sheldrake

Oh, good point about the fluidity of magic in DIR--maybe that's what I really mean, the way it's so integral to the characters and plot, and not something separate and lofty. Even when it is--I'm thinking of that scene in The Grey King where Bran and Will are being tested in the mountain by the three lords--there's a very human element that makes it that much more significant to me.

And like you say, while HP is fun, the magic is very technological in nature and not necessarily integral to, well, *being*, I guess--the way it is in DIR, and the Earthsea books, say.

But there's so much good stuff in this interview. I like how she talks about Arthur as the "Dark Age war leader" and the sense of an England that's constantly threatened with invasion... those things come across very strongly in the books, I think.

Oh yes; it strips away the romanticization of the Arthur story and makes it very real, I think.

Btw, I've been meaning to e-mail you for nigh on a year now. Every time I begin I forget totally what it was I was going to talk about. I'm afraid I suffer from Weird Email Angst, which is a terrible modern infliction. :)

LOL! I know that feeling intimately *g*. I absolve you of any email angst, particularly as you know I'm terrible at timely replies. I do wish I could get my head back into writing DIR, and I think you should do so as well, purely for selfish reasons *g*.