Guest post at the Apex blog: On series and (lack of) planning
Tags: articles, blog, aztec geek, harbinger of the storm, novel, obsidian and blood, process, servant of the underworld August 2nd, 2010The wonderful M.G. Ellington has been kind enough to lend me some space on the Apex blog, where I ramble on what I should have done when writing Obsidian and Blood:
When I settled down to write my novel, the Aztec noir fantasy Servant of the Underworld, I had only the vaguest idea it might turn into a series. My first thought was to finish the darn thing, and not really to map out what might be happening to my characters after the plot was over.
That was 2007; now we’re in 2010. I’ve sold Servant and two more books in the Obsidian and Blood trilogy to Angry Robot; I’ve turned the sequel, Harbinger of the Storm, to my publisher; and I’ve just completed a tentative synopsis for the as-yet-untitled book 3. Looking back to how I wrote the series, there are a few things I did right, and a few things I should have paid more attention to.
Go check it out!
In other linkage news, Mike Johnstone reviews the February 2010 issue of Asimov’s, which contains my alt-hist “The Wind-Blown Man”:
Her prose deftly taps into the atmosphere, rhythm, and thoughtfulness of Chinese tales (Buddhist, Taoist myths): it is measured, unhurried, soothing; it suggests a depth just tantalizingly out of reach.
That’s all for now. I’ll go back to RL stuff and programming (and %% implicit conversions).





March 18th, 2011 at 9:38 pm
Is it really only going to be a trilogy? My whole family loves the series and are really hoping for more than 3 books!
March 20th, 2011 at 7:24 pm
Tai, so far we’re staying at 3, insofar as I know… News when and if I have them.
(and thanks, really flattered!)