Quick Update
Hi, everyone
This is a fairly minor update, for various reasons.
I have completed the first draft of The Unnatural Order (Schooled In Magic 27) and it is Currently winging its way to the editor. I’m keeping her busy, so I don’t know precisely when it will be up for purchase. But I’m also waiting on the cover, so I suspect it will take at least a month to do the editing and finalise the cover and probably more like six weeks.
My current plan is to write Lady Barb’s Tale, which is a story I have been waiting to tell for some time, that fills in precisely what happened between Lady Barb and Void ten years before Schooled In Magic. There are elements within the story that connect to Schooled In Magic 27, but I hope it will be fairly stand-alone. I intend to combine this story and Cat’s Tale with the more novellas from the fantastic schools collections, and publish it as the second tales of the nameless world. I’m waiting on the cover for that too.
After that, I intend to write The Fires of Freedom, which will be the direct sequel to The Burning World, rather than the King’s Secret. I do have a good plan for the latter, but it will be several months before I can get a cover so I do think my time will be better spent writing something that can be uploaded fairly quickly afterwards.
After that, I have been asked to write the sequel to Sufficiently Advanced Technology, which has been out for quite some time by this point. I did have an idea, but it refused to gell and certain other ideas were not quite as original as I had thought. I do intend to finish drawing out the plot, and then try to write it as a 90K book rather than 120K. We’ll see how it goes. If you think is a terrible idea, please feel free to tell me.
As you know, I went to the Glasgow WorldCon. It was very much a mixed bag. On one hand, I sold 53 books (out of 60) and then leant a few interesting things about which books sold better than others. It was probably a mistake to bring copies of all three Cunning Man books; in hindsight, I should have brought more first books and/or standalones. I sold out completely of Ark Royal, the Empire’s Corps, and Schooled In Magic. On the other, it was very, very, draining and we wound up going home a day early (which led to a silly argument with the staff, who insisted I needed to take the rest of my stuff out the front door (instead of opening a side door that is legally required to be unlocked), and then carry it out instead of using a trolley). It was good to meet a few people I had only known online, and I handed out a number of leaflets for both Point Of Divergence and Fantastic Schools. If you are interested in either, please drop Dale or me an email.
(Dale has also got a new alternate history book out, which helped to shape my thoughts for The Flight of Werner Von Braun (and I wrote the introduction), Hitler Doesn’t Declare War (on America, 1941). It is well worth a read. You can find a list of his other books here.)
I met Simon R. Green – a very popular British science-fantasy and straight fantasy writer, his Deathstalker books are the only ones comparable to Star Wars – and asked him if he would consider doing an introduction for FS, so hopefully something will come of that. I also met Robert Silverberg, and exchanged a few brief remarks. It’s sad to realise just how many of the old pros are no longer participating, and just how much we will miss them once they are gone.
And now the kids are back at school. Woohoo!
As always, let me know what you think. And please review.
Chris
