Mark Lawrence's Blog, page 26
December 11, 2011
Turning the tables! #1
Over the past year I’ve been given the very welcome opportunity to get the word out about Prince of Thorns by doing interviews on blog sites ... lots of blog sites. Some questions have become old friends, some arch-enemies, and occasionally a new one will pop up to surprise me.
In any event, a twitter exchange inspired me to turn the tables and interview some book reviewers for a change.
(read more)
In any event, a twitter exchange inspired me to turn the tables and interview some book reviewers for a change.
(read more)
December 6, 2011
When coming 10th feels like winning!
http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice...
It's all over! Only 11 votes separated 1st from second and places 5 through 10 were all close.
Huge thanks for everyone who voted for Prince of Thorns.
I'm telling my mum that it placed first for debut fantasy novels without a movie deal :)
It's all over! Only 11 votes separated 1st from second and places 5 through 10 were all close.
Huge thanks for everyone who voted for Prince of Thorns.
I'm telling my mum that it placed first for debut fantasy novels without a movie deal :)
November 21, 2011
woo hoo!
Prince of Thorns somehow makes the final 10 in the Best Fantasy of 2011 poll!
http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice...
You get to vote again now - for the last time!
My immediate welcome into the top 10 was to be 1*ed 6 times by the same generous soul as they hopped rapidly between their multiple accounts over the course of 2 minutes. Strangely in the handful of ratings on each of those accounts the same not particularly well known book got 5* ...
The fact this person couldn't be bothered to make more than cursory efforts to hide what they were doing speaks more to their assessment of what goodreads will do about it rather than to their IQ. And they're probably right too.
http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice...
You get to vote again now - for the last time!
My immediate welcome into the top 10 was to be 1*ed 6 times by the same generous soul as they hopped rapidly between their multiple accounts over the course of 2 minutes. Strangely in the handful of ratings on each of those accounts the same not particularly well known book got 5* ...
The fact this person couldn't be bothered to make more than cursory efforts to hide what they were doing speaks more to their assessment of what goodreads will do about it rather than to their IQ. And they're probably right too.
November 14, 2011
And here's where I remember the link...
Best fantasy of 2011:
http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice...
My 'Time to eat' poem put to photos :)
http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/...
http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice...
My 'Time to eat' poem put to photos :)
http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/...
Best Fantasy of 2011 ... round 2
It looks like we all get to vote again now the 5 write-ins have been added.
The additions were:
The Omen Machine - Goodkind
Alloy of Law - Sanderson
Kingdom of Gods - Jemisin
Cast in Ruin - Sagara
Legends of Shannara - Brooks
I can't see Prince of Thorns surviving into the last 10 - but it would be nice to save face with a few more votes :)
The additions were:
The Omen Machine - Goodkind
Alloy of Law - Sanderson
Kingdom of Gods - Jemisin
Cast in Ruin - Sagara
Legends of Shannara - Brooks
I can't see Prince of Thorns surviving into the last 10 - but it would be nice to save face with a few more votes :)
November 5, 2011
My homage to "Go the fuck to sleep"
You know I love you dearly, your face it is so sweet, now open up your little mouth, it’s time to fucking eat.
The spoon it is approaching, a food-train heaped and yummy, unpress your darling little lips and we’ll shove it in your tummy.
The lion eats the wildebeeste, the cows they eat the grass, so eat your fucking dinner before I shove it up your....
Ask not ‘what is this green bit’, please don’t dissect your food, just put it in your tiny mouth, then close it, don’t be rude.
You know I love you dearly, it just the kitchen’s heat, that’s making me so very red, now it’s time to fucking eat.
The fox it eats the rabbit, the owl swallows the mouse, please eat these lovely veggies, before I burn down the house.
This is the same stuff that you loved, one fucking day ago – how do you change your mind so fast? How am I supposed to know, that what was good on first bite, now heaped upon your plate, became the vilest stuff on earth, the thing that you most hate?
The kitchen is my cavern, where I boil my witch’s brew, with eye of newt and leg of toad, and bad things just for you.
You know I love you dearly, I’ve put that on repeat, but baby open wide now, it’s time to fucking eat.
I try to buy the good stuff and load a healthy plate, but all you eat is sugar, and I put on the weight. You’re buzzing like a humming bird, you’re humming like a fly, you ping around the room dear, as you hit that sugar high.
You liked it in the food mall, you liked it in the box, you liked as you tipped it out and poured the milk on top. But now that it sits glistening, and heaped up in your bowl, you say you’d rather eat a goat - a raw one like a troll.
The pots and pans I clatter, and I make a good pretence, but nothing good will come of it, you’re too solid in defense.
You know I love you dearly, but I must admit defeat, for in the end we both know, you’re not going to fucking eat.
The spoon it is approaching, a food-train heaped and yummy, unpress your darling little lips and we’ll shove it in your tummy.
The lion eats the wildebeeste, the cows they eat the grass, so eat your fucking dinner before I shove it up your....
Ask not ‘what is this green bit’, please don’t dissect your food, just put it in your tiny mouth, then close it, don’t be rude.
You know I love you dearly, it just the kitchen’s heat, that’s making me so very red, now it’s time to fucking eat.
The fox it eats the rabbit, the owl swallows the mouse, please eat these lovely veggies, before I burn down the house.
This is the same stuff that you loved, one fucking day ago – how do you change your mind so fast? How am I supposed to know, that what was good on first bite, now heaped upon your plate, became the vilest stuff on earth, the thing that you most hate?
The kitchen is my cavern, where I boil my witch’s brew, with eye of newt and leg of toad, and bad things just for you.
You know I love you dearly, I’ve put that on repeat, but baby open wide now, it’s time to fucking eat.
I try to buy the good stuff and load a healthy plate, but all you eat is sugar, and I put on the weight. You’re buzzing like a humming bird, you’re humming like a fly, you ping around the room dear, as you hit that sugar high.
You liked it in the food mall, you liked it in the box, you liked as you tipped it out and poured the milk on top. But now that it sits glistening, and heaped up in your bowl, you say you’d rather eat a goat - a raw one like a troll.
The pots and pans I clatter, and I make a good pretence, but nothing good will come of it, you’re too solid in defense.
You know I love you dearly, but I must admit defeat, for in the end we both know, you’re not going to fucking eat.
November 4, 2011
Best Fantasy of 2011
I'm astonished to find 'Prince of Thorns' on the Goodreads shortlist for Best Fantasy of the year!
http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice...
Looking at some of the others on that list I've just got to say wow and shake my head.
I've reviewed 'A Dance With Dragons' and 'Snuff' for a national UK newspaper this year. GRRM and Pratchet are legends! 'The Wise Man's Fear' has ~13,000 GR ratings and an average of 4.46! Big names like Fford, Canavan, Abercrombie...
It's clear I'm just in there to make up the numbers, but it's a great honour :)
Many thanks all!
http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice...
Looking at some of the others on that list I've just got to say wow and shake my head.
I've reviewed 'A Dance With Dragons' and 'Snuff' for a national UK newspaper this year. GRRM and Pratchet are legends! 'The Wise Man's Fear' has ~13,000 GR ratings and an average of 4.46! Big names like Fford, Canavan, Abercrombie...
It's clear I'm just in there to make up the numbers, but it's a great honour :)
Many thanks all!
October 17, 2011
October 2, 2011
Prince of Thorns discussion
Just a heads up to say this month the Goodreads Fantasy Book Club is discussing Prince of Thorns & I'm doing a Q&A
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_...
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_...
September 24, 2011
This one's for the writers
There are a lot of writers out there. Most of the people who initiate a chat with me on FaceBook are writing something. Three of the four people who drifted out of the crowd for a signed book at my first and only signing were writing their own opus. And the father of the fourth one soon came to stand at his daughter’s side to declare that he too had a Work In Progress. The editors of magazines featuring short stories by and large acknowledge that most of their readers are also sending in submissions.
The question that almost all of these writers get around to, generally sooner rather than later, is how did I do it? What’s the secret code? What do I advise them to do next?
So this one is for the writers amongst you.
Asking that question – the big ‘HOW?’ the question that can be beaten into many shapes and sizes, is a sensible thing to do. I didn’t ask it myself because I never really believed there was a ‘how’, but it takes only a small touch of optimism to believe there is, and armed with that faith the sensible step is to ask someone who has jumped the hurdle.
I went through a stage of enjoying those metal puzzles you can get, interlocked loops and whatnot, all begging to be separated. Well, truth be told I enjoyed the first one or two, then everyone started buying them for me and I was buried in a sea of the shiny bastards. The thing is that whenever I solved a tricky one, the kids would cluster around and ask me how I did it. And generally speaking I had no idea. The puzzles just fell apart in my hand when I stopped thinking about it. And the reason I’ve led you down this back-alley? Simply to say that just because someone has done something doesn’t mean they know how they did it or can explain it to you or can even do it again. What I did with the puzzles was to say ‘watch’ and try to do it again. So all I can do writing-wise is say, ‘here’s what happened’ and leave you to draw your own conclusions.
In 2004 I got my first ever check for writing fiction, a princely $31 for ‘Song of the Mind-born’, from a now defunct magazine. I still have the check on the wall in a $1 frame. The story had done the rounds and been rejected by a fair number of mags. Rejections included ‘Black Gate’ which I’ve found to be an excellent market, both for good feedback and for being interested in good stories without any pseudo-intellectual snobbery, secret aesthetic, or requirement for your tale to present the three pillars of political correctness in exciting new colours.
By 2006 I’d written Prince of Thorns, destined to spend nearly three years in an electronic bottom drawer.
That fantasy story you love, the one where the farm boy gets the sword and kills that monster so the bad overlord is cast down and the princess is freed ... Prince of Thorns isn’t that one. Those stories, wrapped up in more sophisticated prose with a twist and turn and an OMG, are great. They're the strength and the curse of the genre. I didn't write one. I wrote an ugly awkward thing that has seriously made someone blog 'I got that horrible feeling in my tummy and could not read any more'. Prince of Thorns is an ungentle book.
[continues here:]
http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.com/2...
The question that almost all of these writers get around to, generally sooner rather than later, is how did I do it? What’s the secret code? What do I advise them to do next?
So this one is for the writers amongst you.
Asking that question – the big ‘HOW?’ the question that can be beaten into many shapes and sizes, is a sensible thing to do. I didn’t ask it myself because I never really believed there was a ‘how’, but it takes only a small touch of optimism to believe there is, and armed with that faith the sensible step is to ask someone who has jumped the hurdle.
I went through a stage of enjoying those metal puzzles you can get, interlocked loops and whatnot, all begging to be separated. Well, truth be told I enjoyed the first one or two, then everyone started buying them for me and I was buried in a sea of the shiny bastards. The thing is that whenever I solved a tricky one, the kids would cluster around and ask me how I did it. And generally speaking I had no idea. The puzzles just fell apart in my hand when I stopped thinking about it. And the reason I’ve led you down this back-alley? Simply to say that just because someone has done something doesn’t mean they know how they did it or can explain it to you or can even do it again. What I did with the puzzles was to say ‘watch’ and try to do it again. So all I can do writing-wise is say, ‘here’s what happened’ and leave you to draw your own conclusions.
In 2004 I got my first ever check for writing fiction, a princely $31 for ‘Song of the Mind-born’, from a now defunct magazine. I still have the check on the wall in a $1 frame. The story had done the rounds and been rejected by a fair number of mags. Rejections included ‘Black Gate’ which I’ve found to be an excellent market, both for good feedback and for being interested in good stories without any pseudo-intellectual snobbery, secret aesthetic, or requirement for your tale to present the three pillars of political correctness in exciting new colours.
By 2006 I’d written Prince of Thorns, destined to spend nearly three years in an electronic bottom drawer.
That fantasy story you love, the one where the farm boy gets the sword and kills that monster so the bad overlord is cast down and the princess is freed ... Prince of Thorns isn’t that one. Those stories, wrapped up in more sophisticated prose with a twist and turn and an OMG, are great. They're the strength and the curse of the genre. I didn't write one. I wrote an ugly awkward thing that has seriously made someone blog 'I got that horrible feeling in my tummy and could not read any more'. Prince of Thorns is an ungentle book.
[continues here:]
http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.com/2...
