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Barnes & Noble Interview (1999)
We
recently had the pleasure of speaking with author Elizabeth Haydon. We
discussed the launch of her ambitious new fantasy epic, RHAPSODY, her strict
attention to detail, her exciting online songwriting contest, and the wild New
Orleans night that sparked her writing career. Enjoy our interview.
bn.com:
Tell us about your debut
fantasy novel, RHAPSODY. Set up the story line for those who have yet to
discover it.
Elizabeth Haydon:
Three mismatched companions come together
unintentionally and end up escaping the devastation of their homeland in a
fiery cataclysm. RHAPSODY is the story of their journey across time, away from
the doomed Island of Serendair to a place that may be even more dangerous; the
riddle entwined in the history of the new land; and the mystery of the evil
that may have survived with them.
Rhapsody is a Singer, a woman who has been forced to serve some time in the
streets as a prostitute and now is studying the ancient musical arts of her
mother's people, the Lirin science of Naming. While attempting to escape the
henchmen of an obsessed former client, she falls in with two shady characters,
a gigantic Firbolg mercenary named Grunthor, who is a Sergeant-Major by trade,
and a mysterious assassin known only as The Brother. Both men are on the run
from an ancient demon who is in possession of The Brother's true name, planning
to flee the Island.
In the course of their tangled meeting, Rhapsody uses her newly learned power
to rename the Brother "Achmed the Snake". This action snaps the metaphysical
collar of servitude the demon has used to keep the assassin in his thrall,
setting "Achmed" free. The two men decide to take Rhapsody with them, since
they don't know whether her actions have saved the assassin or compromised him
even further.
The companions travel to a primeval wood, a holy forest where the Great Tree,
Sagia, grows. Legend says that this enormous oak grows in one of the five
places where time itself began, and its roots wind through the Earth, tying it
to all things that grow. It is through the root of this tree that the three
companions escape, and find themselves on the other side of time, 14 centuries
in the future, in a place colonized by the descendants of the people who fled
their homeland before it was destroyed. As they traverse this new and strangely
violent continent, they begin to suspect that they are not the only inhabitants
of Serendair who have survived -- that the evil they escaped on one side of the
world may be here, in the new world, hiding in wait for its time to come forth.
bn.com:
Explain your use of music in RHAPSODY.
EH:
In the mythos of this story, the five elements that formed the world -- fire,
water, air, earth, and ether (the matter that makes up the stars) -- still
resonate power left over from the time of creation. That power gives off
vibrations. Certain individuals, because of physiology or training, can
manipulate those vibrations and derive power from them. I suppose some might
call this magic, but it has a scientific basis.
Achmed is an example of physiology making use of those vibrations. He is
half-Dhracian, a race that has a skin-web of exposed veins and nerve endings
that make Dhracians sensitive to the currents of the air and the various
signatures of vibration around them. Achmed's particular gift allows him to
track the heartbeats of humanoid prey; he can sense the unique rhythm of an
individual's heart, match his own pulse to it, and follow it without error. In
a way, this is a use of music.
Rhapsody is a more traditional example of musicianship. At one point, she
explains to Achmed and Grunthor that different kinds of music are the maps
through the vibrations that make up all the world, and that if you have the
right map, it will take you to wherever you want to go. Those of her race and
profession have long studied musical lore and are the depository of a vast
treasure of songs of history. In addition, she has attained the highest level
of this profession; she's a Namer, someone so attuned to the music of a given
thing's name that she can alter the reality around it through musical
manipulation. Namers are foresworn to the truth, because if they interject any
false notes into a given "song," it dilutes its power.
There is music all through the RHAPSODY trilogy -- grisly (and humorous)
marching cadences sung by the Firbolg, songs of healing and Naming, war chants
and lullabies -- it is ever-present in the description of the world around
them, the wind in the forest trees, the song of the Earth as they crawl within
it. My clearest memory of
C. S. Lewis
and
Tolkien
was hearing music the whole time I was reading, like a soundtrack. I hope that
comes across somewhat in RHAPSODY as well.
bn.com:
How much research went into your novel?
According to your web site (http://www.elizabethhaydon.com),
many of the marvelous weapons in RHAPSODY were influenced by actual arms. Give
us a few examples.
EH:
An embarrassing amount of research went into this book; I'm an
editor by profession, and we tend to be anal-retentive when it comes to
accuracy. It would be nice to be able to relax a little and just let the
creativity flow, but alas, I fear it will be an uphill battle against my nature
as long as I'm writing. In addition to the research, I coaxed quite a few
experts in various fields to review the manuscript for accuracy, to make sure
the herbalism, music theory, archaeology, anthropology of the various racial
societies, weaponry, and military tactics were all correct. The languages are
linguistically accurate. Everything else I just kind of made up.
Some weapons examples: The knives that the Bolg manufacture are based on a
triple-bladed throwing knife of the Bwaka people of central Africa, which
rotates in flight and can pierce at almost any attitude at which it impacts.
Achmed's cwellan (which is the Old English word for "kill") is based on a form
of Mongolian crossbow, which hurled projectiles at a side angle by force of
recoil. Grunthor is a weapons enthusiast and a walking arsenal; I had to make
certain that the tech level of the weapons in his stash were appropriate to the
approximate technology period of RHAPSODY and to the natural resources of the
places he had traveled.
bn.com:
Talk a bit about the prophecy in which you refer to the "lifestages of all men"
-- Blood, Earth, and Sky.
EH: Aw,
come on -- that would be telling! Well, OK, just a little bit. The prophecy you
refer to was uttered at the end of a terrible war, which had divided the
Cymrians against each other and the continent against itself. They were looking
for a reason to have hope, and they asked the Seer of the Future, who was mad
and spoke in riddles, if so great a rift could be mended. This was her answer:
The Three shall come,
leaving early,
arriving late,
The lifestages of all men:
Child of Blood,
Child of Earth,
Child of the Sky.
Each man,
formed in blood and born in it,
Walks the Earth and sustained by it,
Reaching to the sky,
and sheltered beneath it,
He ascends there only in his ending,
becoming part of the stars.
Blood gives new beginning,
Earth gives sustenance,
the Sky gives dreams in life --
eternity in death.
Thus shall the Three be,
one to the other.
One of the repeating themes in the
trilogy examines truth and deception, and how close they can sometimes be.
While the Seers can only speak the truth, they don't always reveal everything
they know, and sometimes what they say is technically true, but deceiving.
Prophecies can have more than one meaning, and they don't always mean what they
seem. Achmed ignores them for this reason.
The line in the prophecy that is in the past tense -- formed in blood and born
in it -- is in general a reference to birth, the first lifestage of man. The
line in the present tense -- walks the Earth and sustained by it -- alludes to
the second and primary lifestage, the actual lifespan. The line in future tense
-- reaching to the sky, and sheltered beneath it, he ascends there only in his
ending, becoming part of the stars -- refers to death and afterlife. Each of
these examples also refers to one of the Three, those whose coming was foretold
as one way that the rift might be healed. It is possible that Achmed could be
the Child of Blood, given that he is an assassin; Grunthor is tied to the
Earth; and Rhapsody is Liringlas, a Skysinger, the race known as children of
the sky. But of course, I can't promise anything, because, after all, one
should never trust prophecies completely, because they don't necessarily mean
what they seem.
bn.com:
Do you have a favorite character to write? I
must say, Grunthor is my favorite to read.
EH: He's my favorite to write as
well. What's fun about Grunthor is that he's such a contradiction -- ferocious
and gentle, a brutal adversary, a no-nonsense Sergeant Major to his troops, but
sweet to Rhapsody and later to Jo, the teenaged street urchin she adopts. For a
Firbolg crossbred with an even more monstrous race, he embodies a good deal of
personal wisdom and uncommon grace. He likes to sing grisly marching songs.
Plus he's funny. He is the fulcrum between Achmed and Rhapsody, who are
opposite sides of the same coin. While they both undergo tremendous transition,
Grunthor remains consistent. And he reminds me a great deal of my editor, Jim
Minz.
bn.com:
What drove you to write fantasy fiction in the first place?
EH: Clinical insanity. Actually, it
was a favor to an editorial friend. I had read C. S. Lewis as a young child,
Tolkien as an older one, and some fantasy in college, but had lost touch with
the field after that. I work in educational publishing. In 1994, I met up with
an editorial friend and mentor in New Orleans at the American Library
Association conference, and he asked me to write him a fantasy that might cross
over to other genres and contain some of the mutual interests we shared, like
medieval music, history, anthropology, and herbalism. I was uncertain about it
(we had been drinking something called Dixie Blackened Voodoo, and initially, I
thought he was drunk when he suggested it) because I had never written a novel
before, but when it became clear he really wanted me to do it, I gave it a
shot. I created a universe's history and then fell in love with the story.
Writing in this genre has awakened a long-dormant creative side of me that I
never realized I missed so much.
bn.com:
Is it true there is a movie in the works?
EH: Yes, it was optioned for film
even before it was offered to publishers as a book. The screenplay is almost
done.
bn.com:
In addition to this interview, are you planning any other online promotions for
RHAPSODY?
EH: Yes,
two major initiatives are the Collectible Bookplate Giveaway and the Firbolg
Composer Interactive Songwriting Contest, both of which can be found on my web
site, www.elizabethhaydon.com, or on Tor's site, www.tor.com. Each book in the
Rhapsody trilogy will have a limited edition collectible bookplate designed
especially for it (Sensible Legal Man says to tell you that supplies are
limited). Readers can get an autographed one free while they last by sending a
self-addressed stamped envelope to:
RHAPSODY BOOKPLATE OFFER
c/o Tor Books
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
I'm really excited about the
songwriting contest. Part of the magic that takes place when storytelling
happens comes from the participation of the audience. Unfortunately, the
writers of fantasy miss out on that magic, on seeing the faces of the readers
when they are listening to the tale, on hearing the laughter or inviting the
audience to join in the story. This is a chance for me to open up the story a
little and share the excitement of the writing and publishing process. The
object is simple: write a song lyric for a marching cadence for Grunthor. We'll
publish the contest winner, with credit given on the copyright page to its
composer, in PROPHECY: CHILD OF EARTH, the sequel to RHAPSODY. The prizes and
rules are listed on my web site (www.elizabethhaydon.com) and Tor's web site
(www.tor.com). The deadline for entries is December 31st.
bn.com:
RHAPSODY is a massive fantasy novel -- in
size and in scope. How many volumes do you see your series spanning? When can
we expect Volume No. 2?
EH:
Volume No. 2 of the trilogy, PROPHECY: CHILD OF EARTH, is due out in
July of 2000. It's complete and in the process of minor revisions right now, so
I don't expect any significant delays unless I get a hernia carrying it to the
post office.
Part of the development of the Rhapsody trilogy was the mapping out of the
world's history from its formation to its destruction. I wrote it with a time
line; if the beginning of the world is zero on the time line, and the farthest
event I could envision is ten, RHAPSODY takes place approximately at six. I
know what came before this era, and what will follow it.
Because this story is a history, it has many epochs to it, eras of time which
are distinct stories. The trilogy that began with RHAPSODY will offer a
definitive conclusion to this story at the end of the third volume. I'm an
impatient reader myself, and I need some points of conclusion in a story, so I
can't see myself writing a completely open-ended series with the same
characters going through a series of new adventures each time. That being said,
there are eras both before and after this trilogy that I would love to explore.
The surviving characters from this trilogy do have future stories. Also
extremely interesting to me is the exploration of the stories that precede the
trilogy -- the events that are history to the people in RHAPSODY. All of this
depends, of course, on the readers.
bn.com:
Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions, Elizabeth. Tons of luck
with RHAPSODY.
EH: Thank you. I appreciate your
time and the opportunity.
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