Anne's F.A.Q.

Q. When will your next book be coming out?

A. Twilight's Dawn, a Black Jewels book, will be released March 2011 in the U.S. (hardcover, ebook, and audio book). I don't have a confirmed date yet for the release of the Australian paperback edition. The U.S. paperback edition of Shalador's Lady also comes out in the U.S. in March 2011.

Q. Are you on Facebook?

A. I am not personally on Facebook. However, there are several Anne Bishop groups for my books, as well as a fanpage that provides news about my books.

Q. Have any of your books been made into audio books?

A. Yes. By the end of 2010, all of my books will be available as downloadable audio books. Some of the places where they can be found are:
amazon.com
audible.com
barnesandnoble.com
booksonboard.com
borders.com
emusic.com
iTunes.com
us.penguingroup.com

Some of the Black Jewels books will also be available on CD in library editions from Recorded Books, beginning in September 2010.

Q. What about ebooks?

A. All of my books are now available in electronic format.

Q. Could you list the titles of your books in best reading order?

A. Taking each series separately, in order of original publication, the books are:
 
Black Jewels series:
Daughter of the Blood (Black Jewels Trilogy: Book 1)
Heir to the Shadows (Black Jewels Trilogy: Book 2)
Queen of the Darkness (Black Jewels Trilogy: Book 3)
The Invisible Ring*
Dreams Made Flesh
Tangled Webs
The Shadow Queen**
Shalador's Lady** (sequel to The Shadow Queen)
 
*The Invisible Ring is a standalone novel which could be read before or after the others.

**The characters in The Shadow Queen and Shalador's Lady are connected to the main characters in The Invisible Ring.
 
Tir Alainn trilogy:
The Pillars of the World
Shadows and Light
The House of Gaian
 
Ephemera series:
Sebastian
Belladonna

Q. Is it all right to create role-playing games or MUSHES/MUDS based on your work? What about writing fan fiction?

A. No. At this time , I am not granting permission for the worlds and/or characters that I created to be used in role-playing games or MUSHES/MUDS. I also do not give permission for fan fiction that uses the worlds and/or characters that I created because of the copyright issues involved.

Q. Have you thought of making a movie of the Black Jewels Trilogy?

A. At this time, there are no plans to make a movie based on the Black Jewels Trilogy or any of my other books. (Actually, I wouldn't be the one making the movie. Movie producers and movie studios are the ones who buy the film rights needed to make a book into a movie.)

Q. Do you have any other stories coming out soon?

A. Not at this time.

Q. Where do you get your ideas?

A. From everywhere. Visual images, music, mythology, folklore, history and psychology are just a few of the places from which inspiration springs. For example, the Tir Alainn world, and the initial ideas for the story, came from a cloud formation I saw several years ago on the way home from a trip.

Q. Can you recommend any books for aspiring writers?

A. Several. :) See the Resources page for a list of books I or other writers have found helpful.

Q. When you start a new book, do you outline, just start writing and see what happens, write the end first, etc.?

A. First comes the thinking time, the dreaming time, the listening time. Sometimes a place emerges first and characters come in to populate it. Sometimes a character emerges first and I have to find out who he or she is. As I find out about the character, I also find out about where he or she lives. During this stage, I usually make rough notes about characters, places, and scenes. So I don't exactly outline, but by the time I start drafting, I know who the main characters are, some scenes which act as guideposts for the journey, and I know the story arc -- which means I know the story's destination, where it ends. When I start drafting, I start at the beginning and go to the end. As I write, the threads of the story weave themselves together into a coherent piece, and the scenes I'm not aware of when I start fill in as I go along.

Q. What is your writing schedule? How do you structure your workday?

A. Since I know when the book is due, I have a word quota that I have to meet each week. To do that, I write 5-7 hours a day, 4 days a week. The other days I put in hours for the business side of writing.

Q. What special techniques have you discovered to help stimulate the creative process?

A. Timed writings (also called automatic writing or free writing) are an excellent way to prime the creative pump. Beyond that, anything can stimulate the creative process: reading, music, gardening, taking a walk, seeing an image that resonates in some way.

Q. What got you started writing and writing fantasy in particular?

A. I've always loved stories and wanted to tell stories of my own. I write fantasy because the worlds of fantasy are the settings I most enjoy, and those worlds seem to give me the scope for the stories that come to me.

Q. How much background material exists in notebooks, maps, sketches, etc. that fleshes out and brings depth to your invented world that the readers will never see?

A. Almost all that material shows up in the stories in one way or another - if not in the immediate story, then in the stories to come.

Q. How much autobiographical material gets transformed into characters and situations in the books?

A. None. Sometimes a character has an interest or skill that I have (like music or storytelling), but that's the extent of it.

Q. Do you have any unpublished books that you wrote before Daughter?

A. No, Daughter of the Blood was the first.

Q. What is your next project?

A. I'm currently working on a new story set in Ephemera.

Q. What hobbies or special interests do you enjoy outside of writing that may or may not contribute to your work?

A. I enjoy gardening, reading, playing around with arts and crafts, and music. Only the Muse knows how much those things contribute to my work.

Q. How old are you?

A. Old enough to have earned the silver in my hair. <g>