The first draft of Master of the House of Darts is complete (well, almost. I need to fill in a number of gaping holes. But I made it to the end, and the plot basically holds together). Now for a round of edits before uploading it to my crit group.
*phew*
I’d be off for a liedown, but it’s party night.
-Ove Jansson aka Cybermage:
Aliette de Bodard has done it again. Harbinger of the Storm is an action packed Aztec mystery opera with magic, interventions from the gods and more twists and turns than the first book. (…) The story is self contained and can be enjoyed standalone, but you will not want to miss out on the first. I wish it was 2012 already even if the world is going under while I read the final Obsidian and Blood.
[Acatl] leads us into an increasingly dark and bloody tangle of mythology and political intrigue that is not merely a worthy successor to Servant of the Underworld, but a tighter, pacier and altogether more exciting read. (…)It’s a complex but intriguing story, and I for one am thoroughly satisfied with this sequel. According to De Bodard’s blog the final book in the Obsidian and Blood trilogy will be titled The Master of the House of Darts, and its due for release in November 2011. If De Bodard continues to build on what she’s done so far, it’s going to be epic.
–Publishers Weekly (starred review):
Political intrigue and rivalry among a complex pantheon of divinities drive this well-paced murder mystery set at the height of the Aztec Empire in the late 15th century.(…) De Bodard incorporates historical fact with great ease and manages the rare feat of explaining complex culture and political system without lecturing or boring the reader.
Er, wow? PW starred review is certainly most intimidating, and I’m very glad a lot of people seem to think HoS is a better book than its predecessor. I’d be going for a liedown if I wasn’t %%% busy…
So, as usual, I discovered my book was out in the UK through other people telling me through twitter :-p
aka the book of Aztec imperial intrigues/serial killer in the palace. More Teomitl and Mihmatini for those who liked those characters, and generally expanded worldbuilding–featuring Texcoco, Teotihuacan and a lovely, albeit hurried trip through the Anahuac Valley. Also, various political intrigues, the election of a new Emperor, and divers alarum and chases of supernatural creatures.
Oh, and star-demons, of course.
More info here, including the real blurb; the first spotted review here at Val’s random comments, courtesy of Rob Weber.
Book seems to be shipping through some of the usual places in the: amazon.co.uk, the Book Depository, Waterstones and WHsmith.
Meanwhile, I have a %%% cold and was up for much of the night–so right now I’m feeling a bit zombified. But consider this my celebration post, while I go on contaminating my colleagues at work with my germs 🙂
This is part 2 on a post chronicling my trailer-making experiments. For part 1 see here.
Here’s the Harbinger trailer again, so you can see what I’m talking about:
Step 4: Get Music
This has always been the trickiest part for me. Basically, you need a soundtrack you can cut up and modify (I’ll come back to syncing the music and the images later), and I had a lot of trouble finding those. A quick survey of people doing their own books trailers showed them either using public domain stuff (like old interpretations of classical music), or having musician friends/acquaintances who could provide them with slightly cheaper alternatives to mainstream music (I don’t even want to know how much the majors charge for using bits of song, given how bad they are at authorising authors to quote lyrics for a reasonable sum of money).
Continue reading →
32,000 words. Beginning of chapter 9, which means I’m back on track wordcount-wise. Nezahual and Teomitl are back to their old habits. Fun. *sadistic author*
Wordcount: 24,000/100,000
Awesome title ideas: no further ones.
Body count: 1, 3 in progress. Oh, and 1 owl and 1 jaguar.
Best moment of the day: Everything appeared normal: a dead body was being carried back through the gates, followed by a procession of priests in grey cloaks.
Unexpected moment of the day: the jaguar’s death. Seriously. Some characters are just made of awesome.
Research: used the fact I owed my French publisher maps of the city to replace everything into a coherent system. Also found out about Tlatelolco via the Spanish version of Wikipedia.
Because of moments like those: I was looking for something else entirely (specifically, information about religion in Tlatelolco for a minor character in book 3), and happened upon an awesome tidbit of information related to the time period, which will fit great into the novel.
Research is made of awesome.
PS: apparently, book 3 is now listed on amazon, with a Sept. 1 2011 release date (and no title). Good to know while you’re writing it…
EDIT: OK, according to AR this is an erroneous listing, and the book will *not* be released on Sept 2011. Phew.
Wordcount: 17,000/100,000
Awesome title ideas: no further ones.
Body count: 1, 3 in progress. Oh, and 1 owl.
Best moment of the day: the Tlatelolco marketplace.
Unexpected moment of the day: the merchant. Thin, armed to the teeth, and determined to defend his goods…
Missing research: none so far.
Aka what happens when I have too much time on my hands and am procrastinating on the writing of book 3.
Want to know more? There’s the first chapter up here.
Wanna preorder? Random house | Amazon US | UK | B&N | Book Depository
(brought to you by the department of shameless self-promotion)
Wordcount: 14,600/100,000
Awesome title ideas: no further ones.
Body count: 1, 3 in progress. Oh, and 1 owl.
Best moment of the day: Teomitl interacting with children.
Unexpected moment of the day: Acatl’s family dynamics. The previous family meal scene was in book 1, and wow, how things have changed, two books later.
Unexpected moment of the day, #2: finding out all Aztec priests painted their whole bodies black. Ah. Would have been good to know this before I wrote two freaking books featuring a priest as a main character…
Missing research: not that I can see for tonight. Spent a lot of time figuring out how many nephews and nieces Acatl had, and what they were up to. The pile of books near my chair is now a complete mess.
