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Last Updated:
Jul 9th, 2008 - 12:31:14 |
Interview with Mark James, author of The Stoneholding
By Wendy Shepherd
May 18, 2005, 14:45
 The
interview below may be reprinted with links and photos and with credit below
& permission. Please email Wendy
at TheLostHarp.com
Interview with Mark James... (author of The Stoneholding)
» » Buy
the Book
 An
interview with Mark James, author of The Stoneholding, the first
book of "The Talamadh", an epic fantasy series that takes its
name from the ancient, legendary harp that stands at the center of this
fascinating adventure story.
But first a short introduction to the two guys who write together as
Mark James.
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Jim / Mark |
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The Stoneholding is the result of a unique collaboration between
Mark Sebanc and James G. Anderson. While the origins of the novel lie in
a story crafted by Mark over several years, the book itself in its final
polished form owes its existence to their painstaking work together as a
team, the way they have been able to interweave the many rich facets of
the story, each of them contributing from his particular strength. The end
product is a real testimony to their friendship and the creative flowering
that is possible in a spirit of cooperation. Mark has worked as an editor
and translator, with several books to his credit. He holds a B.A. and
M.A. in Classics from the University of Toronto. A teacher, musician,
and poet, Jim earned both Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees from Franciscan
University of Steubenville. Mark and Jim live with their families in the
Upper Ottawa Valley of Ontario, Canada.
[Wendy Shepherd] Mark, what inspired you to write the story of The Talamadh?
[Mark Sebanc] When I encountered
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings as a teenager, I was bowled over by
the richness and depth of the work, the way he recreated a legendary pre-industrial
world. He touched all the chords of nostalgic longing and breathtaking wonder.
Reading him was an incomparable experience. I think in the back of my mind
even then I hoped that some day I might follow in his footsteps as a writer
and sub-creator. You know, some of us have that bug, the writer's bug. In
the same way Tolkien himself wanted to recapture some of the essence and
spirit of the medieval writers he admired so much as a professional scholar.
And this was not something he did in a spirit of slavish imitation. He brought
his own singular vision and genius to the enterprise. Similarly, Tolkien
opened up the possibility for me to explore the unique aspects of my own
creativity.
[Wendy Shepherd] Mark, How long has it taken to create the
story?
[Mark Sebanc] Forever, it seems. I spent years just reading voraciously,
building up a library, filing away all kinds of tidbits of information,
the flotsam and jetsam of knowledge, thinking it might be useful when the
time came to bring my world into being. In terms of actually writing the
thing, the first rough draft took shape about sixteen years ago. I emphasize
the word, rough. Also, it wasn't something I was doing full-time. I had
a young and growing family. I was a city boy getting used to the country.
And I had a day job. The good side, though, is that this long process of
creative ferment has added, I think, to the depth and texture of the work.
Like well-aged wine. It has more body than it might otherwise have had.
[Wendy Shepherd] Jim, how did you become involved in co-authoring
The Stoneholding, the first book of The Talamadh?
[Jim Anderson] Mark originally invited
me to look over his manuscript with an eye to offering some editorial suggestion.
He gave me the first two chapters and it was with no small amount of trepidation
that I turned my hand to the task. It's quite the thing for an author to
invite criticism of his work; I was deeply honoured to be so trusted by
him. In any case, I set to work on the first two chapters, holding nothing
back, and when we sat down and looked at it together, Mark was enthusiastically
approving of my suggestions. He encouraged me to carry on editing the work.
As we continued to work closely together, we began to re-examine much of
the text – revising, and often rewriting sections – clarifying
the backstory, the setting, characterization and style. Apart from reworking
the text itself, we re-visioned the cosmology behind the story – the
"history" of the story-world is very involved and rich; I feel
it to be one of the key elements that provides a depth to the work as a
whole. Mark continued to invite me further and further into the creative
process of the work itself and soon it became evident that our work was
collaborative. It is a good fit, we work well together, and the personal
talents, strengths, interests and gifts we each bring to the working relationship
are extraordinarily complementary. It seems we make a good team. After two
extensive revisions of the manuscript, Mark asked me to consider working
with him on the subsequent books in the trilogy. It was at this time that
Mark suggested "Mark James" as a possible penname for the books
of "The Talamadh."
[Wendy Shepherd] Jim, What types of modifications did you
bring to the story? [Jim Anderson]
Apart from the work already mentioned? I think the most important
"modification" of the original story was a re-orientation of
the whole work. Fantasy tends, by nature, to be somewhat imitative, or
perhaps I should say, derivative; that is, as with any genre-fiction,
works of fantasy can appear "cut from the same cloth" as that
which has come before. Needless to say, a comparison of any piece of epic
fantasy to Tolkien's work is one that most people will make. I think this
was one of the biggest jobs that faced us in the reworking of the text,
to take several large steps away from Tolkien to establish the work as
unique in itself while remaining in the tradition of the literary epic
established by Tolkien.
I would contend that we push the boundaries of the
'fantasy' genre. While The Stoneholding draws on Celtic and Norse
tradition (also Canadian, especially in the description of landscape –
we both, Mark and I, deeply love the rugged wilderness of the Canadian Shield
on the edge of which we live), it is not mythic per se. We have deliberately
tried to move away from the sense of myth with its allegorical connotations.
Rather, we have striven for a sense of the legendary, for while a myth-world
tends to be by nature removed and disconnected from our own experience,
a legend-world has an immediacy and connection to our understanding of the
world in which we live. Myth speaks of what is imagined at a more remote
and intangible distance, at a greater remove from the reader; whereas legend
captures a sense of the historical, it's a might-have-happened that yet
permits imaginative embellishment. King Arthur, for example. Did he exist?
He may well have. He and the knights of the round table, and, by extension,
their feats and adventures, are the stuff of legend and as such are in a
sense more "real" to us than mythical characters and events are.
Somehow Arthur, Launcelot, Kay, Bedevere, Gawaine, and crew – even
Merlin – seem a part of our historical patrimony. Even though they
are said to have fought dragons, giants and headless foemen, I am not wont
to question their having existed. Thus are the figures of legend figures
with whom I can more readily identify than those creatures of myth. It is
the sense of immediacy to our understanding of reality that we've tried
to capture in fashioning the world and peoples of Ahn Norvys, the world
in which our story takes place – after legend rather than myth. It
may seem that it is splitting hairs to make the distinction between myth
and legend; however, I think is is an important distinction as we attempt
to make the story more present to the reader. In doing so we perhaps bend
the rules of what might properly be understood as fantasy, but I prefer
to look at it as making the work unique.
[Wendy Shepherd] Was the Talamadh meant to be a trilogy
from the beginning? Do you have an idea of how long before the next two
books are finished? [Mark Sebanc]
Yes, it was meant to be a trilogy
from the beginning, but only in the sense that I figured I would need
the space and breadth of at least three books to build and elaborate my
alternative world. And three seemed like a good number, if you use Tolkien
as a benchmark, and he's not a bad benchmark. But even in his case the
three books of Lord of the Rings were the result of an arbitrary
decision by his publisher Unwin. Lord of the Rings was originally
conceived by Tolkien as one book, but it was much too long and too big
to be published in one fell swoop.
As for the next two books, Jim and I have extensive,
indeed exhaustive, outlines. We've begun work on The Hidden Kingdom,
the second book of the trilogy, and have a really good idea where the
whole thing is headed. All things being equal, we hope to have it done
sometime in 2006, with the third following the year thereafter.
[Jim Anderson] Yes, but it really
depends upon the success of this book and how soon we can move our attentions
from promoting The Stoneholding to writing the next work. Right
now it's a bit of a juggling act! But life's like that, eh?
[Wendy Shepherd] The cover art for "The Stoneholding"
is done by Ted
Nasmith, JRR Tolkien Illustrator. How did he become involved in doing
the painting? Will he be doing the cover art for the next two books as well?
[Mark Sebanc] Ted
has been my good friend and supporter for well-nigh a decade now. It was
my deep admiration for his work, and one painting in particular –
"Rivendell" – that first brought us together. I thought
that Ted captured the essence of Tolkien better than any other illustrator
I had seen. In this I'm not alone. Apparently Christopher Tolkien, JRR's
son and the executor of his estate, is of the same mind. Ted is the only
artist whom the estate has allowed to illustrate The Silmarillion.
Through me Ted was introduced to Jim several years
ago. Anyway, when we were ready to publish The Stoneholding ourselves,
Ted offered to illustrate the cover in token of our friendship. What a
splendid job he did! Everyone remarks on the cover. As you can imagine,
being a world-renowned Tolkien illustrator, he's extremely busy and much
sought after. I do hope nonetheless that we will be able to have him do
the next two covers.
[Jim Anderson] I hope that readers
find that The Stoneholding is a book that can truely be judged
by its cover! Ted's artwork is wonderful, but even more remarkable –
and deeply appreciated – is his constant and unfailing support of
the work itself, his belief in it. It's been a rare pleasure for me to get
to know and work with Ted.
[Wendy Shepherd] Has JRR Tolkien or any other fantasy story
influenced the writing of The Talamadh trilogy? [Mark
Sebanc] There was Tolkien, of course,
as I've already mentioned. Also I've been influenced by older writers
of fantastic adventure like Rider Haggard, who wrote the classic King
Solomon's Mines and many other great books. Also Richard Adams. His Watership
Down is a stunningly evocative and brilliantly crafted novel, sometimes
mentioned in the same breath as Lord of the Rings.
[Jim Anderson] Naturally, Tolkien
is a great influence, we all walk trails blazed by pioneers, but apart from
Tolkien, the only fantasy I've ever read was Conan the Barbarian
when I was a teenager. My tastes always tended toward a different type of
speculative fiction, namely early science fiction, often British, stuff
by the likes of Jules Verne, John Wyndham, H.G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle
and C. S. Lewis and the like – I thought Lewis' "Space Trilogy"
was brilliant. I just recently re-read A Canticle for Leibowitz
by Walter M. Miller, enjoying it again. In somewhat the same strain are
the dystopian works like 1984 and Brave New World. And I'm a fan
of John le Carre – good spy novels!
[Wendy Shepherd] The Stoneholding features a few
maps as well as songs. Was it easy to imagine the journey and tunes for
the songs? Would the music be of a Celtic nature? Do your personal talents
play a role? [Mark Sebanc] The
maps were absolutely necessary in keeping the plot and action of the novel
coherent. They were fun to do as well, although Jim carried most of the
burden here. He's got superb draftsman's skills. Since he's a poet and
musician too, the lyrics of the songs were mostly his doing apart from
a couple traditional English folk dittys which we adapted to fit the story.
We didn't really dwell on the tunes. I wouldn't say the feel of the lyrics
or music is necessarily Celtic. Jim's tastes are quite wide and eclectic.
[Jim Anderson] Yeah, I was thinking
of a Bob Dylan / Polka feel for the "Lay of Investiture" . .
. No, really, the tunes never really occurred to me. If we were to set
the verse to music, I think I'd be inclined to avoid an overtly Celtic
flavour to the tunes as I'm afraid that the whole thing might seem a bit
hackneyed. I would imagine them to have more the feel of the medieval
English ballad. No doubt I'll try setting a couple to music at some point;
however, I think working on the next book is probably of more pressing
urgency at this time. But, you never can tell, can you? . . . so keep
an ear out for the soundtrack!
The maps were great fun to work on. The maps mentioned
in the story itself were drawn by scribes, so I drew the maps for the book
in pen and ink in an attempt to capture something of the feel of the story
and remain true to its spirit. I found as I read and re-read the manuscript
I was doodling maps on various bits and scraps of paper just to keep straight
the story in my mind, these eventually worked into the maps you see in the
book. I have a couple other maps partially done for the next book.
[Wendy Shepherd] Who is your favourite character? Why?
[Mark Sebanc] Hard
question. If I had to choose a character, it would probably be Wilum.
He's weathered more than his share of storms, but he stays the course.
He's aspired to be wise and hasn't always been understood by his own people.
In the end he manages to achieve a kind of ripe serenity.
[Jim Anderson] My favourite? I could
probably better tell you my least favourite! I've never really thought about
it. Mark and I were once asked which of the characters most reminded us
of ourselves. I suppose I find the characters in the story to be more like
friends to me – people I know, and, like friends, sometimes I see
things of myself in them, and sometimes I see things I don't like in them.
They're characters – but aren't we all! You spend alot of time with
them through the creative process of writing a book. It was strange, but
when the writing and revising was finished, and the manuscript had remained
closed for a couple weeks, I found I actually missed the characters, missed
spending time with them, like I would miss absent friends.
[Wendy Shepherd] Why did you decide to self publish The
Stoneholding? [Mark Sebanc]
Well, we had a top-flight agent
and we came so very close to selling the book to one of the biggest publishers
in New York. In the end they passed, arguing that they didn't know how
to slot it, whether it should be classified as Adult or Young Adult. At
the same time Jim and I were honing and revising the work, bringing it
to an ever higher level artistically. We could have stayed with an agent
and had another go at selling it in New York, but then decided we wanted
to get the work out there in the marketplace, to have the thing judged
by actual readers, especially now that the internet and modern digital
technology have made it possible to bypass the big players.
Recently I read part of an interview with mega-bestselling
author Dean Koontz that appeared in The Wall Street Journal.
He says:
"I would say the biggest problem is underestimating
the reading audience. I've always written cross-genre books: a suspense
novel with a love story inside and some comedy. But publishers resisted
this strenuously. Everything has to be labeled, and sold that way. If
you're writing a series, there is pressure to keep things narrow and not
break out. Books like Herman Wouk's "The Winds of War" and James
Clavell's "Shogun" have largely disappeared from the bestseller
list. The common wisdom is that readers don't have the patience they once
did. But underestimating the reading public is a very big mistake. If
there was more trust in the public, it would pay off. An editor once told
me that if I didn't keep my vocabulary to 500 words I'd never make the
best-seller list."
Koontz also endorses the internet as an important
tool, seeing it as "a low-cost way of generating a connection between
writers and their audience."
His words seem like a striking confirmation of our
decision to self-publish.
[Wendy Shepherd] Is it difficult to self publish a book?
What tools did you use to get the book ready for publishing?
[Mark Sebanc]
No, it's not that difficult to self publish a book these days. There's so
much software and resources out there that weren't available a generation
ago. Things that have evened out the playing field.
[Wendy Shepherd] Have you found it easy or difficult to market the
book? Do you have outside help? [Mark
Sebanc] Marketing remains a huge
hurdle despite the marvellous advantages of the internet. It's very labour
intensive and very taxing, especially as we both have day jobs. But it's
great to get outside help from people like you, Wendy. You've been a tremendous
source of support and encouragement and marketing expertise, helping to
spread the word about The Stoneholding on the web.
[Jim Anderson] Promoting the book
has been by far the most difficult task so far. It doesn't help that neither
Mark nor I are particularly skilled in that aspect of the whole project.
However, the enthusiasm of readers like yourself, as Mark says, is a great
boon. When someone gets excited by the project, it's contagious, and we
find ourselves more enthusiastic about the leg work. We've thought of the
marketing like rolling a large boulder – it takes a fair amount of
rocking the thing back and forth to build up the momentum to get it moving,
but when it does . . . well, then! I feel like we're starting to get to
that moment of movement. Certainly the internet exposure has been very beneficial,
but word of mouth is far and away still the best advertising and support
we could get for the book.
[Wendy Shepherd] What would it take to get a big publisher
interested in the book? [Mark
Sebanc] Selling a large number of
copies on our own would definitely grab their attention. Seeing the enthusiasm
and endorsements of our growing fan base might also sway them.
[Jim Anderson] Yeah, the boulder
rolling down the hillside might attract some attention . . . anyone want
to lend a hand pushing?
[Wendy Shepherd] Who
would love reading The Stoneholding? Adults? Children?
[Jim Anderson] We've had positive
feedback from all age groups. My twelve year old niece read the manuscript
and loved it as did my wife's fifty-something uncle. It's the kind of
story that naturally has broad appeal. It is highly unfortunate, however,
that so many folks in the business try to catagorize novels which will
only tend to limit and narrow a reader base. I suppose that's the trouble
with a marketing strategy – what's the target demographic? It would
be good to break away from that mindset; much could be gained for both
readers and writers. So far as this book is concerned, The Stoneholding
has been shown to have broad appeal.
[Mark Sebanc] As
is the case with Lord of the Rings or Watership Down or
the Harry Potter books, our audience covers the whole spectrum of ages and
intellectual background. We have teenagers and young adults who love The
Stoneholding. We have just as many adult fans. Just recently, for example,
we received a rave review and endorsement frrom Guy Trudel, who is a professor
of medieval English at the University of Toronto, with a doctorate from
Oxford. So we have a very broad reader base. Echoing Dean Koontz, I think
it's a matter of not underestimating your reading public, particularly young
adults, who, in my experience, enjoy the challenge of a work that stretches
them. There's altogether too much rigid pigeon-holing in our culture. The
realm of books is no exception.
[Wendy Shepherd]
Would you like to see the story made into a movie or video game?
[Mark Sebanc] That would be great.
Any movie people or game developers out there who are reading this?
[Wendy Shepherd] Do you have any memorable moments that
you would like to share since you started this journey together?
[Mark Sebanc] For
my part, there are many memorable moments. So often when Jim and I would
sit down to discuss plot or the shape of some passage or other in the
book, there would be eureka moments, moments of stunning illumination,
leading to outbursts of creative energy that were much more than the sum
of our individual parts, yielding solutions that were more vibrant and
satisfying than anything we might have devised on our own without the
benefit of collaboration. As far as I'm concerned, working together sure
goes a long way towards eliminating that perennial problem of the solitary
scribbler: writer's block.
[Jim Anderson] Indeed, the forge-sparks
of creativity have been incredible, those moments of raw excitement in the
work together. But I think one of the best moments was when someone –
and I can't even remember who it was now – but someone casually said
"Briacoil" to us as if it were an everyday word to them. You see,
"briacoil" is a made-up word in the story, it's a word of friendly
greeting like "Hi" or "How're you doin'?" and it came
so naturally out of this person's mouth . . . At that moment I knew that
the story had stuck. It worked! Someone had connected with it and taken
the story on as their own. That was a great moment.
[Wendy Shepherd] Thanks Mark and Jim. I have really enjoyed
The Stoneholding and sharing information about it with our readers
at TheLostHarp.com
[Jim Anderson] You're
welcome, Wendy, and thank you!
[Mark Sebanc] Before
we sign off, Jim and I would encourage your readers to learn more about
our work by visiting our website: www.stoneharp.com.
We would also welcome their comments and suggestions.
» Buy
the Book
This interview may be reprinted with links and photos and with credit
below & permission. Please email Wendy
at TheLostHarp.com
Wendy Shepherd is the owner and creator of a multitude of websites on the
internet since 1997 . She also has a love for wonderful stories. The most
loved stories are written by JRR Tolkien. The Stoneholding is a
new book within her collection and www.thelostharp.com
was created to promote, share updated news, and spread the love of the story.
Wendy's own testimonial for The Stoneholding : I thought “The
Stoneholding” was exceptional! It quenched my thirst for good
literature. It is a creative new wondrous tale that I found hard to put
down. I am happy to add it to my treasured collection of books that include
JRR Tolkien’s writings. I look forward to reading the next two books
that continue the quest. In the meantime, I will be re-reading “The
Stoneholding” I am definitely a fan!
To learn more about Wendy Shepherd, please visit the website at www.studiomatrix.com
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