adelaidesean | Entries tagged with devoured earth

Ken of Nethspace hurled a wide-ranging series of questions at me over the weekend for an interview on Wotmania, a large on-line community that started as a website devoted to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series and has since grown into several sub-communities, including one that discusses all things speculative. The conversation covers everything from religion to midgets, and includes my thoughts on the recent debate about SF and its audience (as triggered, chronicled and commented upon by Lou Anders). See the tags below for a more comprehensive list of topics.

Ken has posted the interview on his blog, or you can read it at Wotmania.

Meanwhile, The Crooked Letter (which has gone into its fifth reprint here in Australia) and The Devoured Earth are both reviewed over at Australian Specfic In Focus!.

There are a couple of recent developments that I'm not, at present, allowed to talk about. All I can say is that they're excellent and promise to make my life considerably better and more interesting in coming times. I'll report here when I can. Stay tuned.

Current Music: Thom Brennan - "Vibrant Water"

Gabe Chouinard has posted a thought-provoking treatise on The Crooked Letter and reviews in general here, in which I am exhorted to become "more purple, so to speak". It's a fair call. :-) Check it out. He has lots of interesting things to say.

(Late addition: the comments to this post include an explanation of the title of the The Crooked Letter. Anyone not wanting to wait until the last book of the series can get the answer now--not that it in any way constitutes a spoiler.)

Also The Library Journal has reviewed The Blood Debt:

'The second instalment in the author's "Books of the Cataclysm" series (after The Crooked Letter) follows the adventures of three companions who battle the unknown to save their families. Set partly in the modern world and partly in a fantasy environment drawn from archetypal myths and legends, this epic belongs in most fantasy collections.'

Nice.

Thanks, lastly, to everyone who came to my signing at Borders last night. It was great to see so many familiar and friendly faces. I'm heartened by the feedback. The Devoured Earth really feels like it's out, now. :-)

Current Music: light classical (Barlow, Fuchs and others)

It's been a hectic fortnight on the fantasy frontline.

The Devoured Earth debuted in the Dymocks national fantasy top ten list on its release in Australia. To celebrate its launch, readers in Adelaide are invited to Borders on Friday the 15th of this month, where I'll be talking about the book and signing anything thrust in front of me.

Publishers Weekly reviewed the beautiful Pyr edition of The Blood Debt thus: "The detail of Williams's imagined world and his characters' concern with the moral consequences of their actions compel interest". (Four books in this series, not three. I'll keep saying that here in the hope that the collective subconscious will eventually pick it up.)

Two new reviews of The Crooked Letter, here ("If you're looking for a good fantasy read that is part of the FWtE (fantasy without the elves) genre, check this one out.") and here ("as dark and gritty as a Miéville novel, as strange as Steven King, and more accessible than either"). I am well chuffed.

Drifting onto the topic of books not yet published, I finished the first draft of The Dust Devils on Sunday. How satisfying it is to whip out a completed ms in just thirty-three days! Kids books are fun. And on a similar note, this morning I finished my first short story in over six years, which I started yesterday. More of a "whew" than a "woohoo", but I am deeply excited about it. It feels like coming home.

Current Music: Devo - "Are We Not Men? We Are Devo"

So Jonathan Strahan rings me today and tells me that Gary Numan is playing a gig just up the road from the Worldcon hotel the same week we're there. This is a Big Deal for me, and not just because I've recently finished a book that relies significantly on the lyrics of a certain postpunk-then-electro-now-goth legend. Needless to say, I will be buying a ticket.

In newsy stuff: it's been a good week or two. Rob Stephenson published the world's first review ofThe Devoured Earth in aurealisXpress (he liked it; see below). I expect this to be the first of many reviews getting the number of books in that series wrong. :-) Also, Stephen Davenport posted reviews of Geodesica in The Independent and The Program (ditto; and ditto). Being compared to Asimov is, arguably, worth another smiley.

It's also been a good week for finishing mss, with drafts of The Changeling and Saturn Returns in their final-final stages. Both will be delivered early next week so I can get on with the former's sequel. All original thoughts are being pumped into these projects, so I apologise for the blandness of this LJ in recent weeks.

Lastly, some other snippets of good news: both The Blood Debt and Geodesica: Descent have been reprinted by HarperCollins. Also, the wonderful people at Arts SA have generously thrown some cash at the Broken Land series, for which I'm very grateful. And a movie production company has been in touch about one of my older short stories--a possibility I refuse to lose any sleep over, but will report on here in due course...

Reviews:

( Read on... )

Current Music: Mark Snow - "The Truth & the Light" (X-Files)

Hey, love those long publication names. We've come a long way from "Analog", "Omni" and "Eidolon" (or have we come full circle?).

Anyway, I'm still behind on posting properly and replying to comments, thanks to a couple of tight deadlines. My apologies. Excuses include: working on the final draft of Saturn Returns and making last-minute edits to The Devoured Earth. (Cover and blurb of the latter now available.) I'll catch up soon.

A couple of quick things:

There's an article on tie-ins by Carol Pinchefsky on Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. I'm quoted a couple of times. Read it here.

Also, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine published a collaborative story ("Dying for Air", with Simon Brown) and a collaborative interview (with Simon Brown and Shane Dix) in Issue 23, available for purchase as a PDF here

Current Music: cartoons in the background while Seb watches TV

Just a quick note to say that I'm still here and intending to post properly soon. June was a hectic month, thanks mainly to finishing the first draft of Saturn Returns, editing the copy edited ms and final pages of The Devoured Earth on very tight deadlines and attending Conflux (which included the world premiere reading of the "Soap Bubble" script and interviewing Sir Arthur C Clarke via satellite). All are fabulous things to have done, but I'm glad it's now July and things are starting to slow down.

Attending Conflux reminded me, as cons always do, of the importance of the community down here to my sanity, if not my health. "A solitary human being is a contradiction in terms," said Archbishop Desmond Tutu in New Scientist recently. "You are human precisely because of your relationships; you are a relational being or you are nothing." That's been an important principle for me in writing the new space opera, just as it is in life. It's been hard sometimes in the last year or two to keep up with friends, so being in Canberra, busy as it was, provided a wonderful opportunity to do that.

One more thought to close with. Saturn Returns features quotes from Robert Charles Maturin's gothic masterpiece Melmoth the Wanderer. Here's one I didn't use, and which could apply to a certain great debate at a certain con, and to certain men who are clearly having trouble growing up:

"[I]n early youth superiority of depravity always seems like a superiority of power."

:-)

Current Music: Steve Roach - "Structures from Silence"

2006 gets off to a great start with the publication of my 20th novel, Geodesica: Descent, and the reviews are terrific.

Harriet Klausner :
"Sean Williams and Shane Dix...are great world builders, their prose lush, visual and so descriptive that the audience can actually picture it, especially Geodesica. There are many surprise twists so that the audience never becomes bored as they peruse this enthralling space opera."

Paul di Filippo, scifi.com:
"Williams and Dix have a flair for combining slam-bang adventures, intriguing characters and cutting-edge scientific and philosophical speculations, resulting in books that elevate your adrenaline and your intellect. This latest series is no exception to their reign."

Russell Letson, Locus:
"These are not writers who are content to let us curl up with a cozy tale of exploding suns or galactic empire-busters. They know that the winds between the stars probably blow cold and that the significant half of "post-human" comes in front of the hyphen. It makes for an astringent kind of entertainment, but one that sticks in the head after the bubbles of lesser brands have evaporated."

This edition was published by Ace in the US. The Australian edition will be released by HarperCollins in April. An Adelaide venue, The Jade Monkey, gets a guest spot in the book, so watch this space for news of a party to celebrate.

Happy new year to all!

PS. To make things even sweeter, I finished the first draft of The Devoured Earth last night. Hurrah!

Herein a few newsworthy items I've accrued in recent weeks but haven't done anything about, partly out of laziness, mostly out of not having enough time, thanks to

(1) The Devoured Earth, which became half a book a couple of days ago. That is, I'm halfway through the expected word length of around 150k. It's been fun, which has come as an immense relief, as it's the last in the Books of the Cataclysm and if I wasn't enjoying it I'd be worried that no one else would be either. The book before it,

(2) The Hanging Mountains, hit the shelves in Adelaide today, a hefty tome with a beautiful Greg Bridges cover. The cast gets larger with every book, but Sal and Shilly and Skender are still there. I can't promise that I won't kill them off at some point, though, especially after the bloodbath of

(3) The Crooked Letter, which went into its fourth reprint this week. The US edition is currently being laid out ready for its publication in hardcover by Pyr in April next year. The second book in the series, The Blood Debt, is due out in the States in October. That'll make three US hardcovers in one year, thanks to

(4) Geodesica, recently picked up in omnibus form by the SF Book Club for a February release. Both books will soon be reviewed in Locus. Watch this space.

(5) Good news comes in fives, but ways of linking them don't. Oh well. The final snippet concerns my Masters in Creative Writing from Adelaide University, which I seem to have passed. And passed with a High Distinction, what's more. That makes up for lots of things. I'm very pleased--and looking forward to wearing a silly hat and gown at the ceremony in a couple of weeks, and finally being able to put letters after my name. Woohoo! (The Changeling's ultimate fate remains in limbo. Will report here in due course.)

There may be more news before the end of the year. Using "#1" in the subject line definitely implies a certain hopefulness. I will keep my fingers crossed, but won't be disappointed if there isn't. It's been a good month. I'm grateful.

Sean

Current Mood: chipper

It's been an unhappy few weeks, but there is always a silver lining. The Changeling, the short, dark fantasy novel for kids that I wrote for my Masters, has been printed, bound and submitted for examination. With help from certain very generous members of the local community, plus my fellow students in the Creative Writing unit at Adelaide University, I think it's turned out pretty well. Grade and publication details to follow (touchwood!).

Also, the last installment of the Books of the Cataclysm, The Devoured Earth, has been rescheduled for September next year. Apologies in advance for the delay, but that gives me some much-needed space at the moment to sort a few things out. I'm not used to life getting in the way of writing; normally it's totally the other way around. :-/

Here's a short blurb for TDE that I knocked up for a HarperCollins catalogue last night:

"It's the end of the world--again. Last time, Seth and Hadrian Castillo trapped Yod in the Void Beneath and sacrificed their future to keep it there. Now Yod is stirring and an even greater sacrifice is demanded of the twins and their new companions.

"A conspiracy of seers fights to peel back the veil from the darkness ahead. Strange new beings from forgotten corners of existence converge on the tomb of the Goddess. A dragon with its own agenda takes an unlikely ally--and gives a ghost from the future the chance she needs to save the man she loves.

"Among the ruins of two worlds, with the future of every living thing at stake, a handful of lives are all that stand between success and utter failure."

Now all I have to do is write it. :-)

Cheers,
Sean

Because it hasn't had enough titles already, THE CHANGELING GOD is now THE DEVOURED EARTH. Thanks to numerous people for helping me work this out.

The decision was made in Queensland, at a writers' retreat with Rob Hood at Prue Mason's wonderful Rowan House. (How many plugs can I fit into one sentence?) Thanks to everyone involved for making it a wonderful experience.

Lastly, thanks to Deborah Biancotti for introducing me to Scrubs. So much good TV; so little time...

S

I'm back from the Writers of the Future bash in Seattle (a blast) plus a brief holiday in Thailand (a long-needed recharge). Back to numerous deadlines. Nothing new there. :-) The Hanging Mountains CEM needs to be edited and in the mail by next week; I have Masters course-work to catch up on; The Changeling God is about four weeks behind schedule and still needs a title. But it's brilliant to be cold again, and this is the best time of the year to be in Adelaide. Hurrah!

For photos of WOTF, Cat Sparks has a great gallery here.

Cheers,
Sean

PS. Good news to follow...