Jane Lindskold is an excellent author who should be a name on the lips of everyone who is a fan of the Urban Fantasy genre. She’s the author of three series of novels, the Firekeeper Saga (AKA her Wolf series), the Athanor series (Changer and Legends Walking), and the Breaking the Wall series, as well as other novels. She has also collaborated with authors like Roger Zelazny, completing his novels Donnerjack and Lord Demon.
Photo Copyright © 2006 by Patricia Nagle. All rights reserved.
Recently, I had the opportunity and honor of reading and reviewing the third book in Jane’s Breaking the Wall series, Five Odd Honors, and I was impressed by her incorporation of and knowledge of mah jong and Chinese mythology and their zodiac. So I jumped at the chance to interview her about the latest book and other things.
Professor Crazy: Welcome to the BSC site, and thanks, Jane, for agreeing to be interviewed! I’ll mainly ask you questions about your Breaking the Wall series of novels, just because I’m more familiar with it, but I know you have a great fondness for dogs and wolves, as well as having written the Wolf series of books, so I’ll start off by asking you about that. What came first, your love of wolves, or the first novel of your Wolf series? Also, if any of our readers might be more interested in supporting the organization that you mention on your website that cares for wolves, could you please give us the contact information?
Jane Lindskold: Oh… My love for wolves definitely came first! To be honest, I don’t know when I didn’t love wolves. My dad worked a bit on the Justice Department’s work to get protection for the wolves in Alaska. I remember saying to him something like: “Dad, if they don’t want the wolves, I’ll take them.” Kipling’s The Jungle Books remain among my favorites.
The organization you mentioned is Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary in Ramah, New Mexico. Their website is www.wildspiritwolfsanctuary.org.
Before I get to other questions about your books, I know from having read it at your site that you knew the late, great, author Roger Zelazny well, and were a close friend of his towards the end of his life. He is one of my all-time favorite authors, and I know he’s one that’s often mentioned by both people who write for this site and our loyal fans who comment here. You mention that you wrote a biography of his life–would you please tell us what it was called, and is it still in print and available to purchase on-line?
The biography of Roger was called, simply Roger Zelazny. It came out from Twayne Publishers in 1993. I don’t think it’s still in print and I’ve heard it’s somewhat hard to find. I don’t even have spare copies.
The final chapter makes me sad. It was written before we had any idea Roger was ill and there still seemed so much to come.
You completed Roger’s final two novels after his death, Donnerjack and Lord Demon. They are marvelous novels, and it’s difficult to tell where Roger’s writing leaves off and yours begins. What sort of tricks or techniques did you use that you learned from Roger in completing them?
Thanks! I did my best to hide my footprints. One technique I kept in mind was what Roger himself used when he completed Philip K. Dick’s Deus Irae. Roger said he didn’t try to copy Dick, but (and I quote from the biography, which in turn quotes from a letter Roger wrote me in 1989): “Before I started on it, I read or re-read sufficient of his material to teach myself how to mimic his style. I didn’t do it, though, but chose a style partway between his & mine, a sort of meta-Phil Dick style which blended well [with] his own & made the thing come out sounding like something reminiscent of both of us but not exactly like either.”
So first I read the parts of Donnerjack and Lord Demon Roger had written. Then I re-read a lot of Roger’s stuff. I noted little tricks of his. He liked “essay” as a verb; he liked to write dialogue without attribution of speaker. Stuff like that. Then I started writing.
Thirteen Orphans starts your Breaking the Wall series. It, as all of the books do, involves mah jong, and the Chinese zodiac, and Chinese myths. I’ve never played mah jong, though reading your novels makes me want to try to learn it one day. What gave you the idea for Thirteen Orphans and how long did it take you to write it?
The idea for the “Breaking the Wall” series came on the night I first learned to play mah-jong. The first step is building a wall from the 144 tiles. Someone said “We’re building the Great Wall of China!” My brain said, “No, we can’t be. The Great Wall is jagged and broken, not a perfect square. But the character for ‘center’–most commonly used for ‘China’ [the Middle Kingdom]–is a square with a line through it. What sort of game starts with building the universe?”
How long is deceptive. Usually the actual writing takes me about nine months. However, in this case, I didn’t write the book until years after that first thought. I did a lot of research in that time.
Brenda Morris, a college student, is the main character throughout the series, though she is not always at the forefront of the action that takes place in all of the books. She is the daughter of Gaheris Morris, who is the Rat. Brenda, though, strangely exhibits some of the Rat’s attributes and powers. Could you tell us what some of these are that she exhibits, and what is it about the Rat that makes it an important sign, and the one you chose for Brenda to be?
First, I don’t see Brenda as the main character. She and Pearl are the two point of view characters. I don’t think Brenda has any more “on-stage time” in that first book than Pearl.
I can’t really go into too many details about powers and attributes. A touch of shapeshifting is one… but the others would take so much space. However, I chose the Rat for Brenda because it is actually considered one of the favored signs by the Chinese. I liked that contrast to our own “rat-a-phobia” and wanted to play with the idea.
Who is Albert Yu, and as the Cat, what role does he play among the Thirteen Orphans/Exiles?
Albert is the grandson of a lesser son of emperor of the Lands Born From Smoke and Sacrifice. Over a hundred years later, he’s trying to live up to a title and a throne he doesn’t think he’ll ever claim.
The Cat is not an official sign of the zodiac. However, most tales of how the animals were chosen for the zodiac include the Cat–and tell why he got left out.
Who are Righteous Drum and Honey Dream, can we expect to see a lot more of them in Five Odd Honors?
Can I skip this one? For readers who haven’t read Thirteen Orphans, this would be a real spoiler! Suffice to say that they are among the two characters whose roles change the most in the course of the series.
Pearl Bright is one of my favorite characters in the series. I think Gaharis refers to her as his “aunt.” What animal is she in mah jong and the zodiac? How did she get her fortune?
Pearl is the Tiger. She was a child actress, a contemporary of Shirley Temple. However, her mother invested her earnings wisely and Pearl has continued to do so, leaving her if not staggeringly rich still more than comfortably off.
Who is Walking Lizard, Jane, why is he called that when he is a Monkey?
Waking Lizard… Hmm… I don’t want to say too much about him because of the spoiler problem. He doesn’t even appear until the end of Thirteen Orphans and then in very curious circumstances.
That said, his name came from my seeing a lizard waking up on a cool autumn morning one day when I was taking my bike out for a ride. I liked the image and the sound of the words together.
Why is the third book called Five Odd Honors (I like the title, just thought the readers would like to know) and who are they?
The third book gets its title (as do the other two) from the names of mah-jong limit hands.
They are ghosts.
When was it that you played mah jong for the first time? Also, I was wondering why in the series you call the Earth the “Land of the Burning,” and the lands the Exiles came from the “Lands of Smoke and Sacrifice”?
I played mah-jong for the first time in the mid-nineties. The other references come from Chinese history, the notorious Burning of the Books by agents of the first emperor. Ours is the land where the burning happened; the other is the land that resulted.
Are Brenda or any of your other characters in Five Odd Honors based on anyone you know?
No. I rarely base characters on people I know. One marked exception is the short story “Jeff’s Best Joke” where my husband Jim Moore and his frequent co-director Jeff Boyer are the main characters.
Pearl’s father somehow obtains a very powerful and deadly sword, called “Soul Splitter.” Why do the Exiles wonder where he got it from?
The Exiles wonder about Soul Splitter because it’s a new creation to them. In life, Thundering Heaven (Pearl’s father) created and carried the sword Treaty, which Pearl now carries.
What’s the inspiration for some of the characters’ names, like Thundering Heaven? Are they from Chinese myths? Do you know Chinese yourself, and how long have you been interested in the Chinese culture?
The names are my own, based on traditional Chinese patterns. I don’t know Chinese. I have been interested in Chinese culture apparently since I was a small child and a friend of my father’s brought me a little Chinese dress after a trip. My mother says I had to be pried out of it.
I don’t remember that dress, but I have had a long-time interest in Chinese culture. This was enhanced when I was in graduate school and made friends with a Chinese classmate. She introduced me to the foreign student community and my interest was enhanced. I went to various Chinese homes and tried foods that I might not have otherwise.
Okay, Jane–just one more question to go–What’s your favorite brand of tequila?–No, that’s not it, but you can answer it if you’d like–I would like to know if you’re currently working on another Breaking the wall book, or one in some other series, and if so, could you tell us the title of it, and when it’ll be published?
I don’t drink tequila… Actually, I don’t drink alcohol at all. No moral or ethical or health reason, just never acquired the taste.
Oddly, I do like the taste of really peaty single malt whisky, but I’m such a light weight that about two sips from Jim’s glass is my limit.
Coffee, black–medium roasts like Sumatran–is my drug of choice!
More seriously, I’m not currently working on a new “Breaking the Wall” book, but I would very much like to do at least one more. It would be set more in the Lands, and would… Ah, but that really would be a spoiler wouldn’t it?!
Thanks again, Jane! I really have enjoyed doing this interview with you! If you want to know more about Jane be sure to check out her website.
