Thanks!  ;)

I don't want to sound officious or something but hey Ausir any news?

This is a question for Borik and Jones; it seems that these two guys are organizing Czech Sapkowski's fans for years and this is part of their activities.
Zaklinac CON (http://ff.zaklinac.com/) is part of http://www.festivalfantazie.cz/.

Zaklinac Con is part of Festival of Fantasy, we are only one of 42 programs lines such as Harry Potter, Lord of the rings, Star wars, Dune, Clasic fantasy etc., every day there are about 20 parallel programs + computer game room and a lot of films. There will be also Andrzej Pilipiuk. You could find more about FF in polish at http://www.festivalfantazie.cz/pl/index.php?pg, accomodation - http://www.festivalfantazie.cz/pl/index.php?pg=ubytovani , food - http://www.festivalfantazie.cz/pl/index.php?pg=stravovani  (organizers were not able to launch English and German version of web, but it could be finished next year).
 
Sapkowski will come 3.7. and i will be his guide, any other Pole will be welcome. :) 
 

If anyone's interested, there was a short interview with Sapkowski shortly after releasing the game. The interviewer was one of the editors of Empik MegaStore's magazine "Tom Kultury". Can't remember the whole thing, though. What stuck in my memory is that Sapkowski said, that in general he is not interested in computer games. Also, asked if the game presents the events and characters just as he imagined, he replied that he doesn't imagine his stories nor characters. 'I just write', he said.

I'll try to find some interviews in Polish and, if copyright law allows, translate them into English. Maybe here, maybe in a separate thread. Whatever you think will be more convenient. There's a lot of it, so I'm open to suggestions what to translate first. Something about the movie? Or maybe obout non-witcher fiction perhaps?

Ok, two things:

First of all, I'm still waiting for suggestions on what to translate first. There are quite a few of those interviews, so give me some idea, at least in general, what do you want to know. I don't want to decide on the order instead of you.

Secondly, due to my editors and the new schedule they've just given me, I'm completly tied up for at least ten days to come. Hence, if I am to translate anything outside my job, it's going to be approximately on 23rd of July. So be patient.

All the best,

I'm sure everyone here is happy to wait for you :) ... the fact that you have so kindly volunteered to do this is terrific, please don't make it a burden on yourself. A bit more of a wait is really not a big deal

I'll try to gather a coherent list of questions for you

and thanks!  :)

You can send me the list, but bear in mind that I'm not interviewing Andrzej, so they will only serve me as a guidline as such, to choose one of the interviews already done in Polish.

Nevertheless, I won't hesitate to ask Sapkowski any questions that might be left unanswered, if he will show up on Zahcon convention in Thorn on October. The chances are small, because many other good Polish writers have some issue with Andrzej's presence, so he'll probably won't be invited. Pity, but then again, he could act a little less self-important.

Not a problem at all (for me anyway!) :)

any extra information in english is greatly appreciated

It's hard to cathegorise. Most interviews circle around several different topics. I've chosen one of the longer, older ones. It till take some time to translate it so I've decided that I would be putting it here, piece by piece, to give you guys (and gals, of course) something to chat about ;)

So, here goes... Pardon me for any mistakes, this was done in a hurry and I usually translate the other way around.

Andrzej Sapkowski, the Ace of Polish fantasy genre [initials A.S. understood as ‘as’ (eng. Ace)] is known to be ‘enfant terrible’ of all activities and proffesions he ever undertook in his life. ‘The Lade of the Lake’, the fifth and the last part of The Witcher Saga, was a bestseller for quite a couple of weeks. Only William Wharton and Czesław Miłosz (a savvy polish writer of great renown) can gather more people when conducting a public meeting. Though a conversation with a writer with an IQ over 200 is far from being easy, many fans take up the gauntlet and many a time a witty discussion follows shortly after. Sapkowski asked what he thinks of the idea of interpreting his initials as ‘Ace’, replied that he is quite happy with the fact, because it is only by pure accident his name isn’t Dionizy Ursyn Pieta-Adamkiewicz [initials D.U.P.A interpreted as ‘dupa’ (eng. ‘ass’)]

Paweł Kempa interviewed Andrzej Sapkowski after one of his public meetings with fans. 
     
PK: How many books did you signed today?
AS: I don’t know, because I don’t count. Though I know I was giving away signatures for two hours.
PK: I though that the queue of your fans will never end.
AS: I have this rule – first the fans and media later – and tend not to break it. Sometimes I make exceptions for beautiful women. I must congratulate you on your patience.
PK: Have you ever expected the saga to be such a success?
AS: The saga, yes. However, if take into consideration the whole history of my writing, which is fifteen years long, then I absolutely didn’t expect that my debut story would be considered so good. All I expected back then was an award in the competition for which I’ve sent the text, well, and also salary for the job, of course. The fascination with my story, that came shortly after, was a great suprise to me.
PK: And for your private use, you call your text ‘fantasy literature’?
AS: Why ‘for private use’? It is fantasy literature, just as ‘High Noon’ is a western movie. I can’t run away from this label and I can’t hide my provenance, even if I tried – which I don’t want to. No matter who and no matter how smart will call me a postmodernist. I know that such things already take place. They try to nobilitate me with those smart titles and cathegories, because that ‘fantasy’ is such an ungly word for a literature genre. So it’s better to say: ‘a postmodernist’. Even better, that what I write is an allegory, a pastige, or even a very wise philosophy! Call me ‘Professor”!
PK: When I was reading your books I had the impression that you mock the fantasy genre and that, at the same time, you were creating it anew.
AS: You’re right, I often allow myself to play tricks with the reader. No to mention that what I write is exactly what my soul tells me to write, the style, building action and narration. I am fully aware that a statistical polish reader will better accept this kind of writing. It would be a dire mistake to give him a clean, linear, typical plot.
PK: Let’s talk about the main character of the saga? Who is Geralt, the Witcher?
AS: He’s just one of many character of this type of literature. There’s nothing to add. Whatever I could tell about him, I’ve already written. There’s nothing more outside the books. If I didn’t said something about him, then it was by choice. If it was because of my poor writing skills then tough luck, mea culpa, but I can’t go back in time to correct my mistakes.
PK: Ok, let me rephrase the question. Your character has difficulties with choosing between good and evil, between participating in important events and being passive. Are you trying to smuggle some deeper message?
AS: Generally, I try to avoid preaching, especially about good and evil. Books shouldn't tell the reader what the author’s like, but what the main character’s like. The reader doesn’t need to know what the author thinks or feels, in what he believes, and what he likes or hates.
PK: Are you hiding?
AS: No, because I don’t have to. But again – people shouldn't read books to know the author. The reader wants to hear a great story and get to know the mentality of the character participating in it. The author doesn’t concern him. However, there is no cure for the fact, that the author will almost always give away a part of his ideology in his works.
PK: So, none of the characters have some of your features?
AS: None. I tend not to make parodies, nor to give fictional characters features of real ones.
PK: So the characters don’t have their real counterparts?
AS: No. You won’t meet such people on the streets.
PK: Do those characters appear to you in dreams?
AS: Yes, very often. Sometimes when I write, I get this mind block. You just don’t know what to write next. In some cases I find solutions to such problems in my dreams.

To be continued...

wonderful start SilverShadow :) thank-you! i'll be staying tuned...

Thanks for all the effort you've put into this! Very interesting read, I'm looking forward to the next parts. You said this was an older interview - from which year is it?