On a wondrous planet of telepaths and swordsmen, nonhumans and ancient mysteries, a
I asked Ty Nolan to talk about his story, writing, and the future of Darkover.
Deborah: Tell us about your
introduction to Darkover.
Ty: From the time I learned to read I always had my nose in a
book on science fiction or fantasy. One of my prize possessions was a postcard
from Issac Asimov. While everyone knew him as a science-fiction writer (and the
creator of the Laws of Robotics), he also used to do a monthly column in a
magazine and I was in awe of his brilliance.
His ability to knock out a well-written and researched essay was
amazing. I wrote to him (I was 10 years old) and told him one day I wanted to
be an author and asked him how did he know so much about everything. He wrote
back he was not an expert in everything, but he just managed to sound like one.
Then one day I discovered Stormqueen! Which had one of the best covers I had seen at that
time. That’s what got me hooked on Darkover. I want to also say Marion Zimmer Bradley
(I had the honor of meeting her more than once—my first professional sales were
to her) also impressed me with a work completely different from the Darkover or
Avalon universes—The Catch Trap. It
was the first “gay novel” I had found, and even though I haven’t read it in
years, there are still scenes I vividly remember. It’s set in the post WWII
era, when love between men was illegal. MZB details the societal pressures they
had to deal with on a daily basis. They work together as trapeze artists in a
circus.
What about the world
drew you in?
I’m an American Indian and my family has always been very
connected to our culture. The concept that in the future, Colony Ships would sail
through space and that many were intended to maintain their cultural heritage
was quite striking to me. In the Star
Trek Voyager series, there’s a similar idea of Native American colonists,
rather than the Celtic influence of Darkover. I grew up hearing our traditional
legends and stories. I often felt a strong connection with pre-Christian Celtic
culture, which has a lot of parallels to Native American cultures and even some
of the legends seem very familiar. That made Darkover even more fun to explore.
I’ve also been curious about gender issues, and have taught courses on the
subject when I used to be a University Professor. Just so, MZB’s depiction of
the Chieri was so interesting to me I introduced
one into my own contribution to Gifts of
Darkover, and had my female Main Character aware of her own Chieri heritage.
