Kevin's Watch

Runes =

I re-read it earlier this year. I love the beginning of the book... the sense of foreboding and dread that surrounds Linden, Jeremiah, all who have been touched by the Despiser. Man!

once again, I totally agree. When I read that teaser on SRD's site, MAN! I was enthralled and it doesn't disappoint. ...until Linden gets to the Land. The things really slow down. But I don't mind that. SRD's writing style allows for the slow build up and I knwo there is going to be great payoff. And it is a delight to read the sentences he puts together. Each one is a great meal in itself. I devour them wholly.
No other author gives me that same pleasure with mere words.

Seareach wrote:

Malik23 wrote:Sorry DLB, but that post doesn't give me anything to bitch and complain about. What's your point?

Yeah Dlb, give us something to work with here!

Just trying to get us back on track....

From the GI today:

My editors (US and UK) have now read the manuscript and given me their comments and suggestions. The bad news is that I still have plenty of work to do (no surprise there). The good news is that what I've been asked to do is considerably less "global" than it was in the case of "The Runes of the Earth." As a result, I'm hopeful. Perhaps the third draft will not take as long as the second did. If so, "Fatal Revenant" may indeed be published in the fall of 2007.
10/16/06

I have to wonder what the "global" changes might have been.

Spoiler

Like, maybe originally, Lord Foul took Linden's ipod?

Hmmm, the GI has been quiet lately. My imagination says SRD is working hard after getting his editor's suggestions ... and is too depressed to answer our silly questions...

Usivius wrote:Hmmm, the GI has been quiet lately. My imagination says SRD is working hard after getting his editor's suggestions ... and is too depressed to answer our silly questions...

My thoughts as well.....

dlbpharmd wrote:

Usivius wrote:Hmmm, the GI has been quiet lately. My imagination says SRD is working hard after getting his editor's suggestions ... and is too depressed to answer our silly questions...

My thoughts as well.....

Yes, he is busy making good use of all the criticism he received from his editor...

I bet they told him to make Linden's motivations more intense and less reigned in.

I 'jes wanted to mention, about the whole criticism by Preston earlier...I think SRD's 3rd point about criticism was untrue, but the first 2 were, and preston shouldn't have sent the thing in. But SRD shouldn't have posted it either; he responded to my question through email rather than GI when I was asking about a particular passage, and in detail; for something like criticisms, it doesn't sit well with me to see him state that the author must be sending it in to feed his own ego. After all, with the GI being the only way to contact the GI, a reader who wants to give any sort of feedback has to go through it. By SRDs logic, someone who takes the time to say something intelligent and positive is also feeding their ego.

The third point SRD made depends primarily on Preston, or any critic, realizing that the first two are the case. If preston isn't a constant reader of the GI, he isn't going to know SRD isn't interested in criticism, and were SRD receptive to criticism there would be several reasons besides ego-feeding to send it to him. Moreover, criticism does not necessarily connote with disapproval, though it often does. One might say that the two analyses that SRD has listed on his site are criticisms, and thus that SRD is ok with criticism, examination, etc.

Whatever. Personally I don't think it's a big deal, but I thought it was worth saying something (late) in addition in defense of Preston. Anyway, if SRD didn't listen to anyone, LFB would be called Lord Foul's Ritual. It's true that the former and currently used doesn't really corrolate readily with any particular thing, but the latter isn't particularly catchy IMO (actually, I didn't like Runes' title either but Runes was good).

oops, we're back at this?....

Lynne H: I tried to find "shotgun" and "vigilantism" in the GI and didn't, so here goes.

Twenty mmpfh years after my first reading of the first two Covenant trilogies, I am certainly a different reader and a different person. I wasn't yet a parent and my husband hadn't yet become a law enforcement officer, so firearms weren't a "given" in our lives back then. So this time through, I was struck by Covenant's having purchased a shotgun in The Wounded Land when I had scarcely given it a thought the first time I read TWL. Nowadays the thought of someone's owning a firearm he's not sure he will make use of is mind-boggling. People I know either have them intending to use them or they refuse to even let their kids play at a friend's house where there may be a weapon, even if the weapons and ammo are locked up separately. Myriad plot points would have been altered if Covenant had used his shotgun, so I won't even get into that, but I am curious: Is this any reflection of your own . . .aversion? whatever? (I am thinking of your having served in a hospital as a conscientious objector).

Thanks for the opportunity to ask. It's been great rediscovering your work and, even better, sharing it with those of my children old enough to appreciate it.

Actually, I'm vaguely fascinated by guns. I've even taken shooting--and safety--lessons from a SWAT officer. For another perspective on the subject, you might look at "The Man Who..." books, especially "...Tried to Get Away". But Covenant has a shotgun precisely so that he can choose not to use it. Which sounds to me just like something I might have done in his situation. After all, Joan's return might (for good reason) make him feel, well, let's call it embattled. I thought that buying a shotgun and then deciding not to use it revealed a great deal about his inner journey--and about Linden's early effect on him. In very few words, I might add. <grin>

(Thematically, of course, I was also trying to prepare the way for some of the events early in "The Runes of the Earth".)

(10/25/2006)

Anonymous: So, have you asked your editor when "Runes" will be released in Mass market paperback?

I have. Sadly, Ace has no immediate plans for a mass market edition of "The Runes of the Earth." The profit margins in mass market are very small, and Ace is still unsure that my sales justify the risk. This, I hasten to say, does not mean that there won't be a US mass market edition eventually: it just means that Ace isn't yet ready to make the decision.

(10/25/2006)

Order mass market from the UK, if you must have it.


As for the guns, it is interesting. As Donaldson implies, the fact that Covenant bought a gun and chose not to use it can be held for comparison with

Spoiler

Roger, getting a gun and using it pretty freely.
It also shows that some of the perceived change of tone in Runes (in this case re: the use of guns and overt violence) SRD actually had in mind from the start.

I thought I saw RUNES in mass market size at Powell's Tuesday. Must have been imported.

Nerdanel, look here!

The Gradual Interview wrote: Walter Langendorf: Drool has red glowing eyes, like lava. Ordinary Cave-Wights don't have eyes like this. Why does Drool have these eyes? Is this part of the sickening brought on by his misuse of the Staff of Law? Is it something he used the Staff to alter, like the moon? Is it a preexisting condition, perhaps part of what allowed him to rise to boss of the Cavewights?
Inquiring minds want to know!

Ultimately I think we have to blame Lord Foul. It's an effect of the misuse of power--and it does not bode well for Drool's future. <grin>

How long does it usually take Mr. Donaldson to answer a question?

Waddley Hasselhoff wrote:How long does it usually take Mr. Donaldson to answer a question?

That depends on the question, I assume... in the case of the questions I sent to him, it usually takes him anything between two and four months, perhaps a bit more sometimes. The last question wasn't posted on the GI though, he replied to me via email.

'and it does not bode well for Drool's future. <grin>'

Xar wrote:

Waddley Hasselhoff wrote:How long does it usually take Mr. Donaldson to answer a question?

That depends on the question, I assume... in the case of the questions I sent to him, it usually takes him anything between two and four months, perhaps a bit more sometimes. The last question wasn't posted on the GI though, he replied to me via email.

Huh... well, it's a fairly simple question, hopefully he can get to it sooner than that. I'm on a schedule here, and need his input before I continue on with plans...

Thanks Xar!