Classic Interview: Shells interviews Piers Anthony

Has technology hindered or helped the writing community today?


I think technology has helped, with pen and paper, then the typewriter, and now word processing on the computer. It makes it easier to do, and harder to lose.






There is a lot of work you have done to help new authors get their footing. What is the one thing based on your experience is the most important thing authors should know?

That publishers are not interested in the writer's welfare of his art. They are in it for the money.






For yourself as an author, what has been the most challenging aspect of the process?

Marketing my books. I can write what I choose to write, but if I don't cater to the publishers I won't get it published. Now however, self publishing is coming into its own, and that should help.





You have had a long career as an author. Has there ever been a time where you thought about giving it up or have just 'had enough?'

No. I wanted to be a writer ever since college, and I never wanted to stop. I am still writing, and will until I die.





Some readers might not know you write Erotica and where can adult readers find that work?

I don't liker censorship, and erotica can get censored. Now that there's a market for it, I write it. But it's hardly all I write, just one type. It can be found at Mundania Press, Phaze, Cobblestone, eXcessica, and soon my erotic romance novel Eroma should be published online in all electronic formats including Kindle.







How do you keep motivated to write the long running series of Xanth?


Readers keep begging me to keep Xanth going.



Can you tell us a bit about the latest in the Xanth series Knot Gneiss?


Knot Gneiss is Xanth #34. I have written two more after it, and am planning the next. It's a sort of half-sequel to Jumper Cable, where Jumper Spider was the main character. This time it is his closest friend Wenda Woodwife. She speaks the forest dialect, saying things like "I wood knot dew that to yew." I love her accent. She has to transport a 150 pound lump of petrified reverse wood that naturally terrifies everyone else; she can handle it because she understands wood of any kind.






If you had to pick one moment out of your writing career that was your favorite, what would it be?


When I made my first sale. It was only a story, paid only $20. But it was the confirmation that I could do it, and all else followed, in due course.


You can find out more about Piers Anthony at his website:http://www.hipiers.com/