To editors across the Pond: Devi Pillai and Lou Anders.

To other hard-bitten professionals who’ve provided various mysterious services: Robert Kirby, Darren Turpin, Matthew Amos, Lionel Bolton.

To all the writers whose paths have crossed mine either electronically or in the actual flesh, and who’ve provided help, laughs and a few ideas worth stealing, including but by no means limited to: James Barclay, Alex Bell, David Devereux, Roger Levy, Tom Lloyd, Joe Mallozzi, John Meaney, Richard Morgan, Adam Roberts, Pat Rothfuss, Marcus Sakey, Wim Stolk and Chris Wooding.

And lastly, yet firstly:

For unstinting support, advice, food, drink and, you know, editing above and beyond the call of duty, my editor, Gillian Redfearn. Long may it continue. I mean, I’m not going to write these damn things on my own…

extras

meet the author

Lou Abercrombie

JOE ABERCROMBIE was born in Lancaster, England, on the last day of 1974. He studied psychology at Manchester University, then spent twelve years living in London, working as a film editor on documentaries and live music for bands from Iron Maiden to Coldplay. He is now a full time writer, living in Bath with his wife and two daughters. Find out more about the author at www.joeabercrombie.com.

interview

Did you find the experience of writing BEST SERVED COLD, a standalone novel, to be more challenging than writing the First Law Trilogy?

I did find it more challenging. I think mostly because I had the ideas and characters for the First Law Trilogy cooking in my head for a very long time—right back to childhood in some cases—so when I started writing, a lot came out quite easily, and more and more easily as I went along. Also, when I started writing The Blade Itself, I was doing it purely for the fun of it, as a hobby, with no pressure at all, so I was free to take as much time as I wanted and to experiment with what worked. For Best Served Cold, I had to come up with new characters and settings and implement them on a much tighter schedule, with some level of expectation from readers and publishers, which is a very different challenge. Although the plot was, in a way, much more straightforward than with the First Law, it took a long time for me to really get a feel for the characters in Best Served Cold. It wasn’t until I’d pretty much finished the first draft that I felt I’d gotten the voice for some of them, particularly Monza, anywhere near right. Then it was a case of revising the rest of the book to match.

How did you develop the idea for the novel?