Raymond E. Feist

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 Raymond E. Feist’s writing style is mostly character-driven, and he believes that it is important to “give them someone to root for”. He also emphasizes the importance of efficient storytelling, stating that “if you’re not writing action, you’re writing talking heads, and if it’s talking heads, they better be saying something important”.  

In general, all of Feist’s work has common themes such as military and political, relationships and how they function under stress, and mostly is character-driven. Feist also believes that world-building is not just about plotting roads and cities, it’s about creating nuance in the cultural and social world in which your characters reside.

Raymond E. Gonzales III was born in 1945 in Los Angeles and was raised in Southern California. When his mother remarried, he took the surname of his adoptive stepfather, Felix E. Feist. He graduated with a B.A. in Communication Arts with Honours in 1977 from the University of California at San Diego. During that year Feist had some ideas for a novel about a boy who would become a magician. He wrote the novel two years later, and it was published in 1982 by Doubleday. According to his official website, Feist lives in San Diego.