The Forgotten Realms were originally created by Ed Greenwood as a world setting for theDungeons & Dragonsrole-playing game.
Her latest book,Fire In The Blood, was released last year.
We took a moment to talk to her about her work on the Forgotten Realms novels.
Fire In The Blood is your fifth Forgotten Realms novel.
The Forgotten Realms Series has been around for nearly thirty years.
Its one of the largest collaborative efforts between writers ever published.
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Its amazing, and its very frustrating, in turns.
What is great is that you have this world that people have filled, but its not complete.
Having already established details is very inspiring.
And you could imagine what else fits in there, and I love that.
It really energizes my writing.
It can be difficult.
You have to check the lore.
There might be details you havent considered.
There are so many novels and so many source books.
You may have to change a few things.
I imagine you almost have to be a Forgotten Realms scholar at times.
Its a lot like writing historical fiction where you have to do a lot of research.
The good thing is that you have people to help you.
Wizards of the Coast launched these books all set in the same world.
As a Forgotten Realms author, how did you feel about this decision?
My understanding was that it was on the table to do a full reboot.
The Realms still feel like theyve always existed.
Your latest book, Fire In The Blood, is your fourth novel featuring your character Farideh.
I think its good to have as many different kinds of characters as possible.
Every author brings his own flavour to the story.
Everybody is bringing something new to the table.
When you’re free to do all these things, why wouldnt you?
Despite the fact that they are very different, they are both strong female protagonists.
Well, I hoped.
I found the idea interesting.
Farideh turned out to be a character I was playing in a [Dungeons & Dragons] game.
My friend and I were developing our characters together, and we thought of twins that looked exactly alike.
We played with that idea a lot.
It was based on some of the details of my characters backstory on which I extrapolated wildly.
I have two sisters, none of us are twins, but we are very close.
I imagine with twins that its even more concentrated.
Farideh is a tiefling.
Can you give us a bit of background on that race?
The tieflings are the results of the union of fiends and mortals.
Basically, its like your great-great-grandmother got busy with a devil, or something.
Basically, their blood became the blood of Asmodeus, the king of the Nine Hells.
So they have horns, and their eyes are solid colors with no pupils.
They have kind of pointy teeth.
And their hair can also be a number of weird colors.
So Farideh has kind of a middle-tone brown and purple hair color.
Its a little weird.
Farideh is not your typical Forgotten Realms hero.
Shes very complex and flawed, and human.
Is that part of the reasons why shes so endearing and why readers can relate to her struggles?
Those things still happen.
They dont go away because youre having larger problems.
I know you have another Farideh book in the works.
Without giving away spoilers, what can you tell us about it?
I am currently working on another book.
It is possibly calledAshes Of The Tyrant.
Its set in the main city of the Dragonborn.
Its been really great because I get to really fill out the Dragonborn culture.
The other half of the story deals with a number of other things.
I cant really say more.
It should come out next Fall or Winter.
Can we expect more Farideh stories after that, or are you going to explore other story ideas after?
I have one more Farideh book that I promised to write.
The working title isThe King of Dust, and I hope it will stick because I really like it.
That will conclude the six-book story arc that will carry Farideh through the whole Asmodeus issue.
Then its up to the readers.
If people really like these books and they keep buying them, we might be exploring another arc.
But I am also working on my own stuff.
Yet, taking your series for example, Farideh is a complex character, both strong and flawed.
I feel like its fading.
I think people picked a few bad examples.
There are books there are a little less stellar.
you might always bring up the bad examples.
But if you take theAvatar Trilogy, for example, I think theyre brilliant books.
I think it might just be one of those things that some people do.
If you dont like those books, there are plenty of other books to read out there.
Your previous novel, The Adversary, was the third book of The Sundering Series.
I dont think Ive enjoyed reading a collaborative writers series as much since Thieves World, decades ago.
Can you talk a bit about the process?
How much of an interactive effort between the six writers was required to make the series work so well?
It was very interactive.
The vision they had was that they wanted us to tell a piece of the story.
We were very encouraged to make this process our own.
There are not a lot of serious crossovers where you have to fix things up.
And it was suggested very early on that I should have him in the background.
You have to check on a few little things.
We had a big document we worked off from.
There was a lot of back and forth, a lot of discussion.
It was a great thing.
At the summit everyone talked about his or her book, and it was my favourite part.
How different was your writing process for The God Catcher from the process of writing a series?
It was so much easier.
It was my first published novel.
It was a really great experience.
And I really love the book.
Its really easier to write something that is a stand-alone that you dont really expect to pick up again.
Im always fascinated when people ask me when Im going to write aGod Catchersequel.
It loved those characters.
Any other stand-alone novel ideas brewing?
Right now Im trying to finish theBrimstone Angelstory arc.
I liked the Harper characters I created, and Im always sad I cant do more with them.
So if someone asked me to write another Forgotten Realms novel, Id write something about them.
Thank you Erin Evans.
