rolanni | I'm MELTiiiiinnnnggg....

It's 81 degrees (F) outside. There's a small, considerate breeze going on, the better to spread the pollen around.

The galleys for "A Night at the Opera" have been gone over, corrections made, emailed, and accepted. Go, us.

Of the six projects we outlined for Madame the Agent, she feels that three are Definitely Marketable, one needs work, and two are Best Forgot. I'm not surprised that the one about the parole officer failed to find favor, but I am startled that the contemporary fantasy was thought to have a "limited" market. I'm thinking it's because the viewpoint's a middle-aged woman, but I may wrong. In any case, we now have Detailed Synopses and Sample Chapters to write. Starting Monday, I think. I want to finish up with the first draft of The Nameless so the characters will be -- not placated, never that. Not these characters. But they may at least consent to let me think about something other than their worthy selves for a while.

Raided the video store last night and came home to watch _Who Framed Roger Rabbit_, which I haven't seen since it came out. It's held up surprisingly well. Still in the unviewed pile: _Big Fish_, _Master and Commander_, and _Cowboy Bebop_. I'm hoping these are enjoyable; my experience with _Kill Bill_ has made me a little leery of some definitions of "fun," "worth seeing," and "gotta see it!" I hadn't thought my sensibilities were so tender. Comes of not watching television, I guess.

The royalty statements have arrived. The good news is that we made money (go, us). The bad news is that a check was not enclosed. Adding up all the money promised, we've got quite a respectable income. If only it would, you know, come in.

No word yet on who will be reading _Local Custom_ for the audio production. Color me curious.

And now -- to work.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Cowboy Bebop is awesome... one of the few pieces of anime I've seen that's good viewing as a story, and would have worked in any medium. :)

RE: contemporary fantasy having a "limited market" and the middle-aged heroine? Three words--PALADIN OF SOULS.

Hope that's not it, because half the stuff I think of lately has older characters (maybe not **only** but there) or children's stuff with solid adults in it--I hate kids stuff with stupid adults and smart kids, or useless kids....

Just re-read I DARE--just as much fun the third time around....

RE: contemporary fantasy having a "limited market" and the middle-aged heroine? Three words--PALADIN OF SOULS.

Well, yes. But to be entirely accurate, you need to add three more words: Lois McMaster Bujold. Who can pretty much do what she wants. I don't mean that in a spiteful or negative way. But it's kinda like saying that a story about, oh, baseball, is horror because Stephen King did it. Stephen King has reached the point where he's writing "Stephen King stories;" he's his own genre. Lois may not be at that point, and there are, I know, quite a number of Miles-only fans. But there are also a goodly number of LMB fans, who will read anything she cares to write. And so her publisher feels okay about taking a "risk" with her.

Alas, we're nowhere near that point. There are far more Liaden Universe fans than Lee-and-Miller fans. And while the Liaden Universe is certainly full of feisty -- not to say outright attitudinal -- middle-aged women, our agent is probably right to be cautious about us bringing a hard-to-sell viewpoint to a story that's not in our own universe and will not have the instant attention of the fans of that universe.

I think I'm feeling the lack of a well-established pseudonym, here. The Lee-and-Miller "brand" has a limited amount of recognition, mostly from readers who are probably not going to follow us outside of the established universe. On the other hand, we must begin projects which are outside of the established universe in order to continue to, like, eat. So, it's an interesting conundrum, and I'm wondering if we're actually not really better off just presenting the new projects under a pen name, seeing as we're mostly going to have to start from scratch, anyway.

Well, yes, Lois is definitely a strong name, no doubt about it. But I like to give readers the benefit of the doubt. I read SPIRIT RING because Lois wrote it. I enjoyed it--if it had been a first novel from someone, I would have gushed about it (oh, that word... .) I didn't think it was as strong as her SF, but I enjoyed it, thought it had lovely, creative touches--I would have bought another book in that world. No doubt there are people who won't follow her to Chalion.

But I can tell you my SO enjoyed TOMORROW LOG as much as the Liaden books, and he doesn't really feel like it's a Liaden book--there's nothing overt, just hints that could be courtly behavior from another culture. He's happy to wait for another LOG book, BALANCE book, or Dragon book--

My agent told me that if an editor wants a book, that editor will ask for a pseudonym if there's a concern. But on the other hand, I haven't managed to break through with any older protagonists, either--nice comments, but no bites. (Oddly enough, younger protagonists are looked upon as YA. So exactly where is this mythical age point we're currently aiming for?)

I enjoy your writing enough that I would definitely try a new Miller-Lee book in any universe. As long as I enjoyed it--even if not quite as much as a Liaden book--I'd still definitely get the second in paperback at least. Because you always deliver with great characters and plot.

But I agree that there are people who would not follow Eddings or Jordan out of fantasy (perhaps with good reason--Eddings non-epic fantasies are very weak.) But there are many others I enjoy in both major areas.

Do you like the idea of a pseudonym? Would you keep it a deep, dark secret, or have one of those flaps like "The pseudonym of a couple of well-known authors who are branching out...."

(Congrats on the 25--a long time getting to know someone!)

I like to give readers the benefit of the doubt, too. Which is why we tend not to repeat details; we expect that people will remember. This comes from the way we both read -- which alas allows us to discuss in depth books and characters we read a decade ago, while being unable to pull up the name of a real person we deal with every day.

My agent told me that if an editor wants a book, that editor will ask for a pseudonym if there's a concern.

Ah. This is good to know.

But on the other hand, I haven't managed to break through with any older protagonists, either--nice comments, but no bites.

I do think there's some editorial resistance to older heroes. I think, she said optimistically, that it can be overcome. But, in the meantime, this would explain why there are so few "Mrs. Brown" stories in the genre.

(Oddly enough, younger protagonists are looked upon as YA. So exactly where is this mythical age point we're currently aiming for?)

The Age of Wonder is still fourteen, isn't it? Problem is, fourteen-year-olds nowadays have lots of things other than reading to claim their attention -- and many of those things, like movies, television, video games, scratch the SF itch -- while people who might be interested in stories involving older protagonists are likely to have a life-long investment in reading.

Do you like the idea of a pseudonym?

No, I don't. I have this "name magic" thing going; I really believe a pseudonym would write differently. While that may be a good thing where we're talking about branching out, I'm not comfortable with the idea. Mind you, that wouldn't necessarily stop me, but it would add an extra, unknown, dimension to doing the work.

Would you keep it a deep, dark secret, or have one of those flaps like "The pseudonym of a couple of well-known authors who are branching out...."

We'd thought of letting it be known that "Robert Silverberg" was a pseudonym of "Sharon Lee and Steve Miller", but we can't quite work out how to get his checks mailed to us... *g*

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