Well, spam and people like me trying to figure out polite ways to get schedule information out of you without annoying you.
Sorry to hear that things are getting behind. I hope that you can get caught up.
I also hope you have some incredible flashes of creativity and feel compelled to move ahead with several Ethshar books. I also kinda hope that you have incredible flashes of creativity and start several new series, too. I haven't really run across any of your writing that I haven't liked.
The old Guestbook really wasn't attracting that much attention from anyone but spammers in recent months. It would often go a week or so without any non-spam posts.
I'm still deleting an average of half a dozen spam posts a day from it.
As for schedule information, what would you like to know? All this stuff does get announced on the Discussions page, though I admit it isn't always obvious where to find it.
The Spriggan Mirror will be out in September.
The second volume of the Annals of the Chosen is now titled The Ninth Talisman, and should be out in the summer of 2007, though I don't have a firm date yet. It's been written, turned in, accepted, and revised.
Helix is quarterly, and the second issue will premiere on October 1, 2006.
I'm currently working on several projects, including a non-fiction book that's due in August, and the third volume of the Annals of the Chosen that I hope to deliver in February.
The Vondish Ambassador exists in outline form, and part of the first chapter is written; when I have five chapters and the non-fiction book has been delivered I'll start the serial.
I'll be meeting with my agent and my editor at Tor next month to discuss long-term plans. New projects to be considered include The Dragon's Price and sequels, the series beginning with The Golden Wyvern, and Vika's Avenger.
Actually, that covers it fairly well. I try to look at the Discussion section from time to time, but you are right that parsing through all that stuff can be a bit daunting.
I had been monitoring it via RSS, but the feed wasn't terribly well updated. A lot of the headlines that would show up were followups to earlier threads that were then hard to track down without a decent nntp reader. Maybe I'll break down and install one if there's really better info there.
I'm intrigued by The Dragon's Price - is there any even tentative info out there on it? I just looked through the rest of the Misenchanted Page and couldn't see even a teaser for it. Unless you want to stay mum about it until closer to publication, which I entirely understand, I'd love to hear more about it.
The RSS feed for the Discussions page sucks. I'm sorry about that; I hadn't realized just how clunky it was when I set that page up.
I'm enough of an Old Fart that I really do like NNTP newsreaders much better than any web-based forums; I recommend Forte's Free Agent. In fact, I think I may put together a "how to read news" page when I have a moment.
In the newsgroup I occasionally do posts to the thread called "The Writing Life" where I give a status report on everything I'm working on.
"Strange Days" doesn't show up as new on the RSS feed because of the way the silly thing is set up, but that's the thread where I discuss everyday life. It's been going for more than ten years now.
I'm thinking about maybe posting some of that stuff over here. Give me time to adjust.
As for The Dragon's Price, it's first in a new series; the protagonist (though I'm not sure he will be the lead in the sequels) is a guy named Malborn Knightsbane who was born with an unusual sort of magic. It's set in a world where a long-ago magical catastrophe did unspeakable damage to the ecosystem, and some higher power (maybe the gods, maybe something else) sent a few dragons to provide the means to survive the damage.
(I know that's not clear. It's complicated.)
Anyway, all the dragons but one are now dead, things are getting bad, and Malborn falls in with a couple of con artists...
LWE, have you worked with any other published writers lately? I like your style of writing and wonder who you enjoy working with if anyone and who you enjoy reading?
I had a thought about Helix the other day. Since it's a webzine for speculative fiction, what would you think about the idea of writing the Arl Arl's Son story that never happened because The Misenchanted Sword ended the way it did?
Even if it was far shorter than the original treatment was intended to be, I think you'd find that fans are interested. In cases where the original idea evolves into something different, you could write a sort of "Alternate History of Ethshar" short story where things go the way you originally intended.
Helix would seem to be the perfect place for such. I mean, it's not just for alternate REAL history, is it? Someone could write a story about what life might be like after Ragnarok, or what might take place after the Hobbits are all killed and fail to destroy the Ring, or what Ethshar might be like if Sorcery wasn't weakened, but Wizardry was all but eliminated in the Great War, couldn't they? Would that be out of place over at Helix?
Worked with other writers? You mean collaborating?
I've collaborated with Carl Parlagreco, Esther M. Friesner, B.W. Clough, the late Laurence Janifer (he was uncredited, at his insistence), Julie Evans (my wife), Kurt Busiek, and maybe others I'm forgetting at the moment. Some of these worked better than others, and to be honest, if I were putting together a list of my favorite authors it wouldn't overlap much -- Terry Pratchett, for example, has never shown any interest in collaborating with me.
RM, I take it you haven't actually read the fiction at Helix.
No, light fantasy fiction like Ethshar would not fit. It would indeed be out of place. I've already had one story rejected there as not what we're after.
Not to mention (you couldn't know this, it isn't mentioned anywhere) that Helix has a 12,000-word maximum length. [Untrue, and I shouldn't have said it. We'd discussed the fact that sometimes it's uncomfortable reading a long story online, but there's no maximum. -- LWE, 11/29/06]
(Yes, I've had a story rejected at Helix. Yes, I'm the managing editor. Will Sanders is the senior editor; he outranks me.)
You are correct. I haven't gotten to any of the fiction over at Helix yet. I am still reading the letters to the editor out loud to my friends (which produces gales of laughter, I might add).
I looked around the site, at pretty much everything BUT the stories, actually. Haven't had the time or inclination to start reading the fiction, mostly because I don't recognize any of the names and because I still have entire books for which I've already paid that I am still trying to get around to reading.
I'm sure I'll get around to reading the Helix stuff, but it's definitely on the back burner. The only speculative fiction I have read so far would be Guns of the South, by Harry Turtledove, which I loved, and the sequel, How Few Remain, which wasn't nearly as good.
"Speculative fiction" doesn't just mean alternate history, you know; it's a catch-all name for science fiction,fantasy, horror, alternate history, and stuff that doesn't fit anywhere.
Anyway, you should read the stories; they're good.
LWE, I have always liked the way you put your humor into your stories. I particularly like your short stories like the two Hambuger Stand stories. I notice that you seem to write alot about alternative realites or parallel universes. Is this something that is your style or am i seeing something that really isn't there?
One other question, did you ever work with or have read Jack L. Chalker's material? Although you are two totally different writers, I can see a similarity your writing styles.
I have the first chapter of The Vondish Ambassador written, but I really can't afford to start serializing it until I have a chapter or two of buffer and am more caught up on contracted projects.
Well, I'm not promising mid-August. Depends when I get done with a couple of non-fiction projects. Basically, when those are done I'll start The Vondish Ambassador.
It'd be nice to have The Summer Palace well under way by then, but I'm not counting on it.
Yes, I've been very tempted to write contemporary fantasy, and haven't done it only because my agent assures me the money's better in the stuff I do write.
But that may be changing.
I, too, prefer the newsgroups, but many people don't seem comfortable with them, so I'm providing this alternative.
A few years ago contemporary fantasy wasn't selling in anything remotely like the numbers traditional fantasy got.
Right now, though, the market's in a state of transition, and traditional fantasy isn't a growing genre -- basically, established authors are still selling, but there's no growth, and new authors aren't going anywhere.
Contemporary fantasy, on the other hand, is on the rise, especially if it's got romantic or occult elements. It started from a much lower level, though, so it's not clear where I (as an established author of traditional fantasy) am likely to do best.
28 Comments:
LWE, I am not sure if this new style of discussion is working. You seemed to get more hits with the old method. What do you think?
The old one had been very slow lately except for spam. I don't think this one's any worse.
ooH. Harsh.
Well, spam and people like me trying to figure out polite ways to get schedule information out of you without annoying you.
Sorry to hear that things are getting behind. I hope that you can get caught up.
I also hope you have some incredible flashes of creativity and feel compelled to move ahead with several Ethshar books. I also kinda hope that you have incredible flashes of creativity and start several new series, too. I haven't really run across any of your writing that I haven't liked.
The old Guestbook really wasn't attracting that much attention from anyone but spammers in recent months. It would often go a week or so without any non-spam posts.
I'm still deleting an average of half a dozen spam posts a day from it.
As for schedule information, what would you like to know? All this stuff does get announced on the Discussions page, though I admit it isn't always obvious where to find it.
The Spriggan Mirror will be out in September.
The second volume of the Annals of the Chosen is now titled The Ninth Talisman, and should be out in the summer of 2007, though I don't have a firm date yet. It's been written, turned in, accepted, and revised.
Helix is quarterly, and the second issue will premiere on October 1, 2006.
I'm currently working on several projects, including a non-fiction book that's due in August, and the third volume of the Annals of the Chosen that I hope to deliver in February.
The Vondish Ambassador exists in outline form, and part of the first chapter is written; when I have five chapters and the non-fiction book has been delivered I'll start the serial.
I'll be meeting with my agent and my editor at Tor next month to discuss long-term plans. New projects to be considered include The Dragon's Price and sequels, the series beginning with The Golden Wyvern, and Vika's Avenger.
What else would you like to know?
Actually, that covers it fairly well. I try to look at the Discussion section from time to time, but you are right that parsing through all that stuff can be a bit daunting.
I had been monitoring it via RSS, but the feed wasn't terribly well updated. A lot of the headlines that would show up were followups to earlier threads that were then hard to track down without a decent nntp reader. Maybe I'll break down and install one if there's really better info there.
I'm intrigued by The Dragon's Price - is there any even tentative info out there on it? I just looked through the rest of the Misenchanted Page and couldn't see even a teaser for it. Unless you want to stay mum about it until closer to publication, which I entirely understand, I'd love to hear more about it.
The RSS feed for the Discussions page sucks. I'm sorry about that; I hadn't realized just how clunky it was when I set that page up.
I'm enough of an Old Fart that I really do like NNTP newsreaders much better than any web-based forums; I recommend Forte's Free Agent. In fact, I think I may put together a "how to read news" page when I have a moment.
In the newsgroup I occasionally do posts to the thread called "The Writing Life" where I give a status report on everything I'm working on.
"Strange Days" doesn't show up as new on the RSS feed because of the way the silly thing is set up, but that's the thread where I discuss everyday life. It's been going for more than ten years now.
I'm thinking about maybe posting some of that stuff over here. Give me time to adjust.
As for The Dragon's Price, it's first in a new series; the protagonist (though I'm not sure he will be the lead in the sequels) is a guy named Malborn Knightsbane who was born with an unusual sort of magic. It's set in a world where a long-ago magical catastrophe did unspeakable damage to the ecosystem, and some higher power (maybe the gods, maybe something else) sent a few dragons to provide the means to survive the damage.
(I know that's not clear. It's complicated.)
Anyway, all the dragons but one are now dead, things are getting bad, and Malborn falls in with a couple of con artists...
I think it'll be a good story.
Hi - Hope I can keep checking here as often as I did the old guestbook
LWE, have you worked with any other published writers lately? I like your style of writing and wonder who you enjoy working with if anyone and who you enjoy reading?
I had a thought about Helix the other day. Since it's a webzine for speculative fiction, what would you think about the idea of writing the Arl Arl's Son story that never happened because The Misenchanted Sword ended the way it did?
Even if it was far shorter than the original treatment was intended to be, I think you'd find that fans are interested. In cases where the original idea evolves into something different, you could write a sort of "Alternate History of Ethshar" short story where things go the way you originally intended.
Helix would seem to be the perfect place for such. I mean, it's not just for alternate REAL history, is it? Someone could write a story about what life might be like after Ragnarok, or what might take place after the Hobbits are all killed and fail to destroy the Ring, or what Ethshar might be like if Sorcery wasn't weakened, but Wizardry was all but eliminated in the Great War, couldn't they? Would that be out of place over at Helix?
Worked with other writers? You mean collaborating?
I've collaborated with Carl Parlagreco, Esther M. Friesner, B.W. Clough, the late Laurence Janifer (he was uncredited, at his insistence), Julie Evans (my wife), Kurt Busiek, and maybe others I'm forgetting at the moment. Some of these worked better than others, and to be honest, if I were putting together a list of my favorite authors it wouldn't overlap much -- Terry Pratchett, for example, has never shown any interest in collaborating with me.
RM, I take it you haven't actually read the fiction at Helix.
No, light fantasy fiction like Ethshar would not fit. It would indeed be out of place. I've already had one story rejected there as not what we're after.
Not to mention (you couldn't know this, it isn't mentioned anywhere) that Helix has a 12,000-word maximum length. [Untrue, and I shouldn't have said it. We'd discussed the fact that sometimes it's uncomfortable reading a long story online, but there's no maximum. -- LWE, 11/29/06]
(Yes, I've had a story rejected at Helix. Yes, I'm the managing editor. Will Sanders is the senior editor; he outranks me.)
You are correct. I haven't gotten to any of the fiction over at Helix yet. I am still reading the letters to the editor out loud to my friends (which produces gales of laughter, I might add).
I looked around the site, at pretty much everything BUT the stories, actually. Haven't had the time or inclination to start reading the fiction, mostly because I don't recognize any of the names and because I still have entire books for which I've already paid that I am still trying to get around to reading.
I'm sure I'll get around to reading the Helix stuff, but it's definitely on the back burner. The only speculative fiction I have read so far would be Guns of the South, by Harry Turtledove, which I loved, and the sequel, How Few Remain, which wasn't nearly as good.
"Speculative fiction" doesn't just mean alternate history, you know; it's a catch-all name for science fiction,fantasy, horror, alternate history, and stuff that doesn't fit anywhere.
Anyway, you should read the stories; they're good.
LWE, I have always liked the way you put your humor into your stories. I particularly like your short stories like the two Hambuger Stand stories. I notice that you seem to write alot about alternative realites or parallel universes. Is this something that is your style or am i seeing something that really isn't there?
One other question, did you ever work with or have read Jack L. Chalker's material? Although you are two totally different writers, I can see a similarity your writing styles.
I went through a period of being fascinated with parallel worlds and wrote a lot of short stories about 'em. Haven't written any lately, though.
As for Jack Chalker, I knew him, but we never worked together on anything.
Hi Lawrence
Just wanted to say I injoy your books and my kids love them to.
keep up the good work.
Thanks John Horn
Thanks!
Just been reading some of the earlier posts.
Looking forward to when you start the Vondish Ambassidor.
I have the first chapter of The Vondish Ambassador written, but I really can't afford to start serializing it until I have a chapter or two of buffer and am more caught up on contracted projects.
Right now I'm thinking mid-August looks possible.
Mid-August? Cool. Little over a month away. I can't wait.
Well, I'm not promising mid-August. Depends when I get done with a couple of non-fiction projects. Basically, when those are done I'll start The Vondish Ambassador.
It'd be nice to have The Summer Palace well under way by then, but I'm not counting on it.
Have you ever been tempted to write contemporary fantasy?
Also, I like the newsgroup setup better than blogs, too. It's easier to continue a long conversation.
Yes, I've been very tempted to write contemporary fantasy, and haven't done it only because my agent assures me the money's better in the stuff I do write.
But that may be changing.
I, too, prefer the newsgroups, but many people don't seem comfortable with them, so I'm providing this alternative.
... because my agent assures me the money's better in the stuff I do write.
But that may be changing.
Interesting. Do you know if he was talking about you and your readership, or the genres in general?
Oh, in general.
A few years ago contemporary fantasy wasn't selling in anything remotely like the numbers traditional fantasy got.
Right now, though, the market's in a state of transition, and traditional fantasy isn't a growing genre -- basically, established authors are still selling, but there's no growth, and new authors aren't going anywhere.
Contemporary fantasy, on the other hand, is on the rise, especially if it's got romantic or occult elements. It started from a much lower level, though, so it's not clear where I (as an established author of traditional fantasy) am likely to do best.
Thanks.
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