Wow. Just . . . wow.

Do y'all have any idea how gratifying it is to know that your fans are actually bitching that you aren't writing fast enough?  Really?  It's freaking amazing.  And a little scary.

But when an actual argument breaks out, and someone invokes Gaiman's Martin Isn't Your Bitch?  

I feel like I just won a freakin' Hugo.  Thank you!  I needed that distraction.

So, you folks do deserve an update for your patience, which is very much appreciated.  Magelord is in the final stages, but it's been in the final stages for a while now.  I'm just as impatient as you are, and even more frustrated.  It's largely a matter of time.  Unfortunately our family crisis has become an enormous time-sink, and once the lawyers got involved . . .

Still, I find writing - especially the Spellmonger stuff - enormously therapeutic.  So I've been working, when I can find the time, on both finishing up Warmage (and no one wants it done more than I) and finishing the second short story.  Indeed, I'm hoping to have it done, edited, formatted, and up by the end of this weekend.  Note I said "hope" - our crisis is still very fluid, so my time gets unexpectedly hacked quite often.

The title of the short is "The River Mists Of Talry".  It features Tyndal, before he arrived on the scene in Warmage, hiding out with Minalan's parents, protecting Alya.  It's also the first Spellmonger fiction to be told in third-person, instead of first-person.  It should fill in a few more gaps and explore Tyndal's character a bit more.

Oh, and he loses his virginity.  Just to keep things interesting.

In addition to the Spellmonger series, I actually had an attack of Space Viking a few weeks back that moved Trask's Odyssey forward a bit.  I'm eager to get to work on that one, too, and since I now have a running start on Knights Magi, it's looking like it will probably get done by this summer.

So when will Magelord be out?  Not before the end of April . . . but (finger's crossed) likely before the end of May.  It's already half-edited, so we're really down to the details at this point.  I just want to get it right.

Thanks for holding on, there, folks.  I'll try to make it worth it.

Comments

  1. OK, I like your books, I buy your books, I pay for your books that I buy.

    You just won a freakin' Hugo? I am not reading the book I want to.

    You are finishing a short? I'm not reading it. Its not available.

    "Finishing up Warmage"? Read that one already.

    Magelord. Magelord.

    You promised and you are not delivering. Concentrate.

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  2. Ummmm...No, you don't want it as much as we do. I know this because if you wanted it as much as we do, it would have been published already. I would have finished reading it a couple of months ago, and I would be bitching that the next one isn't out yet.

    So tell the lawyers you're going to have to start charging them for their time because your fans are getting irritable. I do hope things work out with the family crisis, but really, that's just because I want you to write. Good luck, and have fun agonizing over what to cut. I look forward to reading your book before the end of May :).

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  3. Not to be a pain or anything, but it has been a couple of weeks since at least a short story was promised, is there any update on that?

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  4. Terry, very glad to get the update. Been looking forward to ML since about a day after Warmage was released. Sorry about your family problems, I do sympathize with you there, especially since it came to lawyers. Also sorry that no one else commenting here seems to have any patience or human decency.

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  5. Bleh, we all love him, and really don't mind cutting him a bit of slack since he HAS been posting updates, which is more than I can say for some authors. I don't believe that Warmage will be out before late June since he already stated he really wants to publish two shorts first, and honestly, I think the short about the wedding may be relevant. Don't really care about Tyndals short, but I'll read it. Getting those short stories before the end of May will convince me that Warmage is on track for the end of June. Not getting those shorts before the end of May will make me think August or later.

    I know Terry WANTS to publish Warmage before the end of May, I just don't see it likely unless he publishes both shorts before the end of April. The reason for this is because of how the pricing is done, and what he wants to do with that. So I give Terry credit for being hopeful, and I'm pleased that the book is close enough to being done that he believes it COULD be published by the end of May. But, between publishing his two shorts, work, editing, a family crisis, and the dreaded lawyers, I'm realistically pessimistic here.

    As for human decency, it's a myth. Ask the Gurvani.

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  6. Okay, were just about at the end of April, and no shorts :(.

    So are we going to hear about Tyndals heroic escapades and Minalans marriage before Warmage is published or is everything in the pot at the moment and simmering until life stops beating you up? Anyways, I thought I would leave you with an inspiring quote from a movie classic.

    Mawwage. Mawwage is what bwings us togevah today. Mawwage, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam wifin a dweam.

    The Princess Bride.

    Now please find a keyboard (hopefully attached to a computer) and get those creative juices flowing. Very much looking forward to reading your next story.

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  7. Why is everyone talking about Warmage? I've read that one...

    Surely its Magelord we are waiting for?

    PS Apologies if I was somewhat brusque before. Explanation: when a new book in a series is due out, I usually reread the earlier books to be ready. When the timing does badly wrong, I get grumpy.

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  8. Bleh, I meant Mage Lord, Terry is confusing me :)

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  9. I'm waiting for Trask's Odyssey . . . imagine there's a sad face emote here.

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  10. Any chance of another update coming along soon?

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  11. when it comes to magelord you can wait as long as you need to make it as good as possible.but when it comes to short stories i dont really expect quality work, i just want something to eat up the time, not somthing that will make me cry from the sheer beauty of it. so get me my short story!!!!!!!

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  12. Here we are. The last week of May is upon us. Sadly it appears that I may have been correct in my pessimism about the publishing schedule, and I can't say I'm surprised. Terry didn't make any promises, but he did heighten our anticipation. My hope is that Terry will take that into account and post another update in the next week announcing a firm release date as well as the release of at least one of the short stories he intends to offer. I'm even more hopeful that a firm release date will be announced for late June or early July.

    @L.W ReadsAlot...I understand your reasoning, but from a marketing standpoint, the short stories are advertising pure and simple. After a short period of time on Amazon Prime (free for Prime members), they will be reduced in price as promotional pieces to draw additional readers to the author for a minimal investment. Because of this the short stories need to be high quality fiction. When you take this into consideration it is easy to see why Terry would agonize over them. The fact that they can be used to tie up stray plot holes and provide readers with information that doesn't easily fall into a story line is secondary.

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  13. i would just point out that the excerpt from Magelord had been released 1 YEAR ago...just saying.......................

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  14. The way I see it is this. An indie author needs to stay in contact with their fans if they want to keep them. This blog fills that role. Terry has slipped up once or twice by letting more than three months go by without posting (publicizing) in his blog, but he's usually pretty good about making posts. Note I said posts, not updates. If you look at the blogs of highly acclaimed authors such as Patrick Rothfus, or Martin you will see they blog often and rarely talk about their next book.

    Posting lets the fans know that the author is still interested in creating content, and allows the fans to feel a certain measure of control by providing them with content regularly which they can choose to digest, ignore, or respond to. This gives the fan something new to look at while they are waiting for updates, and prevents them from getting overly discouraged by seeing the same post that was up six months earlier. I've seen authors that talk about how cool this movie was, or how great a book they just read by such and such author was. What an author shouldn't do, is over promise, or feel pressured to ONLY talk about updates of their upcoming book with fans on THEIR blog.

    Electronic publishing has changed the industry, so the days of a new book every year are gone. Personally, I'm grateful for that. Now those writers that write faster publish faster, and those who take a little more time aren't being rushed by editors and lawyers. I'm looking forward to Mage Lord, and Terry has raised expectations with this thread, so I expect it in the near future.

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  15. I fall into the trap of "wanting" books to read, in a series that I enjoy, "immediately". That "immediately" is simply not realistic, as the authors do have to write the stories, as they want to write them, in the time they do write them.

    I'm old enough to remember the days of waiting a year or more for a hardcover or waiting even longer for the paperback edition, to read the next installment of a series.

    If anything, waiting for a story to come out, sometimes a year or more, is a testament of the authors writing skills and story telling. Terry's Spellmonger and Warmage stories are such a testament.

    I don't lose interest simply because a year or more of time has passed since I've read a story and am waiting for a new installment.

    Books aren't like the Saturday weekly serials one sees on TV [a nod to the Saturday serials like Buck Rogers, or Lone Ranger, or even The Little Rascals (or any of the other old Saturday serials)]

    I've followed authors and their stories for decades, and I'll follow Terry Mancour and his "Spellmonger" series.

    T



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  16. Considering it seems it's still a very long way for Magelord,is there any way to buy the rought draft? :)

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  17. Patience. No one in their right mind would sell a rough draft, though some authors will offer pre-readers a final draft to get feed-back on problems and grammar issues they missed. Terry is alive and well, and while he has dropped some heavy hints and has come very close to over promising releases before he's ready, I have no doubt that the book will be published this summer. I'm looking forward to Mage Lord and the next update as much as the next reader, and I'm sure Terry is looking forward to the modest income spike he will get from the release. The fact that Terry has not released the book is a testament to how much he cares about his writing. The book will be published, and we will love it when it is.

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  18. "Come very close to over promising"? Bah. He over promised.

    No Magelord, no shorts.

    "Real Soon Now" in February and one update in March?

    Its time to forget this series. Its a bust.

    Plenty other stuff to read.

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  19. plenty of other stuff to read, but only so much is worth reading. i am going to stop checking for a new book frequently but i still plan to look occasionally, every few months.

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  20. Terry Pratchett -- love him or hate him or anything inbetween -- has early-onset Alzheimer's, but still keeps his readers informed. He's a real reader's author.

    Harry Connolly messed up Twenty Palaces -- one of the truly great series -- by publishing in the wrong order. Bad luck, still brilliant. He remains in the game.

    But: this is the first time I've seen a good author really screw the pooch because he didn't give a **** about his readers.


    "Only so much worth reading"? There's a whole publishing revolution going on out there. You've never had it so good.

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  21. well if you've stuck with spellmongerer this long then surely you can spare one minut a month to see if anything has come out.

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  22. Both of you have good points, and I'll admit Terry has under delivered. Author-reader trust is a huge thing, and even bigger for an indie author who hopes to one day quit the day job. It isn't that those of us who love his books won't wait for the next one, however long it takes to come out, despite our bitching. It's that we won't be quick to recommend an author who doesn't keep his word or feel the need to stay in touch with his readers.

    Recommending an author who neglects readers just ends up coming back to the person who recommended the author in the form of gripes and complaints. No one needs that, and too few authors understand how much a blog can affect their careers.

    I give Terry props for having a blog, and for making periodic updates and posts, but over promising is about the worst thing an author can do. Sanderson for instance, always promises his stuff about three months after he expects it to be ready, keeps in touch with his readers daily on FB, and is hugely successful. Rothfuss blogs often and posts daily on FB as well. This isn't absolutely necessary, Martin pretty much ignores his fans, but Terry isn't Martin, despite prior posts. I think he has the skills, but he doesn't have the history or backing.

    I'm not saying daily contact is necessary, but I don't consider taking five minutes a month out of their lives to be an unreasonable expectation from a reader. So yes, Terry has screwed up, and he has compounded that by what I consider to be a lengthy absence. I will still buy his book, but unless things change, I won't be recommending his books to others.

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    1. I forgot to mention one other important factor. If an author stays in touch with his fan base, they are likely to be more forgiving in reviews, and more likely to review. When an author doesn't make time for his fans, they are less likely to review, and can become more critical when they do review.

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  23. Hey Terry? Have you thought about firing off an email to Joss Whedon and finding out how he'd feel about you releasing your Firefly novels on Amazon? Re-Editing them for epublishing might be just the kind of low key project you need to get back in the writers saddle again after all your RL drama's.

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  24. still nothing???!!!...un-f**king believabe.....

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  25. I just want to know if I should put the author in the "recently deceased authors blogs" bookmark list. So many of my favorite authors have been going there, at least 2 a year. 3 months without a peep wouldn't be too bad if the last few entries weren't "cough, cough, gasp..?"

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  26. he said that lawyers were involved so maybe he lost and is in jail.

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  27. the mists of river talery is out.

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