Robin Hobb's Blog, page 8

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Title Page: The Fool’s Assassin

So.  There it is.

The short summary.  This manuscript is now with my publishers.  I am hoping for a 2014 publication date, but we will see.  This is volume one of what I am determined will remain a trilogy in length. 

Over on the Robin Hobb Facebook, you may see AskTheKat’s version of recent events in the office household.  There is a reason why she is known as The Evil Assistant.

Or, if you do not care for Facebook, you can check her video blog of the day here:  http://youtu.be/Rmd5NhHlgcQ

I had intended to make a more grandiose announcement of this, but flu/cold felled me, and the days ticked by, and suddenly it was time let the cat out of the bag.  Or perhaps the Kat?    

And so. On we go.

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Here in Tacoma and environs, we’ve been breaking records for rainfall. Yesterday, we broke our record for rainfall in a single day, and our record for rainfall in September, at 5.6 inches of rain so far. Saturday, we had 1.71 inches, breaking the old record of .83 twice over. And much to everyone’s surprise, we had a funnel cloud damage the Boeing plant at Frederickson. Was it a tornado? We are speculating about that. It blew some train cars over, so it definitely was not just our usual gusty, rainy weather.

I spent yesterday out in the rain putting sturdier covers on our chicken pens and creating shelter for the geese. Not even ducks and geese are happy in that much rain! The work had to be done, and I reasoned that there was no way my cold could get any worse. And I was right. Still miserable today, but at least I’m inside with the cat and the computer. And yes, my cold still.

Zinc and orange juice and peppermint tea. The big orange cat assures me he is part of the cure. Outside the rain continues to come down. We have flood watches going on for the local rivers and terribly slow traffic when the storm drains are overwhelmed. It’s a good day to stay inside and see how much writing I can get done in one day.

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

A very quick update for the book tour!

TUESDAY 29TH OCTOBER, 12.00pm

Talk with Book to the Future Festival and Waterstones Birmingham New Street, in the Debate Room, Guild of Students, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT. Tickets are free but limited so must be booked in advance from Waterstones Birmingham send an email to [email protected]

I’m very happy to see this added to the book tour schedule. For all the various stops, please click up above on the ‘appearances’ tab.

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

There are still a few memberships available for the World Fantasy Convention this year at Brighton.This years dates are from October 31 to November 3rd. All your basic information about the convention is here: http://www.wfc2013.org/index.html I will be attending and hope to meet many old friends and make some new ones as well.

To that end, I’d like to let everyone know about two events at WFC. First, Kaffeeklatsche! I have shamelessly stolen this information from the WFC site:

Along similar lines, a Kaffeeklatsche is an opportunity for attendees to hang out for 50 minutes with their favourite author or editor, who can talk broadly about their career (as opposed to a single book) in relaxed surroundings.

These will be held during the day in the “Library” room just off the main lobby of the Hilton hotel. Again, the maximum number of people in the group is 20. Places must be pre-booked and will be allocated on a first-come basis. We are again charging £5.00 per person to cover coffee and biscuits, and to dissuade people from not showing up.

If you’ve ever wanted to just sit and chat to Ellen Datlow, Joe Hill, Robin Hobb, Richard Christian Matheson, Michael Marshall Smith, Tad Williams and other luminaries of the genre, then go to www.wfc2013.org/prog-kaffee01.html and sign up now! As an added bonus, on the Thursday we are presenting a special quartet of Publishing Kaffeeklatsches where you can spend time with the movers and shakers from international publishing houses Bragelonne, HarperCollins US, PS Publishing and Tor UK. These are not pitch sessions, but they are a rare opportunity for you to learn how the publishing industry works and what editors and publishers are currently looking for.

The second opportunity I’d like to draw your attention to are the Bookclubs! And again, I have stolen this text directly from the WFC site:

As we are sure most of you are aware, a Book Club is usually comprised of a group of people who meet to discuss a book or books that they have read, and express their opinions, likes and dislikes.

Well, we are taking that concept one step further, and with The Book Club we are offering attendees the unique opportunity to sign up for a limited number of 50-minute gatherings in which you can talk about a particular genre book that not only made a huge impression upon you as a reader, but was also perhaps a career-changer for the author as well. The added twist here being that the author themselves will also be present (as well as possibly others connected to the title, such as an editor, publisher or cover artist etc.) to join in the discussion, and maybe even reveal to the gathering a few things that you didn’t know about that particular title and its history.

These events will be held during the day in the Chartwell room at the very top of the Hilton, which offers stunning panoramic sea views on Brighton. The maximum number of people in the group is 20. Places must be pre-booked and will be allocated on a first-come basis. We are making a minimal charge of £5.00 each to cover coffee and biscuits, plus it helps dissuade people from dropping out at the last minute, when somebody else could have had their place.

So if you’ve ever wanted to chat with Joanne Harris about Chocolat, find out how Robert Silverberg came up with the setting for Lord Valentine’s Castle, discover what made William F. Nolan write Logan’s Run or learn how Kim Newman and John Ajvide Lindqvist turned the vampire genre on its head with Anno Dracula and Let the Right One In, respectively, then here’s your opportunity. Go to: www.wfc2013.org/prog-bookclub01.html and sign up now!

We will contact the first 20 people to sign up and give you details of how to pay. If you don’t hear back, it means that you were unlucky.

I’ll hope to meet some new friends here!

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

I had a wonderful time here in San Antonio. Today was the final day of the gathering, and so I was finally able to go on a tour of the town and in particular the Alamo.  Fascinating stuff.

Now, to my way of thinking, the Internet is The Kingdom of Redundancy.  So I’m not going to repeat the results of the Hugo awards here.  You can Google that, I’m sure.

Instead, I’ll just say that I had a fabulous time.  The next Worldcon is in London, and I will be a guest of honor there, so I’d love to see you there.  If you can’t go for that one, the next one up is for 2015 in Spokane, Washington, right in my back yard, almost.  And I’m already cheerleading for Ireland in 2019.   www.dublin2019.com  Just to let you know.

You know how Bilbo once described Rivendell as being the perfect place to do whatever you liked, be it singing or talking or resting . . . I’d get the quote right, but I don’t have my books with me.  Well, a Worldcon is like that for SF and fantasy readers and writers.  There is meeting friends, or discovering new book, watching the masquerade, listening to panels, being on panels, singing filk or listening to filk, all sorts of films to watch, books to read and people to meet.

I’ve had a wonderful time here.  My next stop is New Orleans, just for fun.  Then on to BookMarks next weekend in Winston-Salem North Carolina!

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Dear Readers,

Just a quick reminder.  I have to okay responses to my posts before they appear here.

If you include a spoiler, a comment that discusses an event in the book that will ruin the reading experience for anyone who has not yet read the book, please add spoiler space.  It should be generous in typeface and clear as to what books are being spoiled.  Like this

SPOILER

SPOILER

SPOILER

READ NO MORE IF YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED “THIS PARTICULAR BOOK OR TRILOGY”

I’ve been going into comment posts and adding spoiler space.  I don’t like doing that. So, this is to let you all know that if you include spoilers with no warnings, I won’t put them up on the site anymore.  Fair enough?  I like long thoughtful posts, but please, just add spoiler space!

Robin

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

In late October and early November 2013, I’ll be doing a book tour of the UK as well as attending the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton.  And following that, I’ll make an all-too-brief drop in on Sweden.

Details are still coming in, but this is what I know right now.

SATURDAY 26TH OCTOBER 

12.00                          Book signing at Waterstones, Unit 72, Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes MK9 3GA. For more information please contact the store, tel: 0843 290 8495 

16.00                          Book signing at Forbidden Planet, 179 Shaftesbury Ave London WC2H 8JR. For more information please contact the store, tel: 0207 420 3666

SUNDAY 27TH OCTOBER 

12.00                          Book signing at Waterstones, 128 Princes Street, Edinburgh EH2 4AD. For more information please contact the store, tel: 0843 290 8313 

16.00                          Talk at Waterstones, 153-157 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3EW. Tickets: £3 and available in store, tel: 0843 290 8345 

MONDAY 28TH OCTOBER

 13.00                          Book signing at Waterstones, 93-97 Albion St, Leeds LS1 5AP. For more information please contact the store, tel: 0843 290 8443

19.00                          Talk at Waterstones, 91 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 2BW. Tickets cost £5 or £3 with a Waterstones Loyalty Card and are available from the store: 0161 837 3000 or via Twitter @WaterstonesMCR

TUESDAY 29TH OCTOBER 

(A possible Birmingham visit! Details when they are firm.)

19.00                          Talk at Waterstones, 1/5 Bridlesmith Gate, Nottingham, NG1 2GR. Tickets: £5 or £3 with a Waterstones Loyalty Card and available in store, tel: 0843 290 8525

October 31-November 2 World Fantasy Convention in Brighton. My panels for World Fantasy have not been finalized yet! As soon as I know what they definitely are, I’ll post them here.

MONDAY 4TH NOV

12.30                          Book signing at Waterstones, 11A Union Galleries, Broadmead Bristol BS1 3XD. For more information please contact the store, tel: 0843 290 8185

19.00                          Talk at Waterstones Oxford, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3AF. £4 or £2 with a Waterstones Loyalty Card and available in store, tel: 01865 790212

And from Tuesday, November 5 to Thursday November 7th, I will be visiting Sweden. As soon as I know where I’ll be visiting and what times, I will make a post about them.

So a very busy time for me, and I hope I will meet a lot of readers on this journey.

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Yes, I literally have too much good news to share in one post.  So I’m going to space it out over two or three.

This one is just ‘General Good News’!

I am very proud to announce the The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince will soon be available as a little hardback in the UK from Harper Collins.

Years Best SF and The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince

The snapshot above scarcely does it  justice.  In addition to the lovely Jackie Morris art on the cover, it was story specific endpapers created by Jackie, two color illustrations and numerous decorations and interior art by Jackie.  An incredibly lovely book.  It will be available for purchase in October.

Next to it you may have noticed a copy of The Years Best Science Fiction, Thirtieth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois.  I am incredibly proud to be included in this volume.  The story is actually by Megan Lindholm, and is titled, “Old Paint.”  After years and years of reading these anthologies every year, it’s amazing to actually have my work included in one.

And last, but by no means least, is that EPIC, an anthology edited by John Joseph Adams, has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award.  Therein my story “Homecoming” in included!

So, that sums up my general good news to share.  In separate posts, I’m going to add my schedule for LoneStarCon, the worldcon in San Antonio Texas that is fast approaching, followed by my schedule for BookMarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  In another post, I will put up my schedule for my late October/early November book tour in the UK, followed by World Fantasy Con. And then I will hint at visiting Sweden right after that!

As I said, too much good news for one post!

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

The Office Kat and I are almost fully recovered from San Diego Comic Con.  I don’t think words can describe how frantic, glorious, insane and inspiring an experience it was.  I met with lots of readers at the con, took 20 people out to breakfast at a Denny’s, had lunch with editors, signed books, gave away swag, listened to panels, browsed lots of merchandise and generally had a wonderful time.

Now I’m home and catching up with reality in the form of End of Quarter taxes, a cranky cat, a dead lawn, bills to pay, and a tree full of ripe plums.  Some good, some bad, all home.

Kat and I are already putting together our plans for WorldCon in San Antonio, also known as LoneStarCon.  We’ll arrive there on the 29th of August and we are really looking forward to it.  Kat has to go straight home after the con, but I’ll be driving through New Orleans and up to North Carolina for BookMarks in Winston Salem NC. 

I hope some readers will be making plans to meet with us at either event. 

and in the mean time, it’s nose to the grindstone for me!

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Herewith, my friends, is my public schedule for SDCC (San Diego Comic Con) also known as Comic Con International.

Friday, July 19th

2:30 PM Room 24ABC Epic Fantasy Panel with myself, Ray Feist, Brandon Sanderson, Django Wexler, Melissa de la Cruz, Christopher Paolini and Daniel Abraham.

4:00 PM Immediately afterward, the panelists will go to the signing area to autograph books.

Saturday July 20th

11 AM Booth # 1029 I will be signing Dragon Keeper mass market books at the HarperCollins booth. I will, of course, be happy to sign any other books you bring by, or to offer you a signed bookplate if you don’t want to carry a load of books through ComicCon.

Sunday, July 21

10 AM Booth 1514 I will be signing free copies of Assassin’s Apprentice at the Bantam Random House booth. I will happily sign any other books you bring by, or will give you a signed bookplate if you don’t wish to be burdened with pounds of books at the convention.

If, at any random moment, you spot me or the Office Kat at comic con and come over to introduce yourself, we will have small tokens of our esteem to give you. So don’t be shy!