Paksworld

After hanging about reading posts and comments and tweets and email about arrivals for longer than I meant to (Daylight Savings Time–for weeks I can’t use light to judge time of day, and my old computer refuses to stay on the right time even when I reset it…it will flip over in April sometime), I didn’t have time to zip in and out of the city.  Instead, I called bookstores and planned a two-day set of shelf-stock signings.    Things did not go as planned right from the get-go, but I did manage to hit bookstores in three towns,  though the one copy of Kings in one store was bought twenty minutes before I got there.

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Actually, depending on where you are in the world, it may already be well into tomorrow.   But though it’s a few minutes to midnight here, I’m opening with the reminder that we don’t want spoilers here for a reasonable time after those waiting impatiently have a chance at the book.    We’ll have better discussions (and fewer chances of some “justifiable homicides” ) if you hold off on spoilerish discussions until everyone’s read it.  (However, it’s not spoilerish to tell me you liked it (or hated it, though of course I’d rather not hear that.)

For a similar reason, I’m not posting the first pictures of Kings out in the world immediately (though I appreciate them) until more people have it, on the grounds that I don’t want impatient and envious fans to take vengeance on those who have it already.  Not that any of you kind, gentle, patient, people would ever do such a thing, but…better safe than sorry. Read the rest of this entry »

We always knew that long books cost more to produce than short books, just because of the production  cost.     So long books are priced higher to cover that higher cost.    It’s not just the paper in the books–or even that fat books need bigger covers (which they do.)   It’s that longer texts take longer to edit, copy-edit, typeset (even with electronics working there, too) and proof after typesetting.   However, the materials cost is still the big problem, due to the ever-rising cost of paper and (related) the per-pound cost of shipping.

Some of us (points at self) thought that e-books would solve that problem, because a long electronic file (though yes, it takes a bit more bandwidth to download) isn’t that much more costly than a shorter one.  Within limits.   And paper & shipping costs are now out of the equation (“shipping” cost now consists of what the customer pays for a download…it’s no longer the publisher’s problem.)

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While we wait another couple of weeks for the US release of Kings, here’s some more background to consider.   Back when I first discovered the complexity of Paksworld (as much as was needed for that first set of books)  I knew that having so much magic, of one kind and another, would almost certainly displace technological innovation, wherever magic worked well enough and was economically viable.

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One of the topics UK Editor suggested for a blog post for the Orbit Books site was “favorite fantasy dragons” with a lead-in to Kings of the North.    Those of you around in the great burgeoning of SF/F in the late 1960s and 1970s will remember that “dragons” were fairly common.    Some belonged to older mythologies  and some had been softened and tamed and made almost bland.

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For  those who would like a look at Chapter One,  Editor has now given me a link to share, but it was 117 characters long, so I ran it through TinyURL for you.  For reasons known only to the Secret Masters of Software NonAgreement, anything after it comes out in bold, too, so I’m saying what I need to say above it.   I still don’t know when my blog entries will appear at Suvudu (the Del Rey SF/fantasy blogsite) but will let you know when I do:

http://tinyurl.com/49dzcbh

Author’s copies of the UK edition of Kings of the North arrived yesterday and look really good…the cover is stunning.   Including the double-page-spread map.   I think you in the UK will see the actual books in the stores earlier than we in the US, if I understood  UK Editor’s email.    Thus it’s time for a reminder that any spoilerish comments  need to be clearly marked with “Spoilers” in the subject line so that those who haven’t gotten the book yet aren’t given tidbits they don’t want…and ideally no spoilerish comments will appear until mid-April. Read the rest of this entry »

The morning began with the discovery (not unexpected by me!) that the dozen or so ants on the counter yesterday had become a superhighway of ants along the edge of the counter, up the wall, and into one of the cabinets.  They had also constructed a network of smaller routes on the counter itself.  Some of them had crossed the Great Chasm between counter and stove top, with the result that the sugar bowl (these are sugar ants, much to be preferred if you must have ants) had ants in it.

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It took longer than it should have, thanks to getting sick (at which point my brain goes duuhhhhhhh… and can’t see the sense in a sentence) but Editor Revisions are second-run done.  Now to see if Editor agrees with what I’ve done with what she did.

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Today has been not-quite-typical but sufficiently full of writing stuff that you might find it interesting.   Though it started not with writing stuff but with the car making odd noises the last time I had it out.

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