Kevin's Watch

Savor Dam wrote:Never mind, nothing to see here, move along.
There are certain Watchers and others who are SRD's readers.
Needless to say, they are bound by confidentiality agreements, as well as guidelines on the feedback they provide the author.
You have not been told this; if you had been told, the person telling you would then be obligated to erase your memory of what you'd been told.
<intense flash of light>

What were we talking about?

Menolly wrote:

Savor Dam wrote:Never mind, nothing to see here, move along.
There are certain Watchers and others who are SRD's readers.
Needless to say, they are bound by confidentiality agreements, as well as guidelines on the feedback they provide the author.
You have not been told this; if you had been told, the person telling you would then be obligated to erase your memory of what you'd been told.
<intense flash of light>

What were we talking about?

*nod nod nod*

kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/album_comment.php?pic_id=1408

'nuff said

dlbpharmd wrote:You know, if I knocked off Romeo, Seareach and Cjenn, then SRD would have to find 3 more readers.......maybe I'd have a chance........

Colin R. Grimes: Hello, Stephen!

I was wondering if you were aware that Amazon.com.uk is currently taking orders for "Against All Things Ending" with a listed release date of October 28, 2010. Has Orion/Gollancz declared "delivery and acceptance"? Is someone just hopefully jumping the gun? Or are the Brits just that much faster at recognizing your genius? <smile>

No, I wasn't aware. My publishers never tell me such things. The Brits have definitely jumped the gun. But not without reason: they've seen (and liked) the second draft; they know when I've promised to deliver the third draft; and they know from experience that I'm a man of my word. So they are not being irrationally optimistic.

kevinswatch wrote:Wow, it's crazy to think that we're about less than a year away from seeing this thing in print...

-jay

aliantha wrote:No kidding:

Colin R. Grimes: Hello, Stephen!

I was wondering if you were aware that Amazon.com.uk is currently taking orders for "Against All Things Ending" with a listed release date of October 28, 2010. Has Orion/Gollancz declared "delivery and acceptance"? Is someone just hopefully jumping the gun? Or are the Brits just that much faster at recognizing your genius? <smile>

No, I wasn't aware. My publishers never tell me such things. The Brits have definitely jumped the gun. But not without reason: they've seen (and liked) the second draft; they know when I've promised to deliver the third draft; and they know from experience that I'm a man of my word. So they are not being irrationally optimistic.

Seareach wrote:

kevinswatch wrote:Wow, it's crazy to think that we're about less than a year away from seeing this thing in print...

-jay

Have you actually read FR yet?

kevinswatch wrote:

Seareach wrote:

kevinswatch wrote:Wow, it's crazy to think that we're about less than a year away from seeing this thing in print...

-jay

Have you actually read FR yet?

Bah!

-jay

aliantha wrote:No kidding:

Colin R. Grimes: Hello, Stephen!

I was wondering if you were aware that Amazon.com.uk is currently taking orders for "Against All Things Ending" with a listed release date of October 28, 2010. Has Orion/Gollancz declared "delivery and acceptance"? Is someone just hopefully jumping the gun? Or are the Brits just that much faster at recognizing your genius? <smile>

No, I wasn't aware. My publishers never tell me such things. The Brits have definitely jumped the gun. But not without reason: they've seen (and liked) the second draft; they know when I've promised to deliver the third draft; and they know from experience that I'm a man of my word. So they are not being irrationally optimistic.

Mike: A while back I read the First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and really enjoyed them. Thanks for the decent, Non-Tolkien-imitator fantasy.

However, as much as I enjoyed the First Chronicles (I LOVED Lord Mhoram's Victory), I found the ending somewhat disappointing. I was basically screaming at Covenant (and through him, you) "You still don't get it! We don't need any blasted holding to the eye of the paradox- you need to stop fighting and let him kill you!" I don't really remember why; I just know that the decision to stop fighting Despite, and instead letting it ravage you, seemed to me the obvious solution to the paradox of White Gold. And now, having recently discovered the Second Chronicles and read those, I laughed out loud that Covenant had finally discovered the solution I recommended for him so long ago.

My question is basically this: What changed, in your mind, to warrant the vastly different solutions to the endings of the first and second Chronicles? Was it based on something you're learned since then, or simply because of the plot, or something else?

Thanks for taking the time to answer fan questions like this!

I think of your question in very different terms. What would be the point of writing "The Second Chronicles" if I didn't have a vastly different ending in mind? What would be the point of writing "The Last Chronicles" if I didn't have yet another vastly different ending in mind? If we can't all learn and grow and think new things, what's the point of living?

In any case, the sequence of endings that I have in mind is both psychologically and spiritually appropriate to my intentions.

(11/02/2009)

Michael from Santa Fe: You've stated many times, in many forums, that you write for love. You fall in love with your stories/characters and have to tell their tale. You also said that the ideas for the Last Chronicles came to you with the Second. So, when White Gold Wielder ended, you knew there was more story to tell but did not. You went on to other stories. You've sorta answered this before, about not being ready to tell this last tale, that you knew it would be a hard one to do and that you needed more time to prepare to do it. I also think you have mentioned being afraid to tackle it. My question is: was that hard, the waiting (Tom Petty seems to think it is )? Was it hard to leave Covenant dead and Linden broken-hearted at his death at the ending of White Gold Wielder when you knew there was more to tell of their story? Coming back to my first point, about loving your characters, was it hard to leave them where you left them? Or has it all worked out pretty much how you wanted, working on Mordant's Need, the Man Who books, the GAP books, short story collections first? Hope this question makes sense, I'm not sure it really does to me, but hey, your the smart one and if anyone can understand what I'm trying to ask it would be you.

To be honest: no, it wasn't hard to postpone starting "The Last Chronicles". It sure didn't feel like *waiting*. One reason? I had plenty of other things I really wanted to do. Putting Covenant/Linden aside for mumblemumble years gave me opportunities I would never have had otherwise. In addition, I was not dissatisfied with where I left the story at the end of "The Second Chronicles". As with the ending of the first trilogy, I was at a perfectly good stopping-point, and I never felt that the world (or I) would somehow be made less if I never completed my Grand Design.

But another reason--as I've said before--is that the prospect of TLC scared the s*it out of me. It looked like it was going to be too hard for me. It *has* been too hard for me. And it certainly isn't going to stop being too hard now. I didn't come back to Covenant because I got tired of "waiting". (Maybe *it* got tired of waiting: *I* didn't. <sigh>) I came back to Covenant almost literally out of desperation.

(11/02/2009)