Robert Newcomb interviewed
01/09/2002 . Source: Del Rey Team 

The fantasy author behind 'The Fifth Sorceress' talks about magic as physics, his past life on the lot of a car dealership, and why the best kings are reluctant ones.

DR: Tell us a little about your new novel THE FIFTH SORCERESS.

Robert Newcomb:   The story is set in the land of Eutracia, and opens at the end of a very dark civil war between the two opposing forces of magic, the sorceresses and the wizards. The sorceresses, defeated, are banished forever across the sea ... or so the wizards think.

The book then skips ahead 327 years, where I introduce the main characters, Tristan, who is destined to be king, his twin sister Shailiha, and Tristan's teacher, the wizard Wigg.

DR:  The notion of "the reluctant king" seems to appeal to you.

RN:  By all means. I wanted my hero to be flawed. I worry about heroes that are too perfect. I didn't want him to be a medieval James Bond. He was born to a privileged, royal lifestyle, but prefers the war-college to his academics, passion to politics, and teases his teacher mercilessly. 

At least until his realm falls apart and his life is turned upside down. He is of royalty, but I wanted him to be rough and tumble, too. THE FIFTH SORCERESS is not really about a prince gaining a kingdom.  It is about a prince tragically losing one,

realizing what it is he has lost, and discovering what it is he must now do to set things right. That is a dark story, and one that I found to be far more compelling.  Hopefully my readers will agree.

DR:  Speaking of magic, the system of magic you created for THE FIFTH SORCERESS is fascinating, both extremely complex and utterly logical. It's also unique in that the ability to use magic must be inherited.  Tell us a little about how you developed your rules of magic.

RN:   It has always seemed to me that if you really want to put your mark on something, you've got to do it in a way that hasn't entirely been done before. In fantasy, I believe that the magic, the civilization, and the creatures that appear should all be evolutionary in nature. In other words, they should come from a describable, logical source that can be justified in terms of nature, evolution, and the laws of physics.

This makes much more sense to me than having the magic work as a convenient plot device to get characters out of trouble. That just doesn't work for me, and I don't think it works well for a discerning reader, either. I therefore decided to link the ability to use magic to the bloodline of the individual. You are either born with what I call "endowed blood" or you aren't, and the strength of the magic can vary drastically.

And, even if you are lucky enough to be born with endowed blood, you can't simply wake up one day and suddenly know how to use the craft of magic. You must be taught how to control your talents. The magic has an inherent yin/yang aspect, so there is a great potential for abuse, a theme that runs throughout the entire book.

The Paragon, the blood red jewel of the craft, came about because I needed a physical "conduit" of sorts. Something that is always present in the real world, and greatly treasured.  Something that would help harness these two form of diverse energy, and invigorate the talent of those with endowed blood.

DR:  So how hard was it for you to remain consistent once you established the rules?

RN: It was not only terrifically difficult to remain consistent in their applications, but also difficult to keep from blatantly violating my own rules! As I write, I'm constantly trying to remind myself that things behave as they do in the book for reasons.

When my editor started work on the book, most of her questions revolved around the further refining of the magic, and how it all works. She has been very gentle with me, and we'll have a much better book because of her!

DR:   The story behind how you came to write THE FIFTH SORCERESS is as compelling as the book itself.  You went from heading up a successful family auto dealership to becoming a novelist whose very first book set off a major bidding war between publishing houses in New York.  Yet you say that it was really your wife who was instrumental in getting you to actually write the book. What's the scoop?

RN:  Where to begin? Years ago, when I was single, living in New York State and working for my father, Joyce and I met and dated for about a year. Things didn't work out; I felt an obligation  to stay in New York to run the family business and she wanted to go to Florida to pursue her PhD in neuropsychology.

I got married; she got married. We just didn't marry each other. Joyce went on to become a very successful neuropsychologist as well as a bestselling nonfiction writer. Throughout the years, though, she'd remained very close to my parents and wrote to them from time to time.

Many years later -- unbeknownst to one another -- Joyce and I both went through a divorce.  Not knowing my situation, Joyce wrote to my mother, telling her about her own divorce, and included a recent photo. As I was sitting in my office one day, my mother walked in, dropped the letter on my desk, and quietly whispered to me, "I think you should read this." Events sort of took on a life of their own after that.

DR:  And that started the chain of events that resulted in this book?

RN: Yes. I'd always wanted to write a book, and how I happened to choose this genre is the strangest part of the story. After we started seeing one another again, Joyce and I were in a long-distance relationship from New York to Florida for a time, traveling back and forth by plane.

Needing something long to read for one of these flights, Joyce bought her first fantasy novel, a Terry Goodkind, and really liked it.  She talked about the book so much that she managed to finally get me to read it too, just to see what this fantasy stuff was all about. To my complete surprise -- my not being a fantasy reader at all -- I enjoyed it. And I guess I thought at some point, that's what I'll write.

I was proceeding from a great lack of knowledge, obviously, so all I really did was to sit down and try to write a book that I myself would want to read. But I had some initial problems to overcome. For instance, when I first started writing the book, I didn't even know how to turn on a computer. 

And I hadn't typed since college.  To this day my typing remains horrid! For the first 200 pages of the book, I didn't really know where the plot was going. Probably not the smartest way to begin.

DR:  It sounds like such a lark; what made you keep writing and eventually try to get the finished book published?

RN:  A series of fortunate life changes. I had an opportunity to sell the family business. A difficult decision but it seemed like the right thing to do. After we sold the business, I moved to Florida to be with Joyce. I was financially secure enough to keep going with this novel and not do anything else for a while. And, Joyce and I -- at long last -- got married during this period; that's probably the most inspirational of the life changes I made. It's certainly been a boost to my creativity!

Eventually, at a thousand pages, I turned around and saw that I had a finished book.  The whole process was very synergistic. People ask me how long it took to write the first novel, and I honestly can't answer that question.

My lifestyle at that time was such that I might write just a page one day, then skip a few days, then write twelve pages the next day. I wasn't under a deadline, so I worked on it when I felt like it. Now, when I write, I'm doing about two thousand words a day, five days a week.

DR:  What sort of lessons did you learn through the writing of the first book that you are applying to the subsequent books in the series?

RN:   Lots of them, really. I'm more concise in the second book, and it's now half done. I hit the ground running with this one, because I had a much firmer grasp of where it was going. Before I signed the contract with Ballantine, I outlined the second and third books of the trilogy because I wanted everyone to be fully conversant with where these books were going.

That was very helpful, since I didn't want to get 600 pages into the second book and have my editor tell me that it wasn't where they thought the books should go. The other thing about the second book is that I learned to be more disciplined. Now I know what a deadline is.

DR: Did you enter into this with the idea of becoming a full-time writer?

RN:  No! That's a lot to hope for, especially considering that this was the first thing I'd ever written! The odds are just so stacked against you.  I've talked to some people who have tried a lifetime without ever being published. To be able to write your first book, find an excellent agent, and sell it well is like lightning striking.

I know I'm a very fortunate guy. I owe a great debt of gratitude to my agent and to the folks at Ballantine and Del Rey, for having taken such a big chance on an unknown. I am also greatly indebted to the folks at Agent Research and Evaluation, Inc., for helping me find my agent, Matt Bialer, of Trident Media. Without Matt, my books might never have seen the light of day.

There is a wonderful quote by Steven Spielberg that goes, "Stories don't have a beginning or an end, they just have a middle that keeps on beginning." 

I guess I am in the middle of my own beginning again, and it feels great.

This particular interview is kindly reprinted from our chums at the Del Rey Internet Newsletter. To subscribe to their free, monthly e-newsletter, visit http://www.delreybooks.com