The Mongoliad (The Mongoliad Cycle, Book 1)
A Q&A with Mark Teppo, co-author ofThe Mongoliad: Book OneQ: How did  you get the idea forThe Mongoliad?A: It  all started with sword fighting, of course. My co-authors and I are part of a  Western martial arts study group that practices in a non-descript loft in  Seattle. A lot of the initial impetus for the group came from Neal Stephenson who  had realized the sword fighting in his earlier novels was lacking the input  from individuals with actual expertise. In the course of learning about the history  of Western martial arts, he coaxed a couple other writers into the same circle.  From there, the idea of writing a saga about the complex history of Western  martial arts was born. Since the idea grew out of a group experience, it seemed  best to continue the collaborative aspect of the project, and that was how the  core team of Neal, Greg Bear, E.D. deBirmingham, Joseph Brassey, Erik Bear,  Cooper Moo, and myself came together.Q: The  Mongoliad trilogy began as an online subscription service. How would you  describe this first incarnation of the trilogy?A: At the  time, we were also talking about new ways of interacting with our audience, and  an online subscription service seemed like an interesting experiment. The  edition that grew out of that experience is best characterized as a serialized  work-in-progress. Not only were we conducting an experiment in writing collaboratively,  but we were also learning what it was like to interact—in near real-time—with  our readers. It was, in many ways, not unlike the manner in which Charles  Dickens wrote his own novels. The first iteration of many of his classics were  serialized, with Dickens shaping and revisiting his plots based on readers'  responses to the episodes. He even started to think of the episodes differently—writing  more cliffhangers than one would normally use in a traditional novel formatQ: How is  the Mongoliad trilogy different from the serialized version ofThe Mongoliad?A:  We  wrote the serialized narrative in one long rush, constantly shifting stories  and plotlines in response to writer availability and to what our audience was  talking about. I don't know how well it will read after the fact as I  think there was a certain amount of inescapable frisson that went on during  that process.  But it was a serialized  experience and much of that emphasis is a weekly cliffhanger, which doesn't  necessarily translate well to three separate volumes.The trilogy  that is being released via 47North is a much more coherent narrative where the  emphasis is now on world-building and story-telling.The Mongoliadhas a beginning, middle, and end, but it's also the  starting point of a huge explosion of stories and characters—in the medieval  world and beyond—that is still forthcoming. We know so much more about Foreworld  now (the world in which The Mongoliadtakes place) that we are able to properly understand these characters' place  within the larger narrative that has yet to unfold.Q: What are  the strengths of this book-length version ofThe Mongoliad?A: Firstly,  each of the three volumes ofThe  Mongoliadhave been polished, re-structured, and re-edited into the  definitive edition of the narrative. The 47North publication is the authors'  preferred text. As we said, throughout the serialization a book is never really  done for the writers until they can hold it in their hands. We're old school,  that way. It's done when you put it on the shelf.Secondly,  having been the guy who had to take it all apart and put it back together  across three volumes, I think it's a much stronger narrative now. There are  four story branches that move back and forth across the year 1241, and lining  up intersection points between the branches was complicated in a serialized  non-linear format. The 47North edition allowed us to build a better pace and  structure for the narrative.For example, the Rome branch, which began  immediately in the serial, doesn't begin in the 47North edition until Book Two.  Which makes sense in a linear story-telling fashion because the events that  occur in Rome take place much later than the initial events in Book One. In the  serial, we didn't do it that way—much to our chagrin.  But we couldn't do anything to fix that  misstep.  Until now.