Teresa Patterson: It was very much a research project, because since I didn't write it, I didn't know the world the way he knew it. He gave me a big stack of notes for me to review. So I was researching it as if it was a real place, real history, real time. That's how I approached the whole project -- just as if I was researching something real and historical and as if I was writing a history book or a geography book on it. But I tried to make it interesting, because I find that dry books bore the heck out of me. And I certainly don't want to write anything that's boring.  

Crescent Blues: Aren't the World books are designed to be both literary and artistic projects? 

Teresa Patterson: They're designed to be elegant coffee table books, where anyone, whether they read the series or not, can open them up and be transported to a fantastic world. For a lot of people that's entertaining enough. They don't need to know the stories. Just seeing the pictures of the people and reading about what the places are like and what the people are like is, in itself, an adventure. These books are designed to create an adventure all on their own. 

Crescent Blues: Do you find that fantasy and science fiction are more visual genres than mystery or romance?  

Teresa Patterson: There's a very good reason for that. We already know what just about everything in your average mystery looks like. We already know what just about everything in any kind of modern day story looks like. We can visualize all the pieces very easily. We don't need help. All we need is something that gives you some kind of emotional feeling for the story you're about to get into. 

But in fantasy and science fiction, very often the art is desperately needed to give you some kind of concept of where you're going and what you'll be seeing, because it's not about things that we know already. And we don't have preconceived ideas for some of these concepts. Therefore, it is the artist's job to try to convey an impression that matches with what the author is trying to create -- or sometimes their own vision.  

That's why science fiction and fantasy are so strongly visual -- because they are about things that fascinate us, but we can't just call up a file in our heads and go, "OK, floating city, file number… Wait a minute. I don't have one up there. What does a floating city look like?" 

Crescent Blues: I've always been fascinated by the way some of the stuff that is created for the literature becomes part of the reality. The famous example is how the space suits created for the pulps in the Thirties became the model for NASA space suits of the Sixties. Or was it the artists were able to conceptualize what they needed to do certain things, and the designers were following a different track to get to the same place? 

Teresa Patterson: I'm not certain I know which way it went on that. A lot of times it comes down to the same process. An artist who is creating a science fiction or fantasy image first has to ask themselves: "How would this work?" A lot of times artists use models to get a better idea of how this would work. Of course, sometimes they throw it out the window and paint what they feel like, and you look at it and go, "That's pretty, but it wouldn't work." 

Crescent Blues: Back to The World of Robert Jordan's the Wheel of Time. Do you feel that the art for the book performed this function? You wouldn't think that a fantasy world, where people are walking on terra firma, would need that much visualization. 

Teresa Patterson: Actually, there are a lot of fabulous visualizations in Mr. Jordan's works. I was rather disappointed that we didn't get a chance to explore more of them in the book. And I was rather disappointed that there wasn't time to do a more detailed job on the artwork in the book. I was a little disappointed, but I'm not the artist, so all I can say is that it could've been a little more impressive. And a lot of the readers have indicated that they were disappointed with that factor too. 

Crescent Blues: I suspect that for many of the fans of the Wheel of Time series, much of the pleasure in the World book is seeing some of their favorite characters brought to life. 

Teresa Patterson: The good part of it was that all of the drawings were actually sketched in Mr. Jordan's home under his direction. So the character sketches were actually done while he was describing what that character looked like. And he looked at the sketches and gave the final approval, which is something that normally does not happen in any of the processes between artist and writer. 

Normally, unless they make an extreme effort to do so, the artist and writer of a book never get together or see or talk to each other. This is one of the advantages of the entire World series. Each of the World books has been artistically created under the control of the creator of the story. The writer can't control the caliber of the final artwork, but they can control whether that image looks like the character they created -- hair color, eye color, shape of face, that kind of thing. 

Crescent Blues: Would you like to do another World book? 

Teresa Patterson: As a matter of fact, I have been signed to do a World book for Terry Brooks -- the author of the Sword of Shanara series -- focused on his Shanara world. David Cherry will be the artist and the art director, so it should be a fantastic looking book! I do not know yet when we will actually get to begin it or when it will be out, but it is now official. Mr. Brooks signed his contract yesterday. 

Crescent Blues: Do you prefer writing non-fiction or fiction? 

Teresa Patterson: I always prefer writing fiction. My favorite kind of writing deals with passion. It's very difficult to create passion in non-fiction unless you're writing to someone who's already in love with the subject. In which case, they bring their own passion to it. 

At its best, fiction helps us explore who we are, what we are, and how we deal with our environment. Non-fiction can do that, but it lacks the intensity of fiction, and it has to be much more direct and straightforward. Fiction can change people without them being aware they've been changed. I don't think non-fiction can really do that. 

Crescent Blues: Are you planning more short stories? 

Teresa Patterson: I'm supposed to have one in by July [for one of P.N. Elrod's anthologies] if I can get my butt in gear and do it. The working title for the anthology is Dracula's London, and all the stories in it will revolve around the things Dracula gets involved with during his time in London. So much of Dracula's time in London was not dealt with in the original Bram Stoker story. And we're not limited by Bram Stoker's vision of the guy either. We can treat that as a "fictitious work about a historical character." I'm looking forward to creating something for that, but I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do. 

Crescent Blues: Have you done any research yet in late 19^th century London? 

Teresa Patterson: Actually, yes. The last time I was in New York, I found a lovely bookstore that had a number of fabulous reference books. One of them was The Way It Was a Hundred Years Ago, and another was The Encyclopedia of Victorian Times. And I intend to delve thoroughly in both of those and in Sherlock Holmes, which is heavily laced with Victorian stuff. 

Crescent Blues: As someone who created a Renaissance life for herself, are you glad you were born in the latter part of the 20^th century, or do you ever wish you had been born in some other time? 

Teresa Patterson: That's kind of a loaded question, because on one hand, there are aspects of earlier times that I am very fond of, but the fact is, in order to have been able to enjoy and make use of those times, I would've had to have been a guy. And I'm kind of fond of not being a guy. It's one of those Catch-22s. There are earlier times and places that fascinate me, that I could deal with all the primitive aspects except for the fact that if I were a woman in those times, most of the things I most enjoy would've been barred to me. And the only way to be a dominant person under those circumstances would've been to be in a nunnery. Or to be a courtesan. And neither one actually appeals to me. 

Jean Marie Ward 

Click here (LadyPegasus@compuserve.com) to request Patterson's "Do-It-Yourself Art Show Kit."