Bruce Durham's Blog
April 24, 2013
Hey, I'm a Sorcerer!
I took this rather extensive survey at Easydamus.com to determine what kind of D&D character I am. Well, here at the results. Interesting, as I usually play a Ranger type.
I Am A: Neutral Good Human Sorcerer (8th Level)
Ability Scores:
Strength-13
Dexterity-14
Constitution-11
Intelligence-13
Wisdom-14
Charisma-12
Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment when it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.
Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.
Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.
Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)
I Am A: Neutral Good Human Sorcerer (8th Level)
Ability Scores:
Strength-13
Dexterity-14
Constitution-11
Intelligence-13
Wisdom-14
Charisma-12
Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment when it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.
Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.
Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.
Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)
April 13, 2012
Bruce Durham Interviews Janet Morris
1. Good day, Janet and Chris. Please tell us a bit about yourself.
I'm Janet Morris, writer, novelist, long-term strategic planner, and analyst. My writing and editing spans fiction and nonfiction, including papers, articles, op/eds, novels (from science fiction and historicals to simply "novels") and short fiction and non-fiction.
2. Your first novel, High Couch of Silistra, was published in 1977. Tell us about that sale. It must have been a great feeling.
I wrote the first three Silistra books for my own enjoyment. I knew no one in publishing. A friend said they thought it should be published and sent High Couch to Perry Knowlton of Curtis Brown, Ltd. Perry called me a few months later and said he loved it and would represent it and me. I was shocked. Perry represented me for the next fifteen years. Fred Pohl bought High Couch and the two sequels, and commissioned a fourth Silistra book. This allowed me to write full time.
3. Since then you have published over 20 novels, some co-authored with your husband, Chris. Which has been your best seller? Do you have a favorite, and why?
My favorite books are not necessarily the best-sellers. I loved High Couch, and it had 4 million in print when Carnelian Throne, the fourth in the series, was about to be published, according to Bantam then. Many books have done well. My favorites of all are "I, the Sun," a biographical novel about Suppiluliumas of Hatti at the time of the Amarna pharoahs in Egypt and The Sacred Band, the newest in the Sacred Band of Stepsons series.
4. You were part of the original Thieves’ World books, first published in 1979. From the series came the popular Tempus and the Sacred Band of Stepsons. Tell us about Tempus and the history behind the Sacred Band.
Tempus is my all-time favorite character; he's been with me for thirty years. The Sacred Band of Thebes and Herakleitos of Ephesos were the historical basis for these stories. Tempus and his Sacred Band of Stepsons needed more room than they had in Thieves' World(R), so we wrote a series of novels: Beyond Sanctuary, Beyond the Veil, Beyond Wizardwall -- all of which got hard-covers and were SFBC selections. Then we wrote three more (the 'Beyond' trilogy): City at the Edge of Time, Tempus Unbound, and Storm Seed and collected the five original TW Stepsons stories, plus nine new and rare Sacred Band tales, in Tempus (with his right-side companion Niko). Twenty years later, we wrote The Sacred Band, a big freestanding mythic novel in which we rescue twnty-three pairs of survivors frm the Sacred Band of Thebes.
5. At one point you and Chris took a long hiatus to pursue some important work outside the literary field. Recently you have returned to writing, releasing The Sacred Band and Tempus with his Right-Side Companion Niko. What drew you back?
Tempus wanted a new novel. He's very persuasive. And we have more to say now, a deeper perspective, that is best said by the Sacred Band of Stepsons. It was very satisfying and we have a new Tempus collection and another Sacred Band novel planned.
6. Before your aforementioned departure, you created a shared-world series beginning with the aptly titled Heroes in Hell, released in 1986. The series encompassed 12 volumes before ending in 1989. It featured many well-known authors and received several nominations, including a HUGO Award in 1986. So, the obvious question is, why Hell? What interested you about a shared-world theme in that setting?
We had enjoyed TW, but there was much conflict under the surface among writers. The shared form interested us, and we wanted to try managing a shared universe of our own. Hell was perfect for us, since we like the mix of historical, mythical, scientific, and fantasy: so Heroes in Hell was defined by us and populated by writers we respected. Shared universes are hell to write in any case, so doing one IN Hell, mankind's first shared universe, made sense: all the complexities of man's evolution are available and writing about hell is a mythic tradition with us since ancient times.
7. With the release of the Sacred Band novels, you and Chris have also resurrected the Heroes in Hell franchise. What was the draw to revisit Hell?
Reviving Hell was and is an experiment in the potential benefits of interactivity: in the days of shared universes past, intimate contact on a daily basis among writers was impossible. Technology allows all our Hellions (writers) to comment and organize fiction as never before in an iterative process that is like a brotherhood: we brought our Sacred Band ethos to the LIH project, and the results pleased us greatly. So more HIH volumes are in the works.
8. The first book in the new series, Lawyers in Hell, is scheduled for a July release. How did it feel climbing back into the saddle, so to speak, especially with a combination of returning, established authors and a crop of new writers, both published and unpublished?
In Heroes in Hell (HIH), we'd always used one or more previously unpublished writers, or writers who were novelists but had not published short fiction. We invited some veteran Hellions, and wrote the first stories as guide stories, as we'd always done. There was groping at first for new writers and an understanding of our Hell among those not adequately familiar with the previous books. It felt good from the first: exciting, adventurous. The group still feels that way today, and those feelings permeate the stories. Sometimes we need to correct them, but the enthusiasm among the Hellions is contagious.
9. Were there any lessons from the original series that you wanted to avoid this time around?
We avoided the pitfalls we and other shared-world proprietors had found by making the rules for writing in our Hell very clear from the beginning: the characters and milieu belong to the series; writers cannot take their characters and hell milieu outside our franchise. That solved the proprietary problems. Other problems, literary and plot difficulties, need to be handled as they emerge. The interactive nature of the Hellions Working Group allows us to do this quickly and smoothly. The camaraderie has held, among the group, and that is most important: the respect and help one another and the stories are the better for this.
10. Hell as a subject can be touchy to certain elements of society. There must have been some ground-breaking concepts in the original series. Was there any controversy or backlash from the material? If so, do you think people will be more accepting this time around?
Certain sects and fundamentalist-leaning people found our portrayals of the various underworlds disturbing, one assumes. Those people simply don't buy these books. Hell is very tongue-in-cheek, yet very serious. We tackle big issues. If that isn't to someone's taste, they don't read it. But today people are more connected and many are more sophisticated. The HIH series is best enjoyed by people with a like sensibility. We can reach more of those people, worldwide, today.
11. Beyond the fantasy and horror aspects of Hell, the series is an historian’s dream. Where else would you have Wellington and Napoleon as neighbors, or Alexander the Great adventuring with Julius Caesar and Achilles? Then you have the vast cultures and many religious versions of the afterlife as well as historical accuracy to contend with. Did you ever imagine Hell would become so varied and complicated? With so many authors, characters and storylines (past, present and future), how do you keep it coordinated and manageable?
Hell was meant to be diverse, to house all the underworlds ever glimpsed by humanity. So we're most satisfied with this LIH volume of stories, since it has vast scope and allows complexity while avoiding confusion. We use our group Muse, Sarah Hulcy, and a methodology to keep characters and hells in order. We coordinate with the group daily. Previously, The Little Helliad (by Chris and Janet Morris) was one of the most successful books because coordination between Chris and me was very close. We're achieving that now with Lawyers and its follow-ons.
12. You are working with several authors for the first time. Having them understand the concept of a shared-world, especially one as storied as Heroes in Hell, with its history and rules, can be daunting and difficult. Were there any pleasant surprises? Any stories or themes that made you sit up and take notice? Any disappointments?
There are always disappointments when people are involved in creative projects. We only rejected three stories: we help the authors if they need it; we are careful to make sure the characters and synopses will mesh with the overarching plot line; we seldom give a writer permission to go forward if we're unsure that the story is important to the book. Scott Oden, who had never written a short story before, was a very pleasant surprise: he's historically well-versed and has a compelling voice. Sarah Hulcy gave us an elegant and tender tale. Sarah and Larry Atchley, Jr., a first-time writer who wanted to reach for the starts and got there, coordinated their stories as if they'd been doing shared worlds for years. The theme of Heaven sending auditors to hell to administer Injustice was the meta-arc, and our way of improving on the HIH books of the past. This arc has yielded so many pleasant surprises we can't name just one or two.
13. Now that Lawyers in Hell is under your belt, how do you see the series progressing? What’s next? Do you envision a grand finale sometime down the road?
Next is Rogues in Hell. We've written the intro and the first and last stories, and writers have their assignments and their deadline. Some RIH stories are already in our hands. After RIH comes Visionaries in Hell, and then Swashbucklers. And we have four more in planning stages. We have already received the first HIH novel for the new series, by Michael Armstrong, and we hope you'll see the full-length novel, "Bridge Over Hell," in the spring.
14. What SF&F authors do you like to read? What non-SF&F authors?
I read all the classic sf, when I was a pre-teen. I think I'll skip naming living authors. I read much F&SF for so long, the list would be voluminous and some of my griends in the field might feel slighted if not mentioned.
15. What authors, if any, have influenced or inspired you?
Hesiod, Homer, Virgil, Aristophanes, Plato, Plutarch, Sappho, J from the Old Testament, Spenser, Shakespeare, Marlowe, MIlton, Chaucer, Shelley, Keats, Byron, Melville, Hawthorne, C.S. Lewis, Orwell, Wodehouse, Waugh. Moderns: Russell Baker, Marguerite Yourcenar, John Le Carre, John Barth, John Fowles, Henry Kissenger, Roger Penrose, Dawkins, Ed Wilson.
16. If you could sit down with any of your characters for an evening of conversation, who would it be? Why? What would you talk about?
Tempus and Niko. Life and death. Ethos and honor. Patience and how to use it. The Balance and how to ensure it.
17. Finally, you and Chris are well-known for breeding thoroughbreds, with great success. How did you become involved in this?
We actually began with, and are equally known for, American Morgan Horses, the only horse the U.S. Government ever bread, and our cavalry horse and partner through all the our wars. Moving to Kentucky, trying Thoroughbreds was inevitable. but for riding, the Morgan is still our first love.
18. Thank you for your time, Janet and Chris. Any closing thoughts?
Do what you love. Love what do do. Life is too short for anything else.
I'm Janet Morris, writer, novelist, long-term strategic planner, and analyst. My writing and editing spans fiction and nonfiction, including papers, articles, op/eds, novels (from science fiction and historicals to simply "novels") and short fiction and non-fiction.
2. Your first novel, High Couch of Silistra, was published in 1977. Tell us about that sale. It must have been a great feeling.
I wrote the first three Silistra books for my own enjoyment. I knew no one in publishing. A friend said they thought it should be published and sent High Couch to Perry Knowlton of Curtis Brown, Ltd. Perry called me a few months later and said he loved it and would represent it and me. I was shocked. Perry represented me for the next fifteen years. Fred Pohl bought High Couch and the two sequels, and commissioned a fourth Silistra book. This allowed me to write full time.
3. Since then you have published over 20 novels, some co-authored with your husband, Chris. Which has been your best seller? Do you have a favorite, and why?
My favorite books are not necessarily the best-sellers. I loved High Couch, and it had 4 million in print when Carnelian Throne, the fourth in the series, was about to be published, according to Bantam then. Many books have done well. My favorites of all are "I, the Sun," a biographical novel about Suppiluliumas of Hatti at the time of the Amarna pharoahs in Egypt and The Sacred Band, the newest in the Sacred Band of Stepsons series.
4. You were part of the original Thieves’ World books, first published in 1979. From the series came the popular Tempus and the Sacred Band of Stepsons. Tell us about Tempus and the history behind the Sacred Band.
Tempus is my all-time favorite character; he's been with me for thirty years. The Sacred Band of Thebes and Herakleitos of Ephesos were the historical basis for these stories. Tempus and his Sacred Band of Stepsons needed more room than they had in Thieves' World(R), so we wrote a series of novels: Beyond Sanctuary, Beyond the Veil, Beyond Wizardwall -- all of which got hard-covers and were SFBC selections. Then we wrote three more (the 'Beyond' trilogy): City at the Edge of Time, Tempus Unbound, and Storm Seed and collected the five original TW Stepsons stories, plus nine new and rare Sacred Band tales, in Tempus (with his right-side companion Niko). Twenty years later, we wrote The Sacred Band, a big freestanding mythic novel in which we rescue twnty-three pairs of survivors frm the Sacred Band of Thebes.
5. At one point you and Chris took a long hiatus to pursue some important work outside the literary field. Recently you have returned to writing, releasing The Sacred Band and Tempus with his Right-Side Companion Niko. What drew you back?
Tempus wanted a new novel. He's very persuasive. And we have more to say now, a deeper perspective, that is best said by the Sacred Band of Stepsons. It was very satisfying and we have a new Tempus collection and another Sacred Band novel planned.
6. Before your aforementioned departure, you created a shared-world series beginning with the aptly titled Heroes in Hell, released in 1986. The series encompassed 12 volumes before ending in 1989. It featured many well-known authors and received several nominations, including a HUGO Award in 1986. So, the obvious question is, why Hell? What interested you about a shared-world theme in that setting?
We had enjoyed TW, but there was much conflict under the surface among writers. The shared form interested us, and we wanted to try managing a shared universe of our own. Hell was perfect for us, since we like the mix of historical, mythical, scientific, and fantasy: so Heroes in Hell was defined by us and populated by writers we respected. Shared universes are hell to write in any case, so doing one IN Hell, mankind's first shared universe, made sense: all the complexities of man's evolution are available and writing about hell is a mythic tradition with us since ancient times.
7. With the release of the Sacred Band novels, you and Chris have also resurrected the Heroes in Hell franchise. What was the draw to revisit Hell?
Reviving Hell was and is an experiment in the potential benefits of interactivity: in the days of shared universes past, intimate contact on a daily basis among writers was impossible. Technology allows all our Hellions (writers) to comment and organize fiction as never before in an iterative process that is like a brotherhood: we brought our Sacred Band ethos to the LIH project, and the results pleased us greatly. So more HIH volumes are in the works.
8. The first book in the new series, Lawyers in Hell, is scheduled for a July release. How did it feel climbing back into the saddle, so to speak, especially with a combination of returning, established authors and a crop of new writers, both published and unpublished?
In Heroes in Hell (HIH), we'd always used one or more previously unpublished writers, or writers who were novelists but had not published short fiction. We invited some veteran Hellions, and wrote the first stories as guide stories, as we'd always done. There was groping at first for new writers and an understanding of our Hell among those not adequately familiar with the previous books. It felt good from the first: exciting, adventurous. The group still feels that way today, and those feelings permeate the stories. Sometimes we need to correct them, but the enthusiasm among the Hellions is contagious.
9. Were there any lessons from the original series that you wanted to avoid this time around?
We avoided the pitfalls we and other shared-world proprietors had found by making the rules for writing in our Hell very clear from the beginning: the characters and milieu belong to the series; writers cannot take their characters and hell milieu outside our franchise. That solved the proprietary problems. Other problems, literary and plot difficulties, need to be handled as they emerge. The interactive nature of the Hellions Working Group allows us to do this quickly and smoothly. The camaraderie has held, among the group, and that is most important: the respect and help one another and the stories are the better for this.
10. Hell as a subject can be touchy to certain elements of society. There must have been some ground-breaking concepts in the original series. Was there any controversy or backlash from the material? If so, do you think people will be more accepting this time around?
Certain sects and fundamentalist-leaning people found our portrayals of the various underworlds disturbing, one assumes. Those people simply don't buy these books. Hell is very tongue-in-cheek, yet very serious. We tackle big issues. If that isn't to someone's taste, they don't read it. But today people are more connected and many are more sophisticated. The HIH series is best enjoyed by people with a like sensibility. We can reach more of those people, worldwide, today.
11. Beyond the fantasy and horror aspects of Hell, the series is an historian’s dream. Where else would you have Wellington and Napoleon as neighbors, or Alexander the Great adventuring with Julius Caesar and Achilles? Then you have the vast cultures and many religious versions of the afterlife as well as historical accuracy to contend with. Did you ever imagine Hell would become so varied and complicated? With so many authors, characters and storylines (past, present and future), how do you keep it coordinated and manageable?
Hell was meant to be diverse, to house all the underworlds ever glimpsed by humanity. So we're most satisfied with this LIH volume of stories, since it has vast scope and allows complexity while avoiding confusion. We use our group Muse, Sarah Hulcy, and a methodology to keep characters and hells in order. We coordinate with the group daily. Previously, The Little Helliad (by Chris and Janet Morris) was one of the most successful books because coordination between Chris and me was very close. We're achieving that now with Lawyers and its follow-ons.
12. You are working with several authors for the first time. Having them understand the concept of a shared-world, especially one as storied as Heroes in Hell, with its history and rules, can be daunting and difficult. Were there any pleasant surprises? Any stories or themes that made you sit up and take notice? Any disappointments?
There are always disappointments when people are involved in creative projects. We only rejected three stories: we help the authors if they need it; we are careful to make sure the characters and synopses will mesh with the overarching plot line; we seldom give a writer permission to go forward if we're unsure that the story is important to the book. Scott Oden, who had never written a short story before, was a very pleasant surprise: he's historically well-versed and has a compelling voice. Sarah Hulcy gave us an elegant and tender tale. Sarah and Larry Atchley, Jr., a first-time writer who wanted to reach for the starts and got there, coordinated their stories as if they'd been doing shared worlds for years. The theme of Heaven sending auditors to hell to administer Injustice was the meta-arc, and our way of improving on the HIH books of the past. This arc has yielded so many pleasant surprises we can't name just one or two.
13. Now that Lawyers in Hell is under your belt, how do you see the series progressing? What’s next? Do you envision a grand finale sometime down the road?
Next is Rogues in Hell. We've written the intro and the first and last stories, and writers have their assignments and their deadline. Some RIH stories are already in our hands. After RIH comes Visionaries in Hell, and then Swashbucklers. And we have four more in planning stages. We have already received the first HIH novel for the new series, by Michael Armstrong, and we hope you'll see the full-length novel, "Bridge Over Hell," in the spring.
14. What SF&F authors do you like to read? What non-SF&F authors?
I read all the classic sf, when I was a pre-teen. I think I'll skip naming living authors. I read much F&SF for so long, the list would be voluminous and some of my griends in the field might feel slighted if not mentioned.
15. What authors, if any, have influenced or inspired you?
Hesiod, Homer, Virgil, Aristophanes, Plato, Plutarch, Sappho, J from the Old Testament, Spenser, Shakespeare, Marlowe, MIlton, Chaucer, Shelley, Keats, Byron, Melville, Hawthorne, C.S. Lewis, Orwell, Wodehouse, Waugh. Moderns: Russell Baker, Marguerite Yourcenar, John Le Carre, John Barth, John Fowles, Henry Kissenger, Roger Penrose, Dawkins, Ed Wilson.
16. If you could sit down with any of your characters for an evening of conversation, who would it be? Why? What would you talk about?
Tempus and Niko. Life and death. Ethos and honor. Patience and how to use it. The Balance and how to ensure it.
17. Finally, you and Chris are well-known for breeding thoroughbreds, with great success. How did you become involved in this?
We actually began with, and are equally known for, American Morgan Horses, the only horse the U.S. Government ever bread, and our cavalry horse and partner through all the our wars. Moving to Kentucky, trying Thoroughbreds was inevitable. but for riding, the Morgan is still our first love.
18. Thank you for your time, Janet and Chris. Any closing thoughts?
Do what you love. Love what do do. Life is too short for anything else.
