10th August 2005

Redeeming the Lost in paperback!

Redeeming the Lost will be out in paperback in late November/ early December from Tor Books. Finally!

19th June 2003

Redeeming the Lost released 1st June 2004!

After a mere three years of mad scribbling on my part and enthusiastic encouragement from my publisher and my excellent editor, the next in the Tales of Kolmar is being published by Tor Books on June 1st in the USA. Your local bookstore should have a copy or six (I hope!) or you can get it from any number of online bookstores - Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc., etc.

Thanks, everyone, for your patience and encouragement. I hope you enjoy it!

23rd May 2004

Reading Your Work

My friends, there have been several messages on the Guest Book recently, left by budding authors requesting me to look at their work and critique it. There are two excellent reasons why I cannot do this, as much as I might like to.

First and foremost, there are only 24 hours in a day. What you can't know is the number of e-mails I receive, daily, asking the same thing. I have done this in the past for friends but will not do so again. It is a very time-intensive exercise, to say the least - a six-page manuscript can take six hours to critique - and if I responded to every request, I would never have the time (or indeed the inclination) to write another word of my own work. All I can tell you is that there are any number of fine resources available to most people - for the younger folks, there are High School English/ Creative Writing teachers, who in general are truly clued up as to what makes good writing and what doesn't. For older folks, college age +, there are college professors of Creative Writing, English, Literature, etc. Some of these people will be willing to look over your work even if you aren't enrolled, though you had best be VERY polite when approaching them! There are, indeed, professionals who do such things, but (alas) a great number of them are con artists and unless you have checked them out thoroughly, including asking for references to published works, I would avoid them. As a friend said, money is supposed to flow to the writer, not away. Any 'professional' who claims to be able to guarantee publication is lying and is only after your money. Don't be fooled.

The second reason I cannot help in this regard is plagiarism, or something known as 'unconscious plagiarism' - what if I read a passage in your work and saw an idea that really appealed to me? Now, every author I know makes a serious effort to be honourable and give credit where it is due, but say you didn't manage to get published for a few years, and say in the process of writing another book I used that idea, without even remembering where it came from? We all write from the great pool of our own experience and our imagination, and once I have read something it passes into the pool, and you never know when it's gonna get caught on a passing hook! The end result would be that I would have used your work without your permission, without even meaning to - and that is intolerable. The best way to avoid it is not to put myself in the way of temptation.

So - I thank you all for the honour of trust that you have bestowed on me, I thank you for the compliment of thinking that I might be able to help you, but I must, sadly, decline.

5th August 2003

ABRIDGED EDITION of Song in the Silence

In March 2003 Tor issued an abridged edition of Song in the Silence for their new imprint, Starscape. It is aimed at a younger audience, starting at about 10 years old. I was asked to cut out all the sex and violence. (My response, of course, was - "What sex and violence? What, you don't want Akhor to kill the demons?") However, large cuts were made, and I supplied a few linking sections so that the story would continue to make sense.

I have had a few fans complain that the paperback they bought was missing several bits they had read in the library (!) - I can only apologise. The cover of the children's edition is very pale. The cover of the full edition paperback is the same as the hardcover illustration, very blue-green, with a lovely silver Akhor standing beside Lanen at the sea's edge.

Tor has sworn that they will keep the original in print, so I am getting in touch with them to see what's up. In the meantime, I am sorry for any confusion this may have caused.

19th June 2003

News Flash - A date, at last!

Redeeming the Lost is tentatively scheduled for release in June 2004, in hardcover from Tor Books. And a huge thank you to all of you who have been willing to wait for this book - I'm just a slow writer by nature. Guess I'd better get back to it, eh?