Furious Heaven trundles closer: July 2021
I have turned in a draft of Furious Heaven. September, October, and November will be wall to wall revisions.
Meanwhile I’m working hard on a second novella for tordotcom publishing. It is not related to Servant Mage but is a completely different setting and characters. I hope to finish a draft before revisions for Furious Heaven fall into my lap.
Don’t forget: You (yes! YOU!) can pre-order Servant Mage, which drops on 18 January 2022. The cover by Tommy Arnold is spectacular.
Oh, wait, I could add it here, couldn’t I?
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The Tor Books (USA) trade paperback of Unconquerable Sun is available now.
All print and e-versions of Sun available in UK/Commonwealth with Head of Zeus.
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My novelette “The Long Walk” has been announced as one of forty stories featured in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2021, edited by John Joseph Adams with guest editor Veronica Roth. I’m honored to be in such stellar company.
“The Long Walk” originally appeared in The Book of Dragons, edited by Jonathan Strahan, a great anthology in its own right with fantastic illustrations by Rovina Cai which has just been named as a World Fantasy Award finalist (as has Cai).
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Great news for audiobook lovers. Tantor Media have picked up volumes 4 - 7 of Crown of Stars, so these will be recorded and released in due order. The first three volumes are already available, narrated by excellent voice actor Shiromi Arserio. Links and publication dates when I have them. I would not expect Child of Flame before 2022. The first three are available now.
The completion of Crown of Stars in audiobook means it joins Court of Fives and the Spiritwalker Trilogy as completed series available in audio form. Black Wolves and Unconquerable Sun are also available in audiobook, as are a number of short fiction works by me at Realm (formerly Serial Box).
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The final two Narrative Worlds vidcasts are up on the SFWA You Tube Channel:
Nilah Magruder: The Visual and Tangible as Detail in Background Setting
Malinda Lo: Research as a Vital Tool for Worldbuilding
I tentatively plan to do a “season two” starting in October. I loved all these discussions and if you have missed any, you can search out the other six via either of those links or on You Tube by searching on SFWA Channel.
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Recent public (not locked) craft of writing posts on my Patreon include:
Writing a Second Novel in a Series
Two in depth posts about the development of the Crossroads Trilogy:
The genesis of the Crossroads Trilogy from a prologue
Plotting the Crossroads Trilogy: The intersection of setting and character
as well as two promised posts on how to handle large casts in long novels
Managing the Big Cast of Characters
Some thoughts on introducing large casts of characters
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Finally, by popular demand, I wrote a three part essay series subtitled “Excavating Unconquerable Sun” in which I discuss the historical influences for SUN and how I adapted them for space opera and also how and why I included easter eggs for the unwary.
Part One: Reflections on Adapting History into SFF (which places and events represent real places and events from the past)
Part Two: The History is Already Queer (on which historical people I made sure to include and why)
Part Three: The Horse is a Spaceship (how I altered events, people, and things to fit a space opera universe, and what about all those easter eggs?)
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Finn chillin’ as I work, thinking of what he’d rather be doing. Like playing.
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As always, thank you. I could not do this without you.
Kate Elliott