Hello, I’m Dave Freer, author of various sf/fantasy books and long ago some papers on Shark biology, which is where I got my basic training in fantasy. Ilona invited me to write a guest blog, because she’s nice and didn’t realize I was really a lunatic simian (which is why the people on Baen’s bar call me Dr Monkey. I prefer just ‘Monkey’ or ‘ hey you’). I’m an ex-South African and very new Australian. I now live on a remote island called Flinders in the middle of the Bass strait between Australia and Tasmania which has a 10 hour trip, erratic and unreliable once a week ferry link to Tasmania (it failed its last sea-worthy survey) It’s mountains and sea and very little else besides winds that pass over thousands of miles of sea before they get here. (what do you mean ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’?) There are seabirds. They are seabird flavor, except for the mutton-birds (shearwaters I think) which taste of something else. There is quite a lot more about Flinders and food at http://flindersfreer.blogspot.com/
I’ve co-authored a few books with Eric Flint and some with Eric and Mercedes Lackey. Eric and I wrote RATS, BATS & VATS books together, (which are a grunt’s eye view of combat against the Magh’ (which is what happens when you let multilingual people write. You get bad multilingual puns no one but the authors understand), where uplifted Elephant-Shrews – big rats with long noses and gene spliced leaf-nosed bats find themselves having to ally with that lower life-form, humans. It’s basically a lot of mayhem, the sort of humor those who are expendable indulge in, alongside of a story about what defines ‘human’ – and lots of explosions and interspecies misunderstandings. 
That was so much fun we did the PYRAMID SCHEME books together, where a handful of modern Americans (and a South African) find themselves transported into a universe where mythology is real, and Zeus is the kind of dude you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley and Odysseus bears a marked resemblance to a dodgy used car salesman. Our latest effort has been to write sequels to James H. Schmitz classic WITCHES OF KARRES (Eric is the editor of the re-issue of Schmitz’s work from Baen). The most recent on SORCERESS OF KARRES just came out. Look, no kidding, my name isn’t James H anything and my ouija keyboard is on the blink. Of course it is not the same (I’ll even agree it is not as good) as WITCHES, but if you enjoyed that universe as I did it’s a chance to read more (yes. It’s fanfic. By pro authors. What gives you the idea we are any different to other mortals? Just more practiced.)
The first of the sequels WIZARD OF KARRES proved popular and this latest one has also got onto the WSJ sf bestseller list. It’s sf the way it was in the 60′s I guess.
I also co-wrote with Eric and Misty some great big fat alternate history stories set in a renaissance that didn’t happen, where magic still happens and the Mongols still rule Asia Minor. Very useful books for doorstops or that long summer read. I believe they’ve been called entertaining and well-researched.
Then there are a handful of solo books – you can look them up on Amazon if you’re curious (I really don’t like boring people about my work – like most authors I am obsessive, and insomniac (gives you lots of time awake to obsess). 
The last two – DRAGON’S RING and SAVE THE DRAGONS (not related books at all) have been at least partially about dragons. DRAGON’S RING set in a place remarkably like the Furneux archipelago (a utter co-incidence I assure you. I NEVER write about the places I have been or the silly things I have tried. Well, yes… I did once narrowly escape arrest for climbing a castle wall in Scotland, but that could happen to anyone, and it’s similarity to Benito’s exploits is purest happenstance.) aworld of sea, and mountainous craggy islands, where draagons can be dragons and humans can be dinner… and where Fionn the black dragon is out to destroy the world.
SAVE THE DRAGONS is another project entirely. Getting out of South Africa either involved deserting our cats and dogs, putting them down, or a very long expensive quarantine and transport. My beasties own a huge piece of my heart and I believe in my responsibilty to them… so we chose the latter. We’ve had to sell everything we owned, just about, including our home to do this, but it’s a choice that left me poorer but happier. We also – with the help of some friends – put up the Save the Dragons site http://savethedragons.nu/ on which we’ve sold off chapter-by-chapter instalments of the comic fantasy book to help raise part of the terrifying amount of money it costs to keep a big Old English Sheepdog, a pair of Labbies and 3 beloved moggies together and coming out to Australia. The story is on the site, and so are the first 23 chapters (the last 2 we’re still selling).
Anyway – that’s enough waffle. If you have any questions ask away. (No I don’t know who won the world series in 1949 or what the winning number of Lotto will be. Questions about books, fish, dinner rock climbing and the island will be entertained. The others you’ll have to work out for yourselves.)
Hey you
My question: Seeing that you have collaborated with Eric Flint in the past – did you ever consider writing something with David Weber?
Grin. I’d do it. It’s more like has Dave considered doing anything with me. Seriously, I want to move more to solo books as, well, the money and the time frame are better (to get 3 busy authors to fit in is like herding cats).
Hey you! Since Ilona has introduced you and enjoys your books…I’m going to have to go and order one now! Check you out:) From the blog, your writing sounds really interesting!
Missed this comment -sorry! – Glad you liked the blog – it’s very hard to guess what people would like to read about on one.
i first discovered your books when i was working my way through the Baen Library. i’d like to thank you for putting them up! its a great way for putting out the line and hooking people in, then getting them out buying copies and series and the whole shabang. ;D
Heh, I am enormously proud to say that my book was second book in the library after Eric’s Mother of Demons. I’m enormously proud of Baen for the whole project (which BTW Eric has tried to extend to other publishers) and -speaking as someone who lived in a country where a paperback cost 20 loaves of bread – a way people who can’t afford to buy to experiment can at least try. Save the Dragons has pretty clearly established that people are less dishonest than the recording industry believes. Readers – once the idea that you need to earn to write – are, it seems happy to see that writers they like can afford to write. That works for me
(as writer and a reader)
I would like to know more about the Shark to Fantasy link. These two things are not normally related, so I am fascinated.
I suspect that this is a ‘scholarly journal to fantasy’ progression. I’ve been working on an advanced degree long enough to see this might be a much smaller step than one would expect
=A
Agreed, but I second the request for a full story.=)
er. Are you ready for this? My fantasy writing was born out of a few days at sea on what we call a ‘cockroach boat’ on which hygiene was shall we say tepid. I came back to shore – and a wife and 18 month old baby son with amoebic dysentry. This kills kids and trust me, doesn’t leave adults believing that they’ve got long left (or wishing they would die). Our baby was our most precious thing (still is I guess, except there are two and they’re over 6 foot tall). At that stage we were living on a farm with 2 bathrooms – one a separate building quite large with a powerpoint and a bit of laudry in it too. So I put a mattress in there and went into quarantine. With a high temperature and the other unpleasant symptoms – and my computer as I had a report to write. I tried to work… but I think I might have been delirious as it came out as a very weird funny story about an alternative universe with a drowned city – the archipelago of greater London. When I felt a little better the next day, I read it was amused and entertained… and continued. So there you have it. An author whose career started where some people think it should finish – or at least never leav.
oh how right you are
grin. I don’t THINK it is a causative link, anymore than flatulence is caused by pink nail polish. But you never know. Maybe sharks are philosophical deep thinkers and not just swimming-eating machines and this is all the result of a poor interspecies telepathic link. Mind you, Shark reproduction does make romance writing look comforting. Seriously – biology is weird. It provides me with a constant stream of seemingly impossible things… that work.
…why is there no “like” button? I like. If Ilona is buying the books in hardback, I’m sure I’ll adore your books, as well.
erhm. No idea.
[...] enter, please comment on Dave’s post on the main blog. No livejournal, please, or Dave won’t be able to [...]
I’ve got to say, “Rats, Bats, and Vats” looks like something I must try out. Most of my SF reading is cyberpunk, but I’m ready to branch out a bit.
One of the bits of advice I give to young writers is if you are writing for catharsis, you pay the shrink, I don’t pay you. Still, books where your experiences leak into the story (which can be cathartic, but that’s not the why of it) often have that extra dimension. RBV is funny — it’s also a book written by an ex-conscript in a war he wanted no part of, where he had an enormous camraderie and respect for his fellow conscript soldiers and a fair degree of loathing for the sort officers that many countries had at the start of WW1 (ie peace time officers who saw the army as a non-intellectually challenging career). It’s not about a professional army like the US’s military. Just remember that.
Hello! I’m glad to hear you made it okay out of South Africa, to… um… whereever it is you are now, which sounds Very Far Away From Everywhere Else.
I would love to know a) if there will be any more books in the Heirs of Alexandria series (y’all started a whole new sub-sub-genre of Venetian historical fantasy, as far as I’m concerned, and I LOVE it), and b) where on earth did the “Heirs to Alexandria” thing come from? (Oh, and I should add that I also have A Mankind Witch, which is not really Venetian but then again not yours either… and perhaps I’ll shut up now….)
grin After SA ‘very far from everywhere else’ sounds good.
Answer a) Yes, MUCH FALL OF BLOOD comes out later this year – might be April? I am busy with ‘THE TEARS OF IT ARE WET’ and I have another one contracted with Eric and Misty and Eric are supposed to do an offshoot with Francesca in Egypt.
Answer B) The destruction of Alexandra’s great library and death of Hypatia is our historical breakpoint.
Congrats on the new book! I’m excited to check out your work.
Thank you!
Thanks, Ilona, for the introduction! Dave, I have to confess I haven’t read your books, but that makes me all the more excited to discover new and exciting things to read! I’m a long time Lois McMaster Bujold fan, I think this is a sign that it’s high time I start systematically working my way through the Baen catalog. I’m going to share your books with my husband, too, he’s a biology guy with a deep (and inexplicable to me) love of reptiles. I image he’ll love space drama from a shark man.
PS – C, there’s a few awesome articles about shark parthenogenisis out in the interweb, they’re magic creatures! Also, octopuses living in coconuts… man I love the internet.
For weird – and a rough start in life – the fact that certain shark species (‘sharks’ is a very broad term for a very broad group – about as ‘wide’ as mammal if not moreso. -which includes both egg-laying and live-bearing species) the critters practice inter-uterine cannibalism. Oddly in our family my mother was the reptile (and spider) person, which might explain a few things
I read whatever these guys recommend so I will definately pick up a couple of yours next time I am out. They have not failed me yet, so I am sure I will love yours as well. Thanks for coming by, I like this guest blogger stuff.
Thank you – nice to know
Some fantasy books are more plausible than the results of some papers I have seen
heh. yes. Have to agree. Now i need to go find my cold-fusion powered socks…
What is it like collaborating with so many authors? Are some easier to work with than others? Would you be interested in an urban fantasy collaboration?
Eric is very easy and pleasant, and we think in a fairly similiar way. Misty and I are slightly further apart, but Eric also combines being a facilitator with being a great team editor. They’ve both been very good to me — a good collaboration is a bit like a good marriage — it takes a willingness to compromise, a lot of talk, and a desire to put in as much as possible. Therefore you need a lot of common ground and a lot of liking and respect… and a lot of time. I would (and indeed am) collaborate with other authors, but it’s not quick or easy to do well, so you get the best book out of all the parts. Urban fantasy… well, I believe in writing at least in part about things i know about – so if I ever did that I’d just about have to find an american urban dweller to write with
.
Thanks for telling me who wrote Witches of Karres. I read Wizard, but i couldn’t find Witches by the same authors! It all makes sense now. I now have to get that, along with Pyramid Scheme…
Anyhoo, what’s it like living in such a far off place? What do you do, are there many people living near you, how do you correspond with your publisher/editor/co-authors?
er. I have been here 5 days now. So a lot of the questions are ‘ask me later’ – but in SA I was just as remote, moreso from other writers (Australia has a lot, some brilliant). I e-mail, skype a lot. Occasionally I get to cons.And the isolation give me space to write. I love it. I like people, I admit I need new people from time-to-time, but I am an intense listener with bad filters (most people are good at filtering- they hear and follow one conversation, I can’t) and find large groups really exhausting. Hence quiet remote places.
I love getting such strong book recommendations.There are very few writers who i buy in hardback so that kudos I can really appreciate. I will check all out on amazon.
Keeping your animals gave me the warm feelings, thanks Mondays very bleak and cold just now.
Loyalty is a two-edged sword. They give me their unconditional love and trust. What else could I try to return? They would have done the same for me. They’re just rescue beasties, but they’re ours. We look after our own as best we can.
I have read most of your books although I note that I have fallen behind a bit. Not a bad thing, necessarily, since I now have a few more things to read.
On to the questions – why/how did you select your remote island home? What is the best thing about it? What is the worst? I ask as I sometimes dream of fleeing to the ends of the earth myself… (Not that anyone who reads the news these days needs much of an excuse).
Thanks for joining today.
And one more question – not to be greedy or anything – how do you find writing collaboratively? How do you manage the process?
Selection – like most things I have done quite by accident and it seemed a good, logical idea at the time
. I searched property prices in areas which met my temperature requirements (cool) – and found a place I had never heard of was cheapest. Never thought ‘why is that 
’ Duh. (ok I am one of a small group of people who can live and work here – the why actually works for us).
Seriously the island – about the size of Mauritius (pop. over 1 million) or 3 times the size of Barbados (several hundred thousand) has a population of 300 families – less than half a person per square km. The population is really to low – there is no work and not much entertainment you don’t make, and people leave for jobs and more social life – which makes it harder for those left. So at least some of the islanders regard any new settler as a good thing, even if just for entertainment. It’s quiet, beautiful, very friendly (don’t expect a secret private life) and depending on your values, a very good, safe, secure place to be. There are downsides – everything is expensive, and many things are just not available. But people know and greet each other (everyone waves if driving) and they stand together in crisis – because they have to. The internet (which is very good) means intellectual and spiritual fellows are never that far away
just read through your blog. Sounds like an interesting journey to Flinders Island. Is going to be fun seeing how you settle in
Must admit rather you than me though don’t think I could live so isolated. Suprised they actually have internet access though.
it’s mobile (cell phone) based and being one of the last places to get it, has the newest technology.
Hello, Dave.
::waves::
I just wanted to say thanks for writing “Pyramid Schemes” – I adored that book. I put that collaboration up there with the Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett collaboration “American Gods” – just wonderful!
TK
(Blush) Thank you.
I thought that that was just a Gaiman book…did they collaborate on that and Good Omens?
Crapstick. I did mean Good Omens. *sigh* I have a mental block with those two titles. I get them turned around all the time. No idea why. Still, the sentiment remains the same.
Always looking for a new author…I’ve put Pyramid Scheme on my wishlist. Worlds where Gods walk among us are always interesting, and I’m intrigued by “Zeus is the kind of dude you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley…”
Reading ancient myth with modern values is… interesting when you come to think about it;-). Some things are not quite what you thought they might be… like democracy – which was not for lower life-forms… slaves and women.
(Sorry fot the late reply — did you enjoy the book?)
It is a wonderful story, lots of interesting characters and scenarios — there is even a sequel now.
I have to admit I am intrigued by your description of your books and writing style. I’ll be sure to check them out.
Quite a lot on the Baen Free Library as a tester.
I love your book titles. how do you come up with them?
I find them under wet stones
. Actually HATE choosing titles, and think I do it very badly.
I go the younger son hooked on Rats, Bats and Vats!
heh. Give them to me young and they are MINE forever…. mwahahhhhhaaaa
Welcome
As many have said, we love new authors and recommendations. Someone {maybe Neil Gaiman?} send a link out for Save The Dragons and I meant to buy but it must have gotten away from me. {most likely it’s prolly set up with paypal which is not my friend} Congrats for keeping your animals together! I’ll certainly look into Save the Dragons again 
Anyway, great post. Excited to explore your work 
maybe John Scalzi? – My fellow authors have been amazing with this. – there is whole list on the Save the Dragons site that helped publicize it.
Thank you
We all really appreciate it!
Thank you
We (the beasties and B and I)
all really appreciate it!
Well, I’m more than willing to try out your books.
Which book would you recommend to someone who isn’t familiar with your work?
gah. allow me to be a little bit clearer.
Which book do you recommend I read first? (since you seem to have a large selection to choose from already and I’m not sure where to begin)
Hmm. The hard questions – they’re quite different sub-genres. I’d guess for humorous Fantasy PYRAMID SCHEME, For more serious fantasy DRAGON’S RING and for sf SLOW TRAIN TO ARCTURUS (it’s good science. it’s also accessible which a lot of good science isn’t)
Hi Dave
Nice to meet you (online). My bf has just asked me to get him a book with dragons and magic so I think I will check out “dragon’s ring”.
yeah, it’s got those
lol. yes, i figure i can’t go wrong with the title like that. fit his requirement perfectly.
I just wanted to express my enjoyment of Pyramid Scheme and Pyramid Power, which I confess I tried after reading Eric Flint’s Belisarius series. (Which I know is quite a jump, but I was working on a degree of separation from favorite authors theory)
I’ll be sure to check out your other works. The Witches of Karres sequels sound interesting and I have a book store gift card burning a hole in my pocket.
Congrats on the new release. I don’t need to be entered in the contest. I just wanted to say that I really enjoy the books you have written with Eric Flint and Mercedes Lackey. I am glad another one is coming out soon. Good luck with the rest of your move.
Thanks -they’re murder to write being so long, and it’s good to know it is worthwhile. Heh. The ferry ran aground again – so we really need help with the rest of the move!
Another author to look forward to
It is always good to get recommendations and to “meet” a new author a bit.
*goes off to the book depository for books by new author*
Grin, I now want to b the author you look back to with pleasure.
Hello Dave Freer – what is a “moggie”?
cat
=A
Putty-tat. Not any special breed, just cat. Ours are a tortoise-shell and mix of siamese, and somethig fluffy and ordinary kitty. We love our feline masters, even if they abuse us.
Which just shows that you understand your proper place in the universe.
We moved house recently and our cats have just forgiven us for the disruption and the indignity of the kitty-crate. And after only three months of grovelling on our part!
Ooh your masters ARE kindly and generous!
Please to be waiving me from the draw, as I am fortunate enough to have a local library that routinely orders most Baen titles for its SF catalog (without any impassioned pleading even!) so I´m already on the waitlist, and also mainly just wanted to say eeee, how exactly did I miss Rats, Bat and the Ugly?! Bang goes my book budget for February.
I am sooo evul.
. And I bet your library has lots of sf/fantasy withdrawals. Good for them.
Hi! I find myself in the unique position of having heard about you from every single source imaginable (my father once used Pyramid Scheme as a reason why I shouldn’t start a mass student rebellion at my school and lock all the teachers in the lounge) but never actually having had the opportunity to pick up one of your books and read it.
My question is, what is the most frustrating thing you’ve run into when you’re trying to write a new book?
real life. You’re burning to write and write and you have to go and WASTE TIME doing washing or paying bills. Seriously, I find decision points tricky (character has a choice, both of which could be in character) but those are seldom in the start. The start is the sweetest part of writing. In the middle… we do self-doubt.
Oooo very interesting, I believe I will have to take a looksy at your books…and shove them my husbands way too!
Have a browse on the Baen Free library.
That is so cool, thank you!
Im ashamed to say I’ve not read your books but my brother is a HUGE fan and has graciously offered to let me borrow one.
Brothers are useful sometimes
.
my question;
you’ve got the team stuck in Nordic mythology right now – are there plans for other mythology? Hindu could be a ton of fun, or Celtic.
and when are we gonna get the lowdown on how the Pyramid works?!
The next IS contracted – but probably won’t get written until the end of the year. I’ m favoring Celtic. Eric wants meso-American.And I am not answering the other question on the grounds it might incriminate me
Cool
Quoting….”what the winning number of Lotto will be. ”
Damn, now that would ahve been an awesome question…
You caught my attention with Mercedes Lackey. I fell in love with fantasy with her Valdemar books.
er. I don’t predict horse-race winners well either
Nice you meet you, Monkey, and welcome to Oz.
I am ashamed to say I had no idea that Flinders Island was actually inhabited humans. See? you learn something new every day!
If you’ve only been in the country for a few days, does that mean you still have 5 months and 25-ish days until you get your animals back? Our quarantine laws are pretty tough.
About 5 months – the beasties went in when they packed up the house – not the day we left. I comfort myself that Old English Sheepdogs are faithful and a month must be as long to one as 2 months. If it had been possible to have them re-homed (but OES are one-person dogs, and they are farm dogs – but not for working farms as they aren’t used to stock. So no town, no working farm, and they are used to having a human all day… very hard to find something that isn’t hard for them to adapt to. The cats if anything are worse -and would die fast in any town re-home.
Flinders has a population of around 900 – in 1666 square km.
Yay! I adore South African accents (seem much more classy and exotic than my plain Australian one), and it’s great to have you as a fellow Aussie.
So…does Flinders count as Victoria, Tasmania, or something else entirely? (Forgive my lack of geographical knowledge – mainland Victorian education
)
Tassie. Yes the spare head has already started sprouting;-). Accent? you mean we have one? Seriously trying to learn to speak like the locals and fit in
I’d say you’re both lucky in your accents. Try growing up in Minnesota. People giggle and pat our heads when we speak. We’re just so cuuutte!
Blarg.
heh the best accent I have ever heard comes from our landlord’s German mum. Australian – very broad mixed with German- with turned into ‘mitt’ for example.
Hi Dave
I first discovered your books on the Baen library which are very “different” from anything that I’ve encountered before.
I would like to know what prompted your decision to move to the remote island of Flinders? Will you regret not being in SA for the 2010 World Cup? (Some of us would prefer to be on a European holiday during the months of June, July – oy the traffic!)
Mercedes Lackey has very different style of writing from you – what was it like to co-write a book with her?
Thank you!
I think what attracted us to Flinders – besides the beauty of the place, the sea-food, and the friendly people was just that – it’s remoteness. The constant insecurity in South Africa ate slowly at my peace of mind. I found myself becoming helplessly furious at the situation there, in a country I loved and had held very high hopes for. I write. As Neville Shute once said about the WW2 refugees – often skilled and intelligent men who appeared content to do manual labour in back-block Australia – it is good sometimes just to live quietly. I can have the peace of mid and values I need to write.
As for the world cup… when we got our visas and sold the house (so we could afford to move ourselves and animals) I never gave it a second thought.
Misty and I write very differently yes, but we share many similar viewpoints, which helps.
Hi
I must confess that I ‘ve never heard of you or your books.
but this sounds really good and I will check you out at baen library.
(assumes serious, priestly mien -which ill suits the round simian face) “As you have confessed, I am sure you will be forgiven, Rob. Now, are there any other terrible sins you’d like to get off your chest. No? Well, I have a little list here you could try. With star ratings…”;-)
This is one of the problems authors face – not that readers don’t like their work, but that they’ve never seen it. We readers (and I am a reader first) all have at least one author that is relatively unknown but really is a great read – and we all know ‘bestsellers’ that are hardly readable. It’s often down to factors beyond the control of the author (and sometimes beyond the publisher too). For instance Sir Terry Pratchett — who has sold what… 70 million books or something like that, sold his first book at 17 and several more over the next few years… all great books… and it took 20 years and a new big publisher and Josh Kirby to get him heard of.
I loved Pyramid Schemes when I found it on Baen.com. I was even more thrilled with Pyramid Power
A Mankind Witch & the Heirs to Byzantium books also reside in my eletronic library. Will there be any more Pyramid Schemes books?
Indeed there will. One more is contracted. I am at this stage thinking of wrapping up that story arc with that one, but leave the possibility of others later.
Hi Dave! Welcome! I remember reading Shadow of the Lion and really liking it a few years ago. I haven’t kept up with the series but perhaps I’ll go back and catch up. And if I can scrape together the funds, perhaps I can try your novels about dragons as well. =)
Grin. Having spent a disproportionate part of my life broke and need of a good read — and then having supported the authors I found when I could — the Baen Free Library. Save the dragons is just one chapter off being available entirely for free. Or encourage your library by requesting Dragon’s Ring. (Jim – my late publisher always used to say ‘The first fix is free’ — but the Scot in me says I’d rather people tried from a library or free sample, than bought and found they didn’t like it.
Welcome! I love hearing about good new to me authors and the Mercedes Lackey connection must be why your name sounds so familiar to me! I had fallen away from scifi fantasy in recent years and am slowly working my way back in, yours will definatly be on my list, they sound right up my alley. My question is, what genre do you read for fun? Any favorite authors? (of course with the move, I’m sure you’ve been too busy lately!)
My tastes are rather shaped by where I’ve lived — where older sf/fantasy was available in second-hand shops, but there were literally maybe 10 sf/fantasy books available. I read almost anything, although sf is my favorite, followed by fantasy (also I read fast – 2-3 hours to an average book – on a day off I’ll read 5 novels. Hell of a habit to afford). Slightly less common authors out-of-genre that I can recommend – Doris Sutcliffe Adams/Grace Ingram (historical romance), Tom Sharpe (social satire) and Bryce Courtney (who has become a bestseller I see). In sf/fantasy genre older books – Eric Frank Russell (if you find any), Michael Scott Rohan – the Chase the morning books. James White (sector general). More recently – and I include ‘YA’ – which I often enjoy more to be honest – Eric Flint’s 1632, Garth Nix (Sabriel series, and Keys to the Kingdom) – Garth ought to outsell Harry Potter and Twilight IMO
like another fave – Diana Wynne Jones does not get nearly the recognition they deserve, Trudi Canavan, Sarah Hoyt (shifters books), Tim Powers. As you can see – all over the place. And that’s leaving out perennial everyone knows faves like Zelazny, Georgette Heyer, Heinlein, Schmitz, Pratchett.
Hi Dave. I just found the Baen library the other day and was wondering where to start – now I know whose books to start with.
Grin. It’s a bit overwhelming isn’t it. Try Pyramid Scheme.
Thanks. By the way – who do you read and do you have a favorite author?
Hi Dave! Shame on me but I didn’t know you! You do keep a “good company” and I like the flavor of your post so I’m going to remedy asap!
Really!
Hi Dave, I’m sorry i haven’t read any of your books, but I hope to get the chance. I love books that have humor in them. It helps when your reading something a little out of your league. I usually don’t read a lot of science fiction because it’s hard for me to keep focused on the subject. However, maybe the humor will help and I’m willing to try and see what happens, who knows I might become one of your biggest fans.
Question, when you write with someone else what type of technique do you use? Do you write so much and they write so much or what? I’ve always wondered how people write a book together but have never had a chance to ask.
Belinda – it works quite differently depending who is doing the collaboration. In our case we have these long wonderful round-robin e-mail plotting sessions, with a lot of give and take, and then I write first draft – with (insert battle scene here, Eric) (insert more on magic here Misty) sections. Eric then structure edits and assigns further chapters to expand and clarify. We put in extra, and then we each edit the whole thing.
I do both fantasy and sf – you’d probably enjoy Pyramid Scheme or Wizard of Karres – which are available for free as e-books on the Baen Free Library at Baen.com
Dave