I can barely believe this, and I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.
But…
Tor is printing out galleys now for HAWKSPAR, and will be sending a few to me.
Without cutting the book in half and printing it as two books. Without me cutting 60,000 words from the text.
According to Robin, it’s to be printed in one volume and intact.
I can’t believe it. I’m jubilant.
I don’t have a release date yet. I’ll see if I can get one.
Okay. The Mac sending mail sound has just echoed across the computer, which means the finished Ruby Key is on its way to my agent, Robin. I’m pretty wiped out, but very happy with the book. It wrapped at 63,000 words, which was well within my target zone, the new ending worked beautifully, (though I was revising and adding and changing things right up until the last word).
I’m done. It’s sort of starting to sink in. I’m done. (Until the revision requests, anyway.)
I have to do income tax stuff next—never fun, and that will take me about three days, I’m guessing.
And then?
Well, the Create A Plot Clinic.
Revising chapters two and three on the Green Magic proposal, and sending that back.
Hawkspar, when I get the revision requests.
Outlining the sequel to The Ruby Key.
A couple of Cadence Drake novellas or novelettes.
C.
The Sympathy for the Devil screenplay, which will probably undergo a title change to The Devil and Dayne Kuttner.
Lots of things to do. Figuring out priorities and scheduling all of them will be…interesting.
On my fifteen-minute stretch break, so this will have to be fast. Got news this morning that Anna Genoese is leaving Tor on the 20th, and that I’ll have a new editor. Anna says she’ll finish the edits on HAWKSPAR before she leaves, but obviously I won’t be able to finish them by the end of March (the previous due date), so at this point pretty much everything is up in the air.
I can’t say when the book will be out. Once my new editor and I have had a chance to talk, I’ll know more, and will pass on what I can.
………. strange karma continues ………….
Deadline 1: Got the GREEN MAGIC proposal off to Robin a couple days ago, heard back from her yesterday with revision requests (very small—overall, she was excited about the proposal), made the revisions over a couple of hours yesterday and resent the complete package, and that will go off to the editor, possibly today.
Deadline 2: I have Writer’s X’s manuscript (very good story) down to one small final section, and then I’ll do the overall crit letter. I’m still good to have that in the mail on the 15th.
Deadline 3: Next comes completion of THE RUBY KEY. I’ve been dreaming segments of this lately, always a sign that my subconscious is ready to play nice. I’ll start into that on Tuesday, and with that, will resume more regular posting, chronicling the progress of the story, plus the usual off-topic stuff.
Not looking any farther forward than Deadline 3 at the moment. I know 4: Hawkspar rewrite, and 5: 2nd 60,000-word YA, are out there. But for the moment, everything is giving the pleasant illusion of being under control and on time, so I’ll just enjoy that while I can.
The first draft of the Green Magic proposal went quickly. The second draft took another two days of massive work, because, well, I’m picky as hell and I ripped the first draft to shreds.
It’s done, it’s a bit longer, and I’m doing type-in now, and will be working late into the night.
The rest of the week will go to the Writer X novel crit, which I need to have in the mail on the 15th in order to have time to finish writing THE RUBY KEY and getting that into the mail by the end of March, which has to be done by then so that I can do the re-revision of HAWKSPAR before it’s too late to keep that book on the schedule (but the edit letter hasn’t arrived yet, so I may still have a wee bit of time on that. (And there’s one on-spec proposal that has to be fitted into all of this, yet, and the possibility of the completion of an in-progress novel. Before the end of April.)
My office is still a mess.
My goals for the year coming:
=================
Before the end of January
Finish novel crit for Writer X
=================
=================
Before the end of MARCH
Finish RUBY KEY
Write 50 pages and synopsis for Editor A
Write three chapters and synopsis for for editor B
(These are all solid, must-do goals)
=================
=================
Before the end of the year
(Will happen)
Finish the re-revision of HAWKSPAR, probably but not necessarily before the end of April (waiting on revision letter from editor)
Write the second MOON AND SUN novel (about 60,000 words)
Write the Create A World Clinic (est. 40-50K)
(Speculative at this point—Read as Chinese menu)
Option A
Sell and write REDBIRD (third stand-alone Korre novel) with Tor and Anna (est. 130K), plus one other item from one of the other menus
Option B
Sell and write another paranormal for Penguin and Claire (est. 90K), plus an item or two from other options on the menu.
Option C
Sell and write Refugee for Editor A (est. 150-200K)
Option D
Sell and write two or possibly three pseudonymous novels for Editor B (est. 120K to 200K combined)
Option E
Sell and write Create A Plot Clinic and Storyshowing Clinic and possibly Finish the Book Clinic (est 150K combined)
Option F
Write “C” or “Project Blue” or one or two other novels I have as on-spec novels
Option G
Some complicated combination of two or more of these options.
Remembering all the while that ‘the best-laid plans o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.’
So…
You made any plans for the new year?
I’d like to take the time to thank each of you who has faced out a copy of Talyn at your bookstore, or bought a copy for yourself or someone else, or recommended it to a friend or a bookseller. I apologize for being so distracted by garbage that I haven’t taken the time to say this properly.
It’s been an unpleasant week or so—most people probably think I should have just ignored the whole Little tempest, but I believe that someone who has been lied about has the moral obligation to defend his innocence. However, as noted by one commenter, anything you say when someone lies about you will only convince the people who want to believe the lie that it was justified, and that sort of hostility is no fun to deal with. While I know that I had to go on record correcting the lies, I acknowledge (and knew beforehand) that this whole thing would have sunk from lack of interest if I had let the lies stand.
You folks have been huge bright spots for me with this garbage, as well, and I want to thank you for that, too. Your support and encouragement, as well as your help with Talyn means more to me than I can say
Talyn debuts in paperback today. With luck, you’ll find it in local indie bookstores, where real people order books, and where support for my work has been strong. If you don’t have an indie store, then you may find it in your local chain bookstore, but computers order the books for chains, and they order to the net, a process that kills most writing careers in three books.
I’m not in danger of having my career killed at the moment, but Hawkspar could easily be the last Tonk/ Korre book. The sale of a third book in the series depends on the paperback success of Talyn. The Talyn hardcover had a small print run, and sellthrough was meager. If the hardcover showed up in your bookstore, it probably did so with one spined-out copy, and if that sold, no more were reordered. That was the story with most of the chains, including mine. With no sales reports in front of me, I have to guess that the majority of sales came from the indies.
There’s a very narrow time window (about a month) in which the book has a chance to succeed or fail. The clock starts today. If it succeeds, it will get another month. If it fails, though, it will disappear from most of the chains at this time in December, and that will be the kiss of death to Redbird, the third book.
If you have been waiting for whatever reason to buy Talyn, now is the time when buying it will make a difference.
If you enjoyed Talyn or the world of Korre, please recommend (read “beat over the head with”) the book to anyone you think might enjoy it. If you can’t find it in your local bookstore, please ask your local bookseller to order it in. Perhaps in quantity.
And if it isn’t available where you are, then you can buy it here from these online indies:
Or the chains online, of course:Amazon
Talyn is one of the two best books I’ve written (I consider Hawkspar its equal) and though I know the odds are against me, I want this world to succeed. If you can help out in any way, my deepest thanks.
And if you do a review or something else that might encourage people to buy, please post a link here. I’ll put a link to this post and links to some of the reviews on the front page.
All articles in this series, in order:
Heard from Anna (my Tor editor). HAWKSPAR could go two ways—divided into two books because it’s so long (and the hardcover version of TALYN did not take over the world) or seriously cut and kept in one book.
I’ve chosen option number two, because the book is one story, and cannot be made two stories, and I hate reading a book that ends in midair. I want a complete story from beginning to end. If there’s more going on in the world, and I want more books in the world, great, I’ll buy them when they come out, but the idea of waiting nine months to find out how a story ends makes me crazy. Anna was on my side on this, and is currently going through the manuscript tagging definite cuts and possible cuts, and as soon as I heard back from her, I’m going to get them done. I’ll have until May 1st to get them back to her, but I can’t give myself that long, because I have other books on the table—RUBY KEY and CULTURE CLINIC (Book II of the Worldbuilding Series) right now.
Meanwhile, I’m going to see if I can get a print version of LANGUAGE CLINIC onto Lulu today (it won’t be available until I’m sure it has real print, of course, which means I’ll have to order a copy). Tomorrow, I’ll start on CULTURE CLINIC.
But I swear, all I have to do anymore is think the word “schedule” and it explodes. Going to have to tag it Private Profanity and start calling it the S-bomb.
Done, done, done with HAWKSPAR, it is off to my editor and my agent, and I am so happy.
Also taking tomorrow off. Back Wednesday.