I’m not sure what possessed me, seriously. We occasionally take road trips, and maybe I wanted to test my limits. When I was younger I could drive 8-10 hours (with a few breaks) at a stretch, and a recent road trip to Chattanooga surprised me by revealing how easily drivable it was. So when I was asked to visit a remote site for a week to aid in a printer migration (vast herds of HPs and Epsons making their way across the tundra? Yeah, went there) rather than flying like a sensible person, I decided to drive. 983 miles. Probably not a good idea. Took two days, and 6-8 hours on the road is probably my limit these days. So I drove from MS to Lake Eerie in 2 days. Done it once. Probably don’t need to do it again. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Lord Yamada
Spectacle, It Ain’t
It occurs to me—not for the first time, nor with me first—that a writer at work, head down on a project, whatever it is, has to be just about the dullest creature on the planet. Yeah all of us, at once. The single dullest creature. It’s probably some sort of hive-mind effect going on, except for the fact that they’re no communal thought. Separately but altogether making up one really dull creature. Continue reading
It’s Always the First Time
I don’t know who said it first, but it’s been said before and it’s the absolute truth—“I don’t know how to write a novel. I only know how to write the last one.” There’s a lot of Zen in that statement, because the clear implication is, as the Zen masters would say, “It’s always the first time.” It certainly applies here. I’ve written either ten or eleven novels before now. I honestly do not remember the number. I could go to my works list and count them, but the exact number isn’t the point, because this applies whether it’s one novel or a hundred plus. No, the point is that I now know how to write those novels, because I’ve already done them. Which is a very roundabout way of saying that I’m in the process of learning how to write the current novel. By the time I’m done, I’ll have figured it out and, having figured it out, I won’t be doing it again. A tad ironic, yes, but there it is. Continue reading
Occasional Update
J
udging from the search engine terms that bring people to this site, at least some of you out there are wondering where I stand on various projects, so it’s probably time for another update. I’ll be as specific as I can be, and if anyone has any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them.
Power’s Shadow (Working title to the sequel to Black Kath’s Daughter, or more accurately, the 3rd in the Laws of Power series): I was about 17000 words into this when I had to put it on hold, and the reason for that should be clear in a bit. I’m hoping to get back to it sometime after the end of the year, but for now other projects have priority. I had to leave Marta in an interesting situation and I’m eager to get back to it, but that will have to wait.
To Break the Demon Gate (the first Lord Yamada novel): The publication date for this has slipped, but PS Publishing still plans to bring it out this year. The new target date is November, and I’ll make an announcement when I know more. Since this is PS, this will be a limited edition. I’m pleased to say that there will be a trade paper edition as well, but that’s not scheduled until 2014. I’ll give full details once I know what they are.
The War God’s Son (the second Yamada novel): This is the reason that Power’s Shadow is on hold. I’ve got a publisher waiting to see this one, so it has to take precedence, and as of now I’m about a third of the way through the first draft. My plan is to finish this before the end of the year. Right now that target still looks doable, but only if I concentrate on the book to the exclusion of pretty much everything else. So any other writing projects are going to have to wait. Frankly I’m used to working at my own pace, so having something like a deadline is…different. A good thing, but different.
Short Fiction: I have just two stories awaiting publication at the moment, at Weird Tales and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Not sure if the WT story will see print or not this year, but maybe. There likely won’t be any more until next year because I’m just not that good at multi-tasking. Especially without multi-time to go with it.
This is where the writing stands at the moment. Other non-writing aspects of the business are also in motion, and if anything else happens you’ll read about it here first. But for now, this is all the news that is.
Sometimes When Trouble Knocks, You Have to Answer
Mild spoiler alerts–mostly for those who have not yet read the Yamada book.
I’m an observer. By that I mean I try to pay attention to what’s happening around me. What people say, how they say it, what they do. How what they say often conflicts with what they do. That’s a natural state for me. People seldom become fiction writers if they don’t, at least to some degree, find their fellow human beings fascinating creatures. I don’t pretend to have any great insights, mind, but sometimes a story or book is just me thinking out loud about the subject of people, and why they do the things they do. Of course, it also means that I tend to keep my mouth shut in most social situations, which makes me very dull company. Yet even I know that sometimes you gotta face down the dog in his own junkyard.
So is this a blog post about my abundant shortcomings? In a way, yes. Or at least the perception of one. See, the reader response to Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter is, except for the volume of it, pretty much what I expected. A great many readers like it a lot or a little. Some think it’s a waste of paper. One or two think I’m a waste of perfectly good carbon. The usual. One thing I did not expect—though to be fair, I should have seen it coming—was the criticism of the women in Yamada’s world, or rather my portrayal of them. As one reader/reviewer pointed out, they tend to be demons like Lady Kuzunoha and Lady Abe or conniving schemers like Princess Teiko. And I thought about that for a little while and came to the conclusion that the reviewer was absolutely right. Yes, Lady Kuzunoha is a fox-demon. Yes, Princess Teiko is a schemer, and she did ruthlessly use Lord Yamada and her own brother to achieve her goal. But even as I conceded those obvious facts, my overall reaction remained something like, “And your point is?” Continue reading
Richard Parks 