I signed a book for an engineer at work yesterday. Sometimes little things like that mean as much as big reviews.
King of the Crags still hasn’t come back from my editor (Oi! Simon! This means you!). I Can’t decide whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Or maybe it’s a don’t-submit-so-bloody-early thing. Anyway, The Thief-Taker’s Apprentice is half written now so I’ll probably finish that first anyway. And then I’ll submit that AND Order of the Scales AND The Warlock’ Shadow AND The King’s Assassin. All at once. And some other stuff too! Ha HAAA!
<sigh> Yes, it seems that dieting CAN trigger delusions.
Berren is one of “Khrozus’ Boys,” the splat of unwanted bastards that the army of Khrozus the Butcher left behind at the end of the civil war. A life of petty larceny and clearing crap off the city streets looms large, until one day he goes to watch a rare public execution and what he sees changes the whole course of his life.
If you read fantasy, you’ll almost certainly have heard of The Name of the Wind. If you don’t then it’s either
a) The back-story of a high-level AD&D bard and the inspiration for my current AD&D character.
b) The fantasy equivalent of ‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt
Hmmm. b) is probably rather more convincing. Anyway, it’s a very fine book, extremely engaging (more so than any other fantasy I’ve read for a long time, including my own). The author, the very likeable Patrick Rothfuss, is in town for what will probably be the first and last time for some while, doing a signing in Forbidden Planet and a reading, for some lucky winners, at a mystery location afterwards.
In far less interesting news, my own lowly efforts are proceeding to plan. Have been a bit distracted by Facebook and Twitterness of late <insert assorted vague promises to blog more substantially at some point in the future>
If you’re really interested, you can check out an early taster for The Thief-Taker’s Apprentice
Laters
(Post-Script: Have now removed the plethora of errors from the taster. Clearly need to read own work a little more carefully before sending samples off to editor (who has very kindly not taken the piss for this rather shameful effort. Either that or TGM intervened en-route and quietly got rid of them all. Still… Glarg!))
“John Jarrold has concluded a three-book World Rights deal with Simon Spanton of Gollancz, for a YA fantasy series by novelist Stephen Deas, for a good, five-figure sum in pounds sterling. Deas’ debut novel, a dragon fantasy titled THE ADAMANTINE PALACE, was published by Gollancz in March 2009 to plaudits and a fast reprint. There are two forthcoming sequels.
This new series will be interleaved with the adult dragon fantasies. The first volume, THE THIEF-TAKER’S APPRENTICE, will be delivered in December 2009, for publication in early autumn 2010. Deas is presently completing final editorial work on the sequel to his debut, KING OF THE CRAGS, which is due for publication in April 2010.” (Full press release)
Yes, I can now officially announce that I’ll be signing a second contract with Gollancz for a series of books to be written and published in parallel with the current dragons series. The new books will be YA fantasy and will have almost nothing to do with the existing dragons series. Almost.
Rar!
The series will be based around an adult novel I wrote a few years ago. So since this is intended as YA, I will be a) making the protagonist somewhat older, b) adding more sex and gory violence. More later, including a snippet of the work in progress in a few weeks time, perhaps.