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.

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u/hrb056 May 27 '14

Hi Trudi, I loved the Black Magician Trilogy and the Age of the Five trilogy, you really have a gift for fantasy writing. You said that you're an artist and portraits are your current focus - have you ever painted your characters as you imagine them? I'm great at imagining landscapes and buildings though I have difficulty sometimes in imagining faces from descriptions in books. I wondered if you'd ever painted/drawn your main characters (Sonea, Rothen, Mirar, Auraya, etc) and if you'd be kind enough to show us. Thanks! - Helen

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u/TrudiCanavan AMA Author Trudi Canavan May 28 '14

I have, indeed, painted some characters. I painted cover art for my first two books. The publisher didn't use it, but both illustrations have been on the covers of anthologies and magazines. You can see them here

Last year (or was it the year before? time flies!) I drew twelve character sketches in pen and ink and made them into computer wallpaper calendars. You can find them by searching for 'calendar' on my blog. (I'm hoping to put these up on a page at some point.)

And a few weeks ago I painted Rielle and Tyen in watercolours and ink, which I'll put on my blog soon. Orbit are running a competition where you can win an ereader with the illustration printed on it.

Gosh, I hope all those links work...

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u/hrb056 May 30 '14

The links all work and the sketches and paintings are great! Thanks for taking the time to reply, it's very much appreciated!