Interview: Elaine Cunningham Date: July 8th 2002 by: Michael Burnaugh (Realmprotector)

Elaine Cunningham is a fantasy author whose books and short stories range from Star Wars to the Forgotten Realms, from Arthurian lore to historical fiction. Elaine has written the Forgotten Realms' trilogy, "Counselors & Kings", and for the anthology "Realms of Shadow", to name a few of her works. Upcoming work include; "Daughter of the Drow" in February 2003 "Tangled Webs" in March 2003, and "Windwalker" in April 2003



GamingReport:
First, Elaine, I'd like tell you it's a great pleasure interviewing you. Many gamers, including myself, enjoy and appreciate your work very much. Where did it all start with you and fantasy writing?

Elaine Cunningham:
I've always been an avid reader. My sister and I used to go to the local library, take out the maximum number of books allowed, and go back two weeks later for more. Ever watch a gaming group go through bag of Cool Ranch Nachos? That was me with the folklore and mythology section. I've always been deeply interested in religions and belief systems, past and present. Another interest is social history, and how people's responses are influenced by different settings. Time and place, creed and culture -- these things, along with odd quirks of personality or chance, define how people think and act. In fantasy, setting is extremely important, and that appeals to me. The question "What if?" is a starting point for all stories, but fantasy is especially well suited to addressing very basic human questions.

GamingReport:
Were you a role-playing gamer in the past and if so tell us about your first campaign?

Elaine Cunningham:
My first encounter with RPG worlds involved researching the Forgotten Realms, the setting of my first novel, ELFSHADOW. I fell in love with the world and read everything -- everything -- that had been published up to that point. But at the time I'd recently passed 30, which in gamer terms is older than fossil fuel. I never did find my way into a congenial group of geezer-gamers. Both of my kids are gamers, but my role is limited to providing snacks and making an occasional smartass comment.

GamingReport:
Do you still game now and if so what games do you play?

Elaine Cunningham:
Our basement is a game room -- pool, Foosball, pingpong, and gaming tables. I seldom have time to do anything more ambitious than a game of pool or a cut-throat Foosball tournament, but I'm trying to fit more gaming time into the social schedule.
As I mentioned before, my two kids are gamers, and some of their interests become family affairs. One year we had a round-robin Magic the Gathering tournament during a drive to Florida. Lap trays make great little tables. It worked very well, and it made the trip go by much faster. We have amassed a huge collection of MageKnight figures. Last Thanksgiving my nephews and kids staged a massive battle that lasted most of the afternoon. We've collected a couple of War Hammer armies, but are still in the assemble-and-paint stage. The figures are great, but what I personally enjoy most about miniatures is collecting, designing and building scenery. We also have a stack of strategy board games: Cosmic Encounter, Settlers of Catan, Stratego Legend, Axis and Allies, Risk. I occasionally play -- and inevitably lose -- a game of chess. Same with Othello and mankala. I'm currently looking for Cathedral, a hard-to-find medieval strategy game. But I expect to lose at that, too. Everyone with whom I play is extremely gifted at spacial reasoning. We definitely need more word games around here!

Right now, however, my involvement runs more to providing opportunities for other people to play than playing myself. For example, I supervise a strategy gaming club at one of the local elementary schools. For the last four years, my kids and I have organized after-school clubs. Magic the Gathering formed the focal point, especially at first, but we also ran D&D; games. We tried other collectible card games such as MagiNation -- a very good game that unfortunately didn't catch on with this group of kids. We've introduced MageKnight and once had a local game store owner come in to do Warhammer demos. It's a good club, and it's great for the kids. I often observe that some of my kids' friends don't know what to do with themselves if they're not a) involved in an organized sport or b) plugged into something electronic. Kids that age need opportunities to learn give and take, win and lose, not to mention interaction with actual human beings. Gaming as a means to social skills! Who knew?

GamingReport:
What was it that got you interested in the Forgotten Realms?

Elaine Cunningham:
That came about in one of those odd little coincidents life hands you now and again. A friend recommended that I try writing fantasy. The very next day, I picked up a copy of the WRITERS' DIGEST magazine. That issue included a teeny little ad placed by TSR, who at that time were looking for proposals for a new series (the Harper series.) I called for more info, bought a copy of the old gray Forgotten Realms boxed set and all the novels then in print, and dove in. The proposal became ELFSHADOW, my first published book.

GamingReport:
How do you feel your writing has developed from ELFSHADOW till now?

Elaine Cunningham:
I think the main improvement can be seen in dialogue. It tends to move along faster these days. Since ELFSHADOW, I've spent a lot of time thinking about battle choreography. That's more visual and fluid these days. My plots have always been fairly convoluted, and that trend has continued. (One WotC editor defined my style as "shrubby," meaning that it has a lot of connected branches.) But if and when I start another Forgotten Realms project, I'd like to try something very different from what's come before.

In fact, in the near future I'm going to be trying a number of new and different things. Quite some time ago, in what seems like another lifetime, I taught music. As a musician and a teacher, you quickly realize that learning comes in a series of plateaus. You go along, improving bit by bit, until you hit a wall. You can stay at that level for a while, but sooner or later you're going to have to make a choice. You can quit outright, you can keep going and sort of dwindle away, or you can put forth the extra effort needed to move up to the next level. That's where I am now: standing at the base of a cliff, formulating a plan for making the climb. I've been giving a lot of thought to next directions. What I want to improve, what I want to do differently.

GamingReport:
What authors would you say most influenced you and why?

Elaine Cunningham:
Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels introduced me to fantasy worldbuilding. I realized that an interesting setting is one of the main appeals of fantasy, an element fully as important as the characters themselves.

Poetry had a big influence. The music of words, the ability to capture a complex image or emotion in a single phrase -- that's something to which I aspire. I love the idea of storytelling in ballad form, and I'm inordinately fond of silly and occasionally bawdy rhymes. Many of my stories contain a snippet or two of bad verse.

For historical fiction, Ellis Peters, Sharon Penman, and Candice Robb are writers who've managed to recreate a feeling of time and place. This is an important skill for a fantasy writer, and when you get right down to it, there's not much difference between writing a historical novel set in the real world and one set in a shared world such as the Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, or Star Wars.

I'm very fond of humorous writing and sharp dialogue. There are some great collections of quotes, insults, and annecdotes, and I read these to try to get a sense of the rhythm and timing involved. And of course I've got a few favorites. For pithy comments and sly social commentary, there's no one like Mark Twain. I love Oscar Wilde's brittle wit and Dorothy Parker's inspired bitchiness. Mystery writer Lawrence Bloch writes wonderfully quirky characters and dialogue.

This might sound odd, but I'd have to name L.L. Montgomery as an influence. She wrote those Anne of Green Gable books, which were among my childhood favorites. This was my first encounter with a continuing character, someone you'd come back to book after book. For the first time, I realized that a fictitious character could become a treasured friend, and I started to think about how and why this was. That's a very important question for a writer to ask, especially in fantasy, where single-book epics are rare.

GamingReport:
Out of the other Forgotten Realms authors who are your favorites?

Elaine Cunningham:
I can sum up the reason I'm writing in the Realms in three words: THE CRYSTAL SHARD. The FR boxed set intrigued me, but it was R.A. Salvatore's books that made me think, "I'd like to be a part of that world."

GamingReport:
What other fantasy type things (fencing, medieval weapons/accessory collecting, etc.) are you into?

Elaine Cunningham:
To start with, I have a fascination with medieval and Renaissance history, to the point of organizing vacation trips around historic sites. There's a lot of overlap between fantasy and history, and travel can be a terrific source of inspiration. For example, at the William Wallace memorial in Stirling, Scotland, we listened to an expert on medieval warfare demonstrate reproductions of period weapons. I got some great (albeit gruesome) ideas that will definitely surface in the next big-scale battle. Driving around the island of Skye provided inspiration for a story I hope to write, hmm.... about four books from now. I'm currently working on two short stories set in the English city of Bath, one story set in Roman times and the other in the late Victorian era. Last summer I did an Arthurian pilgrimage, visiting many of the sites associated with the legend of King Arthur. I've written a couple of Arthurian short stories, and I have a rather offbeat Arthurian novel in development.

There's music, of course. For a while I was tinkering with a MIDI system, composing Realms-related ballads. That was fun, but it's incredibly time-consuming. You know how the Star Wars score uses musical themes to represent various characters or plot elements? Every now and then, I have a musical theme for a character. "The Greymist Maiden" is Arilyn's song -- at least, it's Arilyn as Danilo sees her. I've sung quite a bit of Renaissance music in years past, and one of my goals for 2002 is to hook up with a group in this area. Celtic music is another fantasy crossover. I go to concerts and Celtic festivals, and I play several instruments, with varying degrees of proficiency. I'm currently shopping around for a harp and a set of uillean pipes (Irish pipes, not the more familiar and much louder Highland pipes.)

I attend Renaissance Faires. (There's a "reference center" on my website for folks who'd like more info about faires in their area.) The best one I ever attended was in Braunsfel, Germany, while I was a guest at the Fantasy Spiele Fest convention. The setting was incredible: a beautifully restored medieval town sqare, chicken crowing outside my hotel window, and a Renaissance faire set up in the shadow of a storybook castle. The best part was wandering around the night before, while the faire was being set up. The venders and performers pitched tents and cooked over open fires. Kids and dogs ran around playing. Lots of music and laughter everywhere. It didn't take much imagination to belive that you'd stumbled into into a 16th century gypsy camp.

Costuming is another interest. (You know your lifestyle is a bit left of center when your kid can throw together a troubadour costume from stuff lying around the house!) I like to sew, and I've made several Renaissance and medieval garments. My next project will be to design and sew a Goth/medieval wedding dress for my nephew's future bride. I also make an occasional fabric sculpture dragon, either as a gift or to donate to charity auctions.

Odds and ends, now. I enjoy archery, even if I'm not particularly good at it, and I'm starting foil fencing. I grow herbs. And I drink mead whenever it's available.

Geez. That's more personal info than I've ever given in an interview. My caffeine level must be dangerously low.

GamingReport:
Do you feel constricted as a writer by writing for WotC or Lucas books due to only being able to publish what they ask?

Elaine Cunningham:
From time to time, yes. Several stories I'd really love to tell will never be written, and that can be a hard thing to come to terms with. But I've come to the conclusion that you worry about what you CAN control, and don't go nuts about the rest.

GamingReport:
Will you be at GenCon and if so what will you be participating in?

Elaine Cunningham:
I'm planning to attend. There's a book signing, a seminar or two, the Forgotten Realms reception, and an evening event sponsored by Star Ladies, a Star Wars fan club. For a schedule of events, see the "Signings & Cons" page on my website, www.elainecunningham.com. I'll update this page whenever I get more information.

GamingReport:
Where did the idea for Arilyn and Danilo come from and how did you go about developing them?

Elaine Cunningham:
The basic impulse behind Arilyn's creation was the need to find a window into the elven world. As a half-elf, particularly one of royal blood, she would have ties to and knowledge of the elves, but like us, she's on the outside looking in. This defines her personality and character. She's a loner, an outsider, someone accustomed to relying on herself. The idea of a magic sword is not exactly a new one, but Arilyn has a complex relationship with hers. She resents the moonblade and her dependence on it, which sets up some interesting conflicts. Danilo was inspired by the adventure classic THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL. I liked the notion of a nobleman who was much more than he pretended to be. He offers Arilyn laughter and music -- two elven attributes that are not otherwise part of her life. He also provides an outlet for my innate silliness. My method for writing Dan's scenes is to imbibe too much Starbucks, work late, and write down everything he "says." Then, in the cold light of the following day, I edit out 85% of it.

GamingReport:
Do you have more stories for Danilo and Arilyn?

Elaine Cunningham:
I've had one in mind for several years now, but there are no official plans for another book. I hope this isn't one of those stories destined to remain untold!

GamingReport:
I understand there are some things you would like to change in your novel EVERMEET ISLAND OF ELVES. What would those changes be?

Elaine Cunningham:
Third edition brought some fundamental changes -- or at least redefinitions -- to elven life and culture. I'd like to adjust the book to reflect the current zeitgeist. I'd also like to expand the final battle considerably, adding more detail and a few new twists. But once again, this is an item on my Wish List, nothing more. There are no plans at this time to do a "director's cut" version of EVERMEET.

GamingReport:
Your latest trilogy CONCELORS AND KINGS is just fantastic! The history you wrote of Halruaa is a joy to see, very in-depth and it explores questions I've had since the TSR accessory THE SHINING SOUTH. What went in to the development of this trilogy and are there plans for more adventures with Matteo and Tzigone?

Elaine Cunningham:
Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed the trilogy. Most of my characters tend to be rendered in shades of gray, and I had a good time writing about Matteo, an unambiguously good protagonist. THE SHINING SOUTH was the main resource for this story. I read MURDER IN HALRUAA, of course, but that was a murder mystery and did not particularly concern itself with setting. As a result, I had the opportunity to do a bit of worldbuilding and to establish the culture and feel of Halruaan life. I have no plans for more Matteo and Tzigone stories at this time, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility.

GamingReport:
Your next series is the re-release of DAUGHTER OF THE DROW, TANGLED WEBS and the completion of the series WINDWALKER. How was this series developed, will there be changes to the first two novels and what did you do about the changes to the drow in 3rd Edition D&D; for the last book?

Elaine Cunningham:
This is a tough question, one that has caused me to tear out several handfuls of hair and write a number of frantic emails to my long-suffering WotC editor. The 3rd Edition included some rather important changes to the drow. These changes touch on issues that are pivotal plot points in the first two books of this trilogy. Continuity between games and novels is important, but when the rules change, it's not always possible to retrofit the novels. Longsuffering Editor advised me to continue according to second edition rules. We'll do a few surface fixes -- such as changing Lloth to Lolth and so forth -- but that's it. It's not an ideal situation, but I hope most readers will understand the necessity. Perhaps the fact that the novels are set about eleven years before "current time" (DR 1372) will help establish the "old ways" mindset.

The series continues where it left off, with a sea voyage from Ruathym to the mainland. Liriel and Fyodor have completed their individual quests and are taking the Windwalker amulet back to the Witches of Rashemen. There are, of course, a few complications.

GamingReport:
What other areas of the Forgotten Realms would you like to write about?

Elaine Cunningham:
I'd like to do a big ol' honkin' book set in Waterdeep, something like EVERMEET or CORMYR, which combines a history with a current-day plot. Alustriel's new realm, Silver Marches, would also be a great setting for a novel.

GamingReport:
Can you give us any hints as to what your working on now and is there another Realms book for you in the works?

Elaine Cunningham:
I'm finishing up WINDWALKER, which will be out in April 2003. There are some short stories in the works, and several projects in various stages of development. Nothing I can really talk about at this point. I hope to continue writing in the Realms, but I don't have another book under contract at this time. The folks at WotC like to proceed one project at a time.

GamingReport:
How did you feel when asked to write for Star Wars?

Elaine Cunningham:
Very happy, and very, very surprised. On Bob Salvatore's recommendation, I'd tossed my name into the hat, but so did lots of other writers. I guess the Del Rey editors perceived that DARK JOURNEY and I would be a reasonably good fit. They were looking for a smaller-scale story about a troubled young woman at a difficult time in her life. I seem to specialize in problematic females and small-scale stories, so there you go.

GamingReport:
Do you have any plans to write other Star Wars novels?

Elaine Cunningham:
I enjoyed working with the characters, and it's always great to have an excuse to spend time in the Star Wars universe. I'd definitely consider writing another novel.

GamingReport:
Is there a kind of kinship between the main characters (Jaina, Tzigone, Liriel, and Arilyn) of your books?

Elaine Cunningham:
Apart from gender, I can't think of any single trait that unites all these characters. I'd have to say that Jaina might be a bit more like Bronwyn (the heroine of THORNHOLD) than any of the characters named above.

GamingReport:
Except that they are problematic females? Speaking of Bronwyn, she reminds me in many ways of Prince Kheldar (Silk) from David Eddings novels. How did she come about?

Elaine Cunningham:
Bronwyn is a surviver. Kidnapped as a very young child and raised in slavery, she learned a number of dubious skills. But at heart, she's still the daughter of a paladin, and the importance of a code of behavior took root at an early age. Lacking other guidance, Bronwyn formed her own code: her word is good, her promises are kept. She was also driven by her desire to find answers to her past and, if possible, to reunite with her family. Her belief in the importance of family underlies nearly all of her decisions. Quite a few readers commented that letting the evil Dag Zoreth go free was not the action of a "good" character. But Dag Zoreth was her brother, and Bronwyn couldn't stand by and let him be killed, especially not in front of his ten-year-old daughter. On the other hand, she wouldn't let Dag kill the young paladin Algorind. The whole book is about the conflict between family and duty. At every turn the characters are forced to deal with moral dilemmas and difficult choices. Bronwyn gets hit with quite a few.

GamingReport:
What are some of the similarities between stories/characters when writing for Star Wars and the Forgotten Realms?

Elaine Cunningham:
At the heart of the Star Wars story is a basic struggle between good and evil. That's why I characterize Star Wars as fantasy rather than science fiction. George Lucas was influenced by Joseph Campbell's work on mythic storytelling patterns, and he employed many of the archetypes also found in fantasy: the hero's quest, the "prince" (or, alternately, the sorcerer) who learns of his heritage and destiny, the wise mentor, a set of trials, the band of companions surrounding and supporting the hero. There's a magic system, exotic settings, fantastic creatures -- many common elements.

GamingReport:
The WotC periodicals press release states that the fiction from Star Wars Gamer will continue in Star Wars Insider. Do you have any plans to write fiction for Insider?

Elaine Cunningham:
Would I like to write more Star Wars short fiction? Absolutely. Do I have specific stories under contract and in progress? No. My short stories were published in issues 5, 7 and 8 of STAR WARS GAMER, and that seemed enough for the time being. But I've always enjoyed working with Dave Gross, the editor of SWG/SWI and former editor of Dragon Magazine, and I hope to do so again.

GamingReport:
Have you ever thought of opening your own d20 publishing company?

Elaine Cunningham:
That's an interesting question. "My own d20 publishing company" sounds far too grandious, but I do think that d20 opens some intriguing possibilities. If you're writing novels in original fantasy settings, why not write related game material? It's definitely something to consider.

GamingReport:
In Closing, what would you say to other folks interested in writing for a career?

Elaine Cunningham:
Pour yourself a Diet Coke, then sit in a cool, shady place until the urge passes.

Seriously, now. Bob Salvatore often gives this advise: "If you can quit, quit. If you can't, then you're a writer." That sums things up nicely. If you're already writing -- if you can't NOT write -- then by all means go for it.

I get a lot of mails from aspiring writers. In order to address their concerns, I've answered recurring questions on the "FAQ" page of my web site, and collected useful links on the "For Writers" page. There is a enormous amount of information on the web, and this will give you a place to start. There's no substitute, however, sitting down and working at your craft. Writing is like painting and singing: the only way to learn to do it is to DO it.

GamingReport:
On behalf of GamingReport and Gamers everywhere I thank you for you time!

Elaine Cunningham:
My pleasure.