Kate Elliot, also known as Alis Rasmussen, is the author of the popular Jaran series, as well as the new fantasy series The Crown of Stars and one third of the immensely successful The Golden Key with Melanie Rawn and Jennifer Roberson.

Q. Can you tell me a little about your current project?

A. I've wanted to write an epic fantasy trilogy since I read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings at 14, but I've taken my time getting to it because I didn't want to write just a rehash of a plot Tolkien did better than anyone else. I finally reached the point both creatively and professionally where I was ready and, I thought, able to write my own contribution to fantasy literature.

Crown of Stars is a fantasy series set in an alternate fantasy universe somewhat modeled on 10th century German history but mostly cobbled together from economic and religious structures I wanted to play with, in particular a stronger role for women that could be given some kind of rational basis in a low technology/high conflict society.

I love fantasy for its sense of wonder and magic and for the wonderful evocative landscapes that the reader can explore. When I started Crown of Stars I deliberately set out to write a novel that would appeal to the girl I was at 16, with that sense of magic and wonder, and yet also something that would reward the thirty-something woman I now am, with insight into character and some thoughtfulness about the nature of religion and society; of course, I also tried to put in lots of lurid intrigue, sex, violence, betrayal, honor, and glory just for sheer entertainment! Crown of Stars, by the way, will be only a four volume fantasy trilogy. I'm keeping it short!

Q. Everyone who reads this site knows I'm mildly allergic to Big Fat Fantasy, but I've very much enjoyed the Jaran series so far and look forward to reading the Crown of the Stars and it's successors. Still, I'd like to ask you how an author wakes up one day and finds the ideas she's been brewing will take several thousand pages to work out. How do you keep the threads together for that long?

A. My father was a history teacher and educator before he retired. I think that growing up with history is the reason I write multivolume novels instead of standalone ones. First of all, any story happens in the context of a culture or cultures. If that culture is imagined with enough depth, then the culture itself becomes a character in the story. It begins to 'act' as a player; characters make choices because of who they are and what they believe. It has a 'past,' that is, what we call history. Once your setting takes on this much 'three dimensionally,' it becomes like a very well done stage set: it suggests an entire world hidden behind it. That alone is enough to start an idea expanding. Also, my books tend to be about consequences. Actions have consequences, often unintended ones. Once you've read enough history, you realize that even if a major character dies, life goes on, other stories continue, and even events set into motion because of action or inaction on the part of the main character still ripple out into the world around. In a way, the Jaran books are about a single event, Tess and Ilya meeting, and how that sets off a chain reaction of consequences, some of them unexpected even to me, the author! Obviously their meeting isn't the whole of the world, or the only thing that matters or the sole event that triggers many of the other events in the Jaran books, but as a novelist you need a good starting point, something to jump off from, and it's a trick to learn the right place to start. It can be difficult to keep the threads together, I admit. I took a break after writing Jaran #4, The Law of Becoming, for precisely that reason: the world had opened up so far, and things had happened that I hadn't planned on, that I needed to stop and retrench, to take in what had happened and figure out what the heck I was going to do next! What I do try to do to keep the threads together is to keep focused on the main story, and to limit the number of point of view characters I use. In the Jaran books, for instance, characters who are main players in one book might be seen only briefly in another, even if I very much liked writing about them. This way I hold the focus to only those main characters whose story must be told in this volume. I'm having the same problem in the Crown of Stars series. In this case I know where I'm going and it's a matter of layering in hints, events, and foreshadowing so that I'll lead the readers to exactly where they need to be at the climax of volume four. I find this a bit harder to do, actually. It's more natural for me to write about unfolding consequences, as in the Jaran books.

Q. With the Jaran books you mix very strong female characters with very traditional (well, perhaps not all that traditional) romances. How in heck do you manage that?

A. I write female characters about whom I'd like to read. The things that happen to them could happen to any kind of character. I guess it's more a matter of perspective than anything, that I try to write these female characters from a position of strength, and that I assume that any romance that happens to them is only one part of their life, not the only part of their life; in addition, I try to show vulnerability in their male counterparts without writing vulnerability as weakness. If each character is equally strong--and vulnerable--then I think the love story can play out without seeming to place one in a superior and one in an inferior position. The love story in Jaran is certainly a fairly traditional one; I did however try to play with reader expectations by making some changes in the gender roles of the Jaran people themselves, which in some cases reversed the 'standard' roles of my two main characters. And in the later books I wrote certain subplots that were deliberately meant as ironic commentary (for instance, the Diana, Marco, Anatoly story) on the first novel, which is pretty darned pie-in-the-sky. Don't get me wrong: I love to read a good love story myself; Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is certainly one of my three favorite novels. And I loved writing JARAN for that reason, as a kind of homage to one of my favorite novelists.

Q. Speaking of mixing, the same series marries science fiction -- a detailed and subtle conflict between humans and the technologically advanced aliens -- with a very traditional fantasy with the conquering king uniting the tribes, complete with ritual, near magic and lots of swordfights. How much of a juggling act was this?

A. Not that much, really. I think of it more as juggling science fiction and history, since I focused on historical models to a great extent for many of the events in the later Jaran novels. I love stealing from history; it's the best source material. And if as a writer you really get in touch with a mindset that's subtly different from ours, that can give it a fantasy feeling--the same one, in fact, that I've tried to create in the Crown of Stars series, which is fantasy!

Q. You're one of a small but growing number of authors who has experience a mid-career "name change" in order to give good writing a second start. Care to comment on the practice?

A. There's not much to say. When the computers rule how ordering is done, you do what is necessary to keep publishing. The books themselves matter more to me than the name that's on them. They're still my books, and I don't write them any differently whether the byline is Alis Rasmussen or Kate Elliott. Of course, I still have a hankering to collaborate with myself. I think that would be fun!

Q. Tell me a little about working with Melanie Rawn and Jennifer Roberson on The Golden Key. How did it get done? Who labeled you three "The Dream Team of Fantasy?" And, most importantly, how did you feel about getting a Whelan cover?

A. It was both fun and rewarding to work with Melanie and Jennifer, as well as very hard work because we wanted this book to be something special. We did some of our initial idea work via mail and fax, then met for three days of brainstorming. It was an amazing weekend; we all seemed to be on the same wavelength, and the story came together in a marvelous way.

After that we wrote our individual sections separately, then mailed them to each other for a bit of gentle critique , revised, and sent that revised draft to our editors. They read and made suggestions, we did a final revision, and were done. I'm very proud of The Golden Key, and we were all gratified when it was named as a World Fantasy Award finalist. I believe that Jennifer came up with the "Dream Team" label. The book came out right after the '96 Olympics, which gave her the idea. Lastly, what can I say about getting a Michael Whelan cover? When I received the color print of the painting in the mail, I had to sit down and stare at it for an hour. Then I called up Melanie and Jennifer and we babbled excitedly at each other for some amazing length of time. He did such a wonderful job with the cover!

Q. Each of the three will be writing "prequels" to the novel -- what's yours?

A. I will be writing a sequel, actually, set about forty years after The Golden Key. In the USA it will be called The Seeker and in the U.K. it will be called The Iron Key. The story will focus on a grandson of Saavedra Grijalva and his quest to free himself from the Grijalva Gift, which he considers a curse.

Q. Do you have a "favorite child" of the literary variety? A particular novel or short story that's special for you?

A. More than any particular novel, I think there are scenes in each novel that stand out for me, that I feel truly capture the emotion or image I wanted to evoke (maybe more for me than for any readers!) I will say, though, that of all my books, the one has the most personal resonance for me is The Law of Becoming, it, more than any of my other books so far, blends the bitter and the sweet in a way that I find satisfying.

Q. What do you read for pleasure?

A. Science fiction and fantasy, of course. Other fiction as well; I recently re-read Robertson Davies' What's Bred in the Bone. I love reading good history; currently I'm reading the essays of the historian Karl Leyser, whose specialty was medieval Germany. I also generally read the Sunday New York Times, and such magazines as World Press Review, WIRED, the Washington Post Weekly, The Nation, and Scientific American when I can get my hands on a copy.

Q. Who else would you recommend for someone who enjoys your books?

A. Let me just suggest two writers: Katharine Kerr's Deverry series, and Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy.