My bestselling novel
Jan. 11th, 2005 10:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellenkushnerA friend who works at the Boston Globe just pointed out to me that THOMAS THE RHYMER was on their Local Bestsellers list the week of November 28, 2004. It was #9 in Paperback Fiction (right between Marianne Wiggins & J.M. Coetzee), in a list made up from the four prominent independent (non-genre) bookstores. What surprised me was the date - I had assumed the local sales would have spiked in late October, when I did a radio interview on "A Celtic Sojourn" and also did a reading/concert at one of the relevant bookstores. Maybe it was early holiday shopping?
Meanwhile, forgive me for not keeping up my journal - I have oh so much to tell you, from my 12-hour trip to New Jersey to do a KlezNut gig in December (a.k.a. "There And Back Again, or, Michael did all the driving, thank god"), to actually finishing a good draft of my new novel (which I have been intending to ramble on about ad infinitum, but just can't seem to find the occasion) at midnight before we left for vacation, to the death last week of my elderly aunt. . . . But I'm afraid this is just what it's like to have me as a correspondent.
Meanwhile, forgive me for not keeping up my journal - I have oh so much to tell you, from my 12-hour trip to New Jersey to do a KlezNut gig in December (a.k.a. "There And Back Again, or, Michael did all the driving, thank god"), to actually finishing a good draft of my new novel (which I have been intending to ramble on about ad infinitum, but just can't seem to find the occasion) at midnight before we left for vacation, to the death last week of my elderly aunt. . . . But I'm afraid this is just what it's like to have me as a correspondent.
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 07:29 am (UTC)*squee*
Sorry. Every once in a while I flip into fan-girl mode. Can you say more about this lovely new novel?
But I'm afraid this is just what it's like to have me as a correspondent.
You mean, somewhat distracted but always entertaining?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-12 02:12 pm (UTC)Actually, no, I would probably hate that.
On weekends. Sometimes.
"You mean, somewhat distracted but always entertaining?"
Um . . . we've spent some time together, then, have we? (Tee-hee - you nailed it - most gracefully! Thank you.)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 09:15 am (UTC)This is just as well. Though my internal enthusiasm would be high, the outward manifestation tends more toward the mellow end, with only periodic bursts of song and dancing about.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 11:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 09:08 am (UTC)Woo-hoo!
When will the rest of the world get to see it?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-12 02:18 pm (UTC)Meanwhile, come to Wiscon and/or ICFA, where I will surely read some, ham that I am.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 10:17 am (UTC)Congrats!
to the death last week of my elderly aunt. . . .
I'm so sorry.
See you at Arisia? I keep forgetting if you go to that con, or just to Boskone and Readercon.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-12 02:19 pm (UTC)I am sporadically at Arisia, and usually at Boskone, but I'm afraid this year's schedule means I'll be at neither one. Readercon it is, then!
no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 10:20 am (UTC)I'm wiggling! I'm wiggling!
no subject
Date: 2005-01-12 02:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-12 03:12 pm (UTC)The tattoo is the coven (http://www.livejournal.com/community/entelechycoven) tattoo. Can't tell ya how fun it is to have a gaggle of lassies sporting this thing.
Random question: you're in Boston, yes? Any chance that you're coming up for Terri's reading next week? I've never heard her read, but love her work and loved her at Mythic Journeys. I can't wait!
Terri's Reading at KGB 1/19
Date: 2005-01-15 07:13 pm (UTC)We will be in NYC in February, working on our musical, "The Bone Chandelier" - if there's another public read-through, I'll be sure and let you (and the entire rest of the world!) know.
Be well -
e
A. . .
Date: 2005-01-11 12:08 pm (UTC)I'm so sorry about the death of your aunt. You have my full condolences.
Congrats on "Thomas the Rhymer!"
-Jess
Re: A. . .
Date: 2005-01-12 02:32 pm (UTC)What can I say? I'm a tease - but I'll try to do better.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 12:33 pm (UTC)And on the off chance that condolences from a complete stranger bring any comfort, I'm sorry about your aunt.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-12 02:34 pm (UTC)It is, in fact, that novel, indeed. I will tell you more anon - but now I am out of Goofing Off Time, and must go work on a short story I promised Delia I would get to today...
The New Novel
Date: 2005-01-16 09:41 am (UTC)Yes, about a year ago, now, my editor at Bantam asked me to give her a few pages from the not-yet-completed novel to put in the back of the new edition of _Thomas_ (which they were bringing out in June 04) - I guess they wanted to make the book thicker or something (the Rhymer is actually quite a short novel, which was a plus when I wrote it, back in the early days of publishing when there were wolves in Wales, but nowadays Thicker books are all the vogue, I guess, and anyway, why not do some free advertising?). I was a bit reluctant: for one thing, I am tremendously fussy about my prose, and as the novel is still in progress, I'm sure to keep polishing, so whatever I gave Bantam was unlikely to be the Final Version of anything; for another, the entire novel is a giant Swordspoint "spoiler", and since many people reading _Thomas_ are unlikely to have read Swordspoint, I hated to do that to them.
I therefore managed to select one of the oldest scenes in the book, which I've run my eyes and hands over so many times that *surely* I wouldn't make any changes (ha ha, she laughs a year later, but of course I have), and which pretty much stands alone. It's really short - but that is partly because I suggested longish chunks from Swordspoint and The Fall of the Kings when asked for some.
I am afraid, though, I have exacted a terrible revenge by making a liar of poor Bantam: I thought I'd have the novel done and in the can by now (sorry - radio slang creeping across the borders), ready for Fall 2005 publication; but I misjudged, mis-timed . . . Expect it early in 2006, instead - and of course I will blab about it lots on LJ when I'm not quite so up to my eyeballs. Thanks for your understanding!
Re: The New Novel
Date: 2005-01-18 04:59 pm (UTC)I suppose I can hold out for a while longer, especially since a) it was only a week or so ago that I got the new copy of Thomas the Rhymer, and so it's not as though I've been counting on it for a while, and b) I'm absolutely sure it'll be worth the wait. Now all I have to do is break the news to my father.
Re: The New Novel
Date: 2005-01-18 06:14 pm (UTC)You interest me strangely.
Re: The New Novel
Date: 2005-01-18 10:13 pm (UTC)But it was my father's copy of Thomas the Rhymer that I originally
stoleborrowed when I was 16, and his copy of Swordspoint that I made off with a year or so later, and he was the one who told me when Fall of the Kings came out, and so the first thing I did when I saw the excerpt from the upcoming novel was to call him and tell him about it. So now I need to tell him that it probably won't be out until next year, and we can commiserate and speculate together.*hugs*
Date: 2005-01-11 01:37 pm (UTC)So sorry to read that your aunt did finally pass... I know that was news not entirely unexpected, but never wanted. Glad you were able to get the novel done, though...
All our love,
Jess, Eric, and Spencer.
Re: *hugs*
Date: 2005-01-13 05:58 pm (UTC)It was remarkable to then be in Florida the next week, waiting for the phone to ring saying my aunt had died, and instead learn that you'd just given birth!
Hugs to Eric, and a gingerly pat to Spencer, who is, I'm afraid, rather young for the Full Treatment....
Beaming,
e
Re: *hugs*
Date: 2005-01-16 04:58 am (UTC)Jess
Re: *hugs*
Date: 2005-01-16 09:23 am (UTC)