5 Questions for Kevin Hearne

If you haven’t read the Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne, you are missing out. Stop reading this blog. Go get the first book. Read it. Laugh hysterically. Rinse and repeat until you get to this one, Staked, which is book 8.

I’m really thrilled that Kevin is joining me on SlipperyWords and that he shared some insights into the his way of writing three different main characters.

How did you develop the three different voices for each of the main characters, Owen, Atticus, and Granuaile?

Differentiating voices begins with language patterns: Choices characters make in syntax and vocabulary will set them apart—Leif Helgarson never uses contractions, for example, and Owen tends to swear in the modern Irish fashion. These verbal tics are just part of it, though. Their personal characteristics determine what they choose to say in the first place. Atticus often likes to begin chapters with a few sentences of pseudo-philosophical commentary about life before events force him to focus on survival. Owen notices things that stress him out—which is most everything—and reacts by yelling at them or punching them. Granuaile is often searching for harmony within and without, and pursues what she feels will give her and/or the earth a sense of balance. So their motivations and focus lend quite a bit to their personal voices just as much as their word choices do.

I can imagine it is difficult to keep the three straight. Do you write all of one character’s chapters and then move on to another’s, just to keep writing in the same voice? Or do you write the story in a more linear fashion?

For the most part I did try to work on each voice in chunks. Three or four Atticus chapters, then three or four of Granuaile’s, and so on. That helped me stay somewhat linear on the book as a whole while spending days at a time in one voice. I still needed to go back and check for overlap, though. During the editing process, I caught Granuaile using the word “dodgy,” for example—which she would never do as an American obsessed with American poetry. That’s a slang adjective favored in the UK, and it snuck into the text from the Atticus/Owen chapters.

Why can’t Druids turn into trees? Wouldn’t that be super cool? I can see that the only problem with that is your sense of time may suffer and you could easily lose a year or two.

Druids are supposed to protect the earth and be active champions on its behalf, so giving Druids the ability to turn into an immobile tree would be counterproductive in Gaia’s view.

Would you ever have a character’s bird form be something innocuous like a sparrow? Not much good at fighting but awesome for stealth and spying.

Gaia would always choose a species good at fighting—but stealth can be married with strength too. That’s why Atticus’s form is a great horned owl.

How many books are left in the series? And do you have the whole story arc outlined?

I have only one more book in this series—Druids had a thing for the number 9, so nine books. But there will be a novella out and a short story collection as well before book nine drops.

Bonus:

What is your favorite kind of taco?

Usually it’s whatever taco I have in front of me. But I really like fish tacos if they use grilled fish instead of battered and fried.