Another Quick Update

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Yamada_DH_FinalCover_smlAccording to Locus, the hard cover limited edition of To Break the Demon Gate from PS Publishing is now scheduled for March of next year. The trade paper reprint should follow next December from Prime Books. That is, of course, if PS keeps that schedule. Otherwise Prime may wind up doing the original and the ltd edition becomes the reprint. Publishing is funny like that.

A story of mine, “Cherry Blossoms on the River of Souls,” (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #131, Fifth Anniversary Issue) has scored a “Recommended” rating from both Lois Tilton and Rich Horton. First time that’s ever happened. Wonder if I can do it again…

The rewrite on The War God’s Son has been delayed slightly by domestic issues, but I still expect it to be finished before the end of the year. I was shooting for the end of November, but obviously didn’t make it. As it stands, it’s pretty much eaten all my writing time for the entire year of 2013. Novels are a huge commitment, and a huge gamble. The potential of course is that one which is well-received can advance your readership by leaps and bounds because there is a large category of readers who never touch short stories. The potential for losing ground is there also, simply because it takes just as long to write an unsuccessful book as it does to write a successful one, and in the meantime you’re not writing anything else. You’re both out of sight and possibly out of mind with your readers during that period.

I think I’ve written a good book, a worthy follow-up for To Break the Demon Gate that continues Yamada’s journey and shows the inevitable changes in the character. It was worth doing. How well it does or doesn’t do is almost beside the point. Yes, I know, but I did say “almost.” Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter sold better than anyone expected (me not least of all), and that was nice, but I need To Break the Demon Gate to do well also so that the publisher will want The War God’s Son. I need it to do well so that…well, you get the idea.

But I promise to get back to Power’s Shadow (sequel to Black Kath’s Daughter) next, whatever happens. I’ve been telling Marta’s story for a long time. I think she’s a little tired of waiting, too.

PS: An update to the update–First Reader finished the final section of the book last night and pronounced it Good. Which for First Reader is like fireworks and party hats. I took care of the last revisions this morning so, short of any editorial revision requests, I’m calling The War God’s Son done. So I wrote a page of Power’s Shadow to celebrate.

A Word About Conventions

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WRITING 02If you’re a writer in the sf/f tradition, the subject of conventions is going to come up sooner or later. If you’re coming to writing through fandom, chances are that you’ve been attending conventions for a considerable length of time and what is there to talk about? And then there are those new authors who get told by their editors or other close associates that “You really need to attend conventions” and they go “Conventions? What’s that?”

What it is often called, or was before sub-genre fragmentation took over, is “A Gathering of the Tribes.” (Though some reserve that term for WorldCons) Fans and writers and artists and such folk gathering together on a weekend to meet each other, talk shop, drink in the bar, hang out with friends, sometimes attend panel discussions and readings, maybe meet your favorite author. That kind of thing. There’s usually one going on somewhere, most weekends.

I still remember my very first, long before I was selling. I was never a real fan, mind you. Probably for the same reasons that I’ll apply to the subject of conventions in a minute, but I was a reader and aspiring writer, and I knew about them. Usually they were taking place a long way from where I had just started work after college, and I had no travel budget to speak of. However, I learned of one within driving distance, and it was JUST IMAGICON, being held that year in Memphis, TN. It was back in 1978, and as for the convention itself, you can probably imagine what it was like for someone like me: Theodore Sturgeon. Kelly Freas. The de Camps. It was, and I say this without either irony or hyperbole, like walking among gods. Continue reading →

Yamada’s Saga – Timeline

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Japanese Mask

It occurs to me, with the mixing of short fiction and novel-length stories that make up the Yamada timeline, that it might not be a bad idea to set this all out now, at least to the degree I understand it (and if you think the writer knows everything about what they’ve done, think again). Most of the stories occur in the timeline/continuity in the order that they were written, but the novels do throw one or two curves into the mix, so here goes:

 

“Fox Tails” – First Yamada story written. Knew it was a series then, didn’t know where it was going.

“Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge” – Second Yamada story. Yamada’s sad history with Princess Teiko is revealed. This was the story where I think I first got a good handle on who Yamada was and what he was about.

YAMADA MONOGATARI: DEMON HUNTER.  First Yamada collection. The stories contained therein were usually a reader’s first introduction to the series and were published over a span of years and appear in the order they were written, but the continuity is not complete in them because….

Here’s where it gets a little complicated:

TO BREAK THE DEMON GATE.  First actual Yamada novel. TBTDG incorporates “Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge” which forms the first section of the book, and no, I didn’t know that it was the first section of a novel when I wrote it. I figured that out later. The balance of the novel concerns the events leading up to Yamada’s final confrontation with Lord Sentaro. This was written after several of the stories appearing in YM:DH but before “The Ghost of Shinoda Forest,” which ends the collection, but in the continuity of the series, they all, except “Fox Tails” and “Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge,” occur after the events of the novel. At the end of TO BREAK THE DEMON GATE, Yamada has still not made peace with the memory of Princess Teiko. That comes later (see “The Ghost of Shinoda Forest.”) I’m not sure when the PS Publishing limited edition is coming out, but Prime Books has the trade reprint scheduled for December 2014.

“The Sorrow of Rain” – If you have no idea what this story is, that is because it hasn’t been published yet. But it falls in the timeline before “The Ghost of Shinoda Forest” but after TO BREAK THE DEMON GATE.(Edited to note: Oops. It falls after “The Ghost of Shinoda Forest.”  I misremembered.)

THE WAR GOD’S SON – complete but under revision. The events of this book occur about seven years after “The Ghost of Shinoda Forest,” and take place after all the short stories written to date in the continuity. The novel is set during what is usually referred to as The Nine Years’ War in Japanese history (though, with delays and truces, it was more like twelve). The tearing of the social fabric that will eventually bring about the end of the Heian Period and the rise of the samurai is already evident, but won’t manifest completely for another hundred and twenty years. We also get to meet Yamada’s elder sister. There is no current publication date scheduled.

And that’s where it stands. Confused? I would be. I often am.

Muse and Writer Dialogues #10

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Chapter4FADE IN

 A room that passes for an office. There are bookshelves on one wall, a motley assortment of carvings, signed storyboards, and framed magazine covers on the free wall space. On the far wall is a medieval-style heraldic wall display of a cockatrice and a banner in bad Latin “Pullus non Est.”  Horizontal files sit beneath the window , and on top of those  there used to be a free-standing rack holding Japanese swords, only they had to be removed because of the cats. The computer desk is on the wall nearest the door, facing away from the window. Beside that is a printer on a stand. In the base of that is a PC and a PS3. The PS3 is not currently in use.

Enter the  MUSE, currently in her Greek goddess mode. Writer is sitting at the desk, watching an instructional video on the computer.

MUSE: What are you doing?

WRITER: Taking a music lesson. I’m learning to play “Bad Moon Rising.”

MUSE: You are not a musician. You are a writer, and you’ve got writing to do.

WRITER: First, I’m not a musician YET.

MUSE: Stop kidding yourself. You don’t have the knack. You know it and I know it. Continue reading →