Kate Elliott's Blog, page 70

Those Irritating Plot Details

I am about three quarters of the way through the current WiP (Work in Progress). I have finally hit that all important point where a detail I threw out at the beginning as the plot equivalent of a gun going off must now be explained, which means I have to stop writing forward and sit down and think through the actual detail of the detail, if that makes sense.

I know. I know. A plotter of a different sort will have had all this worked out before they got going.

I am not that plotter. Except whe

Shiny! Orbit UK Traitors' Gate cover

Okay, I am posting this on March 31, MY TIME, so if it shows up as April 1, that's not my fault nor is thereby to be rendered suspect. Although I really love that word, "render."

Anyway.

Here's a link to a post on the Orbit Books website on my shiny new Orbit UK cover for Traitors' Gate, forthcoming right at the beginning of September for the UK publication.

Note, by the way, the awesome food imagery a couple of the excerpted lines from reviews use. I love it.

Tor Books' (USA) pub date is mid-Augu

Reading and writing fantasy - Hive Mind alert!

In a couple of weeks I'll be giving a 45 minute workshop for mostly teen readers entitled "Reading and writing fantasy."

Oh hive mind, help me!

The key is to engage in discussion and get them talking. So what questions should I have handy to get them talking and keep them talking? It's likely I will have anywhere from 10 - 40 students in the room, aged 12 - 17 (with a few adults for good measure), and I can't count on having a chalkboard or other writing set up; are there any short group or bac

Shadow Gate, Traitors' Gate, thanks and a question

Five things make a post.

1) The Tor Books paperback of Shadow Gate will be released officially on March 31. The Orbit Books UK small format paperback is already available.

2) You can still bid on a copy of the Traitors' Gate ARC (Advanced Readers Copy). It's for a good cause.

3) My thanks to all of you for answering my previous question re: obtaining clothes. I got the reassurance I needed that I pretty much knew what my options were, and was able to choose a course of action. It remains amaz

Question for the Hive Mind

Imagine you are a traveler arriving in a small market town--this doesn't have to be specifically Europe; any town that fits the parameters will do--in a time period roughly ranging between the late medieval period and early modern. Basically, when there is a fair bit of movement on roads, enough that travelers are a known commodity.

This is a world where the widespread machine manufacture of cloth is still uncommon. Obviously, the notion of ready-to-wear is not on the table.

Where would a trave

Ada Lovelace Day

The Real World Design Challenge (RWDC) is an annual event that provides high school students, grades 9 – 12, the opportunity to work on real world engineering challenges in a team environment. Each year, student teams will be asked to address a challenge that confronts one of our nation’s leading industries. Students will utilize professional quality computer-aided design software to develop their solutions and will also generate presentations that convincingly demonstrate the value of their sol

A Fantasy Medley - Almost sold out

I've just received notice from Subterranean Press about anthology A Fantasy Medley which features stories by Kelley Armstrong, Robin Hobb, C.E. Murphy, and myself.

Also headed into the out of print realm soon is A Fantasy Medley (edited by Yanni Kuznia), which hasn’t even started shipping yet! As I write this, we’re down to our last couple hundred copies of the trade edition, and the last 35-40 copies of the limited edition. It will only take a few wholesaler/large online retailer order to take c

Traitors' Gate ARC up for Auction

kate_nepveu alerts me that Tor Books has donated a copy of the ARC* of my forthcoming Traitors' Gate to con_or_bust.

You can find the auction here, and it's for a great cause: helping fans of color attend Wiscon.

I have let her know that I will match the winning bid with a personal donation, so please go spend my $$ over there by bidding.

You can find out more about con or bust here and more about fight derailing here


*For those who don't know, the ARC is the advanced readers copy, which is basical

Who is that character based on, really?

Years ago after the publication of my second novel, a friend said to me, in a smirkingly knowing way, “You based the main character on yourself, didn’t you?”

Well, no, I hadn't.

You'll find the rest of the post Who is that character based on, really? at SFNovelists.

Kings

This is a new NBC show, a kind of alt history thing based on the stories of Saul and David from the Bible. I will admit my biases up front.

They would have had to do something amazing or actually edgy and provocative for this to work for me, because I have strong ideas about the story already. This basically means they either have to play it pretty straight in terms of what is already a convoluted emotional and political story with great depths and heights and interpersonal relationships and no