Tag: writing

In praise of moi

The estimable John C. Wright, Dragon Award-winner and grandmaster of science fiction and fantasy, explains what makes a good editor:

Someone asked me privately why I say that Vox Day is the best editor under whom it has been my privilege to work. I wrote a private answer, but I see no reason not to share it with the world. Mr. Day does not suffer from false modesty.

I do not mind elaborating.

The question is broader than just one author’s opinion about one editor. It is asking what editing is. That is a deeper question, too deep for this column, but I can plant a few signs pointing the direction where a fuller answer hides.

A good editor does not substitute his tastes, his politics, his pet peeves, or his sense of where your story should go for his own. A good editor is like a beauty parlor that brings out the best-looking version of the hair style you want framing your face, not someone else’s face.

That is, a good editor can tell the difference between the subjective and objective parts of the way one judges a story, and limit his comments to the more objective.

A good editor want you to tell your story your way, but he want you to tell it in your highest and best way, not your merely workmanlike way.

A good editor does make specific suggestions rather than vague ones, that is, he tells you which lines should be amended and how, rather than simply say “this needs to be tighter” or “this lacks punch”

Let me amend that. I should be more specific. A good editor knows when to be specific (to cure specific flaws) and when to be general (when he knows you know how to address a general flaw, and trusts you to find a specific solution). That requires good assessment both about the writing and about the writer’s professionalism.

A good editor reads the work and his comments show he understands what point each scene is trying to make, how characters develop, how description works or does not work.

A good editor keeps you informed of his decisions that might effect your book. Vox Day has contacted me more often in the last two weeks than Tor Books has in two years.

A good editor finds good covers.

There is, as you can probably imagine, considerably more there, as well as a few other Castalia authors weighing in on the basis of their own experiences working with me and other editors. For me, one of the biggest challenges in editing Mr. Wright is dealing with his massive vocabulary, which exceeds my English vocabulary, and frequently forces me, or an assistant editor, to resort to the OED in order to determine if the unfamiliar word is a typo, a misspelling, or simply a word with which we are unfamiliar.

8 times out of 10, Mr. Wright is correct and our vocabularies are expanded accordingly.

One mistake I think many editors make is to believe that they, and not the writer, should have the final say in how the book will proceed. While I will occasionally pull rank on a beginning writer whose grasp of what works and what doesn’t can be dubious, with more experienced writers I am inclined to view my edits as suggestions they can take or leave. Usually they listen, but sometimes they don’t, in which case I am content to let them take the chance that they’ll hear it from the readers as well.

It’s their name on the book, after all, not mine. Therefore, it has to be their call in the end. My primary objective as an editor is to make their book better and more successful, not make it my book. I don’t have to agree with them, or even like what they are writing, in order to do that, I merely have to understand what it is they are trying to accomplish.

Of course, it probably helps that, unlike many editors in SF/F, I am actually an established writer in my own right, so I have no need to seek vicarious input in someone else’s book. As Mr. Wright noted, I have even been known to suggest a turn of phrase or two on occasion. And, as some readers have observed, all this editing over the last three years appears to have improved my own writing, as having to articulate various issues to a wide variety of writers helps me better understand some of the weaknesses of my own writing.

In any event, I regard editing Mr. Wright as both a privilege and a serious responsibility. While it would be nice if my own books were read one hundred years from now as well, there are worse things to be remembered for than having been a grandmaster’s editor.

Tolkien and the rewrite of the Ring Cycle

I’m always a bit cautious taking David Goldman’s assertions at face value, because his Jewish hyperautomonomania occasionally leads his otherwise astute commentary astray into absurdities. That is why, despite not having any information at all on the subject, I tend to suspect his claim that Tolkien “despised” Wagner is at least part projection on his part.

But it is certainly interesting to observe the amazing number of structural, plot, and character similarities between The Ring of the Nibelung and The Lord of the Rings, in an old Spengler article linked at Castalia House today.

Tolkien well may have written his epic as an “anti-Ring” to repair the damage that Wagner had inflicted upon Western culture…. Tolkien himself despised Wagner (whom he knew thoroughly) and rejected comparisons between his Ring and Wagner’s cycle (“Both rings are round,” is the extent of his published comment). But the parallels between the two works are so extensive as to raise the question as to Tolkien’s intent. The Ring of Power itself is Wagner’s invention (probably derived from the German Romantic de la Motte Fouque). Also to be found in both works are an immortal woman who renounces immortality for the love of a human, a broken sword reforged, a life-and-death game of riddles, and other elements which one doesn’t encounter every day. 

Now, I don’t know how anyone with even a modicum of musical talent or appreciation could fail to revere Wagner. His is my favorite writing music, and if his Nibelungenlied fell short of his vision of a Gesamtkunstwerk, it is still one of the great artistic accomplishments of Man. Which is not to say that his Teutonic interpretation of the Norse sagas is necessarily the optimal one; Middle Earth is considerably far more relatable to the more optimistic, less doom-obsessed Anglo-Saxons and their descendants.

And, we have to recall that Tolkien was scarred by England’s two wars against Germany, and was writing in the shadow of the latter. But no one delves so deep into the work of an artist he despises, or knows it so well. I do despise Scalzi as an author, which is why I stopped reading his work after the second straight debacle. I don’t despise George R. R. Marin – as an author, you understand – because even though ASOIAF has lost the plot and devolved into a near-parody of the earlier books, there are still enough echoes of very good epic fantasy that I will finish reading whatever portion of the series he manages to finish.

At the risk of engaging in some projection myself, I think Tolkien was doing very much what I am doing with Arts of Dark and Light, which is appreciating something, seeing its flaws, and imagining how it could have been done better. And it should be no surprise that The Lord of the Rings exceeds Arts of Dark and Light; Wagner certainly makes for a higher and more challenging bar to clear than Martin.

Top 100 SF

Dear hater,


Thank you so much for the motivation. Every time I found my energy flagging, every time I was tempted to stop pushing on and turn in for the night, I found it incredibly useful to be able to think of you. This isn’t my accomplishment. It’s ours.


Love,


A formerly failed science fiction writer

And just to stoke a little more interest in the very successful Forbidden Thoughts anthology, perhaps you will enjoy this excerpt from my contribution to it, which is set in the Quantum Mortis universe.

AMAZON GAMBIT

Lieutenant Colonel Max Kruger stood at attention and saluted as General Markham, SUBCONCOM, debarked from the flyer with the ease of a man four decades younger and strode across the landing pad towards him.

“At ease, Colonel,” the general ordered. “Good to see you. Now, come with me, we’ve got a lot to discuss before the press conference.”

The general had four centims on him and was walking quickly, so Kruger had to lengthen his stride in order to keep up with the taller man.

“The Grkese signed the contract?”

“They did indeed,” the general confirmed. “And the Duke himself selected you as the contract CO, Max.”

“Honored,” Kruger murmured, as expected. And it was true, he did feel honored, although he wasn’t exactly surprised. Of the various officers in the Rhysalani Armed Forces qualified to command low-tech forces, he not only possessed the best record with regards to successfully completed contracts, but he had beaten Col. Thompson, his closest rival, rather soundly at the Duke’s Command Challenge last year. “I presume it will be 3rd Battalion?”

The 3rd Battalion of the Ducal Marines specialized in low-tech combat, particularly combat below TL10. Kruger had served with them on two previous deployments, both of which had taken place on Dom Sevru. The men of 3rd Battalion were trained to be able to fight with everything from swords and shields to plasma cannon and sub-atomic armor.

“No,” the general replied, to his surprise, as they entered the elevator that would bring them down to the heart of the airbase command center. “The Lord General suggested that this would be the ideal opportunity to show the subsector what the 11th Special Battalion can do. And the Duke concurred.”

Kruger couldn’t hide his astonishment. Or his dismay. He looked at his superior in disbelief, and while he saw everything from amusement to sympathy in the older man’s eyes, he detected no sign at all that his leg was being pulled.

“Dear God, you’re not joking!”

“Afraid not, Max. The Duke has spent a fortune training and equipping those women for the last five years, and he’s decided that it’s about time to see a return on that investment.”

Kruger didn’t trust himself to speak. The first five or six responses that sprang to mind would have earned him at least a reprimand, if not a court-martial. The next three, if uttered openly by an officer of the Armed Forces, technically amounted to lèse-nobilité and would theoretically merit a firing squad. So he said nothing.

The general grinned nonchalantly and raised an eyebrow. He knew damn well what Kruger was thinking. “He’s not wrong, Max. Their negotiators were so impressed that they paid triple our usual rate. Half up front.”

“They did? Why the hell would they do that?”

“Well, as I understand the sales pitch, our highly trained female soldiers have proven to be much better communicators than their male counterparts, and as a result they are considerably less inclined to needlessly break things and kill people. In this particular case, the estimated savings in infrastructure damage when taking and occupying the primary objective alone is expected to more than make up for the increased cost of the contract.”

“Assuming we can complete it. What’s the tech level again?”

“Seven.”

This time, Kruger couldn’t restrain an oath. The general raised an eyebrow, then slapped Kruger on his oak-leafed shoulders as they approached a door with a pair of Ducal Marines on either side.

“Try to keep it clean for the cameras, Max. If you don’t know what to say, just smile and declare that you’ve got every confidence in the troops. Do your best to sell it. God knows we’ve all had to tell a few humdingers in our day. Your record speaks for itself, so let it do the talking. Now, you’ve got an hour to review the contract and meet with the battalion’s officers before the press conference, so I suggest you hop to it.”

“Yessir,” Kruger said morosely. “Any chance I can get out of this, General?”

“None at all, Max. None at all.”

Collected Columns forewords

If you’re one of those who expressed interest in writing one last week, please feel free to do so and submit it via email. I’ll need at least two, one for the 2001-2005 period, the other for the 2006-2008 period. I’ll select the best two and use them; I may post selections from the others here on the blog when it’s launch time. Keep it to around 1500 words, they aren’t Penguin Classics, after all.

Longtime readers who were actually reading the columns as they were published only, please. While it is customary to have other media figures write these things – and someone who shall remain nameless at present graciously penned a very thoughtful one for SJWADD – I thought that in this case, it would be more meaningful to provide the readers’ perspective on them. Thanks very much.
UPDATE: Speaking of the collected columns, if anyone would transcribe the John Julius Norwich, Karl Denninger, Ian Fletcher, and Steve Keen interviews from Voxiversity, I would appreciate that. If you’re doing one of them, mention it in the comments here so that no one else does it too. I’m going to put the collected interviews in one of the three volumes.

“nearly as good”

Those reviewing A Sea of Skulls should really be a little more careful. Such positive reviews bid fair to cause more than a few SF-SJWs to stroke out. Didact’s Reach reviews A Sea of Skulls and finds it to be rather better than one might expect:

If the critics found ATOB a bit difficult to stomach because it proved to be such an effective demonstration of what a (supposedly) less skilled but (definitely) more disciplined writer could do when compared with GRRM’s declining powers, they are going to very quickly find that A Sea of Skulls will be an even bigger shock to their worldview.

For with this book, Vox Day has not merely matched George R. R. Martin’s fantasy writing skills and output. He has exceeded him, by miles, leaving old Rape Rape wheezing and panting in the dust.

In fact, I am willing to go so far as to argue that, with this book, Vox Day has catapulted himself into the storied and rarefied rank of writers that sits just below The Master himself.

That’s right, I went there. I just said that Vox Day has written a book that is nearly as good as J. R. R. Tolkien’s work.

Not as good. But not terribly far off, either.

From one fantasy fan to another, praise simply does not come any higher than that….

This book is, quite simply, an extraordinary achievement. With it, Vox has separated himself from all of his contemporary rivals and has clearly laid down a marker for everyone else to match- and I personally don’t think anyone will be able to do so for years, maybe decades, to come. What he has written here is far more than merely a great book. It is a masterclass of what high fantasy could actually be.

That’s just an excerpt. Read the whole thing there. Of course, what may be the biggest testimony in favor of the growing consensus that the ARTS OF DARK AND LIGHT series has unexpectedly become the best epic fantasy series going is the total silence on the part of those who usually don’t hesitate to speak out critically every time I recommend a book, or, in some cases, exhale. Just as SF/F sites like Black Gate and File 770 inexplicably have nothing to say about many of the very best-selling authors in science fiction, SF authors such as Vaughn Heppner and B.V. Larson, who have sold literal millions of books, they are silent on the subject of a massive epic fantasy saga that some readers now consider to be the best to have appeared in decades.

Now, I am under absolutely no illusion that my work will ever reach the lofty height of Tolkien’s. It can’t. It won’t. Tolkien’s grasp of history, myth, and language are deeper than mine, and the greatness of his work reflects that. The Lord of the Rings is the greatest work of science fiction and fantasy fiction, and, based on my extensive reading of fiction dating back to Homer and the Lady Murasaki, it will remain so for the foreseeable future.

But that does not mean that it cannot be exceeded in various areas, some of which happen to be particular strengths of mine. The martial aspects, the magic systems, the politics, and the socio-sexuality are all elements that can be improved upon. Even the philosophy of evil, in my estimation, is rather on the thin side; who would actually want to serve Sauron? I never found Saruman’s switching sides to be terribly convincing; yes, everyone wants to be on the winning side, but what is the point of being a lieutenant of evil if it requires living in squalor surrounded by orcs?

If nothing else, elf chicks are hotter. So are human chicks, and, arguably, dwarf chicks, for that matter. Is living in a mud pit surrounded by howling, bestial orcs really the way a quasi-immortal wants to spend the rest of his days? I’m just not seeing a credible motivation there.

And let’s not even get started on the whole “fly in on a squadron of eagles and drop the One Ring in Mount Doom” strategy.

Anyhow, it’s very flattering, and encouraging, to see the latest installment in the series has been so well-received. Fans needn’t be concerned that any such praise will go to my head, as to the contrary, it has inspired me to buckle down, grit my teeth, and try to raise my game even more. When even those who openly detest me are willing to admit that AODAL is markedly better than ASOIAF and genuinely merits comparison to The Lord of the Rings, then perhaps I’ll be willing to contemplate a little coasting.

In the meantime, I have about another one million words to write before AODAL will be finished. The only proper verdict at this point is: it’s too soon to tell. I’m barely one-third of the way through the monster. I expect it will be around 1,660,000 words in the end.

Platform and publishing, 2017

MT White considers the pros and cons of self-publishing:

Notice, you’re not writing your book to appeal to readers. You’re writing your book to appeal to agents and acquisition’s editors. Naturally, they are looking for product that will sell, but to them it is just product—to you it will be a book written full of compromise…maybe. No matter what, you have to appeal to THEM first before your book hits shelves. And THEY might have very different tastes than you. They live in a different city (probably New York), while you might live in rural Texas. They might have polite sensibilities, while you have vulgar ones. You might find someone who is in alignment with you but as I stated above, there is a 99.9% you won’t. You have to appeal to THEM before your book even makes it to the press.

In short, it’s a road filled with compromise. You’re going to write thinking about THEM, appealing to THEIR tastes, hoping they align with yours. While you write, you might question certain passages, lines that may be too politically incorrect, or just too offensive for someone who might dine at Per Se every now and then. You might change character arcs around, change the villains, modify complete dialogue exchanges, not to please the reader at home who is reading your work to get their mind off of their dick boss—no you’re modifying your work to please THEM.

The only reason most people publish with a publisher is a) validation or b) market reach. And of the two, it’s only the latter that matters. The problem, of course, is that the publishers who provide the greatest market reach also take the much larger portion of the revenues, and worse, have absolutely no loyalty to their authors, and even worse, are strongly inclined to thought-police them.

No one knows the risks of that better than Castalia House author Nick Cole as he considers the importance of a platform in light of the independent ones Stefan Molyneux and I have constructed with a little help from our friends:

Neither of these people are at the mercy of a big publisher, as I once was.  So… If some petty little  corporate thug decides he/she doesn’t like Vox’s opinion about something they have no ability to silence Vox.  Vox maintains his own website and blogs heavily from it.  Same with Molyneaux. I think Molyneaux once mentioned he’d sold over a hundred thousand books through his website.  Wow!  He’s even cutting Amazon out of the picture and keeping all the money for himself.

Thus proving to the rest of us if you build your own platform you can weather the storms of corporate social justice shenanigans/intrigues/nepotism and connect directly to your audience to sell your product.

So no matter what happens in these times of faux moral outrage and someone demanding someone we don’t like must be silenced because they’re “Hitler,” these two can still directly connect with their audience and sell some books. And laugh all the way to the bank.

Here’s what you need to know to do the same thing.  It’s easy.  In fact, it’s never been easier.

Blog regularly.  Six days a week.  Say something.  Anything.  Even repost someone’s article (like this one) and add a comment to get readers interested and sharing the post even if it’s not yours. People who click on it will land on your website and they might get interested in your books. Stop going on Facebook and giving them free content by just posting stuff.   Take the time to write a blog post from your own website and then post it to Facebook.

Do this faithfully and start connecting with your readers regularly.  In time you’ll build an audience that will be yours and not some SJW media mogul’s who might decide to blacklist you because you think DNA determines gender.  Or global warming is a big lie.  Or civil rights is just a con game some crooks are using to stay in power.  Or Gwyneth Paltrow’s latest film sucks.  Whatever. Build your own platform.

Nick is one of the Castalia authors who will be building his platform at the Castalia House blog. What I would add to his advice is to consistently work to build up others, not merely yourself. There is a virtuous circle effect that the Left has historically been much better at utilizing than the Right, which is much more inclined to purity-spirals.

But we’re learning and we’re improving constantly. And that’s why we’re winning.

How big is your brand?

Castalia author Mike Cernovich puts things in perspective:

You can monitor my brand in real-time on Amazon by watching my sales rank. You can do this for any author. Amazon ranks books based on how many copies have been sold over the past hour to 24 hours.

  • Mike Cernovich, Gorilla Mindset – #9,431
  • Robert Cialdini, Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade Kindle Edition by  #5,476
  • Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life – #6,548
  • Lena Dunham, Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s “Learned” – #23,209
  • MILO, Dangerous – #897
  • Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal – #1,646
  • Hillary Clinton, Stronger Together – #152,422
  • Mike Cernovich, MAGA Mindset – #47,065
  • Ben Shapiro, True Allegiance –  #40,936
  • Vox Day, SJWs Always Lie – #5,022
  • Mike Cernovich, Danger & Play: Essays on Masculinity – #27,356

For those keeping track at home. I’ve surpassed Ben Shapiro, who had a ten-year head start on me and also has many billionaire sugar daddies, and am on par with Vox, whose IQ is way higher than mine and who has been writing longer than I have. (He’s my editor, proof that I work with the best!)

My brand is bigger than a Hillary Clinton surrogate (Lena Dunham) who had her own TV show, and not as large as MILO, Trump, or Scott Adams.

MILO is a once-in-a-generation talent, so there’s no competing with him, ever. No one can.

Amazon sales rank is much more relevant than the mainstream publishers, and the authors published by them, want to admit it is. Yes, it doesn’t capture all possible sales, but the fact is that it captures far more than is required for a statistically relevant sample.

And while it is only a snapshot in time, and cannot capture the conventional sales from major publishers made via the bookstores, it is a vastly more accurate, and comprehensive, picture than that provided by the newspaper bestseller lists, or, God forbid, the SJW-converged awards. As Spacebunny mentioned to me yesterday, the Newbery Medal used to be an indicator of great books you should read, like The Black Cauldron, A Wrinkle in Time and The Dark is Rising. Now it is a reliable indicator of books you should avoid reading at all costs.

But the fact of the matter is that the Amazon rankings correctly indicate that bestselling authors such as Vaughn Heppner (#1,005), B.V. Larson (#884), and David VanDyke (#2,058) have bigger personal brands, and are much bigger influences on SF readers, than conventional authors such as John Scalzi (#8,062), Charles Stross (#9,127), and even China Mieville (#28,169), especially since the latter are heavily reliant upon their publisher’s brands, distribution, and marketing efforts. Sure, more people recognize the names of the latter trio, but far more people actually buy and read books published by the former. And that’s the aspect of brand that counts.

At Castalia, we’re intent on building up the personal brands of our authors, not churning through authors with one predatory two-book deal after another, sitting on the rights as long as possible, then begrudgingly purchasing the mercenary allegiance of those who sell the best. Whether an author sells 50,000 books or 25 books, if we like the quality they are producing, we’ll keep working with them. That’s why you almost always see the authors we’ve published bring us additional books. And also that’s why we’ve invited our authors to begin blogging at the Castalia House blog, including Nick Cole, David the Good, Peter Grant, and Mr. John C. Wright, Esq.

Our goal this year is to make Castalia House the best, most intelligent, SF/F-related site on the Internet. I hope you’ll be a part of that.

Epic success

The early reviews are in, and I’m pleased to see that the general verdict is that A SEA OF SKULLS is an improvement on A THRONE OF BONES. Success, for a writer of epic fantasy, is when one aims at George RR Martin, only to discover that with Book Two, reviewers are beginning to compare the work to that of Tolkien rather than Martin.

Even better than the first. The perspectives were well written and differed entirely on the concepts of civilization and what it means for each to make war. Whether it is from an orc captain or an elven wing of flying calvary, a stranded Legion, a feudal kingdom of knights and let us not forget the Vikings. All unique with a current of practical realism in how strategy and tactics play out in total war including the inner turmoil of personal ideology of each main character. What is the right choice? What pieces make up the foundation of how to even begin to inform one of which choice is wisdom and which folly.

Epic on the level of Tolkien, but written in a totally different way, for a different generation of audience. Tolkien addressed good and evil of his generations struggle, while Day is focused on the heart of his own generation. Good and evil are timeless, but the battlefield shifts with the times and Day nails it.

When I began writing Arts of Dark and Light, I believed that I could do better than Martin did in A Dance With Dragons, which I found extremely disappointing given the earlier books in the series. I was naively optimistic that the decline in quality I perceived in the fifth book of ASOIAF was more the result of a foolish decision on Martin’s part to fill in the blanks rather than skipping ahead to when the dragons were grown, as I understand was his original plan.

After all, even though A Storm of Swords was not quite as good as its two predecessors, the introduction of the Ironborn and their religion was a spectacular scene, and it was entirely possible that its deficiencies were more related to middle-book syndrome than any incapacity or lack of imagination on Martin’s part. And the problem with A Feast for Crows was obviously mere fat fantasy bloat, a problem easily resolved by stripping things down. But A Dance With Dragons was simply bad, with false characterizations and even the dread river journey; the surefire sign of an author who lacks for better ideas. Even given the signs that the decline was structural in nature, it never once occurred to me that I could write anything equal to the rest of the series.

However, as I struggled with the challenges of deciding how to proceed with all the various options presented by the perspective characters, and prospective new perspective characters in the second book, I began to realize how thoroughly Martin had ruined A Song of Ice and Fire when he expanded it from the original concept of a trilogy. What I realized was that as the story expanded, and as the characters separated, even more discipline and focus was required, not less. In other words, fewer perspective characters, but deeper engagement with their personal story, and therefore letting significant elements of the larger story go without more than tangential attention or description.

This is why it has taken me so much longer to write the second book. It was less about simply cranking out the story, and more about making good decisions about what not to write and what avenues to leave unexplored. Even a well-written and interesting scene is a problem if it requires going down a path that will ultimately prove an unnecessary distraction.

Martin’s error, as I see it, is that he tried to describe too much of the larger story while failing to understand which of his characters are necessary to the larger story. His books increasingly read as if Tolkien had decided to devote as much of The Return of the King to Elrond in Rivendell, and to introducing the travails of a new female character from Bree, as he does to Aragorn and Frodo. Martin’s error is compounded by his apparent compulsion to keep trying to shock the reader; the impact of the Red Wedding was considerably less than that of Ned’s execution despite the greater quantity of blood shed, because the sophisticated reader can’t help but see it coming. Moreover, Martin increasingly relies upon cheating the reader, engaging in increasingly transparent sleight-of-hand, and sabotaging his characters in order to try to achieve the effect he is foolishly seeking.

The idea that the Young Wolf, who has proven to be a brilliant strategist and tactician, is going to throw everything away for love in the middle of a war to avenge his father is so profoundly stupid, and so false to his character as established, that it actually made me angry at the time. And all so that Martin could have an excuse to “shock” the reader. That was the moment that I realized Martin was not necessarily the first-rate writer one might have believed on the basis of the first book, although I wrongly assumed at the time that it was a singular mistake.

I won’t give away any details, nor will I claim to be a better or more accomplished writer than Martin across the board, but I will note that in ATOB, I was capable of pulling off something that Martin proved unable to do without cheating, despite multiple attempts on his part to do so. What is intriguing about the recent reviews of A SEA OF SKULLS is that, unlike when I started writing Arts of Light and Dark, I now believe that the end result of what will be a five-book series has the potential to be considered by impartial readers of the future to be a better epic fantasy in the end than A Song of Ice and Fire.

I’m not saying that it will be, only that I now think it may be possible. There is still a long and arduous road ahead. It is possible that my writing has peaked, it is possible that Martin will somehow manage to pull a rabbit out of a hat and reverse his apparent decline. Only time will tell. But what I can say is that it is no longer my object to write an epic that will be seen as being worthy of comparison to Martin’s, but rather, one to which his series compares unfavorably. That may sound arrogant or it may sound insane. Nevertheless, that is my objective.

The good news, for those who are just reading the first book now, is that the second one is now available. And, of course, for those who have read both, there is Summa Elvetica and the collection of short stories set in Selenoth, which will be available in hardcover and paperback editions next month.

A fabulous read, very entertaining. I was very sad to reach the end. Dammit, I want to know what happens next! The sequel cannot come quickly enough. Mr Day is a great new voice in fantasy. The story moves at a brisk pace, and is just a whole lot of fun. The world of Selenoth is imaginatively realised, and both more logical and intriguing than Westeros from Game of thrones. I was particularly impressed by the scenes featuring the Legions, which featured some incredible battles. Very well realised. Highly recommended for anybody who likes fantasy. Great characters. Shocking twists. And a story that continues to suprise right up to the end. Try it, and see for yourself just how quickly you go through its hundreds of pages.

Writing sundries

So, here is the bad news, the good news, and a few other things.

  1. There is no way I’m going to complete A SEA OF SKULLS, get it edited, and get it out before Christmas. It’s just not happening. Even if I downed tools on everyone else’s books, ignored Infogalactic, and only did one blog post a day, it would be cutting it close. And I’m not going to do any of those things.
  2. However, as someone observed that a) what I already have written is on the order of four times longer than other novels we publish, b) it’s arguably better than ATOB, and c) people have been waiting a long time for it, I was inspired to concoct a plan that I thought might be of interest to Selenoth fans.

You may recall George Martin won the 1997 Hugo Award for Best Novella for “Blood of the Dragon”, which was actually the Danerys chapters from A GAME OF THRONES. You may also note that Amazon permits the updating of ebook files.

So, I said to our Production Editor, what if we release a version of A SEA OF SKULLS that is somewhere between 100k and 120k words, sell it for a reduced price of $5.99, then update the file in the spring to the full 295k-word version and let everyone update the file, after which we’ll raise the price to the full $7.99 we intend to charge for the whole book? That will give all the early readers a discount as well as the chance to return to Selenoth before the end of the year, even if the full experience of Book Two will have to wait. He said, “I would go for that.” So, we decided to see what you think of the idea.

Anyhow, I’m sorry to disappoint you all in this regard, but it is an option. If you think it’s a good idea, let us know in the comments. If you think it’s a stupid idea, please feel free do the same. Regardless, I will promise that the full version a) will be finished and b) no one who buys the initial version will have to pay any more to get the rest of it. I’m not Scalzi and Castalia House is not Tor; I’m not going to divide it into 10 30k parts, sell them all for a dollar, then package them together and resell the whole thing to you again. If you buy the initial version, you’ll get the whole thing. Eventually.

However, I do have some good news regarding Selenoth. First, we have an audiobook in the works. The English narrator is warming up on the smaller books, but he does intend to tackle both A THRONE OF BONES and A SEA OF SKULLS in 2017. Second, both hardcover and paperback versions of A THRONE OF BONES will be available in time for Christmas. They’ll be monsters, running around 915 pages, case laminate for the hardcover, and slightly taller than the Marcher Lord editions. We’ll also be using Garamond for the font.

In other news, I’m happy to say that my next non-fiction book will be about the Alt-Right and it will be out before summer. I’m working with a co-writer whom I will not presently identify, but let’s just say it is going to be every bit as hard-hitting and relevant and accurate as SJWAL and Cuckservative.

And finally, I can promise a new John C. Wright novel before Christmas, possibly even before the end of this month. This is Book Three of Moth & Cobweb.

You may now proceed with your best Vox RR Day jokes….

A tale of two structures

Delta Man contrasts the Gamma novel with the Delta novel at Alpha Game:

GAMMA

Act 1

  • GP (Gamma Protagonist) is awkward, unattractive, and misunderstood, but smart and snarky
  • GP discovers the heart of the misunderstanding is his previously unknown incredible gift
  • GP enters a whirlwind of an adventure of discovering his gift as people are suddenly after him
  • GP defeats some minor foes with his gift but doesn’t know how
  • MV (Male Villain) is introduced, an ass for no reason, is a jock, and good-looking
  • MV has control over seductress Female Villain (FV) The FV is shown not totally responsible for being a villain

DELTA

Act 1

  • DG (Delta Guy) leads a pretty normal life, but is good at one thing in particular
  • He has a PG (Pretty Girl) who he really likes, and is on again and off again as he chases her
  • PG is pretty, not hot, wholesome, and DG comments he really doesn’t deserve her
  • GE (Great Evil) is introduced and may be led by an evil man but is larger than one person
  • DG cannot ignore the GE and is called to action

It’s very eye-opening to see the way in which socio-sexuality so strongly dictates the very form in which an author’s storytelling takes. It’s not hard to see that one way in which science fiction and fantasy has changed dramatically, even outside the female influence and social justice obsession, is that it is no longer a Delta genre full of stories of challenges to be solved through technical competence and personal maturation, but a Gamma genre of full of stories of effortless success through the intervention of third parties or intrinsic wonderfulness.

Techno-thrillers and military fiction are now the Delta genre; one cannot read the Delta structure without stories such as Saving Private Ryan springing immediately to mind. As a general rule, revenge and the public acknowledgment of the secret king as the true king are Gamma themes, while becoming a man and reluctantly defeating evil then going home are the primary Delta themes.

I haven’t really begun to consciously make use of this socio-sexual theory of literature in my own writing, but I am increasingly aware of the way in which my own perspective tends to affect my writing. As one critic noted, there are few incompetents in my books; even the most evil characters usually have a legitimate point-of-view, and it’s not always clear who is supposed to be good and who is supposed to be bad.