September 2010 News

Coronets and Steel is out this month.

This story is one of those few that wrote itself, beginning one night after I was listening to Greek folk music about ghosts. Four very intense weeks later it was done, I realized it was a kind of riff on Prisoner of Zenda, which I'd loved all my life. So it takes place in this world, right now, only in an Eastern European little country, with a magical overlay. Kim's a grad student in L.A. Her passions are ballet, fencing, Jane Austen, and swashbuckling, romantic old movies. When her grandmother begs her to go east and see if "they" are safe, then slips into an uncommunicative silence, Kim goes to Vienna in search of her family, armed with only two clues. She's having no luck when she first runs into a ghost, and then meets a guy she mentally dubs Mr. Darcy. Only this Mr. Darcy acts like he knows her. When she goes out for a drink and wakes up on a train, the adventure takes off.

This time it's a gal, instead of a guy, having to prove her courage, dash . . . and honor. So there are no detectives or forensics, but otherwise I guess it could fit into the urban fantasy category, but really, it's a Ruritanian romantic adventure.

I have an essay on revision in BREWING FINE FICTION, Advice for Writers From the Authors at Book View Café, edited by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff and Pati Nagle. This book is aimed at helping both new and experienced writers cope with the creative challenges and the nuts-and-bolts business issues of a career in writing fiction. I don't always agree with all the articles, but there is something for every process in this book, and plenty to think about.

The paperback of Treason's Shore will come out in October. The first half of Banner of the Damned, called Summer Thunder, is slated for September 2011, and the second half the year after. This duology takes place 400 years after the Inda stories, the one time in the history of that world when the Marlovens and Colend interact, ringing changes on both cultures. Following those will be Ship Without Sails and that arc, which will intersect with the stories set in "modern" times.

At Book View Cafe, I have short stories for free, and have been putting up chapters of Wren Journeymage, before it gets turned into an e-book. Also linked there are the ebook editions of Crown Duel (with several scenes from Vidanric's point of view added at the end) and A Stranger to Command. Kindle edition of Crown Duel, and Kindle Stranger to Command.

With the publication of Once a Princess and Twice a Prince, I had a couple of interviews: One on Tor.com, by Jo Walton here, and another by a livejournal poet and writer "Asakiyune" here AND! a really cute book trailer! My interview with Shannon Hale!