Michelle West DAW books update
May. 3rd, 2009 03:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
msagaraI have good news and bad news.
The good news first: DAW is buying three more Michelle West novels!
The bad news: the 1st of those three is actually the second plot arc of the book I've been working on for the last fifteen months.
Yes. The Michelle who cannot for love or money figure out how long it takes to tell a story has once again written herself out of the range of a single book. In June of last year, I wrote that I was tying up two plot arcs in House Name on the way to Terafin.
It took a little bit longer to tie them up than I thought it would, but not a lot. And I had said it was going to be 'one more book', so I kept on writing because surely I could fit the second plot arc in a few hundred pages.
Well. As long as we define a few hundred pages to be eight hundred or more (because I am not yet finished), the answer is, yes. But if we define a few hundred pages in a more consensual-reality way, the answer is: No.
This is, as usual, entirely my fault. This is not DAW, or DAW's fault, or something DAW insisted on. If I wanted to finish in one book, I would have had to cut several hundred pages, and my editor felt that this was not an entirely rational approach, given the pages I was suggesting I would have to cut.
And, of course, because it's me, the "shorter" of the two halves, which will be coming in March 2010 as City of Night (I have a scan of the artwork :D. I can't post it because it's not mine V.V. As soon as I have covers, or if Jody Lee does put it up on her web-site, I will send link), will be about 185-190k words.
The longer half, which is still called House Name, will be about the same length as Hidden City (which was mumble words), because in my panic about length I may have left out a couple of things that are probably necessary (which is what I do when I start to panic about length).
But the good news there is that I'm probably about two months from finishing House Name now that I can, you know, breathe again.
And if I say anything about how many books any particular arc or series will take me to write ever again, please feel free to kick me. Or mock me.
ETA: articles. Because articles are good.
The good news first: DAW is buying three more Michelle West novels!
The bad news: the 1st of those three is actually the second plot arc of the book I've been working on for the last fifteen months.
Yes. The Michelle who cannot for love or money figure out how long it takes to tell a story has once again written herself out of the range of a single book. In June of last year, I wrote that I was tying up two plot arcs in House Name on the way to Terafin.
It took a little bit longer to tie them up than I thought it would, but not a lot. And I had said it was going to be 'one more book', so I kept on writing because surely I could fit the second plot arc in a few hundred pages.
Well. As long as we define a few hundred pages to be eight hundred or more (because I am not yet finished), the answer is, yes. But if we define a few hundred pages in a more consensual-reality way, the answer is: No.
This is, as usual, entirely my fault. This is not DAW, or DAW's fault, or something DAW insisted on. If I wanted to finish in one book, I would have had to cut several hundred pages, and my editor felt that this was not an entirely rational approach, given the pages I was suggesting I would have to cut.
And, of course, because it's me, the "shorter" of the two halves, which will be coming in March 2010 as City of Night (I have a scan of the artwork :D. I can't post it because it's not mine V.V. As soon as I have covers, or if Jody Lee does put it up on her web-site, I will send link), will be about 185-190k words.
The longer half, which is still called House Name, will be about the same length as Hidden City (which was mumble words), because in my panic about length I may have left out a couple of things that are probably necessary (which is what I do when I start to panic about length).
But the good news there is that I'm probably about two months from finishing House Name now that I can, you know, breathe again.
And if I say anything about how many books any particular arc or series will take me to write ever again, please feel free to kick me. Or mock me.
ETA: articles. Because articles are good.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Yay! More Books!
Date: 2009-05-03 07:37 am (UTC)(of course, this is the same fan base that practically cheered when Brandon Sanderson announced that he was turning Memory of Light into three books, and some of us have been waiting twenty years for the conclusion to that series, so the evidence of our insanity is strong^^)
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Date: 2009-05-03 07:48 am (UTC)Seriously, I don't think a lot of people care how many books or pages or words it takes to tell the story; tell the story how YOU think it's best told, and we'll love it.
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Date: 2009-05-03 10:06 am (UTC)Or simply quadruple the number you propose. :)
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Date: 2009-05-03 10:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 10:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 11:48 am (UTC)Would you like to post this announcement over at the DAW blog, or would you like me to post it there for you?
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Date: 2009-05-03 12:15 pm (UTC)I always take your estimates with a grain of salt (or a whole box), so don't worry. More books is not a bad thing and I am very patient. :)
Yay!
Date: 2009-05-03 12:26 pm (UTC)Second, I buy you for the way you write so why would I think it was bad news that you're now able to tell the story in the way you want to tell it (otherwise you wouldn't have the words there, I believe). I do love me a Jody Lee cover, but while I will check any book with her cover for the blurb, I don't buy all of them, because some of the writers just aren't to my taste.
Third, the only thing I would like to have clarification for now, is if any of the new books thematically come after the Sun Sword series or if you are filling the Hunter gap up to Sun Sword with all of them (so I know where to put them on the shelf ^^).
Re: Yay!
Date: 2009-05-03 12:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 12:47 pm (UTC)-T
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Date: 2009-05-03 02:42 pm (UTC)Yay! More books!
also....
Yay! More /Jewel/ books!
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Date: 2009-05-03 03:05 pm (UTC)Re: Yay!
Date: 2009-05-03 03:39 pm (UTC)Book 4 and Book 5 (book 4 is what I started while waiting to hear back from my editor because nothing moves quickly in publishing, and I didn't want to lose the writing time to waiting) is the first book that takes place in the present time-line (post Sun Sword) :D.
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Date: 2009-05-03 03:40 pm (UTC)LOL! No, I'm laughing with you. Really.
Honestly, I don't know how Grownup Writers figure out how long the story's going to take. I wish I had this superpower; it would be really useful for when I become a Grownup Writer.
In the meantime, Fledgling was supposed to be one book and morphed into two. The book I'm working on now has already been upgraded from 100,000 to 120,000 and I'm looking at another upgrade to 150,000, and crossing my fingers...
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Date: 2009-05-03 04:12 pm (UTC)So, because I'm slightly confused: The House War is now going to be (at least) five books instead of four, now that House Name is two books? And new post-Sun Sword material starts in the book after House Name?
OMG, I'm so psyched.
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Date: 2009-05-03 04:42 pm (UTC)I am so very happy to hear this. I mean, not happy -exactly-, but it makes me feel less alone. I know that Kit Kerr's first four Deverry books started life as a short story as well. I always want to ask how people figure out how long a story will be before they've written it.
The only way I keep things short is by limiting myself to a single viewpoint. And even then I've been told that my short is not short.
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Date: 2009-05-03 04:48 pm (UTC)Yes. Exactly that. I am almost finished book three (as in: almost finished, not as in: I think all this stuff should fit in one book). But! I did start the first post-Sun Sword book while I was waiting to hear back from my editor. I'm not very far into it, but, yes.
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Date: 2009-05-03 04:48 pm (UTC)2. This is me not being surprised. *g*
All we can do is tell the stories we have to tell; we're just VERY lucky that our editor agrees with that.
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Date: 2009-05-03 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 05:31 pm (UTC)I'm somewhat jealous of your and
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Date: 2009-05-03 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 07:44 pm (UTC)That wasn't scoffing. That was the Dire Look of Doom.
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Date: 2009-05-03 08:00 pm (UTC)All we can do is tell the stories we have to tell; we're just VERY lucky that our editor agrees with that.
Well... you were working full-time with me when my short story became four novels, so your lack of surprise is, well, not surprising.
And yes. I feel very lucky. You'll appreciate this part, though: After we'd discussed the split, and where (I held off sending Jody Lee any of the book until I'd finished the arcs because I wanted her to have the strongest emotional moment possible in the text), she then told me about all the things she really thought the third book needed.
I mentioned that they were not entirely trivial to add -- i.e. not short -- and she said "Yes, but now that we've split the book, you have the room to work with".
And I'm looking at both halves, which are by far too long for the rest of the market at the moment. But when she's in editing mode, she really doesn't care about the length at all; just the story.
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Date: 2009-05-03 08:05 pm (UTC)I think it's a function of characters, viewpoints, their ages, and the breadth of the world. One character can only ever see so much - that's how I keep the CAST novels down to a 140k length.
But with characters of various ages, cultures, and political affiliations, the overlap, and the reactions ripple outward. It's easier in some ways because you don't have to try to figure out how a single character can stumble across all the necessary information so that the reader has it as well, since you've now got viewpoints with a wide range of event-accessibility; it's harder because each viewpoint has, and demands, its own emotional weight.
Personally? I'm still jealous of the incredible economy of Bones, which I am almost finished now, and which is fabulous.
But then again, I think we're often impressed by things we don't or can't do naturally *wry g*
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Date: 2009-05-03 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 08:11 pm (UTC)Love to have your problems. :)
Re: Yay!
Date: 2009-05-03 08:18 pm (UTC)Re: Yay! More Books!
Date: 2009-05-03 08:30 pm (UTC)There was no way he was going to be able to tie everything up in one book. And given that he's handling a whole legacy, in his position I would have gone for 3 or 4 or 5 -- whatever it took to actually finish it properly. I really admire the research/reading he's done, and I really, really admire the respect he's showing both Jordan's original work and Jordan's readers.
But, ummm, I don't think Sanderson said in advance it was one book. I think Jordan might have said that -- but Jordan told us, in person when he came to sign at the bookstore, that it was Six Books. So...
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Date: 2009-05-03 09:00 pm (UTC)Re: Yay!
Date: 2009-05-03 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 11:33 pm (UTC)Heh. That, yeah.
Re: Yay! More Books!
Date: 2009-05-03 11:38 pm (UTC)..it hasn't really been 20 years, has it? Oh man, when did THAT happen?!
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Date: 2009-05-04 12:55 am (UTC)On twitter, you'd said that you're watching a bit of Last Exile with your kids, and I have to say, it was a really good anime. I want to go watch it again now. :)
Re: Yay!
Date: 2009-05-04 01:50 am (UTC)It will probably be about 14 months from now until it's finished, so not really soon. But I did start work on it, and I can pretty much work uninterrupted once I finish three, and revise two, which I'll be doing, oh, now.
... right after LJ time...
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Date: 2009-05-04 01:54 am (UTC)We're four episodes into it right now, and at the moment, I really like it. We tend to like a lot of the same things, but the youngest doesn't like too much intensity in terms of emotion or terror or grief, so when the complete set of Last Exile came out on DVD, we picked it up, and will watch it to the end.
We've liked Scrapped Princess, The Last Airbender, Noien (but my youngest kind of lost interest at the very end because he simply did not understand a villain who could -forget- that there were also -good- things that happened in life, along with the bad ones), Scryed. Oh, and Kenshin.
I'm probably going to try Bleach when I can get complete seasons.
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Date: 2009-05-04 05:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-04 06:27 am (UTC)I'll be patient.
Hey! More books for me!
The whole Sword universe is one that I don't ever want to let go of.
Speaking of . . . Any chances of another Aidan appearance? Ya know . . . all grown up(tear)?
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Date: 2009-05-04 06:34 am (UTC)Any chance of any omnibus editions?
Cause.
Wow.
Are your books filling my shelves.
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Date: 2009-05-04 10:23 am (UTC)What some clever people have to say about it
(spoilerfree)
http://kate-nepveu.livejournal.com/253973.html
(fairly spoiler-free)
http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2007/12/11/mangaanime-a-great-present-for-kids-of-all-ages-princess-tutu/
(with spoilers)
http://meganbmoore.livejournal.com/tag/anime:+princess+tutu
http://salimbol.livejournal.com/1030.html
http://mbeasi.livejournal.com/10748.html
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Date: 2009-05-04 10:34 am (UTC)Re: Yay! More Books!
Date: 2009-05-04 06:17 pm (UTC)But yeah, thank god he's not. Given how poorly some of the other recent legacy writings have turned out, it's really refreshing to see both his skill and his dedication towards this work.
But enough about other series; I want more House War books! And I'm really burning with curiosity about whats going to happen when we catch up with the current timeline =)
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Date: 2009-05-04 06:30 pm (UTC)Bleach is good, but it's also very long--though if you've gotten through all of Kenshin, I don't think that's much of a problem :) I have yet to see The Last Airbender, though my husband says I MUST see it. And I will, but probably after I'm done with Full Metal Alchemist's do-over.
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Date: 2009-05-05 02:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-05 04:34 am (UTC)Any chance of any omnibus editions?
The thing about omnibus editions is they're often compilations of books that are significantly shorter than any of the Sun Sword novels are. I don't think you could do one of the Sun Sword, unless you did a trade paperback format and tried to fit 2 of the books in each, and that would still make them really, really wide, spine-wise.
Which would be the disadvantage of the whole long book thing.
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Date: 2009-05-05 04:44 am (UTC)I like long books. It took me a week and a half to read Hidden City.
But as far as the omnibus thing... if it's another six to eight inches taller than the standard novel size, that would likely make it about as wide as one standard novel, if you only fit two books into each.
Eh, either way I'll manage!
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Date: 2009-05-05 06:27 am (UTC)