Elspeth Cooper's Blog, page 8

Trinity Rising giveaway

Everybody likes free stuff, yeah? And you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t like reading, so how about I give you some free books?

TRINITY RISING gets its US release today, so to celebrate, I have a box of shiny new Tor hardbacks here that I will happily deface with my scrawl *cough* sign and personalise for you, free, gratis and for nothing.

Giveaway details

There’s two ways you can enter.

Way the first

Just comment on this post before midnight (00:00 GMT) on 28th February 2013 to go into the draw. On 1st March I will select TWO commenters at random to win, and will email the winners for their contact details. This giveaway is OPEN WORLDWIDE.

Way the second

If you’re on Goodreads, there’s a further FIVE copies available and the giveaway is open for longer, because Goodreads has more members. I’ve even included a handy widget for you to click:

Goodreads Book Giveaway


Trinity Rising
by Elspeth Cooper

Giveaway ends March 10, 2013.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 

Due to the insane geographical selections on Goodreads, this part of the giveaway is only open to the US, Canada, UK and Australia, and the usual GR terms and conditions apply.

Free books, delivered to your door. Free SIGNED books. For free, yo. What are you waiting for?

 

Release day . . . and it’s twins!

This month sees the arrival of two bumper bundles of joy: Trinity Rising in the States tomorrow from Tor, and last week Die Wilde Jagd in Germany (Heyne).

Same again? Er, no

For those of you who don’t know, Book 2 of The Wild Hunt is  darker and more disturbing than Songs of the Earth. I knew it was going to be from the first scene I wrote. Gair grew up with a jolt at the end of Book 1; now he’s finding out that he’s caught in the middle of something that’s bigger than him, in which the choices he makes will have far-reaching consequences.

And he’s not the only one. Meet Teia:

A rush of compulsion deluged Teia’s mind. It seized her, shook her, bent her to its will. She would answer; she had to. She had known of her gift since Macha brought her first blood; why had she ever thought she could keep that a secret? There was nothing Ytha could not know, nothing she could not find out. It would be better by far to volunteer the information than wait for the Speaker to enter her mind and take it by force. Surrender was the only choice.

‘Answer me!’

Wave after wave of Ytha’s will bore down until Teia thought she would break under their weight. Her mouth shaped to say the words and, in desperation, she flung herself open to the music within.

‘No.’

Want some more? You can read Chapter One here.

And finally, an apology

I’ve been MIA most of the last few months, for reasons many and various: finishing Book 3, The Raven’s Shadow, having the bathroom gutted, and dealing with a couple of MS relapses/starting a new drug regime.

Things seem to be settling down a bit now, so I’ll be a bit more visible (I hope!) from now on. Or at least I will until Book 4 gets a hold of me and drags me back into seclusion . . .

 

In conversation with Helen Lowe (plus giveaway)

DGLA winner Helen Lowe

There’s an interview with me over on Helen Lowe’s blog. I had enormous fun chatting with her, on subjects as varied as story structure, having a soft spot for old-fashioned heroes, and my downright unhealthy love for edged weapons.

There’s also some (spoiler-free) hints about what you can expect in Book 3 of the Wild Hunt, The Raven’s Shadow. Click here to read.

For those of you who don’t know, Helen is the author of the Wall of Night series, the first book of which, Heir of Night, pipped yours truly’s Songs of the Earth to the 2012 David Gemmell Legend Award ‘Morningstar’ for best debut.

Look! Free stuff!

Helen has also generously hosted a giveaway alongside the interview. Just leave a comment on her post to go into the draw to win signed, personalised copies of Songs of the Earth and Trinity RIsing (UK trade paperback). Open worldwide; details on Helen’s post.

Free books. What’s not to love?

 

 

More than just vanilla

I had a review a little while back from a lady who hadn’t enjoyed my second book, Trinity Rising. She’d had a bit of a problem with the sexual aspects of Songs, but soldiered on because she liked my prose. The opening chapters of Trinity, however, had defeated her: there’s a couple of aggressive, non-consensual encounters that occur early on, and she hadn’t been able to finish the book.

“Raaar!”

I said I was sorry it hadn’t been her cup of tea, but thanked her for trying and taking the time to write her review. She seemed impressed that I’d bothered to comment on the opinions of a self-confessed prude, and that got me thinking.

As a writer, I expect negative reviews. I have to: they come with the territory. And guess what, they’re exactly as valid as good ones. No two storytellers will make the same tale from the same ingredients, and so no two readers will form the same impression of the results. And frankly, it’d be daft to expect them to.

Yes, I’ve lavished months or years of work on my books, made them the best I could, and I’m so proud of them I’ll take any excuse to talk about them or show pictures of the covers to random strangers in the queue at the supermarket (they’re my kids, after all) but I’m not entitled to a damn thing in return.

Sure, undiluted praise would be nice, and send me back into my office with a smile on my face, but it’s a vastly unrealistic expectation. People are individuals and that means we don’t all like the same things. This is why ice-cream comes in more flavours than just vanilla. Believe it or not, some people can’t abide chocolate. Others are freaked out by ickle fwuffy kittens, in which case they’d probably best not be reading this post. And so it goes with books, too – as the recent SF Signal Mind Meld: The Books We Didn’t Love reminded me.

I am not entitled to be adulated by all and sundry – nor is any writer. I’m not entitled to anything. I choose to put my work out there; I don’t get to choose how it will be received. About the best I can hope for from a reviewer is their honest opinion, and if that means they didn’t like my book, then that’s fine. People being what they are, somebody else is gonna love it.

Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

 

Cover love, part 3

Here’s a peek at the cover art for the French edition of Trinity Rising, a.k.a Le Lever des Lunes, which is due out in January 2013

This isn’t a very hi-res image, because I just pinched it from Amazon, but you can see the forest theme is continuing, this time in a gorgeous sunset palette.

 

The Next Big Thing: THE RAVEN’S SHADOW

Ruins and ravens…

Urban fantasy author Suzanne McLeod – of Spellcrackers fame – tagged me to be part of The Next Big Thing blogfest meme – you can read her post here.

Unable as I am to pass up any opportunity to waffle on about my books, I naturally said yes. There’s ten questions to answer, so without further ado . . .

What is the working title of your next book?

It’s called The Raven’s Shadow, and that’ll probably be the final title too. It’s the third instalment of The Wild Hunt Quartet. Sorry, I’ve no cover art yet!

Where did the idea come from for the book?

It’s part of a series, so it’s hard to separate the genesis of this volume from the Quartet as a whole. It brings together the events set into motion in the preceding volume, Trinity Rising, and leaves our protagonists scattered across an Empire teetering on the brink of disintegration, ready for The Dragon House which will, if the stars align and nothing untoward happens, conclude the series.

So The Raven’s Shadow is sort of Act II, Part II, and when you get to the end of this volume you’ll be ready for a stiff drink or three in the intermission. At least I hope so – I know I was!

What genre does your book fall under?

The Wild Hunt Quartet is epic fantasy, but I’m told it reads more like an adventure story, with a bit of magic thrown in.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

The casting couch?

Even though I get asked this question quite frequently, I’ve never given it a second’s thought, and I really wouldn’t want to. I know what my characters look like to me, but I don’t see them in my head in the likeness of anyone I’ve seen in a movie.

One thing I don’t do in my books is describe characters in minute detail, unless something about their physical being is particularly important to the narrative. For example, you don’t find out what colour my protagonist’s eyes are until three-quarters of the way through Songs of the Earth, because until that point it doesn’t matter.

Every reader has their own idea of how a character looks – one even thought Gair was short and kind of wimpy-looking, despite all evidence to the contrary – and that’s totally fine with me. The reader’s journey through the book is unique and personal to them, so I’m quite happy for them to paste on whatever faces they think will suit.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

You want me to condense four volumes and some 675,000 words (projected) into one sentence? Damn, you’re a tough crowd. Just this book? Oh, okay.

Escaping the flames of religious conflict in the desert, Gair hurries north with only vengeance on his mind – but his grip on his magic is slipping, and a beast lurks inside him that threatens friend and foe alike.

Imagine that’s being read by the movie trailer voiceover guy – how awesome does that sound, eh?

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I’m represented by Ian Drury of Sheil Land, and under contract with Gollancz. The Raven’s Shadow is due for publication in the summer of 2013.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

I don’t work in a draft-redraft-final cycle, I’m afraid. I am a very organic, free-range sort of a writer, and this particular story grew out of/alongside Trinity Rising like some kind of insane Siamese twin – it wasn’t until quite late on in the process that I realised I was actually trying to write two books at once. I turned in the manuscript 11 months after Trinity, but had actually already written a good part of it whilst still writing Book 2, so the answer is somewhere between 9 and 16 months. I think. Um. What was the question again?

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I’m completely incapable of being sufficiently objective about my own work, and nowhere nearly well-enough read in the genre, to be able to make comparisons. However, I am frequently accused of writing ‘traditional fantasy’ because the story I wanted to tell used one or two familiar tropes in its setup. But to be honest with you, I’m not entirely sure what ‘traditional fantasy’ even means. Does it mean there’s a Chosen One with Manifest Destiny on account of him being some hero’s descendant, or a legend reborn? Is he supposed to have a feisty female sidekick and a band of trusty companions? Because if so, I’m doing it wrong. Gair’s a soldier’s bastard with a price on his head. He’s got no prophecy to tell him what to do. And he won’t get to be king at the end.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Again, this comes back to the root of the series as a whole. I’d been playing around with ideas of magic vs organised religion, and the nature of faith, then the child abuse scandals in the Catholic Church hit the headlines. I started thinking about a Church with a long-buried secret that was about to bite them on the bum, put that idea with the others, and stirred the pot. Then I threw Gair into the middle, and wrote down what happened next.

What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

Mainly, it’s a story about people. People in impossible situations, making difficult choices and living with the consequences as their world goes to hell around them. People deciding when to run, and when to stand and fight. There’s swordplay, magic, an antagonist you’ll love to hate and, like Trinity Rising, more strong women than you can shake a stick at. What’s not to love?

***

Now I have to nominate a further five writers to carry the baton next week, who are:

Mhairi Simpson author of the forthcoming HOOKERS & BLOWE

Mazarkis Williams author of THE EMPEROR’S KNIFE and KNIFESWORN

Helen Lowe winner of the 2012 DGLA Morningstar for HEIR OF NIGHT

Anne Lyle author of THE ALCHEMIST OF SOULS, and the forthcoming MERCHANT OF DREAMS

Juliet E McKenna author of too many books to list, chair of EightSquaredCon a.k.a. EasterCon 2013, and all-round genre luminary

 

Images courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

 

New look website

I thought it was about time I overhauled the look of the website and integrated it properly with the blog. So over the weekend I moved the whole shebang onto WordPress, with the assistance of copious quantities of wine and swearing.

Bear with me for the next few days as I continue to tinker (most especially with the newsletter settings, as I need to import the mailing list from Another Place) and iron out any remaining gremlins.

It’s been a while since I had to do this sort of stuff for a living, so there’s bound to be something I’ve forgotten somewhere. If anything doesn’t work, give us a shout, okay?

 

Same again?

Second books are tricksy things, as I’m sure any writer will agree.

No longer can you meander along at your own pace, letting your story take shape as it will; you’re on a contract now, and you have deadlines – you know, those things that Douglas Adams loved for the whooshing noise they made as they flew by. People are Counting On You.

So you deliver the script, and in due course a book happens and is launched upon the world, and feedback starts to come in. This is not nearly so daunting as it was for your precious-baby debut, but is oftentimes more perplexing.

For instance, you get the reader who adored your first book, but is lukewarm about the second one. It isn’t anything to do with the prose, they say, or the plot, or even middle-book-in-a-series-itis. It’s more that you took their beloved characters and put them through the wringer, and they came out the other side a different shape. You broadened the scope of the story, so it wasn’t so tightly focused on one individual, and these other characters are now perceived as some kind of distraction from the main event. Even though the reader doesn’t actually say it in so many words, you can’t help but feel that they’re not so keen on Book 2 because it wasn’t the first book all over again.

I can understand where they’re coming from. I’m a reader too, and I know what it’s like to fall in love with a character, to gasp when they get hurt and swoon when they fall in love, then cheer them on from the rooftops as they go into battle. But the thing is, if you put someone through a life-changing event, they will not be the same on the other side. They can’t be, because that’s kind of what ‘life-changing’ means.

Maybe they’ll have been improved by the experience, transformed; maybe it’s unlocked reserves of courage or self-reliance they never knew they possessed. Or maybe they’ll come out of it broken in ways they can barely articulate. Either way, the event has left its mark on them, for good or ill.

But I also understand that whilst some authors have made very nice careers out of basically writing the same book umpteen times, just with different names in, I am not one of those authors. My books are driven by the characters, not by plot, and that means those characters have to grow and change on their journey through a story. Sometimes that growth only comes as a result of taking them into dark places to find out what makes them shine.

And if my characters aren’t growing as a result of what they’ve seen and done, then I’m not doing my job properly.

Image courtesy freedigitalphotos.net

Panic? What panic?

So that’s The Raven’s Shadow a.k.a Book 3 of The Wild Hunt Quartet packed off to my editor for scrutiny, so I can start to think about Book 4 in more detail than I have up to now.

It’s going to take quite a bit of planning (a novel experience for me) as there is a helluva lot of plot to wrap up in a neat and timely fashion.

As of today, the hit-list for The Dragon House looks a bit like this:

 - invasion, and consequences thereof (including socio-political and economic ramifications)

 - bloody revolution, consequences thereof (ditto)

 - women in combat

 - tentative explorations of new relationships for damaged people

 - conflict between a personal debt of honour and the Greater Good

 - disintegration and rebirth of a moribund institution

 - past mistakes to be faced, pipers to be paid

 - family skeletons hauled out of closets

 - assorted deaths, some new characters and the return of old friends

 - when good magic goes bad, with the corollary: fire and destruction, and lots of it

and that’s just the stuff I’ve thought of in the ten minutes it’s taken me to type this post. Eeep.

Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net.

Meet the team

Many of you probably imagine writers slaving away in an upstairs bedroom that doubles as an office, or crouched over a laptop at the kitchen table. This is often the case, but here at Cooper Towers I am fortunate  to have the support and assistance of a team of dedicated professionals as I work. It’s only fair to give credit where it is due, so here they are, my trusty assistants without whom I would get my work done in half the time.

Name: Tigger

Title: Office manager

Job Description: Ensuring the author’s chair is adequately warmed, which includes maintaining the temperature by occupying the seat the moment it is vacated. Here he is in action,  in his secondary role as stationery monitor.

He also ensures the author takes regular tea-breaks by periodically walking into her office and leaning against her leg to remind her that it is time to go into the kitchen and open the back door for him. When she’s particularly busy (or on the phone) he flogs her with his tail to make sure she gets the message.

 

Name: Tinkerbell

Title: Editorial assistant

Job Description: Assisting the author by lying across pages of proofs so she doesn’t lose her place, and maintaining office tidiness by sweeping the desk surface with her tail to ensure it remains clear of impediments such as pencils, to-do lists and pages of notes. She is also responsible for filing, which is achieved by pouncing on, shoving her paws into and kicking the crap out of any pile of paper that needs sorting.

Tinkerbell takes her role very seriously and insists that her importance is properly acknowledged by positioning herself between keyboard and screen whenever possible.