How to Avoid Committing Trilogy Three Times In a Row: Jacey Bedford introduces her new fantasy novel
The Amber Crown, my seventh book, is due out from DAW on 11th January. I’d like to thank Sarah for giving me space on her blog for me to shout about it. DAW is giving me an online launch on publication day. Join my mailing list to get the exact time as soon as I know it myself. The Amber Crown is being published on both sides of the Atlantic. My other six books are published in North America only, so they are only available in the UK as American imports, which means you can only get them as physical books over here, not electronic ones. The Amber Crown, however, is a trade paperback (the large format one) available in print or on Kindle on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Amber Crown is a standalone. After writing two trilogies, I fancied writing a story which could be wrapped up in just one book.
When I started writing the first Psi-Tech book (Empire of Dust) and the first Rowankind one (Winterwood) I never actually thought that I’d end up with two trilogies. At that stage I was unpublished and writing on spec. I’d made the rookie mistake several years earlier of writing the first two books in a trilogy. My (then) agent couldn’t sell my first one, and therefore she couldn’t even submit the second one, so I effectively wasted two or three years of my writing life. After that I decided to write standalones with the potential to become trilogies, so when my lovely editor bought Winterwood way back in 2013, she asked that wonderful question, ‘What else have you got?’
I sent her Empire of Dust which became the first Psi-Tech book and actually ended up being published before Winterwood because there was a science fiction-shaped place in the publication schedule. My editor liked it enough to order a sequel (Crossways) and then a third one (Nimbus). The same thing happened with the Rowankind books (Winterwood, Silverwolf and Rowankind) so I ended up with two trilogies.
Without really intending to, I committed trilogy twice.
The Amber Crown always told me that it wanted to be a standalone. (What? Your books don’t talk to you?) My trilogies have single book plots (no cliffhanger endings) plus an overarching problem which takes three books to resolve. There’s a single problem in Amber, and it’s resolved by the end. I have no intention of writing The Further Adventures of Valdas, Lind, and Mirza, much as I liked spending time with the characters while I was writing.
The big problem is that the assassination of a (good) king plunges the Baltic country of Zavonia into chaos. Valdas, the dead king’s bodyguard, has not only failed in his duty, but he’s on the run accused of the murder. Mirza, witch-healer of a Landstrider band, is given a task from beyond the grave by the dead king. And Lind, the actual assassin, is beginning to think it was a bad idea to take on the job, especially since he believes there’s magic at work. It’s up to these three flawed individuals to discover who ordered the assassination and to set things right before Zavonia ends up fighting a costly war on two fronts.
Jacey Bedford is a British writer of science fiction and historical fantasy. She is published by DAW in the USA. Her Psi-Tech and Rowankind trilogies are out now. Her new book, The Amber Crown, is out on 11th January 2022 and is available from Amazon. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic, and have been translated into Estonian, Galician, Catalan and Polish. In another life she was a singer with vocal trio, Artisan, and once sang live on BBC Radio4 accompanied by the Doctor (Who?) playing spoons.
Website/mailing list: http://www.jaceybedford.co.ukBlog: jaceybedford.wordpress.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/jacey.bedford.writerTwitter: @jaceybedfordArtisan: http://artisan-harmony.com
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