Rather belatedly I discovered the Italian omnibus for The Book of the Ancestor.
Thought I'd share the photo.
Monday, 28 February 2022
Wednesday, 9 February 2022
Hand Holding
This is a blog-post about hand holding. The previous sentence was hand-holding, since the title and the image below make it obvious what the blog-post is about.
Fantasy stories can be complicated beasts. They're potentially confusing even if we forget all the technicalities and twistiness of battles, wars, duels, mysteries, espionage, lies etc that might well bedevil other genres.
Fantasy almost always has magic and often has whole new worlds, so in addition to the convolutions of a regular book, the reader generally has to come to grips with a magic system, different cultures, strange creatures and the like.
But it's worse (better?) than that. When you introduce magic into the frame then you have to consider all the consequences of magic. If you introduced an easy teleportation spell into a world similar to (or exactly the same as) ours ... that's not the end of it. It's not just people popping up into each other's homes Harry Potter style. It's a complete upheaval of ... well ... everything. With one stroke you've destroyed the travel and transport industries. Cities become meaningless. People can live anywhere without roads. Space exploration is suddenly almost easy. What about privacy and security. The ramifications ripple on.
From a writer's point of view a complex magical world can be explained in a variety of ways:
- Tutorial. This is often called info-dumping, and is discouraged since it's a dry, and not very entertaining way to educate the reader. But it's fast and efficient.
- Observation. Magic etc could be explained simply by watching and having the reader pick things up as they go.
- Education. The reader could see the world through the eyes of a character who needs the same sort of education that they do - a newcomer - and follow them through their lessons, either formal (school) or informal (mentor).
- Exploration. The reader could follow a character who is ignorant and sets out to learn through exploration and discovery, figuring out how this stuff works in 'real time'.
And the question through all of this is how much hand-holding the author does. Does the writer put the pieces of the puzzle in front of the reader and assume they'll put them together? Does the writer put the pieces together for them then repeat the answer for the reader three times in three different ways?
Before I was published I used to share short stories on the now vanished Yahoo Groups. During that time I developed through observation and experience, what I called The Rule of Three.
The Rule of Three: If you want 90% of your readership to take onboard an important fact then you need to repeat it three times in the text.
This is not intuitive, but startlingly it appears to be true. Related to this is the observation that some people coming to Prince of Thorns believing it to be a standard medieval-esque fantasy have proved immune to the legions of clues throughout the book and have taken until book 2 to realise that it's set in a post apocalyptic version of our world. They managed not to see the references to modern philosophers, Shakespeare, Plato, Catholicism, plastic, chemical warfare etc, and actual encounters with a computer and a nuke.
This, however, is a game that cannot be won. For every reader bewildered by the obscurity and confounding mystery of your work there will be another complaining that you made it too obvious, that you bored them by belaboring the point.
The best you can do is aim for the optimum balance. Enough mystery to keep the eagle-eyed genius happy, enough clarity so that the distracted Mr/Ms Average reading in short bursts on the commute to work has a chance.
And it's hard. As the author, knowing the answers it's difficult to put yourself in the reader's shoes and say how much does this thing need spelling out? When is enough? When is too much?
Much of the editing conversation between me and my publishers concerns exactly this issue of clarity. I tend to err on the side believing my readers are on the ball, focused on the book. My publisher has perhaps a more realistic vision of Joe/Josie Average making the toddler's lunch with one hand whilst glancing at the book between conversations with their significant other.
But, dear god, it hurts me to in-your-face plain spell things out for you. I want you to have the wonder of discovery and the joy of understanding. So, know that when I let go of your hand, sit you on the sled, and shove you into gravity's care and the guidance of the slope ... it's an act of love!
Friday, 4 February 2022
First Lines!
I was asked about how I write my first lines over on my Patreon. Which set me thinking about my first lines. So I collected most of them together.
Here they are!
Almost all of my first lines! (of chapter 1, not prologues)
Books
Prince of Thorns
- Ravens! Always the ravens. They settled on the gables of the church even before the injured became the dead.
King of Thorns
- Open the box, Jorg. I watched it. A copper box, thorn patterned, no lock or latch.
Emperor of Thorns
- I failed my brother. I hung in the thorns and let him die and the world has been wrong since that night.
Prince of Fools
- I’m a liar and a cheat and a coward, but I will never, ever, let a friend down. Unless of course not letting them down requires honesty, fair play, or bravery.
The Liar’s Key
- Petals rained down amid cheers of adoration.
The Wheel of Osheim
- All I had to do was walk the length of the temple and not be seduced from the path.
Red Sister
- No child truly believes they will be hanged.
Grey Sister
- There are many poisons that will induce madness but none perhaps quite so effective as love.
Holy Sister
- Markus had grown beyond Nona’s expectations.
One Word Kill
- When Dr Parsons finally ran out of alternatives and reached the word ‘cancer’ he moved past it so quickly I almost thought I’d imagined it.
Limited Wish
- I never expected to die in a punt chase.
Dispel Illusion
- The two saving graces of explosions are that from the outside they’re pretty and from the inside they’re quick.
The Girl And The Stars
- In the ice, east of Black Rock, there is a hole into which broken children are thrown.
The Girl And The Mountain
- There had been a great fire and there had been a great flood.
The Girl And The Moon
- Yaz had walked on water her entire life, and now in this place where it fell molten from the skies they planned to drown her in the stuff.
The Book That Wouldn’t Burn
- They named Livira after a weed.
TBTWB 2
- Being able to see the walls of your prison is a luxury that few are afforded. Make no mistake though: every one of us is trapped.
Road Brothers:
A Rescue
‘I spent a year hunting down the men who burned my home. I followed them across three nations.’
Sleeping Beauty
A kiss woke me. A cool kiss pulled me from the hot depths of my dreaming.
Bad Seed
At the age of eight Alann Oak took a rock and smashed it into Darin Reed’s forehead.
The Nature of the Beast
Screams tore the night, underwritten by the crackle of fire in thatch.
The Weight of Command
In the first glow of a summer’s day the barn held an almost cathedral silence, penetrated only by shafts of light exposing every chink in its walls and turning the motes of dust within to dancing gold.
Select Mode
They call me a monster and if it were untrue the weight of my crimes would pin me to the ground.
Mercy
‘Serve revenge hot or cold, it will never sate you. It’s a hunger that only grows the more you feed it.’
A Good Name
The scars of his name still stung about his neck and shoulders.
Choices
‘They say knowledge is power. But I know everything and have no power.’
No Other Troy
‘Why are we here?’ Sir Makin asked, following me up the slope at a trot.
‘I had a dream.’
The Secret
The moon shows her face and Sim crouches, low to the ground.
Escape
In Orlanth there’s a popular song that will get you killed if a kingsman hears it on your tongue.
Know Thyself
‘Honour thy father.’ The words echoed from the throne as Gomst approached, hurrying the length of the black carpet that stretched from doors to dais.
Three is the Charm
I woke in the bed of Abigale Monici. Or rather half-way between it and the floor.
Solomon
Details matter. Most people would say that there’s never a good reason to cut a baby in half. I maintain that you should never cut a baby in half without a good reason. See the difference?
Morality Tale
It sounded like someone beating out a rug, and yet even before he turned the corner Radick knew that wasn’t it.
The Hero of Aral Pass
“War, my friend, is a thing of beauty.”
I once spent a whiskey-soaked night with a very dangerous young man in the middle of the desert, and that little gem is one of the few memories that survived the hangover.
The Devil You Know
Some say we carry an angel on our right shoulder and a devil on our left, and that both whisper to us all the days of our life. The truth though is that we carry them not on our shoulders but within us, and they are legion.
The New World
“A nun?”
“Well.” I tried my penitent face. Despite all that practice, I still wasn’t very good at it. “Nuns.”
A Thousand Years
Trolls are seven kinds of bad news.
Bound
“So, what, Nona Grey, is X?”
“Seven,” Nona said with supreme confidence. Sister Apple advised confidence when guessing. With sufficient gravitas even the wildest of lies can be made to sound plausible.
Thaw
“Nona!” Ruli ran across the quayside careless of her skirts and the master’s hat left tumbling in her wake.
Bulletproof
“Scram, kid.”
Mikeos danced away from the minotaur’s lazy swing.
The Ballard of Sophie Nu
“So you’re going to sit in the dark all day listening to classical music?”
Married to the Apocalypse
Rick knew that if he started something, anything, if he just picked up some new project and ran with it, the question would go away.
Deception
"It was this big!" Jak threw his arms wide. "I swear. I was so close
to catching it."
Saturday, 18 December 2021
A Year In Numbers ... Eleven!
For 9 of the last 11 years I've said: "It has been a very good 20** all told!".
2020 & 2021 ... hmmm ... Not so much. My books have done fine, but this year I've also spent 40 days and 40 nights in hospital with my youngest daughter during a pandemic that won't stop. And since on 4 of those visits she had septicemia and was close to dying, it wasn't much fun. She's been doing much better for the last three months though.
This post follows up from similar posts at the same time in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011 I record a year of ups and less ups. I take a minute to do the sums and raid the scrapbook.
This year I joined Patreon - which has been great fun so far. It's a platform that allows readers to support authors directly and encourages more exchange. We have a Discord that gets a lot of chat, and each Patreon tier comes with perks, which can be anything from book plates, and free stories, to free signed books and writing consults. I currently have 86 patrons - many thanks!
Since Prince of Thorns turned 10 this year, I'll be doing a smidgen of looking in the rear view mirror.
The Girl And The Mountain came out in 2021 and has been well received.
And here's the special editions from Anderida books with an art plate!
April 2022 sees the third and final instalment:
Some non-terrible 2021 news is that there's interest in making a TV show out of One Word Kill - so watch this space!
10th anniversary editions of Prince of Thorns are available for pre-order!
They're signed & numbered.
In the US you can order a leather-bound deluxe copy with internal art from original cover artist Jason Chan. An object of beauty!
In the UK you can order a hardback edition with a short Jorg story, and an afterword from me. These editions are at very different price points and are very different beasts - but both are great ways to celebrate Jorg at 10 and have his story in a beautiful book.
Lies, damn lies, and statistics to follow:
I'm passed a million "books added" on Goodreads. Those are crazy numbers!
Prince of Thorns passed 100,000 ratings in 2021 and I gave away a copy of the (sold out) Broken Empire omnibus to celebrate!
I've decided to stop posting the Amazon ratings as they're getting a bit dull.
The blog is bumping along around 1,000 hits a day - which isn't terrible - should hit 4 million in total in 2022.
And finally, as ever, our favourite cesspit of witch hunts and fake news: Twitter, where I continue my crawl forward with an extra 2,200 followers this year, same as last year.
Many thanks to all my readers for keeping me going! I hope you all have happy holidays and that 2022 is much much better for all of us!
Join my Patreon.
Sunday, 12 December 2021
Prince of Thorns - 10th Anniversary Edition - UK!
Today's big news is that as of 12 noon (GMT) the Broken Binding 10th anniversary special edition of Prince of Thorns went up for pre-order!
There are two very different - but both excellent - Prince of Thorns special editions. International postage with robust packaging + tracking + insurance is sadly VERY expensive.
Broken Binding's UK edition is going to help out all those Brits who complain about the postage from the US.
These two special editions not only ship from different continents, they are at very different price points, and necessarily different beasts.
Broken Binding edition - printed in the UK:
Numbered = 1000 copies, signed, hardback, sprayed edges, includes afterword and new Jorg short story (a short short story). Cost £30 on pre-order.
Lettered = 52 copies - as above, plus lined and dated. Cost £50.
Copies have arrived!
Grim Oak Press edition - printed in the US:
Numbered = 750 copies, double signed (author & artist), leather-bound foiled cover, embossed & foiled dust jacket, sewn in ribbon, and internal art by original cover artist Jason Chan. Costs $150 on pre-order.
Lettered = 52 copies, as above plus slip cased. Cost $500 - sold out within 60 seconds.
Hopefully between these two offerings most collectors are catered to!
Friday, 10 December 2021
My Reading In 2021
2021 has not been a bumper year reading-wise but I did manage one more than last year's 9 books.
Since my current read, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, is a long book and I've lots to do this month, I really don't think I'll finish it this year. Thus you're getting this post now rather than the traditional start of January.
I know some bloggers devour 200 or even 300 books in a year. I've no idea how. But I do like the fact that I can remember what happened in the books I've read, and I doubt that would be possible if I read ten times as many.
Here's a link to my reading in 2020. I've been doing this a while so you can step back quite a way.
As ever, every headline links to my review of the book on Goodreads.
Presented in chronological order, most recent read first.
Being a prose junky, this year's contenders for top read would be Sidewinders, Ten Thousand Doors of January, and The Fall of Babel.
Wednesday, 10 November 2021
Why I hate charity.
OK, so the title is click-bait, but it's also relevant since without the explanation provided by this blog post (and perhaps even with it) hating charity is likely what I would often be accused of.
When you have a cause that is dear to your heart it is human nature to seek ways to promote it - give it the attention it deserves - encourage the public to help solve the problem. I get that. I have, in the past, looked at the 10 million followers of a pop star and thought: It would be great if I could get them to help push this drive I'm making to collect money for the hospice for disabled children that I support. I mean ... it would just be a button push for them to retweet me, and I'm sure they don't HATE DISABLED CHILDREN or WANT THEM TO SUFFER. Surely there's no reason they wouldn't do it.
And yet, when you look at the social media feed of pop stars, film stars, etc ... they're rarely full of charity appeals. In fact, they're generally wholly absent. Are these fat cats so divorced from the hardships of real life that they don't care?
Let them eat cake!
Students of my social media will be aware that I have on many occasions (but not frequently) made efforts to raise money for Children's Hospices South West, and that over the years we've given them between us tens of thousands of dollars/pounds.
Why then would I be so selfish as to refuse to publicize the next worthy cause that someone reaches out to me about? I mean I don't have 10 million twitter followers, but I have 0.3% of that (30,000), and followings of the same order of magnitude on some other platforms.
Imagine, your friend / brother / mother / child has suffered some calamity and needs to raise money - or you've just realized that the atmosphere is on fire or the gorilla population is crashing. The urgent need would give you license to overcome any social embarrassment and to ask me to join the cause.
I'm not mocking or belittling any of these hypothetical or real emergencies - they are are variously every bit as important to the world &/or individual as mine are to me.
Here's the thing:
THE THING
1. Why do I have a social media following?
- people follow me because I write fantasy books they like, and because I post mildly amusing banter about the stuff I banter about.
2. Why do people only try to conscript me to their charity causes every week instead of ten times a day?
- people very rarely see me posting charity stuff
- people never see me posting other people's charity stuff
3. What would happen if I retweeted your charity post &/or boosted it across my social media?
- people would suddenly think that their charity need/cause was just as valid as the one I'd just boosted for someone else
4. Having boosted one charity cause, how would I say no to the next person to ask? Would I tell them that their sick sister was less valuable than the other person's injured baby? Or that their drowning polar bears were less worthy than the other person's ailing koalas?
- really, how would I? what sort of reaction would I get?
5. What would happen if I said yes to them all?
- And here's the kicker. That thing that you would like (quite reasonably) to take advantage of for your great cause - the modest but genuine attention I could draw to it - that thing is entirely dependent on my posting the content I post. If my twitter feed started to fill up with charity appeals the sad fact is that people would just stop paying attention to it. They know the world is full of valid needs and good causes - they don't follow me for that. They would unfollow, mute, look away, and the social media presence that I've worked on for a decade and that I need to prolong my writing career ... that would be rapidly spent, gone, and not even of use to the charities I was tweeting about.
6. Surely, Mark, you're overstating all this. You could find a compromise - just support the best ones...?
- Arrrrgggghhhh.
- No. The moment I get behind one thing, the very next person (and it won't take a week this time, it will take an hour, tops) will point directly at that thing and open with "I saw you tweeting to help this sick child / endangered species / great campaign, so I'm sure you'd love to help with my sick child / endangered species / great campaign.
- And within days I'm the guy who is either hourly posting charity appeals or hourly saying to people (this is how they will hear it) "That last appeal was more important than your sick child / endangered species / great campaign, but please keep on buying my books."
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