To Live Rather Than To Wait
April 2022
I have been waiting and waiting since my last newsletter (early February), each week believing I would have news about a publication date for FURIOUS HEAVEN (which is revised and in production) or a public announcement for my next Tordotcom novella (technically a short novel, which is also revised and in production).
Since I currently have nothing to report on these fronts, I will drop a few smaller pieces of news and links for the interim.
I swear, the hardest thing for me to learn is to live rather than to wait. I’m still working on it.
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My short story “The Cleft of Bones” is available in the anthology LOST WORLDS AND MYTHOLOGICAL KINGDOMS, edited by John Joseph Adams and featuring stories by many wonderful authors.
From Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea to Journey to the Center of the Earth, from the fabled island of Avalon to the lost oasis of Zerzura, from The Land That Time Forgot to the golden city of El Dorado, storytellers have long imagined what exists beyond the edges of the map.
Click on this link to check out more information on this anthology.
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My essay “Building a Physical and Social Landscape” appears in the Kobold Guide of Worldbuilding 2.
The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding, Volume 2, features 15 stars of tabletop roleplaying games and fantasy fiction, such as Gail Simone, Keith Baker, Veronica Roth, Ken Liu, Kate Elliott, Mike Shea, Tobias S. Buckell, Shanna Germain, Gabe Hicks, the Dungeon Dudes (Monty Martin & Kelly McLaughlin), Jeff Grubb, and more. . . . .
Whether you’re worldbuilding because you want to write the next Game of Thrones, intend to build a rich, vibrant world to enthrall the players of an upcoming tabletop RPG campaign, or you’re just curious to find out how all these creators did it, the Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding, Volume 2, puts a team of master world-architects at your side.
This link takes you to the website to check it out.
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Three—yes, THREE—new Narrative Worlds are available on SFWA’s YouTube channel for your viewing, all with wonderful and fantastic writers who I can’t recommend highly enough.
In January, Karen Lord and I had a great conversation about “The Puzzles Inside Worldbuilding: Constructing Narratives At Various Lengths” which I was super excited for as a person who struggles to write short fiction because I’m so used to long form.
In February Michelle Sagara and I had really a fun time with the topic “I Hate Worldbuilding But I Have To Do It Anyway.” No one makes fun of me like Michelle makes fun of me, I’m just saying.
In March, I brought back Fonda Lee for a second in-depth conversation about writing Big Books With Big Themes, because we simply needed the space to talk more.
This past weekend, Martha Wells and I discussed “How To Avoid the Monoculture: Writing Cultures in Isolation and Contact.” It’s not up on YouTube yet, but it will be.
On May 15 the final Season 2 episode will be recorded on the Nebula Conference channel (and posted later to YouTube), with Saladin Ahmed. The topic is Old Bottles/New Wine: Repurposing and Reinvigorating Worn Genre Tropes and Archetypes.
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In January, S. A. Chakraborty kindly joined me under the auspices of Brookline Booksmith for the online launch of SERVANT MAGE. That conversation is now available on YouTube as well. It was so wonderful, and I’m so grateful both to Shannon and to the Brookline Booksmith, and to everyone who virtually attended the event. I talk a fair bit about the genesis of the story and what my goals were and what it was like writing something that “short” when my natural length is the trilogy.
I also did a fabulous Facebook Live event with Ken Liu under the auspices of The Signed Page but I haven’t been able to find a recording of it available online (and I don’t have a Facebook account). Ken asked me such excellent questions.
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I also was interviewed on four podcasts after the release of SERVANT MAGE. They were all fabulous interviewers, each in their own way and with different focuses. I’ll wait to share those with you until next newsletter because there are already an overwhelming number of links here. If you’re eager to listen to my voice on and on, the venues were: The Story Blender, Dungeon Crawlers Radio, InkFeather, and Read Between the Lines. I’ll link them up next time for easy access.
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And — YES — feel free to check out SERVANT MAGE, my novella length standalone fantasy novel about the aftermath of civil war and those who never seem to benefit no matter who is in power. Indentured mage Fellion just wants to go home, and when a chance arises, she has some choices to make.
Those looking for big ticket absolute unit fast-paced space opera who haven’t read UNCONQUERABLE SUN yet, start now! It works as a complete story as written, and also prepares you for book two, FURIOUS HEAVEN (pub date not yet announced but the book is revised and in production).
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Finn poses nobly for you.
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As always, thank you. I could not do this without you.
Kate Elliott