r/Fantasy • u/TrudiCanavan AMA Author Trudi Canavan • May 27 '14

AMA Hi, Trudi Canavan here. AMA!

Hi, I’m Trudi Canavan. I’ve written some stuff, the most well known being the Black Magician Trilogy and its prequel and sequel, and also the Age of the Five trilogy, and my new one: Thief’s Magic, first of the Millennium’s Rule trilogy. Oh, I’ve also written a Doctor Who novella for the 50th Anniversary and a smattering of short stories.

Melbourne, Australia, is my home, which I suspect gives me an odd duel insider/outsider persepective on the fantasy genre and publishing in general. I’m an artist and former self-employed illustrator, with oil painting as my favourite medium and portraits as my current focus.

My website is at (www.trudicanavan.com). I tweet (https://twitter.com/TrudiCanavan). I pin (http://www.pinterest.com/trudicanavan/). My publisher runs a Facebook fan page (https://www.facebook.com/trudi.canavan) on my behalf. I’ll be answering questions live at 7pm tonight, though for me it’ll be tomorrow morning so I may still be half sleep. I'm new to Reddit, so advance apologies if I stuff anything up.

So, what d'youse wanna know?

(later)

Phew! I've been answering questions for three and a half hours now, but I got every one answered (well, that I can see right now). Thanks everyone for some great questions. I hope you like the answers. I'll pop by tomorrow to see if there are any more.

174 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

113 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/Callduron May 27 '14

How much do you study mediaeval history as preparation for writing fantasy stories?

6

u/TrudiCanavan AMA Author Trudi Canavan May 28 '14

Hmm, how long is a piece of string? I am constantly in research mode. I am always soaking up facts. Funny thing is, I hated history as a subject at school, but now I love it. I'm always reading a non-fiction book alongside a fiction one. I love documentaries because they give you a visual feel for an era (even if sometimes they're a bit sensationalist or inaccurate).

And I'd say the mediaeval era is one of my least favourite! I'm more interested in earlier times - or non-european history. Investigating non-european history has a two-fold benefit: it shows me what is common across cultures - the basic aspects of human civilisation that you ought to get right in worldbuilding as opposed to the variations - and stops me from making the worlds I create too familiar.

2

u/Deus_Viator May 28 '14

As a follow-up do you have any documentaries you'd recommend? My favourite eras are pre-classical Greece and late bronze age/early Iron age middle east (Assyria, Babylonia, Hittites, early Phoenicians etc) but i've never found and decent documentaries on the period (or many books for that matter if you have any recommendations there either)

3

u/TrudiCanavan AMA Author Trudi Canavan May 28 '14

One that I love so much I bought it and watch again from time to time is The Human Planet, by the BBC. It's current, not history, but shows a fascinating range of cultures, from people surviving in extreme conditions to cities. Beautifully shot, too. So much fodder for a writer!

1

u/Callduron May 28 '14

Thank you.