A Falling-Off of Late

[pameladean]

I've been poking about in my archives, initially to see how I had misled melymbrosia about Stealing the Elf-King's Roses, and then, well, naturally, I got sidetracked. I was somewhat astonished to see how frequently I posted entries last year. I'd like to say that I am posting fewer now because I am well engrossed in writing my books, but that is unfortunately not the case.

The Hills/Whim sequel really is coming to life, though. It's probably going to have just two viewpoint characters, alternating more or less evenly. I'd got bogged down in Arry's first bit because of a singular lack of notion about the plot, and I couldn't get Ruth's started. I had a dandy opening line, but nothing else. Then I reread Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles, as mentioned previously in these pages. Arry is the utter contradiction and opposite of anybody one could write about with any Dunnettesque technique currently available to me. But The Whim of the Dragon was influenced in a myriad of odd ways by Dunnett, and Ruth's viewpoint works very well with some of Dunnett's typical attitudes. I always knew that no reading or rereading, however motivated, ever goes to waste.

The Liavek novel, unwanted though it is, is also much too lively to put aside. It's probably just as well that I can work on it at my speed rather than that entailed by having a contract, because the cast of characters is going to be unwieldy if not managed carefully, and I'm coming out of three entire books' worth of tight third-person narrative by people under twenty, whereas this one has a wild array of ages and is probably going to have some epistolary aspects. I can feel them looming, but they are not looming very fast.

I guess that's the writing update. I'll let it go out into the ether, and try to be a trifle organized about how I issue updates about other matters.

Pamela.

Comments

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Arry? And Ruth? In the same book?! *is utterly thrilled* Must. Read. This.

I bought a copy of The Secret Country for my niece for Christmas, by the way. The new paperbacks are lovely.

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

Lovely - I always wanted to see more of Ruth.

I thought I should drop you a comment, since I've friended you...

I found your journal yesterday while in the process of procrastination by typing the names of my favourite authors into LJ, to see if anything came up. I have read all your novels to date, and am sporadically tracking down your various short stories through second-hand bookshops. Tam Lin has been such a favourite that it was falling apart within a year of acquiring it - I hope it comes back into print sometime.

I live in Australia with a fiancé and two cats, and am a secretary, student, singer, and attempted writer (whether attempt is successful or not is yet to be determined).

Catherine

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I am sure I will not be the last to point out that the Liavek book is *too* wanted. The Hills/Whim sequel, too.

[pameladean]

Yes, I've had the basic notion of "Arry and Ruth meet at Heathwill Library; some sort of mayhem, possibly largely intellectual but who really knows, ensues" for a number of years; but I haven't had any more ideas about it until recently.

I hope your niece likes the book. I agree about the covers. They make me very happy indeed.

Pamela

[pameladean]

Welcome! I was just noticing that I'd acquired a few more people, and wondering who they were.

I hope Tam Lin will come back into print too. I used to have the remaindered hardcovers, but most of them have long since passed into other hands.

Pamela

[pameladean]

Well, Sharyn wants the Hills/Whim sequel, at least theoretically.

I'm just whining, having not yet really absorbed the shock of the realization that my publisher will NOT in fact take anything I choose to offer them; don't mind me.

Pamela

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

It is perfectly understandable. I wish I could say I wanted it to the tune of a typical advance and not just the price of a hardcover, but I'm afraid my book budget doesn't extend that far.

I just want to reassure you that you do still have readers.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Readers who would not only buy copies, but get their friends to buy copies. ;-)

moi

[ionas.livejournal.com]

Melymbrosia beat me to it, so I must just provide an echo: me too, me too.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I miss Liavek sorely. It was so much more intelligent and melancholy than, say, Thieves' World. And less violent than Wildcards.

[pameladean]

*giggle* about your book budget. I dunno, if mine extended that far I'd have trouble giving all of it to one only author, you know?

I appreciate your assurances very much. It is hard from the outside to tell a "nobody wants to read my stuff" whine from a "my publisher doesn't want my book" whine.

Pamela

[pameladean]

Thank you both; it really does mean a great deal.

Pamela

[pameladean]

I blush to confess that I really couldn't be doing with any of the other shared-world anthologies. I read the first of TW, and bounced off Wildcards. I kept being asked to be on panels on the topic, and it was so embarrassing.

What I like about Liavek at the moment is that my characters are still clamoring, and that it is bigger than my head.

Pamela

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Bigger than your head is a lovely, lovely thing. Lois McMaster Bujold's worlds appear to be bigger than her head, or else she has a very, very big head.

[luned.livejournal.com]

Argh, that's rather rotten.

I'm just posting to let you know that you'd have a third reader for that novel. And that I'd probably buy copies for other people, too (am compulsive book-pusher, ask synaesthete7 although I have not actually sent her books--yet)

[(Anonymous)]

I want to read anything you write. In fact I'd rather read a Liavek novel. Yours and Steve Brust's were my favorite continuing stories from the series.

I'm depressed that you've been dropped by Tor. I suppose JUNIPER... didn't sell well?

I hope your Firebird reissues are doing better. Such gorgeous covers, such delicious contents, how could they not?

Rachel Brown

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I'm so pleased that the writing is progressing! In whatever direction it wants to go.

[oneminutemonkey.livejournal.com]

Yup. Mine. Miiine. Preccccious.

Given that Tam Lin and War For The Oaks share the number one spot for books I can, will, have, and shall continue to reccomend to anyone I run across, and Tam Lin is a book I read at least twice a year, sometimes just starting wherever the book happens to open and reading from there, my signed hardcover is definitely a precious... :)
I'd love for it to come back into print so I could foist more copies off on people without risking my own battered and beloved paperbacks.

Where do I send the money?

[medievalist.livejournal.com]

I'll buy anything you care to write. I would love another Liavek book (do you know how long it takes to find the ones that were published?). Where do we send the money? If you'd like to publish it as an e-book, I can offer advice, having worked in the industry for . . . gods, ten years and more now. But I'd rather a codex, me.

So where do I send the money?

[sdn.livejournal.com]

Well, Sharyn wants the Hills/Whim sequel, at least theoretically.

true. haven't checked the reissue sales figures lately, but they looked good the last time!

tell me what dunnett to read first, please.

also: only three months and change left till i see you.

[pameladean]

I just wrote 700 words on it, so there.

Would love to hear about the sales figures at any time.

Um, what Dunnett depends on your taste. It's traditional to start with the Lymond Chronicles. Some people are big on doing them strictly chronologically, while others think the second one, Queen's Play, is a tidier and more interesting story and should be used to drag people in. I prefer a chronological approach, which means you start with The Game of Kings. You can stop after either of those, but if you mean to go on, make sure you have the entire series ready, or if you are hooked, you'll go crazy if you have to wait between volumes.

She has a really loopy detective series, and also a gigantic standalone monstrosity about the historical Macbeth, called King Hereafter. It's fascinating, but it's very long indeed.

I wouldn't read the Niccolo books until after I'd at least tried the Lymond ones, as they have an esoteric connection.

Pamela

[pameladean]

Neither Juniper... nor Hills sold notably well, and a Liavek novel was not considered a good way to redress these difficulties. Note also that I had a five-year hiatus after my last didn't-sell-well book. And it's not a very happy time for publishers either.

Pamela

Re: Where do I send the money?

[pameladean]

Don't tempt me.

It's not done yet, and I haven't quite given up hope of conventional publication.

Money would be good, though.

Pamela

[pameladean]

P.S. I have an extra set that I can lend you at Minicon, if you think you want to lug six two-inch-thick paperbacks home with you.

Pamela

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

There are such things as small presses, and print-on-demand presses, and not all of these are vanity presses. (Lawrence Watt-Evans, for instance, couldn't get his Ethshar books reissued by a big publisher, but they're available from Wildside.) There is even selling as e-book from places like Fictionwise. Any of these would be preferable to not publishing the book at all, especially to your fans who want to read the things.

(I will say that I'm much more excited about reading a "Whim/Hills" sequel than the Liavek book, but would well like either one.)

[sdn.livejournal.com]

sure! that would be great.

Re: Where do I send the money?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Let me second the "anything you care to write," there. I tried to think of the most horrible things people could write from my perspective, and my brain kept going, "No, but she wouldn't do that. No, but she wouldn't do that, either." So.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I am very glad to hear that things are moving for you, and look forward to reading them in such time as they arrive.

*hug*

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Anything you want to write, whenever you want to write it.

And I have just deleted a paragraph that started "Ruth ought" because she is your character, and either you'll figure it out yourself or I am wrong.

Will it have Ted and Laura's mother in? She has to be my favourite fictional character if measured by square inch of page space allotted.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Anything you want to write, whenever you want to write it.
Just to say, ME TOO! (but sooner rather than later, if at all possible.)

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Yay! (Note to self: Pick up Whim to round out my set of the reprints. Rant: Why is amazon.com not sending me the Alerts I requested, or is my ISP filtering them out as spam?)

(Also, thanks for correcting me on RASFW regarding the reason for the publishing schedule.)

I started Dunnett with The Game of Kings and enjoyed it a fair amount. Then I read Queen's Play and enjoyed it a lot, too. Then I read the next book and was hooked. I had been polishing them off roughly one a month until that point, but from then onwards I read them one after the other.

I also like her mystery novels, but they were a bit irritating to find. I bought a mismatched complete set from a used-book seller: I wasn't willing to pay her enough to get a matched set.

[pameladean]

Well, I don't know about deleting that paragraph. You and a few other people have sometimes got a clearer notion of the implications of the events in that trilogy than I have. I'm not saying you'd be right, because she is my character, but you might point out something I'd missed.

I'm not sure about Ted and Laura's mother. She'll have a cameo sure enough, but I don't think this is her book. I could very well be wrong, however.

Pamela

[lcohen]

behind in reading. i don't even know what a liavek novel is, but i'll sign up for a copy ;-) !

[pameladean]

Aw.

Liavek is a shared world invented by the Scribblies, with a lot of initial contributions from five or six other people and a lot of on-going contributions by all of the writers who ever came to play in that sandbox. There were five volumes of short stories, of uneven but lively quality. They were published by Ace/Berkeley in paperback, with after the second one an increasing lack of enthusiasm, and are now hard to find. They were edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull, and the titles are, in order:

Liavek
Liavek: The Players of Luck
Wizard's Row
Spells of Binding
Festival Week

Writers besides us who had stories in them include Jane Yolen, Gene Wolfe, Walter Jon Williams, Nancy Kress, John M. Ford, Charles de Lint, Barry Longyear, Alan Moore (his first plain-prose sale, if I recall correctly), Greg Frost, and a number I have unfairly forgotten.

Pamela