"Mercedes Lackey - Fiddler Fair" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

Do you base your characters on people you know?
With very rare exceptions I donтАЩt base my characters on anyone I knowтАФthose exceptions are -minor ones, where
IтАЩll ask permission to write a friend into a walk-on role. They do come out of my observation of people in general.

When did you know you wanted to write?
I knew I wanted to tell stories from a very early ageтАФin fact, I told them to the kids I babysat for, then wrote them in
letters to friends and pen-pals. It was only when I тАЬgraduatedтАЭ from amateur fiction to being paid for what I wrote that
I realized I did have a talent for writingтАФand I had the will to pursue it. That was some thirty years later.

Where do you start?
Plotting is usually done with Larry, and one of the first things we do is determine what the characters will be like,
then what the major conflict of the book will be. Then we figure out the minor conflicts, the ways that those characters
will deal with those conflicts, and ways we can make their lives even more complicated. The resolution generally comes
at that point, but not always; sometimes it doesnтАЩt come to us until we are actually writing the book, and we change
the way it ended in the outline.

When did you start reading science fiction?
I started reading sf/f when I was about eight or nine. As I recall, it was the тАЬSpace CatтАЭ books, followed by
something called The City Under the Back Steps, a kind of ant-version of тАЬHoney, I Shrunk The Kids,тАЭ followed
immediately by a leap into Andre Norton, Heinlein, and my fatherтАЩs adult sf. Daybreak 2250 AD by Norton was one of
the first things I read, James SchmidtтАЩs Agent of Vega was another. Mostly I read Norton, all the Norton I could get my
hands on, saving my allowance to order them directly from Ace. Little did I guess I would one day be working for AndreтАЩs editor
(Donald A. Wollheim)!

Who were your influences?
In order of influence: Andre Norton, J.R.R.
Tolkien, Robert Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, Thomas Burnett Swann, Anne McCaffrey, C.J. Cherryh, Marion Zimmer
Bradley. As for editors, I learn something from every editor I have. My three main editors, Elizabeth Wollheim, Melissa
Singer, and Jim Baen, have been incredibly helpful.
What do you choose to write?
I write what I would like to read, with a -caveatтАФafter thirteen years in the marketplace, I am beginning to
get a feeling for things that will sell, so obviously I do tailor what I would like to write to the marketplace. I never wrote
intentionally for any particular audience, but I seem to have hit on a number of things that are archetypal in nature,
which may account for the appeal. The other possibility is that I tend to write about people who are misunderstood,
outsiders . . . people who read tend to think of themselves that way, particularly sf/f readers, so they can identify with
the characters.

Do you answer fan-mail?
When possible, we do. We always read it. When mail comes without a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply,
we assume the writer doesnтАЩt want a reply; it is only courteous not to waste the time of someone you supposedly like
by including a self-addressed, stamped envelope if you want an answer. We donтАЩt answer abusive mail, but it does get
filed in a special file for future reference. We return manuscripts unread; after some trouble Marion Zimmer Bradley had
with a fan-writer, our agent has advised both of us that we canтАЩt read unsolicited manuscripts anymore. T h i s
is an awful pity, but life is
complicated enough without going
out a n d finding ways to add trouble!

How do you work with a collaborator?
Working with collaborators depends on the collaborator. If possible, we work on the outline together until weтАЩre