a kind of inspiration in and of itself!
I think an arc's truly finished when to add more to it would risk it becoming less satisfying or interesting, rather than more - it's definitely more related to the 'feel' of the story than anything technical.
Not specifically - but finishing off an arc that you've been working towards for months, maybe years, is always pretty special, so in a lot of ways that excitement and emotion is a kind of inspiration in and of itself!
James Islington
Thank you! This is a great question but particularly because of his age (and the corresponding lack of 'famous' actors in that bracket), I actually don't really know any specific ones who fit the look I have in mind for Vis.
Interestingly, now I think about it, because everything is from his perspective, I also have a somewhat less rigid mental image of what he looks like compared to the other characters - I'm always picturing what he's seeing, rather than picturing him, so his look's not as sharply defined in my head. So I guess as long as the general look wasn't wildly off-base, I wouldn't really have a strong opinion on casting (from a purely appearance-based perspective, at least)!
Interestingly, now I think about it, because everything is from his perspective, I also have a somewhat less rigid mental image of what he looks like compared to the other characters - I'm always picturing what he's seeing, rather than picturing him, so his look's not as sharply defined in my head. So I guess as long as the general look wasn't wildly off-base, I wouldn't really have a strong opinion on casting (from a purely appearance-based perspective, at least)!
James Islington
Thank you, that's amazing to hear! For The Will of the Many, I probably enjoyed writing the growing friendships between Vis and Eidhin / Callidus the most. There's a dynamic I enjoyed writing even more for Book II, but for obvious reasons, I can't say that one yet :)
James Islington
I'm not sure there's any specific source of inspiration - writing's something I've always loved doing - I just get real pleasure out of creating something I'm proud of, and I'd be doing it (albeit with far more time constraints) regardless of whether I was able to reach an audience.
As for the complex worlds and characters - a ton of time thinking about it, and then lots of drafts! :)
Thanks!
As for the complex worlds and characters - a ton of time thinking about it, and then lots of drafts! :)
Thanks!
James Islington
They don't actually! The naming convention on Suus is a bit older, so Diago is just 'Diago, son of Cristoval'.
James Islington
I'm definitely a fan of competent characters, and try to write them that way, so that's great to hear - intelligent protagonists and intelligent villains are much more interesting (at least to me) than people constantly making poor decisions.
As far as keeping Asha's character grounded - I think it comes down to having her deal with the problems she faces with the tools and skills we already know are at her disposal, rather than her suddenly being great at everything. And that means that sometimes she simply can't win a scenario, too - she has plenty of setbacks, they just tend to be unavoidable, rather than due to her doing something stupid. So that, probably more than anything, helps show her to be highly competent without stretching it into unrealistic territory.
As far as keeping Asha's character grounded - I think it comes down to having her deal with the problems she faces with the tools and skills we already know are at her disposal, rather than her suddenly being great at everything. And that means that sometimes she simply can't win a scenario, too - she has plenty of setbacks, they just tend to be unavoidable, rather than due to her doing something stupid. So that, probably more than anything, helps show her to be highly competent without stretching it into unrealistic territory.
James Islington
That came about for two reasons. One, was that at that point I was a little sick of the prophecies I was finding in a lot of fantasy books, where vague symbolism meant that they could end up meaning almost anything - which led me to wonder what a fantasy world might look like if people could actually see the future.
The second was that I'm Presbyterian, and so as soon as I started thinking about a world where the future could really be seen (as opposed to 'prophecies'), it led on very naturally to revolving around that theme!
The second was that I'm Presbyterian, and so as soon as I started thinking about a world where the future could really be seen (as opposed to 'prophecies'), it led on very naturally to revolving around that theme!
James Islington
I'm not sure there was a specific 'hardest' character to write... but if I had to choose, I'd say perhaps Eidhin, mainly because his arc took a few more passes than most of the others.
James Islington
Thank you! I can't say too much about the political aspects of The Strength of the Few (let's face it, I can't say too much about it at all just yet!), other than that you'll definitely see more of Vis coming up against Catenan politics...
James Islington
That's lovely to hear, thank you! From memory, Vis came first, with a vague idea of what the world around him should look like - and then the worldbuilding and story came after that. But each of those things influences the others so strongly as the story gets developed, it's really hard to say one was categorically formed before the other!
James Islington
Thank you! I'm not sure there's any one, or even a specific list, of media or stories that have inspired me - I've always read fantasy (Magician and Raymond Feist were favourites as a teen, Sanderson and Rothfuss in my twenties), but really my influences range from those, to TV and movies, to anime, to video games... I really just enjoy good stories, and always have. I think just being exposed to a wide range of different stories over the years, told in different formats and styles, has been really valuable to how I formulate my own!
James Islington
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James Islington
I'm not 100% sure, so don't take this as gospel, but I don't think there are any plans to at this stage... sorry!
James Islington
Not answering this one until The Strength of the Few is out, sorry! Probably in my progress update at the end of the year. But your guess for #3 isn't too far off :)
James Islington
It was very much a surprise! I think the worst pressure I've felt was while writing Echo - partly because I was worried the first book's success was a fluke, but mainly because that one felt very 'make or break' in terms of whether I could really make a career out of it (particularly with the responsibility of starting a family around the same time).
(Hierarchy, funnily enough, was almost the opposite - I'd proven I could complete a fairly complicated series with what I felt was a really satisfying ending, which let me take some swings with the story which I'm not sure I would have been confident enough to do, otherwise)
Having said that, I think that fear that the next book somehow won't live up to the last one is pretty natural (and I don't think it ever really goes away, no matter how many books you've written). I'm not sure I have any tips to deal with it, unfortunately! Except I suppose it's important to remember that as much as we want readers to love our books, it's impossible to guess what's going to click or not click for everyone else, and in the end it's still your story first - so as long as you're happy with it, that's kind of all you can do!
(Hierarchy, funnily enough, was almost the opposite - I'd proven I could complete a fairly complicated series with what I felt was a really satisfying ending, which let me take some swings with the story which I'm not sure I would have been confident enough to do, otherwise)
Having said that, I think that fear that the next book somehow won't live up to the last one is pretty natural (and I don't think it ever really goes away, no matter how many books you've written). I'm not sure I have any tips to deal with it, unfortunately! Except I suppose it's important to remember that as much as we want readers to love our books, it's impossible to guess what's going to click or not click for everyone else, and in the end it's still your story first - so as long as you're happy with it, that's kind of all you can do!
James Islington
I don't have confirmation myself, but I simply cannot imagine that Audible won't convince Euan back for the rest of the series. The main reason nothing's official yet is that the final copy of the book is just about to be finalised at the publisher, and Audible can't proceed until that's delivered to them - so I imagine once that's in their hands (very likely this month), we'll hear more soon after.
No plans for a dramatized or illustrated edition at this stage, but we'll see how things go as the series progresses!
No plans for a dramatized or illustrated edition at this stage, but we'll see how things go as the series progresses!
James Islington
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