Fantasy Magazine talks “The Swordsman Whose Name Was Not Death" with Ellen Kushner

In the November 2011 issue of Fantasy, you’ll find the Swordspoint story, “The Swordsman Whose Name Was not Death.”

For their Author Spotlight on the website, they followed up with Ellen to ask some questions about the story:

“The Swordsman Whose Name Was Not Death” is set in the same world as your novels Swordspoint, The Fall of Kings, and The Privilege of the Sword. How did you develop this world? What inspired you?

I was inspired by a combination of books and real life. No, really. The world and the characters started coming to me in my early twenties. I was just out of college, working in publishing and living on a seedy block in an iffy neighborhood in New York City. (Those who know NYC now will laugh uproariously when I tell you it was W. 110th Street on the Upper West Side—but believe me, my block was so bad that we regularly heard cries for help out the window. It was a different city, then; trust me.) I definitely felt like I had to have my head up and my wits about me every time I went out. And I felt like I was really cool for having the street smarts to live there. But did I wish I had a tough guy with a sword who always made sure no one messed with me? Sure, I did.

Read the rest of the piece on their website at “Author Spotlight: Ellen Kushner.”