the Author

Monthly Archives: September 2010

September
23
20 Comments

The Sun Sword & Skirmish

Posted in DAW, Essalieyan, writing.

In the comments on my State of the Writing post, a couple of ques­tions have come up, in part because I mentioned my hope of writing a small after­ward to House Name which essen­tially says: And now, please read The Sun Sword. Carol Duffy said: I guess my ques­tion would be: *is* it actu­ally neces­sary, as opposed to desir­able? Or, put another way, “Are you giving your­self enough credit?” While I read the Hunters books before reading The Sun Sword, and they certainly added a lot to the latter books, I wouldn’t say they were neces­sary to under­standing them. You did a wonderful job of keeping “new” readers up to speed if they hadn’t read the first two. I think it’s neces­sary, in part because the book takes place … Continue reading →

September
16
33 Comments

State of the Writing, September 2010 edition

Posted in writing, Books, Cast, DAW, Luna.

House War: House Name: This has been finished; the cover was posted down­stream. The last of the three books that follow Jewel’s past. It’s sched­uled for January of 2011, and it can be preordered from: Indiebound | Amazon | Powell’s | Borders | B & N Cast in Ruin: This book begins a few days after Cast in Chaos ends.  Kaylin is called in for the etiquette lessons she’s managed to avoid until now — and is also called in to help with an unusual inves­ti­ga­tion in the fief of Tiamaris, where the relo­ca­tion of thou­sands of strangers is not perhaps going entirely smoothly.  Cast in Ruin has been revised and sent to my editor. It will come back with a revi­sion letter, and if … Continue reading →

September
13
7 Comments

Which character is harder to write?

Posted in Elantra, Essalieyan, writing.

Aaron asked If 39k words is all it takes to reveal Kaylin’s history, then perhaps you’ve been a bit lenient with Jewel, eh? Well…it’s Kaylin’s first case, and because of the word­count, it doesn’t go into as much detail about the rest of her life as maybe it should; also, I thought it would end in a different place, because I’d hoped to be able to do her first case with the Hawks and the argu­ment over the ques­tion of her survival in the same story. This didn’t happen, because it would prob­ably have doubled the length. Which is the more diffi­cult char­acter for you to write (at the moment and all things consid­ered), Kaylin or Jewel? The answer to this one depends on … Continue reading →

September
5
18 Comments

A question about content

Posted in Miscellaneous.

I have a ques­tion. I make longer posts both here and on my Live­Journal. The nature of the posts are slightly different. (I didn’t say it was going to be a short ques­tion, did I? >.>) I’ve been posting on LJ for a number of years. I didn’t actu­ally start the LJ posts to be an author-online; I started them because they seemed like an almost natural offshoot of a prior BBS on which I social­ized with people who were other­wise halfway across the planet. However…when being social, acts of egre­gious self-promo­­tion All The Time aren’t conducive to conver­sa­tion and inter­ac­tion, and there’s always pres­sure to be promoting and to raise aware­ness. This was tricky for me, because I’m well aware that people who are inter­ested in what I have … Continue reading →

September
5
12 Comments

Harvest Moon

Posted in Cast, Elantra, Luna.

Devon, in the previous post, asked Where, in your eyes, does Cast in Moon­light fit into the grand scheme of things? It seemed like the right time to answer. Harvest Moon is a collec­tion of three stories, one by Mercedes Lacky set in her 500 King­doms universe, one by new author Cameron Haley which is, I believe, a prequel to the just released Mob Rules, and one by me.  The publi­ca­tion date is, in theory, the first of October, 2010. My contri­bu­tion is “Cast in Moon­light”, a novella of 39,000 words. Cast in Moon­light fits in at the begin­ning, sort of.  Kaylin is thir­teen years old when she first meets the Hawk­lord, and the story starts just after that first meeting and continues from there, … Continue reading →