Just thought I’d post up a few more photos from the trip! People seemed to like them the last time, so I’ll keep putting ’em up as long as people keep asking for them!
Taken at the Harbour Bar in Dublin, Ireland
Taken in Paris, France
What a joy it was to have my new camera while travelling!
The LA Times, not exactly known as a bastion of news concerning the world of speculative fiction, has posted an interesting, if not exactly informative (at least for fans of the series who have been closely following Sanderson’s involvement), article about Jordan’s death and the subsequent decision to hand over the reins to a relative unknown author in Sanderson.
“I’m relatively unknown as an author; I’ve only been published for a couple of years,” Sanderson said. “I did not know I was being considered.”
Indeed, the most prominent question on fan sites such as seemed to be: Who is Brandon Sanderson?
That question was met head-on by Sanderson as he began interacting with “Wheel of Time” fans both live and on the Web, and taking the time to introduce himself to those who were still new to his work.
“Overall, I’m absolutely thrilled that Brandon is the man for the job,” exclaimed Jason Denzel, site founder of Dragonmount.com. “It’s as if they picked the most talented fan they could find and handed him the series to finish.”
As confident as Denzel and the rest of the fans on his website have become in Sanderson, they admit that there remains a trickle of skepticism.
“The thing that we haven’t seen yet, and whether or not it can be pulled off, is if this book is going to feel like someone else wrote it or as if Robert Jordan wrote it himself,” said Denzel. “Our biggest worry is whether or not it’s going to have the feel of the rest of the series.”
Sanderson empathizes with the fans.
“I can’t do a better job than Robert Jordan. I can’t even do as good a job as Robert Jordan, I don’t think,” remarked Sanderson. “He’s the only one that could’ve done it the right way.”
Fortunately for fans, the author wanted to give them the ending they deserved, one written by him. During his last days, the writer began dictating onto a recorder how the prologue for the final book would play out, and feverishly scribbling down the ending he had kept stored away in his mind for the past 17 years.
You can read the whole article HERE. Of more note, though, may be Sanderson’s own blog where he keeps a continuous flow of news and anecdotes on the process behind finishing not only someone else’s story, but a story that has millions of people enraptured worldwide.
Pat (man, two posts about the bugger in one day, what’s the world coming to?), from Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, has posted a pretty cool excerpt of The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss.
You can check out the excerpt HERE.
Pat also has a snippet of news on the progress of the novel:
This should tell the author’s detractors that a) Rothfuss is writing it and b) that Rothfuss has some portions of the manuscript polished enough that they can actually be shown. Having said that, it’s obvious that the book is nowhere near close to being published. But this excerpt demonstrates that Patrick Rothfuss is working on it, and that things are moving (seemingly) in the right direction.
While it’s frustrating that the novel’s still far from publication, it’s good to know that progress is being made. I won’t be reading the excerpt, but hopefully it’ll whet your appetite enough to buy Rothfuss another few months!
Tia, the woman behind Fantasy Debut, has put together an absolutely fantastic article about how to successfully pull together a blog. She mostly focuses on how authors, but having read the advice, it’s information that’s priceless to anyone looking to start a blog or just bump up their traffic!
The most important part, in my opinion, is the section she has on publicizing:
Publicizing Your Blog
You can set all that up and still get no traffic. Here’s how to help drive traffic to your site for free. Well, there is a cost, but that cost is time, rather than money. The closer you get to 40, the more you realize how very valuable time is.
* Comment on other blogs. People know you exist this way. I still check out every new commenter.
* Answer your comments. You want to appear accessible. Plus, when you answer comments, you encourage conversation.
* Thank reviewers. Even thank reviewers for bad reviews. We feel all special when authors thank us. We may not be special at all, but it is in your best interest to encourage such feelings anyway. Don’t kiss our ass; we can see right through that. Just thank us. We’re more likely to remember you and to blog about you when we have warm and fuzzy feelings about you.
* Consider blogging about bad reviews as well as good ones. This makes you look uber-cool, like nothing can touch you. You may be crying your eyes red, but we don’t know that. We’re just marveling at how awesome you are. Of course, if you’re only getting bad reviews, this will simply make you look pathetic, so use some balance here.
* Shout-out other blogs that you admire, and include a link to that blog, or the particular post that caught your eye. We’ll most likely notice (see below for how) and we’ll appreciate it.
* Consider using Twitter. I have not taken the plunge yet. Try it and see if it’s for you. If you like it, include your Twitter feed on your sidebar. Twitter should have instructions on how to do this.
* Join science fiction and fantasy forums and participate. Yeah, I know. I need to take this advice, myself.
* Ask! Email the blogger/site owner and make a request. Offer to trade links, or to do an article or guest post, or to send a review copy. The worst they can do is say no, but most of the time, bloggers are happy (read: giddy) to help authors out.
I strongly advise anyone with an interest in blogging to check out the entire article HERE. You’re sure to learn something. I certainly did!
One of our own, Patrick St. Denis from Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, has some big news: he’ll be compiling an anthology, titled Speculative Horizons, for none other than Subterranean Press.
From Pat’s web site:
[The] folks at Subterranean Press aproached me to see if I’d be interested in putting together a fantasy anthology featuring some of my favorite SFF authors. I replied that I was interested, that goes without saying, but only if part of the proceeds would be used to raise funds for breast cancer research. Bill at Subpress agreed that this was within the realm of possibilities. I will also be donating a sizable chunk of my own advance to support this great cause.
It’s going to be a small anthology, so we were forced to be methodical in terms of contacting authors. It took longer than anticipated, but it would have been bad form to invite many SFF authors, only to let them know that we couldn’t accept their submissions because the lineup was complete.
Though everyone loved the idea and would have liked to contribute a short story, scheduling and prior commitments prevented them from participating. Still, their encouragements and kind words meant a lot to me.
I “borrowed” the title Speculative Horizons from James Long’s blog of the same name (http://www.speculativehorizons.blogspot.com/) with his blessing, and the guy will get a nod in the acknowledgements. As far as I know, our anthology will likely be in the same format as Subpress’ A Fantasy Medley, from which the excerpt from Robin Hobb short story was taken a few weeks back.
Our lineup:
– New York Times bestselling author, L. E. Modesitt, jr.
– World Fantasy Award nominee, Hal Duncan
– New York Times notable author, C. S. Friedman
– Tobias S. Buckell
– Brian Ruckley
These authors bring various things to the dance, and they should offer an interesting mix of styles and stories. I’m eager to see what they’ll come up with!
I have no idea exactly when Speculative Horizons will be published, though I have a feeling it might be in late 2009. Check out http://www.subterraneanpress.com/ from time to time, or keep your eyes peeled for additional info on the Hotlist every time there’s something to report!
Congrats to Pat, SubPress and all the authors involved. It’s surely a collection I’ll be keeping my eyes on.
