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Happy Book Day!

It’s late enough at night/early enough in the morning that I’m going to break my usual rule (it isn’t the next day until the sun has risen or you’ve slept), and declare the beginning of Midnight Never Come Book Day!

(If I’d really been on the irony ball, I’d’ve announced it at midnight.)

So: today you can officially walk into a bookstore and expect to find the book! Borders appears to be stocking it in what I consider to be large quantities, with copies both in the SF/F section (remember to look for a trade paperback) and — at least in this town — on the “New in Fiction” rack. Which is awesome.

As of today, you can also enter the competition! Short form is, there will be a series of mini-puzzles, for which there are hints scattered around the site. (Not all new or changed content is a hint, though; I sent in some belated modifications for the site, which are being instituted as fast as they can manage.) For every question you answer right, you will be entered into the contest. Check back regularly for updates!

Also, don’t forget my own mini-competition: if you send me a picture of my book in the wild, you’ll be eligible to win a copy of my short story “The Deaths of Christopher Marlowe.” You can post those here, or e-mail them to me at marie dot brennan at gmail dot com.

***

Review dump:

The verdict is in from Locus, and they liked me. “Brennan ably combines elements of danger, romance, and individual moral choices that could affect the fates of great realms, for a tale that’s rich in plot and character. She interweaves historic and fantastic details with scholarship, inspired acts of imagination, and a keen wit.” That’s another one to hug close and grin idiotically over.

John Ottinger at Grasping for the Wind has a few criticisms, but on the whole he enjoyed it: “Brennan’s ability to maintain historical accuracy while writing an exciting and fast-paced novel filled with elves, fairies, the Wild Hunt, and brownies makes this story worth reading.”

I don’t believe I remembered to quote from the Romantic Times review before. They gave it four stars, and said “This story of courtiers from different but parallel kingdoms is ripe with palace intrigue, Machiavellian double dealing and star-crossed love.”

I’ve also collected a couple of Amazon reviews, one two-star from a disappointed reader who prefers my first two books, one five-star from someone who enjoyed it a lot.

***

Not a review: I’m guest-blogging today for miladyinsanity, talking about travel and book research.

Happy Book Day!

one week in

7,932 words since June 1st, at a little over 1K every day. It’s a good start, and I’m on track to have 10K before I go driving off to California with kniedzw. Whether I get anything written on the road will be anyone’s guess; I can write while traveling just fine, but I can’t exactly take my research library with me in the car. Even if it’s a total wash, though, I’ll have 23K this month, and that’s fine.

I suppose now’s as good a time as any to outline the structure for this book. There are four days of the Fire, which I intend to scatter throughout the book. (Basically, this one will have four big flash-forwards instead of the ten flashbacks of MNC.) That means the rest of the story leading up to the Fire will also be in four parts. I’m aiming to have each part be roughly 20K, with roughly 5K for each Fire day, and the book is due at the beginning of October. Ergo, 25K each month will give me a completed draft in time (though without time for revision). That’s my baseline, the minimum I need to do. It isn’t precisely one part + one day every month, though, because I really need to save the Fire days until I’ve written everything that leads up to them; they’ll be written last. (However much I dearly want to get to Jack, and see how he works on the page.)

Progress so far: Antony is starting to find his own personality instead of borrowing Philip’s, which is good, because Philip would not make a good protagonist for this novel. Ben Hipley has randomly re-invented himself out of the NPC cast for Memento; I’m not sure why, but hey, sure. I can have a totally different character with the same name, if that’s what he really wants. The Short Parliament is about to start, which is very nearly the same thing as saying the Short Parliament is about to end. (Hence the name.) I, er, ought to read about that before I write those scenes.

The story is developing in my head at a very slow and deliberate pace, but that’s okay. Slow and steady wins the race.

LBR quota: except for that death in the first day of writing, it’s been all rhetoric. Which is fine. I think I can make it exciting enough. And if I can’t, well, I’m going to be Blowing Shit Up (by which I mean London) every 20K words, so there will be regular injections of Spectacle! and Excitement!
Authorial sadism: Sending Humphrey Taylor to the colonies because the protagonists are too soft to kill him themselves.

sorry, your book is in another castle

Time-honored wisdom among writers says that it’s better not to respond personally to reviews. I agree with that; what I’d like to do is use a review as a jumping-off point to discuss something it made me think about.

I’ve gotten my first negative review. (Counting the Kirkus slam as a rite of passage, rather than a review. <g>) A reader on Amazon who had adored my first two books rated this one two stars, and explained his reasons.

Let me say straight-out: from my perspective, Midnight Never Come is the best book I’ve ever written. It is not flawless; if I thought it was, I’d kick myself, because the only way I could think like that is if I weren’t trying hard enough to improve. But I consider it more intricate and well-thought-out than either of my first two novels.

But that isn’t the point, is it? Quality, if we can even speak of that objectively, is not the major determinant of the reading experience. Midnight Never Come is not the book this reader wanted (and hoped for) from me. I’ve said to several people that you can read it through a variety of genre lenses (urban fantasy, historical, romance, political thriller) — but secondary-world adventure fantasy isn’t one of them. So while I think there are points of similarity, such as the espionage, that will attract some readers who liked the Doppelganger books, it all depends on what you attached to the first time around. There will be other readers who pick this up, wonder what the hell happened to the Marie Brennan they enjoyed before, and walk away — some of them permanently.

This? Drives writers crazy. Because it’s a balancing act for which there isn’t even a recognized “win” condition. Some forces want you to do more of the same; some want you to grow and change and try new things. It isn’t even a straightforward matter of readers on one side, writers on the other, because of course writers may want to keep exploring a world their readers aren’t responding to, or readers may get bored by a writer they perceive as stuck in a rut. What’s victory? Selling lots of books? But what if that comes at the cost of pursuing ideas you’re really passionate about?

Actually, I take back what I said. There is a win condition, and it’s called being Neil Gaiman. The man could probably write anything he wants to, and his fans would love him for it.

This is my third novel. It’s not set in the same world as my first two. This is officially my first encounter with the phenomenon: that every time I change tracks, I will lose readers whose sphere of interests don’t include this new thing. There’s nothing wrong with it (unless I lose so many readers my publisher drops me), and it doesn’t mean the disappointed readers are wrong. They just wanted something else than what I delivered. I may or may not find that the shift brings me within the ambit of a greater number of new readers. Someday, I’ll decide to shift again: rinse and repeat.

I can tell myself it’s natural, but it’s still saddening, realizing the choices I’ve made have disappointed a fan.

justification

Working on building playlists for the novel looks like cat-vacuuming par excellence . . . until you realize that doing so has helped you figure out what’s changed in the faerie court between the last book and this one.

I am vindicated!

a sighting

My local Barnes & Noble has two copies of MNC on the shelf. (Two signed copies, now.) Which is another landmark in the Really Real Book progression. I’ve seen it out in the world for myself! In my home country, even!

Another victory: both my Gmail and sundell.net accounts are down to ten messages each, from the giant backlog created by my travels. I still have things I need to deal with, but the insurmountable pile has mostly been surmounted.

other reviews

While I was out of town, reviews also appeared for a couple of the venues my short stories have been published in.

Sherwood Smith (sartorias) liked issue #12 of Paradox, which includes “The Deaths of Christopher Marlowe.” The verdict on my story is that it’s “a taut, lapidary triptych,” and the verdict on me is that “Her scholarship is sure, her sense of pace impeccable.” Yay! (Don’t forget, you’re eligible to win a copy of that story if you send me a photo of Midnight Never Come in a bookstore. Or in your hot little hands, or whatever. Proof that it’s out in the world.)

Also, though I don’t believe the anthology Clockwork Phoenix is available yet — I think it’s debuting at Readercon — there have been a few advance reviews. Publishers Weekly says “all 19 stories have a strong and delicious taste of weird,” and Charles Tan at Bibliophile Stalker found it a solid, enjoyable antho. I’ll let you know when that one’s actually out.

back on the treadmill

Time to bring out this icon again, as I get properly underway with AAL. Last night’s writing was like pulling teeth, but that’s the natural result of fighting jet-lag long enough to put the words down. (Normally I don’t have this much trouble adjusting, but normally I don’t have seven hours’ difference and a cold to overcome.)

1,132 today. And, resurrecting the LBR tally: all rhetoric, today. But more fun than last night’s blood, because a) I’m awake and b) the random alderman I picked out of the 1639 flock is coming out with lines like “The king pisses away money as his father did — though at least he has the decency to piss it on war instead of drunkenness and catamites.”

Now to clean up the downstairs so we have somewhere to sit while gaming.

Monday morning countdown roundup

We’re in the home stretch for the U.S. release of Midnight Never Come.

June 9th, officially, but I know a handful of copies have already been sold in

various places around the country. If you send me a photo of the book on the

shelf between now and one week after the street date, I’ll enter your name in a

drawing for a special prize: a signed copy of Paradox #12, which contains my short

story “The Deaths of Christopher Marlowe.” (There’s absolutely no connection

between that story and this novel, aside from the time period, but you can have

fun imagining one for yourself.)

Also, those of you who prefer your novels in more portable format may be

interested to know that Fictionwise is advertising an e-book copy. I

wasn’t aware one was being issued, but apparently so.

***

If you were curious, yesterday’s post was an image of the promotional item my

publicist and I made for Midnight Never Come. It was sent to the

bookbuyers for stores in order to get them interested in the novel, and is, of

course, the thing for which I held the signature contest in February.

Want more? Why not try . . . <drum roll> . . . the website?

That’s right, folks: Orbit has put together a gorgeous website for the book.

Poke around and take a look at the goodies, and make sure you find the

semi-hidden link. It isn’t entirely finished yet; they’re doing a soft launch,

and will start rolling out the rest of the content on the 9th. If you come back

then, you’ll find a mini-game you can play, with some rather nice prizes to be

awarded.

***

With the book out in the UK and soon to be out here, reviews have started to

surface. My favorite pull-quote has to be the tag line from SFX Magazine: “Like John Le Carre if

he was obsessed with faeries.” (Alas, the review is not available online,

though it may be eventually.) They liked it, and read it through a political

thriller lens, which I find interesting. Not sure I can live up to a comparison with Le Carre, but hey. Anyway, I figure I’ll do occasional review round-ups here, whenever I reach a critical mass.

Myfanwy Rodman at The Bookbag read it the same way, calling it “a

historical thriller with a fascinating twist,” though one that starts a bit slowly.

Darren Turpin at The Genre Files found it “a highly-enjoyable mix of

Elizabethan and faerie politics and intrigue.”

Chris

Hyland, the Book Swede (who interviewed me last month) read it as a love

story, and flatters me immensely by saying, “What sets Marie Brennan apart

[from similar stories], then, is the quality of her writing, the complexities of

her plot, the characterisations, the world-building… everything” — though he, too, felt it opened slowly.

Mark Yon at

SFFWorld.com appreciated all my research, and didn’t find the romance as

off-putting as expected.

Elizabeth Bear

(aka matociquala), who has her own Elizabethan faerie novel

coming out next month, says of my characters that “These are not kinder,

gentler faeries. Really they’re not.”

Mervi Hamalainen at Curled

Up concurs, saying, “Midnight Never Come returns the fairies to their

roots: terrifying, alien, yet captivating at the same time.”

And finally, Debbie Chapman, a Waterstone’s bookseller, calls it “an amazing,

moving, murderous, magical tale.”

***

In other words, so far people are pretty much liking it.

(Except for Kirkus, of course.)

Day Eight: In which I do battle with handwriting (and lose)

Thanks to the Great LJ Overmind, I’ve managed to up my count of signed copies of Midnight Never Come from two to fourteen. (Not including the piles at Orbit.) On my way to fjm‘s lst night, I stopped off in Oxford Street and hit the Waterstones there; I did not, however, hit the Borders, on account of it being inside the police cordon closing off a chunk of the street after the fatal stabbing there the day before. Er. Yeah. Yikes.

So if you live in the London area and want a signed copy, here’s the tally of where to find them:

(more…)

Day Seven: In which I have a social life!

The Thames Path pleases me. I have no idea how far it stretches — all the way to the headwaters? — but if I were to keep walking east from Richmond, I’m pretty sure I could go without interruption on from here to Southwark. (If I had the endurance.) The companion trail on the north bank is the part of the same route I travel on my first day of these trips, along the bank from Blackfriars to the Tower. In the City it’s pretty in a paved and urbanized way; out here it’s rutted gravel and untrimmed verdage. It’s easy to imagine myself back in the past, editing out the few modern notes that creep into my view.

(more…)

Day Four: Courtesy of the Goodemeades

One unexpected side effect of not having my camera cable: it’s surprisingly hard to keep myself entertained in the evenings. I didn’t realize how much time I spent last year, sucking the day’s pictures down to my laptop, deleting the bad ones, and labeling the rest before I could forget what they were. I find myself at loose ends in the evenings, more than expected, and curse the combination of virtue and light packing that made the only book in my luggage Christopher Hill’s The World Turned Upside Down. I cannot brain enough to read about seventeenth-century socio-politico-religious movements right now.

(more…)

Happy, er, Surprise Book-Day!

So, turns out I’ve had it wrong all along: for my UK readers, May Day is the debut of Midnight Never Come! (Apparently I am, in fact, distracted enough to miss this fact. For U.S. readers, it’s still June 9th.) If you’re a Brit, then hie thee to a bookstore bookshop and get yourself a copy!

You can read the first of several upcoming interviews, this one with The Book Swede, who asked me some very thought-provoking questions about the background and content of this novel.

last excerpt

With forty days to go until Midnight Never Come hits the shelves, I’ve posted the last portion of the excerpt. It’s a long one, so keep clicking through. (Alternatively, you can start back at the beginning.)

(Confidential to sora_blue: You can finally get the answer to your question from a month ago!)

That will actually be the last of the MNC promotional stuff for a while. I leave next week for London, where I will have many adventures researching the next book, and then I will be in the Mediterranean, trying to do no work at all. There will, however, be one last nifty thing, just before the book comes out. And in the interim, you will be getting the return of the trip-blogging, which I know many people enjoyed last year. So enjoy!

Elizabethan extravaganza!

All you Kit Marlowe fanboys and fangirls out there may be interested to know that Issue #12 of Paradox Magazine is now available to order, and within its pages you may find my story “The Deaths of Christopher Marlowe”. No relation to Midnight Never Come, despite that title coming from Marlowe, but I welcome speculation as to how the two might be made to connect. (I suppose the answer might be Ink and Steel.)

Also, C.E. Murphy’s book The Queen’s Bastard debuts today. I mention this because it will always hold a special place in my heart as the first book I blurbed. Yes, ladies and gents, somebody at her publisher decided that Marie Brennan was a name worth putting on the cover! Oddly enough, the letter I got with the review copy connected it to Warrior and Witch, but it’s far more like Midnight Never Come, so that’s the vein I will use to pitch it to you all here.

The Queen’s Bastard, much like Michael Moorcock’s Gloriana, takes place in a setting that is sixteenth-century Europe in almost everything but name. (Unlike Gloriana, at no point did I want to throw it across the room and light it on fire with the power of my rage.) It has espionage and magic and is way sexier than MNC, and it’s the first book of a new series called The Inheritors’ Cycle. Short-form synopsis is, Belinda Primrose is the unacknowledged bastard daughter of Elizabeth Lorraine, queen of England Aulun, and she’s been trained by her father Robert Dudley Robert Drake in the art of international spying and assassination.

Belinda isn’t an entirely likeable character; she takes several actions in the story that had my skin crawling. But that’s clearly deliberate, and tied in with the growth of Belinda’s powers; I suspect that when it’s viewed in the larger context of the series, that will become an interesting facet of her character development. I’m certainly very curious to see the next book. This is clearly based on Reformation-era Europe, but taking it one step aside means Murphy can play with some elements of her own creation, and I’m looking forward to seeing where those go.

Finally, I’m hard at work on creating content for the dedicated Midnight Never Come website. (That’s just the holding page, until the thing goes live.) The plans, they are glorious. I have no idea what this stuff will look like in execution, but the ideas have me hugely pleased.