I’ve gotten several queries today about more books in this and that universe, and for Foreigner, the answer is good.
One thing that has been so, so difficult is the number of times I have had to create a universe for some reason, then find that the publisher has been gobbled up by some oil company or the like, and they have now replaced my editor with someone who comes in with a different set of objectives…a view of how they want their line to work, and by definition, that’s got to be different than the guy they just fired. A lot different. Meaning holdovers don’t get support. They want something new-new-new, and what have you done different from the ‘old’ stuff.
It just kind of gnaws the heart out of a writer after a while. I’ve been really lucky with DAW: they back me, and have for a long, long time. But the story on many universes is—I can’t continue them because I can’t sell them in any viable way, because they have ‘history’ with another publisher.
This is why we’re working so hard on Closed Circle. Each of the three of us has a different history with the publishing mess, but all three of us are suffering from slow erosion of the sheer will to keep going and keep creating—because of the number of things we were once so excited about doing that have just gotten swept aside, not even in the market, but in in-house politics, between editors that want to ‘define’ themselves and some houses totally shifting direction.
So yes, the answer is—the more Closed Circle succeeds, the more I can do. I’m going to dive into the next Foreigner book right now, because that, and two more, are under contract. So that has to be my next. But do that next book in another series—oh, yes. I’d love to. I’ve just gotten wary of scattering any more pieces of me into the wind. So if we three can make a go of this—all sorts of possibilities open up for all those universes we all want to continue to explore.
Your readers are behind you, and will understand your decisions to keep bread on the table. As much as we would like another Finisterre, and another Cyteen, and another Chanur … whatever you write will find an audience with us. As much as the denizens of WWoAS would like to think that we matter to you, you must first write that which makes the mortgage. Now, mind you, if the muse strikes but you can’t find a publisher, we’ll do our best to show true appreciation! In the meantime, don’t spread yourself too thin. Patience is good for us.
ready
I found Gate of Ivriel and Hunter of Worlds in 1976 one day at WaldenBooks when I was in college and rather broke [since I was in college]. I was hooked; I had never come across such instantly believeable characters who had such depth, or such richness to the worlds and cultures you wove, and this has never changed. I have a soft spot for Morgaine and Vanye since they were the first and have always wished for more of their story, but there’s Chanur too, there’s Union and Mallory, definitely Bren and Ilsidi, and a certain timeline in the back of Angel with a Sword that I’ve always wondered what are the stories that are hidden there. But when you get right down to it, I really don’t care what you write, because I will buy it. I love your work, I’ve enjoyed all of it and I’ve worn out I don’t know how many copies of lots of different things [or had friends forget to give them back]. So you go girl! We’re here, we’re having fun, and we’ll happily gobble up whatever the muses and your imagination crafts for us. [big smiley face that I can’t remember how to do]
ready is right as usual. Our basic collective need is that you continue to publish. While there are any number of stories I would love to see continue, if someone is putting cash on the barrel for your Foreigner novels, then that is a much more certain path to fulfill that need in the long term than having you write on spec for $10 or even $20 a pop through CC.
Our less selfish desire is for your personal comfort and satisfaction. Only you can be the judge of that trade-off. We will just be your cheering squad and appreciative audience whatever path you take.
I’m happy to see that there are some folks still in the biz trying to make their money slowly but surely like DAW.
– S
CJ (& all three of you) , I completely agree with Sandor .
Hth , JimL
I’ll echo what the others have said. We feel connected to you in more than just the books now, even though that is how we found you. Your success and happyiness matter just as much as our personal desire to see what happens next in our favorite series. 🙂
I am hoping that CC works, too. So, I’ll need to help you. I like this direct to the fans idea, no middlemen needed.
I have noticed.
I have been reading your books for as long as you have been writing them. Either the first Morgaine book or “faded sun” books. There are universes I miss. I would love to see another Morgaine, or Heavy Time/Hell Burner, or Cloud’s world. It was far too long between Cyteen, and Regenesis. And it’s not helped that Foreigner is not one of my favorites of your worlds.
Just keep writing them. I will keep buying them.
I suspect it’s a scary time to be a writer. Lots of opportunities, lots of risks. It will be interesting to see how it turns out.
We live in interesting times.
Like ready, ryan and Sandor already said.
I’m really interested in seeing what you do with the Closed Circle project. It seems like the internet has finally brought things to the point where artists can go more towards what they really want to do rather than what their publishers think is most marketable at the moment. Of course, if that process gives us another set of Bren books, I certainly won’t complain, even if I would like to see what became of the Ashanome after Hunter of Worlds.
As others have already said, while each of us will have a slightly different ‘wish list’ of new books, the common theme is more books!
Keep writing, and publish however you can – I prefer to have a physical book to read (I spend all day writing software, so spend enough time in front of a screen), but if CC is the way to find out more of your many and varied characters then I will certainly take that option as well.
CONTRACTS FIRST! That goes without saying……*besides* IT’S FOREIGNER’ ! 😉 The rest is for when you have the physical, mental,emotional time. Do you ever go through dry periods? How do you get out of them?
On another note: We have had nine inches of rain since sunday night…..parts of RTE 95 are closed…..and we can’t get off the hill due to rivers and and flooded low areas….(ah retirement from my day job) and at least one local dam has been breeched. WOW! These *are interesting times. The sun is starting to come out….we’ll see 😆
Stay dry, Smartcat! Hope you’ve got enough groceries—or fishing line, if it gets unreal.
Dry periods—well, in a way. That’s why I do both fantasy and science fiction: if I’m stuck on one, I switch to the other. That’s why old-fashioned S&S is fun—you kinda make it up as you go along: it’s like freeform, without too many constraints. That’s one reason I’m glad to help resurrect that breed of story. Writers need exercise!
I echo everyone here – my first book was Chanur’s Legacy, but I think I’ve bought every book you’ve printed since then – as far as the Sci-fi goes. I remember in the last Bren book I read, when Ilisidi was acting ill, I shouted out, “NO! NOT ILISIDI!” So you’ve definitely struck a chord with all of us in your endeavors.
Like others have said, I like the hard copies of books to keep on my shelves and re-read without the wiles of data bits and computers – but I’ll take them as I can get them – your world building is a great step out of my daily routine.
I echo Ready, Ryan, Sandor!
I’ve picked up a copy of your collected short stories, the book that contains “Sunfall” and “Companions”. I was almost afraid to finish “Companions” for fear that Warren would discover that the real killer was Anne. I still haven’t figured that out, and when I do, I’ll have to put it in a spoiler section so those who haven’t read it won’t be distracted.
I echo so many of the others.Contracts first then whatever you decide to write I will buy.
CJ,
How viable would it be to get a movie made of one of your works? Is this something you oppose or have no interest in because it might get mangled beyond recognition, or are there other obstacles? I’m thinking if this ever happened and was successful it would give you the financial independence and clout to have your way with any publisher.
Also, I miss Procyon ;_; I would love to read another Gene Wars novel. But, if you decide the next one will be a cookbook of alkali-laden Atevi delicacies narrated by Illisidi, I am all over it lol. Might even try to cook something out of it too.
Getting a movie made requires 1) a writer or producer who reads a book and options it 2) writer agreeing to option, which usually involves a couple of thousand dollars. 3) writer writing script, and producer going around and ‘pitching’ it to people with money to invest. Once he has a budget, oh, a hundred million or so, for a start, he starts ‘producing’ the work, lining up actors and sets and cameras and all that stuff. http://www.essortment.com/lifestyle/hollywoodmovies_sxmv.htm
Even then the thing can fall through. Now the book writer has not been consulted (or paid a thing beyond the option) and probably the screenwriter has been shoved off the project as it now goes into its 10th rewrite, in which it was decided to convert Pride of Chanur into a mediaeval fantasy, with overtones of Harry Potter; so that script is being written. And rewritten 5 more times. Hollywood scriptwriters do not have an easy job.
It goes into production, and the film editor now gets a hold of it, clipping out the bits that no longer fit.
It gets released, and the writer gets, oh, a few thousand more. Nothing like a share of the profits. At best, they changed the title, too, so the original writer is credited only midway down the fast-moving credits list. There are exceptions: the Harry Potter books lent themselves well to film, for instance, and Rowling has done (deservedly) well. But the more outre the work, the less likely it will survive the process in anything like its original form. The kneejerk reaction of banking committees is to make it like something they know made money, and that is a process not necessarily friendly to art.
Oops! GO VOTE! While I wasn’t looking, Regenesis moved on to the sweet sixteen round of the BSC Review. (And life support is failing…) http://www.bscreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=93&t=8027
Well, drat! I got Dragon Keeper from Audible.com and listened to it over the last few days. Liked it, too, though not as much as Regenesis – I think it needs some tightening-up type editing. Then I got to the “end” and was furious — it just STOPS, right in the middle of six or eight different plotlines. So I wrote up my vote, and when I got back to my internet connection today I prepared to send it in, only to find that last night was the deadline. And my vote would have tied it up.
Oh, well. Sorry.
If we were really organized, we wouldn’t be us. 😉 Thanks for trying!
I too owe you an apology for not voting….the rain and floods got in the way. (We are fine on top of the hill….some friends and neighbors not so fortunate. 🙁 )
I’m just glad you’re not drowned! Stay dry, Smartcat!
Comments on a couple of matters:
Unfinished series drive me nuts.
After Donald Gerrold abandoned The War Against The Chottr (sp?) some 25 years ago just when it was getting good I vowed never again to read a series before it was complete. It is a measure of my regard for you, Ms. Cherryh that I happily read yours before they’re finished because you haven’t disappointed me in 30 years and I don’t think you will start new. Pretty self centered of me I know but there you are.
About screenwriting: I spent many years in Hollywood, not writing as my first job but I wrote some scripts on spec.
It’s really hard and it’s doubly hard, or perhaps triply hard to adapt an existing work. Novels especially. dense novels with lots of interior dialog specially especially. William Goldman’s Adventures In The Screen Trade, a fantastic book that any body interested in movies should read right now, is half great stories about Hollywood with the rest a tutorial about how to adapt a story into a screenplay.
I’d love to take a crack at Conspirator-lots of action-but laying out the back story might kill me, although you’d be surprised how much you can convey visually.
In s similar vein Rimrunners would make a good movie but the back story would kill you. Although if you started with a crawl beginning, “Long ago in a galaxy far, far away…”
Phil Brown
😆 Thank you. You guys who do scriptwriting are amazing. I did one movie project which turned into a Mack Sennett comedy, and I don’t mean it made the screen—and I so appreciate the nerves of steel it takes to do screenwriting—not to mention the skill it takes to do that backstory job. Any writer who’s ever just tried to do necessary reprise for a continuing series can appreciate the problem—but screenwriters have to do it AND do it fast.
I personally think the Gene Wars books would make good movies…. And my son in LA would be happy to act as film crew. His latest attempt to break into movies, is a made for TV, SyFy channel movie creature feature that is going to air in April. He assures me that he will show up somewhere in the credits. That will be worth more than he got paid ($0) as he was working “for the experience.” It’s not only the writers who don’t get paid much (or at all). The movie remains nameless to protect the innocent and the guilty alike.
Congrats to him—the number of people involved in a film is just amazing; and most don’t get paid anything like what people imagine.
I wonder if you’d get some decent money by getting some of your rather large set of older books from the 70’s and 80’s available for reasonable prices via Closed Circle… There are a number of those books that I read when they came out, and (sorry to say) don’t really remember any more (I read a few books a week usually… so after maybe 6000 or so books read, and my memory getting worse… that happens) except to remember that I enjoyed them when I first read them. If the publisher still holds the rights, and they can’t be released via Closed Circle, I’ve found Fictionwise to be a good site for getting e-books in about as reader friendly fashion as possible (DRM only when required by the publisher, and they give a 5% discount if you use their preferred DRM method, in that case)
It would be nice if you could fund time for a new Riders and/or a new Gene Wars novel by living off all of those older, but still great, books.
Yep, that’s exactly what we’re about. It’s the out-of-print’s we’re concentrating on first, and then there’ll be some new pieces—I’ve got a new bit up tonight on CC, just for fun.