Life keeps getting in the way of interesting bloggage. But there will be UK paperback cover art forthcoming – just a few little tweaks to finalise, and we’re done. It is hugely different to the other covers, and I can tell it will divide opinion, but that’s all part of the fun, right? Right.
I’ll also have a really interesting piece on attitudes to tie-in fiction, which I’ll be posting on Jeff VanderMeer’s blog in the next week or so. It’s a conversation with Dan Abnett, a chap who’s sold over a million novels, and it’s hugely enlightening. I want to use the spotlight on this topic. I hope it has a significant impact on the views of people who look down on tie-in fiction.
On Thursday evening I’ll be doing a talk at the Nottingham Central Library – it’s more of an informal chat about tips to get published and whatnot. If you’re in the area, pop in and say hello.
Having submitted the final draft of City of Ruin a while ago, I’m now a little way into the third book in the Legends of the Red Sun series. I’m back in Villjamur now, which challenges my desires to do something different with each book. You know when you grow up in a certain place, then you go travelling, or live elsewhere, and when you go home everything feels a little weird? Well, it’s a bit like that. I’m not finding it difficult, and I’m not the sort of writer who gets writer’s block (my problem is pinning down a few ideas and not letting madness take over), but I can certainly now see the challenges in writing a fantasy series. I have new respect for the GRRMs of this world. Still, I’m certain I can make things interesting and challenging for myself – I don’t really see the point in writing unless it’s hard work.
Oh, and I’m currently reading Manhattan Transfer, but John Dos Passos, which I really recommend to anyone who wants to write about a city.
There. That wasn’t so boring now, was it?
Sounds like it’s the tricky third book for you. I guess it hits everyone at some point (most find it in the first!).
What the likes of GRRM do in his books is to usually introduce extra locations so that while familiar ones are there, there’s a few new ones too. It’s not like he invented the technique as it’s been used for a long time. Just look at every new season of a TV show where they throw new characters into the mix to keep things fresh.
Hi Neil,
Not especially tricky. I guess I knew instantly the story of City of Ruin – it was, like GRRM, a new location, and new characters.
I’ve got the new characters, it’s just trying to spice up the old location!
Nuke it/freeze it or throw in some “pesky” refugees 😉