Progress Report September ’15
It’s been a bit of a whirlwind of a past few months, but a lot of overseas trips are now behind me. Half a War is out in English with many more languages to follow, and The First Law trilogy has been republished in the US by Orbit, so I’ve entered a brief period of (relative) calm.
I’ve finished the last short story for my collection, Sharp Ends (you’ll find further details including the table of contents in the post below this one) so apart from compiling and giving them a final edit it’s pretty much ready for publication in the UK and US in April next year in hardcover and e-book and with an audiobook read (I very much hope) by Steven Pacey. I expect it will be available in some other languages not too long afterward but I’ve got no solid information on that yet. Cover art is well underway and I’ll probably have something to show in the next couple of months, but for the time being let’s just say that it will be a development of the parchment theme and feature a map of the entire Circle of the World…
Looking to the future – got a few events over the next month or two including Titan Con near Belfast, Gollancz Fest in Manchester and London, and an interview at the Bath Children’s Literature Festival but then I’m aiming to keep the rest of the year free to start thinking about my next project. This, as has often been said, is intended to be another trilogy in the world of the First Law. Most likely it will take place a few years after the end of Red Country, most likely it will pick up the threads of the original trilogy a bit more directly than the standalone books have done, most likely it will again feature a new central cast but with many familiar faces appearing in key supporting roles.
Since about 2001 I’ve always had a novel on the go, starting the next one well before the last came out. This time around, I’ve scarcely begun on the thinking-about-it stage. Furthermore, I haven’t written an adult trilogy since the First Law, which was under very different circumstances, as a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed hobbyist with a lifetime of ideas to put into practice. So the thinking-about-it stage might be quite long and involved this time. In an ideal world I’d also like to produce a rough draft of the whole series before thinking about getting that first one ready for publication, to make sure the trilogy as a whole is as good as it can be.
Bottom line, you won’t see these books on your bookstore shelves for quite some time to come. I shall keep you updated, however…
