Latest posts filed under 'News'
New Raffalon story sold
I’ve sold a new adventure of Raffalon the thief: “Stones and Glass,” a 15,000-word novelette, will appear in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, probably in the next year.
For those wondering where Raffalon fits into the Archonate universe: in my first Archonate novel, Fools Errant, the protagonist Filidor carried with him on his wanderings a book entitled The Edifications and Discourses of Liw Osfeo. The place names and settings of the Raffalon tales are the same as those of the Osfeo book. As to whether or how those locations relate to Old Earth in its penultimate age, you’d have to ask that book’s author.
I will write more Raffalon stories as time goes by. When I have enough of them, and the first-use rights have all been accounted for, I’ll put them into one volume and self-publish them as an ebook and a POD paperback.
There aren’t enough Osfeo tales to justify their own collection, so they will be included in a round-up of non-Archonate sf stories that I plan to put out in e- and POD-formats down the road.
Another Raffalon tale, “The Inn of the Seven Blessings,” will appear in the cross-genre anthology, Rogues, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, and to be published by Bantam Spectra next year.
Jack Vance is gone
This is my second day in Athens, and I woke up to find an email telling me that Jack Vance, the author I most admire, has died after a good, long life. The thought that keeps going through my mind is that I could have taken the time to get down to Oakland and meet him, to tell him how much his work has meant to me.
To those of you who have goals you want to fulfill someday, don’t let that day wait too long. Some doors close, never to reopen.
To those of you who have never read Vance, I envy you the discovery of one of the great, singular voices in literature. Note that I’m not saying “in science fiction or fantasy” — but the whole great megillah of the human experience laid down in letters over the centuries by the best minds the species has produced.
He was that good. And by his work he will be remembered, long after the rest of us are wandering among the shades.
Hapthorn and Imbry Collections now in Paperback
As I posted here recently, I’m using Amazon’s CreateSpace subsidiary to offer some of my self-published ebooks as print-on-demand paperbacks. The first two titles are the short story collections 9 Tales of Henghis Hapthorn and The Meaning of Luff and Other Stories.
They’re now available from Amazon and directly from CreateSpace’s estore. Through the wizardry of my excellent webmaster, Bradley W. Schenck, if you click on the bookstore tab above and select “paperbacks,” the listed titles will appear. If you then click “add to cart,” you’ll be taken directly to CreateSpace’s estore (they pay me a higher royalty than does Amazon).
Most amazing to me, though, is that recent changes in the book distribution industry mean that you could also walk into any brick-and-mortar bookstore in North America or Europe, order the titles, and they’ll come in just like any other published book. Plus your bookseller will make a little.
I like booksellers. Anything that keeps them in business is all right with me.
Fools Errant Review
The Entropy Pump blog has posted a review of my first Archonate novel, Fools Errant: ” It’s a sly and witty travelogue that sports a fool as the main character (thought not a foolish one) who, instead of seeing the wonders around him, looks at the world as something that is out to get or least annoy him.”
A fair summary of Filidor Vesh, at least at the start of the novel. Here’s the first chapter.
Hapthorn and Imbry Paperbacks Coming
As part of my new venture into self-publishing my backlist, I’m taking advantage of the CreateSpace/Amazon connection to turn some of my ebooks into Print-On-Demand paperbacks. Amazing to me, these POD titles will not only be available from online bookstores, but can be ordered by actual brick-and-mortar bookstores in North America and Europe.
The first titles out will be the short story collections 9 Tales of Henghis Hapthorn and The Meaning of Luff and Other Stories, which have been selling pretty well as ebooks. They should be through the production process before the end of May.
Doing the paperbacks has slowed down bringing out the Guth Bandar story collection and one of my trunk books. But I’ll probably get to that after I’ve relocated to Athens at the end of the month.
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