Here it is! As promised A Dribble of Ink recently conducted an interview with this year’s “It” author, Patrick Rothfuss. By the time Pat and I concluded the interview we realized just how long things had became and decided that everyone would be better served if we split the interview into two shorter, more palatable chunks.
Patrick Rothfuss is one of Fantasy’s newest authors, but that has not stopped his first novel, The Name of the Wind from garnering a lot of favourable reviews and a whole beehive full of buzz. And, if you read my review you’d know that the buzz was well deserved. The Name of the Wind, the story of a young orphan named Kvothe, is an easy contendor for not only Fantasy Debut of the Year, but also for Fantasy Book of the year!
So, without further adieu, we have the first half of the interview!
The Interview
Q: Pat, let’s start this off with the really important stuff:
Q: Favourite Member of the Beatles?
A: Lennon. He might have been crazy. But he’s my kind of crazy.
Q: Favourite Meal: Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner?
A: Isn’t dinner the same thing as lunch? Are you trying to trick me with these?
Q: Favourite Cher song?
A: I honestly can’t think of one. You say that name and my mind is immediately overwhelmed with the image of her strutting around on a battleship wearing a thong. Was that a video, or some deeply submerged nightmare? Boy, I hope it was a video….
Q: Favourite TV show you love to hate?
A: I don’t actually have cable. I watch TV, but only shows that I buy on DVD. As a result my TV rage factor is pretty low right now.
I do have a real distaste for those extreme makeover shows. I once caught a roommate watching one and proceeded to rant for almost 15 solid minutes about how, in watching that bullshit, she was actively contributing to the destruction of all civilization.
Q: Favourite Ice Cream Flavour?
A: Blue moon.
Q: Favourite Pizza Topping?
A: Singularly – Pepperoni. In tandem – pineapple, bacon, sauerkraut, and olive. Trust me. It’s good. It’s like a tasty civil war right in your mouth.
Q: Favourite Book?
A:The Last Unicorn. Read it. Live it. Love it.
Q: Favourite Winter Olympic Sport?
A: Luge. I would be hard pressed to explain what the actual sport is. I just like the word Luge.
Luge.
Q: Favourite Fantasy-Book-Review-Blog-Run-by-a-Guy-Named-Aidan?
A: Heh.
Q: Alright, now that we’ve got the must-ask questions out of the way we can move on to the more pedantic questions. “The Name of the Wind” is being hailed by many as the Fantasy Debut of the year. How do you keep yourself grounded while listening to accusations such as this?
A: Hmmm. I’ll answer this question like I answer most questions. With a little story.
The day the book finally hit the shelves I got a call from my publisher telling me they’d decided to increase the print run. That’s awesome news, as more books means more sales. Ten minutes later, I got an e-mail from a reviewer. She told me that The Name of the Wind was the best book she’d read in years.
Next I drive onto campus, and what do I find? The perfect parking spot waiting for me right by the door to my building. Not only that, but I could see from my car that there were 40 minutes left on the meter.
It was like the universe was smiling on me. Right about then I was pretty sure that I was the sum of all creation. I was like Optimus Prime, the tenth avatar of Krishna, and Steve Tyler all rolled into one, great sticky gob of awesome.
Then I tried to parallel park. I pulled in… crooked. I pulled out and tried again… turned too sharp and my tire hit the curb. Again. And again. And again. I had to take five different runs at parallel parking before I got it right. Best of all, because it was right by the building my students and fellow teachers were walking by and watching while this was going on.
That’s how I keep my feet on the ground. It’s hard for me to take myself too seriously when I’m constantly experiencing firsthand what an incredible gimp I can be.
Q: There have been many other authors to begin their career with a lot of praise… only to wind up in the bargain bin down the road. How do you plan to avoid a similar fate?
A: Through sheer force of will? By destroying all those who oppose me? I give up. Do you have and tips on how to avoid fate?
Seriously though. Now that I understand how publishing schedules work, I can understand why many authors have the sophomore slump. A year is a long time to wait for a sequel, but it’s a short, short time to WRITE a sequel.
Luckily for everyone concerned, I’ve already written my entire trilogy. So my books probably won’t start to suck until after those three are in print.
Q: The Name of the Wind is a big book, and I’m sure the two books comprising the rest of the trilogy are the same. It’s clear you spent a lot of time preparing the story and the novels before taking it out to publishers and agents. How would you say that having a large trilogy already finished affected your ability to get a publishing deal?
A: Hmmm. Yes. But probably not in the way you’re thinking. It didn’t make me more appealing to publishers, if that’s what you’re asking.
While fantasy is generally pretty cool with big books in series, that doesn’t mean that publishers are excited about the thought of a 250,000 word novel. It costs a lot to print a book that big. Plus, who wants to buy a whole trilogy from an absolutely unknown author? Not a lot of people were excited about that.
Think of it this way. You’re a publisher, you buy a book from a newbie author and it doesn’t sell. Irritating and financially sucky. But if you buy three books…. you’ve kinda tripled your risk. It’s important to remember that Tad Williams, George Martin, and Robert Jordan didn’t start their careers writing the big fantasy series. They started with smaller stuff.
Q: Here’s a chance to both toot your own horn and bring yourself back down to earth a little. Where do you feel your strengths and weaknesses lie as a writer?
A: That’s a hell of a question. If I talk about what I’m good at, I seem like I’m a conceited egomaniac. Then when I answer the other half it’s like I’m giving a negative review of my own book.
Can we just skip this question and assume I’m modest and my book is awesome?
If that isn’t the most perfect question to finish off the first part of the interview I don’t know what is! Check back in just a couple of days for the concluding half where Patrick will tell you just why his book is so awesome!
EDIT: Part Two of the interview can now be found HERE!
Check out the links below if you are interested in ordering The Name of the Wind
US | Canada | UK
In 2006, seemingly the year for fantasy debuts, Scotty Lynch was the king of the hill. His debut, The Lies of Locke Lamora was hailed by many to be the fantasy debut of the year, if not even the Fantasy book of the year. The Lies of Locke Lamora is a tale revolving around the young, charming and charismatic thief by the name of Locke Lamora. Alongside the main series, which is slated to be several standalone stories with on over-arcing storyline subtly weaved in, Lynch is also slated to write a handful of short stories filling in some of the adventures from Locke’s past. Early reviews of this year’s Red Seas Under Red Skies have been favourable and if Lynch is able to continue to write books of the same quality as The Lies of Locke Lamora, we’re sure to see a long, healthy career for Mr. Lynch.
Joe Abercrombie first emerged in 2006, the same year as Scott Lynch, and was, in the minds of many, the main challenger to Lynch’s title as “Debut Author of the Year”. His first novel, The Blade Itself was received very strongly by fantasy readers and set a place in the genre for itself by mixing charismatic anti-heroes, dark humour and heroism in a way that caught the attentions and minds of many. Its sequel, Before They Are Hanged was recently published to similar acclaim that has left early adopters of Abercrombie’s books waiting eagerly for the concluding book of the trilogy, Last Argument of Kings.
David is another of 2007’s buzz authors. His fantasy debut, Acacia: The War with the Mein, is getting a lot of buzz and is already being mentioned in the same breath as some authors such as George R.R. Martin and Steven Erikson. This is a lot for an author to live up to, but what Durham has going for him is the fact that he already has a couple of acclaimed Historical Fiction novels under his belt. 
Brian’s success and buzz has been much quieter than the others on this list, but he deserves to be here nonetheless. Thus far he’s published only one novel, Winterbirth, but he has already established himself as someone to be mentioned alongside other debut fantasy novelists as Patrick Rothfuss and Scott Lynch. The novel he’s written is said to appeal to fans of other authors such as George R.R. Martin, the late David Gemmell and J.V. Jones. Winterbirth is the first book in The Godless World trilogy, so we can expect more goodness from Mr. Ruckley!
Novik originally burst onto the scene with the first three novels in her Temeraire novels. The most significant thing about Novik’s success was the fact that Peter Jackson, of The Lord of the Rings fame, was a huge fan of her novels and reportedly optioned the series in a bigtime movie deal. She also garnered a lot of praise from industry heavyweight, Stephen King. With backers like that it seems like Naomi Novik is here to stay! The fourth book of the Temeraire series, Empire of Ivory, will be released this fall.