Robin Hobb's Blog, page 24

Happy Birthday, Blood Memories!

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Just taking a moment to wish a happy second birthday to Blood Memories, an Italian Robin Hobb fan site.

Many thanks for making me so welcome during my visit to Italy last year, and for creating a home for Italian Robin Hobb fans.  Thank you for so many thoughtful gifts, for rides to where I needed to be, and for several lovely meals shared with friends.  I hope you will have many happy returns of this day!

There is also a Blood Memories page on Facebook.

I am still very enamored of the compass rose navigator on the website.  Very clever!

US signing for The Inheritance

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Just  a very quick update here as I've been getting a few queries about this.

The US launch of The Inheritance will be at the University Book Store in Seattle, with the honorable Duane Wilkins, Bookseller, presiding.    I hope to make this special, so do keep checking back here for updates.  The date for this is May 5, 2011 and the time will be 7PM, so do reserve these slots on your calendar!  I will do a reading, take some questions and sign some books.  I hope to see many of you there.

As an aside, Iwill add that I am always very grateful for the bookstores that invite me (and other authors) to come in and sign.  They do so at expense to themselves, with an investment of time and money as they prepare a space, make sure stock is on hand and that they have personnel for the event.  Sometimes we even keep them late after the store would ordinarily have closed.  I request that readers who enjoy these events please purchase the book at the venue hosting the signing.  I do realize that some people simply come to hear the reading and meet the author and others who are there, and that is fine and you are always welcome.  But if you can make a purchase of some kind that evening, it helps to let the store know that you value what they do, and it increases the chance that there will be more events for you to attend.

So, thanks again, Duane and University Book Store for inviting me to launch yet another book from your store.

Robin

My Birthday Present

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

With the gracious permission of Jen, I am sharing my birthday present here.   A little background.  For many years now, I have had a newsgroup over at sff.net and some longtime internet friends gather there. 

Jen is one of them, as are Karen and Helen.  Karen, Helen and I share a birthday, and this is Jen's Happy Birthday from Jen for us.

Makes me grin every time I play it!

Robin

Gorgeous Book!

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

  I'm sure you'll agree! 

My first hardback copy of The Inheritance arrived today.  As you can see, it has a dual cover, one for each of my writing names. And dual Jackie Morris cats as well. I'm very pleased with how this came out!

Tonight, I've updated my upcoming appearances, too. (For those of you reading this on LiveJournal, the information appears on my website at www.robinhobb.com)  In addition to visits to SupaNova Pop Culture Expo in Brisbane and Melbourne, I'll be making a stop in Sydney to sign at a Dymocks there.  I'm very excited to be making this trip, and I'm looking forward to meeting a lot of Australian friends, old and new.  There is quite a line up of talent guesting at SupaNova, from music to illustrators, actors to writers, and well, all sorts of amazing people.  It's well worth a visit to their website to learn all the particulars.

In other news, I'm in the process of yet again splitting one book into two volumes.  What was going to be the third installment of the Rain Wild Chronicles will now be the third and fourth installments.  Tonight I just finished adding the additional material, and I'll be sending the first half of it back to the editors to see what they think of it.  To be absolutely honest, I've relished the chance to expand the tale even more.  I love these characters and I've really enjoyed spending time with them.  Malta and Reyn both get a bit more space to play in these books. so if you enjoyed those characters in Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven, or if you're a long time reader and remember Malta as the spoiled little hoyden from The Liveship Traders, I hope you'll welcome her back.  We haven't yet settled on a title for either volume, but when we do, I'll report it here immediately.

And now, back to work!

Robin

Forthcoming Books for 2011 and Other News

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

The Inheritance, a short story collection of works by Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm, will be coming out in 2011.  The Voyager (United Kingdom) edition will be first, available in late March, and appearing in early April in Australia as well.  The US Eos edition in trade paperback form will arrive in May.  There are stories both old and new in this volume.  Some have been previously published, a couple are Nebula finalists, one was a Hugo finalist, some have never seen print before.  Although the Lindholm stories are more numerous, they occupy about the same number of words as the Hobb ones.  Each story has a small preface that tells a bit about how the story came to be written.  The UK cover features lovely art by Jackie Morris, and the US one has some wonderful Yin/Yang cats.

The Table of Contents:

Megan Lindholm

A Touch of Lavender

Silver Lady and the Fortyish Man

Cut

The Fifth Squashed Cat

Strays

Finis

Drum Machine

Robin Hobb

Homecoming

The Inheritance

Cat's Meat

I hope that readers of Megan Lindholm will sample Robin Hobb's work here, and vice versa.  To me, the styles and topics seem very different for each pseudonym.  It will be interesting to see if readers agree.

In other news, I've added another trip to my 2011 schedule.  This one is to Australia, I'm thrilled to say.  I'll be a guest of SupaNova in early April, visiting Brisbane and Melborne, with a stop at Sydney in between!

Following that, also in April, I'll be at Trolls&Legendes in Mons, Belgium.

Then in May, it's off to Imaginales in Epinal for thier 10th anniversary!

And finally, in June, Saint-Malo Etonnants Voyageurs.

Details are over there, on the right, if you click on my events.

Best to all!

Robin

The Internet and I

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't posted much since the middle of December. And if  we are email correspondents, you may have not received replies to friendly notes and greetings you sent me over the holidays.

My deadline for my book was December 31, 2010.  I was extremely confident and determined to be on time. I worked consistently on the book every day, and I should have been on time.

 Well, I wasn't.  I turned the manuscript over to my agent yesterday, 13 days late.  That is NOT a nice thing to do to publishers and editors.  I am abashed.

But, prior to all that, in mid-December I realized that the only possible way to make my deadline was to eliminate distractions and write. Family Christmas, of course, does not fall on the distraction list, but random web activities do.   So, for the most part, I disconnected from the Internet and wrote. And wrote and wrote.

Alleluia!  What a wonderful experience!  Suddenly my output increased. Scenes had more coherency, dialogue flowed as if people were actually talking to one another. I really felt like I was in that world, with those characters.

 That is what happens when I can write in 4 to 6 hour blocks of time, with no little 'pings' coming up on my screen.  I'd removed myself to a place where my laptop could not reach the outside world at all, and even though I was writing on a cramped laptop keyboard, the words just kept coming. It took me back to the Megan Lindholm days when writing was something I did in the dark hours of the night, all alone in a very chilly little office with only the stereo softly playing in the background.  I was mostly broke in a rundown old house in a very rural area.  So I started hanging out with a couple of imaginary fellows. When I remember those days, it actually feels as if Fitz were standing over my shoulder commenting on every keystroke, and the Fool was perched up on top of the ancient Maytag washing machine mocking our efforts.  (Oh.  Not every writer has her office in the laundry room? Well, I did.)  When I recall those days, I feel like I am looking at an old fashioned Christmas card.  I would get up from my desk and pad quietly into the kitchen to brew a cup of tea in the dark.  Then I would go back to where the desk lamp and the computer screen were the only illumination. There is a sentimental glow that surrounds that old beat-up army surplus desk, the  Kaypro computer and the black cat sleeping beside it.

This last couple of weeks, I got that back  and I have fallen in love with writing all over again. 

I enjoy chatting with readers.  I love the convenience of email.  But the temptation to dart out onto the Internet when the next sentence just won't come is often overpowering for me.  Writing anything, a blog, an email, a letter to the editor is always so much easier than finding the next sentence in the story.   Every sentence, every word a writer types is a decision, you know.  And for me it has always been easier by far to dither and procrastinate than to make those decisions, one after another after another.

Well, by now you have guessed it.  This is my 'Dear John' letter to the electronic world.  And as so many have said before me, I'll add, "Please don't feel bad. It's not you.  It's me."  And it truly is.  I know there are hundreds, probably thousands of writers out there who can blog wittily, update six social networking sites a day, twitter and tweet cheerily throughout the day, write about doing the laundry in a way that raises everyone's social consciousness and still produce three books a year. 

 But  I am not one of them.

I asked myself, if I had a choice between a twitter every day from my favorite author, or an extra book every year, which would I choose? 

I choose the book.  And I hope that most of you reading this will agree with me that you'd prefer I put my writing time into the books. Let's face it, my blogs are just not that exciting.

I will not drop off the grid completely.  I will do updates here, when there is real news to share.  I'll still check my newsgroup at sff.net daily.  It's rather like reading the funny papers every morning. (Yes, Tedrick, I'm looking at you!)  I will do periodic updates at livejournal, facebook, my space, etc. etc.  But you will see much less of me on your computer screen, and more, I hope, at your bookstore.  And if you send me an email, I will still answer it. Eventually. 

This weekend, I hope to finish the short stories about the goblins that live under a city that is not London.  Just looks a lot like London in my mind.  And the story about Old Paint, the most faithful of station wagons.

I hope I can stick to this New Year's Resolution.  And best of luck to all of you as you plow into the New Year with fresh resolutions, too.

Robin

Happy New Year to all!

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

And that is as much as I'll say write now, as my nose is to the grindstone, correcting numbering errors on pages, collating files into one big file and otherwise making the book coherent.  Composed on three different computers due to location and travel, each file looks a bit different!  Not what I want to send to my editor.

More after the book has flown!  Wish me luck!

Robin

Writing a new legend

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

I've been listening to Christmas songs on the radio, and I suddenly wondered what it felt like to write a new legend. 

Our images of jolly old St. Nick, his eight tiny reindeer and their names all come from the poem "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" by Clement C. Moore.  He gave St. Nick his red outfit with white fur trim. 

And the song Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer gifted us with another reindeer for Santa. 

The Grinch has moved into our American Christmas pantheon, though he's not as well entrenched as Rudolph. 

Ebeneezer Scrooge and company.  Did Dickens have any idea that he was creating the template for literally thousands of Christmas plays, movies and television specials?

How would it feel to know that one had won a place in cultural literacy by virtue of the right song, poem or short story?  These characters are so much bigger than the orginal piece of writing that spawned them.

The night before the night before Christmas

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

This is one of my more favorite days of the year.  It's the day that my nephew arrived, now 17 years ago!  It's a day that is betwixt and between, a work day, a party evening for some.  For others of us, the calm before the wonderful storm of Christmas.

It's the 'not yet' day for many people; for some, a holy day, for others just a holiday.  I did last minute things today but I've kept to my resolution that his year Christmas will be a simpler, more peaceful time for me.

This is the time of year when I look back and when I look forward, thinking of what I wished I'd done, and what I wish I hadn't done.  A few things have happened to me this year to tweak my perspective a bit. And that's good.

I went through a period of severe back pain for a time.  The frightening part is that usually physical therapy puts me right in a few sessions.  This time, it didn't work quickly at all.  I spent some painful nights awake and uncomfortable, and thinking of all the things I'd intended to do that might now be out of my reach.  Then, I am thankful to say, the pain receded.  But I haven't forgotten that reminder that my days to do physically active and challenging things can be taken away from me, either by an injury or by me simply not keeping my body in condition.

I'm finishing up a book this month, and looking ahead to The Next Book.  The incident with my back made writing uncomfortable; I didn't want to sit in my desk chair. It meant that I didn't finish this book before Thanksgiving, as I had planned.   But it's also made me realize that I will not be able to write all those books that are standing in line in my brain.  Painful choices will have to be made, and soon.  I don't think I'm confronting my mortality so much as admitting that my body does not regenerate itself as swiftly as it once did.  And that my brain does not hold detail as easily as it once did!  Ye gods and little fishes, the litter of reminders that my desk now holds is horrifying!  My Random Access Memory actually resides on a small notebook inside my purse these days.

But tonight I find myself far more thankful than frantic, more thoughtful than harried. There is work to be done, and limited days in which to do it, but I have confidence that I can get it done.  And that is true of both my looming book deadline, and that other 'dead line' that eventually confronts us all.

Department of Irony: Tacoma

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Tough news for Tacoma over the last few days.  To trim the state budget, we'll be closing our Washington State History Museum in downtown Tacoma.  Never mind that it was a draw for some of our downtown merchants and a local employer.  It has to go.

Also on the chopping block? Two of the Tacoma Public libraries will be shut down in order to operate with the funds allocated for our Library budget. Never mind that every dollar spent on a book or movie or other resource for our library was multiplied over and over as they items passed through the hands of many patrons. Never mind that library usage is up since this economic downturn began.  We have to close two libraries.

Then, driving home tonight, I saw a huge billboard on Union Ave.  Very large and attractive graphic, with the headline EXPLORE NEW WORLDS. READ.  In smaller print, it noted it was paid for by www.read.gov.    Now I know that's a federal program and it does many, many worthy things.  But for the cost of creating that billboard, commisioning the graphic and design, printing it out, renting the space and putting it up . . . how many libraries could have been kept open? So people would have a place to explore new worlds and read.

Sigh.

Robin