I know many of you have been waiting for this one, so here it is!

USA, USA, I've been meaning to interview Glen Cook ever since I read Chronicles of the Black Company ( Canada Europe ). And I'm just about done with The Books of the South ( Canada Europe ), so the timing couldn't be better!

Enjoy!

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- Without giving anything away, what can you tell you readers about your Black Company sequence?

It could be a generational thing or some different way of looking at what writers do, but I don’t understand this questions at all. The books are there. They are the answer. What could be given away? What else needs to be said?

Maybe you could clarify what you are asking.

- How satisfying is it to see both the Black Company and The Books of the South being reissued as omnibus editions by Tor Books two decades after their initial release? What about the Dread Empire omnibus editions from Night Shade Books?

I really loathed the Black Company omnibus idea. The books were all in print, all the time, in a format that fit peoples’ bookshelves. But they have been successful commercially. The first one has been through five printings already. The Night Shade Dread Empire omnibuses I favored because they were bringing into print books that had been gone for years.

- Will the Glittering Stone sequence get the same treatment in the near future?

I don’t know. A lot of my stuff I find out about when someone asks me to sign a copy.

- What can you tell potential readers about the Instrumentalities of the Night series? Are there any sequels in the works?

The setting of the series is a sort of alternate 13th century Europe shaped by counterfactual geography and the presence of ambient magical energy that makes possible the existence of all gods and devils. It’s also an experiment with a picaresque plot. In addition to the 2 published titles there will be SURRENDER TO THE WILL OF THE NIGHT (done and turned in) and WORKING THE GODS’ MISCHIEF, which is about halfway done.

- Tell us more about your Garrett P. I. novels.

Pretty vague query. The books are American P. I. but set in the fantasy city of TunFaire, where all Garrett’s cases involve the fantastic.

- What do you feel is your strength as a writer/storyteller.

I don’t know if I have an answer. I don’t think about that kind of stuff. Some people tell me it’s plot, others character.

- If you could go back in time, what advice would you give the younger Glen Cook concerning his writing career?

Use all the money he makes to buy Microsoft stock. And maybe to be nicer to his wife. Being married to a writer isn‘t easy.

- The Black Company saga has gained what can best be described as a cult following. Since it never became “mainstream”, how rewarding is it to realize how successful the series has been and continues to be to this day?

This was one of those queries I don’t quite get. I do like the fact that the Black Company series has never been out of print. I am particularly pleased that it has done remarkably well overseas, whence most of my writing income springs.

- What was the spark that generated the idea that drove you to write the Black Company books in the first place?

There was no special spark. I get ideas. I write some of them. The only thing unusual here was that the viewpoint started out as that of “the bad guys.”

- Characters often take on a life of their own. Which of your characters do you find the most unpredictable to write about?

The inhabitants of the Garrett Files series are the most willful and rambunctious. When they get moving I just sit back and let them run. They never go where I think they should when I start. Not one of those books is the one I set out to write.

- Were there any perceived conventions of the fantasy genre which you wanted to twist or break when you set out each Black Company series?

(There is only one Black Company series. The subtitle crap was made up by the publisher) No. Other than to tell the story from the viewpoint of the grunts, which was not some conscious Wow! Wouldn’t this be a kickass twist? kind of decision. I’ve never seen the Black Company series as especially different. Some people seem to disagree.

- In retrospect, is it safe to say that the genre wasn’t quite ready for the Black Company sequence in the mid 80s? Fantasy was dominated by powerhouses such as David Eddings, Terry Brooks, and Raymond E. Feist at the time. Looking back, was your series too avante-garde in style and tone?

Another question I don’t understand. The world must have been ready for whatever people see as different because they never went out of print and my editors constantly carped at me to write faster. The books are still selling well. How about those other guys?

- You have been writing novels and short stories for over three decades. What has changed the most in the fantasy genre since you began your career?

I don’t know, except maybe the guys who made their names rewriting LORD OF THE RINGS aren’t doing so well these days. I’m no J. D. Salinger but neither do I pay attention to what others are doing. I write books. I send them to my agent. He finds somebody to publish them. Oh. I have noticed that books got a lot fatter for a while, but now they’re slimming down.

- Have the plotlines diverged much since you began writing the Black Company books, or did you have the entire plot more or less figured out from the very beginning? Were any characters added or further fleshed out beyond your original intentions? Have you made any changes to your initial plans during the course of the three series?

After thinking about it for several days I think I have figured out what you’re asking here. Firstly, the Black Company started out to be a single book, that would be a novel made up of a series of novelettes. Only one of those got published independently before my agent sold the book to Tor. The editor there did not like the characters at all. But she said she couldn’t get the book out of her head. So we got drunk and rowdy and worked out an agreement that I would make it a trilogy. But the time I finished THE WHITE ROSE I knew where the story would go from there, vaguely, all the way to the end of GLITTERING STONE. Which I expected to be one book the size of the others, but which needed six, some very fat.

I do not outline. I usually start out with a vague notion of where I want to get and let the interactions of my characters get me there.

- Many fantasy writers don’t read within the genre. Is it the case with you? If not, what authors make you shake your head in admiration?

Other than Steven Erikson I read nothing that resembles what I write. Fantasy folk whose books I attack the day they come out include Tom Holt, Terry Pratchett, Diana Wynne Jones, and Tamora Pierce.

- More and more, authors/editors/publicists/agents are discovering the potential of the all SFF blogs/websites/message boards on the internet. Do you keep an eye on what is being discussed out there, especially if it concerns you? Or is this too much of a distraction?

No. I don’t think I could figure out how to go find something like that, anyway. It sounds like a huge waste of time all round. When I have time to fritter I watch a ball game, CSI, or maybe indulge one of my secret vices, like Power Rangers or InuYasha. Or I read a book.

- Cover art has become a very hot topic of late. What are your thoughts pertaining to that facet of a novel, and what do you think of the covers that grace your books?

I generally hold my nose and try not to cry too much. You have no control. If you’re really lucky you get an art director who will let you use Vaseline when he bends you over. That said, I have had some fine covers. The Hildebrandts on the first 6 Garrett books. The covers for the French first editions of the Black Company books by Didier Graffet are genius. The covers for the first 6 Black Company books here, because they were painted by a very good friend. Though they’re a little primitive they do have some actual connection with what is inside. A few others.

Generally speaking, cover art is worse overseas.

- L. E. Modesitt, Jr., once claimed that Tom Doherty is one of the most under appreciated men in fantasy. Do you agree with his assessment?

I wouldn’t know if Tom is under appreciated by others. I love the man myself. He and his crew have been very good to me. He seems to have brought forward a goodly number of both excellent writers and writers who have been big commercial successes.

- Honestly, do you believe that the fantasy genre will ever come to be recognized as veritable literature? Truth be told, in my opinion there has never been this many good books/series as we have right now, and yet there is still very little respect (not to say none) associated with the genre.

For me this is a great steaming shovel full of I don’t care. Good stuff will stick around. Not so good won’t. Some professor pulling his intellectual pud over it isn’t relevant. Jack London and Charles Dickens, Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft, were all hacks. And they’re all in print today. And, for the most part, still scorned by the mutual masturbators of the literati.

From my seat high on the mountainside I think too many people associated with fantasy take the whole thing far too seriously. A failing of Americans in general. We all seem to be able to find a thing or two that we will insist on taking too seriously.

- How would you like to be remembered as an author? What is the legacy you’ll leave behind?

Continuing the “too seriously” theme, the answer here is, I really don’t care. I hope there’ll be enough residual royalties to provide some extra income for my wife. Otherwise, I expect to go the way of Bulwer-Lyton … although, come to think, he did bequeath us “It was a dark and stormy night.” Maybe there is something like that somewhere in my stuff.

- What project will you be tackling next?

Projects in hand include the final Instrumentalities book, WORKING THE GODS’ MISCHIEF, the next Garrett novel, working title GILDEN LATTEN LOVE(RS), a new Dread Empire novel, working title A PATH TO COLDNESS OF HEART, and a Black Company novel entitled PORT OF SHADOWS.

- Anything you wish to share with your fans?

Thank you. Stop taking it so damned seriously. And get out there and buy backup copies of my stuff. I have kids in college.