Paksworld

UK sightings of Echoes of Betrayal are coming in…so it’s out there a week before it will be out here.

The book will be released in the US next Tuesday, February 21.   I will be at BookPeople in Austin on Friday, February 24 to read from it and sign copies.

My US publisher offers 50 pages of a new book free every Friday, and today that’s Echoes of Betrayal.   Read fifty pages, plus some paragraphs I wrote about the process at http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/02/50-page-fridays-elizabeth-moon.html .

What you send to Agent or Editor varies with the kind of book, but I’m now working on the not-book parts of the submission package.   NewEditors who are assigned in the middle and latter parts of a group of books–especially something as complicated as the Paksworld books–usually appreciate something that will get them up to speed quicker than just reading the whole (in this case eight previous) books.   Copyeditors always like to have a list of unique character names, words, etc.   And that’s what I’m doing now, taking a break from the wildlife management report for a few hours to work on this.

Read the rest of this entry »

OrbitUK  has me in their Author Spotlight this month.   I’ve also been told my author copies are shipping this week.  Yay, hurray, and rejoicing by writer (esp. with Book IV about to head for the big city.)

For US readers,  the mass market paperback of Kings of the North is coming out very soon, and the hardcover of Echoes of Betrayal releases February 28.   Even better (for those who still buy hardcover books) I’ve been told it will be on the Random House Triangle displays at Barnes & Noble.

Now I really must get back to work.   It’s kind of like the cross-country of three-day-eventing….you have to ride the whole course, including the last fence.

Made it to 100,010 words…just now.   (OK, five minutes ago, time in between spent shaking out fingers.  Call it 11:15 pm.)   Today’s production was about 1500 words.

At this time last year,  I was only about 52,000.    Hence the difficulties of last fall and winter.   I don’t think I can hit my usual full-steam-ahead production rate of 2000 words day right now, what with LifeStuff, but I’m not in the bind I was in last year as long as I don’t take off a month to lie in a hammock.

Read the rest of this entry »

This Thursday I take off again, this time on a shorter train trip to A-Kon in Dallas.  A-Kon is technically within driving distance, but driving up I-35 from here and then trying to negotiate Dallas traffic is no way to arrive at a convention with the energy left to engage.  Hence, the train.   I’m going up on Thursday, back on Monday.    My friend Lee Martindale (writer, editor, and several other hats, including–as of now–publisher)  is launching Ladies of Trade Town at A-Kon, an anthology of stories about, well, the trade.)   I wrote the introduction.   Many of the stories’ authors are coming to the launch, and so am I.  And some other people I’ve been wanting to see.   I’ve never been to A-Kon, so it’ll be a new experience for me.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve noticed a couple of problems with spoiler comments showing up in more recent threads, so…here’s a nice, fresh SpoilerSpace at the top of the list.   All comments that contain content from Kings of the North are  welcome here (and in the first Spoiler Space, if you prefer.  Either one.)   Please do not discuss events, new information on characters, etc. from this book outside of Spoiler Space threads until further notice.  It really bothers some people who haven’t read the book yet.

Your support got me on the New York Times Bestseller List (extended, at #29.)  My agent called just as I was leaving for rehearsal (or I’d have posted a thank you right away.)

First week sales for Kings of the North were slightly ahead of Oath of Fealty, even with so many Borders stores closed that used to be reliable sellers for me.  E-book sales were up 20-25% over last year; hardcover sales were down (expected, with the loss of those Borders sales) but on balance, it’s running a little ahead.

So thank you all, very, very much for your early support.

My agent also told me that Oath was nominated for a Gemmell Award (as were the books of several other writers he represents) for best fantasy novel, and cover art on some of the others for best cover art.  (Best fantasy novel nominees are here.

So all in all an exciting day, and it’s thanks to you people (and readers who haven’t found this place yet.)

This topic is for spoilers.  All spoilers go here. Comments to this topic may contain spoilers.   Comments to other topics may not contain spoilers and will be deleted if they do.  If you do not want any spoilers,  do not look at comments to this topic.  They are likely to be brimful of spoilers.

I opened the SpoilerSpace playroom early because someone erred and I realize it’s really hard for many people to know if what they said was a spoiler.   And what seemed like a spoiler to someone waiting for their copy to arrive or their library to get an acquisition cataloged may not seem like a spoiler at all to the person who’s just finished the book.   When in doubt…put it here.

I have a bunch of writing-business chores to do ASAP,  so I’m trusting you to play nicely in the SpoilerSpace sandbox.   As I have time, I will be by to answer questions–unless the answers would be spoilers for the next books.

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.

Read the rest of this entry »