Entretien avec Scott Oden / Interview to Scott Oden du 06 Mai 2013

ENTRETIEN AVEC SCOTT ODEN (du 06 Mai 2013), par Laurent Marv (LOLOCK)

Monsieur Oden a accepté que je vous publie les échanges que j'ai pu avoir avec lui concernant Le Lion du Caire mais également sur ses influences littéraires et ses projets en cours.
Je vous fais suivre l'intégralité de la discussion.

Entretien de LOLOCK avec Scott Oden :

Scott Oden : Thanks for posting it, and for the review !

LOLOCK : This is normal, the lion of Cairo is an excellent book.
The French fans want to discover urgently your other novels

Scott Oden : Hopefully they can. The other two books are with a different US publisher; I need to check and see if they're looking into French editions.

LOLOCK : All French critics on the lion of Cairo are good.
Just one question, how much time have you developed to write this novel ?
Your historical knowledge of this period are impressive !

Scott Oden : I've been interested in the Crusades since I was a boy, but it took about two years to research the situation of the last Fatimid caliph of Cairo; I changed many of the names in order to approach it from a historical fantasy/Arabian Nights angle -- and simplified the politics tremendously.

LOLOCK : Historical issues were respected and it is essential. The narrative style of the novel is very cinematic.
Have you written this book by imagining an adaptation on the suport ?
The end of the Lion of Cairo is open...
There will be make it a sequel to this novel?last question, the heretic and necromancer are reminiscent of the the universe of Georges Lucas sith lords, are desired ?

Scott Oden : I would actually love to write Lion as a movie, and I do tend to think of my books in terms of their cinematic quality.
When I write, I first imagine it as images then try to describe what I see with words.
As for a sequel, I am going to do one, probably after I wrap up my current project.
And I had not noticed the Star Wars Sith similarity till you pointed it out, so that was totally unplanned by me !

LOLOCK : Always two there are, no more, no less: a master and an apprentice.
Yasmina who succeeded the heretic.Actually I thought that it was you want lol but I liked the idea lol .
Thanks for your replies Mr Scott Oden

Scott Oden : My pleasure !

LOLOCK : allow me to write on the forum "David gemmell universe" your answers to my questions ?

Scott Oden : Please do, and I can answer any more you may have !

LOLOCK : Strangely, when I read the Lion of Cairo, I found the same sensations of reading with authors such as Bernard Cornwell, Valerio Manfredi, Gay Gabriel Kay, Steven Pressfield.
Finally can you say you're more a writer's historical novel tinged with fantasy, than vice versa.
What are your authors that inspired you now?

Scott Oden : Steven Pressfield, always; Mary Renault, Robert E. Howard, Karl Edward Wagner, Tolkien.
I am a great fan of Cornwell's Saxon Tales.
I'm also quite fond of Gemmell, especially his books on the Trojan War.

LOLOCK : Trojan by david gemmell, the warlord trilogy by Bernard cornwell, the walls of fire by Steven Pressfield, are of beautiful fiction of historical myths.
After Memnon and Serpent of Hellas, do you have other projects of this type ?

Scott Oden : I do; I'd like to do something set during the Peloponnesian War, and maybe during the Norman conquest of the Morea.
I've pulled Serpent of Hellas and plan to rework the idea from the ground up before offering it again for publication.
The original idea amounted to merely an 80,000 word fight scene . . .

LOLOCK : Where are you writing your next novel? Can anyone know what subject it will treat ?

Scott Oden : The net one is called A Gathering of Ravens, and its's another historical fantasy -- this time set in 11th century Denmark, England, and Ireland.
The subject is pretty simple: what if Tolkien's orcs were, in fact, a race found in Norse myth.
I'm still working on the final manuscript, but I hope to have it finished soon.

LOLOCK : Thanks you M Scott Oden

Scott Oden : You're welcome, and thank you, too !