Worldbuilding Is Going Well

By Holly Lisle

I’m getting a lot done, and what I’m getting is good. I’m excited about the stories that are popping up from the worldbuilding, I’m fascinated by the characters I’m meeting, and the quirks of the world are drawing me in and forward.

Here’s the thing, though. If I sell this world and these stories, I’m unlikely to write them under my own name. I’m unlikely to link them to this site, too — they’re a long, long way from anything like what I usually write, and not something that I think most of the readers I’ve won over the past decade and a half would appreciate. I’m editing HAWKSPAR now, and I hope to maintain a long relationship with Tor and continue writing in the world of Korre for years to come. I want to hang onto my long-time readers.

I don’t want to betray their trust.

The world I’m developing at the moment would be for a line of books we’ll politely call ‘sensual.’ I’ve been upfront with sex in just about everything I’ve ever written; TALYN and the recent suspense novels LAST GIRL DANCING and MIDNIGHT RAIN would be good cases in point, but I’ve included sex in everything from my very first fantasy novel, FIRE IN THE MIST, to the WORLD GATES books.

I’ve never written books, however, where the sex was the primary story, and what I insist on thinking of as the real story makes up 50% or less of the book. Some of my work is fairly racy, but I have observed some personally-imposed limits on what I’m willing to include.

From what I understand of this project, however, my editor will be looking for more sex and fewer limits (and consequently, less story, though I do insist on making the real story a critical part of the books if I’m going to do them. I have no interest in stringing sex chapters together with filler — I don’t think this is what’s being asked for, but if it is, I’ll move on.) If I’m mistaken and we’re talking about less sensual, more story-centered books, I’ll do the books under my name and discuss them here. If I’m making the right assumptions, though … well, this is why God invented pseudonyms.

So I might not be posting snippets, or announcing new releases, or titles, or anything else, about these particular books.

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