{"id":120,"date":"2008-02-11T10:04:52","date_gmt":"2008-02-11T18:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/?p=120"},"modified":"2008-02-11T10:17:46","modified_gmt":"2008-02-11T18:17:46","slug":"interview-joe-abercrombie-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/2008\/02\/interviews\/interview-joe-abercrombie-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview | Joe Abercrombie ’08"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JoeJoe Abercrombie can weave a tale and people are starting to take notice. His first novel, The Blade Itself<\/strong>, just recently released in the United States, is the best selling novel in Pyr, his publisher’s, catalog and, as Joe himself would be the first to admit, it damn well deserves it. <\/p>\n

I’ve brought Joe back for round two (the first interview can be found HERE<\/a>) and he proved no less witty, no less charming, and no less arrogant than the first time around. So, in other words, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed! I’m currently reading the third (and final) volume of The First Law Trilogy<\/strong>, so be on the lookout for a review soon, but in the meantime grab a bowl of popcorn and listen to what Joe has to say.
\n<\/p>\n

The Interview<\/h3>\n

Q. Welcome back, Joe! It seems like just yesterday we had our first interview!<\/strong>
\n      That wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yesterday? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had more than one night\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sleep since then\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Q. Why should we give a damn about Last Argument of Kings<\/em>?<\/strong>
\n      Because you want to look cool, and this is what all the cool kids will be reading in Spring.<\/p>\n

Q. What are some of the challenges of writing a third (and final) novel in a trilogy and what did you learn the first two times around that made Last Argument of Kings<\/em> a better book?<\/strong>
\n      I actually found it the easiest of the three to write. With a first book you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still working out your world, and your characters, as well as experimenting with your whole approach, of course. With a second you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re tightening up the way you write, maybe expanding on the world and the characters, locking down the plot for the whole series. With a third book the characters are already well-defined and you know what to do with them. The mysteries have been set up and you (hopefully) know how they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll resolve. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve painstakingly built a whole load of little towers of bricks and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to enjoy kicking them over. The challenge is doing that with sufficient oomph, if you will, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a nice kind of challenge to face.<\/p>\n

Q. You’re a pretty cocky, er… I mean,\u00c2\u00a0confident guy. Were you ever worried that the public wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t love The Blade Itself<\/em>, Before They Are Hanged<\/em> and Last Argument of Kings<\/em> quite as much as they do?<\/strong>
\n      Well, yeah, absolutely. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quite a shock in a way that anyone enjoys what is basically stuff I dreamed up in the middle of the night purely for my own amusement. Obviously you have confidence that you like your own stuff, or you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never get past the first page, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a long way from anyone else liking it, let alone a lot of people. I wrote the first book with no audience in mind other than me, really, and no tastes other than my own. When I finished it I was worried that it was very uncommercial \u00e2\u20ac\u201c too dark, too violent, too off-beat \u00e2\u20ac\u201c especially since it was then rejected by pretty much every serious sf&f agent in the UK, and a few not-so-serious ones. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re never completely confident that anyone will like anything until they tell you they like it.<\/p>\n

\"LastQ. Do you feel you succeeded in telling the story you set out to tell when you first began writing The Blade Itself<\/em>?<\/strong>
\n      Yes. Yes, I do. Obviously the story flexes around a bit as you go, but basically I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve stuck to the plan, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m very happy with the results. Very happy.<\/p>\n

Q. Which character in the trilogy surprised you the most?<\/strong>
\n      Well, generally they do what I tell them. I think they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll all have a few surprises for readers, though.<\/p>\n

Q. Well, if none surprised you, then I’m sure you at least had a favourite. Willing to name names?<\/strong>
\n      Oh I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t possibly \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that would be like picking your favourite child. They all have their own charm in my eyes. I love them all equally.<\/p>\n

Q. One of the criticisms faced by your first two novels, from myself included, was slow pacing. How do you feel Last Argument of Kings<\/em> handled this?<\/strong>
\n      It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a funny thing \u00e2\u20ac\u201c some people find the first book slow paced and say nothing happens, others find it a page-turner. I think in a way it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more an issue of structure than pace. It really isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t clear at all in the first book what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on in the wider sense, and it can seem – without having read the other books – to have no plot and no resolution. Some readers are dragged straight through by the characters and the events, others, not unreasonably, drum their fingers wondering when the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcplot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is going to start. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not entirely surprised by this. The trilogy isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t three linked books, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one book in three parts. The pace builds steadily over the course of the series, and the shape of the plot doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t resolve until the last volume. I knew I was playing the long game by taking this approach, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m confident that it pays off in the long run. In the last book, you have the satisfaction of seeing these scattered points draw together in ways you never expected. I hope that, on turning the last page, people will realise that there are good reasons the series is the shape it is.<\/p>\n

Q. How do you manage to stick to that dastardly book-a-year schedule that seems to elude so many other authors?<\/strong>
\n      I cheat, which I try to do whenever possible. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t start looking for a publisher until the first book was finished (which took me two years, off and on), and it took me a year to find one, then another year between signing the deal and the first book being published \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the wheels of the business move relatively slow and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot to do if things are going to be done right, especially with a new author \u00e2\u20ac\u201c editing, copy editing, proof-reading, getting the cover right, marketing and sales, getting booksellers interested and so on. When the deal was signed I was half way through the second book, when the first book was published I was already starting the third, and the third was relatively quick to write and edit because everything was set up and running smoothly by that point. Without that head start I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d certainly have struggled to make a book a year. But that time in hand is steadily eroding, and although I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pretty sure we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have the next book ready on time for April next year, I certainly wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to promise to hit a book a year for the rest of my days.<\/p>\n

\"BeforeQ. That elusive 10\/10 seems just always out of your grasp; Is it safe to assume that all your future novels will shake off the mediocrity of 9.5s and 9.75s and finally earn you that 10\/10 you so ardently believe you deserve?<\/strong>
\n      If there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s any justice.<\/p>\n

Q. Who’s an author, other than yourself, that we should be watching out for in 2008?<\/strong>
\n      In terms of debuts it looks like Robert Redick and Alex Bell will be talented authors I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll need to anonymously undermine wherever possible. Naturally I will continue to try and sabotage the careers of my contemporaries \u00e2\u20ac\u201c authors like Tom Lloyd, Brian Ruckley, and my evil nemesis Scott Lynch look as if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll all have new books out this year. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be reading those and probing for weaknesses. And then it looks as if George RR Martin will have the next in his Song of Ice and Fire out in time for Christmas. Unfortunately, I doubt there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much a minnow like me can do to stop that juggernaut.<\/p>\n

Q. The Blade Itself<\/em> was just released in the United States. How has the reception there differed from the UK release?<\/strong>
\n      On the whole it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been good. The States is a huge, varied, distributed market, so I think it can take a long time for things to bed down over there. Plus it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a slow, steady burn in the UK and Germany where the books have been out for a while. But they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re being released at six-monthly intervals in the States, so I guess we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see in due course. Ask me in a year.<\/p>\n

Q. Will you finally spill the beans on Best Served Cold<\/em>?<\/strong>
\n      It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dark, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gritty, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very, very bloody. I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t dare spill anything on it.<\/p>\n

\"TheQ. How about a progress report, then?<\/strong>
\n      About half way through the first draft, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been quite tough going compared to Last Argument of Kings, and I suspect there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be quite a bit of work to do in the editing. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a whole new set of central characters (well, not all of them are entirely new, but they weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t central before) which means a whole new set of approaches to work out, and tones to get right. Series books are actually a fair bit easier to write than stand-alone ones, from that point of view.<\/p>\n

Q. It seems a lot of popular authors (Brandon Sanderson, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Rothfuss) all dabble in writing youth fiction. Any plans like this for Joe Abercrombie?<\/strong>
\n      Not at the moment. Never say never, of course, but I tend to be drawn to the grittier end of the spectrum.<\/p>\n

Q. Joe, thanks for taking the time to once against drop by A Dribble of Ink<\/em>! Best of luck with Last Argument of Kings<\/em> and beyond!<\/strong>
\n      Thank you, Aidan. Always a pleasure.<\/p>\n

For more Joe-Abercrombie-fueled fun, check out his terrific blog HERE<\/a>. You can also find my first interview with Joe HERE<\/a> and reviews of his first two novels HERE<\/a> and HERE<\/a>. Keep an eye out for his latest novel (Before They Are Hanged<\/strong> in the USA and Last Argument of Kings<\/strong> in the UK and Canada) in the coming weeks… Joe could use the money.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Abercrombie can weave a tale and people are starting to take notice. His first novel, The Blade Itself, just recently released in the United States, is the best selling novel in Pyr, his publisher’s, catalog and, as Joe himself would be the first to admit, it damn well deserves it. I’ve brought Joe back… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n