A Question And An Answer

Here's a question it might be nice to get asked by an interviewer at some point...

I was astounded to find that you've sold over 12,000,000 copies world-wide of the Sharpe Series, which is just a fraction of your catalog. Furthermore, the Boston Globe recently stated that you were perhaps 'the greatest writer of historical novels today." Are you a success by your own standard?

And here's the type of answer it would be nice to be able to give...

I'm a success inasmuch that I enjoy my life, which is an enormous blessing and that doesn't depend on commercial success (though I wouldn't be such a fool as to deny that it helps). What I mean by that is that the point of life, as I see it, is not to write books or scale mountains or sail oceans, but to achieve happiness, and preferably an unselfish happiness. It just so happens that I write books, and I'm amazingly lucky that the books sell well all across the world, but even the biggest financial success will not compensate for an ill-lived life. I'm fortunate that the books sell, but even more fortunate to live in Chatham, to be very happily married and to have, on the whole, a fairly clear conscience...

I want some of that.

The writer speaking is Bernard Cornwell, the historical novelist with about 50 books to his name at this point. I don't know exactly why I came across this interview, but that answer really struck me and I thought I'd share it. If you're interested in the rest of the interview you can check it out here. It's not new or anything, and it's actually done by a local website for the town he lives in. Interesting nonetheless.

A Review For German Readers...

Just in case you've found your way here because of the German edition of Acacia: Macht un Verrat, I thought I'd post a link to an online review I came across recently. I know, this is a little risky considering that I don't speak German, but my online translator makes the review sound pretty good. And the reviewer gave me 9 out of 10 stars! Very nice, and each good foreign review is relief. I mean, hey, I can have my own opinion about the English version. I can't always know how it's held up in translation, though...

Here's the review if you Sprechen Sie Deutsch.

Oh! My Momma...

My wife did this first on her blog, but I couldn't resist doing it here, too. In honor of Mother's Day, I offer this wonderful song from Alela Diane. Give a listen...

Some Questions From Vincent...

I recently got a nice letter from an aspiring writer named Vincent. He had kind things to say about my work, and was excited to have finished his own novel recently - one that I believe is in the multi-cultural fantasy vein. He had some questions about getting published, including wondering what I thought about self-publishing.

Here's a bit of what I said...

Congrats on finishing a novel! No matter what happens to it that's a great accomplishment. Most writers don't make it that far, so you have reason to be proud. As for publishing advice... Well, I recommend doing things the old fashioned way. Personally, I wouldn't choose self-publishing without first having looked into the traditional agent and publisher route. Some books can certainly work in self-publication, but a multi-ethnic fantasy might be a tough sell.

Frankly, if your material is good, I think you'll find the genre open to it and eager for new writers. Having said that, it's still hard to break in, and you should expect some rejections and dismissals along the way. Just for context, Frank Herbert had a hard time getting anyone to publish Dune. It was rejected by 23 publishers! It's now sold well over 12 million copies... That's unusual - and it's a terrific book, but I'm just mentioning that rejection is always part of this game. I do think you should seek out professionals first and for a while, even if it means some discouraging times. The fact is that mainstream publishers can get your book to an audience via many avenues. They can also help make sure you're delivering the strongest book possible. That's not something that family and friends can always do for you.

So I suggest getting a copy of the Writer's Market. They're available at most major bookstores or through Amazon. There may even be some specially for fantasy/sci-fi. Start with agents, looking up different agencies to see who represents material at all like yours. Also, go look at authors you like and check the acknowledgments. A lot of times they'll thank their agent, so you can figure out who represents them. And then, when you have some likely candidates, send them submissions in whatever format they ask for - some will just want a letter to start with, some might want a sample, some might want the entire book. Make sure you follow their guidelines. If you don't they may loose interest before they've even looked at your work seriously. If you sign with a good agent they'll be able to take your novel in to publishers with a professional approach, likely speaking to editors they know and have worked with. They'll also be there to look after your interests - because your interests and theirs will overlap...

And I'll mention that - while I'm very happy for my career to be where it is now, I also began just as unpublished as anybody else. I scanned the Writer's Market. I wrote those letters. I got those rejections in the mail. It wasn't easy, but it's not supposed to be. That's why it's so wonderful when you finally break through and get that acceptance letter. I hope that happens for you!

And I do. I also remember well the hunger of those lean times, sending my work out into the world, checking the mail, checking the mail, checking the mail... and more often than not finding polite rejections in it. (Insert Sad Face Here.) Think I've got it made so that past rejection stuff must be old history?... Well, it is, and yet it lives with me still. I've got the documents to prove it. Take a look.

Here, for example, is my first rejection from an agent...


Funny thing about this one is that some ten years later - after I'd published three novels and been asked to judge the Pen/Faulkner Awards - I happened to be at an award ceremony function with this self-same agent. I mentioned that I'd submitted to him, which he hadn't recalled. We both laughed. So it goes. I was pleased to be able to say that he'd missed an opportunity, and he was gracious enough to concede the point.

Now, was he mistaken in not representing that novel? Well, no. I did get an agent for it soon after (the wonderful Marie Brown), but it's not a novel that ever sold. I had to write two more before that happened. Instead, that novel began to wrack up rejection notices. Some examples...


Note that passing months. These are just representative, mind you. Each month contained several more just like them...


While I was living in the UK, I even tried repackage some of my material as British and send it to British publishers. I managed to sell a few short stories over there, but the book publishers generally came back with variations of this...


So it goes. If I can end all this rejection stuff on another positive note, however... The same Transworld that rejected me in 1997 came on board several years later. They published Pride of Carthage, are about to publish Acacia, and are set to publish the sequel as well. Were they wrong for not grabbing my earlier novel? Not a chance. It might have felt that way to me at the time, but I'm thankful that this process - filled with rejection for several years - pushed me to write bigger and better. Seems to me that's part of what the process is about...

Acacia UK Trade Paper Giveaway!

Hi Folks! I know we just wrapped up a giveaway a few days ago, but I think I'll go ahead and do another one...

The UK edition of Acacia just arrived! I only got two at this preliminary stage, but if you want one it can be yours. Kinda nice cover. Some heft to it. For US folks there's the cool factor of having the foreign edition, one with squiggly pound signs beside the price, etc. And there's the knowledge that you'll be getting one of the two very first copies of this book that I ever saw. One goes on my bookshelf; perhaps its twin goes on yours. (You can have the one on the right...)


The routine is the same as before. Just go over to the Forum and toss your name in the hat. They're are no downsides, and it's not like there are millions of people entering these things. You've actually got a shot at it! Ask Scott, our last winner. I've actually just mailed his book off this morning. So it's on the way, Scott.

Black Man Wins Arthur C. Clarke Award!

Oh, wait... Don't get the wrong idea. I don't mean a black man, as in a black author or anything. I just mean the novel Black Man, by Richard Morgan (who is not a black man), which was the novel Thirteen by Richard K. Morgan (not a black man over here either) in the US. It certainly would be cool if a black man (or woman) did win the Clarke Award, but I'm getting off topic...

Here's the Clarke Website Announcement.

Now, I know Richard Morgan isn't everyone's cup of tea, and I know this novel got a mixed reaction in the UK. I can say that I enjoyed it, though, that it was one of my science fiction reading highlights from last year. It's a solid book, sharply written, plenty of action and sex but with a good deal of thought mixed in there too.

Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say in a Starred Review.

This stellar new stand-alone from Morgan, known for his compelling future noir thrillers (Altered Carbon, etc.), raises tantalizing questions about the nature of humanity. Future governments have used genetic manipulation to create subhumans twisted to fit specialized tasks. Normal people are intrigued as well as repulsed, but they instinctively dread variation thirteen, an aggressive, ruthless throwback to a time before civilization. When a thirteen escapes from exile on Mars and apparently goes on an insane killing spree, Carl Marsalis, a soul-weary freelance thirteen hit man, is hired to help track him down. Morgan goes beyond the SF cliché of the genetically enhanced superman to examine how personality is shaped by nature and experience. Marsalis is more empathetic than the normal people around him, but they can see him only as an untrustworthy killer. At the same time, surveying corrupt, fractured normal society, the novel questions whether the thirteens are just less successful at hiding their motives. Without slowing down the headlong rush of the action, the complex, looping plot suggests that all people may be less—or more—than they seem.

Sounds good, and it is. I'm pleased that he won. Here's his Website, if you're interested.

Second Acacia Signed Hardback Giveaway...

has been decided! Thank you to everyone that joined my Forum and threw their name in the helmet. Yes, the helmet. Please view the official contest photographs, in which the process is documented...

Here we see the contestants' names, on roughly equally-sized tabs...


Here we see the vessel of the Fortune, as held by my son Sage (He of the Big Hair.)...


(The Vessel, by the way, is my old Whitewater Kayaking helmet. Still fits, right enough, although it's most used now a days by my daughter as she skateboards. She eschews pink, see. She'll have nothing to do with Princesses. She rather prefers black. I think, honestly, that I enjoyed Enchanted more than she die. Anyway...)

He of the Big Hair offers the vessel to the Judge, the Decider, the... Picker of Winners. (That's my daughter, Maya.) She approaches like an agent of doom. (You'd think it was bad thing to get free book, by the looks of her!)


She reaches for the winner...


Oh, wait!.. Sage realizes the pot has not been sufficiently stirred. (Note the focussed expression and the blurred rapidity of his stirring technique...)


And then... Maya chooses. She does so with eyes closed, using nothing but her innate Picker clairvoyance to guide her hand...


And after all that, she emerges with the winner...


His name be... SCOTT. Congratulations, Scott. I'll be contacting you soon.

Taos ToolBox

A friend of mine asked me to let folks know that there are still some slots left at the Taos ToolBox workshop this summer. I haven't had personal experience with this program myself, but for aspiring fantasy writers out there it looks pretty sweet. It's a "two-week Master Class in Science Fiction and Fantasy, June 8-21, 2008, taught by Walter Jon Williams, Kelly Link and special lecturer Stephen R Donaldson." Nice.

I know Kelly Link personally. She's great, and her work is super smart and funny and engaging. Stephen R Donaldson I'd like to meet one day, as the first Thomas Covenant series holds a prominent place in my early reading life. And Walter Jon Williams has published so many books that he must be able to tell others how to do it too! (Okay, that's me being overly optimistic about the process, but you know what I mean. This is a good group of authors to study with.) Here's how they describe it...

Taos Toolbox will be a "graduate" workshop designed to bring your science fiction and fantasy writing to the next level. If you've sold a few stories and then stalled out, or if you've been to Clarion or Odyssey and want to re-connect with the workshop community, this is the workshop for you!

If you're interested check out their website: Taos ToolBox.