Fantasy author Garth Nix

Whether or not you like or liked fantasy books as a kid, most people would agree that there are certain fantasy authors whose works should be required reading for every child. In my opinion, one of these authors is Garth Nix. A really brilliant fantasy author, Nix has crafted such brilliant books as The Ragwitch, Shade's Children, and those in the Abhorsen and Old Kingdom series. I recently had the opportunity to sit down (at my computer) and chat with him over AIM about the writing process, his unique method of touch-typing, and the stories yet to come.

Keely Weiss: Hello... So it's good to be talking to you!
Garth Nix: Thanks. You have some questions?

KW: Yes, absolutely
GN: Fire away!

KW: first off, there's a little program that was recently created on facebook called "Imperial Galaxy" which you had quite a hand in making...
GN: Yes. IMPERIAL GALAXY is a massively multiplayer game on Facebook. I co-designed the game and the background for it is based on a forthcoming novel of mine, A CONFUSION OF PRINCES. A beta release of the game is available to Facebook users now, and we're really happy with how the Beta test is going.
GN: In fact a big update was released last night and I've been playing the game this morning. One of the things Phil Wallach, my co-designer and the software engineer for the project, wanted to do was to create a game that we would like to play.
GN: I mean one of the things we both wanted to do! I haven't had a coffee yet this morning . . . you can probably tell.

KW: I understand, I'm never able to get to any coffee before 10 in the morning... I sympathize! What's the objective of the game, and could you talk a little about the background/world that it shares with your upcoming novel?
GN: IMPERIAL GALAXY is a kind of hybrid role-playing/strategy game. You play a Prince serving in the navy of an interstellar empire (the term is non-gender specific), and you've been sent to help reclaim a lost part of the Empire. Basically you try and advance in the Navy, gain awards and decorations, improve skills and so on, by surveying systems, carrying out reconnaissance missions and by engaging in fleet battles co-operatively with other Princes against various alien, rebel and criminal enemies.
GN: Everyone is in the same persistent dynamic universe -- what you do actually matters. There are numerous "sub-games" within the main game, things like managing and swapping ship modules, pieces of uniform and so on, and there are more to come as we gradually implement everything we have planned.
GN: How it relates to the book is that the setting is the same -- the same setup of Princes who are selected as babies from normal families and remade over the next sixteen years to serve the Empire, so they have no affiliation with the ordinary people. There are three types of technology which are used to do so, Mektek, Psitek and Bitek and these are significant in both the game and the book. Then there are priests who serve different Aspects of the Emperor . . . lots of fun stuff.
GN: As part of the update last night we've actually put up the first chapter of A CONFUSION OF PRINCES as a sample, so that probably gives the best idea. It's available from the Help tab in the game -- which like all Facebook applications you can be invited to join or just search the Applications to find and add it.
GN: That's probably enough of me waffling on . . .

KW: Ha, waffle on all you like! Lately though I've had to wonder if you've ever had coffee with Max Barry--a writer who, like you, is Australian and who, similar to your creation of Imperial Galaxy, created the online game NationStates from his book Jennifer Government...
GN: Unfortunately I've never met Max Barry. I'd like to. I didn't know he done an online game -- so much stuff happens on the Internet, it's hard to keep track of even a small part of it.
GN: You've reminded me that I read a review of Barry's latest book, COMPANY, I think and I meant to buy and read it. Now I've been reminded I'll pick it up.
GN: I'm typing too fast . . . sorry about the odd typo and missing punctuation, like "he done" above

KW: It's okay, I'm often a pretty fast typer and well used to typos
GN: I have a strange four finger typing method that makes people laugh when they see it -- but I can type much faster like that than I can when I do the proper touch-typing style.

KW: I took touch-typing courses twice because I went to two different schools that required you take a course so I type much faster than most of my friends!
GN: I taught myself my strange four finger (and occasional thumb) method when I was about 16 and then learned proper touch-typing when I was about 24. I guess eight years of my own technique was too much to overcome . . .

KW: Different strokes for different folks, I guess! I know some people who are perfectly happy just using their index fingers...
GN: Yes, the mysteries of typing!

KW: So I'd like to ask you about the Abhorsen series. For a while it was a trilogy but now you are working on another book in the series--the ever-reliable Wikipedia says it's going to be called Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen. This sounds promising!
GN: Yes, there are actually going to be two new books set in the world of the Abhorsens. The first will be CLARIEL: THE LOST ABHORSEN, which should be out in 2010. It tells the story of Chlorr of the Mask (in LIRAEL and ABHORSEN) when she was a young woman. I've had the beginnings of that story done for a long time, but it needed to percolate in my head for quite a few years before I felt ready to write it.
GN: The second book will be set a few years after ABHORSEN. I have some working titles but I'm keeping them to myself for the moment!
GN: Right now, of course, I'm still finishing my THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM series. I'm very much behind schedule with SUPERIOR SATURDAY which probably now won't be out till July this year (2008), and then I have LORD SUNDAY to complete and that should come out early-ish in 2009. After that I'll finish A CONFUSION OF PRINCES which will come out in late 2008.

KW: Right--we'll get back to the Keys To The Kingdom series in a bit. Did you know while you were writing the original Abhorsen trilogy that you would be writing two more on top of those or did they develop after?
GN: No. In fact I wrote SABRIEL as a standalone novel. Then I wrote SHADE'S CHILDREN, because that was the story uppermost in my mind. While I was working on that book, Lirael's story grew and so I wrote that, which ended up being two books -- or really one big story split into two books.
GN: I did make some notes about Chlorr when I was writing LIRAEL though, and they are the basis for CLARIEL. So I guess you could say that while I didn't know I was going to write another book, I was setting myself up for it. This often happens with my books, I find myself setting little hooks for things that I may or may not ever write.

KW: Has one book or series ever sparked a separate standalone or series in that way?
GN: Well, SABRIEL sparked what will be eventually five books and a novella (the one in my collection ACROSS THE WALL). And when I was working out the story for THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM, it was originally just going to be one book, or perhaps two. As I wrestled with the big story and the smaller stories within that, I realised I would have to tell the tale over more books. I spent a long time trying to figure out how to do it as a trilogy or perhaps a quartet. But with seven Trustees, seven days and really seven component stories as part of the overall story, it ended up having to be seven.

KW: Right. And a very interesting aspect of the Keys to the Kindgom series is how each Morrow Day is afflicted with a different sin. [The series is about the protagonist Arthur's dealings with the seven Morrow Days, one per book.]
GN: Yes, it's one of the underpinnings of the story. Each of the Morrow Days (the Trustees of the missing Architect) is afflicted to some degree by one of the Seven Deadly Sins. To a lesser extent, which I've downplayed in the books, each Part of the Will embodies one of the Seven Virtues.

KW: Was this concept the driving force behind the series when you began it?
GN: No, it just emerged when I was making my notes and noodling about with various ideas. I usually spend a year or more making notes and thinking about a book before I start writing it. Though of course I'm usually writing the previous book at the same time. It's a bit like cooking, as if I have a few different meals in various stages of preparation and on the stove at the same time.

KW: right. And might I ask which sins are attributed to Saturday and Sunday or is that staying a secret for now?
GN: It's a secret for now, but there are only two left! Envy and Pride, but I won't say who has what

KW: Fair enough, fair enough! You've mentioned also on your website that you write your novels by hand, which has led to your writing parts of Sabriel while on a trip to the Middle East and parts of Lirael at the beach...
GN: I used to write everything first by hand, with a fountain pen in a notebook, preferably these particular hardbound red and black notebooks that I like. I'd write a chapter longhand, then type it up, correcting it as I typed. Then I'd print it out, correct it again and write the next chapter longhand, and so on.
GN: However, ABHORSEN was the last book I wrote entirely like that. Since then, I tend to mix it up more, often writing several chapters straight on the computer, then a few longhand and so on. Some books I've written nearly all straight on the computer, with very little handwriting. Of course, regardless of the technique, I still revisit my manuscripts many times!
GN: One of the handy things with writing longhand is that you can write anywhere, regardless of laptop batteries or the availability of power. So I have written in many different, interesting places. The other nice thing is that you end up with complete handwritten manuscripts. SABRIEL, for example, is about eight of those red and black notebooks I mentioned. I'd love to have complete handwritten manuscripts of all my books, but I've just changed my ways so it is not to be.

KW: What sorts of things in the news and in pop culture catch your eye and influence your writing? I mean, although you write fantasy are there real-world situations that shape your writing?
GN: I guess everything has the potential to influence my writing. Like most writers, I'm a sponge and take in all kinds of stuff, from things I see in the street, things I read about, or hear about, or watch . . . I never know what will spark a story idea, or help me create a character or free up some image that I'll use. I get ideas from odd events, or how people manage things, and it may not be current stuff -- I am deeply interested in history and get a lot of ideas from what has happened, and the different ways people have lived, how their societies worked, the art they created and so on.
GN: Are there real-world situations that shape my writing? Of course. Though I write fantasy, I try to write believable fantasy. What this means is that I try to build my stories on a foundation of reality, with enough real stuff to make them work. So even if the setting is fantastical, I'll try to make the characters real, and have them respond in a real way to what is happening.
GN: Also fantasy can often be used in an allegorical way to comment on, or explore our real world. I do that in a small way in my books, but there are other fantasy authors who do it much more intensively and to far better purpose.

KW: Right. So... the fantasy genre has seen all sorts of waves made and authors introduced, and there are quite a lot of new fantasy writers around these days; what writers are those of whom you're particularly fond? And outside the fantasy genre too, what writers capture your interests?
GN: This is a difficult question to answer, because having been a writer for a long time (and an agent and an editor) many contemporary writers of fantasy are my friends, so I can't easily pick and choose on the basis of their work. On my website in the left sidebar there is a link to an article I wrote about some of my favourite authors, though this is only a small selection. I have a *lot* of favourite authors.
GN: In general, though, I read far less fantasy and SF than I once did. I've always read a lot of non-fiction and in the last five years or so that has expanded to be about 80% of my reading. History and biography would be the leading contenders, books like John Julius Norwich's history of Venice, or a recent very enjoyable read about medieval trade. But I also love all kinds of fiction, particularly genre fiction of all types. Basically I have very eclectic tastes and can never predict what I will or won't like.

KW: Well, I guess that's it!
GN: Thanks very much! Cheers

KW: Cheers!
GN: Bye!

Thus concludes my fantastic interview with the fantastic Garth Nix! For more about him and his works check out his website.