Category Archives: novel

It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over

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Yamada_BTG_cover-V06b-PrimeHolidays. They’re what’s for…something, I don’t know. I was so confused that I posted the next installment of Power’s Shadow on Friday rather than today, where most people missed it. No worries, it’s still there, one post back in time from this one. Time travel—it’s what’s for breakfast.

There’s a variation on an old saying first attributed to Ian Maclaren, and it more or less goes like this—“Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” In that sense we all comrades in arms, without the benefit of spiffy uniforms, commissary, or a decent MASH unit. On our own, maybe, but it never hurts to remember that you’re not really alone. If security is an illusion, then so is our separation from each other. Once you realize that, maybe the war won’t be quite as tough. It’s something I like to remind myself of now and again. During and just after the holidays, I’ve found, is a good time to do it.

Early indications are that Yamada Monogatari: To Break the Demom Gate, is selling at least as well and maybe a little better than YM:DH, and doing so without any buzz or substantive reviews, so that’s something to be grateful for. The third volume, Yamada Monogatari: The War God’s Son, will likely be coming out in September of this year (started to say “Next Year,” but that’s now “This Year.” (“Time’s a trip, Man.” – Captain Cloud, and kudos to anyone who gets the reference). Assuming that one does okay, there should be one more YM book, at least. Isn’t written yet, but I’m thinking about it. If/when it’s done it will complete the first story arc for Yamada. After that we’ll just have to see. In the meantime I still have a test to study for and another book already begun yet to finish. My year’s cut out for me.

Year End Summary

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WRITING 02There was a time when any kind of year-end summary from me would consist mostly of what short stories I’d published and where. Maybe a long list is more impressive, but this year there are only a few things to report because most of the works are longer, which makes for fewer of them. Be that as it may, here they are:

The Manor of Lost Time, BCS #150, Special Double Issue, June 2014

The Sorrow of Rain, BCS #157, Sixth Anniversary Double Issue, October 2014

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Yamada Monogatari: To Break the Demon Gate, TP,  Prime Books, November 2014

 

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To Break the Demon Gate, Ltd. HC, PS Publishing, December 2014

Edited to Add: And after all that, I forgot this:

The God of Small Troubles

The God of Small Troubles and Other Stories, which includes:

The God of Small Troubles
Anchors and Sails
Olam Drexler’s School For Exceptional Children
Small Deaths
Miss Jean Takes a Walk

So that’s seven stories and two editions of the same novel. Not bad.

 

 

Yamada Monogatari: To Break the Demon Gate -Addendum

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Break The Demon Gates endpapers

 

The lovely dancer above is Ben Baldwin’s illustration of Lady Snow, from the endpapers for the PS Publishing edition of  To Break the Demon Gate. You haven’t met Lady Snow yet, but if you’re a reader of the series you’ll see a few familiar faces. In fact, some of it will be very familiar, since Part 1 of the novel is a revised version of “Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge.”

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating as the book is practically published even as I speak–I didn’t know that “Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge” was the opening to a novel when I wrote it, at least partly because it is a self-contained story arc all to itself. It wasn’t the whole story, and I did know that at the time, but I assumed it was because later stories in the series would expand and resolve it the unresolved issues. I was wrong about that. The stories do not, for the most part, directly address the events from “Moon Viewing,” nor do they ignore it, and some of the closure, as long-time readers know, comes from “The Ghost of Shinoda Forest.” However, that still leaves one heck of a lot of story. Continue reading →

Updates–Because Things Happen

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YMBreaktheGate_5.5 x 8.5_V01

You’re looking at what is probably the final cover for the Prime Books edition of  Yamada Monogatari: To Break the Demon Gate, barring any last minute tweaks. The original–and still official–publication date is December 3rd, but there’s a chance that will be moved up to mid- November. I’ll let everyone know once I know. I still have some hope that the PS limited edition will be out before then, but right now it’s anybody’s guess.  The third Yamada book, The War God’s Son is scheduled for mid 2015. I expect at least one more Yamada novel after that, though of course to some degree that depends on the next two.

Power’s Shadow continues to progress. I crossed the 40k threshold last week, so it’s officially a novel by SFWA standards. The story should wrap up at 60-65k words, maybe 70k at the outside. As of now I have no plans to discontinue the serial, so as long as I can stay ahead on the installments, I’ll keep posting them until the book is done. If I finish ahead of the installments, though, I’ll likely put the ebook edition out rather than waiting to catch up. That’s just theoretical, and probably far too optimistic. As with life itself, we’ll see what happens next.

Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter – Audible Update

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Step4-YamadaAudible.com has already cast the voice actor who is going to be doing the narration for Demon Hunter, and possibly To Break the Demon Gate as well. I don’t think I can mention his name just yet, but he’s bilingual and was born in Tokyo, so I doubt they could have found anyone more qualified. Normally in a case like this we’d be in contact for any questions the voice actor might have, but I rather imagine he won’t need the pronounciation guide. More likely he’ll be able to point out anything I got wrong, so we’ll see how it goes. I think it’s going to turn out great, and I can’t wait to hear it. Once I get a firm release date I’ll be sure to post that. Post? Heh. I’ll be shouting it from the rooftops.

Yamada_BTG_cover-V06b-PrimeYamada Monogatari: To Break the Demon Gate has its own page now at Prime Books, with a listing of places where you can pre-order. Early ordering does as much good for a book as anything–it nudges suppliers into ordering more copies and helps get the word out, so if you’re going to get the book anyway (and why wouldn’t you?), it couldn’t be much easier. Besides, most sources will have it for less than list.

One last note: Prime has also listed Yamada Monogatari: The War God’s Son in their official schedule for October 2015. Once we have the cover art set I’ll put it up here, so stay tuned.

Note: Edited to fix some obvious typos and incorrect usage. As the old saying goes, “I always know better. I just don’t always do better.”