David Casperson
asked
Kate Elliott:
I just read "Black Wolves", I am catching up on reviews for the Spirit Gate trilogy. Here's the actual question. When I read Traitors' Gate, I though you might have been inspired in part by then current American politics, but then later read that it and "Black Wolves" are all a prequel to a yet-to-written trilogy. So... to what extent do current affairs influence your writing when you already have a plot in mind?
Kate Elliott
This answer contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)[David, thank you for a great question.
The Spirit Gate trilogy was not originally conceived as a commentary on the politics of the period when it was written (2004 - 2008); it was intended to be a study of how a culture with a more loosely organized political social structure gets taken over by a strongman, so to speak. But as a writer I am always influenced by the current events around me, so in the end Traitors' Gate was definitely influenced by that era, as you rightly guessed.
Black Wolves is not a prequel. It is volume one of the second trilogy. It's too early for me to tell how current politics will influence the second trilogy as a whole. I do have a plot in mind for the Black Wolves trilogy, and it has already begun to alter a bit from my original conception, but the main through-lines remain intact. I can't really discuss them without spoilers for the later volumes, though.
Thanks again! Kate Elliot (hide spoiler)]
The Spirit Gate trilogy was not originally conceived as a commentary on the politics of the period when it was written (2004 - 2008); it was intended to be a study of how a culture with a more loosely organized political social structure gets taken over by a strongman, so to speak. But as a writer I am always influenced by the current events around me, so in the end Traitors' Gate was definitely influenced by that era, as you rightly guessed.
Black Wolves is not a prequel. It is volume one of the second trilogy. It's too early for me to tell how current politics will influence the second trilogy as a whole. I do have a plot in mind for the Black Wolves trilogy, and it has already begun to alter a bit from my original conception, but the main through-lines remain intact. I can't really discuss them without spoilers for the later volumes, though.
Thanks again! Kate Elliot (hide spoiler)]
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