About writing Confidence Game / FAQs
I had two intentions in writing this book. The first was to create the character of Elzith. Being intrigued by spy characters, I began to speculate about their motives and backgrounds, characteristics often missing from popular portrayals of spies. I found material to flesh out this character in a pair of documentaries: one on confidence artists and one on Romanian orphans with reactive attachment disorder. This led me to create a voice in which I could express issues that interested me: what makes Elzith a good spy, and what is the cost to her.
My second intention was to provide an introduction to the world in which Confidence Game is set. I began work on this world in 1986, when a friend of mine gave me her notes to a book she had started and asked me to finish it. After years of developing and revising the setting, and several attempts to write a book set in it, I finally found a story and a voice that would provide a successful entry into this world. I plan to write a series with multiple titles set at various points along the timeline of the world. The Bright and the Dark, the sequel to Confidence Game, is coming in August 2004.
What about Sor'rai? Will we see more of this country of magic?
What is behind the narrative structure of Confidence Game?
What else can you tell us about?
Thanks to Mike Stackpole for the "Special Features" idea.
About writing Confidence Game
Confidence Game is the story of a spy, Elzith Kar, who has been forcibly retired from service because she has identifying scars. She meets Tod Redtanner and, against her better judgment, begins to confide in him and tell him stories about her work and her past.Frequently Asked Questions
Will Elzith and Tod appear in the sequel, The Bright and the Dark?
Yes, the Elzith and Tod thread continues through the second book, although the primary characters are the two young men, Aron and Julian. I have hopes for a third book in this story arc, and Elzith and Tod will reach an end to their story there.
Yes--in the second book characters visit Sor'rai, and the Sages play a greater role. You get to see Sage magic in a dynamic way in the second book. My plans for the third book include further visits to Sor'rai and a glimpse of the Magi at work; I also hope to tie up the arc plot that emerges in The Bright and the Dark, where Sor'rai becomes very significant.
I'm told that Confidence Game has a slow start. When I first envisioned the book, I saw it as an inversion: one character (Tod) begins by doing all the talking, and the character with the secrets (Elzith) keeps them to herself. Gradually the two characters become inverted, the talkative one listening as the secretive one opens up, until they are ultimately reversed--the first character disappears, while the secretive one is left exposed. This is, in fact, a confidence game. When I wrote it, I relaxed the inversion somewhat, including a prologue from Elzith and retaining Tod's voice at the end, but I felt it was important to keep the balance. This means that the books starts off slowly; Tod's voice is dominant at the beginning. Elzith is a spy and a very good one--she's not going to spill her guts at the beginning of the book. Tod, on the other hand, has a very simple life, he's a recovering alcoholic living "one day at a time," and he's not going to run around slaying dragons. It's his very quietness and honesty that draw Elzith out. As a reader once said, "Tod HAS to be boring. He's SO boring he gets spies to tell their secrets."
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