Behind every great authorxe2x80xa6.
Stan Nicholls @ the Midwinter Fair 9th of December 2006, Alphen aan den Rijn
Stan Nicholls is the author of the much acclaimed Orcs trilogy. Thanks to Alex de Jong, author of xe2x80x9cDe Raad van Zevenxe2x80x9d and publisher of Pure Fantasy magazine, Stan was invited to the Midwinter Fair in Alphen aan den Rijn. The Midwinter Fair is located in the open-air museum named xe2x80x9cHet Archeonxe2x80x9d, some kind of a Disneyland but then with lots of different historic buildings and history related shows. Especially for his event most people dress up like the most fantastic looking medieval and fantasy/science-fiction like costumes. Combine this with market stands with all kinds of gadgets and books and the ideal location for a lecture by some of the best names in (Dutch) fantasy is created, or so you would thinkxe2x80xa6.
Earlier this year Stan and his wife visited the Netherlands together with Tad Williams. We (my wife Annelies and myself) met Stan at Anne at the Donner bookstore in Rotterdam, and the next day in Haarzuilens at the Elf Fantasy Fair. Stan was so nice to sign my copy of Orcs and we talked for about 10 minutes. It surprised me how a friendly and down to earth person Stan is, nothing like that damn popular American fellowxe2x80xa6 A few days later I decided to write Stan an e-mail to say thanks, to which he replied saying he really liked his visit to the Netherlands and would love to come again somewhere in the near future. To my big surprise Stan wrote to me early December that he was invited to be a guest of honour on the Mindwinter Fair. He and Anne would be coming to the Netherlands and would like to meet again with the both of us.
Arriving at the Midwinter Fair around 12 oxe2x80x99clock we went to the Roman Villa where the various authors would give there speeches. After listening to the lectures of Peter Schaap and Wim Stolk also known as W.J. Maryson we left the villa to look around a bitxe2x80xa6..and ran into Stan and Anne.
Since they where on their way to talk to Stanxe2x80x99s Dutch translator (Lia Belt) we agreed to see each other again around 4 oxe2x80x99clock at the Roman Villa where Stan would do his speech. After that we would go somewhere else to have lunch together. Just before leaving Stan mentioned that he brought me a copy of his latest book (Quicksilver Twilight) but that he gave it to Alex de Jong to look after it at the Pure Fantasy magazine stand. So we said goodbye to Stan and Anne and went searching for Alex (who should look like a 18th century poet according to Stan). We located Alex at the Pure Fantasy magazine stand in one of the large tents. After getting xe2x80x9cmyxe2x80x9d book I talked to him about various issues concerning the Fair, Stanxe2x80x99s visit to the Netherlands, books and his magazine.
Around 3 oxe2x80x99clock my wife Annelies discovered a jamboree-workshop next to the room where Stan was about to do his speech. Since my wife isnxe2x80x99t that much into fantasy at all we decided that I would walk around a bit at the fair and that she would do the workshop.
Getting back at the Pure Fantasy magazine stand I met Stan and Anne again when Stan was singing some books. When Stan finished signing he and Anne wanted to know why I use the nickname Denser on the internet. I told them that a few years ago I read I book called Dawnthief by James Barclay in which one of the main characters is called Denser and I somehow like that name. Well, I tried to tell them because halfway my sentence when I mentioned the name James they already seemed to know. They thought this was very funny because James Barclay turned out to be a good friend of the both of them. When Anne left to do some shoppingxe2x80x99s I did have the opportunity to talk to Stan about the tragic death of the well known writer David Gemell. As some of you might now David was a very close friend to both Stan and Anne. Stan told me that David was the one who introduced Anne to Stan and David was best-man at their wedding. Talking to Stan about Davidxe2x80x99s death and the memorial service held on Monday the 30th of October I could sense that Davidxe2x80x99s passing left a big emptiness with Stan and Anne. Stan mentioned that it still happens that they want to give David a phone-call to ask him about something and then they realize he isnxe2x80x99t there anymore. The service at St. James Church was, according to Stan, a very nice memorial of the person and author David Gemell.
At 4 oxe2x80x99clock Stanxe2x80x99s speech was scheduled in the Roman Villa. Very much like the speech Stan and Anne gave at the Fantasy Fair earlier this year Anne asked Stan questions about his books. Stan and Anne talked about many various issues. One of them is Stan first book he sold to a publisher. Stan told that he got 500 pounds for writing a story but the publisher told him that he wouldnxe2x80x99t get any royalties, which means that when the book would be a bestseller al the money made would go to the publisher. Stan agreed with that. And you might have guessed, the book sold very wellxe2x80xa6.
After writing more books came the success of his best known book Orcs. Anne asked Stan why he wanted to write a book about the bad guys from Tolkienxe2x80x99s Lord of the Rings. Stanxe2x80x99s answer to that was the following. In general the winners write history. So did, in a certain way, Tolkien. In Lord of the Rings the story is very much between good and evil, so Tolkien needed a couple of bad guys. But what, says Stan, if the Orcs arenxe2x80x99t that bad but just a victim of being on the wrong site of the war. Of course the Orcs are vicious warriors but that doesnxe2x80x99t make them bad creatures. Thatxe2x80x99s where the idea of writing a book about Orcs started.
Anne also asked about xe2x80x9ca writers state of mindxe2x80x9d. With this she wanted to know if a writer is, in his mind, living in the world he is writing about. At this point Stanxe2x80x99s getxe2x80x99s a big smile on his face. He asks Anne if she remembers that at a certain day he came walking into the living room looking all upset and that he told Anne: xe2x80x9cHexe2x80x99s deadxe2x80xa6.he got killedxe2x80xa6xe2x80x9d. Of course that spooked Anne, thinking somebody really had died. But what Stan meant to say was that he just xe2x80x9ckilledxe2x80x9d one of the main characters in part three of the Quicksilver Trilogy. (Thanks Stan, now Ixe2x80x99ll have to read part 2 and 3 wondering who of the three is going to diexe2x80xa6..).
A question from the audience was if there is a link between xe2x80x9cThe Thirtyxe2x80x9d from David Gemells books and the order of fighting monks at the end of the Nightshade Trilogy(a fantasy book for young adults, written by Stan). Stan says he once read some books by David Gemell, forgot about them, and then started writing the Nightshade Trilogy. A long time after these books had been published Stan and David discovered this fact. According to Stan they did have a good laugh about that.
The last thing Stan and Anne talked about was the new Orcs books. These books will be prequels to the original Orcs books, so we will find out more about Strike, Alfray, Haskeer and the others soon. Canxe2x80x99t wait to read them.
After his speech Stan had to do one more signing session for that day. Before that my wife and I met with Stan and Anne again together with Stanxe2x80x99s Dutch translator, Lia Belt and her husband Joost. The ladies decided to go for a drink, and Joost and myself xe2x80x9cescortedxe2x80x9d Stan to the Pure Fantasy magazine stand to sign some more books. At the stand we had a discussion if the Orcs books should be turned into a movie. Stan told us that this wouldnxe2x80x99t stand a change, the moment you would start talking about making a movie about Orcs the producers of the Lord of the Rings-movies would sew you. They claim to have the sole rights to anything that comes even close a creation of Tolkien. Stan said that he might even win a court case because Tolkien didnxe2x80x99t actually xe2x80x9cinventxe2x80x9d Orcs, but this would cost you a small fortune on lawyers etcetera and your reputation would be destroyed. So no Orcs-movie, too badxe2x80xa6.
At 6 oxe2x80x99clock we left the Midwinter Fair to the Golden Tulip Hotel in Aphen aan den Rijn to have lunch together. During this lunch we talked about lotxe2x80x99s of different subjects.
One subject that canxe2x80x99t be evaded when having lunch with a writer and his translator is the translation of books and the names of the characters. The main character in the Orcs books is called Strike. In the Dutch translation this is changed to Struijk, which sounds pretty much the same pronounced in Dutch but means xe2x80x9cbushxe2x80x9d in the Dutch language. The explanation of the translator is that the translation of the English word strike would be xe2x80x9cslagxe2x80x9d in Dutch. That doesnxe2x80x99t sound good as a name for a character. So the next best thing would be xe2x80x9cStrijkerxe2x80x9d, which sounds pretty much like Strike. But the meaning of the word xe2x80x9cstrijkerxe2x80x9d is a person playing the violin or a piece of fireworks. No option either. So it became Struijk.
Another interesting question is if writers, in this case Stan, would read other writers fantasy books. Stanxe2x80x99s answer to that is that he sometimes reads a piece of fantasy but tries not to do this very often because he is afraid he might copy somebody else his ideaxe2x80x99s.
Of course we talked about many other things, amongst my beloved motorbikes, movies, book covers, etcetera. But there is one story Stan and Anne told us about I would like to mention. At a certain moment Stan and Anne decided to change the windows in their house. So two workmen came to do the job. When working on his latest book Stan heard to two men talk about torture (some kind of subject to talk about when you are in somebody else his homexe2x80xa6). One of the men said that the most cruel way to torture him would be to pull out his fingernails. The other men said he had a much worse thing in mind, so he turned around and pointed at Stanxe2x80x99s books: xe2x80x9cHaving to read all of these.xe2x80x9d Stan just walked into the room at that momentxe2x80xa6xe2x80xa6.
As you might have noticed the title of this article is xe2x80x9cBehind every great authorxe2x80xa6xe2x80x9d. The reason I wrote this is that I admire Anne in the way she supports Stan in his whole being as a writer and to help him to talk through the lectures. Stan told me that he didnxe2x80x99t really like to speak to audiences (like he said: xe2x80x9cIxe2x80x99m no Tad Williamsxe2x80x9d.) So Anne, if you ever read this, this one is dedicated to you.
Stan and Anne, thank you for talking to us and spending the evening with us. We really enjoyed it.
Pieter W. Lak
17 december 2006
