Interviews
Heart to Heart Interview with Nora Roberts
Heart to Heart: Morrigan's Cross is the first in your Circle trilogy. It weaves together time travel and an epic fantasy battle of good vs. evil -- and an excellent romance -- into one terrific story. Can you tell us the idea behind the trilogy?
Nora Roberts: I never know where the idea comes from, exactly. I know I wanted to do something a little more Fantasy-based, and my publisher wanted to do the next trilogy in sequential months. So I thought: Really Big Bad v. Really Big Good, culminating in a Really Big Battle for all the marbles in the game. Then it was all about the who, what, why, and the getting there.
HtoH: Some of your other books -- the J. D. Robb books and the Key trilogy -- also use fantasy and magic and elements of science fiction. Were they useful to you here?
NR: I would say that everything any writer writes before is of use. You learn and you absorb, and if certain elements are of particular interest you explore them again. In a different way, with a different storyline, and fresh characters. I enjoy blending various elements, and Romance is such a fluid genre, it opens itself to that blending.
HtoH: Trilogies are wonderful for readers -- the reading pleasure doesn't stop after the last page of the first book. What are their challenges for you, the writer?
NR: Each book is its own individual challenge, every time. For me, a trilogy is like one big book in three distinct parts. It's a challenge, certainly, to craft the story so that the reader can and will be satisfied with each book, and enjoy the continuing thread woven through the three so they're interested enough to read them all. In order to expect the reader to be satisfied and interested, I have to be.
HtoH: What's coming up in the next few months?
NR: The Circle Trilogy, August 31st for
Morrigan's Cross, early October for
Dance of the Gods, and late October for
Valley of Silence. In November, we have
Born in Death as J. D. Robb -- and yes, Mavis finally has that baby.