Stephen Stanford
Stephen Stanford asked Michael J. Sullivan:

Hi Michael. Am close to finishing T.O.S and enjoying it a lot. I have a question: is your Elvish related to Tolkein's or did you create your own?

Michael J. Sullivan Hey Stephen, so glad to see you here on Goodreads - I hope your writing is going well. Thanks for reading Theft of Swords, and I'm I'm thrilled you are enjoying it.

Without question, I'm influenced by Tolkien (he is the person who got me to start writing because after finishing Lord of the Rings, I wanted more and there wasn't much (this was in the 1970's). So some things are similar - long lived, agile, good hearing and eyesight, etc. But I also put them in a society where they are oppressed. It's not until the second book in Heir of Novron that you meet "full elves" - all those with elfish blood before that book are "mir" - those that are a mix of human and elven. The Mir are generally not well thought of, are picked on, discriminated against. I patterned them off European Jewish people in the 1930's - in that there is much animosity against them.

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