You really have to give the ancient Mayans credit. Without computers, calculators, or even an abacus, they decided that the world was going to end in 2012. Seems like they were only off by eight years. Pretty good for analog.
I start this way not because I actually think the world is ending—I’d be eating a LOT more ice cream if I thought that—but because I’m sitting here today looking out at a California sky—in fact, a California in general—that has gone dark orange-red because of smoke from the many wildfires. We just missed having to evacuate ourselves a short time ago, and several of our friends did have to leave their homes. Fortunately, most of them are back in place.
Meanwhile, we all (at least those of us with any sense) continue to be locked down beneath social distancing and mask-wearing restrictions, to try to stop the spread of Covid-19.
And, as you doubtless know, the ripple effect from the pandemic has worked its way into almost every niche of daily life. Many of you have been hit hard by it, one way or another. We’ve had it comparatively easy, because we already work at home and I avoid human contact most of the time anyway, so I’m not here to moan about OUR bad luck. But I thought I would at least bring y’all up to date on what’s going on with my books and other stuff.
As most of you probably know, I’m working on the last (big) volume of The Last King of Osten Ard. I qualify it with “(big)” because my current vast project is not only an ordinary Tad long-book trilogy, but has two short novels that go with it. The first of those, “The Heart of What Was Lost”, was the first piece published, and connected the new trilogy’s events to the end of To Green Angel Tower. And now I’m almost finished with the second short novel, “Brothers of the Wind.”
Since the publication of “The Navigator’s Children”—part three of the main trilogy, and probably my second-longest book ever after “To Green Angel Tower”—is currently being delayed (and is in fact hard to predict with exact certainty) I’ve gone ahead and written the much shorter “Brothers of the Wind” with the idea that it will now actually be published BEFORE “Navigator’s Children”, which I think will work out pretty well. Since Hakatri, brother of Ineluki (the Storm King) is an actual character in the last book of the trilogy, and since he’s a major character in “Brothers”—which tells the story of what happened when he and Ineluki fought the dragon Hidohebhi—it will actually turn out better this way, since I’ll be able to set up some of the stuff in “Navigator” better by publishing the short novel first.
That will all make more sense when “Brothers of the Wind” arrives, whenever that turns out to be. (Again, pandemic publishing problems.) But trust me.
Meanwhile, as I write this, the sky outside my office window has turned a particularly hellish color and literally the entire world seems to be a dark, dark, Dante-esque orange. Fire season was always worrisome, but climate change and other factors have made things worse now. I hope all of you in the path of danger from this or hurricanes or whatever will stay safe.
Don’t worry too much about us, though. We are seasoned groundhogs, pretty content to stay home (as long as the fires stay away). I’m still working on my books almost every day, and while the delay in publishing is frustrating to both readers and me, I promise that in the long run it will make for even tighter, better stories. And we may have a few other cool things to announce in days ahead, so I promise we’ll stay in touch.
By the way, most of you likely already know it, but I’m reading short stories and novels twice a week live on Facebook, though the live readings and the recordings of those readings are available many other places, including Twitter, YouTube, and on tadwilliams.com. If you get a chance, check one out, not because my readings are particularly wonderful (although I think they are occasionally amusing, sometimes even on purpose) but because I value your support and we all need to stick together and check in with each other. In other words, I WANT YOU FOR THE TAD ARMY.
Thanks again for everything. Remember to stay safe and Do The Right Thing.
Lots of love and good wishes from our house to yours,
-T
A p.s. from Deb: Tad’s interviewing Christopher Paolini, one of our favorite people, on 9/15/20 for Christopher’s virtual book tour. You can check out how and why at this link: https://www.paolini.net/2020/07/29/virtual-tour-updates-2020/
We do have lots brewing that we hope will amaze you. Watch this space, kind people. & STAY SAFE. xxxx