I suppose there also might be a time for writing fiction about doo-wop groups, which would be ShaNaNaWriMo.

Backstory's an important part of your books and one of your strengths, but have you had any problems with your manuscripts running too long because of too much of it?

I'm interested in your process. Do you outline? If so: How thoroughly? How close do you stick to it as you write? Do you have any specific techniques you use when thinking about pacing (a three- or four-act structure with corresponding climaxes, etc.)?

Do you write linearly, or skip from scene to scene as the inspiration strikes? How much research do you do before you begin writing? How much factual clean-up do you do once the manuscript is done?

Inquiring minds, etcetera. *g*

I second z_rayne. Also, when you are plotting, how do come up with the stuff in between, that which connects the major high points of the story?

The advise I have read so far consists of: Think of how to get from A to B. But if I try to do so the connecting scenes are far too predictable and boring.

When you wrote Death of the Necromancer, did you already know you were going to write the Ships of Air trilogy, or have the ideas behind it in mind? Or did those only come later? Just something I've wondered for a while!

Do you have a "designated reader" or two with whom you share your manuscript, and if so, at what stage in the writing process do you first let someone else see your work in progress?

Thanks for taking questions. :)

1) Best icon I've seen in ages. May I steal?

2) I just bought Element of Fire from Lulu. Yay!

3) My question relates to this, a revised edition according, to Lulu. Part 1) what sort of revisions did you do? Part 2) What is your attitude toward revisions in general? Some authors who own worlds like Ile Rien's seem to do extensive revisions at times, and I was wondering if that's something that's tempting to you.

I just got Robbins's The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology and discovered to my complete surprise while browsing that Urbain Grandier was a real person, a priest who lived from 1590 to his burning-at-the-stake in 1634, as were the nuns he was supposed to have corrupted with witchcraft. And they were all from a French town called Loudun. Who else in The Element of Fire and Death of the Necromancer was based on a real person?

Kind of going off eldritchhobbit's question, but is there a certain point when you'd let someone you dont really know read your work, in progress, for a fresh opinion?

I remember you commenting that you wrote a favoured professor of yours into Death of the Necromancer and I was wondering if you'd ever written anyone else into your novels? Are Tremaine or Gerard based on anyone?

No guarantees as to whether the answer will be coherent or not.

There's no guarantees as to whether the question will be coherent or not, either. >=}

Do you have a strategy for dealing with procrastination?

(OMG, that was coherent, wasn't it? I'll have to work harder at the incoherency aspect, ;-) next time).

How do you deal with getting sidetracked? Like when you realise that the section you are writing, while it may be excellent, doesn't really fit into the rest of the story.

When building Il-Rein's history, did you have a philosophy for making it the familiar?

You throw in seemingly made up words from fantasy languages. But mostly, you cheerfully pillage European names and cultural institutions, which of course works a treat.

Do the names and institutions all - potentially - have explanations int he context of the the Il-Rein-verse?

(I have this problem urge to create Fantasy worlds with SF'nal levels of plausibility, which is silly because some of the best stories juxtapose the familiar with the fantastic...)