Bent on total word domination
Have you seen them? They are so beautiful! They are alive before we are born, and they are still alive when we die. They have skin like stone and can crush our bodies with the slightest touch.
Beneath that skin, though, runs life. Taste of it once, and you can live forever, can send your children [...]
Most historians agree that King Arthur was real.
It’s not because they have found Camelot or have dug up a mythic sword in Glastonbury. It’s because there must have been someone like an Arthur who could stand in the power vacuum between Rome’s collapse and the Anglo-Saxon’s invasion. Someone must have fought hard enough that the [...]
Okay, I know this is not a great follow-up to that terrific series with Ed Greenwood, but life brings wonderful things followed by terrible things.
This morning, my cat Merlin died.
Eleven years ago, a gray tabby kitten followed a 32-year-old man who was taking his three-year-old and one-year-old boys on a walk in their wagon. The [...]
Lightning Round
To wrap up these Twelve Days of Greenwood, I thought it would be fun to ask Ed a bunch of rapid-fire questions ala Inside the Actor’s Studio. Here are my questions and his responses:
What is your favorite word?
I haven’t got a favorite word, but I like to slip certain words into most of my [...]
Favorite Novels and Games
With such a voluminous output—over 30 published novels and 180 published game products—I thought for sure Ed would have a favorite. But Ed is not so much about novels or games, but moments. He enjoys wherever he is and whatever he’s doing. Here’s his response:
I really don’t have a favorite novel. I [...]
Advice to Aspiring Writers
Ed Greenwood is a treasure trove of experience for young, aspiring writers. I asked him to give his advice for what aspiring writers should do—and not do:
Writers should . . .
Read. Read, read, read. Not so you can copy stuff, but so you can experience all sorts of styles of writing, so [...]
On the Future of Gaming
The world of gaming has undergone huge transformations over the last fifty years, and the Forgotten Realms has appeared in just about every gaming format that has come into being. I asked Ed what he felt the future of gaming was:
When I was young, wargaming was men moving painted model soldiers [...]
On the Author-Editor Relationship
I edited a number of Ed’s early novels, including Crown of Fire, Elminster: Making of a Mage, and The Temptation of Elminster (once entitled Elminster in Hell), as well as a trimmed-down edition of his first novel, Spellfire. But he’s also worked with many other editors over time. I asked him what [...]
On the Virtues of Escapism
“Escapism” is a dirty word for many critics of fantasy, but it is not to Ed. He echoes the sentiments of Tolkien and Lewis, who saw fantasy as a means of “moral recovery” and the release of imagination from its everyday chains. Here’s what Ed had to say:
The hardest element of [...]
Sex Scenes and Censorship
I asked Ed for a funny story that involved publishing personalities, and he regaled me with this hilarious gem:
Some years back, I collaborated on a semi-secret rescue job, for free, finishing a novel by a prominent male writer who’d died suddenly (so his widow and family could get the royalties from his [...]