NEWSLETTER 40: July 29, 2007

Dear People,

            This has been a pretty darned exciting couple months to live, though I don't know that reading about is going to have the same effect on other folks. First, The Mirror of Worlds (the second book of the Crown of the Isles fantasy trilogy) is out as a Tor hardcover. It's beautiful. On the website we've got not only the cover but an image of the painting before it was cropped for cover use.

            You know, it's possible that no other author in the field has gotten as many really good covers as I have. That's partly a factor of the sheer number of books I've written (a matter that my fellow Iowan and soulmate Tom Disch once remarked on), but I'd venture that I've got among the highest percentages of great covers as well.

            I'm pleased with Mirror. It goes a way toward resolving the conflicts set up in The Fortress of Glass (now out in pb), and it leads very comfortably into The Gods Return, which will close the trilogy and the Isles series as a whole.

            Speaking of which, The Gods Return is moving right along. I'm about 55K words into the rough draft. That's well into the mid-book period where I'm emotionally certain I'm writing crap and boring crap besides. Each morning as I edit the previous day's text, I find it reads pretty well... but when I'm writing it, I'm wading through muck.

            If you've been reading these newsletters for a while, you're familiar with this litany. Goodness knows I'm familiar with it. I haven't found a solution other than just driving on till I finish, which is what I've been doing for the past 29 years. (Gosh! that's a long time.) So I'm driving on.

            Also up on the news page is Steve Hickman's color sketch for the cover of the next RCN space opera from Baen, When the Tide Rises. I'm telling you it's a sketch because you certainly wouldn't guess it wasn't finished art by glancing at it. (See above for what I said about consistently getting great covers.)

            The Gods Return is not only the final book in the Isles series, it's the last book on my current Tor contract. I've therefore opened negotiations with Tor for a new series.

            The notion behind the new series is one I've been working on since 1996 (although that makes my mental puttering sound more formal than the process really is). It'll use a Roman cultural setting instead of British Early Modern like that of the Isles series, but it isn't going to be Rome, not even a fantasy Rome. (I'm thinking of using Carce as the name of the capital city, a tip of the hat to The Worm Ouroboros by ER Eddison.)

            The reason for not calling it Rome is a comment Tom Doherty made back in 1995 when I told him I was going to use Atlantis as the setting for my new series: "David, none of the series that have taken off use a real historical setting. Now, I know that Atlantis isn't exactly real, but--"

            And I said, "I think I'll call it the Isles."

            There are various ways that you can react when a known expert criticizes your proposal. Saying, "Yes sir!" is the response that's always given me the best chance of a good result.

            My fantasy/horror collection Balefires has done nicely for Night Shade. They want to get into mass market, so I told them to go ahead and experiment with Balefires.

            Jason Williams--the Night Shade editor? He and Jeremy Lassen both wear a lot of hats, but I think Jeremy's title is publisher--called to explain sadly that they were going to have to go with a more vulgar cover for the mass market, in part because it's simply a smaller area. I laughed and said that it might not be true of any other author on the Night Shade list (which tends toward the Lit'ry), but that he didn't have to apologize to me for trying to sell my books in an effective manner. I'll let you know how it comes out.

            Incidentally, all but a handful of the hardcover have been shipped. If you think you might want a copy, now would be a good time to get one. (I could not be more happy with the package or with the book itself. This really is forty years of my professional life beneath a lovely cover painting.)

            Having mentioned Night Shade, I'll add that volume three of The Complete Hammer's Slammers is due out from them in November, 2007. It collects The Sharp End, Paying the Piper, my obituary of Jim Baen, and the new novelet The Darkness. That last item is possibly the best fiction I've ever written (though it's not the most upbeat thing I've ever written).

            There have been lots of changes on the website since the most recent newsletter. One that's been long overdue is My Motorcycles. The changes reflected in the text and pictures took place some while ago, but bikes turn out to be a very emotional subject with me. (This probably shouldn't have surprised me.)

            Actually, I get emotional about quite a lot of things. I don't regret that--I spent a decade and more after Nam being pretty well shut down emotionally, and that's not a good way to live--but I expend a lot of effort in controlling my responses to emotion. I wish people generally would work on controlling what they say and do in the heat of emotion, because that would lead to a more courteous world.

            My webmaster Karen has also made a huge revision to the Bibliography section. The new version is based on the one she created for the limited edition of Balefires (for which see above). I find it easier to use as well as being fuller. (It'll probably be tweaked further as Karen refines her vision of The Perfect Bibliography.)

            There are a couple pictures of the July 4 event at our house. I don't consider this my party: Mark Van Name grills hamburgers and hotdogs for a hundred or so people, then sets off a considerable quantity of fireworks (this year about $2200 worth, with several other friends chipping in).

            Mark lives near the airport, so the party is at our house on 20+ acres in the country instead of at his. My task--the Drake household task, with my wife Jo doing all the interior work--is limited to site preparation and cleanup.

            It's always marvelous; this year there's general agreement that it was the best yet. I've put up a couple of the pictures Gina Massel-Castater (part of the Drake/Van Name extended family) took. Also there's a picture of the pile of casings before I burned them the next morning. In past years I've shown the cakes laid out for use, but I think this 'After' shot gives a better impression of the real volume.

            Jo and I went to Niagara Falls on our fortieth anniversary. (If you go, be sure to take the Maid of the Mist beneath the falls. There are several numbered Maids, leaving from both the American and Canadian sides.) A couple of the pictures I took are up on the site. I don't think Frederick Church is worried about my competition, but perhaps he's not rolling in his grave either.

            I guess I'll give a little background to the negotiations with Tor on the new series. What actually happened is that I'd sent Tom Doherty a postcard from the Drake/Van Name family beach vacation. Tom got it the Saturday after we got back and phoned to chat--because we're friends. (The two of us ought to be in charge of national energy policy, not because we're smarter than everybody in power now but because we'd deal with the problem instead of pandering to special interests.)

            Since we were on the phone anyway, I bounced the new series off him. Looking back on it, I suspect what he really got out of my description was my enthusiasm--I was happily burbling about Tarquin, quoting from the Dies Irae, and so on; off the top of my head (I hadn't been expecting to have this conversation). Anyway, he liked the idea, so my agent will be talking to my editor.

            The lesson some people would draw from the above story is that you can't get published unless you know somebody. I remember vividly a party in 1980 when another local writer bellowed to the assembly, "The only reason David Drake sells books and I don't is that he's friends with Jim Baen!" (I suspect he still believes that, though he stopped drinking and is less likely to say it publicly.)

            Jim and I became friends because we could talk to one another. He bought books from me because they were profitable for him at Ace, Tor, and Baen Books. Likewise Tom (well, except for the Baen Books part).

            Publishers don't stay in business by buying books from friends who can't write. This isn't rocket science, but I've heard smart people (much smarter than the acquaintance above) make statements which implicitly ignore the fact.

            I've chosen to work for people whom I like, rather than working for whoever's willing to pay me the most this month. A side benefit of this choice is that sometimes a friendly chat turns into a business deal.

            But the real reason for working with friends is that it's a much more pleasant environment. This is something that everybody, not just writers, should keep in mind.

            Now, back to my heroes, defending mankind against an army of man-sized rats!

Dave Drake

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