How different is Corwyn from the other characters you’ve written?

    I don’t want to give it all away too soon, but he isn’t necessarily what you think of when you envision a “fantasy hero”. He’s not some sword wielding manic, or anything like that. In fact he doesn’t even carry a weapon.

    Again, I don’t want to give away too much, but because of how he turned out it made it a fun challenge to see how stories developed because of his nature.

So how did this book come about?

    To be honest, it was created through the long process of an idea I had several years ago for a unique take on a fantasy story. I wanted to present a story that had a main character who wasn’t so combat oriented and allowed for a new look and take on some old things.

    Corwyn was a hard character to realize and write for – still is some days – but through a process of many incomplete stories, he was honed and the concept fully fleshed out. In the process of trying to figure him out, I created some story fragments that I then took up and turned into complete short story ideas.

    So you can say the process was sort of piece mail in a way, I guess.

So after all that time of trying to figure him out and get these stories put together, do you still like Corwyn or has he become a troublesome figure for you to wrestle with?

    I’ve grown to really like Corwyn, as I hope many readers will. He’s fun in that we get to see him in a varied collection of situations in the anthology and that lets him show off some facets of his personality and also showcase a bit more of The World of Tralodren®.

    Having a smaller amount of pages to contend with, however, makes it a bit easier to work with Corwyn. He just seems a natural when it comes to shorter fare than other characters I’ve written so far and that is a unique thing to experience when you write. When you can finish a short story and you’re satisfied with it and so is the character, then that’s a great blessing to have as a writer.

    I can’t tell you how demanding some characters can be… namely one right now who is asking for another series just to showcase himself… but we’ll save that news for another day.

In the same vein, why should people be interested in this book? What sets it apart from the rest of the work you’ve done? What ties it together, if anything?

    Hmm. That’s a really large question.

    Number one, The Adventures of Corwyn is a fun mix of stories and ideas. You got a sort of suspense/horror tale in there and a fun action-adventure story and then a few more introspective pieces that I really enjoyed.

    Number two, is that you have a new character and a take/set of eyes to see The World of Tralodren®. Corwyn runs around a good portion of Talatheal and even ventures into the Northlands about two decades after events in The Divine Gambit Trilogy. I don’t want to give too much away but the world setting is made larger in this short story anthology and we can see it in a normal way – as it is when the world isn’t being threatened with destruction.

    That’s part three too. I didn’t really want to write another large epic story with cosmos-changing plots, etc. and opted for a simpler tale of localized fun and adventure. In that way, The Adventures of Corwyn isn’t a fat epic tome but a more modest five story collection that doesn’t require you to get through three large books to get the entire story.

    In the larger sense, however, it is tied to the rest of The World of Tralodren® in that it takes place on the same planet as the other four works I’ve published and ties into the reality created by them. So in that sense, this collection ties into the rest of the stories I’ve written.

It does sound like an interesting new work. When is it coming out?

    Last I heard, May 13th 2008.

Is this part of a series or a stand alone work?

    This is a complete stand alone work. It’s a great way to get a feel for Tralodren if you’re a new comer to the world setting and a nice tie in if you’re a veteran to the other books so far. So you don’t have to feel like you’re missing something if you don’t read the other books in The World of Tralodren® before this one nor that you have to commit to anything after this anthology or even after the first story in it. All the stories in The Adventures of Corwyn are self-contained.

    Thanks to Chad for his time and make sure you stop by next month when there will be an interview with the artist who worked on the book, Tiffany Prothero. See you in thirty.

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