Fantastic Metropolis

Gabe Chouinard: You’ve also mentioned that at one point you’d thought Blade of Tyshalle might be your last novel, and you wanted to go out with a bang. You made quite a bang. But is this your masterwork? Your War and Peace?

Matthew Woodring Stover: I hope not. I want to make each book better than the one before. On the other hand, I don’t think I’ll be attempting anything on this scale again for a while. My sketches for future Overworld stories are more focused, more concentrated, less sprawling. More Hemingway than Tolstoy.

You know, I never wanted to be known as a series writer, but about halfway through Blade, I realized that I had laid down the underpinnings for a multiverse I can use to say pretty much everything I might ever want to say with heroic fantasy. So, let me put it this way: If my career is to go according to my fondest wish, it would be that Blade will be not so much my War and Peace as it is the second volume of my Remembrance of Things Past.

Gabe Chouinard: Do you have any promotional plans tied to the release of Blade of Tyshalle? Will you be hitting the bookstore circuit, signing autographs and pressing palms?

Matthew Woodring Stover: Doing these interviews is pretty much the sum of my promotional plans. I may show up at a couple of cons here and there, but book signings tend to be hard on my ego—sitting around watching people who have no idea who I am skitter nervously past the table, avoiding eye contact—it can get depressing. I have better luck with writing seminars and book club talks; at least I know I’ll have an audience. On the other hand, anybody who’s really desperate for my presence can email me at brkngmad@aol.com—or call up the Del Rey publicity director and badger her to send me out on tour.

Gabe Chouinard: Now you’re working on a novel for the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order series. Can you tell us how that came about?

Matthew Woodring Stover: I was approached by Jenni Smith, who had formerly edited Barra & Company over at Roc, but was by that time working with Shelly Shapiro at Del Rey. They had a specific book in the SW:TNJO story arc that they thought I’d do very well. I confess that it took a little convincing, but when Jenni laid out the broad concept of the story they wanted me to tell, I became very interested indeed. Jenni and Shelly went to bat for me with the folks at Lucasfilm Licensing—who of course had no idea who I am; most of the other TNJO authors are better-known. Jenni sent them copies of Jericho Moon and Heroes Die, and they must have liked what they read, because here I am.

Gabe Chouinard: It’s an odd dichotomy for a Next Wave author to be writing something so mainstream. But then, Kevin J. Anderson says he’s seen the sales of his non-licensed-property novels rise quite a bit from his recognition. Was there ever, in the back of your mind, that hope of “luring” some of those Star Wars readers over to the darker fringes?

MWS: It’s not exactly PC for a Star Wars author to be luring fans to the dark side, is it?

A Star Wars book is absolutely a boost to my career; it would be for anyone in the field, I think.

And the Next Wave is where you find it: I never set out to limit myself to the Next Wave model, that’s just a name for where my books fall. Of the writers we’ve been talking about, I’m probably leaning more toward the mainstream already. Hell, I’m looking forward to the Next Wave model becoming the mainstream. I don’t see any particular merit in being a fringe writer; I just want to write good books. And get paid for it.

Gabe Chouinard: Working in the Star Wars mythos is quite a departure for someone who’s known for hard-hitting, gritty writing. Do you feel at all limited by what you can write? How have you adapted to telling a Star Wars tale?

Matthew Woodring Stover: Anybody who thinks Star Wars can’t be hard-hitting hasn’t been reading The New Jedi Order. My novel, Traitor, is going to be just about as gritty as it gets. It’s in no way as graphic as Heroes Die or Blade, of course, but you can do a lot with understatement and suggestion, and the central conflict is as intense as anything I’ve ever written.

Frankly, I’m expecting Traitor to blow some fans’ minds.