| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Alaundo |
Posted - 12 Feb 2004 : 19:15:20
Well met
This being a collective scroll of any questions the Scribes and visitors of Candlekeep wish to put to a new author of the Realms, namely - Don Bassingthwaite, author of The Yellow Silk.
Present your questions herein and check back to see what news may also come forth from the quill of this author. |
| 30 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| dbassingthwaite |
Posted - 08 Dec 2005 : 00:28:53
quote:
As the end of Mistress of the Night was quite a cliffhanger, is there any chance to see Feena in an own trilogy?
Oops - sorry, I haven't been over to Candlekeep in a while! However, to answer the question: not likely. As mentioned above, I hadn't made the jump to Eberron when Mistress of the Night was wrapped up, so things were left (wishfully) for a sequel.
However just because I won't likely be writing in the Forgotten Realms again doesn't mean that someone else couldn't pick up Feena and continue her story. I'm happy to share my notes when they're needed.
Don |
| The Sage |
Posted - 27 Oct 2005 : 09:23:53
Don, this question was originally asked by Braveheart, but I've moved it here since it's more appropriate -
quote:
As the end of Mistress of the Night was quite a cliffhanger, is there any chance to see Feena in an own trilogy?
|
| dbassingthwaite |
Posted - 07 Oct 2005 : 21:55:31
Thanks very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
The epilogue is largely unnecessary at this point, but at the time I wrote The Yellow Silk, I hadn't made the jump to Eberron yet so I was hoping for a sequel. 
Thanks!
Don |
| Smyther |
Posted - 31 Aug 2005 : 05:25:19
Well, I don't know if you're still around on Candlekeep, and if you still check this, but...
The Yellow Silk was absolutely incredible! I had heard reviews that it was the best out of the Rogues series, so I picked it up, not expecting too much, but I was blown away!
Tychoban and Kuang Li were really well done characters, and they came alive in the setting. Whilst a few people have commented on Brin being good, I have to chime in and say that he was a really believable villain, with a great temper.
I did feel like the actual inclusion of the Yellow Silk (and Brin's knowledge of it) was a bit unnecessary (the story could easily have been done without the 'magic item' deal). The only other bits I'd take nit-pick with are the beginning (it felt a bit detached and broken, as if you were just getting into the writing mood), and I felt the epilogue was unnecessary. I just feel it could have been completely dropped with no messing up the story. I would have liked it better with the fates of the villains being a mystery.
Otherwise, a fantastic book, and definately high on my list of realms favorites. A sequel qould be excellent, but I can see you just sticking with Eberron. I'm looking forward to reading the story in RotD, when I get it in a few weeks. (Also hoping to get Mistress of the Night.)
Good luck on future novels! |
| Crennen FaerieBane |
Posted - 23 Jun 2005 : 22:41:07
Hi Don,
Just wanted to say that I read most all of your White Wolf stuff way back when and am really glad you've started writing for the FR! I look forward to even more great work!
C-Fb |
| Paec_djinn |
Posted - 08 Jun 2005 : 08:42:46
Hi Don,
Just here to tell you that I really enjoyed your collaboration with Dave Gross to bring out Mistress of the Night. Certainly one of the best realms books.
Anyway, I was just wondering though, since Radu Malveen was one of my favorite characters in the Sembia series, what was his role in the story before you cut him off? That's of course if you don't mind. Just curious. |
| dbassingthwaite |
Posted - 08 May 2005 : 18:56:23
Awesome! Thanks very much - I'm rreally glad you enjoyed it!
Don |
| Prince Forge of Avalon |
Posted - 08 May 2005 : 05:41:34
Dear Don,
I took the the time to thank Dave, so I MUST include you I really enjoyed the Mistress of the Night book amd wanted to thank you for the FINE read, keep up the great work.
PFoA |
| dbassingthwaite |
Posted - 08 Apr 2005 : 00:39:15
quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
Don,
I finally got a chance to sit down and read Mistress of the Night. You and Dave did a great job. I really enjoyed the tale.
Thanks very much Eric! I'm really pleased you enjoyed the story - and the additions to Realmslore!
SPOILERS:
quote:
Any ideas what in game benefit might apply to joining the New Moon Pack?
You're going to have to forgive me because my notes for Mistress of the Night are long packed up and I can't find anything on my computer. I believe I was thinking something along the lines of acquisition of some feats related to shapeshifting: character becomes a natural lycanthrope if they aren't already; character acquires a rapid shifting feat, the feat allowing casting of spells in animal and hybrid forms (proper name escapes me at the moment), and the abillity to speak normally in hybrid form.
It was never something fully developed, but there was the vague concept of them as rivals to the Silverstars.
quote:
I liked the history of the artifact and how it got to Yhaunn, but I was a little confused about the destination. Was Calimshan a red herring ... a false destination implied by the supposed origin of your villain or really where they were headed? If the latter, why would they go SE, not SW from Netheril?
The artifact really was heading to Calimshan and the Temple of Old Night - smuggled out of Anauria just ahead of its fall. Again working from memory, but SE seemed the more logical route - the land around the Moonsea had (if I remember correctly) been settled by some survivors from Netheril and the southwestern route was somewhat less wild than the the SE based on Anauria's position.
quote:
My one nit on Realmslore comes on page 169. There was no House of the Moon in 767 DR. See the write-up of the House of the Moon and its predecessors in Powers & Pantheons (in the temple section at the back of the book). Otherwise, everything looked perfect.
What? ... Doh! Well, that's the hazard of writing the Realms. No matter how hard you look, there's always something that you miss. I thought I caught every major religion related book, but I didn't catch Powers & Pantheons and I think I made this reference to the House of the Moon (for those who might not recall, the temple of Selune in Waterdeep) based on other sources and a reasonable guess.
I've just downloaded Powers & Pantheons now - let's have look... wow, I can't even make the argument for a "Shack of the Moon" at the time period! 
Thanks for pointing it out!
Don |
| ericlboyd |
Posted - 06 Apr 2005 : 06:36:16
Don,
I finally got a chance to sit down and read Mistress of the Night. You and Dave did a great job. I really enjoyed the tale.
SPOILERS
I really enjoyed the new Realmslore you created, including the New Moon Heresy (brilliant!) and the New Moon Pack. Any ideas what in game benefit might apply to joining the New Moon Pack?
I liked the history of the artifact and how it got to Yhaunn, but I was a little confused about the destination. Was Calimshan a red herring ... a false destination implied by the supposed origin of your villain or really where they were headed? If the latter, why would they go SE, not SW from Netheril?
My one nit on Realmslore comes on page 169. There was no House of the Moon in 767 DR. See the write-up of the House of the Moon and its predecessors in Powers & Pantheons (in the temple section at the back of the book). Otherwise, everything looked perfect.
--Eric |
| Paec_djinn |
Posted - 13 Feb 2005 : 08:45:25
Hey Don, I really loved your book Yellow Silk. I had been away from Realms books for awhile and your book restarted me into the setting. I just wished you could continue writing for the Realms.
Li for me was kick ass and the storyline was great. But Yu Mao being the boar was kinda predictable to me later on. But that didn't change my opinion on the book though. I would love to see Li and Tycho some more in future on novels.
In the meantime, I can wait till RotD appears in bookshops near me (They get it about 4-6 months late).
My question though is whether you would or can request to write more for the Realms or are you stuck with Eberron till they change you back? |
| Rinonalyrna Fathomlin |
Posted - 05 Feb 2005 : 05:19:15
Mr. Bassingthwaite, I loved the way you wrote the bards in The Yellow Silk (like many others here I like bard protagonists). Not only that, I felt the characters in the book were realistic and human, and it seemed like the book was a bit of a buddy comedy. It worked to a good effect--nice work!
A question though:
SPOILER WARNING FOR THE YELLOW SILK
Did the Yellow Silk truly lose all its magic when Yu Mao cut through it with his butterfly swords? If so, that sad (rather symbolic, as well).
Thanks in advance,
Rinonalyrna |
| dbassingthwaite |
Posted - 21 Jan 2005 : 15:26:59
quote:
Originally posted by Lord Rad
With you writing a novel for Eberron, have WotC moved you completely into that world with Mistress of the Night being your last novel for the Realms, or can we expect more from you in the future?
Nothing has been formally discussed, but I think WotC does have at least a habit (if not a policy) of keeping writers in one line. I'd be more than happy to do more work in the Realms, but more likely I'll be working in Eberron -- at least for the near future, as I'm actually doing a trilogy, so my time is booked for a while.
I'd be optimistic, though, and say that I wouldn't rule out a return. Hope springs eternal.
Don |
| dbassingthwaite |
Posted - 21 Jan 2005 : 15:22:35
quote:
Originally posted by Lauzoril
Greetings Mr B.
The Beer with a Fat Dragon was excellent. Li&Tycho and the dragon's human form were well portrayed. Now I really have to read the Yellow Silk to know more about those two. You wrote rather raunchy lines few times imo, I liked them.
It seems that the Kara-Tur is your professed area in FR writing. Correct?
Hi Lauzoril -
I'm so sorry that my reply has taken so long - I'd forgotten that a message was waiting for me on this thread! I'm pleased that you liked "Beer with a Fat Dragon" (kudoes to anyone who spots the allusion to a bit of more literary fantasy...). If you liked it, I think you'll like "The Yellow Silk" as well.
I wouldn't necessarily say that Kara-Tur was my chosen area, but if I had the chance to, I'd really enjoy the chance to explore it some more. I've always been quite fond of the setting and would definitely like to see it brought up to date with the rest of Realms.
And yes, I took some liberties with Tycho's bar songs. Look for "The Thayan Pox" in Yellow Silk. 
Don |
| Lord Rad |
Posted - 20 Jan 2005 : 23:12:34
Hi Don
With you writing a novel for Eberron, have WotC moved you completely into that world with Mistress of the Night being your last novel for the Realms, or can we expect more from you in the future?
I think i recall reading somewhere that Edward Bolme was now exclusively writing Eberron. |
| Lauzoril |
Posted - 29 Dec 2004 : 20:36:53
Greetings Mr B.
The Beer with a Fat Dragon was excellent. Li&Tycho and the dragon's human form were well portrayed. Now I really have to read the Yellow Silk to know more about those two. You wrote rather raunchy lines few times imo, I liked them.
It seems that the Kara-Tur is your professed area in FR writing. Correct?
|
| dbassingthwaite |
Posted - 09 Dec 2004 : 01:21:29
Thanks! I'm glad you liked Brin - he's the combination of a desire to have a very defined, active villain and my enjoyment of playing characters against type. I just got hooked on the idea of an evil, psychotic halfing.
And answering the spoiler question: yes, all the way from the initial plotting of the book.
Don |
| Xysma |
Posted - 08 Dec 2004 : 14:49:15
I loved The Yellow Silk! Where did you get the idea for Brin? At first it cracked me up that this whole town was afraid of this halfling, but then we met him and i figured out why!
Spoiler: Highlight to read:
Did you know from the beginning that the boar was Li's brother? Or did that happen during the course of writing the novel? |
| dbassingthwaite |
Posted - 01 Dec 2004 : 04:10:44
Just to let people know, I'm probably not going to be checking the forum more than once a day for the next week - I'm in the final push on my current project and am keeping my DSL connection unplugged to avoid the temptations of the Internet!
If I'm a little slow answering, you know why!
Thanks!
Don |
| dbassingthwaite |
Posted - 01 Dec 2004 : 04:07:33
quote:
Originally posted by Valondil the Ranger
I've recently heard of Black Gate magazine, in which I ALSO found out you wrote articles for. Since I'm very interested in sending them some of my fiction, I was wondering what you thought about the magazine?
Valondil, I can't give you an unbiased opinion of Black Gate because I'm actually on the staff (such as it is) - I'm the Gaming Editor. However, I can tell you that it's an absolutely professional magazine in every way. If you do decide to submit your fiction, you might want to be aware that perhaps more than most fantasy fiction magazines, the editor is swamped with submissions and it will take him a while to get back to you.
However, I would encourage anyone who like short fiction (or longer short fiction) to check out Black Gate. It's bringing in some really great authors. There's a new issue just out - which also happens to feature an excerpt from an upcoming novel I did for the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting.
Thanks!
Don |
| Valondil the Ranger |
Posted - 01 Dec 2004 : 00:37:08
Hi, Mr. Bassingthwaite
I've recently heard of Black Gate magazine, in which I ALSO found out you wrote articles for. Since I'm very interested in sending them some of my fiction, I was wondering what you thought about the magazine? Were there many publishing difficulties? Any problems with anything, really? I pretty much want to know this so that IF they do accept my work, I won't run into any problems down the road.
Thanks in advance and I plan on picking up The Yellow Silk and Mistress of the Night soon--and I simply can't wait for the Eberron novels! |
| dbassingthwaite |
Posted - 01 Nov 2004 : 15:48:30
quote:
Originally posted by VEDSICA
Don,I really enjoyed your short story in Realms of the Dragons.It was good to see Tycho and Li again.
Thanks! I enjoyed going back to show a little of their journey as well and the celestial dragon was just a natural choice.
As far as a novel sequel, I'd love to do one (or more!), but there's nothing in the plans - my current project is an Eberron trilogy. If Wizards ever decides to revisit Kara-Tur, maybe there's a chance.
Thanks!
Don |
| VEDSICA |
Posted - 26 Oct 2004 : 23:10:02
Don,I really enjoyed your short story in Realms of the Dragons.It was good to see Tycho and Li again.Also the choice of a celestial dragon was cool.Any chance of those two popping up in a novel again?Especially with them travelling to Shou Lung.... |
| dbassingthwaite |
Posted - 07 Apr 2004 : 04:43:07
quote:
Originally posted by Rad
Ive got the Boxtree version. Which one looks best? 
HarperCollins, without a doubt. When I describe the Boxtree edition as crayon-coloured...
Go to my website (below) and follow the Tomes link off the main page - both versions are shown (scroll down).
Mind you, I have some of the ORIGINAL cover flats that were supposed to appear on the HarperCollins edition. Where the centre illustration of the actual cover is deep purple, they did initially run the cover in HOT PINK. White Wolf made them change it.
Don
|
| Lord Rad |
Posted - 06 Apr 2004 : 22:42:51
quote:
Originally posted by dbassingthwaite
Yep, that would be my very first novel, Rad. Go ahead and read it - I got (and, considering it's been out of print for years, surprisingly still get!) some good comments on it. And yes, Richard Lee Byers and I actually date to about the same vintage with White Wolf novels (I think he may have started writing novels over all before I did though).
Just out of curiosity, do you have the purple HarperCollins edition or the crayon-coloured Boxtree edition that was distributed in the UK?
Don
Ive got the Boxtree version. Which one looks best? Ill be sure to give them a read, once Ive cleared up a bit more FR backlog. |
| dbassingthwaite |
Posted - 06 Apr 2004 : 20:43:18
quote:
Originally posted by Rad
when I stumbled upon a set of novels tucked into a corner, from the World of Darkness series (by White Wolf)....Lo and behold, there stands a novel for the Mage RPG, entitled Such Pain....by Don Bassingthwaite. Well whadya know Maybe ill read this one after all, FR related or not 
Yep, that would be my very first novel, Rad. Go ahead and read it - I got (and, considering it's been out of print for years, surprisingly still get!) some good comments on it. And yes, Richard Lee Byers and I actually date to about the same vintage with White Wolf novels (I think he may have started writing novels over all before I did though).
Just out of curiosity, do you have the purple HarperCollins edition or the crayon-coloured Boxtree edition that was distributed in the UK?
Don |
| Lord Rad |
Posted - 06 Apr 2004 : 19:43:12
Well well, just thought id mention something that raised my eyebrows...
Ive been sorting through my bookcases (to make room for yet more FR material ) when I stumbled upon a set of novels tucked into a corner, from the World of Darkness series (by White Wolf)....Lo and behold, there stands a novel for the Mage RPG, entitled Such Pain....by Don Bassingtwaithe. Well whadya know Maybe ill read this one after all, FR related or not
And thats not all....look here |
| dbassingthwaite |
Posted - 31 Mar 2004 : 17:45:22
quote:
Originally posted by Steven Schend
[brI'm going to hijack your group for a second to also sing the praises of Dennis Kauth, one of the best hidden secrets of TSR/WotC/the Realms there is.
Dennis did CITY OF SPLENDORS? Ooooo!!
I am seriously in awe of Dennis. One of the first things I did when I got the first copy of Yellow Silk in my hands was flip to the map - it looks SO good.
Don |
| dbassingthwaite |
Posted - 31 Mar 2004 : 17:29:41
quote:
Originally posted by Rad
Did you find it easier to work on a new location rather than using a town which had already been developed and contained existing lore?
I was basically given the location (I might have been able to push it a little bit within the region of the Unapproachable East, but I think the editor was being kind to me with an undeveloped location!), which is pretty standard for most of the novel work I've done.
Actually, both new and existing locations have things to reccommend them (I've done both in various novels).
New locations are almost never entirely blank canvases - even Spandeliyon had a one paragraph description I had to work within - but they can pretty close. Generally there's more freedom to shape the location to the story, which is always convenient. There's also less temptation to take the travelogue approach by drawing familiar sites gratuitously into the story (like when TV shows go to Paris and there's always a shot of the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe).
Depending on the overall design hierarchy of the company in question, though, there's always the danger that what you're doing in your little undeveloped location will be overwritten or ignored by writers or designers later on (I think Wzards of the Coast is very good about drawing information from the novels into game canon though, so I do feel fairly safe with what I did in Spandeliyon).
Existing locations are good because you don't have to worry too much about fussing with layout, history, politics, names,etc - it's usually done for you. OTOH, you are stuck with some features that can be inconvenient to the story, but that can just make it more challenging to work around. I've found that even existing locations have lots of room to throw in little touches, though. In this sense, it's not really that much different from writing something set in the 'real' world (Chicago in my DarkMatter books, for instance) except that you can never actually go there.
Don
|
| Steven Schend |
Posted - 31 Mar 2004 : 16:54:07
quote:
Originally posted by dbassingthwaite
I was rearranging files on my hard drive the other day and came up with something kind of nifty - the sketch map of Spandeliyon I turned in for Yellow Silk.
Check out the finished map (all professionally done up by Dennis Kauth) in The Yellow Silk, then go to my web site (below) and check out what he had to start with. This is the first time I've had a map in one of my books and I think it's very cool to see how my amateur map-making skills translated into something real.
Cool!
Don
Hi Don. I'm going to hijack your group for a second to also sing the praises of Dennis Kauth, one of the best hidden secrets of TSR/WotC/the Realms there is.
Dennis is the guy who, faced simply with a photocopy of a bunch of blank buildings in Waterdeep, asked if it'd be okay to make a miniatures scale model to photograph for a poster map in CITY OF SPLENDORS. 
And yes, he's the Rumplestiltskin of the Mapping Department, turning into gold whatever crosses his desk. And let me confess to having made some pretty rough/crude turnovers to him that became utterly marvelous things when he was done....and yes, your map sketch, in comparison, is a work of art compared to some map sketches I've done at 4am before a turnover was due...
Steven Schend
Bad designer, no donut... |
|
|
