Since my own personal narrative involves my mother having died when I was born, I think I probably held a certain, perhaps false, sense of high identification with the youngest child in a group of siblings.

With fairytales, there is a universality to them that doesn't exclude boys and men. I think a lot of people assume fairytales are for girls but, in fact, fairytales are about people and individuals in a certain kind of trauma.

My favourite? I loved Cinderalla because I could see behind the fact that as well as her beauty, she was also good.

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Q: What was your reaction when they first talked to you about your novel Wicked! being
made into a musical? Has anyone ever asked you about it being made into a film?

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Within 10 days of the book's publication in the US, I started to get film offers. I had three and a half years' worth of film scripts, each one of which was worse than the one before!

When that interest began to erode (Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings hadn't come out yet) and the notion of a Broadway play came up instead, really in my heart of hearts I just thought [*singing and leaping from his chair*] 'Broadway!'. What was not to love about it?

There will eventually be a film of Wicked! the musical but probably not for four or five years.

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Q: Has anyone approached you and asked you about turning any more of your books into films or shows. If so, which?

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The new book, Confessions Of An Ugly Step Sister actually was an ABC TV film in the US and there are a couple of other things that are in the pipeline but there's nothing ready to announce.

I can't imagine anybody putting as much money into something as they did with Wicked! but, for instance, in Confessions Of An Ugly Step Sister, there is the possibility of it being made into an opera, which I just love.

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Q: When writing Wicked!, how did you conjure up the image of Elphaba (The Wicked Witch of the West) and did you base this image on anything in particular?

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I had in mind for Elphaba two things: the person I would like to be, that is strong, smart, more defiant than I am in real life.

But as I wrote her character, I also envisioned three women in my mental pantheon of idols.

One of them is the American pop singer from the seventies called Laura Nyro. She may not be that well-known over here but she was very beautiful with long, black hair and a powerhouse voice.

The second one was the American poet Emily Dickinson for her ability to retire from the world but observe it with uncanny accuracy. And the third one was the English novelist Virginia Woolf for her supreme intelligence and capacity to see the larger picture.
(Love Emily Dickinson, hehe)

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Q: I won't give away the ending to Son Of A Witch but would you ever write a novel carrying on from where it left off?

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Yes, it's in my nap-sack right now [*points to it*]. It's coming out in the States this autumn and I think the title is going to be A Lion Among Men, and it starts off about eight years after the end of Son of a Witch.

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Q: There are many subtle hints in Wicked! at a 'more than friendship' relationship between Elphaba and Glinda. Was this intended, or just accidental? And if intended, what influenced you to create this relationship?

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I'll say one thing, which is I think English readers are much smarter than American readers. American readers never ask that question!

But the questioner is correct. I do hint at something but I don't say exactly what it is and I don't say exactly how 'known' it is in either of the women. This is for several reasons but the main reason is the same reason I don't say specifically if Elphaba is wicked in any way and, if so, where this wickedness comes from.

I think the whole point of a novel is not to do the sum and come up with the answer but to ask the question over and over again. How complex are people? How many levels of understanding and sometimes complication and contradiction can they have and still be themselves?

Elphaba and Glinda could have a romantic affection for each other without even knowing it. They don't need to know it in order for it to be real for the reader and in order for it to be real for them.

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Q: What can we expect from A Cowardly War, and how many books will there eventually be in The Oz Cycle?

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The Cowardly War is actually the book that I have re-named A Lion Among Men. From that, we are going to take a long look at the entire life story of the character 'Lion', including the ways that it intercepts with Elphaba's life and some other things that happened that we don't yet know about.

And, since the story ends 18 years after the disappearance of Elphaba, we are able to look back and I will answer some questions that were left unanswered in Wicked!

The 'Cowardly Lion' is doing a mission of deposition. He's taking testimony from the mysterious old lady called Yackle. He'll finally find out some answers to the questions I purposefully left unanswered in Wicked!

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Q: While reading the books, I think I have always assumed that Ozians speak English (the Wizard can communicate perfectly well, and Dorothy doesn't seem to have any problems). If this is the case, what language is the Grimmerie written in that the Wizard and Elphaba can understand? Or, what language do the Ozians speak if not English?

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That's a wonderful question! At one point in the second book I have somebody call the language that they're speaking Ozish.

But there's no reason to suppose that Ozish and English are not pretty similar in the way, say, American English and British English are similar. I assume that they are. Why they are, I don't really know.

But, what language the Grimmerie is in is a very important question, and that too is something that will be revealed little by little as the books go on.

But between you and me, my own guess is that the Grimmerie is written in something akin to Anglo-Saxon English, or Anglo-Saxon Ozish, let's say (laughing). It's an older version that only someone with a really keen mind would be able to understand.

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Q: I'm sure everyone has wondered about Elphaba's mysterious scar. I got the feeling that Elphaba was never quite happy as a woman. How do you feel about Elphaba's gender, and how did you intend it to be portrayed when writing the book?

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In the same way I said earlier, I didn't want there to be a single answer to the question of whether she was wicked or not and, if so, was there a single root cause. I don't believe in root causes.

Let's, for instance say you have a terrible sorrow in your life. I don't believe it's because your mother dropped a frying pan on your toe when you were four, you know?

That may have hurt, you may remember it but I don't believe that our fates are determined by a single condition.

Therefore, what I tried to do with Elphaba was give her lots of potential conditions, none of which could be, alone, the single reason for why she was the way she was. So she does have that scar, she does have this vaguely hermaphroditic beginning, we think, or some think.

Is it true or just what people say? Even it's just what people say, does that 'scar' hurt too, the fact that they talk about it? I plant the bean of curiosity in the mind of the reader but I purposefully don't answer the question because I want the reader to think about it.

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Q: In the musical, Fiyero's surname is given as 'Tiggular'. Where did this come from?

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That is the invention writer of the musical, Winnie Holzman. I didn't invent it, but it is so good, it's so correct as his last name that I have asked her for permission to borrow it back in the new books.

So, in the next book, when we look back at his family a little bit, that will be his family name. So in some small way the musical is affecting the novels.

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Q: What is the significance of the carp in the well at Kiamo Ko in relation to Madame Morrible?

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(Laughs) What good readers you have! I believe, I'm not sure, it could be an accident. But I think Madame Morrible was, in her own way, a witch and the karp was something that was used as kind of a spy.

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Q: What one question would you ask L. Frank Baum, if he were still alive?

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Do you hate me? (laughs) I think L. Frank Baum would be so happy to realise that his little moral story continues to pose moral questions 108 years after he wrote it.

If a ghost was to come back to me and say that 108 years after the publication of Wicked! somebody is writing about your characters, I would cry ghostly tears of joy.

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Q: Who is Yackle (or is this better left to our own interpretation)?

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Yackle is to be disclosed in a Lion Among Men.

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Q: On many occasions you have declared your love for the musical adaptation of Wicked!. I am interested to know if there are any parts or themes in the original novel you wish were included on stage but were omitted?

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One small thing, and it's very small, but it's important to me; I wanted to make a truly complex yet magical land like the land in which we live and I was just a tiny bit disappointed that, for instance, in the dance scenes, there are no men dancing with men.

And, even though it's a small, small tweak, one of the things I wanted to do with Oz, that you don't see in Middle Earth, you don't see in Narnia and you don't see in other famous magic lands, is the fact that magic lands can be as complex and multi-balanced as the world in which we live.

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Q: What is your opinion of the musical's finale, which is in direct contrast to one of the main themes in your novel (Elphaba's ultimate demise/mortality)?

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Well, if you go back and read my novel, you'll see that there are a number of ways to interpret the last, say, seven pages. That said, certainly the presentation strikes one as being absolutely opposite.

I was initially suspicious and sceptical. I loved the whole play but when I saw the last 90 seconds, it's the only time where I thought 'Oh no, they've gone too far'.

But, in the five years that the play has been running and within two weeks of the time that I first saw it, I saw that ultimately it doesn't matter because since the main relationship in the play is between Glinda and Elphaba, when they are torn apart, they never see each other again and it's like a death.

If you're never able to see the person you love most in the world, it's like a death and so the fact that the character isn't physically dead, doesn't mean they don't suffer the same sense of loss. So I decided the end of the play would have a bitter-sweet feeling in the sense that once again you are reminded by art to cherish every aspect of your life and relationships.

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Q: You've totally changed how many people view characters like the Wicked Witch of the West. So many people now know her as Elphaba and her story from your point of view. Did you ever dream when writing your stories you would have that affect on so many people?

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No. I did imagine that I might have a very small cult following among college kids and that it might go on for a little while. Even my agent said: 'This book will fly under the radar.'

I think worldwide there are five million copies in print and I don't know how many hundreds of thousands of people have seen the play or how many millions will see the movie when it's made. One doesn't expect that kind of influence.

And what really makes me happy about it is that, as I said earlier, Elphaba is the picture of me as I would like to be if I were more 'me', you know? So, I get this huge ego boost to think that people are able to see this character and like her, connect with her and identify with her - and that's really me!

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Q: Do you find writing an easy process? Does it just flow from you or do you have to be regimented about a work routine?

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Yes to both. It does flow from me but it flows from me because I am regimented and I do sit down and work every day. It's like an Olympic gymnast; being a gymnast may be natural but it's natural because they train themselves to stretch their muscles and work on it every single day.

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Q: Do you enjoy writing for young children more or adults more?

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Writing for children is harder because children have less patience and they are quicker to dismiss that which isn't working for them at any given moment.

Adults have more patience and they can tolerate things that I really love: the parts of the literary art like description and a little bit of digression. So perhaps I enjoy writing for adults a little more.

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Q: Why is Elphaba allergic to water?

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That's partly because L. Frank Baum said she was. Why did he think she was? Because witches were often tested in water, so I think he didn't invent that, he borrowed it from history.

Why is she allergic to water in my mind? I think possibly it's because water is, among other things, a life-giving necessity for someone to grow. She's green, she's like a plant, she needs to grow and she's allergic to water because she's been told that as a green-skinned human being she doesn't deserve to grow. So it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.