The Geomancer

4/26/10

Good Morning America

Lou has been asking me to contribute to this blog for a while, and my only excuse for leaving it this long was, well, I was writing, you know. It's amazing how much of a conveyor belt everything becomes, when you're dealing with initial edits on one volume and the proofs of the previous one and the day job, and family, and, somehow at the same time as all of this, actually squeaking the time to write some new stuff as well. Yes, day job. It would be lovely to swan about wearing a beret and drinking absinthe all day like a proper artistic type, but some of us have mortgages.

Where was I? America. It's fantastic to finally (read: two months ago) hit US shores, and feedback from Lou suggests the books are meeting a positive reception. I got The Talk from my agent, when the deal with Pyr came through, about just how hard it is to predict what will and what won't cross the Atlantic well, but Shadows of the Apt seems to have made the crossing intact. There's an alarming about of feedback that seems to run "I really liked it despite the whole insect business," which I've not run into in the UK, but then again you have more (indeed some) dangerous spiders. Perhaps that's it. Me? I love insects, spiders and the whole of the rest of it. I envy you your dangerous spiders.

I also want to say, before the glass runs down and I have to rush off to fiddle with the mid-section of book 7 (whatever we'll end up calling that one) that John Sullivan has done absolute wonders with the US edition covers. I love them all, but especially the US Blood of the Mantis, which I think is due out in May. Jon's also a joy to work with because he will ask questions to make sure he gets the covers right, and we had quite a lot of back and forth on that one, so it's good to see it paid off in spades.

4 comments:

  1. I have had my eye on these books, and hate to admit but I still have to pick up the first one. I was wanting them before they were in the US and had to wait.

    But, I was wondering why insects? I know, why not? But sounds like an intreging aspect to take on these books. May I ask what sparked the ideas for you?

    Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm about to start reading a review copy of the 3rd one. Book 1 was great. Book 2 was amazing.

    Adrian--I'll email you a link to the review of DRAGONFLY when we post it here shortly.

    --Steve Diamond, Elitist Book Reviews

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am almostl done with Book 4 (about 50 pages left). I have all of the books released so far in both non-U.S. and U.S. versions. They are wonderful! Did I hear correctly that there will be 7 books total? Congratulations on a truly enjoyable series!

    Letl me tell you, keeping my interest through a 4th book in a series is quite an accomplishment! Usually after the third book I am very bore and tired of reading about the same characters.

    And I love the artwork in both sets!

    ReplyDelete
  4. In strict order: Why insects? In descending order of artfulness: Insects are a very useful metaphor for various aspects of human nature - c.f. Pelevin, Kafka, Capek, for example. Using different types of insect (and similar) to illustrate different races of humanity allows a lot of symbology (b) it's not been done before and it makes for an original fantasy world. Down with goblins and dragons! (c) I really, really like inscets.

    Looking forward to the review

    There are likely to be 10 books total assuming anyone is mad enough to let me get away with that. I'm currently re-arranging the entrails of book 7.

    ReplyDelete