Card returns to the road to push a 'stand-alone'

Popular writers are often successful doing one thing. J.K. Rowling writes "Harry Potter" children's books. Dan Brown writes historical thrillers. John Grisham turns the legal profession into high drama.

So far, Orson Scott Card has avoided being slotted into a single place in libraries or bookstores.

Card is perhaps best known for "Ender's Game," a science-fiction novel published in 1985 -- and all the books that came after it in the form of sequels and a parallel series.

Among other works, however, he also has a successful American frontier fantasy series ("Tales of Alvin Maker") and a series of fiction about the "Women of Genesis," and he writes plays, scripts, poetry and a monthly comic book ("Ultimate Iron Man" for Marvel Comics), as well as contemporary fantasy fiction.

It is this last category that defines his latest book, "Magic Street." Like most of his other contemporary tales, this book is a one-off.

"It is one of my stand-alones," Card said by phone from his home in Greensboro, N.C. "Those stories are finished."

What isn't finished is Card's touring in support of the book around the country, a practice he thought he'd given up several years ago. The toll it took on him personally

and the cost to his family were too much -- especially when he thought it was not a measurable boost to sales.

"The publisher is actually making it easier on me," Card said. "I want to be home to see my kids grow up, and it gets a little ridiculous when you have to Fed-Ex your laundry home. When I explained those reasons, they made it easier."

Instead of doing two media interviews every day -- except when he is doing signings or readings -- Card has breaks built into his schedule, and his wife occasionally joins him. "As long as they make it more humane, I might as well do it."

Utah is familiar territory to the writer who earned a bachelor's degree in theater from Brigham Young University, and a master's in English from the University of Utah. He started his writing career as an editor for LDS magazines.

Descended from LDS pioneer stock, Card and his wife, Kristine, eventually ended up in Greensboro, N.C., where they stayed long after writing would have given them the freedom to move anywhere.

Living in the South probably helped prepare Card for one of the challenges of "Magic Street," which has an African-American cast. "Response from black readers has been 100 percent positive," Card said. "Maybe it hasn't been read by the people who would hate it."

The writing was prompted by a black friend who urged Card to write a book with a black hero. Card resisted at first, hesitant to write about a culture different from his own. But with help from friends inside the culture, he set his story in the black middle- class community of Baldwin Hills in Los Angeles.

Feedback from a black friend of his publisher who "didn't know Orson Scott Card was black" let him know he had nailed it. "Some people are put off when all the characters are black. It isn't about race. It is about human beings in extraordinary circumstances."

Now in his mid-50s, Card will continue to write a variety of books in a variety of genres, and he hopes someday a good film will be made from his works. "Ender's Game" is in development with Warner Bros., and Card says he is optimistic that "the actor who will play Ender has been born!"

E-mail: lc@desnews.com

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