Okay, for those of you who are Matador fans, the bad news is, I'm taking a little time off from working on The Siblings of the Shroud while I do something on another book.What's that? No, I'm a married man, but thanks for offering.
The good news is that the other book is also a Matador novel, working title of which is Churl. (That word -- like "matador," -- doesn't always mean what folks think it means. From Old English "ceorl," a churl was the lowest rank of freeman, between serf and thane. But of course, you knew that, right?)
I mentioned this in passing a while back, and I think the timing of it will be about twenty years or so after Black Steel, plus or minus a bit.
Got some plot things to work out first and I'll have to re-read the second trilogy -- Albino, Steel, Brother Death, to make sure I don't get crosswise with myself.
Usually I have a primary work-in-progress and a back-burner project going at the same time, though it's been a while since I had three or four cooking. I don't really have time to be fiddling with one more, but I've learned that when the idea pops up and stares you in the eye, if you don't deal with it when it is fresh, you might not get back to it.
Stay tuned.
12 comments:
So you're running with the idea about Sleel's son?
Darn it all. You mean we're going to have to wait so that we have TWO new Matador books. Geez Louise. What next? A trilogy just because you don't like even numbers. Man oh man.
;-)
Trilogy? Hmm ... There's a thought ...
Yep. Sleel's offspring. Be kind of fun, since Sleel ragged Khadaji about it when his hitherto unknown daughter appeared out of nowhere. Turnabout.
::works faster on his novel about an aging hero who adopts a daughter::
I know every idea has been done before, but I'm not too excited about competing with Steve Perry on similar topics.
Siblings, son, who cares? As long as I get my Matador fix before too long. The DTs and shakes are interfering with my ability to work.
Matador.... Gen3.
You're a friggin' tease, Steve!
You're comment about having a couple books going at once reminded me of something I read by Piers Anthony. He used to include a little "what was going on while I wrote..." in some of his books (especially his Incarnations series). One thing he mentioned along the way was that he never suffered from writer's block. Instead, if he got stuck on one project, he'd change to something else. Unfortunately -- once he said that, I began to see which books he was writing at the same time. In a few cases, it almost seemed as if you could swap chapters simply by changing character names...
And my point? How do you keep things straight as you do that?
Churl - I like it - after you wrote what it means but I bet if you publish thru a paperback publisher they will try to change that title (given the info you have let us know about in the past on book title names/changes by publishers) Let's see.... how about "Black Son" and he has a little checkered past/problems from working for Black Sun....and "Dad" needs to help him out....
I plan to work both the common and uncommon meanings of "churl" into the narrative. I think I can make a good case for it with my editor.
Wow, psychic whiplash. Both "Aww..." and "Yay!!!" at the exact same time.
Awww...
Yea!!!
When? *poised over checkbook with pen in hand*
Note that was 'pen in hand', and not 'Pen in hand'. Big difference!
Once upon a time, I had five books going at the same time. And it did get a little confusing, but after I got into the story at hand, it would click into place.
Some of the old pulp writers had two or three typewriters in different places, dedicated to westerns or action or sci-fi, and that's how they kept them separate. When I was doing Conan and Matadors at the same time, the language shift got tricky, but the stories weren't conflated.
Kind of like having several children at home. You might mistake one for another down the hall, but probably not up close ...
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