Interview with Randolph Kettle

With your realisation and ultimate acceptance of your role as the One, did you set out to create a whole new meaning of goodness?

Well, I thought initially it would be a case of win or lose - with winning doing just what you have suggested, creating a new world of eternal goodness. I was kind of hoping I'd have an entire victory and then be able to get back to just being Randolph the minstrel, but I quickly found life isn't like that.

The characters with whom you carry out your journey, and those you meet along the way, really linger in the mind. Do you ever feel like they steal the limelight or get more fans than you do or, alternatively, that any of them don't get the recognition they deserve and become the equivalent of 'galley slaves'?

Hey, that's a very big question, but let's take it a small bite at a time, maybe in reverse order. They're certainly not galley slaves, they all have minds and lives of their own and, even as my skills of wizardry increase, I don't have the power, or the desire, to call them up at will.

When I was younger I used to take it for granted that friends would be there when I needed them, but now, as a result of my journey through the 'Pendulum Swings', I appreciate that's not true anymore. Getting to grips with that fact took its toll on the emotional weight of my childhood experiences, and now I need to find ways of replenishing it. I'm hoping that book two will give me the opportunity to discover those ways because, at the moment, I don't really know where it comes from. However, whatever and wherever it is, I find I need a lot more support than I used to.

You see I've learned that I have to make a conscious decision to be inclusive and avoid hiding my feelings. I find I have to make certain commitments to others - and concessions as well - that I used to assume would be taken for granted. So, in a way, each of the characters in the story will have their special fans, and I don't mind that at all; like me they will have worked hard to earn that - it means our readers can identify with them and, after all, the whole thing is an adventure in teamwork. I mean, even Thrung: where would the story be without him? I hope he doesn't have too many actual fans but, whichever way is skyward, he is part of the story and deserves recognition for it. I don't know if that answers your question.

Galdore is a wonderfully contrary and cantankerous old character at times and at others the foundation of all wisdom and, ultimately, even a father figure to you. Was it fun working with him?

Yes, I grew to love him as a character in so many different ways, from initial respect as a figure of supreme authority right through to the father figure you just mentioned. I wish somehow, (and I've never told this to anyone, and he'll kill me for saying it now), he had been female. As you know I'm a great fan of women and to have one as a character of this central significance would be …. well …. . would have been great for me from a relationship point of view. There's a character, in another fantasy story, who has the same sort of way with the world, and I thought it might have fitted well here and given another angle for me to play on - you know, they always say a girl's best friend is her Mum but I think it's the same for boys as well.

Now, having bared my soul and likely incurred the wrath of the most powerful wizard in the Western Realm [Randolph chuckles here], I have to say as a character I wouldn't have swapped him for all the wine in Ru. He was a joy to work with, even when he did have the grumps and to that extent, even when he was a bit tetchy, he was still a tower of strength - always knowing the right thing to do, even if not quite always the right way to do it.

The harsh landscape of the Draken Mountains played a prominent role in a part of your journey and it's the place where some pretty serious things happened to you. Is that whole scenario ingrained in your memory for all time?

It certainly is. I only feel at home in 'Pendulum Swings' by taking the adventure as a whole. I mean, although there are several places I can now call 'home' that I didn't have at the beginning of the story - there's Castle Drent, The Black Swan, my suite in King Brodika and Queen Charmila's Palace - but the fact is, I don't know where I'm treading or where the characters from the adventure are, unless I have a total visual backdrop for them. So, in that context, it is important for me to have all the different environments I visited retained in my memory, irrespective of whether it was a good or bad experience at the time. You see, I'm conscious of the fact that book two may place me in many new and different situations that I haven't experienced before, and drawing on my memories of all those places could be thing that saves me.

So, to go back to your question, yes, the Draken Mountains and my special difficulties there are ingrained in my memory for all time, but probably no more so than any of the other wacky places I visited or scrapes that I got into. Although having said that, there is one occasion that still brings a lump to my throat whenever I recall it, and that's the memory of standing in front of Leafy Barkman's grave in the forest ... that ... well ... can't put it into words, but you know what I mean.

The book has a spoken, storytelling quality. Did you grow up having stories told to you?

My Aunt Greta is a great story teller and she can talk for Alusia, so my sister Lydie and I pretty much got a bedtime story every night when we were young. Loads of stories. That's the way things were. And then of course when I started on my travels as a minstrel I drew on the vast fund of stories I had in my head. Later I learned how to make stories out of my own things - you know, "this happened on my way to ... or, he is always there to join in the next round." I guess it's originally a small town phenomenon where every town and village has its own tales and legends and then as people start to travel around they pick up stories and take them on to other destinations. Then as you start to develop your own repertoire there are certain favourite characters that come in and out of the stories - the town gossip, the town drunk, the town mayor. We know when those characters come in the turn the story the story's likely to take...

and I think people like that sense of familiarity, but you also have to build in some of the unexpected without denting the central characteristics of your main players. Maybe I haven't explained that very well, but I think the answer to your question is 'yes'.

You mentioned your sister Lydie there. What's the situation regarding her at the moment?

Well, I can't really say. I'm sure now that she is alive but, as I'm sure you'll appreciate, I'm very worried about where she is and who is influencing her. All I can say at the moment is that I hope book two will give me the opportunity to find her and get her back - wherever she may be.

I know you need to get away in the next few minutes but just before you go, one last question. It's something that all your followers want to know about - you and Martha, what's happening there?

You might well ask. You know, Galdore said to me in the first chapter of book two - oops! I'm not supposed to talk about book two yet until it's finished and available for people to buy - but what the hell, a little insight into the first chapter won't hurt. He said to me, "Don't ask me to explain a woman's thinking or, worse still, her behaviour, I'm only a wizard." Well, I'm only an apprentice wizard, so what chance do I stand? I don't know, you'll have to ask Martha: I hold out my hopes but she seems to want to put things on hold for a while. If you get a clue when you talk to her, maybe you'll let me know.