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Olympia, Feb. 11, 2012, Barnes and Noble
Well, I think that sums it up! I’ll be at the Barnes and Noble, Black Lake Blvd from 2 to 4 PM on Feb. 11, 2012.
I just thought I’d let everyone know that this stop has been added to the City of Dragons Book Tour.
I always enjoy signing there, so I’m looking forward to this!
Robin
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Publication Dates for City of Dragons, Blood of Dragons
I’ve had a few queries about publication dates for City of Dragons and Blood of Dragons.
So, to be absolutely clear: In the US, City of Dragons in will be available in hardback in February of 2012. This is also when I’ll be doing the book tour to launch it. Blood of Dragons is scheduled for May 1, 2013.
In the UK, City of Dragons is scheduled for April 2012, and Blood of Dragons will come out on May 1, 2013.
So, there you are!
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New Dates for visits
I’ve just updated my appearances area to include the signing dates in February for City of Dragons.
In February, I’ll launch from University Book Store in Seattle, Washington. From there, I’ll drive down to Beaverton, Oregon and the Powell’s store there, then off to Hood River for a noon talk and signing at the Columbia Gorge Community College and the Waucoma Bookstore.
After that, I will visit Fort Lewis and sign at the PX. Then it’s off to Texas and Murder by the Book in Houston, and Bookpeople as a finale in Austin Texas.
For the details, check out the appearances schedule on the Robinhobb.com site.
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Soleil will produce Graphic Novels from The Liveship Traders
Just signed the contracts this morning!
Soleil, who has done a magnificent job of transforming the Farseer Trilogy (see some sample pages here) out as a set of French graphic novels will now continue with the Liveship Traders Trilogy.
Can’t wait to see them!
And to stem the tide of questions: No, they are not available in English, but yes, there are Dutch versions!
Robin Hobb
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Correct Dutch Title!
Ah, in my late night haste to post, I didn’t proof read what I was putting up!
Here is the Dutch cover for the true first edition of City of Dragons, with the correct Dutch title in place:
There have been a number of surprised comments asking ‘How is it possible that the Dutch language edition is out before the English version?’ Well, it’s pretty simple. The manuscript is sent out to the editors of the various publishing houses. Each publishing house determines where the book will fit in their schedule, and then makes it happen.
In this case, a swift translator and an efficient editor means that the Dutch edition has come out first. I might note that since the Dutch are a very literate people and very often multi-lingual as well, this is excellent marketing by Luitingh Fantasy.
The illustrator is Marco Lap. Enjoy!
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Dutch First Edition
As noted here by others, the Dutch translation of City of Dragons is out and ready for reading. With yet another gorgeous cover in this set:
And what might come next? Have a peek here!
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Reddit chat coming up. And a bit of hacking.
Maybe I’ll talk about the second header first!
This site was hacked a few days ago. Some of you received a warning message when you visited, and immediately let me know. Thank you so much. I keep thinking I have fixed this, but this morning someone let me know they had still received a virus warning. The Novels page seems to be the one that triggers it. Please stay off it until I know I have this fixed. I am very sorry about this.
In much more pleasant news, I’ll be dropping by Reddit for an online chat tomorrow night! That is Wednesday, October 19, at 8 PM Pacific Time. You can submit questions ahead of time if you wish. Please pay an early visit to Reddit to find out all about how to participate.
I’m looking forward to an interesting evening!
Robin
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In All Its Glory
The cover for the UK edition of City of Dragons, art by Jackie Morris.
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In All Its Glory
The cover for City of Dragons, by Jackie Morris.
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Support Your Local Genre
Not all people who read fantasy and SF want to be writers. But almost all people who want to write fantasy and SF also read the stuff.
And most people who want to write fantasy and SF also want to be able to sell their stories and novels when they are complete.
So . . . why are subscription rates to the magazines that publish fantasy and SF stories falling off? For a long time now, I’ve watched old magazines fail due to lack of subscribers, and new magazines (including e-zines) come into being, prosper briefly, and then fail. Due to a lack of readership.
It is my opinion that if you want to sell your stories then you ought to be willing to buy other people’s stories. It keeps alive the very markets that your career as a writer may depend on. My personal feeling is that short fiction is the cutting edge of our genre. Reading it is an important part of keeping up with the field as well as discovering wonderful new stories and writers for your own enjoyment. If you want to be a writer of SF or fantasy, I think you need to read what others are writing, if only to save yourself the trouble of reinventing the wheel!
Herewith, my suggestions for three magazines that I think every sf/fantasy writer, aspiring or proven, should subscribe to.
Asimov’s Science Fiction Why? Because my taste in stories is very much in tune with what their editors choose to publish. In other words, in almost every issue, I can find a story that makes me go ‘Wow.’ Or one leaves me pondering something. It’s also where you can yearly find a Connie Willis Christmas story, and those my friends, are worth the price of a year’s subscription just by themselves! Don’t be put off by the SF in the title if you are a fantasy only reader. They publish both on a regular basis.
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction This magazine has a solid history of picking winners. Flowers for Algernon comes immediately to mind. Stephen King’s The Dark Tower was first serialized in Over my years of readingF&SF, I have watched writers appear in those pages, blossom and then become giants in the SF/fantasy field. And I am always excited when one of my old favorites, such as Ray Bradbury, shows up on the cover. Solid book reviews by Charles deLint are also in there.
Locus Magazine Now this is the one that I view as indispensible for those with writing ambitions. Locus Magazine bills itself as The Magazine of the Fantasy and Science Fiction Field. Within its pages you will find reviews of forthcoming books and magazines, news of who is writing, selling or reselling what, thoughtful essays, coverage of conventions and, well, all the news of the SF/fantasy world.
Those are my three favorites. I’ll freely admit that I’m a paper addict and do not know the online magazines as well as I should. If you have a favorite magazine, paper or pixel, please feel free to respond here and let us know about it. After all, it’s in all our own best interests as writers and readers to keep these story outlets alive.
And because I’ve had a lot of response to what I wrote about Writer Beware!, I’ll close with a couple of other links that can be of great use to aspiring writers.
The first is Duotrope. To use it’s own words, this site is “an award-winning, free writers’ resource listing over 3550 current Fiction and Poetry publications.” It’s a great resource for discovering new markets for your fiction and poetry. And dare I add, it’s a great resource for discovering magazines that you might want to subscribe to and support!
The second one is GilaQueen. Gila Queen is currently on hiatus as they recover from Hurricane Irene, but we hope to see it back on line soon. And when it does come back, new subscribers would help keep it in existence. Keep checking back there.
