I've had a lot of questions about Strings over the years. This FAQ is designed to answer the most common ones--but you can still email me with more!
- What does the "D." in D. Aviva Rothschild stand for?
Deborah. Don't use it, never did. Adding the "D." to my writing name is pure affectation.- How do you pronounce "Aviva"?
ah-VEE-vah. It's Hebrew and means "life" or "spring."- Are you related to the famous banking Rothschilds?
I sure hope so, but it's highly unlikely. My father's father's family came from Russia or Poland, and the "real" Rothschilds were German. I personally believe that Grampa's family adopted the name for luck when they came to the US.- Have you really been writing With Strings Attached for 23 years?
Yeah. I started in early 1980 at age 15. By tradition, I give the book George Harrison's birthday (Feb. 25) because I can't remember the exact date when I started, but I probably started a bit earlier than that. Also, between 1993 and 1997 I didn't work on it at all. I'm kind of amazed I kept it up so long, actually!- Have you considered publishing Strings?
Yeah. In 1989, when I had a full version (for my master's thesis), I shopped it around to publishers and agents, about 35 different markets total. The only ones interested were the publishers that wanted me to pay part or all of the cost of publishing, so I gave up. I might try again when the book is finished, since it's a lot better now! I'm actually intending to self-publish the thing when it's done, so if you're interested in a paper copy, drop me a line to that effect. It'll probably be paperback and cost $10-$15 plus shipping.- How did you get started writing Strings?
It was almost a fever dream. At the same time that I had pneumonia and bronchitis and was out of school for a week, a teacher of mind dropped dead after jogging through the snow to school--the first person in my conscious life to have died. While I was out, I conceived of Dungeons & Dragons characters (I've been a gamer forever) that were first like the Beatles and then were the Beatles, and I started imagining adventures they could have. When I got back to school I started writing poetry (really really bad poetry) to help me deal with my teacher's death, and I quickly turned to writing down the D&D/Beatles stuff I was dreaming about.- Where did you get all those ideas for Strings?
Well, Strings had its genesis in D&D, so that game influenced me a lot early on, though I've gone well beyond that limited concept. Basically, what I ended up doing was creating as plausible a world as possible given certain underlying assumptions, one of which you already know (the terribly effective skahs crusade against monsters) and most of which you don't. For some of the magic I ripped off and changed some concepts from the old Tunnels & Trolls solo dungeons. Chapter 22 (the New Zork chapter) was influenced by the Xanth books (though that was the sole influence that Piers Anthony has had on me). Chapter 24 (Scale) was vaguely inspired by some trashy cartoon of the early 90s. The underlying concept of Baravada, which I perceive as a dying utopia, owes part of its rationale to my late friend and mentor, Dr. Lynn Williams, who was a student of utopias and dystopias. The old superhero role-playing game Champions was helpful in defining precisely what our heroes can do.- How powerful are J/P/G/R? What can they do?
Sorry--trade secrets!- Are you or any of your friends in the book as characters?
Sort of. I consider Shag Gen to be a very humorless version of me in my early 20s. No one else in the book is based on anyone I know, though Jeft resembles some annoying gamers I've met.- Why is it taking you so long to finish Strings?
Because I am not a prolific writer, I am a crazy perfectionist when it comes to Strings, and I dislike the act of writing. I wish we had brain-to-disk capabilities!- Is there really going to be a sequel?
That's my intention, though given my track record it could take another 20 years to finish... assuming I ever finish Strings.- What's the sequel going to be called?
The Keys Stand Alone.- What's Keys going to be about?
That's a secret!- Are you going to deal with John's death?
Possibly. It won't be in Keys, but if there is a third book or even a fourth, as might happen, I will deal with it. It's not a subject I want to broach for a long time.- Are you going to deal with George's death?
If I do, it'll be in the same story as John's death. I have a possible scenario.- Is John supposed to be an angel?
No. I gave John his wings as the first thing I did when I conceived of the book; they predated his death by almost 10 months. The joke was supposed to be that Paul should have had the wings, but John got them. Needless to say, when he died, the wing thing became kind of creepy, but I resolved to keep them on him--they fit him so well.- Is Strings just a big dream of Paul's?
No, despite what some descriptions of the story say. "It was all a dream" is a huge copout. As conceived, the four actually travel to C'hou and will have to deal with the consequences of having been missing when they finally return home.- Why are there two versions of Strings on the Internet?
I originally posted chapters on Writer's Cramp, the zine of a friend, to take advantage of his existing audience. When I decided to start my own zine, I wanted to move Strings over to it, and to rewrite some parts of Strings that didn't satisfy me. But my friend never returned my emails, and I soon discovered that he'd dropped off the Internet without taking down Writer's Cramp. I can't remove it; I don't have his password. So the old version of Strings is "hostage" on the Writer's Cramp site--for some reason, it hasn't been dropped off GeoCities because of inaction. Also, the email address for me on that site is no longer valid, so the only way I could do any redirection was post to the guestbook.- Why don't you post some Strings-based illustrations?
Because I can't draw at all. I'd love to see someone try their hand at depicting a scene from Strings, though!- What's the deal with elves? Are they Tolkienesque? Are there any dwarves, hobbits, etc. in the world?
In C'hou, elves are merely an offshoot of humanity--there's nothing special about them, no immortality, no innate magic powers, nothing. There are no other humanoid species indigenous to C'hou.- Who's your favorite Beatle?
I like them in this order: John, Ringo, George, Paul. It's relative, of course; my "least favorite" Beatle is still a lot more attractive to me than just about any other celebrity.- What's your favorite Beatles song?
In no particular order: "A Hard Day's Night," "I Am the Walrus," "A Day in the Life," "Something." There are only a handful of Beatles songs I don't like.- Will you read my Beatles story?
Sorry, no. I don't have time to read and comment on Beatles fiction. I will, however, read non-Beatle stuff if you submit it for publication to the main part of Rational Magic. If you have a Beatles-related story or essay you want to submit to Rooftop Sessions, contact the editor of RS, Susan Ryan.- Do you have any advice for beginning writers?
Just the same stuff you've probably heard a million times: read widely, write a lot, and learn to take criticism. Study some psychology if you have the opportunity. Above all, understand yourself. Once you understand why you behave the way you do, you'll start to understand why other people act the way they do. And even if you plan to write in one genre, like fantasy, read a lot in other areas as well. Remember, one of the reasons the Beatles were so good was that they listened to a wide range of music, well beyond simple rock 'n' roll: R&B, folk, country, broadway, classical, crooners, Indian music, etc.- Why did you remove the existing chapters 25-27 and start over with that material?
Because the Hunter story arc was getting long, long, long. I never intended it to be more than about a hundred pages at the absolute max (less would be better--right now I'm aiming for 75pp), and as I kept plowing along I hit a hundred pages with half the arc to go! Also, it was getting too grim for me. I came up with the berserk Ringo sequence a long time ago and thought it would work well here, but what it ended up doing when I actually wrote it was forcing itself onto all subsequent events in the book. I had to take Ringo's mood shift into account every time something happened, which meant that the lighthearted tone of the story was totally shot to hell. It was a huge decision to scrap all that material, which represented months of work, but it was necessary because I simply could not work up the desire to continue with Strings in that vein. I apologize to those readers who liked the old stuff, but I had to do it.
Return to With Strings Attached
