In the following interview, Auel discusses the research and development behind her series.

[O'Connell] When you started writing the Earth's Children series, did you have any idea how popular it would become?

[Auel] No. I hoped what every writer hopes: that the first book would find a market and an audience, and maybe the second one would do a little better. That certainly has happened; it just started at a much higher level. The first printing of The Clan of the Cave Bear was 75,000 books. And the first printing in hardcover for The Mammoth Hunters was a million books. It broke the record. Somebody figured out that that would be a stack of books twenty-nine miles high.

Did you have any model in mind when you wrote these books?

No. I was just trying to write these stories. I'm still writing for myself. I'm writing the story...