FYI for NYC locals: TONIGHT: Weds., Oct. 19th 7:00 p.m. @ The Center for Fiction The Wave in the Mind: A Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin Authors John Wray, N.K. Jemisin, Ellen Kushner, Michael Swanwick, and moderator David G. Hartwell discuss Ursula K. Le Guin’s legacy from the Earthsea books to her influence on today’s new writers. Wine & booksigning after If you’re in the area, come join us!
Ursula Le Guin Big Read Panel tonight KEEP READING
…or a hoagie, actually, but I prefer poboys. To clarify this cryptic header: Fantasy Matters, a fantasy review/fan site, is doing Inheritance Trilogy Week in honor of The Kingdom of Gods‘ release! They reviewed The Broken Kingdoms yesterday, and today features a guest post from me, on the macro-scale worldbuilding that went into the Inheritance Trilogy. Also, hoagies. Future features are to include a post by an expert on the theology of the trilogy and of course a review of book 3, and there’s already an interview with Nubia Palacios, the artist who did the Yeine concept drawing I shared
Fantasy Matters Focus: On Why the Universe is a Shrimp Poboy KEEP READING
I’ve noticed that a lot of writers usually indulge their creativity in more than one way. Alas, I can’t sing or draw, and my violin skills are a good 20 years out of date (and were mediocre anyway, no matter what my father says). I really wanted to take kung fu as a kid, but my mom made me take ballet instead. You can probably guess how that turned out. But my family also taught me many ways to love food, and indulging that love has been another art for me. I love growing food, in part thanks to many
Dear US Readers: I’m sorry. For whatever reason, the UK/Commonwealth version of The Kingdom of Gods released a good 3 weeks ahead of the US release date. So now you’ve had to endure the British-accent-inflected “Nyaa nyaa”s of your across-the-pond brothers and sisters. You’ve had to duck and dodge like Grant Hill in the playoffs to avoid spoilers. You’ve… had to… ::deep sigh:: …wait. This was not my decision, although it works well for me by building buzz ahead of the US launch. But I’m not gloating or anything! So please, stop yelling at me. I’m sorry! To distract you
Stuff you should read while you wait KEEP READING
Ask me anything! I do a lot of interviews. A lot. Of interviews. And those are just the ones from this year, which are online in text or audio form — I don’t reprint the ones in print magazines, or the ones in my own books (there’s an interview in the back of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and The Killing Moon). I’ve tried to keep track of most of them here or here, but frankly I know I’ve missed a few. Slippery li’l buggers. Anyway, I’m fond of not reinventing the wheel, so I figured I’d start this post as
The Neverending Interview KEEP READING
Orbit published its Spring/Summer 2012 catalog recently. I’ve got the physical copy, which contains a gorgeous two-page glossy spread advertising the book to retailers, but Orbit decided to also publish the covers on its website for all to enjoy. (Which is fortunate, as I no longer own a scanner!) So go look at The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun, and marvel at their dark glory! (They’re next to The Kingdom of Gods because that’s when I imagine the mass market paperback will come out.) I love these covers — but note that they’re not final, and the final version
Early look at the Dreamblood covers KEEP READING
Posted a little early, because I’m going to be busy tomorrow and won’t have time to update. In which chapter 2’s cliffhanger is resolved… sort of… Oh, and note the change to the website’s main page header! Preorder pages have been confirmed at all the usual retail suspects (except Borders, unsurprisingly). So preorder at will, preorder at will, preorder at will.
Sample Chapter 3 of KoG KEEP READING
I’m having a party at World Fantasy this year, because The Kingdom of Gods launches that very weekend. Got a suite already reserved, planning a theme — a slumber/pajama party, since that’s something Sieh would love — and ordering party favors. I’m going to have badge ribbons, among other things, so that people who come to the party can add it to their con badges. (If you’ll be at WFC, come! And bring your jammies!) So what should go on the badge ribbons? (Or other marketing swag I might do?) [poll id=”2″] ETA: ARGH. The poll isn’t working. Sorry folks;
Previous Snippets posts can be found here. The Kingdom of Gods was hard to write! It was the first time I’ve ever started a book without a clearly-established plan in mind — I knew where I wanted to go, but not how to get there — and under deadline pressure. So I wrote several starter versions of the book before I found the right voice and direction for it. Some of these got quite long; I probably wrote an entire novel’s worth of material in order to find the right way of telling this story. But that’s OK, because I
Snippets 3: Kingdom of Gods outtakes KEEP READING
Forgot to mention this here, though I did on Twitter — famous fan James Davis Nicoll did an interview with me in Publishers Weekly earlier this week, to coincide with their review of The Kingdom of Gods. (Spoilers for the third sample chapter, which goes up next week!) Some excerpts from the interview, which is published in their print edition but also here at the Genreville blog: JDN: One of the defining elements in the Inheritance Trilogy was obsessive and often destructive love. Another was a political structure notable for its brutality and authoritarian aspects. The two elements are linked
Publishers Weekly! KEEP READING