The #TheWallOfNight Q&A on Twitter, Part 2
As promised yesterday, Part 2 comprises a blog version of the follow-up questions that came up during the course of the Twitter Q&A.
Also as noted yesterday, for the cheerful commentary and witty repartee you will have to visit the Twitter hashtag #TheWallOfNight site—which is really very easy. Just search on the highlighted words (or click on the embedded link) and you will find all the goodness, for sure!
OK, now onward to those bonus Q’s and m’ A’s. 😉
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The Wall Of Night Q&A: #TheWallOfNight — the Follow Ups!
Follow-up Question One:
Ruth: “2 minor, possibly Y/N questions: Will we learn Asantir’s backstory at some point? And will we see the Emer characters again?”
Helen Lowe: “Ruth, Yes–Asantir’s backstory is very important & has been swimming under the surface of The Wall Of Night throughout, so readers may expect to see it play out in The Chaos Gate (The Wall Of Night, Book Four.) As for the Emer characters, for reasons of no spoilers I shall simply have to “neither confirm nor deny” at this point. “Author puts her hands in her pockets & kicks stones, whistling…”
Ruth: *reader gets unreasonably, irrationally and hopefully EXCITED!!*
Helen Lowe: We do have it on good authority from Aragorn in LOTR 2 that “there is always hope” 🙂
Follow-up Question Two:
Kym: It maybe too early to say but will Kalan’s pledge to Myr be a separate story/book or continued in next book?
Helen Lowe: No, it’s not a spoiler to say that it’s always been part of The Wall Of Night storyline.
Follow-up Question Three:
Ruth: How did you decide the names of the Houses? & was it deliberate that the Darksworn houses are all related to fire?
Helen Lowe: Ah, well-spotted: an aspect of ‘fire’, yes: i.e. sun, lightning, fire. Not all world-building necessarily comes into the books, but the Houses affiliate on ‘elemental’ lines as well as caste & so earth, air, water and fire.
Follow-up Question Four:
Rosie: Speaking of Emer, I love the way the arms/tactics/defence are so clearly different between cultures. Was it an interest before WALL?
Helen Lowe: Yes, from an early age weapons & history have been an interest; then I took up fencing & martial arts, & I read non-fiction history including the military stuff for (ahem) fun(!) I also have ex-military readers to keep me on the straight & narrow, arms/tactics/battles-wise.
Follow-up Question Five:
Ruth: Simple, and really common, question but I always like to know; Who is your favourite character to write?
Helen Lowe: I truly don’t have favorites. Characters like Garan who pretty much write themselves are a delight, but complex, difficult-to-get-at characters like the Earl are very rewarding once you “nail” them. So favored, as vs favorite, characters can very much depend on time & place in the story arc, but I can say that every character named so far in this #thewallofnight thread has been a favorite at different times. 🙂
Follow-up Question Six:
Rosie: Team Haarth have a related technical question from FB – what kind of spear is the black blade Asantir took into the Old Keep, and how was she carrying it? (And an aside from me – loving how black blades symbolise the blend of power/arms the Derai need to defend the Wall of Night.)
Helen Lowe: Ah, black blades… Well, dear Team Haarth, these blades in all their manifestations form part of a great fantasy & epic fantasy tradition, which I like to refer to as ‘the soul-sucking sword” — or ‘blade’ in a spear’s case. More seriously, they are weapons of power (also a Fantasy tradition) & the nature of their power is primordial but not necessarily chaotic — as in Kalan’s duel with Parannis, there are rules that govern their behavior. As for how Asantir carried the spear into the Old Keep, although tempted to employ that time-honored favourite “the bag of holding” the rescue party was well-armed, so implicitly it would have been amongst her equipment. But Great Spears are weapons of power & such weapons can be (to use Gollum’s word) “tricksie” — as Kalan found in Daughter of Blood.
And I think that really may be a wrap — apologies if I’ve missed anything along the way!