It occurred to me that I wasn’t making a lot of blog posts, and that if I ever want to see active discussions here, I really need to give people more to discuss.
Ah, but what? Generally, if I’m in the mood to write something creative or thoughtful or witty, I work on writing something I might get paid for. Blog posts are something of an afterthought.
But hey, what if I were to post things I do hope to get paid for? Specifically, what if I were to post excerpts from works in progress?
Right now, I have a lot of works in progress; I’ve deliberately been not tying myself down to any one project, but writing whatever catches my fancy. Some projects are getting more attention than others — and on all of them, reader feedback might be useful.
So maybe I should post excerpts here for comment? Or plot summaries (sans spoilers)? Or bits of background, as I work them out?
Right now, the major project I hope to sell Tor is an ongoing fantasy series with the overall title “Histories of the Afterlands.” It’s going to consist of several subseries, set in different time periods; the first of these, “The Fall of the Sorcerers,” is set late in the tenth century after the fall of the Old Empire, and will include at least three related but non-sequential volumes.
“Non-sequential,” you may ask, “what does that mean?” What it means is they cover roughly the same time period, and some of the same major events, from three different points of view; some characters are in more than one book, the stories interrelate, but they aren’t the same story.
I’ve started writing two of them — the working titles (likely to change) are The Golden Wyvern and Alvos.
The other planned Afterlands books are set anywhere from nine hundred years earlier to a hundred years later than the Fall of the Sorcerers. They’re “after” because they’re all (except the opening chapters of one) set after the fall of the Old Empire that once ruled most of the known world.
I’ve outlined the earliest one, Swordsmen of the Fallen Empire, and written a couple of chapters of one set in the seventh century, Assassin in Waiting.
So — anyone want to know more?
Hi Lawrence,
As a long time lurker here, maybe it’s time for me to de-lurk. I started reading your writing with The Misenchanted Sword, first edition paperback which I still have and pull out to read occasionally. Why is this here? I don’t know, I guess to say thanks for all the great reading you’ve given and as a way of saying hi, and to date myself and my age a bit. Onto your question.
I thoroughly like your suggestion. Absolutely. I don’t know how much I’ll be able to add, but I say go for it.
And what more is there to know? 🙂 🙂
Go Rockies!
Mark
“Go Rockies”?
I think I better admit right now that I’m cheering for the Sox — I was born and raised in the suburbs of Boston. Went to my first game at Fenway when I was six or seven. During the regular season I’m also a Nationals fan, since I live just outside Washington, but there’s usually no problem with cheering for both.
But I gotta say, the Rockies have made one hell of a run, and I admire them for it. They’re an amazing team.
I still want them to lose, but they’re an amazing team, and it’s gonna be a great Series.
Ahem. With that out of the way — thanks for the enthusiasm! I’ve got to go run a few errands right now, but look for an excerpt or two later today.
Yeah, Go Rockies. I live in Colorado and I’m a Rockies fan. I haven’t watched much baseball until June and since then I’ve really enjoyed it. So I’m rooting for the local team, the team everyone is calling a big underdog even though they beat the Sox at Fenway 2 of 3. I won’t be too disappointed if the Sox win, a good friend of mine is a big Sox fan. I’m just watching to enjoy what should be a great series. Unless the Rocks stay hot and sweep, which would be very cool, and is very unlikely.
I’m annoyed how they handled selling tickets for the series. There were four of us trying for tickets and not one of us got close, while people in Cali got in twice for 8 tickets. Very annoying. Now the cheapest tickets are almost $300, way beyond what I can pay.
I’m looking forward to your excerpts. I thought about posting to your newgroup, but hey, you asked for it here for more life, and I’m currently living, so here we are.
Have you ever considered writing a more action oriented or grand scale book? Especially in the Ethshar worlds? I love what you’ve written, but think a grand scale would be fun. Dang, I know what you have written does change things on a grand scale, but through small and personal stories. So I’m just rambling a bit now.
Still, a war between Vond and Ethshar with one side using sorcery, etc and the other using some tamed/enslaved dragons sounds awful interesting… I won’t go on.
I keep thinking about writing action-oriented stuff — not so much grand scale, but action — but somehow it never really comes out that way.
I think you’ve done it already in The Ninth Talisman. Where Sword wipes out the guards, twice. That was very action-oriented, much more than your usual, and it worked. I thought it worked very well. Maybe it’s a mindset issue? You’re keyed to write people stories, and focus on those people, so the action only occurs when necessary. I don’t know, just thinking onto the blog.
Yes, pondering this more, I see a focus on character motivation. It’s always there in your writing, why the character does what he does. Dialog heavy, and exposition/motivations via dialog or thoughts. Which I like and is one of the reasons I like your writing. You’re a good writer.
What if the motivations were unclear, and had to be guessed at by the character’s actions? This is usually the case with the wizards in Ethshar – a not clear motivation, but actions they do. I’m sure you know their motivations, but we as readers do not.
Is this a paradigm shift? You decide. Am I completely wrong? Possibly, I wouldn’t be surprised. Could I be spot on? Sure.
Anways – your Red Sox pounded the Rockies. Ouch. I hope we win at least one game. It was brutal, just brutal. Congrats on that! 🙂
I’ve certainly written some action scenes, but I keep thinking it’d be fun to write a straight-ahead action story, and then when I try it, I always wind up adding lots of other stuff that swamps the action.
Which may be just as well, I don’t know. It just seems to be how my mind works.
As for the ballgame — yeah, it was a blow-out, and I admit I loved watching it, but we only have one Josh Beckett. I don’t expect a sweep.
But then, I didn’t expect a sweep in ’04, either. You never know.