Menewood progress
Menewood has now been rewritten twice and is in the hands of my editor and agent. It’s a long book, so it’ll take a while to read. Then they’ll both have to do some thinking before I get edit letters. Then I’ll have to read the letters and think about those. Then I’ll have to rewrite it once or twice more (with ensuing rounds of reading, editing, thinking, etc). Then there’s all the paratext to prepare: the maps and glossary and family trees and so on. Deciding cover art, cover copy. Catalogue copy. Copyediting—which for Hild took three rounds. Then proofing—don’t even try to count those. Bound galleys, Advance Reading Copies, pre-publicity, publicity, and finally: Launch! At which point it gets really busy…
You’ll understand, then, why I have absolutely no clue of a publication date.
However, if I were Empress of the Universe I’d plump for November 14, 2022—right before St Hild’s feast day, and almost exactly 9 years after the publication of Hild. But on top of the novel’s insane length, there are so many things to consider, such as the fact that I already have a book coming out in 2022—Spear, due from Tordotcom in April—and there are the three Aud novels which await reissue. Not to mention the collection of short fiction which is almost ready to go.
So while I want it to be 2022, Menewood might not appear until 2023.
So as a tiny little treat I’ve written a map-heavy post about Cadwallon—his origins, battles, and faults. It’s going up on Gemæcce, my research blog, on Friday morning, and includes juicy little details about events in Menewood. Fair warning, though: if you’re not familiar with the broad Wikipedia-level outlines of British history c. 631-635 you might find it a bit spoilerish.
If you do choose to go read it, you’ll see I’ve been experimenting with map styles and beginning to lean more towards topographical maps which ultimately make the most sense in this context. I’ve used various types and levels of stylisation and am curious about which readers prefer.
Enjoy. And let me know—either here or over at Gemæcce.
newest »
Thank you! Thank you as well for the invitation to your Q and A with the Bristol Museums...very insightful. Many of attendees brought up intelligent topics and I loved hearing your answers. I learned a bit about some matters I was curious about, such as your observation techniques, something you've had right back when you wrote Ammonite which Marghe expressed, yet has been refined further in Aud and Hilde. I'm also grinning like an idiot at the similarity between Menewood and Moanwood, rampant cross-over speculation running wild in my random associations. Ahem. :) Once again thank you for including all the links and making your readers part of the creative and educational process!
