Harper Voyager Books

Guest Blogger -- Lois McMaster Bujold

Just a quick note to say that Lois McMaster Bujold, author of (most recently) The Sharing Knife, Volume One: Beguilement will be our next guest blogger.  Starting tomorrow morning, check back in regularly to see what Lois has to say about the writing process, where her ideas come from, and how The Sharing Knife came about!

-- Kate

Families

One of the running themes in these blogs, and in my writing, is family.  Ashleigh Brilliant once wrote in one of his "pot-shots":  If only I could relate to the people I'm related to.  The moments of connection move us to tears and swell our love for each other and the world, but the times we fail and betray each other, the times we wound without thinking shape us and shade our other relationships for all of our lives.

        Diana, my editor, jokingly pointed out that many of the Eos releases for this season have family strife as a theme.  That's because it's one of the major influences in our lives.  Our families bring us joy and grief, sometimes in vastly disproportionate amounts.  From the writer's perspective, family is also the cauldron in which we examine psychology, group dynamics, and the lasting impact that one person can have upon another.  Is it any wonder that these issues crop up over and over in fiction?

        Fiction, even fantasy, can be a way to study something that fascinates us.  A safe place to conduct the sort of psychological experiments outlawed on a national and worldwide level.  Fictional people suffer the damage of broken homes and long-held secrets, of sibling rivalry taken to the extreme, of parental withdrawal and the need to defend oneself first and foremost, against those we love.  And the character's growth and change, for good or ill, can provide a mirror to the author, and to the readers, to reflect upon the ways we interact and the moments we might heal one another. 

       In that way, these imaginary people become, through the medium of reading, another family, one we can love and hate and fear for almost as much as the real thing.

-- Elaine Isaak

THE SHARING KNIFE: Beguilement an Instant New York Times Bestseller!

A huge thank you to all of Lois's fans out there who went right out and bought her new novel, THE SHARING KNIFE: Beguilement, as soon as it went on sale -- I'm pleased to report that TSK:Beguilement hit the New York Times extended bestseller list at #28!  Wonderful, wonderful news.  (We get the lists early; TSK: Beguilement will be on the list dated October 29th.  So you may not be able to find the official list online yet.  But it's there, trust me.)

Lois has also graciously agreed to participate in our Invite the Author program -- so for all of you who have book groups, she'll be calling in to a lucky few this December.  To enter to win a chat with Lois -- where you can ask her all your burning questions about Fawn and Dag and what's ahead for the two of them -- go here.

Finally, for anyone who hasn't yet bought the book, and wants to sample a little more, we've just posted the third chapter online.

Happy reading!  And please join me in a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Lois.

-- Kate

Author news & links

Lois McMaster Bujold signs at Uncle Hugo's in Minneapolis, MN this Saturday, October 21st, 1PM-3PM.  She's also our upcoming Author Guest Blogger, tentatively starting next week.

Elaine Isaak signs tomorrow, Saturday 10/21 at the Barnes & Noble in Portsmouth, NH, at 2:00pm.

Kim Harrison has a new online interview here.

The Washington Post reviews Terry Pratchett's WINTERSMITH (found via the SFBC blog--thanks!).

-- Diana

Sisters and Horses

       My sister might be rather disturbed if she knew I was blogging about her.  Michelle and I share parentage, heritage, a love of gourmet cooking and a strong predilection for books founded by our family's Sunday tradition of reading around the dinner table.  We read The Lord of the Rings, Watership Down and The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, among many others.  To this day, while we read widely in other genres (and also share a fondness for Dick Francis mysteries), fantasy remains close to our hearts.

       In many other ways, we are completely different.  Michelle loves animals, and has worked with them all of her life--especially horses.  She once said she would read the back of any book with a horse on the cover.  If the horse had a name, she would buy the book right then.  (FYI, the horse on which Kattanan flies over the heads of his enemies, the horse that later Lyssa takes for her own, is named Fenervon.  His history was trimmed in the first book, but I believe his name remains.)

        Two years older than I, Michelle took a long time before she decided that I was better than the pony she always wanted, and even found me a birthday card to that effect.  Our strong personalities clashed constantly, and we got on much better after she went to college. . . and moved away.  But lately, we've been turning the relationship around.  We have returned to the things that we share.  I can call her up and talk about books and characters, what we hate and what we love, and what we long for in a good fantasy.  That's why The Eunuch's Heir is dedicated to my sister, for the adventures we've shared between the covers of a good book.

-- Elaine Isaak

A Door Opens...

Shortly after I received my copies of The Singer's Crown, I went on vacation and met up with some relatives.  Thrilled to show off the new book, I passed it around to wide acclaim.  Later on, I found my uncle ensconced in a comfortable chair, reading my book.  The elation of having published transformed into a curious apprehension:  someone was actually reading it. 

A door opened in the back of my skull and people could look inside.  Not just total strangers looking for a good read, but friends and family, people I hadn't seen for years, ex-boyfriends. . . What would they see?  While the general public was likely to accept the book at face value, and might later be interested in seeking out some more personal acquaintance with me via my website, bookstore and convention appearances, this other group of readers already thought they knew me.  They would be reading not only a work of fiction, but also getting an inside view of my imagination, a different perspective on someone they've known for years.

That door hasn't closed yet.  In fact, as I write more, it is likely to open wider and wider, allowing friends and strangers alike to examine different aspects of my psyche.  I want to point out that it is all fiction.  The characters are not based on anyone I know, no matter how much it might seem otherwise.  I have never done most of the things in my books (a fact for which many should be grateful), and the opinions expressed by my characters do not necessarily reflect the views of their author.  Perhaps I should write up a warning label.

-- Elaine Isaak

He said, she said

Connie Willis, on a convention panel a long time ago, complained about the lack of words for human expression.  It's one of the fundamental problems of character-driven writing, how to convey the 75% of information you'd get from a conversation that is not in the words.  Imagine just the dialogue of a novel, floating in space, without the grounding of dialogue tags, actions or expressions.

        Writers' workshops tend to frown upon repeated use of looks or glances, references to how someone smiled (a sly smile, a ghost of a smile), or "said-isms"--dialog tags that try to convey tone or meaning outside of the words, like "threatened", "cajoled", "whined".  Can they be overdone?  Sure.  But they are also trying to fulfil a needed function.  If you watched a play or movie, or simply two friends conversing, you would know all about their history and their attitudes by listening to the tone of voice and observing their body language.  The distance between them might speak volumes, more than the words they say.

          And the writer must describe all of this, or at least, enough of it that you, the reader, glimpse the subtext, all those nuances that bring the deeper meaning to the words, and bring the characters to life.  The moment when someone's eyes meet another's--or dodge the glance--could be devastating.

       Some of my favorite moments in films are these little moments that pass between two people, and I often think back on them when I'm trying to capture such moments on paper.  The weeping creature-keeper in "Return of the Jedi" transforms Luke's victory into an intimate tragedy.  The herald reaching out to the king who is his enemy in "Henry V", even though they never touch, demonstrates the meaning of sympathy and courage.  And my favorite scenes in my own words are those where I believe I've expressed something deeper, something that words alone cannot say.

-- Elaine Isaak

Firing the Muse

One of the most liberating days of my life was the day I fired my muse.   My first novel, The Singer's Crown, took about 4 1/2 years to write.  Not because I was finely crafting each scene and lovingly polishing every sentence--that came later.  No, at the time, my process was to sit down for hours on end (or entire weekends, when I could manage it) and write feverishly while the muse whispered in my ear.  When she was done whispering, when I couldn't think of what happened next, or ran out of steam for the moment, I stopped writing.  Sometimes for months. 

        That all changed midway through The Eunuch's Heir.  Once again, I waited for the muse to tug my fancy, and dove into the work, emerging only for the occasional sandwich.  But I had gotten married in the meantime. . . and then, I got pregnant.  My husband and I were both thrilled, if a bit terrified as well.  What would happen when the muse sang and the baby cried at the same time?  How would I ever satisfy both demands upon my life and heart?  More importantly, how would I ever scrape together those long hours and empty weekends I thought my work depended on?

        In despair, and in defiance of all advice, I seized upon a new scheme.  When the baby napped, I would write.  It was all I could do, and I expected disaster.  Sometimes she slept for fifteen minutes--barely enough time to fire up the computer and open the file.  But sometimes, she slept for hours--a godsend!  No longer did I wait upon the fickle muse.  Released from the notion that I must wait for inspiration, I found that I could make the moment happen.  The writing mind took over and the ideas flowed at my command.  When I realized that I could write a chapter a day in these little pieces of time, I gave my muse a pink slip.  If you're interested, she may still be looking for work. . .

-- Elaine Isaak

30th Anniversary of THE TWELTH PLANET

November 11, 2006 is the 30^th Anniversary of Zecharia Sitchin’s first masterwork, THE TWELFTH PLANET. Click here for information about a party in his honor at Columbia University in New York City. Sitchin will conclude his Earth Chronicles series with THE END OF DAYS, coming out April 2007 in hardcover from William Morrow.

-KC

Ask Ray Bradbury contest

FAREWELL SUMMER, the long-awaited sequel to Ray Bradbury's acclaimed Dandelion Wine, is on-sale today.

To celebrate one of his best books yet, Ray will be answering questions about FAREWELL SUMMER.  Want to hear directly from Ray himself?  Read FAREWELL SUMMER, look for our announcement in a couple of weeks, and then send in your questions about the book for Ray to answer. 

The top 10 questions will win a signed copy of FAREWELL SUMMER.

-- Diana