Category: Writing

I’m Writing a Lot About Beaches Lately

Published by Tim Pratt on October 4, 2011

My story “The Secret Beach” is up at Fantasy Magazine. There’s also an author spotlight interview with me. I was feeling especially deterministic that day when I answered their questions about destiny; don’t mind me. Most of the time I bop along happily, acting as if I have free will. (As if I have any choice, he said darkly.)

So! Over the weekend I revised the existing 30,000 words of Grim Tides, making it more like 35,000 words in the process. It’s much tighter now, and I’m even beginning to discern a theme; I hope you won’t hold that against me. I’m probably about 40% of the way through (the Marla books tend to run in the 85-95K range). I may not get a complete draft done by the end of October (when I have to stop for a while to focus on another project), but I bet I’ll come close. And, anyway, the first ten chapters or so are ready, so even if I fell into a terrible non-writing funk right now, I’d have enough for two and a half months of serializing. It’s a nice feeling.

Antiquation

Published by Tim Pratt on September 20, 2011

My novelette “Antiquities and Tangibles” is up at Subterranean. This is the “happiness story” I’ve mentioned before, and I think it’s one of the better things I’ve written in a while. Read it, please. I hope you like it.

There’s a good review of Welcome to Bordertown at Strange Horizons. Nice words:

Tim Pratt rocks the hell out of “Our Stars, Our Selves,” wherein Allie Land, lesbian lead singer of the outfit “Allison Wonderland” is hilariously pursued by a poser elf-lord… Pratt’s prose sizzles.

Yeah, I’ll take that.

Briarpatch is available in e-book form! In assorted delicious formats!

Oracular

Published by Tim Pratt on September 13, 2011

In the Marla Mason books, there are characters who can summon oracles to answer questions, provide direction, and interpret prophetic dreams — all for a price, which varies from the minor to the major, depending on the magnitude of the service rendered.

They are crazy fun to write.

I’ve had a minor god of disease emerge from a trash can, a ghost in a drain, a demon named Murmurus who demanded old books in exchange for answers, and the djinn from my story “Unfairy Tale” summoned from a jar of ancient wine, among others. In Grim Tides so far I’ve got a dark sea-god in the form of an immense puhi (moray eel), and I think I’m going to drag up the disemembered ghost of Captain Cook pretty soon, specifically to warn about an invasion by outsiders. I’m hoping to work in a third oracular appearance (threes are always good), possibly one where the summoner gets a MUCH bigger supernatural figure than they wanted or expected — maybe Pele, or Lono, or Uli.

I just love the opportunities for weirdness presented by these oracles, and they’re good for setting things up in the plot — and cryptic foreshadowing is my favorite kind.

A Much-Needed Void

Published by Tim Pratt on August 30, 2011

New story online: “A Void Wrapped in a Smile” at Basement Stories. A novelette! Meant to be a standalone, though also sorta kinda a Marla Mason story (though she’s only in a scene or two) — it’s about Joshua Kindler, a character from my novel Poison Sleep. (Thanks to Arachne Jericho for asking me to write a story about Joshua. I’m not sure I managed to make him sympathetic, exactly, but I tried to make him comprehensible.)

Speaking of Marla, Grim Tides made the front page of Kickstarter today as the featured fiction project. Sweet!

We got a final copy of the trade paperback of Briarpatch at A Certain Magazine today. Holy crap, is it gorgeous. I’m so happy.

I thought I had another novel to announce imminently, but the publisher has asked me to keep the pseudonym a secret until after it comes out, so, uh, I’ll tell you in a year or so? This will be the fourth separate byline I’ve had on a novel (counting T.A. Pratt), and my fifth byline total, including the ‘nym I use for porn short stories. I don’t really mind; at least I’m working. And I have a few books coming out under my own name next year anyway. I remain a Man of Mystery.

Ill Met in Ulthar

Published by Tim Pratt on August 29, 2011

After a month of Being Lazy, I’m gradually ramping back up to productivity. I wrote a story, and I’m researching a novel project, and I did copyedits for Venom In Her Veins. I’m about to dive in (ha, ha) to Grim Tides. (Speaking of, the Kickstarter fundraiser is running for a couple more weeks. There’s still time to sign up and get e-books, a chapbook, a sketch, signed copies, Tuckerizations… And if I break $10K, I’ll commission original cover art. Tell your friends! And your generous enemies. For those who’ve already donated, thank you! And I’m trying not to mention the fundraiser every day, so consider this me showing restraint.)

So that story I wrote: I did it mostly over the weekend, and it’s called “Ill Met in Ulthar”. About 7800 words. It’s a Marla Mason urban fantasy story that’s also a sword-and-sorcery story. It’s partly an homage to the great Peter Phillips story “Dreams Are Sacred” (which was simultaneously science fiction and sword-and-sorcery), and I name-dropped a character from that story to make the inspiration clear to Those Who Know. (I’m making it sound all esoteric and recursive, but it should be perfectly understandable even for people who haven’t read Leiber or Lovecraft or Phillips — I just put in some small markers to let my fellow hardcore fans know where my influences and inspirations came from.) Let’s hope the editor likes it!

Rags and Bones

Published by Tim Pratt on August 26, 2011

I’ve muttered a few times about neat things happening, but I was stingy about details, because those details were still being negotiated. Well, now one of them is official! Here’s the announcement:

RAGS & BONES, edited by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt, an anthology of short stories retelling classic tales that have inspired the all-star lineup of contributors, including Neil Gaiman, Lev Grossman, Kelley Armstrong, and Carrie Ryan, to Kate Sullivan at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, for publication in Fall 2013, by Merrilee Heifetz at Writers House.

I’ll have a story in the book, too, as will Melissa, and several other very cool people. It won’t be out for a while — late 2013, I’d guess — but that just means you can have even longer to anticipate the book! I’m really thrilled to be doing a book with Melissa. We’ve wanted to work on something together for a while, and this is an awesome project.

Grim Tides Kickstarter Launched (and Funded)

Published by Tim Pratt on August 10, 2011

This entry is going to have a slightly different tone than I’d anticipated…

Yesterday I launched a Kickstarter fundraiser for Grim Tides, the proposed sixth full-length Marla Mason novel. I didn’t do an entry about it yesterday because I just didn’t have time — I was at the doctor with the kid until early afternoon (he got a checkup for his glaucoma, and everything looks great), then playing catch-up at work. I figured I’d tweet about the fundraiser and write to my mailing list of past donors on the first day, and just do a journal entry on day two.

The fundraising goal was $6,000. (Not an entirely arbitrary number; it’s about what I could get for doing another work-for-hire book or pseudonymous novel, so it was the amount I needed to justify writing a Marla book instead of chasing down another job.)

I got fully funded in just about 13 hours. So the book is definitely happening; I hope to begin serializing chapters very early in the new year.

The fundraiser is running until September 15. (I did not expect to meet my goal in a single day.) I am still happy to accept donations, of course, and there are various neat prizes to be had, as you’ll see if you check out the Kickstarter page. So while I’ll still exhort you to tell your friends, and donate if you can, it doesn’t have quite the sense of urgency I’ve anticipated.

I get to write this book. It will be awesome. Full of monsters and heroism and betrayal and sand and sharks and lava and resort hotels and possessed people and dispossessed gods. Thanks to everyone who made it — who are currently making it! — possible for me to continue this series. I couldn’t be happier.

Voids and Briars

Published by Tim Pratt on August 5, 2011

It’s been a busy year. I’ve written 210,000 words since January 1 — that’s two full novels (City of the Fallen Sky and a pseudonymous book), plus a story or two and some miscellaneous non-fiction. I can take off most of August without needed to feel guilty about it. Though in practice I don’t think I’ll actually be lazy for more than another week at most. I like writing; once my brain is less exhausted, it’ll start generating ideas again, whether I want it to or not.

Let’s see, some things on the horizon. I signed the sig sheets for the limited edition of Briarpatch — the most times I’ve consecutively signed my name in my life. The limited is no longer available, I understand, but the trade paperback is available for pre-order: you can get it at Amazon, or via Powell’s, or from a whole slew of places listed at the publisher’s website.

I also have a story coming out in newish online magazine Basement Stories at the end of the month. “A Void Wrapped in a Smile” is a standalone story, but it’s also sort of a Marla Mason story (though Marla appears in only one scene, and is a very minor character here). It’s a story about the villainous lovetalker Joshua Kindler. “Void” doesn’t necessarily make him seem any less villainous, but it does, I hope, make his villainy more understandable. (This story was originally written for a very generous Broken Mirrors donor who gave me a lot of money in exchange for writing a story about a character of their choice. They got a limited-edition-of-one chapbook containing the story. We were both pretty pleased with how it came out, and I’m glad the rest of you will get to read it soon!)

The Rebirth of the Cool

Published by Tim Pratt on July 28, 2011

There are so many cool things going on, but most of them are still in the early stages, so I can’t tell you much. But in coming weeks and months I should be able to share news of a couple book deals, and awesome cover art, and other fun things. I’m happy and crackling with excitement about so many things I’d have to make a list to count them all.

One of them that I *can* talk about is my Kickstarter fundraiser for Grim Tides, which I’ll probably launch in a few weeks (I’m thinking it’ll run from mid-August to mid-September). I really hope I get to write this book. I’ve been pacing around my house, talking to myself, and interrupting my wife in the middle of her phone conversations to tell her the ideas I’ve had. It’s like a bubble rising up from the depths of my unconsciousness, ready to burst on the surface and release a shower of awesome-scented awesomeness. (Sorry for that simile. I haven’t had much coffee yet today. The similes in the book will be better.)

Grim Tides will have criminally insane sorcerers, omnicompetent valets, fire dancers, terror snorkeling, occult detecting, a legion of supervillains, wandering genius loci (yes), and the fundamental underlying question of what makes a place your Home… It’s going to be such a cool book.

Decisive

Published by Tim Pratt on July 20, 2011

After much pondering and flipping through a thesaurus and gnashing my teeth and googling around, I’ve decided to call the next Marla Mason novel Grim Tides. So there. Now I can think about actually writing the thing.

The plan is: launch a Kickstarter fundraiser in September. If it gets funded, I’ll actually be able to afford to write the book (instead of finding another work-for-hire job). I’ll write it with an aim toward serializing it online starting next spring. (Beginning April 2012, I suspect, though maybe earlier.) I’m excited! And the characters are starting to mutter at me more and more insistently every day.