"Nightingale", an interview with David Farland

Shelly: At last. A break from science fiction. And from Derick William Dalton, as he's napping.To be honest (regular honest, not my usual scathing kind), this is one of my favorite posts. I have the privilege of interviewing David Farland, New York Times bestselling author of the Runelords series and Of Mice and Magic. A big to-do in the literary world is his next project, Nightingale, and that's what readers and I want to hear about. Before we discuss that though, Mr. Farland, I can see by your follicular activity and the infrared radiation exuding from your person, you are a mammal. How do you focus and create all these works when you are continually eating and filtering waste and grooming and dealing with such a huge range of emotion?

Dave: Not all of us are fortunate enough to be turtles, of course. The ancient Chinese believed that turtles were the most blessed of creatures, special to the gods, and hence were given the gift of long life.

So, I generally try to do only two or three things at a time. I can brainstorm on a work while filtering waste. If I work hard, I can even brush my follicular activity. But I can’t do too much. I can’t, for example, chew bubble gum while doing all of the above.

Shelly: Were it not for my dermal pigmentation, you'd see that I'm blushing over your Far East wisdom. So, about Nightingale. I hear DWD's kids singing a song about a nightingale. “Sing sweet nightingale, sing sweet nightingale, la la la la guyuguyuguyah.” Makes no sense to me. Must be from some old cartoon. What's your story about, and what was your inspiration?

Dave: The inspiration comes from many sources. My hero in the story was raised in foster care, shipped from home to home, much as my wife was. The ideas about memory transfer came from pondering stories of the Wise Men from the bible, speculation about what they might have really been up to. Combine that with a really cool school for the arts nearby, and my own artistic dreams as a child, and the novel just came together.

Nightingale tells the story of a young man named Bron Jones, who is abandoned at birth. Raised in foster care, he’s shuffled from home to home. At age 16, he’s kind of the ultimate loner, until he’s sent to a new foster home and meets Olivia, a marvelous teacher, who recognizes that Bron is something special, something that her people call a “Nightingale,” a creature that is not quite human.

Suddenly epic forces combine to claim Bron, and he must fight to keep from getting ripped away from the only home, family, and girlfriend that he has ever known. He must risk his life to learn the answers to the mysteries of his birth: “What am I? Where did I come from? Who am I?”

Shelly: How delightfully Guaguin-esque! Now, I heard rumors of a soundtrack. I also understand it contains country music.

Dave: Yes, it has a sound track by the head of the National Composer’s Guild, James Guymon, with a dozen professional musicians and vocalists. Since my hero wants to be the world’s greatest guitarist someday, much of the music contains smoking-hot guitar tracks by Tom Hopkins in the style of Joe Satriani, or the band Pink Floyd. I found it to be surprisingly good, mesmerizing even. We also have some tracks that are done in a middle-Eastern style. Think of the music from Lord of the Rings, but instead of elves singing, imagine that you’re in a market in Baghdad. But we do have a song sung by Bron’s girlfriend at one point, a nice pop country piece.

Shelly: I'll have to get that on my iPod, set it on repeat for my next hibernation. But with that last comment , I'll need to post this interview before DWD sees it. Another bit of excitement is the unusual way the book is being released. What's novel about your novel?

Dave: This is a big project, an enhanced novel with illustrations and animations from half a dozen talented illustrators. We’re releasing the novel in several formats, as an enhanced book, a normal e-book, an audiobook, and as a hardcover—along with that soundtrack, of course.

Shelly: I notice you didn't mention something. On condition of anonymity, I've been told of imbedded metadata code. This reportedly causes Kindle, Nook, and iPad readers, plus Borders' new Flatline monitor, to operate beyond original designs. What can you tell us about the 3D hologram-projection feature?

Dave: Uh, that’s still in beta testing. I’ll bet the marketing department promised it already, right? They’re always promising things that we can’t deliver. Okay, maybe next week I can have it, if we work overtime. . .

Shelly: Last thing – as I know how quickly you mammals burn through your calories and your water and your lives and you're terribly impatient. Reader's want to know: How long do we have to wait for Nightingale?

Dave: We’ve got it now! We had our programmers create a web app so that you can enjoy the book on your computer—read a few chapters, take it for a test drive, or simply buy it for reading online. You’re free to go check out the results at www.nightingalenovel.com. You can order it in any format. The hardcovers won’t come out until December 1, but you can reserve your own signed copy and we’ll ship it right out. If you like it, remember to “Like” us on Facebook. Better yet, re-post our site info and tell your friends on Facebook.

Oh, and while you’re there, check out our short-story contest, where you can win $1000

Shelly: Thank you, Mr. Farland. It's been a pleasure interacting with an intelligent human for a change. I wish you well on Nightingale and your Runelord's theatrical project. I'm about to open a can of worms. Hungry?

Dave: Mmmm. Sounds good! Meal worms, or nightcrawlers?

An Interim Interview - Charles M. Pulsipher

Shelly - A little change-up this week. DWD asked me to interview a friend, one Mr. Charles M. Pulsipher. Despite his name he's not in the British Parliament. Mr. Pulsipher's a cook and woodworker and zombie survivalist. Now he's expanded his skills to that of science fiction author. I have two requests as we begin, Mr. P. I want to call you Chuck, and will you please tell me the premise of Crystal Bridge includes no spaceships. DWD has burned me out on those.

Charles - You can call me Chuck. I mainly go by Charlie, but all my high school friends still insist on Chuck. I'm used to it. There are no space ships at all. My characters travel to another world, but they do it the old fashioned way, walking...I mean wormholes. These aren't the cheesy 80's wormholes either. I worked very hard to make them cool and slightly terrifying.

S - Mmmm. You had me at worms. I understand there is also a character who can read emotion without using words. Now I'm hungry and jealous. Not having to talk to people...

Chuck - Yep. Kaden opens the wormholes. Aren can see memories and read people's souls just by looking at them. Her gift becomes very important in keeping her alive as she gets lost on the other world. She's pretty tough to begin with, but she must learn to be more than that when she's captured by underground dwelling Dwaros.

S - I know you're talking about the Einstein field equation thing, but all I'm hearing is gooey slimy earthy goodness. Enough about me, though. I'm trying to limit my egocentricity. Speaking of tough, independent women with tough shells, requests from readers of the Eveleth Elle and my physics students in the southwest (see previous posts, everyone) were unanimous. "Read us the last page of Crystal Bridge!" So, how about it?

C - Can't do it. The last page gives away the biggest twist I wove into the novel, a secret that will blow minds. I can give you the last line. I like it, despite being a little passive. "He realized he was hungry." Great, huh?

S - Get out! That's not really the line, Chuck. You just made that up to keep me drooling over freshly-unearthed oligochetes. Okay, so we know one of my influences. What about yours? Who or what made you want to write? Kept you motivated when writing was inconvenient or hard? And if you say post-1989 George Lucas I will bite off your toe so help me the Dagobah swamp monster.

C - I can't say George Lucas pre or post-1989 had much to do with my writing. My writing style and voice have definitely been influenced by Orson Scott Card and Tad Williams. Joss Whedon and JJ Abrams have influenced me a bit. Fringe, Alias, Firefly, Angel, and Veronica Mars have become a part of me. Some older stuff too, E.T., The Dark Crystal, Labrynth, Stargate, even Sliders. I find inspiration anywhere I can get it.

S - HMMmmm. Skeksis help Gelfling! Loved that show! Except the end when the Skeksis are unwillingly forced to abandon their ideals, and their culture gets watered down by those hunchbacked hobos. Oh well. Here's the next thing I want to know. Any parts of The Crystal Bridge you wouldn't want read to kids? And by that I mean what page numbers should I memorize or mark with a sticky note?

C - If you managed to watch The Dark Crystal, then my novel will be no problem for you. That movie has some freaky things in it. My novel has a little scene where a man is mauled by a large cat-goat thing, Kaden almost gets swallowed by a dragon, and Rho, the dark god, has a few creepy moments, but the novel is pretty clean and tame. I wrote it for the 14 year-old in me and I think it appeals to anyone from 13 to 45.

S - Oooh! Mild sci-fi violence warning! That will boost the 14-to-whatever male mammal readership. I'm a bit embarrassed now, though. Now everyone knows I'm into bodice-ripping shell-scratching reptile romance novels. The interviewee is the one whose supposed to slip up with too much info. Speaking of awkward, what was the most embarrassing typo you came across while editing?

C - Unfortunately, that's an easy answer. I switched the names of two characters...twice. I have two scientists working on recreating extinct animals using genetic simulations. Here's a bit of spoiler, one of them dies. I managed to use the wrong character's name in the middle of the emotional scene. Then in another scene I confused two female Sidra who are nothing alike. Sidra are kind of like elves. One was the bad guy's minion and one was fighting against her. So, I had the good elf riding into battle against herself for a moment. I'm so glad I caught those before I finished. That would have been bad.

S - What do you think your therapist would say about that, Chuck?

C - I think most writers would be considered crazy once we start talking about our characters as real people. We're weird and conflicted. That's why we write. It's like you, Shelly. We all know you made up this DWD character. You're writing these books, aren't you, Shelly?

S - I've signed a strictly-worded harshly-penalizing contract which prevents further discussion. Your first comment, though? Crazy, weird, and conflicted applies to non-reptile vertebrates as a whole, so no disagreement here. Which brings up the last question, Chuck. The What If Game. Books sales are up, screenplay written, auditions underway. Who stars in the film Crystal Bridge?

C - Doesn't matter as long as J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon direct it together and it has a cameo from George Wendt. NORM! I love that guy. I also wouldn't mind if Natalie Portman is involved somehow.

S - I'd watch that! Well, Chuck, it has been a pleasure. Especially considering your species. I mean that as a compliment, by the way. So where do I get a copy of Crystal Bridge?

C - I wish I could bundle the print books. I thought about doing it with the ebooks, but they are so different. Maybe I'll think about it some more. Thank you, Shelly. This has been fun, even with your obsession over worms.

S - And hot male terrapins. Wait, what? There's more? I get a free copy of your survival guide, Zombies at the Door if I order in the next ten seconds? Okay - minimize, new tab, Amazon, title by author, spinning circle of boredom... spinning... spinning... And I'm too late. Stupid 1G dial up.

Crystal Bridge, by Charles M. Pulsipher:

  Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005NF3SDI Nook: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Crystal-Bridge/Charles-M-Pulsipher/e/2940013379176 Print: http://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Bridge-Charles-M-Pulsipher/dp/1466320958/ref=tmm_pap_title_0