Previous Interview by KC Heath - Originally published on Yet Another Book Review
Interview: Sean Russell
KC: I don't think I've read any other author who does such an incredible job with lighting a scene. Though it's been years since I've read them, I can still remember passages like this one from BENEATH THE VAULTED HILLS: "Hays thought it particularly appropriate that the streets of the poor lacked public lighting of any kind. One passed out of the light of the better areas into near darkness, only dull candlelight filtering through dirty panes and casting faint shimmering rectangles on the cobbles. At night one often saw dark feet and legs passing through these rectangles of light, or if the passerby walked closer to the window, one would see a silhouetted head and shoulders floating oddly above the street. Hayes had sat in his window often enough to mark this strange anatomical parade passing by--incomplete men and women flitting into existence before each dull little window, then ceasing to be, then coming to meager life again." And this set of passages from THE INITIATE BROTHER where you begin a chapter with: "Lamps swung from bronze chains, moving almost imperceptibly as the ship rocked on quiet waters," . . . then finished that same chapter with: "The lamps swayed. Water lapped the hull." It is passages like this that seriously captivate readers, and I can't help wondering if you at one time used to participate in stage plays where lighting is a primary concern. Where comes your fascination with lighting?
Sean: I wasn't aware that I was fascinated with light, but now that you mention it, I guess I am. I have not been involved in theatre, so it doesn't come from there. I think I've always loved the play of light in nature. From my study, I look out over a large bay to the Beaufort Mountains. The light on the water and mountains changes all day. It's hard for me to focus on my work for the constant parade of beauty beyond the glass. If I'd had any talent, I might have been a painter.
KC: Another faction of your prose that intrigues me is your personification of nature. Your milieus aren't just a flat backdrop, they live and breathe. One of my favorite lines of yours is: "The earth rolled over in its sleep and hid the crescent moon behind the shoulder of a distant hill," (THE ONE KINGDOM). I can not help but be enchanted by lines like: "In the midst of the vast sprawl of the barbarian encampment a single plum tree had blossomed, appearing like a lone act of defiance, a statement of poetic purity," (GATHERER OF CLOUDS). But you take these concepts and weave them into entire books, THE SWANS' WAR trilogy being the best example of how the land itself has a mystical near-awareness, as if it is a character unto itself with hardly a care to the puny humans that inhabit it. I am quite curious as to where you get your ideas, and also how your own experiences with nature enhance these ideas.
Sean: Well, I'm a nature nut. I love being outdoors, on the water or the beach or in the wood. I've always had a keen appreciation of the beauty of nature and I don't know where it came from. I grew up in a house on the beach on Lake Ontario and my bedroom window looked out over the water. Not a bad start to appreciating nature. My parents both really loved nature and were always pointing out things when I was a child. "Look at the colour of the new leaves!" "Watch the way the light moves on the forest floor."
KC: In the RIVER INTO DARKNESS duology you have an incredibly tense spelunking scenario. I am curious to hear the real-life story that engendered that bit of fiction.
Sean: I did quite a bit of caving when I was in my twenties and I simply drew from that. The events in the book are a lot more dramatic than anything I experienced, but that's why we have imaginations. I did quite a bit of caving with a fellow named Bill Bourdillon. Bill was from a well known English family - his father had been the Dean of University College at Oxford, and his brother Tom was on the first successful attempt on Everest (he and one of the Sherpas actually found the route to the top but ran out of oxygen, paving the way for Hillary and Tensing Norqua to make the ascent the next day). We discovered a number of new caves on Vancouver Island, one of them quite spectacular - filled with decorations. Another ended at waterfall that plunged down into darkness (I used this in Beneath the Vaulted Hills) - very eerie and unforgetable.
KC: Here's a question you can refuse to answer, but being curious, I ask it: WORLD WITHOUT END and SEA WITHOUT A SHORE is quite a beautifully sensuous pair of books. They touched the soul of this reader and, thus I can imagine, have partially exposed your soul to the public. So my question is: Have you ever regretted publishing them?
Sean: God, no! It's all fiction, not my life.
KC: The depth of cultural understanding and history in the INITIATE BROTHER and GATHERER OF CLOUDS is awesome. How much time did you spend researching for that project, and was travel part of that research?
Sean: I can't even tell you how much time I spend doing research because I purposely don't track it. I fell in love with Asian culture through the poetry of Li Po when I was in high school, and this sparked an interest that continues to this day. I have traveled to Asia, but oddly enough, after I wrote my Asian books. My wife is half-Japanese, so I always feel that gives me some insight into Eastern thought (when I say this, she rolls her eyes).
KC: How did you get into writing in the first place? What were your goals for your writing in the beginning and how have they changed? --what are they now?
Sean: I always wanted to be a writer - well, since the age of ten. I was having too much fun in my twenties to get really serious about it, though I did write a lot of poetry (which paid off later when I wrote the Initiate Brother). My early goals were to write books of all kinds, disregarding genre or any other means of classification. I was just bursting with ideas when I started (and still am, really). When I wrote my first fantasy books my goal was to create a world as believable as Middle Earth yet completely unlike it. My goal now is to write the best books I can, to improve constantly, to challenge myself with different projects. I suppose my secret goal is to write a book that people will still read in fifty years - not any easy thing to do, and a bit of hubris on my part.
KC: What do you do to keep your writing fresh and growing in stature?
Sean: I think you need to write the books you're passionate about. If the book excites you, then the writing will be fresh. It's easy to fall into a rut and do the same thing over and over. I always remember the books of Leon Uris, who was a very popular writer when I was a teenager. It seemed to me that a number of them were basically the same story, with the same cast of characters. He would just change the local and give the characters different accents. I never wanted to fall into that, and hope I haven't (but I believe this can happen to a writer without him knowing).
KC: Do you enjoy writing? What is it about this art form that enchants you the most? Why did you choose this genre?
Sean: I enjoy writing most days, but that doesn't mean it's an easy profession. It's an intensive discipline, and to write a good book you have to really push yourself. You have to reject all the easy solutions to problems and try to find something that surprises you. When I finish a book, I'm utterly exhausted, physically, mentally and creatively. To start a new book I have to psych myself up, like a player before a big game. It takes a lot of confidence to tackle a project that might span five or six years - or perhaps it takes faith. Faith that you'll overcome all the problems that arise, that you'll work through periods when the words won't come. Faith that the you'll achieve a "flow", that the ideas are valid, that you won't grow tired of them or stop believing in them. That's why it's good to think about a book for four or five years before you start it. After four of five years, if the idea still excites you, then you're less likely to lose faith in it halfway through the project. It's not an easy profession but there's nothing I'd rather being doing.
I actually like visual arts as well, and I love music, but I have no talents in those areas. I remember being very anxious to get reading, and when I first went to school I was frustrated that we did other things like math. I wanted to learn to read so that I could tackle all the books I'd seen on the library shelves. I learned to read quite quickly and just read everything I could get my hands on; poetry, novels, plays, science books, history, biography. I was like a kid in a candy store. I still typically read four or five books at the same time - books of all types. I have just watched my son learn to read and the passion for words is pretty strong in him. He wakes up early so he can read before he goes to school. He's luckier than I was. I had to go to the library a couple of times a week. He lives in a house full of books - several thousand of them, I should think.
The fantasy genre chose me, to be honest. It was never really a conscious
decision on my part.
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