Having been so involved in these books over the last five years, and as an author with your own projects in the works, how hard is it to separate the heart and soul of Robert Jordan and the Wheel of Time from your own stuff?
You know, this is something you just learn as a writer. To juggle projects. And writing is my passion, and I don’t usually have trouble mixing up projects. Now that said, I do sometimes get influenced by certain projects, or end up repeating myself, and that’s something you have to really watch out for as a writer. Where you’ve got to be careful not to let the same themes and ideas make you do the same thing over and over again. But that’s a different question. Separating myself from the Wheel of Time was not as hard as you might think, because it’s something I had to learn to do when I first started writing. Because the Wheel of Time was a dominant force in my writing from the beginning, I had to say let’s write something that doesn’t just copy the Wheel of Time. And I think every writer learns to separate themselves from their influences. Our first stories are usually derivative. And we learn over time, hey here’s how to express my own voice. My first novel, the first one I finished, I went back to it years later, just a couple of years ago. I went back and I dug it out and looked at it. And it started with the wind scene, it started with an omniscient view of the wind blowing across something. I’m like, oh I’ve totally lifted that from RJ. But, you know, that’s okay on your first novel. It’s something you learn.
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