Sean Williams

I've had a fun week coming up with new ideas and making the odd public appearance (including one with Fiona McIntosh on Thursday night--hi gumnut!) and both the Royal Adelaide Show and SA Writers' Festival are looming large on my immediate horizon. In the meantime, a number of things have accrued that I need to post here, since they relate to books I'm very proud of and am keen for people to buy. :-)

First up, fans of Saturn Returns will be pleased to know that they won't have to wait until March to find out what happens next. MonkeyBrain Books is publishing a stand-alone novella that also happens to sit between books one and two of Astropolis. Cenotaxis might be the best SF (below 100,000 words) that I've written for a very long time, and it's coming out next month. Here's the final cover and blurb. Gaze upon it in awe. Chris, Allison and Sparth have done a wonderful job; I am completely chuffed.

Another piece of short SF that has done well for me is "The Seventh Letter". The latest leg it has grown concerns Robert Drewe's Best Australian Stories 2007, which will be coming out in November this year from Black Inc Books. I'm very proud that my little effort has been included. That's mainstream attention no story of mine has ever generated before.

Reviewers have been kind to me in recent days, also:

SF Crowsnest on The Blood Debt: "Sean Williams has produced that rare of gems, a fantasy book that really feels like you're visiting a new world, rather than a rehashed version of somebody else's milieu. The easy style and likeable banter between protagonists makes the book an enjoyable read and the plot keeps you wanting to come back for more."

SFRevue on The Hanging Mountains: "This book moves fast and it quickly swept me into the complex, beautiful and deadly work that Williams has so artfully crafted."

SF Crowsnest again, also on The Hanging Mountains: "Sean Williams is writing an important series here that does a great service to the fantasy genre by encouraging it to break tradition. His powerfully creative world-building should stand as a call to arms for fantasy writers to leave the world of Tolkien-aping lands behind and really start being adventurous. "

The wonderful Donna Hanson at the Specusphere on Saturn Returns: "You have to be on your toes as Williams leads you around the galaxy in the search of the truth and the search for self. It is well worth it."

There's more on the way, but I figure that's enough ego-stroking for one day.

To close, here's a post I wrote a couple of weeks back but didn't post for fear of putting even my most ardent readers to sleep. I'm tacking it onto the end to prove (if there was any doubt) that I need to get out more...
( pointless stats #23: itunes play count data )

Some quick things before I go quiet for a few days:

The Hanging Mountains has been selected as a BookSense Notable Book for July, when the beautiful Pyr hardback comes out in the US. Woohoo!

Echoes of Earth has just reached its fourth reprint here in Australia.

Deepspace's "The Barometric Sea", which you can stream from the link below, is my favourite music to write to at the moment. I used some of this composer's wonderful work during the reading of "The Soap Bubble" last year. Fans of ambient electronic and space music will approve. Go listen!

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