POINT ONE: This book is the start of a longer epic.

KINGS stands at 425,000 words right now. I’ll be trimming that down to (hopefully) 380–390k when I do the next draft. (Which will be the final draft.) That will put it at roughly double the length of MISTBORN or ELANTRIS. The series is called the Stormlight Archive, and Tor purchased four books from me. I’m not planning that to be the end, though I’m cautious at locking myself into a certain number of books. (Though I do have the entire series plotted, and am fairly certain I know exactly how many books it will be.) For now, let me just say that it won’t be as long as the Wheel of Time, but will be longer than anything I’ve attempted so far.

• 25 – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

• 24 – The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester

• 23 – Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

• 22 – Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

• 21 – It by Stephen King

• 20 – Legend by David Gemmell

• 19 – Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

• 18 – The Stand by Stephen King

• 17 – Hyperion by Dan Simmons

• 16 – Magician by Raymond E. Feist

• 15 – Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

• 14 – I am Legend by Richard Matheson

• 13 – Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

• 12 – The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

• 11 – Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

• 10 – A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

• 9 – His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman

• 8 – The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

• 7 – American Gods by Neil Gaiman

• 6 – Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

• 5 – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

  All of the Harry Potter books received a fair number of votes, but by far the most popular was the third book, with it time travelling shenanigans and werewolves. The book probably marks the perfect balance between the rollicking children’s adventure stories of the earlier books and the growing angst and complex plots of the later books. It’s also the last Potter book you didn’t need a fork lift truck to get it home from the book shop.

• 4 – The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

  The oldest book in this top 25, and it fully deserves its top five position. Not just because of its historical importance – the first alien invasion novel, you realise – but because it is full of the most amazingly evocative imagery: the Martian ship landing on Horsell Common; the Martian slowly emerging; the three-legged war machines; the attack on the Thunder Child (a ship full of escaping humans); the red weed. This was blockbuster science fiction in literary form. And all written in such splendidly Victorian prose.

• 3 – Dune by Frank Herbert

  The glory of Dune is that it’s so clever, so full of ingenious ideas, so packed with exciting set pieces, so blessed with colourful characters, that even if you plough through the increasingly dire sequels, nothing tarnishes your memories of the original. A space opera on an audacious scale, with plots that have been hatching for centuries, political intrigue and some mindboggling SF concepts, Dune is a milestone in science fiction. When the desert planet of Arakis – so tangibly evoked you can almost feel the heat and dust on your cheeks – becomes the battleground for an intergalactic power struggle, the young heir to a dynasty in decline goes native. Oh yeah, and there are some space nuns who can predict the future who’ve set up a very special breeding program in the hope of creating a saviour.

• 2 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

  Adams is funny. Really funny. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly funny he is. You may think Red Dwarf is the height of comedy sci fi, but that’s just peanuts compared to Adams. On the other hand, don’t let the fact that Adams is probably the wittiest writer ever to have turned his attention to spaceships and all that gubbins get in the way of the fact that he’s also a damned fine SF author too. Behind the gags about digital watches, towels and morphing whales in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy are some pretty weighty SF concepts of which Philip K Dick would be proud. The main difference is that Dick could write an entire novel based on a concept that Adams throws away in a passing comment. As we all know, Hitchhiker’s started as a radio show, but it was the books based on the series (six in all, or five and a half if you don’t consider Salmon of Doubt – a posthumous collection of previously uncollected material by Douglas Adams – a proper book) that really extended Adams’s bonkers universe and fired the imagination of his fans.

• 1 – The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

  Yes, it’s won again. Though Hitchhiker’s put in a valiant effort, The Lord Of the Rings remains SFX readers’ favourite book. Or trilogy. Or six books if you’re a real LOTR pedant. The power of Tolkein’s folly to enchant readers just never seems to fade, and the Peter Jackson movie trilogy cleary hasn’t done its reputation any damage. The breed of sniffy, snobby literary types (many of whom you suspect haven’t even read his work) who dismiss Tolkein as nonsense, are, frankly, missing the point. Tolkien wasn’t interested so much in writing great literature – he wanted to create a modern myth. And in this regard he succeeded spectacularly – Middle-earth is so fully realised that it feels just as authentic and ancient as Greek mytholgy or stone circles. So, with this in mind, perhaps his finest work is actually The Silmarillion, published posthumously in 1977 (and edited by his son Christopher), as it details the legends and history of Middle-earth in prose so evocative that it’s hard to picture any other book reaching such heights – Tolkien even constructed new languages. It was a labour that, thankfully, the readers also loved. When it comes to epic fantasy Tolkien wrote the rule book, and any new fantasy author can either embrace Tolkien or kick against him. What they can’t do is ignore him.

“Show, don’t tell” is a beginner’s strategy. Dramatize when it’s time to dramatize, summarize when it’s time to summarize. Knowing the difference is the job description.

Be concrete and specific.

Don’t fear infodumps; telling people what’s going on includes them in on the story. Just don’t make them boring.

Withholding information breeds confusion. Providing information builds tension. (“The essential fact is to get real suspense you must let the audience have information.” –Alfred Hitchcock)

Gentle emotions are more powerful than violent ones.

Think about how things smell and taste.

Write fast, edit ruthlessly.

Trust your readers to be as smart as you are, but don’t assume they can read your mind.

Narrators aren’t evil, nor are they sinless. Tell the story in a voice, but not about the voice.

Get out of the way. The more I use fiction to show everyone how clever I am, the more I compromise my story.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 9, 2010

Pyr Celebrates 5th Anniversary With Essay Contest

Grand Prize Winner Embarks on a ‘Pyr and Dragons Adventure’

Amherst, NY — To celebrate their 5th anniversary, Pyr, the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Prometheus Books, will sponsor a contest that incorporates things they hold dear: creative and powerful writing, a passion for reading genre fiction, and this year’s special number, five.

For their Pyr and Dragons Adventure 5th Anniversary Contest, Pyr invites readers and fans to submit a short essay on the theme: Five reasons why science fiction and fantasy is important to you.

Eligibility requirements follow*. Any essay submissions that do not meet these guidelines will be disqualified:

- Entrants must reside in the Continental United States and be at least 21 years of age.
- Essays must be no longer than 1500 words.
- Essays must be emailed to publicity@prometheusbooks.com as a Word document attachment, with the subject line “Pyr and Dragons Adventure Essay Submission.”
- The body of the submission email must clearly identify the entrant’s full name, address (within the Continental United States), phone number and email address.
- All submissions must be received between April 1, 2010 and June 1, 2010.

*For complete list of rules and regulations see http://www.pyrsf.com/.

All eligible essays will be read and reviewed by publishing staff at Prometheus Books. Not all of these preliminary readers will be science fiction and fantasy fans, so outstanding essays will likely be those that pique their interest in the genre and make them want to read it too. The top twenty-five essays as determined by these industry professionals will be read by Pyr Editorial Director Lou Anders, who will select the top three.

The writer of the Third Place essay will win a commemorative Pyr 5th anniversary keepsake and five complimentary books of their choice from the Pyr catalog.

The writer of the Second Place essay will win a complete set of Pyr books as published by the contest end date of June 1, 2010 (one copy of each title, without duplicating those that appear in more than one binding) and a commemorative Pyr 5th anniversary keepsake.

The Grand Prize Winner will embark on a “Pyr and Dragons Adventure” that includes*:

The grand prize winning essay will be posted at the Pyr-o-mania blog, and may be promoted by the publisher by other means, including but not limited to their other blogs, websites, e-newsletters and social networking pages.

Prometheus Books—a provocative, progressive and independent publisher of nonfiction since 1969—launched Pyr in March 2005 to complement its strength in popular science. The imprint rather quickly earned acclaim, awards, and loyal fans, including Pulitzer Prize–winning author Junot Díaz, who called Pyr “the imprint to beat in the science fiction and fantasy fields.”

With an emphasis on quality, Pyr helped to introduce readers to some authors then little-known in the U.S., such as John Meaney, Ian McDonald, Joel Shepherd, Justina Robson, and Joe Abercrombie. Pyr has also published such established authors as Mike Resnick, Robert Silverberg and Michael Moorcock. Pyr Editorial Director Lou Anders has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Editor Long Form for three consecutive years. In 2009, Prometheus Books and Pyr launched a major e-book initiative, with titles available on Kindle and programs with many different e-reader platforms in the works. In 2010, in addition to celebrating its five-year anniversary, Pyr will publish its 100th title.

# # #

For a complete list of contest rules and regulations see http://www.pyrsf.com/

Over 6 hours of my onscreen compositing, retouching, color correction, type obsessing, all condensed down to a slim sexy one minute 55 seconds of cover design. Trust me, no one wants to watch it in real-time…and even then I left out the not-as-riveting-onscreen stages of my cover design process, such as reading the manuscript, sifting through Alexia photoshoot outtakes, background photo research, etc. And since this is a series look that has already been established for Soulless and Changeless, there weren’t the usual batches and rounds of versions of different designs that happen with standalone or first-in-a-new-series covers. That would be a weeklong video!

So, let’s talk about your blog for a bit. You’re pretty connected to the news of the fantasy world, able to get interviews with such greats as Blake Charlton and even deign to speak with such no-names like Joe Abercrombie, your reviews tend to be viewed as honest and affable and you’re a writer yourself. You’re officially one of the big names in blogging. Do you think your success is undeserved? And if not, don’t you think you should? What’s next for A Dribble of Ink?

Okay, first I should clear some things up about Abercrombie. He came to me. Both times, on hands and knees, no less. I don’t know why he was so desperate, his books are pretty popular, but he hounded me excessively, begging me to allow him on the blog.

One night, at three in the morning, I got a phone call. On the other end, through the static of the trans-atlantic phonelines, I could hear heavy breath, like the person was breathing only through their mouth, and the gentle scrape of a comb running through a well-tended neck-beard.

He uttered a single phrase, which I will not appear here, that sent a chill down my spine and haunting my dreamscapes with visions of Logen, Friendly and Ferro having unending threesomes. Ever since then, he’s been allowed to come on my blog and rant, in hopes that the dreams may one day cease.

As for the success of my blog, well, I work hard on it and pour a very substantial part of myself into it, so in that respect, yeah, I think the success is deserved. That said, my official answer is: ‘I’m nothing more than a humble guy just doin’ his thing. I didn’t even know people read my blog, I guess that’s kinda neat!’. There, now I don’t sound like an asshole.

What’s next? Onwards and upwards. This year I hope to cover more short fiction and conduct more interviews. Hopefully there’s good news on my own writing, also. Then I can turn A Dribble of Ink into a platform to shill my own material. That would be good, no?

The sea is full of saints. You know that? You know that: you’re a big boy.

The sea’s full of saints and it’s been full of saints for years. Since longer than anything. Saints were there before there were even gods. They were waiting for them, and they’re still there now.

Saints eat fish and shellfish. Some of them catch jellyfish and some of them eat rubbish. Some saints eat anything they can find. They hide under rocks; they turn themselves inside out; they spit up spirals. There’s nothing saints don’t do.

Make this shape with your hands. Like that. Move your fingers. There, you made a saint. Look out, here comes another one! Now they’re fighting! Yours won.

There aren’t any big corkscrew saints any more, but there are still ones like sacks and ones like coils, and ones like robes with flapping sleeves. What’s your favourite saint? I’ll tell you mine. But wait a minute, first, do you know what it is makes them all saints? They’re all a holy family, they’re all cousins. Of each other, and of . . . you know what else they’re cousins of?

That’s right. Of gods.

Alright now. Who was it made you? You know what to say.

Who made you?

Long ago, Susan Rodriguez was Harry Dresden’s lover-until she was attacked by his enemies, leaving her torn between her own humanity and the bloodlust of the vampiric Red Court. Susan then disappeared to South America, where she could fight both her savage gift and those who cursed her with it.

Now Arianna Ortega, Duchess of the Red Court, has discovered a secret Susan has long kept, and she plans to use it-against Harry. To prevail this time, he may have no choice but to embrace the raging fury of his own untapped dark power. Because Harry’s not fighting to save the world…

He’s fighting to save his child.

I told Irene that I was offering to do a grander, wider scene so that the viewer could explore the battle. It would stretch far enough to break the borders of the square, but to compensate, I composed it so that we could pick a ‘sweet spot’ to place on the cover. I let that spot dictate the broader POV.

As I stretched the scene, stage left, I found myself able to include more of what was happening in the story. I wanted to give a sense of distance to the landscape, while bringing figures forward enough that they’re almost on top of you. But the closer the figure, the more they block. And explosions take up a lot of real estate in a painting.

I had to pick the moment carefully. Depict a moment too far in advance of the mayhem and it weakens the excitement. Too far after the initial firestorm and I’d be depicting heaps of charred meat. I chose the moment just before the detonations went rending through the ranks completely. The wave is just starting to sweep over the Aiel, but as timing isn’t quite so precise, I depicted the flames cresting quickly from right to left, allowing the viewer “time” to see what was about to come. Utter flaming chaos.