A Dribble of Ink

Shawn C. Speakman, known to many of my readers as the man behind The Signed Page, is a good friend of mine. Beyond that, though, he is a storyteller. Like many of us, Shawn is an aspiring writer, looking to emulate the success of many of his idols (some of whom he also considers friends) and is hard at work on a trilogy titled Battle’s Perilous Edge, with the first novel being called Song of the Fell Hammer. The problem however, according to his blog, is that he has been unsuccessful so far in finding an agent to represent him or a publisher to publish him.

Why?

This is pretty darn silly if you ask me. Sure, Urban Fantasy is king (or should I say Queen…) at the moment, but that doesn’t mean epic fantasy doesn’t sell. George R.R. Martin, anyone? Too established. Fine, how about Patrick Rothfuss? New writer, epic fantasy and a first person narrative? Terry Brooks’ latest novel was once again a New York Times Bestseller, R.A. Salvatore still sells bucket loads and newcomer Joe Abercrombie seems to be doing pretty well for himself.
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Well, I once again had the chance to sit down with Steven Erikson for a little while (at a signing and then at a pub) and this time I have a bit of actual news for all of you Malazan fans out there!

Steve held a reading/signing at a local bookstore at which he read from not Reaper’s Gale (his latest release), but instead from his work in progress, Toll the Hounds. I’ll save the really juicy stuff for after the jump (stuff that some people might consider spoilers) but right now I can tell you that Toll the Hounds is almost finished, the ending is still supposed to knock your socks off, and that the final two novels in the series, Dust of Dreams and The Crippled God, will essentially read as one gigantic novel, as opposed to being stand-aloneish like his other books.

He also mentioned that he’s already rolling around ideas of where he might go once he’s done the current cycle of books and that one of the ideas he’s throwing around is to explore the pasts of some of the Ascendents (such as Anomander Rake) before they became the powerful figures we see them as in The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Pretty cool stuff, if you ask me!

Cam’s novel, The Return of the Crimson Guard is finished and in the hands of his publisher. Steven said it clocks in at around 280k words, so expect a much heftier novel than Night of Knives.

Also, don’t forget that I’m accepting questions for my interview with not only Steven Erikson, but also with Ian Cameron Esselmont! You can send questions to questions(no-spam)@aidanmoher.com [Just remember to remove the (no-spam) tag!]. And I also have a giveaway for signed copies of The Bonehunters!

Now for the Toll the Hounds spoilers!
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Well, I promised you a surprise with regards to Steven Erikson and, well… here it is!

This giveaway is a collaboration between A Dribble of Ink and The Signed Page. The Signed Page was kind enough to provide me with five (5) Trade Paperback copies of Steven Erikson’s The Bonehunters and, best of all, they’re signed by Steve himself!

Unfortunately this contest is only open to those living in North America. I have to pay for the shipping out of my own pocket and, well… I’m a poor college student! I apologize to all of those who read my blog from outside of North America, I know there are a lot of you!

Also, just to clarify, the editions being given away are Trade Paperback, US copies of The Bonehunters. The one with the erm… beautiful Todd Lockwood cover to the left.

The Rules are simple:

• Go to The Signed Page and find the name of their newsletter (found near the bottom of the page)
• Send and email to bonehunters(no-spam)@aidanmoher.com [remove the (no-spam) thing!)
• Put “BONEHUNTERS” into the subject line
• Include: your Full Name & Mailing Address (North American only, please!) and the name of the Signed Page’s newsletter
• Let me know what corners of the Internet you roam and your screen names (Message Boards, Blogs, etc…)
• Enter only ONCE, multiple entrants will be disqualified.

And that’s it! Pretty standard stuff (in fact, I basically stole most of it from Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist!) Steve doesn’t get out to do signings as much as other authors, so this is a pretty rare treat that fans of his surely won’t want to pass up! The lucky winners will be announced around the same time as the three-way interview between Steven Erikson, Ian Cameron Esslemont and myself! (Don’t forget that you can send in questions if you have them! Check this post for details!)

Good luck to everyone who enters!

   Thanks to Shawn Speakman (a good friend of mine, a terrific author and the man behind The Signed Page) I had the chance to meet one of Fantasy’s biggest authors, Steven Erikson. In fact, I didn’t only meet him, I spent an afternoon with him and Shawn and we had a good chance to talk about everything from Fantasy, to windy islands, to K.J. Parker’s latest trilogy (The Engineer Trilogy, it’s really good apparently!), to my own writing career, and even Pat from Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist (Nothing but good things, Pat. I promise!).

   It’s obviously a pretty rare chance to sit down with a published author and be able to shoot the shit for a couple of hours. It’s an even rarer chance to do so with an author who many will argue is the finest in the genre at the moment.
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