Simon has finally sent me through all his comments on the first draft of The Adamantine Palace and it seems like we’re still on the same sort of wavelength. Nothing that requires any major rework by the looks of it. Work on King of the Crags is now suspended for the summer, to be resumed in September (probably).
First Reader is immensely smug. The first thing Simon’s notes say are: ‘My most serious quibble is with the end…’
Damn. Out-voted.
Bear with me on the numerous typos and other mistakes littering this passage. The keyboard writes and having writ moves on, and doesn’t come back to sort that sort of thing out until the very end.
I heard a rumour… It was just a rumour…
I heard a rumour… What have you done to her…?
-Siouxsie Sioux: Arabian Knights-
Probably the first thing I ever finished that was worth reading, this started life as an exercise in descriptive prose and ended up surprising me. With thanks to Lord Byron.
The first draft of this was finished about mid-April. Currently has a vagrant sub-plot that needs pruning and could probably benefit from the addition of an occasional chapter where no major characters are killed and nothing gets burned down.
Due for publication in 2011. Will come back to this early in 2010 I expect.
What this used to say: “Written in 2006. This one sort of works in parallel with the stories of the dragon-realms. The Taiytakai, the Moon-Sorcerers of the Diamond Isles and even the dragons themselves (or at least the acknowledgement of their existence within my fantasy worlds) were all conceived with Thief-Taker. If there are any more dragon books to come, they may start here.”
As of May 2009, this has become the reality. Thief-Taker is now due to be published as a trilogy of short novels with the first tentatively schedule for Autumn 2010. An early excerpt (chapter one) is here for those as are interested.
Books two and three, The Warlock’s Shadow and The King’s Assassin will follow.
Written in 2007, this was a deviation from the usual fantasy stuff to try and do something different. Needs a bit of work this one before it could ever see the light of day.
Written 2006-2007. This is an attempt to write a highly magic fantasy with a strong wushu feel to it; a real fantasy kung-fu streak without an overtly oriental setting. As with most of these unpublished works, no one apart from my agent has actually seen this, but I have hopes for this one.
Written in 2005-2006; another loose sequel to Dominion and Bloodline. This is less polished than the others and owes something to Neil Stephenson’s baroque saga (which I thoroughly recommend if you have a spare year).