[LMB] (News) Next book update

[Lois McMaster Bujold]

Hi all --

    I am pleased to report I have concluded a deal with 
HarperCollins/Eos for the two sequels to _The Sharing Knife_ duology, 
possibly not to be called _The Wide Green World_ as my purchasing editor 
was dubious about that title.  The decision on the final title/s will 
not be made for a while, however, so I'm going to continue calling them 
WGW1 and WGW2 till then.

    The first book of the new pair is completed in first draft.  24 
chapters at present.  The second is not yet started.

    From this halfway point, it looks as though the new duology will 
feel more like a book and its sequel and less like one book cut in half 
than its predecessor _The Sharing Knife_, probably because I'm doing 
duology on purpose instead of by accident this time.   (But I've been 
wrong about such guesses before.)  Nevertheless, the two new volumes 
will be very closely connected, in a sort of braided way.  In other 
words, some story-arc-concerns will be concluded before the natural 
break-point that falls at the end of the first volume, and some 
intertwined arcs will span the whole pair.  It does have more backfill 
embedded during early chapters (smoothly, I hope), as the concerns of 
WGW1 flow pretty directly out of TSK2.  At least one reader who hadn't 
yet read TSK on whom I tested the first four chapters said she 
experienced no undue disorientation or difficulty following the story, 
so the interesting balance problem between "valuable 
orientation/reminder" and "clogging with recap" seems to be on target 
for at least one part of the book's future audience.

    I was trying to avoid committing trilogy with the double-duology 
structure, but I'm not at all sure I've succeeded.  Squinting, it may 
just turn out to be three books of very uneven lengths.  I have no idea 
yet how long WGW2 will top out at, besides "long enough to reach the end".

    And that's about all I can say about it without getting into major 
spoilers for _TSK2: Legacy_, due out next July.  But I would expect WGW1 
to see hardcover publication sometime in 2008 (before the Denver 
Worldcon, I hope, which is in fact why I submitted the books now instead 
of waiting till both were complete in first draft, my original plan).  
WGW2 will presumably follow sometime in 2009.

    Ta, Lois.





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