With Steve Miller, I've co-written 23 science fiction and fantasy books, most set in the Liaden Universe®, and the Archers Beach trilogy -- Carousel Tides, Carousel Sun, Carousel Seas -- under my own byline.
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6 thoughts on “Progress”
You’re writing a sequel! Oh, I’m so excited – Carousel Tides is the best fantasy book I’ve read in a decade. Strong, awesome heroine, fantastic world building, complex and interesting characters, surprising plot twists, and THE ATMOSPHERE. Holy cow. I have been a huge fantasy fan since I was a kid (urban or no), but in a way I wish the book had been marketed as “magical realism” so it could reach a wider audience. I suppose I think it’s so amazing that everyone should read it! Can’t wait for the next one.
Yay! A fan! Thank you for your kind words.
As to the sequel, it’s been turned in and accepted. I’m now at work on the third, and last, book in the sequence.
It’s funny that I don’t think of “magical realism” as reaching a larger audience than genre fantasy. This may simply be because I’ve been a genre writer for thirty years. Jumping from genre to literary isn’t something that happens very often, especially if you’re with a publisher who’s very well-known for publishing science fiction and fantasy. If Baen published a book and called it “magical realism,” their fan-base would laugh at them. Or at least be Extremely Wary.
I’ve been telling people that I’m writing “mundane fantasy,” which gives me a chance to explain What I Mean By That. Come to think about it, I should do a post here, explaining What I Mean By That. . .
Hm, you may be right. I don’t know the numbers, but I live in the UK where magical realism is always on the 3-for-2 tables at Waterstone’s (our biggest book chain). Books like “The Night Circus”, “The Girl With Glass Feet”, “The Glass Books of The Dream Eaters”, “Of Bees and Mist”, and “The End of Mr. Y” are really no less fantasy than so-called “urban fantasy”-type books, but they’re marketed at non-genre readers so live for weeks or months on best seller lists. Same for “The Scorpio Races” (teen fantasy about demon horse kelpies). The thing is, your book, I can say hand-over-heart, is about fifty times better than all of those aforementioned books. When it was over, I really just wanted to go and live at Archer’s Beach, felt like all of the characters were people I knew, and was very sad to see Borgan disappear below the waves. I think it takes a lot of talent to mix high fantasy with very acute realism – and when it’s done as well as you do it, it makes the magic and the imagined world breathe as if it were alive. Which is really special. (Perhaps because I love Carousel Tides so much and have an overblown sense of justice, I want everyone to read it!)
This is not to do fantasy readers any injustice because they are equally awesome.
Anyway, thank you for giving the world Archer’s Beach. I’ll do my best to prosthelytise on Goodreads, etc. and I am really excited about the sequel!! I have also been looking all over the internet for a batwing carousel horse with no luck. 🙁 I read Carrie Papa’s “The Carousel Keepers: An Oral History of American Carousel” last year and damn near spent half the book in tears it was so moving. In my head the Fun Country carousel was an original PTC, but I don’t think they ever made a unicorn so maybe not.
I agree with the reader before me. May we please have a t-shirt with the Batwing? Carousel Tides has been my go-to book for long journeys (I have it in kindle format from Baen and audio from Audible) and on a journey last summer my husband fell in love with it too. We both eagerly await Carousel Sun and the sequel after that. Dang it Baen, can’t you release the ARC faster?
We also eagerly await more Liaden adventures. I am re-reading the entire series in desperation. Please hurry, with both series. The short stories on SplinterUniverse aren’t enough to get me a fix.
My thanks for your care of my reading needs.
Does this mean you’re still living in Old Orchard Beach?
I’m pondering things to do this summer and that’s only about an hour and a half away.
No, it means I turned in the second book.
Old Orchard Beach is definitely worth a visit — or several! You being so close, I wonder that you haven’t been there before.
You’re writing a sequel! Oh, I’m so excited – Carousel Tides is the best fantasy book I’ve read in a decade. Strong, awesome heroine, fantastic world building, complex and interesting characters, surprising plot twists, and THE ATMOSPHERE. Holy cow. I have been a huge fantasy fan since I was a kid (urban or no), but in a way I wish the book had been marketed as “magical realism” so it could reach a wider audience. I suppose I think it’s so amazing that everyone should read it! Can’t wait for the next one.
Yay! A fan! Thank you for your kind words.
As to the sequel, it’s been turned in and accepted. I’m now at work on the third, and last, book in the sequence.
It’s funny that I don’t think of “magical realism” as reaching a larger audience than genre fantasy. This may simply be because I’ve been a genre writer for thirty years. Jumping from genre to literary isn’t something that happens very often, especially if you’re with a publisher who’s very well-known for publishing science fiction and fantasy. If Baen published a book and called it “magical realism,” their fan-base would laugh at them. Or at least be Extremely Wary.
I’ve been telling people that I’m writing “mundane fantasy,” which gives me a chance to explain What I Mean By That. Come to think about it, I should do a post here, explaining What I Mean By That. . .
Hm, you may be right. I don’t know the numbers, but I live in the UK where magical realism is always on the 3-for-2 tables at Waterstone’s (our biggest book chain). Books like “The Night Circus”, “The Girl With Glass Feet”, “The Glass Books of The Dream Eaters”, “Of Bees and Mist”, and “The End of Mr. Y” are really no less fantasy than so-called “urban fantasy”-type books, but they’re marketed at non-genre readers so live for weeks or months on best seller lists. Same for “The Scorpio Races” (teen fantasy about demon horse kelpies). The thing is, your book, I can say hand-over-heart, is about fifty times better than all of those aforementioned books. When it was over, I really just wanted to go and live at Archer’s Beach, felt like all of the characters were people I knew, and was very sad to see Borgan disappear below the waves. I think it takes a lot of talent to mix high fantasy with very acute realism – and when it’s done as well as you do it, it makes the magic and the imagined world breathe as if it were alive. Which is really special. (Perhaps because I love Carousel Tides so much and have an overblown sense of justice, I want everyone to read it!)
This is not to do fantasy readers any injustice because they are equally awesome.
Anyway, thank you for giving the world Archer’s Beach. I’ll do my best to prosthelytise on Goodreads, etc. and I am really excited about the sequel!! I have also been looking all over the internet for a batwing carousel horse with no luck. 🙁 I read Carrie Papa’s “The Carousel Keepers: An Oral History of American Carousel” last year and damn near spent half the book in tears it was so moving. In my head the Fun Country carousel was an original PTC, but I don’t think they ever made a unicorn so maybe not.
I agree with the reader before me. May we please have a t-shirt with the Batwing? Carousel Tides has been my go-to book for long journeys (I have it in kindle format from Baen and audio from Audible) and on a journey last summer my husband fell in love with it too. We both eagerly await Carousel Sun and the sequel after that. Dang it Baen, can’t you release the ARC faster?
We also eagerly await more Liaden adventures. I am re-reading the entire series in desperation. Please hurry, with both series. The short stories on SplinterUniverse aren’t enough to get me a fix.
My thanks for your care of my reading needs.
Does this mean you’re still living in Old Orchard Beach?
I’m pondering things to do this summer and that’s only about an hour and a half away.
No, it means I turned in the second book.
Old Orchard Beach is definitely worth a visit — or several! You being so close, I wonder that you haven’t been there before.