parfois la folie est sagesse

F: Um, where'd you come up with the idea for the shikusen fighting fan... was that something you saw, or...?

T: Um, the shikusen, um, actually the Japanese have war fans, they're called. The legend is that there was a shogun who was a bit temperamental, and, so he insisted that his nobles kneel across where the sliding door came, right where the sliding door was about here [gestures to neck] with their hands forward and they had to do the full bow, and if he was angry with them he had his servent slam the door shut and break their necks. And he didn't allow anybody to carry weapons in his presence. So one samurai lord who knew the guy wasn't happy with him had a fan made with metal ribs, instead of wooden. And when he bowed, he put his war fan into his track where the shoji--the screen--slid shut. And sure enough--wham!--and, of course, it didn't go through the fan. So they used them--um, the big ones they used as battle flags in Japan. But, yes, I didn't make it up. It's nice when I don't have to.

Um, yes?

F: Um, you obviously have a lot of books, and your plots don't tend to repeat themselves.... How do you, uh, keep from, like, repeating yourself, basically?

T: I work very hard at it. Ah, it's my worst fear, that I'll end up doing the same thing over and over again. So, if I think I've started on something where the track might be similar to something else I've done, I start right away working away from that. Like Kel. I wanted to do another girl-knight. I did not want to do Alanna. So, the first thing is body-type. I based her on a fan of mine. And her preferred weapon would have to be different, because Alanna's the sword-person. So, a-and I'd been wanting to do something with my love of Japanese culture, so the naginata, um, seemed like a good choice. And she had to be different in temperament. And she had to go through a different training program than Alanna. That actually got taken care of for me, because when I started writing I didn't realize how much more complicated her first year would be for her, 'cause everybody knew she was a girl.

So, I try--I make a deliberate effort not to repeat myself. Ever. And that's why I agreed when Mal said "I think Aly should be a spy." I said, "Oh sure, yeah, la la la." It was a few years ago, and it wasn't till I was around about chapter three that I started to discover that--oh yeah! that's right!--the good ones aren't James Bond. The good ones are John LeCarre spies, who have wives who cheat on them, and trundle around and look for little chalk marks in obscure places, and go somewhere else for a meeting. But, as much as I whine--and I do!--about Aly, the fact is that it--she's--was a humongous stretch for me. Um, now [??] say "can't you do somebody less driven" and I went "No..." I don't know people who aren't driven, or I'm not friends with them... Everybody I know is like this.

Yes, all the way in the back [gestures to audience member].

F: Umm, how--where did you get your idea for the gods? And, like, is there any, like, certain structure to them or anything?

T: Well, I started, um, when I was in fourth grade I read The Iliad and The Oddysey, and when I was in fifth grade I read Robert Graves's translations of the Greek myths, which made it really interesting in seventh and eighth grade, reading Edith Hamilton and Professor Bullfinch, because they left out a great many things that Mr. Graves had included. [laughter]

But I--[mumble??] Egyptian mythology, and then in middle school I spread out into Norse mythology, and then, just, from there I spread out into world mythology, So usually I start with a real god from some system of world belief and go from there. The Great Mother Goddess is the classic three-faced goddess of the--of the Mediterranean area, all around there. And in fact you find connections with the goddess of the moon all over the world. Um, Mithros was a direct steal from Persian mythology. Um, the Trickster--well, the Black God of Death is basically the guy with the hood and the sce--scythe. Yeah, okay, so sometimes I'm not so inventive. Um, Kyprioth the Trickster is based loosely on Loki and Raven and Coyote, the classic tricksters. But for physical appreance I picked my friend Bruce Coville--only, since Kyprioth's a god, he has more hair. [laughter]

I just go all over and--and pick what I want, and adapt it so that it seems like I came up with it all by myself. [Tammy grins cheekily] Most of the time [I don't get away with it?]