1. What is it about the Fantasy genre that attracted you to it?
I came across my first Fantasy at the age of eight, when a teacher read us ‘The Silver Chair.’ All these years later I still remember being blown away by the idea that it was possible to invent a whole new world, where everything could be so different from the world I knew. I rushed off to my local library and zoomed my way through the rest of the Narnia books, then went on to The Hobbit – and that was how my love of Fantasy got started! From the very beginning I was intrigued by the limitless scope that the genre provides. You want armed conflict? It can be there in Fantasy, from great wars and battles, right down to duels and bar-room brawls. You want hatred or personal conflict based on envy, prejudice, greed or any other destructive emotion? It can all be there. You want magic and enchantment? No problem! Detective work? Horror? Ghosts? Romance? Absolutely! You want to make serious points, on religion or politics, or on a bigger scale, the way that mankind is destroying the planet? If you do it right you can slide these things in without bludgeoning the reader with your viewpoints. There is only one cardinal rule in Fantasy: the world a writer creates must, absolutely must, have its own laws and structure, its own physics and metaphysics, its own history and geography – and the writer must always stay within that structure. Apart from that, the possibilities are endless. That’s what makes Fantasy such tremendous fun – both to read and to write.
2. A little birdie tells us that you’re working on something new and exciting to do with dragons, tell us everything!
Oh, I am so excited about this series, and I’m having so much fun with it. Just now I don’t really want to go into details because I’m looking for the right publisher, and I want to get it all under contract before I talk about it too much, but I promise that once that has happened, this website will be the first to get a sneak preview! It’s a new approach to the Dragon theme. Although all of those novels of humans bonding with Dragons have been excellently done, and have quite rightly been very successful, I wanted to get away from that, and put a whole new twist on the Human/Dragon relationship. Also, with the current advances in Computer Animation (I’m thinking along the lines of Avatar here) this story is simply begging to be made into a movie, and from my experiences as a World of Warcraft fanatic, I know it would make a great game too. Right now I’m hoping that someone out there has the vision to take advantage of all its potential.
3. Where do you find your inspiration?
A writer finds inspiration everywhere – from their experiences, people they encounter, from their passions and interests, from anything and everything. Authors live by the question “What if…?” What if the world was this way, or if a character did that , or if this were to happen?” My love of animals is a recurring theme, and I love to see them in a slightly different way, like the Xandim shapeshifting between human and horse. Several years ago I went to Alaska and fell in love with the spirit of the land. I’ll never forget coming close to my first glacier; the immensity of it, that slightly sour, slightly metallic smell they have, and the sounds; the growling and muttering then a loud snap that sounded like a rifle being fired. My first startled thought was “It’s alive!” and in that moment the character of Taku was born, and the whole concept of the Elsewhere sprung from that trip, when the Inspiration Fairy was working overtime! I understand Iriana, the blind Wizard, so completely because I was born with a heart condition, and I know what it’s like to learn ways to cope, and find ways to assert your independence in the face of kind but overprotective people. Inspiration is not a thing that happens consciously – everything gets stored away somewhere, then pops up unexpectedly in a whole new light.
4. Are you an improviser or a planner, preferring to know everything before you write it?
Until now I’ve been an improviser. I know where I want to get to, and have a good idea of what needs to happen en route, but I let my characters lead their own way through the story, so they grow and develop in a very natural way. As the story unwinds, that they often surprise me – and if they surprise me, they will surprise my readers. Also, it leaves room for flexibility. In Heritage of the Xandim, I felt that the story needed an extra dimension, but I wasn’t sure what it could be until I took the aforementioned trip. Once the character of Taku had taken hold of me, the whole concept and significance of the Elsewhere was born. I came home and incvorporated it into the book, and it became the one of the most significant factors in the story. Improvisation allowed me to do that. For the new Dragon series, however, it worked better to plan things out in a more structured way before I started, so I’ll be interested to see what difference it makes. I expect there’ll still be plenty of room for surprises along the way.
5. Some authors, such as David B. Coe, find it easy to kill characters, is this something you struggle with as a writer?
It depends on the character! If it’s someone who is really nasty, it’s a real pleasure to dispatch them. If it’s a beloved character, it can be really upsetting, but sometimes it has to be done for the good of the story as a whole. The first major character I killed was Forral, in the Artefacts of Power series, and that was very traumatic. I wrote his death scene one afternoon in that white-hot blaze of inspiration that every author blesses, and I could hardly see the keyboard for tears. My husband Eric came home to find me crying my eyes out. “Oh my God, what’s happened?” he wanted to know. “Forral’s dead!” I wailed. Eric rolled his eyes to the heavens. “Well what on earth did you kill him for?” But the sad truth was that Forral had to go. He was too protective of Aurian; with him around she would never have learned to fight her own battles and grow up to be the dauntless warrior and mage that she became. It taught me an important lesson: never be afraid to lose a character if the story calls for it. But I would never kill someone just for the sake of it, or some cynical ploy such as “guess which major character will die in this book?” I wouldn’t sell my readers short like that. Though there has to be loss and tragedy, because it happens, and that’s the way we learn and grow, I prefer my stories to ultimately keep that overall feelgood style, and if a character is killed, I hope it is always for good reason, and as a step towards something more positive in the end.
6. Can you tell us why there was such a time delay between the first and the second books of your Chronicles of the Xandim?
Sadly, last year was a nightmare. It started in January, when Eric was very seriously ill with pneumonia, and almost lost his life. Then my Dad had a heart attack, and shortly afterwards Eric’s Mum tragically died. Then my own Mum had to go into hospital for a for an operation, and I had to go and take care of Dad for a while. Then towards the end of the year, I started having problems with my spine again (readers of Heritage of the Xandim will know that I needed major spinal surgery a few years ago, which knocked me out of commission for quite a while,) and have been working on managing some issues of chronic pain. Every time I got going again with the second Xandim novel, which we’re calling either Liberation of the Xandim or Exodus of the Xandim, I got hit by something else. Still, the book is rolling along again now, and should be finished in a few weeks, and it’s good to be back on track.
7. What does a typical day in the life of Maggie Furey look like?
It depends on whether it’s winter or summer! I wake up about six or seven a.m., and write in bed with a pen and notebook until nine. That’s my best writing time: it’s before all the general stuff of life can get in to distract, and the ideas just flow along. About 9 a.m. I get up and feed the cats – two Ragdolls, Merlin and Sunshine – and the birds. I feed them all year round, but less in summer. In winter I go through huge amounts of food! I put the food out and whistle, and the nearby tree fills up with all these excited little chirping guys. Then I take my own breakfast (you’ll notice that poor Eric has been feeding himself while this is going on,) and go off to my computer. I begin by typing up what I’ve already written in bed, which gets me kick-started for the rest of the day. Nowadays I need a nap from about 5.30 till 8 p.m., then I’ll spend some time with Eric, have supper and maybe watch a little TV (I’m a big fan of the documentary channels.) My guilty secret is that I end my day with an hour or two of World of Warcraft before bed! In summer my tortoises, Sparkle and Eddie, come into the picture. Before starting work at my computer I comb our garden and the lane for their daily food, as they need a very specialised diet. From a writing point of view it’s good thinking time, and it’s great to be out in the sunshine and fresh air – apart from when it’s pouring with rain!
8. If you couldn’t be a writer, what would be your next profession of choice?
I would be a sled-dog racer in Alaska.
9 Are there any upcoming novels or authors you are particularly looking forward to this year?
There’s so much great stuff out there right now, it would seem unfair to pick out one or two individuals. The problem is where to start!
10 What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever been given? If you can’t think of anything specific, then what advice would you give someone who’s trying to break into Fantasy?
I once had some very practical advice from Russell Hoban, which was “Never throw anything away.” Though an idea may not work in its current setting, it may still be good in another book, or in a different guise. I keep a file called ‘Bits’ on my computer, into which I put the stuff that hits the cutting-room floor. Though most of it never sees the light of day again, it saves a lot of time and hassle to be able to retrieve pieces that I find I needed after all. My best general advice is not to clone themes and ideas already out there. If you have an idea – think about it again. How can you make it different from all the other stuff? What can you do with the characters, the setting, the premise, to make it stand out? Also, thoroughly know your background. A good novel is like an iceberg, there’s always so much more going on under the surface. You should know how your world works – its history, its geography, the social structures of the races you create. How do they get their food, their clothing? Where does it come from? What happens to the sewage? Most of that information may never make its way into the pages, but because you know, you’ll be able to create a very rich and real world. If you’re basing something in our own world it’s a lot easier of course, but whatever beings come into your story, be they ghosts, vampires, werewolves, mermaids or whatever, you should thoroughly work out their history and background before you start. Then after you’ve done all that, you can start getting to know your characters!
Maggie Furey was born in the northeast of England in 1955. Her debut fantasy series, The Artefacts of Power, was an instant success and Furey quickly became one of the most thrilling fantasy authors to have emerged from the United Kingdom in many years. The late David Gemmell described her work as “infinitely enchanting”. Maggie Furey’s stories are character-driven and thereby avoid being predictable. She begins by building the fantasy world, and then introduces the key characters and the concept of the story. Rules and structure are adhered to and she approaches her world building with an eye-for-detail that allows the setting to be realistic and lifelike. Quintessentially English, Maggie Furey enjoys watching cricket and show jumping. In her spare time she likes to read, walk and spend time in her garden. Maggie Furey is a qualified teacher and has also reviewed books on BBC Radio Newcastle. She currently lives in County Wicklow, Ireland.