Britt Griffin
asked
Michael J. Sullivan:
Hello! I just finished The Death of Dulgath (FANTASTIC book, btw! Possibly my favorite so far!) and I have a question regarding nationalities. I think it’s awesome that your world of Elan is so diverse in its human population, so I wanted to know with all the different nationalities, were there any real-world races or ethnicities you drew reference from when describing the people of different nationalities in Elan?
Michael J. Sullivan
Hey Britt,
Thanks so much for your question. For some books, say Game of Thrones, it's easy to draw direct corollaries (Martin mentioned several times that it's inspiration comes from the War of the Roses). For others, like mine, I don't have such obvious inspirations. I mean it's not like I can say, "Oh the people from Calais were based on x, y, or z." Or the people in Dahlgren were representative of people who left Ireland after the potato famine. But I'm sure there are many things that I've learned over the years (I read a lot of history) that went into the melting pot that my eventual world became. So, I guess the answer is yes and no. Yes, from the standpoint that I'm a bit of sponge and I've gathered up a lot of liquid (history) over the years. But no, in there was any intentional decisions I made for some SPECFIC cases. I hope that makes some kind of sense.
Thanks so much for your question. For some books, say Game of Thrones, it's easy to draw direct corollaries (Martin mentioned several times that it's inspiration comes from the War of the Roses). For others, like mine, I don't have such obvious inspirations. I mean it's not like I can say, "Oh the people from Calais were based on x, y, or z." Or the people in Dahlgren were representative of people who left Ireland after the potato famine. But I'm sure there are many things that I've learned over the years (I read a lot of history) that went into the melting pot that my eventual world became. So, I guess the answer is yes and no. Yes, from the standpoint that I'm a bit of sponge and I've gathered up a lot of liquid (history) over the years. But no, in there was any intentional decisions I made for some SPECFIC cases. I hope that makes some kind of sense.
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Britney (BookDrunkSloth)
asked
Michael J. Sullivan:
Hi MIchael! I just finished The Crown Tower, and I loved reading Hadrian and Royce's origin story. I will never tire of reading about these two so put my vote in to continue the ten book Chronicles! Ok, my question: Why is Hadrian the main POV in the books? Why wouldn't you do a more 50/50 POV changes between them both?
Jordan Moore
asked
Michael J. Sullivan:
Hey Michael! First off, I want to say how much I enjoyed Age of Myth. It not only makes me look forward to the other books in the series, but also makes me want to dive into your other worlds.What advice would you give writers who have ideas for a novel, but are scared to start or don't know where to start? Whether it's a fear of failure or worry that the idea isn't flushed out enough, what would you tell them?
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