Interview with Scott Lynch, english version

The first volume of the Gentlemen Bastards Sequence, has just been released in France. But what is your american topicality at the moment ? Have you finished Red Seas Under Red Skies ?

Red Seas Under Red Skies is done. I've just finished reviewing one set of copyedits (for the US) and have the UK set coming next week.

How do you deal with the always growing solicitations ? I know we don't help with this interview, sorry !

Since the alternative would be to be ignored, which is infinitely more painful, it doesn't trouble me at all. I sometimes need to set things aside when I'm busy, but I have yet to refuse outright a request for an interview. Nobody's been mean enough to me yet to make me want to clam up and quit talking.

Vel Virazzo, Salon Corbeau, and Port Prodigal... All of these points of action seem very exciting... What could you tell us about the city of Tal Verrar ?

Tal Verrar is a major cultural and economic rival of Camorr, located far to the west. It's built on what are essentially gigantic icebergs of Elderglass. It's experiencing a power struggle between the two components of its highly awkward government. It's a bigger, somewhat more refined city than Camorr, where the criminal element is kept more firmly under wraps. And it's experiencing something like the first shudders of an industrial and informational renaissance. They've just invented the printing press, for example, and they're murdering one another in the streets and canals over it...

How do you find time for novellas? I have seen that you have signed with Subterranean Press for a deal of three of them.

Well, at first it just seemed like a cool thing to play around with; experiment with the form and see how well I could work at a smaller size. I had only vague notions, originally, of what I was going to do with them. Then a friend made a suggestion that caught my fancy, and now they've become more deeply linked to the "main sequence" of Gentleman Bastard novels. And, for that, I think they've become far more interesting to write, which will hopefully make them more fun to read. I don't consider them "casual" or "side" projects in any fashion.

What is you favourite foreign edition of The Lies of Locke Lamora, and why ?

You have to keep in mind that so far I've only seen three-- Spain, the Netherlands, and now France. And also remember that my ability to comprehend their actual contents is limited. With that said, surely it's no insult to anyone else's edition to say that Bragelonne's has brilliant cover art and design.

In our first interview with you, you said that you are a geek. Do you have still time for video games and all that stuff ?

I *make* time for video games and other stuff. It's what I do in my private hours with my wife. We're a bit cut off, geographically, from the circle of gamers we used to see all the time, so we've been experimenting with other things. Recently we've both gotten into World of Warcraft, which fills a void I think we both felt, not having gamed seriously for a year or two before that.

How do you see 2007 shaping up for you ? What will be your biggest challenge this year?

So far I have two novellas, three short stories, and a novel to work on. Plus I have a visit to Europe in April, and a few trips to other conventions in the United States... advanced firefighting classes that are going to cause me to lose sleep... and I have my wife's World of Warcraft characters to tend to...

And last but not least... How is Artemis doing right now ? ;)

Basking in her worldwide fame. She's acquired a new younger brother named Thor, possibly the world's most destructive cat under the age of one. Thor has been written into Red Seas Under Red Skies in the guise of a ship's cat named Regal. Artemis will make a similar guest appearance in the third Gentleman Bastard book under a pseudonym.

And thank you very much Scott !

No trouble at all.

Pages de l'article

1. Entretien avec Scott Lynch, version française
2. Interview with Scott Lynch, english version