F: Why did Alanna and Jonathan have to fight?

T: Why did Alanna and Jonathan have to fight? Whoo.... Proud, very conscious of his consequence, very conscious that his father isn't a good king, although he's a good man, conscious that there are things that need to be done for the realm that his father is not doing, um... and stubborn, mule-headed, independent, anti-social, bad-tempered... no, I think they should get along like [drowned out by laughter], don't you?

And most of the time they sort of do. But let's face it, you could have somebody like Gandhi, and if you put Alanna next to him, they would fight. [laughter] Alanna has that effect on people. Same thing with Tris. You know, Tris will tell you what to do about yourself. And that, for some reason, creates conflict.

Okay, two more questions, and then you can ask me up front. People I've not answered yet. In the compass shirt [gestures to audience member].

F: What is your favorite kind of mythology?

T: My favorite kind of mythology, I think, has still got to be Greek and Roman. Although I have a soft spot for Thor. He was always my favorite.

One more that I haven't answered... uh... [gestures]... eye-glasses.

F: I have a question about your Circle of Magic books... I know what all their powers are, but... on some of the books it's kinda confusing, like, what their signs are?

T: Um, well, they just wanted to do that so it would look like I knew what I was doing and I was being balanced. You could say that Sandry, even though thread and weaving are earth--are, are governed by the principles of earth, dyeing is a water principle. Dye's in water. They're all mixed, is the thing. Umm... Tris's... Tris has power in the air, and she's an intellectual, but she also has power in the earth and power in the water. Umm... Briar has power in the earth, but he does a lot of stuff with medicine, which is a water discipline. So, they mix it up. I'm not real good a-at single things.

F: Yeah, cause like, on the combined books it said that Tris's thing was fire, on the cover.

T: Well, Daja--Daja could also be, but then you have to cook things with plants, so... it... it just looks nice. It's a quick way to say "Okay, we'll put all this here."

Okay, thank you very much, I will answer questions while I'm doing signage.

[/end recording]