I was hesitant to do a character study of this member of the Three, since her entire story is pretty much a spoiler for The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Still, 100K has been out for over 6 months now, and the mass market has been out for three, so I’m going to chance it. If you haven’t read the first two books of the trilogy yet, and you’re really, really anti-spoiler, look away now! I mean it!
Character Study: Enefa, part one KEEP READING
Trilogy: A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. Per Wikipedia, page last modified 23 October 2010 at 11:14. I note this because I’ve gotten some questions lately about my choice to make the Inheritance Trilogy three individual stories as opposed to the usual epic fantasy trilogy structure of a single story stretched over three books. First, a clarification: the Inheritance Trilogy is a single story. It’s just not the single story of any human character. Spoilers love you very
The Inheritance Trilogy That Could’ve Been* KEEP READING
This has nothing to do with writing, though it is partly inspired by some stuff I’ve seen in the SF/F blogosphere lately. Sorry in advance for that. Heard today about the decline of the Tribune company, which once managed some of the most respected newspapers in the United States. There are probably a lot of reasons why the company fell apart, not the least of which is the general decline of print media overall, but I was struck by this article’s descriptions of changes that occurred at the company headquarters when new management took over. Among other things, the new
The “harm” of political correctness: a rant KEEP READING
I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of “bridges” since reading this analysis of a prominent New York Times reporter’s writing on Africa, and his admitted tendency to center his stories on the non-African foreigners (usually Americans) present, rather than the people whom the stories are ostensibly about. Texas in Africa — correctly, IMO — notes that In the end, this answer is just another variant of the “good intentions are enough” mindset. It excuses stereotyping in the name of awareness, while assuming that Americans are too parochial to be able to recognize, relate to, and applaud the work
Bridges and Centers KEEP READING
::whew:: I have now finished the first draft of The Kingdom of Gods. Deep breath taken; celebratory drink with friends accomplished; happy tears shed. There will be more revisions, of course — lots more; “writing is revising”, as they say. Having done this process twice now, here’s how it usually goes:
Reflections on finishing the Inheritance Trilogy KEEP READING
Was having a conversation with someone in the publishing industry recently, and it triggered an epiphany for me. Basically, I think The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms became my “breakout” novel (i.e., the one that actually got published, as opposed to the ones still sitting in my harddrive) because I stopped caring about what the market wanted. OK, let me clarify. (Cut for length and a bit of profanity.)
Writers cannot live by fiction alone, and I need some mental breaks from working on Book 3, so it occurred to me that folks might be interested in learning more about the thought processes involved in creating and writing the characters from the Inheritance Trilogy. This will be a series; you’ll be able to find all of them under the category header “character study”. And naturally I figured I’d start with our girl Yeine. Cutting for spoilers!
Character Study: Yeine KEEP READING
Caught another episode of “Caprica” on TV last night. I’ve been haphazard about watching this series since the miniseries failed to capture my interest, and it’s still not really holding me. But there was nothing else on, so I watched. Note that I’ve missed a couple of eps of this series, so take all below with a grain of salt. I’ve been intrigued by the construction of the various colonies’ people as races in this society. The show’s creators seem to be trying to do a better job of things since Battlestar Galactica’s early years, when their handling of colony/race
Thinkythoughts on Caprica and Race KEEP READING