Do you know the Author Christopher Paolini? Well he has come under a lot of criticism for ripping off other people's stories. I am part of a forum for his books, and a lot of people claim he stole Tolkien;s ideas, and he took Lucas' ideas from Star Wars. So I guess the question is, has this happened to you? I see no similarity in yourbooks, they seem to be completely original...

He stole from a lot more people than Tolkien and Lucas.


PAAOOOOOOLINI! - Jetson's boss voice. -

I think the key question for any author is not 'Have you been influenced by someone else/taken ideas from them?' but 'Have you got something original of your own?'. Everyone borrows ideas from all over the place, and not only ideas but things like style, structure, tone... Up to a point this is inevitable and good - but there has to be something new too, something fresh which makes the new book a worthwhile text in its own right. As a genre, fantasy has developed a certain number of conventions that hover perilously close to cliche - a lot of these are due to Tolkien's massive influence. Check out Diana Wynne Jones' A Tough Guide to Fantasyland for a fun analysis of this. When I began the Bart books I was well aware that if I wanted to make it fresh I had to bring something new to the table, and I think the key thing for me was viewing magicians/magic through the eyes of Bart (and later through Kitty's eyes, making it political too). Bart (and to a lesser extent Kitty) subverts the conventions, allowing a lot of humour and satire to come into play as well. But of course there's plenty of familiar stuff in my books too - ranging from ideas pinched from myths, legends and folklore, to themes that have been developed (differently I hope!) in many other modern writers' work. When all's said and done, a reader can quickly perceive whether a book is offering something new, or feels a little stale.