Ben Cohen asked L.E. Modesitt Jr.:

Hi. I've been a faithful reader of all your works since I first got "The Fires of Paratime" through the SFBC longer ago than I would want to acknowledge. One thing that I've always enjoyed with your series is the way you start with a book or few and then "fill in" with extensive back story through prequels. When you're starting new series, how much of the backstory do you actually have, even if just in your head?

L.E. Modesitt Jr. It depends on what you mean by "start a new series." When I sit down to create a new series, there's literally nothing in my head. I begin with the concept of the magic/technology, and then start asking myself what sort of society and world would support that. Next come at least sketches of various cultures, and I start thinking about how they'd work and how they come to be. From there I go to thinking about main characters and how they'd fit, or not fit, in a society.

Now I'm making this sound very ordered, but it's not. It's a pretty chaotic mess that's partly in my head and partly written out. Somewhere in that early stage I draw maps and revise them, because geography affects culture, and if the culture doesn't fit what I've drawn, then I redraw...

Probably because I spent so much time in politics and government, and because I've read a great deal of history, to me a society isn't real unless it has a history and unless I have at least a general idea of how it evolved, but how much of that I've actually figured out by the time I start writing has varied, depending on the series.

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