On my original site, I wrote a bunch of stuff about what inspired me in each of my stories, and answered some questions I'd been asked about my work. I'd love to re-create that, if I can ever find a copy of my old site. In lieu of that, however, I'm starting over from memory.
Where did you get the inspiration for the Triads of Tir na n'Og series?
The world of Tir na n'Og as re-imagined in my books is actually the brain-child of my husband, artist/fight director Dameon Willich. Waaaaaay back in the early 1980's, Dameon and some fellow fantasy aficionados within the SCA created a LARP group called The Fantasy Alternative, or TFA. As the creator and Game Master of most of the games, Dameon invented a world based on Celtic mythology and, over time, the games themselves shaped the reality of the world.
A few years later, when he went to work for DC Comics as an artist, he wrote and submitted a proposal for a comic book series based in the same world, using many of the characters and situations created over the years in the games. In it, his own character, Ironwolfe (based on an actual historical Hungarian war hero) led a rebellion among the humans and their allies against the Fey ruling class, while several of the Fey's chief agents, Triads, were sent to stop him. In his story, the main arc concerned the rebel Ironlords and their allies; the Triads were strictly background characters, in many cases not even named. DC declined and Dameon eventually quit working there.
Flash forward another decade, when Dameon hired me to work with his fledgling show troupe, the Seattle Knights, and then cemented the deal by marrying me. For the first 10 years the troupe was in business, almost all our shows involved stories based in Tir na n'Og, and we created many new characters to populate that imaginary landscape. Over time, we developed a surprisingly avid fan base who were just as invested in our imaginary world as we were. They developed favorite characters among us, and would come to performances to cheer them on, wrote e-mails asking questions about our characters and our world, and even formed fan clubs dedicated to following our ongoing story lines. Dameon and I wrote the show scripts, and learned we made a pretty good story-creation team. It also made Dameon refine a lot of the world's background, since we had to examine issues that had never come up in TFA games or at DC. Tir na n'Og grew and filled out even more.
In order to help members of the troupe better understand their own characters and the world in which we lived, I ended up writing a lot of pieces about the world and how it worked. A lot of these were incorporated into the rule book for TRIAD: The Game. When I finished The Strawberry Roan, it seemed like a natural transition to write an actual story set in Tir na n'Og.
I wrote Heart of a Cavalier as sort of a primer on the world. Since it wasn't quite long enough for a full novel, I wrote two more, shorter novellas and combined them in Tales from Opa.
A few years later, when he went to work for DC Comics as an artist, he wrote and submitted a proposal for a comic book series based in the same world, using many of the characters and situations created over the years in the games. In it, his own character, Ironwolfe (based on an actual historical Hungarian war hero) led a rebellion among the humans and their allies against the Fey ruling class, while several of the Fey's chief agents, Triads, were sent to stop him. In his story, the main arc concerned the rebel Ironlords and their allies; the Triads were strictly background characters, in many cases not even named. DC declined and Dameon eventually quit working there.
Flash forward another decade, when Dameon hired me to work with his fledgling show troupe, the Seattle Knights, and then cemented the deal by marrying me. For the first 10 years the troupe was in business, almost all our shows involved stories based in Tir na n'Og, and we created many new characters to populate that imaginary landscape. Over time, we developed a surprisingly avid fan base who were just as invested in our imaginary world as we were. They developed favorite characters among us, and would come to performances to cheer them on, wrote e-mails asking questions about our characters and our world, and even formed fan clubs dedicated to following our ongoing story lines. Dameon and I wrote the show scripts, and learned we made a pretty good story-creation team. It also made Dameon refine a lot of the world's background, since we had to examine issues that had never come up in TFA games or at DC. Tir na n'Og grew and filled out even more.
In order to help members of the troupe better understand their own characters and the world in which we lived, I ended up writing a lot of pieces about the world and how it worked. A lot of these were incorporated into the rule book for TRIAD: The Game. When I finished The Strawberry Roan, it seemed like a natural transition to write an actual story set in Tir na n'Og.
I wrote Heart of a Cavalier as sort of a primer on the world. Since it wasn't quite long enough for a full novel, I wrote two more, shorter novellas and combined them in Tales from Opa.
Is The Triads of Tir na n'Og the same story DC comics passed on in the 1980's?
Yes and no; mostly no.
I'd heard of that long-ago DC proposal, and asked Dameon if I could take a look. It inspired me, but I was much more interested in what was going on from the Triads' point of view. After all, they were the heroes of the average citizen of Tir na n'Og. Rather than use the anonymous characters from Dameon's original treatment, I created three entirely new Triads, using some of the characters from the Seattle Knights (I always asked permission, and was always told, "Yes! But if you have to kill me, just make sure I die well with piles of bodies around me." Or words to that effect). Since each had unique strengths, weaknesses, and problems to solve, each Triad had its own story arc within the overlying story arc, all built on top of the original premise.
So I had to re-create the entire story from scratch, with Dameon's original concept as an underlying theme, a mystery the Triads were trying to solve rather than the central plot. Ironwolfe and the Ironlords became the background characters, seldom seen and often unidentified, much as the Triads in the original story had been. The Triads of Tir na n'Og took me about 2 years to write, and I finished it in 1999.
I'd heard of that long-ago DC proposal, and asked Dameon if I could take a look. It inspired me, but I was much more interested in what was going on from the Triads' point of view. After all, they were the heroes of the average citizen of Tir na n'Og. Rather than use the anonymous characters from Dameon's original treatment, I created three entirely new Triads, using some of the characters from the Seattle Knights (I always asked permission, and was always told, "Yes! But if you have to kill me, just make sure I die well with piles of bodies around me." Or words to that effect). Since each had unique strengths, weaknesses, and problems to solve, each Triad had its own story arc within the overlying story arc, all built on top of the original premise.
So I had to re-create the entire story from scratch, with Dameon's original concept as an underlying theme, a mystery the Triads were trying to solve rather than the central plot. Ironwolfe and the Ironlords became the background characters, seldom seen and often unidentified, much as the Triads in the original story had been. The Triads of Tir na n'Og took me about 2 years to write, and I finished it in 1999.
Did you create Yaqut ibn Munqidh in order to have a sympathetic Moslem character?
*sigh* No. As I put forth in my Author's Notes section in The Triads and The Blue Triad, I made up Yaqut because I wanted a highly religious, paladin-esque character, and I didn't want the usual blond, blue-eyed French or English knight. No one, as far as I knew, had ever used a Moslem. Besides, after 1000 years of submersion in the culture of Tir na n'Og, Yaqut's version of Islam isn't exactly what we know today. I doubt Osama bin Laden would recognize it.
Will there ever be a sequel to The Strawberry Roan?
Once upon a time, I'd have said, "nope." But a friend recently gave me a great idea...who knows? I loved playing in Bess and Buddy's world. I could do it again.
Where on earth did the idea for The Strawberry Roan come from?
It started as a joke, actually. Who would be the most unlikely and unsuitable guardian for a unicorn? And I've always loved the old Pecos Bill stories, and the hilarious "tall tales" of Mark Twain and Robert E. Howard, among others. I wanted to write something in the same style, or at least the same vein. I was going to write a shaggy-dog style of comic short-story...and it just grew. And grew.
I shared a big chunk of my life with a beautiful strawberry roan Tennessee Walking Horse; he was a present to my dad when I was 5, and later he became sort of mine. We were together for 29 years. He was a hell of a character. And, yes, he was very pink, with white hind socks and a flaxen mane and tale. I've seen only one other horse with Rusty's coloration since then, a Rocky Mountain mare in a Dreamhorse ad. Anyway, it seemed like a perfect coloration to use for Buddy. Though Buddy is, in fact, a lot more pink even than Rusty. Or any natural horse.
I shared a big chunk of my life with a beautiful strawberry roan Tennessee Walking Horse; he was a present to my dad when I was 5, and later he became sort of mine. We were together for 29 years. He was a hell of a character. And, yes, he was very pink, with white hind socks and a flaxen mane and tale. I've seen only one other horse with Rusty's coloration since then, a Rocky Mountain mare in a Dreamhorse ad. Anyway, it seemed like a perfect coloration to use for Buddy. Though Buddy is, in fact, a lot more pink even than Rusty. Or any natural horse.
