[EotS #62] Ranger Post-Launch
I hope this finds everyone well. After my hectic launch week, the boys went to their moms’ for a bit and I spend a glorious two days doing nothing but re-reading Le Guin’s Earthsea books and starting yet another character in Skyrim (a Breton ronin samurai vampire!). Basically I indulged in completely unproductive media comfort food. Although I must say, it had been a long time since I’d read A Wizard of Earthsea and certain moments really struck me this time that I hadn’t even remembered reading before. Like this line when Vetch is saying farewell to Ged at the wizard school on Roke:
“I am no seer, but I see before you, not rooms and books, but far seas, and the fire of dragons, and the towers of cities, and all such things a hawk sees when he flies far and high.”
A few paragraphs later, when they exchange true names, Le Guin then goes on to write:
”Who knows a man’s name, holds that man’s life in his keeping. Thus to Ged who had lost faith in himself, Vetch had given that gift only a friend can give, the proof of unshaken, unshakeable trust.”
This is the bar I have set for myself. I don’t know if I’ll ever reach it, but what’s the fun if it’s not a challenge, right?
Anyway, I’m glad I got two days to relax and indulge, because bright and early Monday I received my revision notes for The Queen of Izmoroz. And since my editor is going on maternity leave at the end of June, there is a very firm deadline on when we have to be ready to send the manuscript to production.
I did want to gather a few links from launch week for you. My publisher Orbit went above and beyond to support The Ranger of Marzanna and I wanted to put it all down in one place.
I wrote a very personal piece for Locus Magazine Online: “Why We Read Epic Fantasy During Times of Turmoil”
Book blog The Civilian Reader asked me to annotate the first chapter of The Ranger of Marzanna, which was an interesting exercise, and if you like director’s commentary and that sort of thing, you’d enjoy this.
I wrote a short piece on the enduring appeal of rangers over on the Little Brown UK blog.
I did an interview for book blog My Life My Books My Escape.
The livestream I did with fellow author Melissa Caruso can be found archived on Crowdcast. That was a lot of fun, with a special guest appearance by Melissa’s cat.
My AMA on Reddit’s r/Fantasy went very well. Here it is if you want to see me respond to questions on everything from writing epic fantasy to my favorite Fire Emblems games.
Art Director Lauren Panepinto and I discussed martinis on Orbit Tavern (a stretch I know, but it was a vodka martini, so, you know…that’s slavic, right?)
I also did my first, and possibly only reading from The Ranger of Marzann. So if you’ve been on the fence about being the book, you can hear me read two chapters.
Just a little joke I posted because I’d been saying it was going to be a “dramatic” reading.
Quite a week, eh? Well, enough patting myself on the back. I’ve got revisions to work on, so I’ll just play myself out with this chill track from Morning Matters by Yazmin Lacey.