No "Dead End" in sight: Mike Resnick on the future of science fiction

As the winner of five Hugos (and nominated for thirty-one more), Mike Resnick is a name every genre fiction fan should know. His Kirinyaga series, with sixty-seven major and minor awards and nominations to date, is the most honored series of stories in the history of science fiction. Resnick published his first book with Pyr, Starship: Mutiny, ten years ago in our inaugural year, and a decade later he began a new series with the recently released The Fortress in Orion.  With sixteen Pyr books in his catalog, and three with our sister imprint Seventh Street Books, we thought we'd ask him a few questions about the past and future of the science fiction and fantasy genre.

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Pyr: What drew you to speculative fiction? What are some of the earliest books or stories you remember reading that made you want to write in the genre?

Resnick: It started with Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars books when I was 8 or 9 years old. I'd graduated to Ray Bradbury's Mars by the time I was 12, and I read every science fiction book I could get my hands on while I was in high school. Its speculations fascinated me, and made almost all other fiction seem somehow lackluster and pedestrian. (Not a view I no longer hold, I should add. But in my formative years, there was science fiction and there was everything else.)

I always knew I wanted to be a writer. I sold my first article at 15, my first poem at 16, my first short story at 17...but back then I knew I had to get a lot better before I attempted to write and sell science fiction, so I didn't sell my first science fiction book (not a very good one, I admit) when I was 24.


It is interesting that your first series with Pyr (the Starship series) was a space opera, and ten years later you begin a new space opera series with The Fortress in Orion. Where were you as a writer ten years ago and where do you see your career headed now?

In both cases -- as well as the Weird Western tetralogy that split them -- (former Pyr editorial director) Lou Anders suggested I write these series. In the case of the Starship series, I'd never done any military science fiction—and indeed, this was not very typical of that sub-genre, since it was and is my firm belief that a good commanded avoids conflict whenever possible. The current Dead Enders trilogy is very like Mission: Impossible (the old TV series, not the Tom Cruise movies) where a team of experts, each with a special talent, is given a complex and dangerous situation to solve.

Looking back at your own work over the last ten years, what themes do you see emerging? How much of that is a conscious decision going into writing, and how much do you find looking back?

You have to understand: I've been a full-time and reasonably successful science fiction writer for about 40 years, and was winning awards for it as far back as 1977, so I'd have to say that 75 novels and close to 300 stories into my career, I may be revisiting and honing certain themes, doing variations on them, but brand-new themes are not emerging (though brand-new approaches still are). Like every writer, every time I get an interesting notion it goes into my idea file, where some 200+ stories and books are still waiting for me to find the time to write them.


How has science fiction as a genre changed over 10 years? What do you see on the horizons for SF?

In the mid-1950s there were 56 professional science fiction magazines, and less than 100 science fiction books were published annually. These days we have 3 digest magazines and we publish about 1,500 books a year. So the major change is obvious: we have morphed from a short story field which boasted the occasional novel to a novel field that has a much more limited market for short stories.

That's artistically. Professionally, more and more writers—new and established alike—and are finding workable and meaningful ways to self-publish and make a living at it, which was never possible as recently as ten years ago.

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Thank you to Mike Resnick for that insight!

Last week we announced a giveaway with our Women of Writing round up, and a winner has officially been chosen. Congrats to Cynthia Carter on wining a copy of Edge of Dark!  This Friday we'll have another giveaway to continue our 10th anniversary celebration.

Get your questions ready

Do Ferals go to the movies? Are there any pickles left after the end of the world? Do YOU have a question for Falling Sky author Rajan Khanna?

All of your apocalypse-related questions can be answered by the author on his Reddit Ask Me Anything page on February 19th! You can post your questions during the day, and Rajan will start to answer them at 7 pm ET. Look for his name on the Books section sidebar to participate.

Go check it out, and ask Rajan Khanna (almost) anything your heart desires.

BSC Interview with Yours Truly

I'm interviewed today by Elena Nola over at BSC. Here's the opening to whet your appetite:

This one’s for those of you who like to know what goes on before the book falls off the bookstore shelf into your hands.  Lou Anders is the editorial director of Pyr books, as well as being the man behind many anthologies on a wide variety of topics.  Over the past week or so I’ve had the pleasure of picking his brain about how he chooses manuscripts, how he builds anthologies, what he sees as the current state of science fiction and fantasy, and more.  If you’re a young editor, or someone trying to break into the field as a writer, or just someone who’s curious about the publishing industry from an insider’s perspective, be sure to read this interview!  

First, for those readers out there who may not know, can you tell me what the Pyr imprint is all about?

Pyr was launched in March 2005 as the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Prometheus Books, a midsize independent publisher of intelligent nonfiction. From the beginning we tried to make a line that would appeal to discerning readers of genre fiction. We decided not to specialize in a subgenre (Military SF, Epic Fantasy), but to celebrate SF&F in all its forms. Still, we set out to try to make the through-line of the brand Quality. We heard early on from readers, distributors, independent bookstores, and big chain stores that we succeeded. This March marked our five year anniversary, and we will hit our hundredth title in September. In that time, we’ve been on the Hugo ballot eight times, and have placed on the Philip K Dick, Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, Campbell (both of them), Chesley, BSFA, and Locus Magazine Awards, among many others. We are honored to have worked with such great authors as Joe Abercrombie, James Barclay, Mark Chadbourn, David Louis Edelman, James Enge, Kay Kenyon, Tom Lloyd, John Meaney, Ian McDonald, Michael Moorcock, Mike Resnick, Justina Robson, Chris Roberson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Joel Shepherd, Robert Silverberg, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Sean Williams, and many more. It’s a further honor to have worked with artists like Todd Lockwood, Stephan Martiniere, John Picacio, Dave Seeley, Jon Sullivan, Raymond Swanland, and others.

You were with Pyr from the very beginning—you were the guy Prometheus Books tapped to get it off the ground.  What was your personal background coming into that project?

I came into print publishing backwards...

Read More.

Three New Lou Interviews for You (Say That FIve Times Fast)

What are the chances of three interviews going live on the same day?


This morning, I'm the guest on the wonderful Dragon Page Cover to Cover podcast, episode #410a. They say,  "Lou talks about how the iPad has shifted his reading preferences recently, and despite his deep and continuing love for physical books themselves, he can see where his future book buying may go the way his music buying went after iTunes became more widely used.Technology is changing the publishing game, and the guys talk about easy it’s becoming to be lured away from the book to the many electronic readers out there; about whether to use enhanced content for ebooks to encourage sales, the importance of having a quality story, and much more. Lou also walks through what happens on the path from manuscript to shelf: from the acquisition process, the editing process, the cover art process, and the book design process." This is my second appearance on the Dragon Page. I'm a big fan of the show and always have fun talking with Mike & Mike. You can listen with the direct link on the page itself, download, or get via iTunes.

Meanwhile, a brand-new, online magazine launches today, Redstone Science Fiction, from editor Michael Ray. Redstone is an online magazine that publishes "primarily science fiction short stories" and pays SFWA pro rates. Their first issue features "Raising Tom Chambers" by Daniel Powell and flash fiction story "Freefall" by Peter Roberts. There are also three interviews, one with  cover artist Kittyhawk, a popular webcomic artist, one with Joel Hardy, an engineer who works with scientific research on the International Space Station, and one with Yours Truly (conducted by author David Alastair Hayden). Check it out and give them your love.


Finally, I'm interviewed on The Mad Hatter's Bookshelf and Book Review as well. We talk about steampunk, anthologies, the submission process, my own writing, and, yes, hats. 

Lou Anders on Genetic Engineering

More from the video interview with me at OryCon, conducted by John Blyler:

Podcast: Lou Anders @ The Dragon Page Cover to Cover

I'm a guest on the Dragon Page Cover to Cover podcast today, episode #389A, talking with Mike & Mike about my two forthcoming anthologies, With Great Power and Swords & Dark Magic. We also talk about a lot of forthcoming Pyr titles, including the much-anticipated Shadows of the Apt series from Adrian Tchaikovsky (which begins with Empire in Black and Gold) as well as the bittersweetness of concluding two series with Kay Kenyon's Prince of Storms and Mike Resnick's Starship: Flagship.  I'm a long time listener, but this is my first time on this particular podcast. 'Twas fun.

James Enge: The Tension between Invention & Realism

Michael A. Ventrella has conducted a wonderful interview with James Enge, talking about his background, his influences, his thoughts on fantasy literature and classic myth, and, of course, his novels Blood of Ambrose and This Crooked Way. Here's a taste:

VENTRELLA: Creating a fantasy world is never easy, because it must be rooted in believability. What have you done to make your world both fantastic and believable? Have you found it difficult?

ENGE: I try to maintain a certain tension between free invention and concrete realism. My favorite bits in my own writing are physical descriptions which are probably invisible to everyone else. In my first story, the hero has occasion to peer through “a dark shoe-shaped patch of nothingness”. It makes perfect sense in the world of the story, but it’s not something that you’re likely to see on the street on your way to work.

Meanwhile, C.S.E. Cooney has posted a great review of This Crooked Way. 

In this book, the monsters are satisfyingly juicy and crunchable. The villains are terrifying - hardly less so when they're desperate and likable than when they're cackling and self-assured. The heroes are... wonderful. They bleed on everything. And Morlock's main nemesis (why spoil it?) is utterly charming and wholly horrible and occasionally sympathetic. Egad, I liked this book.

What's even better is she starts out saying the "episodic novel" might not be the form for her, and ends up loving the book. Nice.

The Man Behind the Magic

AgeofMisrule and forthcoming The Silver Skull (Swords of Albion)author Mark Chadbourn is the latest guest on Shaun Farrell's magnificent podcast, Adventures in SciFi Publishing. Mark and Shaun discuss spy-fantasy, Mark’s love of history and mythology, and how Mark balances a fulltime television career with novel writing demands.

Dirty Hands and Invisible Words

I'm interviewed, along with 13 other editors, in a two-part article called “Dirty Hands and Invisible Words: Speculative Fiction Editors Speak Out” in Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 34, July 2009.

Here is a taste:

What is entailed in editing a book? Or, put differently, what exactly do you do as the editor?

Anders: This is a big question, particularly in my case as I am the "editorial director" of the Pyr line, a role that encompasses more than just acquisitions. In this regard, I read all manuscripts that come in, select the very small percentage of these that I am interested in acquiring, present them to my parent company for approval, negotiate with the agents or authors for the sale, work with the author on any structural changes or clarifications/improvements that need to be made to the manuscript, select and hire the cover artist, art direct the cover, oversee/approve the internal layout of the book that is laid out by typesetting, write the back cover copy (in conjunction with the author and an in-house editor), art direct our in-house design staff for the typography and layout of the book's jacket, advised marketing on how best to advertize it, work with publicity on same, assist in all the various outward focused efforts that require book descriptions, help compile comparative buys for online retailers, and serve as an advocate both inside and outside of the house for the book. Inside the house, because my parent company publishes 100 titles a year on average (out of which Pyr is about 30), I am the book's advocate to remind all the various departments what the book is about, why it is important, and how to market and package it. Outside, I maintain our newsletter, blog, Twitter and Facebook pages/accounts, and travel about once every other month to speak at conventions and libraries on our book line. I also get asked for interviews about once a week now (which I happily/gratefully agree to, thank you), and I scheme constantly about how to get books into readers hands. So, basically, I eat breath and sleep science fiction and fantasy, and it's not uncommon for me to wake up at 3 am with something in my head like "OMG, we need to put a map in the front of Joel Shepherd's latest fantasy novel. I better get on that ASAP" or "Have I checked in with Stephan Martiniere to make sure the cover for The Dervish House is on track?" or "Did we switch that author photo of Mike Resnick on the jacket flap out with the new one he prefers?" With all of that going on, actually sitting down with a red pen and a manuscript seems like a very tiny portion of the job description.

The whole interview was very enlightening (for me too!). The other twelve editors are:

Philip Athans has been a full-time staff editor at TSR, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast since 1995.

Victoria Blake is the publisher and founder of Underland Press, an independent specialty press.

Paula Guran is the editor of Juno Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster's Pocket Books.

Gabrielle Harbowy is a freelance editor, and editor-in-charge at Dragon Moon Press.

James Lowder has worked as an editor for both large publishers and tiny independents, on projects that include New York Times bestselling shared world novels and small, critically acclaimed creator-owned titles.

John Jarrold has run three science fiction and fantasy imprints in the United Kingdom, worked as a freelance editor, and now runs the John Jarrold Literary Agency.

Susan J. Morris the Forgotten Realms® line editor at Wizards of the Coast.

Darren Nash is the editorial director at Orbit UK.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden edits books for Tor Books, among other publishers.

Chris Schluep is a Senior Editor at Ballantine/Villard/Del Rey.

Simon Spanton is the editorial director at Orion/Gollancz Books in the United Kingdom.

Deb Taber is the senior book editor of the Apex Book Company, an independent specialty press.

Jacob Weisman is the founding editor and publisher of Tachyon Publications, an independent specialty press.

James Enge @ Joe Mallozzi's blog

James Enge, author of Blood of Ambrose,is the latest writer to guest-blog at Stargate writer/producer Joseph Mallozzi's wonderful book club blog. Last night, Mallozzi posted the results of his readers Q&A with Enge. The answers (and the questions) are well worth checking out, as always.

Here's a sample:

Q: I liked the fact that you chose to reveal back-story for these characters and their world throughout the book rather than write a prologue to explain these things at the beginning. What went into this decision?”

A: About prologues… the more of them I read, the less I like them. I think some writers confuse the process they go through (in creating the world, the characters, the backstory) with the process the reader goes through. If the reader feels like he or she is reading “Report on Planet X” or “Fodor’s Guide to Middle Earth” then the writer has blown it somehow. A successful beginning is more like introducing two people. If you want Bob to meet Shlomo, you don’t start by reciting Shlomo’s educational background, vocational aptitudes and credit history. You say, “Bob: meet Shlomo. Which one of you is buying the next round?” (Or something like that. I’m still working on that whole social skills thing.)

Stalked by a Bibliophile

The wonderful Charles Tan has posted an interview with Yours Truly on Bibliophile Stalker. I think it came off rather well, if I do say so myself. Here's a taste:

How has Pyr adapted to the changes in the publishing industry?

More trade paperbacks, fewer hardcovers. We’re getting serious about ebooks.

But I want to give a shout out here to our Director of Publicity, Jill Maxick, who I think was somewhat ahead of the curve on reaching out to online communities and bloggers. These days, that’s a no brainer, but five years ago when we were just starting out, Jill launched us out of the gate with a heavy outreach to bloggers, and treated online review venues with every bit as much respect as traditional print venues. Again, these days, that’s not a big deal, but the climate was different in 2004, and she deserves massive credit for being one of the first to get it. And that was essential when it came to Pyr making the splash it did.

James Enge Interview up at Fantasy Book Critic

James Enge, author of Blood of Ambrose,is interviewed by Mihir Wanchoo at Fantasy Book Critic. The whole interview is well worth checking out, but here's one of my favorite bits:

I believe that the greatest danger to genre fiction nowadays is not the denial of respect from some notional group of literary tastemakers but the very real likelihood that sf/f may become respectable. Those who thirst for the foamy gray poison of respectability should consider the fate of jazz, once a popular medium, now respectable, ossified and ignored.

Enge, Sturges, Robson, Lloyd and Me

There's a fantastic interview with Blood of Ambroseauthor James Enge over on SFScope. Conducted by Sara M. Harvey, and well-worth reading, here's a taste:

The genesis of Morlock was, I think, frustration with two of my favorite writers, Tolkien and H.G. Wells. I was annoyed that Tolkien so obviously favored elves over dwarves, and that Wells did the same with Eloi over Morlocks. Morlocks did stuff—they worked and learned and thought and created. They seemed to me more authentically human than the empty, shiny Eloi. So what if they lived underground and weren't so pretty? The cannibalism is a little harder to stomach, as it were—but I'm sure that's exactly why Wells put it in. That's his thumb on the scale, trying to tilt our judgment of his characters.

Then over at The Agony Column, Rick Kleffel and I talk about Steampunk, Victoriana and Elizabethan SF, with a bit about Chris Roberson, George Mann, and old series Doctor Who. Here's a direct link.

Meanwhile in response to my accidentally traumatizing her with an offhand statement, Justina Robson asks What is Fantasy About? Please go join in the discussion. I sense brilliance on the verge of conception.

Then Graeme's Fantasy Book Review gives an 8 out of 10 to Matthew Sturges' Midwinter.They say:

...a book that any fantasy fan will get a lot out of. ...there is no denying the sense of urgency that leaps out off the page and drives the story along [at] a very fast pace. The constant plotting and scheming underneath the surface adds to this urgency as well as giving the reader the best possible reason to keep reading. There are loads of questions that all need answering and it’s all credit to Sturges that these are the kind of questions where you care enough about the answers to invest more time in reading the book. You also cannot deny the dangers that our travellers must face on their journey and these make for some great moments where anything could happen and spectacle is the order of the day!

Hey, I'd be rushing out to get that now if I hadn't read it already. But if you need more convincing, Jessica Strider at Sci-Fan Letter interviews Matthew Sturges, about the book and the craft of writing in general.

I was doing a presentation about writing comic books for a group of fourth-graders, since I'm most known as a comic book writer. Most of the questions were what you'd expect from nine-year-olds: Who'd win in a fight between the Hulk and Superman, that kind of stuff. Just as the questions were dying down, a kid in the back raised his hand and asked, "How much do you make?" I paused for a second and said, "I do okay, I guess." He wasn't satisfied, "Can you give me a dollar amount?" "That's an inappropriate question," said the teacher, embarassed. "Why?" said the kid. "How can I tell if I want to do that job if I don't know what it pays?"

Meanwhile, The King of the Nerds (what a title!) has some very positive thoughts about Tom Lloyd's The Twilight Herald:

...one heck of a wild ride, with action, excitement, danger, violence and epic confrontations occurring left and right... I’m not certain I would say The Twilight Herald is an improvement over The Stormcallerbut Lloyd at the least reveals an impressive level of verstatility in terms of style between the two novels. Furthermore he maintains an ability to include a subtle over-arching theme of revenge across the entirety of the novel that is never overwrought or glaring. Lloyd is keeping me guessing with the series and, criticisms asside, that is something I can definatley appreciate.

And that's enough news for one morning, right?

Update: Well, no, because there's a terrific interview with Tom Lloyd that is up at Fantasy Book News & Reviews.

A Conversation with James Enge

Tor.com has just uploaded my conversation with James Enge, author of the just-released Swords & Sorcery novel, Blood of Ambrose.I'm fascinated by Enge's world building, and his views on fantasy fiction in general. Check out the whole post, but here's a taste:

Morlock, as suits his ornery nature, was born out of annoyance. I’d just been rereading Wells’ The Time Machine and I was annoyed because I thought (and still think) that Wells stacked the deck unfairly against the Morlocks. Somehow this merged with a longstanding grievance I have against Tolkien: JRRT worked too hard to make elves the good guys, often at the expense of dwarves. And—because I was reading a lot of Arthurian source material at the time—I realized that “Morlock” looked like a lot of names in Arthurian legend: Morgan, Morgause, Morholt, Mordred. And so this character named Morlock Ambrosius was born, who was supposed to be to Merlin something like what Mordred was to Arthur.

Nuts & Bolts: Tom Lloyd

Genreville's Rose Fox posts Nuts & Bolts: Tom Lloyd today. This interview with the author of The Twilight Heraldwas conducted back when his first novel, The Stormcaller,was just coming out, so we are very glad to see it finally posted.

Here's a taste: "The idea evolved over several years. I'd had the first scene stuck in my head for a while, a dream originally, so it was the natural start for the book, but I didn't actually have a plot to begin with. When I started writing I just started sketching out ideas for the world and how I'd like it to be populated. I've always loved the quarrelsome gods of Norse mythology and decided that I wanted more involvement from gods than most books I'd read."

Podcast: Lou Anders and Rick Kleffel Discuss the New Fantasy

I'm up on Rick Kleffel's Agony Column podcast talking about what Rick calls "The New Fantasy," and covering works by Joe Abercrombie, Tom Lloyd, Joel Shepherd, James Enge, Justina Robson, Mark Chadbourn, Matthew Sturges, Chris Roberson and others. We even discuss Doctor Who's latest casting announcement and the effect Obama may have on genre fiction. Here's the direct link, and the show is available via iTunes as well (it's episode 555).

Rick writes:

"What's darker, grittier and sells better than expected in days such as these which are already dark and gritty enough without the help of excellent fantasy writers? Well, it's what I'm going to call for want of a better term, The New Fantasy, and since Lou Anders of Pyr Books is publishing a boatload of it in the upcoming months, I thought I'd give him a call. Lou Anders is a lucky guy. His job is to read a bunch of great fiction and then publish it, and as it happens — or at least as he observes and I concur — fiction does well during recessions. So what's going to happen to the fiction market during a full-blown, we're-wearin'-barrels Depression? Looks like it's boom times for genre fiction. Lou and I explored The New Fantasy and talked about Pyr's and other publishers current and upcoming titles."

Watch Real Live Authors Talk, Breath, Shrug and Scratch Themselves

Two video interviews with Pyr authors have cropped up recently.

David Louis Edelman is interviewed by the long-running show Fast Forward.

Joe Abercrombie is interviewed by Sci-Fi-London.

Both interviews are worthwhile and informative. Who knew these guys could talk as well as type?

Podcast: Yours Truly at SciFi Dimensions

John C. Snider interviews me for the SciFiDimensions Podcast. You can hear in streaming from his website, or you can search iTunes for "SciFiDimensions." I've not listened to it yet, so no idea how I come off, but it felt like a very thorough interview at the time. We talk about Fast Forward 2,Pyr, the art of John Picacio, and many more topics besides. He's a good interviewer, (and hit me with a curve ball out of the gate. Not that I'm saying that's a criteria for a good interview!) He also interviews Tim Lasuita, licensing director for Jack Lake Productions, a Canadian company involved in reprinting Classics Illustrated. Cool!

John also reviews Fast Forward 2 on his blog.

There’s no theme to the Fast Forward series, other than excellence in storytelling. The stories in FF2 cover the spectrum of sub-genres, from near-future parables to far-future space opera, from post-cyberpunk to hard SF; from cautionary tales a la The Twilight Zone to uplifting vignettes that affirm the best in human nature. With such a wide selection of styles and themes, it should come as no surprise that not every entry will appeal to every reader. At the very least, FF2 is like a Whitman Sampler; a little something for everyone, and if you find a story you like, it’ll be from a writer with plenty of other work you can chase down later.

Lou is Omnivoracious

Over on Amazon's Omnivoracious blog, an interview with Yours Truly conducted by the great Jeff Vandermeer and regarding Fast Forward 2. Here's a taste:

Amazon.com: When you edit an original anthology series where you solicit stories only, how do you protect against mediocre material creeping in?

Lou Anders: The very wise Jacob Weisman, editor and publisher of Tachyon Publications, once said that when selecting illustrators for book covers, you shouldn’t pick based on the best work in an artists portfolio, but based on their worst. Because, he said, you had to be willing to live with the worst piece in the portfolio if that is what they hand in. That’s one of the most helpful pieces of publishing advice I’ve ever encountered, and it rules all of my own cover art decisions at Pyr. But it also has applications to editing invite-only anthologies. As much as I’d like to, I can't do open-reads anthologies and still fulfill my job as Editorial Director of the Pyr science fiction and fantasy line. There just aren’t enough hours in the year. But I love the short form and I want to always work in it, and so I must do invite-only. Therefore, I believe very strongly that the moment of editorial discernment falls at the point of the invitation. The best piece of general business advice anyone can give you is this hire people smarter than you are and listen to them. I believe, firmly, that I am working with some of the best writers in the business, and I trust them to deliver. I avoid mediocre material by avoiding mediocre writers!

Today: a Shifting Balance of Power on a Global Level

No, I'm not talking about the election (though I'm off to vote just as soon as I blog this). What I am on about - over on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist, there's a great interview with Tom Lloyd, author of the just-released-and-kickin'-butt The Stormcaller: Book One of the Twilight Reignseries.

Tom says:

"Stormcaller is, at its heart, a story about a shifting balance of power on a global level. For various reasons, the object intended to engineer this change is a young man called Isak, who is thrown into events and expected to sink or swim. All the plans that have been building over the past years and centuries are about to bear fruit and Isak is going to find all of this being played out around him. In plot terms, each of the Seven Tribes of Man are ruled by white-eyes, divinely blessed warriors with bulging muscles and a nasty temper. Isak is raised from poverty to the post of heir-elect of one of the most powerful tribes and soon realises that this isn’t even the most dramatic or terrifying of the changes planned for his life."

And while we're on the subject of (ahem) changes, you can see the US version of the cover of book two, The Twilight Herald, (ahem) changed from the UK, on Amazon now. Both US covers are from the amazing Todd Lockwood, whose company I just enjoyed in Calgary this past weekend, where he was Artist Guest of Honor at the World Fantasy Convention. As nice a fellow as he is good a painter.