KenFollett

I mentioned earlier that the new book will probably take Kingsbridge forward another 200 years, to the 16th century. I'm working on the outline, and I anticipate publication in 2017.

"The Pillars of the Earth" was really difficult. I had to find out--or, failing that, to guess--exactly how the cathedrals were built, then incorporate those techniques into an exciting story. But we have sold 19 million copies so far, so I guess I figured it out.

Long question!
I'm always fitting my imaginary characters into real events, and I have to be so careful not to make them do something that would have been impossible. So I really like timelines. For pleasure, I like to read the kind of history books that take a really broad look at a long period and try to figure out the underlying continental drift of history. I just read "1493" which is about the environmental consequences of the discovery by Europeans of the New World. I would love to have written "The Silence of the Lambs". It's one of the best suspense novels ever, and it has the scariest villain of all time in Hannibal "the cannibal" Lecter. I'm strong on story, weak on poetry. I'm working on another historical novel right now, but after that--who knows?

I make a spreadsheet in Excel. Each time I introduce a new character, I put the name and age into the spreadsheet. Excel then calculates that person's age in each forthcoming chapter. I also paste whatever physical description I give of the person--mainly to make sure I don't use the same phrase next time I bring him or her on stage.

What surprised me the most, on my visit to the Deep South to research the civil rights era for "Edge of Eternity", was how emotional I felt. I don't cry much, but when we were filming in front of the Wales Window at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, I broke down.