Hello, and welcome to the third Misenchanted Guestbook Archive, covering most of June, 2000!

Because the Guestbook itself gets unwieldy every so often I remove older posts, but I always save copies on my own machine first.

Two previous archives exist, covering the period from January through April, 2000, and May through June 7, 2000. A fourth archive will be added when I get around to it.

Because it's an archive and you can't add anything, I've reversed the sequence -- the oldest messages are at the top, and you can just read down. Nothing else here will be changed. I've kept the original color scheme and illo.

-- Lawrence Watt-Evans

Illustration by Kiri Evans

One thing I've wondered about from time to time is how you decide what to write about on any given day. Do you just write on the book you've been contracted on or do you just start on whatever you feel like doing today?

Thanks chris for that interview.

Lawrence, Who is your favorite author? and how do you go about deciding on cover artwork?

Good heavens, _I_ don't decide on cover art! The publisher's art director handles that; I have no say in it. I can make suggestions, but they're usually ignored.

As for deciding what to work on on any given day, it's whatever I feel like working on, but I do take into account what deadlines I have coming up, and how close they are -- and sometimes, what friends and family are nagging me about because they want to read it!

Oh, my favorite author -- that's actually a hard one, because it keeps changing. Right now it's probably Terry Pratchett, but J.K. Rowling's way up there, not to mention C.S. Forester, Rex Stout, Robert Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp...

Thanks for the compliment Andrew, but really thank Lawrence for agreeing to open himself to the mercy of the Mac Gorilla readership!

By the way, thanks to that interview, I actually have people emailing me asking to be interviewed. Wow! Thanks Lawrence!

No say in cover art? Oh well you have certainly been blessed with great cover art over the years.

At the start of one of your books (I think "Denner's Wreck") you mentioned the world was built with WorldBuilder Software. Do you still use WorldBuilder? Does it draw maps for you?

Oh, I haven't used WorldBuilder in years -- I hauled it out recently to check something and discovered it won't even run on any of the computers we have at present. It was written in an old version of BASIC that's not compatible with anything we're using now.

And it never did draw maps.

No problem chris.

Sorry Lawrence, I didn't know about the cover art.
It's actually kind of funny, because I always thought the author made the decision of his artwork.

The reason I mentioned it I am currently in the progress of producing a Role-Playing Game and we have a friend of ours doing the artwork. Since we do not have a publisher yet, we have been making all these decisions. We plan on releasing our Game at GenCon.

Lawrence, Do you maitain your own web site, and if so where did you learn all the HTML and Java?

Wow! Your own RPG Andrew? you go!
Lawrence, would you ever consider licensing your books out to become computer games or paper RPGs?

It's funny you mention that Chris. My brother and I have been working on it for 4 years, I told him that Lawrence hasn't sold the Ethshar world for a RPG. But we both concluded as well as the two other people helping us, that there is no way we can afford it. All our expenses are out of pocket right now.

We have been working real hard on our own Fantasy world. I just find it amazing that Lawrence hasn't sold his yet. I guess I have a different perspective on creating a world and I finally realize the amount of work it take. It make me appreciate great authors like Lawrence.

Yup, I maintain my own website. I taught myself HTML back in '95, starting with a ten-page beginner's guide that SFF-Net used to provide on request (I don't know if they still do, and it'd be way out of date now anyway; that was for HTML 2.0.)

There isn't any Java. I've been meaning to learn it, haven't found the time. HTML is pretty easy, though.

As for an Ethshar RPG, there have actually been several inquiries, and a couple of times it's gotten as far as contract negotiations. Unfortunately, that's as far as it's ever gotten, because established companies have refused to meet the minimum price my agent set (which we don't think is unreasonable), and start-up companies invariably have imploded or gone bankrupt before contracts were signed. There are a lot of folks who want to start gaming companies; most of them don't have the capital to get it off the ground, and the ones who do have money tend to find some other way to screw up. Sad but true.

At one point Steve Jackson Games expressed interest -- but that was right before the government confiscated their computers... they got distracted.

And no, authors don't have any say on their book covers, as a general rule. A few big names have cover approval; some people get "cover consultation," meaning they talk to you before ignoring your suggestions. Most don't even get that.

I'm officially getting cover consultation on the pending two-book Tor deal, but that's a first. I did get consulted, even though it wasn't required, on NEWER YORK, but then everything I said was ignored.

A GURPS Ethshar would certainly be cool, if it ever got worked out. I use Ethshar as my RPG world, thats why I am always harping on maps (don't ever try mapping Ethshar of the Spices by yourself--it is HUGE).

Andrew, since you are going to Gen Con, would like a Mac Gorilla T to show off to the masses? Email me with your addy and I'll send one out. Lawrence has one, too.

Of course, I _did_ map Ethshar of the Spices. It's not really all _that_ huge -- it's roughly the size of Pittsburgh, but with fewer parks and a higher population density.

I have no idea whether Steve Jackson would still be interested in Ethshar; last time he made an actual offer it was too low, and discussions ended amicably but without a deal.

I realize you did map Ethshar of the Spices but since it hasn't been published, I was on my own. Perhaps you can post it online (or parts of it).

Since you, unfortunately, have no say in cover art, what cover do you feel best captures the "spirit" of the book? Which one do you feel is the most misleading? Were there any that you did not like at all?

I suppose I might eventually scan in part of the map of Ethshar of the Spices. It's too big to fit the whole thing in the scanner at once.

Covers: The one that least fit was obviously the cover of _The Unwilling Warlord_, which was actually painted for Lloyd Arthur Eschbach's _The Scroll of Lucifer_ and put on my book by mistake.

The just plain worst cover I'd say was _The Wizard and the War Machine_.

And the best cover, though it's not the most accurate, is on _The Misenchanted Sword_.

The cover to "The Misenchanted Sword" always makes me chuckle because I get that same look Valder is giving the wizard from my RPG players whenever they think I'm up to something.

If someday you could post just part of the map of Ethshar of the Spices it wouldbe cool. I could see how far off I am on the general layout of streets and such.

I could post a chunk of it, I suppose -- probably Spicetown and that general area.

Hmm.

Hey that would be cool! My players frequent that area alot so it will be interesting to compare maps. Thanks a ton!

Okay, the partial map is up at http://www.ethshar.com/spices.jpg

Be warned, it's a little over 250K even after compression; if I squish it any further I suspect some of the street names will become unreadable.

I stripped down the colors to make it easier to read -- I tried to clear out the blue lines of the graph paper, but they're still there, though less obtrusive than in the original scan. I also took out the yellowing of the paper.

This is the northwestern corner of Ethshar of the Spices -- it's about half the total waterfront, maybe a fifth of the entire city. It completely misses the Arena, the Wizards' Quarter, etc.

That map is huge! Now I can truely appreciate the confusion of the characters when they enter that area of the city.

Hey Lawrence, How old were you when you started writing? How old are you now? and when do you think you retirement age is?

chris, I will email you later.

I first started writing when I was eight -- got a very short story all set to mail to F&SF, then got cold feet and never sent it.

I did finally send them a story when I was seventeen, but they didn't buy it; I sold my first short story when I was twenty-one, my first novel when I was twenty-four.

I'm forty-five now.

As for retiring -- why would I want to do that?

More time to play golf. Just kidding, the life style of a author seemes to be very different than a Software engineer. A software engineer lives to retire, that way he can work on what he wants to work on. You get to do that most days. I was just wondering if an author thinks about retirement like normal work force people. But I didn't think you would.

How does your wife handle the veg out recouperation periods when you sit in the chair and eat junk food?

Wow, thanks for that map! I downloaded it and printed it out, to compare it with mine and boy I couldn't have been more wrong! I got the coast facing east, among other things. I amend that, I did the Spice Town area pretty well down, just much larger in area than yours. Of course, I think my city is about three times the size of the official one. I'll have to pay closer attention to the books if I am ever going to write GURPS Ethshar :)

As a writer myself (two novel, none published) I find the idea of retiring boggling; I mean, I am doing what I want. I have been writing since I was 13 and couldn't imagine my life without it. Like Robert Jordan says I'll write "until they nail shut my coffin!".

Julie usually isn't home when I do the veg-out recovery stuff -- she has a day job, after all.

What I'd like to see is an Ethshar timeline. After what you said the other day abouth knowing where the characters are at any given time you must have a pretty good idea when everything happens.

*whew* I forget (too busy rushing home playing Thief 2 - the Metal Age) to lurk around for a while and the guestbook falls into danger! If it dissapeared it would truly be a shame... this is one of my favorite places to visit.

Ethshar timeline.. now that would be quite interesting.. would it be possible to make one and put up at ethshar.com(which I'm delighted to see.. er.. see the light btw :) )?
I'm very excited about Night of Madness hitting the stores and will probably not be able to resist buying it in hardcover. Tis evil I tell you, printing books in hardcover ;)
Out of curiousity, do you earn more per copy sold if it's in hardcover? Or is it the publisher that gain most from it? I've never have figured it out, and since it's quite expensive to get hardcover books where I am (sweden) I always refrain from buying them.. unless I'm really desperate. As probably will be the case with Night of Madness *g*

Sure, I could do a timeline -- I have the beginnings of one in the concordance file I keep for my own use. Hmm. I'll add it to the list of things to do.

Yes, I make a lot more money from a hardcover than from a paperback. Typically I get 8% of the cover price of a paperback -- for a $6.99 book, that's .56. I get 10% on a hardcover -- for a $26.95 book, that's $2.70, five times as much.

The economics of publishing is complicated, to say the least. I tend to think book prices are too high right now, and I suspect it's one reason sales per title are generally lower now than, say, twenty years ago. On the other hand, when they're high I make more per copy. Hardcover sales are actually up these days over what they've been in the past, while paperback sales are way down, so presumably price isn't everything...

Have you ever considered having any of your out of print books republished by a place like iUniverse.com? Sure the book wouldn't appear on the shelves but it would be available for order from Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. Just Curious.

Thank you for the quick reply Lawrence :)

I had no idea it was such big difference between a hardcover and a paperback, when it came to earnings! I shall have to buy more hardcover books from the authors I really like...
I can agree on that the book prices are too high, specially here where we also have to pay 25% VAT.. it makes purchasing books a painful experience more often than not... for example, Touched by the Gods cost (with the added cost for importing it) $10.50 here. It's a pity, I think. I know many who would buy a lot more books if they were cheaper. I've noted that there seems to be more hardcovers around, generally these days though. At least in the fantasy genre. Maybe it's a sign it's getting more accepted... or it just means publishers have realized that people are ready to pay for it.

Btw, I just noted on the top of this page the part about trimming the page. If you do, would it be possible to just move the old postings to somewhere one can read them so that they aren't completely lost? I at least would appreciate that greatly :)

Actually, Chris, see on the front page, where it says that _The Nightmare People_ and _Crosstime Traffic_ are being reprinted?

Wildside and FoxAcre are small press/print-on-demand publishers, run by people I know and trust, where iUniverse isn't anyone I know. The iUniverse contract is also not as author-friendly -- the 20% royalties are on net receipts rather than cover price, which probably works out to slightly less than the 10% of cover that Wildside and FoxAcre pay, since wholesale prices are typically 45-50% of cover, which means 20% of receipts works out to 9 or 10% of cover. And iUniverse demands electronic rights at 50% royalties, where FoxAcre doesn't want electronic rights at all, and Wildside considers them negotiable and will sometimes go as high as 90% royalties.

The Wildside and FoxAcre books will be available through Ingram's, Amazon, B&N, all the usual outlets, same as iUniverse.

I plan to follow up with several other out-of-print works -- not my fantasy novels, though, as I'm still looking for more traditional homes for those.

As for science fiction, FoxAcre wants _Nightside City_, Wildside wants _Shining Steel_, etc.

iUniverse is offering a legitimate service, certainly, and at honest terms, but I can do better elsewhere.

Karin, where are you?

If I trim the Guestbook, yes, I'll archive everything.

Oh I see now..I wasn't aware those two outfits were print on demand. Live and learn. Very interesting!

Hello everyone. I just figured I'd stop by and say hello, because another guestbook entry never hurt anyone, right? In any event, I'd just like to say that I recently managed to get copies of the entire Lords of the Dûs series (no Ethshar yet, though). Excellent stuff, although I would have to say that four books is probably enough for that particular series. Not that I wouldn't read a fifth book in the adventures of Garth, merely that I fail to see what possible good it might do. Hmmm... I see that I'm rambling. I'd better stop now, before I really get going. Heh heh heh heh heh.

Hi,

The first story by Lawrence Watt-Evans that I ever read was book three of the Lords of Dûs series. The story just blew me away. I quickly bought the entire set. This was back in 1984, I have since re-read the series three or four times. I have also read many other books by this author. Imagine heros who are just average people!!!!

The first book I ever read by Mr.Evans as the "The Misenchanted Sword" and it remains my favorite to this day. I have read alot of his other fantrasy books as well and cannot wait for "Night of Madness"

The first book I read as well was "The Misenchanted Sword." I have not read the lord of Dus series because I can not find the first one. I don't want to start witht he second one.

I think the hard cover versions of the books are much better for colectors.

Lawrence, Do you decide whether the book is going to be hard cover or not?

Really Andrew, you can't find the first book? all the local used bookstores around here have dozens of copies. If you want, when I send your T I can send you a copy of the first book.

Lawrence, I'm currently a bit south of the middle of Sweden. If that made sense. :) And of course I meant that I paid $10.50 for the paperback edition of TbtG, sorry about being a bit incoherent there. Should teach me to proof-read what I'm typing, especially after a long day at work.
Quite interesting to read about the print-on-demand... read through the info section on FoxAcre Press. I hope more authors join up with that, if they can't get their books reprinted the 'normal' way.
Glad to hear you'll archive the old posts. :)

The format of the book, like the cover art, is up to the publisher. Used to be that most SF/fantasy books weren't worth doing in hardcover, but with hardcover sales about twice what they were fifteen years ago, and paperback sales way down, we're seeing more hardcovers, some of which never make it into paperback.

_The Lure of the Basilisk_ sold quite well in the U.S., plus there's a British edition -- it isn't particularly hard to find used.

Sweden? Hey, I didn't know anyone in Sweden had ever heard of me! My daughter will be fascinated -- she's taken an interest in Sweden after reading about the Swedish role in the Thirty Years' War, and Charles XII's invasion of Russia, in her history class.

Oh, and I haven't put it up on the Misenchanted Page yet, but the final contracts for the reprint of _Crosstime Traffic_ have arrived; they're sitting on the kitchen table awaiting my signature.

Hi!
I just right now (well, an hour or so ago) stumbled across this webpage, and have been systematically skimming through it. Having just read the 'vote on the next Ethshar book' page and finding the votes favouring the Spriggan book in the lead, I just have to submit this desperate plea: you just can't get rid of the Spriggans! You can't just! They're *soooo* cute!
Also, I'd like to add a suggestion that some Canadian cons might maybe some year find their way onto your itinerary.. we're rally not *that* far away- only a few extra hours driving time, usually :-)

At this point I'm not going to say anything about the fate of the spriggans.

As for Canada -- where in Canada? It's a mighty big place. Even ignoring all the almost-uninhabited northern parts, it's still getting on toward 4,000 miles from Halifax to Victoria, isn't it?

I certainly don't have anything against Canada, even if I haven't been there lately. (Actually, I might have something against your customs officials, but that's a whole 'nother issue.) I haven't been invited by any Canadian conventions in years, and haven't had any business there in ages, so there just wasn't any impetus to go there.

I am guessing that even if the mirror the Spriggans are coming from is "shut off" somehow they'll still be plenty roaming around. Besides, what would Ethshar be without them? saner maybe but alot less fun!

The first piece of work by Mr. Evans that I read was the laws of fantasy article in Starlog. I fancied myself an aspiring fantasy writer in those days (I still do, but have broadened my field) and found that article very impressive. To this day, those laws assert themselves in my mind whenever I begin plotting a new story. Anyway, after reading that article about 20 times, I decided to track down some of his work and the first one I found was "The Misenchanted Sword." I absolutely loved it and quickly collected all his other books that I could find. Whenever a new one would come out, it instantly got bumped to the top of my read list, often times forcing me to drop the book I was already reading in favor of the new LWE book. I just know that when I FINALLY get my hands on "Night of Madness," I may just have to take a day off from work!

Have I mentioned how flattered I am by some of the posts here?

Thanks, all of you, for stopping by and saying hello.

Lawrence, I'm currently a bit south of the middle of Sweden. If that made sense. :) And of course I meant that I paid $10.50 for the paperback edition of TbtG, sorry about being a bit incoherent there. Should teach me to proof-read what I'm typing, especially after a long day at work.
Quite interesting to read about the print-on-demand... read through the info section on FoxAcre Press. I hope more authors join up with that, if they can't get their books reprinted the 'normal' way.
Glad to hear you'll archive the old posts. :)

Argh! how did that happen? *stares in horror* Ok, let that be a lesson to everyone (those who didn't already know). Don't ever refresh the page after you've posted.. go away and come back instead. *sigh*.. :)
Anyway.

I have the pleasure of knowing two other fans of your books in this small town I live in. Which is, no disrespect meant, rather amazing. I mean, it's a *really* small town... and as you say, I don't think your books are that well known here. Probably becuase it has been hard to find sci-fi/fantasy books earlier and used books are even rarer. Luckily with the increase of popularity of the genres it's been getting easier to find books, and Touched by the Gods even showed up in the small local bookstore :)
I count myself very lucky to stumble across those other fans, if it weren't for them I would not have been able to read all the Ethshars/Lord of Dûs books for yet some time. One of them has all the Ethshar and Lords of Dûs books and I was quite happy to borrow them all, since I had The Misenchanted Sword and The Lure of the Basilisk and was rather desperate to find the rest of the series. Now I'm trying to to find them all at amazon etc.


Charles XII's invasion of Russia... Now that was a rather disasterous event. Rather like all attempted invasions of Russia! If your daughter has any questions about history or whatever I'd be glad to try and be of help, if i can. :)

Hi to all the other fans out there, btw! :) Glad to see you around and posting and keeping the guestbook alive ;)

Just to think, a week ago the guestbook was on it's death bed! I love our small group we have here!

Lawrence, I have two questions:
In an old interview you did about "Touched By The Gods" you mentioned there might be a prequel someday. Is this still on the agenda?

Second, You mentioned in your Laws of Fantasy every world needed a history and since Ethshar is in it's 50th millennia, does this mean you have 5,000 years of history plotted out?

Where can I get a copy of the Laws of Fantasy, or are they on part of the web site I haven't got to yet?

It is very nice to be in contact with one of your favorite authors and see that people share your enthusiasm.

Lawerence, Do you have a list of all the countries your "works" have reached? I would be curious to see how big your European fan base is?
Also Do you know how many copies of your novels were sold? That would be a cool chart to see.

Lots of questions...

The Laws of Fantasy are at http://www.sff.net/people/lwe/miscellaneous/laws.htm

My foreign bibliography (books only, not short stuff) is at http://www.sff.net/people/lwe/writing/foreign.htm -- British, French, German, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Spanish, Russian, and Japanese. There was a Portugese deal once but it fell through due to Brazilian currency fluctuations wiping out the publisher's cash reserves, and there may well be pirated editions I don't know about -- I did get inquiries from a Slovenian publisher once.

It's a kick, knowing my stories are out there in all those different languages!

A prequel to _Touched by the Gods_ is not likely at this point, but it's not impossible, either -- it's somewhat more likely than the fifth Garth novel, significantly less likely than another Ethshar novel.

Ethshar's history is pretty vague prior to about 4800 YS, but I do know the rough outlines all the way back to the beginning. In fact, I know both the official version that Ethsharites believe, and the truth, which doesn't match.

Whoops, missed a question -- yes, I know how many copies my books have sold, for the most part. (Some foreign editions don't give me any numbers.)

However, that information's not something I feel comfortable posting here.

No "Touched By The Gods" prequel? That's okay because I like the book just the way it is.

Will you ever post some of the Ethshar timeline?

Oh I mean the timeline as Etsharites see it. Since all the books are from their perspective, why give us an unfair advantage?

Excellent laws of fantasy, especially after you've re-read them two or three times. For the record, I am in the plotting stages of some fantasy story/novella/whatever (and no, it's not really big fat fantasy, either - it'll be way too short even after it's all cleaned up), and I am pleased to report that I have only killed one palace guard so far; a prison guard (who'll figure in later because, so I believe at this stage of the game, is actually a lesser demon in disguise and not really dead) who's killed by my character because - survey says - she didn't want to take the chance of getting stabbed in the back on the way out of the prison. So it goes. I'm trying to abide by said Laws, primarily because I'd like to avoid some of the clichés of the genre (as in, thousands of murdered guards, totally evil villains for evil's sake, and so on and so forth). Even if no one else ever reads it, I'd at least like to be able to say that I wrote something non-contrived before I got out of high school.

Also, one question - Is it just me, or does that map in the beginning of <I>Basilisk</I> read Dusarka?

Yes, it says "Dusarka." I didn't draw that map -- the artist's credited, but right now I can't think of his name. He misread my own map, and they didn't give me a chance to correct it until the second volume.

I'll post the timeline when I have a chance, but it won't be any time soon -- life's busy right now. End-of-school-year activities have me driving the kids all over the place, I'm behind schedule on _The Dragon Society_, I'll be escorting my daughter on her college hunt... not much time for web stuff. But I do want to get more stuff up on the Ethshar site soon.

What determines if a publisher uses the author's map or if they get an artist to redraw it? is it a money thing or quality of the author's map?

Oh, quality, definitely -- my map would've looked lousy reduced to paperback size and printed. The cost of having someone redraw it is minimal.

Just wanted to add that I live in Copenhagen, Denmark and found "The Misenchanted Sword" at the comics/book shop I hang out at. Been a fan of your stuff ever since. So no translations, but at growing fan base. :-)

I live in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, about 3 hours west of where Lawrence grew up. Small world!

I live in Rochester, NY. and I am a Software Engineer. Who is part owner of a newley formed Company, Who will be producing Role-playing Games and Software.

Lawrence, Has your publisher ever sent back one of your manuscripts and demanded a total re-write? If so, is this depressing after working so hard on it?

Only once, with _The Wizard and the War Machine_, and no, it wasn't depressing, because I knew my editor was right -- it sucked.

Her saying so gave me an excuse to rewrite it, despite blowing the deadline completely. I'd sort of hoped she'd have some useful specific suggestions on improving it, but really, she didn't.

Can you give us any hints on how the original version differed from the finished product? BTW, I really liked the way you wrote Flame. I desperately wanted to throttle her, especially after what she did at that first village. Your are one of the few writers that has me clenching my fists in outrage at the actions of the antagonists.

The original version was sort of loose and sloppy and... I dunno. I didn't keep a copy, so I can't go back and look at it. I didn't change any major plot points or anything, just reworked all the details.

It's been fourteen years, and I remember my opinions at the time, and what Shelly said, but I don't remember much about the actual work.

Since Etshar has taken a long time to write (in years) how do you remember the details of the world, where your characters are, etc?

The same way I remember anything in the real world -- I just do. And if I don't, I look it up.

I see you sold a story to Realms of Fantasy. Can you give out any hints what it is about? Is it set in Ethshar?

Nope, not an Ethshar story. Humorous feminist fantasy, I guess you'd call it. The title is "The Man for the Job," and it involves a family of shepherds who want to get rid of a sheep-eating dragon.

Lawrence have you ever received negative feedback from fans? Like women rights groups or anything like that. I don't know if you watch that show "Survivor" on Tv. Well the animal rights activist are angry because the people on the island ate Rats. It's so ludicrous. I was just wondering to what extreme those groups go to? Sorry for the odd question.

Not from groups. The Three Worlds trilogy did provoke a couple of very angry letters from individual readers over what happened to a couple of characters, but that's about it.

Oh the Three Worlds Trilogy. Oh yes. THAT series. Well, let's just say you would have gotten angry letters from me if I didn't have faith you were capable of much better.

The first two books I read were borrowed and recommended by a friend: "Misenchanted Sword" and "With a Single Spell". That was back in the early 90s. Last year I acquired the German edition of "Misenchanted Sword", but lets say I was disenchanted with the translation.
I also got books three and four of the Lords of Dus series in German. Can't comment on the translation here.
From now on, I will restrict myself to English language editions. Every book I read will go to two or three friends. And certainly I'm one of the first in Germany to get any new books, thanks to Amazon.de. (BTW Lawrence, since I'm ordering from amazon.de your links don't work for me and don't help you. Is it possible to link to amazon.de?)
I haven't played RPGs for years, but always thought Harnmaster a bit close to the Ethshar magic. The best spell surely was the can opener...
From the three world series I have only the first and third book. I waited for Hardcover editions, and when Lawrence told me they were not coming, I couldn't get the second one. The first book is great, the last one leaves me cold.

Better than Three Worlds, Chris? I thought the Three Worlds books were some of Lawrence's
best work. In fact, I'd love to see him add a fourth book to the series.

I doubt it will happen, though. I suspect Three Worlds generated a lot of love-it-or-hate-it
kinds of reactions. And it's not like I mind more Ethshar novels, of course.

Hmmmm. Well, I thought the Three Worlds wasn't his best effort but I will qualify that by saying I'd rather read Lawrence's less than stellar efforts than some other author's good efforts.

I do have a link to Amazon.de -- it's in that lighter-blue box halfway down the announcements page, under the stuff about _Dragon Weather_.

(I just got a look at the cover of the paperback edition of _Dragon Weather_, by the way. Basically the same as the hardcover.)

I had some pretty serious doubts about those German translations -- my German's not very good, and I didn't read them straight through, but I did browse through them and found myself thinking, "That's not right."

As for the Three Worlds trilogy, I'm proud of it, but it does indeed get very mixed reactions from readers.

Wow, wander off for a little while and this place really fills up! Well, I see a few people have mentioned some stuff about an Ethshar RPG.

I just thought I'd add in my little comment here. I have been working on remaking the standard ADnD Wizard, and I have a good working model, with a few spells described out (including Thrindle's Combustion and a couple Galger Spells)

I suspect it would be uncouth of me to stick a link here, so if anyone wants a look, email me.

Anyway, I have always loved the way you have handled Wizards in your world, they are alot more interesting than your typical ADnD "memorize spell and then cast it later and it is forgotten" style Wizard. Not to mention that the spells use interesting components that could lead to adventures in and of themselves. (almost wishes this could be a mailing list... =)

If somebody wants to start a mailing list I'd have no objection, but I'm not going to do it myself.

I use Ethshar as my game world. I actually set my campaign in the Small Kingdoms, since there so many of them, which gives me lots of flexability when it comes to game design and plot. Though I do allow side trips to Ethshar of the Spices because let's face it, if there is a better city for gaming in any book, I can't think of it.

The problem with most fantasy worlds is no matter how big you make them you always run out of space. Even with the Ethshar world, (which I always ruled out running a RPG in because I just didn't know enough about it) will run out of room.
If you look at the Old Oerth map from ADnD, once your Characters got the ability to Teleport the map became to small. Sure there was a chance of teleportation error but it was small. Then even the smallest part of the map needs to be flushed out.
I happen to have one of the Best Game masters I have ever seen in my older brother. I have been to many conventions and played with many groups
but there is something about his ability to take any setting or situation and make it the best and most entertaining. That is what makes a good world. It's the GM running the world, to imporvise on the spot or have planned far enough ahead to handle any situation. We would purposly try do do things that
he would never think of to throw his plans off and the adventure always turned out great. I think I am kind of rambling and should sum up my point, As I have mentioned before that I am in the process of creating my own FRPG, with my two older brothers and a friend of ours, and the part that really has taken us the longest is describing in our
GM book how to game master in a FRPG. Creating your own world is a hard thing and Lawrence amazes me at how he handles the Ehtshar world.

Lawrence, How many pages of notes to do you estimate you have for Ehtshar and what is the area of the world you have thought about or fleshed out the least?

The German translations are not that bad. I've seen worse, much worse. Try Niven/Pournelle "Moat around Murcheson's Eye". It's so bad, its actually confusing.

Lawrence's stuff is actually quiet ok, nothing really bad. It's just that I wasn't laughing that much when reading the German translations as I was with the original.

And it didn't help that German has not that much synonyms for sorcery/wizardry/witchcraft. So the translator chose the German "Hexerei" for both witchcraft and wizardry. That didn't really help in understanding "Misenchanted sword". Besides, the prefix "Mis" should be translated as "ver"; but enchanted would be "verzaubert" in itself.

So, the translator didn't have an easy task. I've no idea how he could've done better easily.

OTOH, it is not as good as Niven/Pournelles "Mote in God's Eye". Here the translator was really good.

So, no need to worry. They are average (at least), but since I can read English very well I prefer th English originals.

How many pages of notes are there about Ethshar? Wow, I never really thought about it, and they aren't all in one place, so it's hard to estimate. I'd say a few hundred. There are the histories, complete family trees for the three overlords and several of the Small Kingdoms kings, the outlines of how the Small Kingdoms came about, the descriptions of gods and spells and demons... might be over a thousand.

As for the least-developed part, that would probably be the Ice Coast, north of Kerroa. Which is uninhabited, which is why I haven't bothered with it. The part that most deserves more attention is probably Tazmor.

I have my own gameworld which I used to use (if you want a copy of the map, email me. I have geography only maps and political ones) but after 10 years of it, I decided to use Ethshar as a break.

Ethshar IS small and thats a challenge, on top of which is the fact the world is at peace, making it a challenge to use. I allow only humans as PCs with rumors of dwarves up north near the old Northern Empire.
Keeping players in one area is a challenge; I usually encourage them to enlist as mercenaries or solidiers in the wars among the Small Kingdoms. Between missions and having enemies hound them, they pretty much stay put but I still get, "I want to go to Ethshar of the Tocks!" so it is a constant challenge. But that's why I love to DM: The challenge.

There aren't any dwarves. There might be other things, but there are no dwarves. Nor elves.

The translation I most remember having problems with was _The Seven Altars of Dusarra_, where the translator had seemed unimaginative and over-literal. I knew enough German that I could see he was losing shades of meaning by translating word-for-word instead of using more idiomatic German.

To expand a bit on that: Ethshar doesn't even have the _concept_ of dwarves as a separate species. (Of course, they're a little vague on the concept of "species.")

And Ethshar's smaller than the real world, certainly, but I'd think there was plenty to work with, all the same. After all, how big is New York?

Let me amend a few things. What I meant by Ethshar being small is it is small by RPG game standards, not small compared to real world areas (New York is huge. Driving across it by car takes hours. Just imagine doing it by horse or on foot). In my writing my worlds are smaller than Ethshar. My largest "world" is only the size of Israel.

As for dwarves, well I have to take some liberties to fit the game. I only hint at them being in the Valley of Tazmor. No one has actually met one in the game (Like many people have seen the Loch Ness Monster but no one has caught one yet). Whew. Personally, I am sick of elves being in every fantasy book and game so Ethshar suits me just fine =)

Well, Ethshar being as small as it is shouldn't matter if you don't give the players Teleport spells. Note that the only real form of teleportation in Ethshar is the Transporting Tapestry, and that is not strictly speaking, a teleport spell. Not only that, but it is REALLY difficult to create. It takes a full year of preparation, and not only that, it has several 'quirks' and issues.

The concepts of magic in that world are very different from your typical gaming world 'spells' which is why I have been basing my magic users on them. It makes things a whole lot more interesting.

In my games I have Warlocks, Witches, Wizards, and a few other spellcasters of my own creation. But without really easy teleportation spells, a small world stays big enough to support several campaigns. Of course, my current game world isn't based on Ethshar, but three of my character classes are. =) To me, that's the part of his world that makes things fun. His fascinating take on magic. Wizards that can do very powerful things provided they have the right components and even create really nifty magical items, Warlocks who can do almost anything they want (so long as it has to do with a form of kinesis) but... have to take care not to drive themselves insane doing so.

In any case, if you are going to run game in the Ethshar world, perhaps you should think about using the same kinds of magic.

My players would love to get their hands on a Transporting Tapestry! Powerful spells such as Teleport are rare and expensive; None of my players can afford one. Besides, their too busy in the Small Kingdoms to care. Their enemies would hunt them down even they went somewhere else anyway. Might as well stay close to home.

I use most of Lawrence's magic in my game. I use Warlocks, Witches, Wizards, Demologists and Necromancers. The standard spells are divided up and modified. It works very well. I don't use druids and severly limit and Kits. Everyone is a fan of the Ethshar books so my players are willing to go along in the spirit of trying to be true to the books.

Necromancers, but not sorcerers?

Rumors of dwarves in Tazmor... hmm. Such rumors would probably have come from the mine-owners in an attempt to discourage visitors. Not that anyone from the Small Kingdoms would be likely to ever get that far north in the first place.

Ooops I knew I missed mentioning one kind: Yes, of course sorcerers exist in my game world. About Tazmor: That's a good idea, having the mine owners behind the rumors. Certainly my players haven't even thought about going that far north.

You are doing Demonologists as well? I'd like to know what system you are using for them. My friend and I have a few ideas on that, but we haven't fleshed it out. I am putting together a new world and I am planning on using a sort of demonologist class.

How do you work out the Witches becoming tired with spell use? And the Warlocks... how do you... simulate their 'problems' accurately? I am a fan of alternate methods for spellcasting, since I feel that the orginal ADnD methods were somewhat ridiculous as described. Also, what game system do you use?

I use GURPS for game system because it's incredibly flexiable; GURPS's magic system is probably the best in any game system.
The Gurps system solves many game related questions concerning Ethshar. Like Witches, for example. In a normal GURPS world, magic is taken from a pool of mana and when the mana runs out you can still cast spells but you loose Hit Points. With Witches, I just skip the mana part and go right for health because in GURPS when you reach zero you are not dead or out of it, just incapacitated. GURPS also has a whole suppliment devoted to all things demonic so demonologists are actually easy.
Warlocks I consider just "normal" with one new advantage/disadvantage. Advantage: Lots of Spell Power, Disadvantage: Each time you use a spell, you must roll against an increasing "calling %" and if you fail, you are outta there. GURPS uses advantages/disadvantages in the character creation process.

The one thing I have always noticed about "mana" based spell casting systems is that the spellcasters become mush more powerful quicker than the average other character. It's very hard to come up with a balanced mana based system, you don't want the spell casting class to always be the most powerful. In my RPG I think we have found a happy medium. It's taken us 4 years but I think we have found it. If you want details
email me and I will send you specifics.

Lawrence, I like the new page look. It took me by suprise, but I like it. How long did it take you to do?

GURPS does mana pretty well. Magic in GURPS is very low key anyway. It's really, really hard to teleport even a mile but I am interested in your system.
Nice page, Lawrence. Very cool!

Thanks. I've been working on the new look off and on for about a week; it still needs a good bit of finishing. I've been debating whether I want to do some JavaScript tricks to squeeze things down.

(Yes, I'm learning JavaScript. It's fun.)

Let me vote for "no" on Java script. Your site renders very fast and is easy to use. You don't need any Java stuff, just more organization.

UGH Frames!!!!!! I hate frames!!!!

Okay, that's one vote...

I just now uploaded the frames version; that was quick!

The frames aren't bad. I don't mind them. They do slow the speed of your web page slightly. What you should change is the color of the text with in the directory. It's just hard to read, yellow on blue. Then green on blue. But very impressive for teaching yourself the stuff.

What should we expect next?

Changing the text color is a thought. (Actually, I experimented last night with a drastically-different color scheme for the directory, and you may see it eventually. It's a bit hard to describe.)

As for what I'll be doing next, I've been playing around with some minor JavaScript stuff -- but that wouldn't go on the front page, as I know a lot of people don't have it or keep it turned off. Given how often I've had my browser crashed by badly-written JavaScript, I don't blame them.

The slower loading is actually due not so much to the frames as to providing a non-framed alternative; both versions load automatically, and your browser then shows whichever it can handle. This _does_ slow it down, I admit. Haven't figured out what to do about it yet.

I guess I've lost this JavaScript and frames battle. :::sigh:::. Just don't go overboard, please!

Well, so far nobody seems to care enough about the frames to vote with the form I provided. I don't think it's much of an issue, really -- and you _can_ turn them off.

It's kind of funny that chris is worried about the frames. What does it matter chris? Most of the time you have to have the Java scripts enabled on your browser to see most pages. Like I said before I am a software engineer, Lawrence could be using a lot of things that makes your computer run a lot slower. Unless your using a Mac, then your computer just runs different.

I like the page Lawrence, I just wish you would change the color of the directory frame. Even make the text white. I also noticed there are very few pictures of yourself on your page, Is this done on purpose?

alright, alright! I'll shut up about the frames thing! I don't want to get into a debate about it. Its a minor irritation, really. I'll deal with it=)

I'd rather be known for my work than my appearance, I guess. :-) I'm just not much interested in pictures of me.

I did punch up the text color in the Directory window a little bit -- and at the same time you were complaining about it, Andrew, someone else in my SFF-Net newsgroup was saying how much he liked the colors. People have different tastes, and I can't please everybody, but I do want to keep things at least tolerable. I'm working on it.

I'm sorry the frames are an irritation, Chris, but you really can turn 'em off. I'll be making that a bit more obvious when I get a chance, with buttons or something, and I'm still considering options. They're not necessarily permanent.

As for JavaScript, I signed up with one of these counter services, and was startled to see that about a third of my visitors can't or won't use JavaScript, so I'm certainly not going to do anything fancy with it.

Ya, I know you can turn frames off and on but several sites I frequent wont even load unless they are on. I'll live=)

I have a question: Is the poll for "What Ethshar Novel Should I Write Next?" still open? If so, what's the latest tally?

I think that's two questions, really. The first answer is, yes, it's still open, and will be until I get to the point of sending Tor a proposal, which I would guess will happen early in 2001. However, I'm not promising to be bound by the results.

And the second answer is that I haven't counted 'em lately. Voting's slowed down, but they do still trickle in.

Another question: Amazon.de mentions two books. Both paperback, both about 400 pages. One is scheduled 2000, the next 2001. Is this just Dragon Weather split in two, or are they announcing the next installment?

Marcus

Oh, DRACHENBRUEDER is the sequel, THE DRAGON SOCIETY. It's already under contract in Germany, has been for months. I told them I'd have it done in October, so they went ahead and announced it, which strikes me as over-confident -- I mean, I might get hit by a bus or something.

At least, I assume it's the sequel, as the title fits, it _is_ under contract, and nobody said anything about splitting the first one.

Incidentally, I've just now been working on THE DRAGON SOCIETY, and it's coming along pretty well, though not how I expected. More intrigue in this one, fewer swordfights -- though I just finished a really long one a few pages ago.

Can we get a sneak preview?

Well, there's a small sample on http://www.sff.net/people/lwe/writing/books/society.htm .

Other than that, I'm afraid you'll have to wait.

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