Katharine Kerr hosts a Deverry Q&A discussion

Ian asked various questions about the process of writing the Deverry books. It took me 27 years from the first words I wrote (February, 1982) to the publication of Silver Mage in 2009. And I never once felt in control of what I was doing. The overall story unfolded itself one chunk at a time. While I usually knew what came next, I had no idea how the sequence would end until I started writing THE SHADOW ISLE.

Fairly early in the process I did know roughly what had happened in most of the past life sequences. I made a bunch of notes and a timeline for those round about 1990. I also knew the history of Deverry proper and had some ideas of what had happened to the elven cultures fairly early. Places like Cerr Cawnen, however, took me by surprise.

When I started, I thought I was writing a short story. This grew to a novella, which was absolutely awful. I eventually burned it in our fireplace. What was wrong was the tone, the characterizations, and the utter lack of a realistic setting. :-) Just got a few details wrong, huh? However, the opening of that story, much reworked, does reappear in A TIME OF OMENS when Carra and Nedd go into the inn and see the silver daggers sitting at a table.

But I kept thinking I was writing a trilogy of novels for some foolish years after that. It kept getting longer and longer as I explored the setting and the characters began telling me what they would or would not do.

Wow, thank you for your candid and detailed answer to my questions! I never dreamed when I was reading these books that I'd ever get to actually talk to the author - online or otherwise.

I recall being very surprised by the introduction of Cerr Cawnen - it wasn't at all what I was expecting, and at first I was wishing the story would move back to Deverry and Eldidd and the familiar characters, where I felt it belonged. But by the end of that book the town seemed to fit in with the rest better... though I didn't understand quite why until I re-read the series later and appreciated just why Cerr Cawnen came into existence and what kind of town it was.

One more thing - I think what I most appreciate about this series is that it actually got finished. There's nothing more disappointing than getting partway through an amazing story, only to never know the ending because the storyteller isn't able or doesn't want to finish it. If there's more to tell, great, but if not, at least this story can stand proud as it is.

Cerr Cawnen appeared to me in a dream one night, oddly enough: I saw the crannog city, the walls, and the mist rising from the water. In the dream someone said, "Caldera." And I woke up and began scribbling notes like mad. My poor husband has been woken many many times by me turning on the light on my side of the bed so I could scribble notes! But I didn't really know how important that caldera was going to be for some books afterward.

Finishing: I will always be grateful to DAW books for picking up the last quartet after Bantam dropped the series. I was writing THE BLACK RAVEN when my editor at Bantam was given a new boss, who didn't like the books and tried to end the series right then and there. My editor, bless her, fought to at least get THE FIRE DRAGON into print in the US, because HarperCollinsUK had already agreed to publish it. But I couldn't get another US publisher right away. DAW did however pick up the last 4 books, and they gave them royal treatment, too, in hardback with nifty covers. This was before self-published ebooks became so practical, so I was at my wit's end until they did contract for them.

I am so pleased that they did, and that THE FIRE DRAGON was published. How would we have coped without knowing how those stories finished

Mary Wombat wrote: "I am so pleased that they did, and that THE FIRE DRAGON was published. How would we have coped without knowing how those stories finished"

I know! It was hard enough waiting for the last few to make it into print - I had some really anxious moments wondering if they would ever see the light of day. Seeing the first few chapters of one of the books - the one where Neb is introduced - go up online prior to the book coming out was very encouraging, and gave me faith that the rest of the books would come along in time.