How did the series come about when you originally started writing it? You started about eight years ago?
I started writing about eight years ago. The first thought occurred to me, oh, somewhere between 18 and 20 years ago. My books always bubble around in my head a long time before anything gets on paper. Actually, yeah, I guess it is about that.
The first idea that came to me, the first thought, was what is it really like to be the savior of mankind? What’s it really like to be tapped on the shoulder and told you are the savior of mankind, and oh by the way, we expect you to go mad and die in order to fulfill prophecy and save everybody. That was the genesis.
Originally, had you planned it to be as epic in scope as it has turned out to become?
Not really. When I went to my publisher originally—and this was about 1986—I said I want to do this set of books, and I have no idea how many books I’m talking about. It is at least three or four, it might be five or six, I don’t know. And luckily he was willing to go along with that. Most publishers would not go along with that. Most publishers would not go along with me not giving then an outline for the book, but instead giving them a twelve- or fifteen-page philosophical treatise explaining the themes of the book, and not a damn thing about what’s actually going to be in the books. But Tom has always liked what I write, so he was willing to go.
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