Here's the US blurb of Earth Ascendant:

Imre Bergamasc is the First Prime of the Returned Continuum. For many hundreds of thousands of years, he has ruled Earth and the far-flung regions of the galaxy. To ensure stability within his empire, he has embarked on a Line transmission tour of his domain, reinforcing the links between distant sectors.

But during his mission, Imre is abducted by an unknown entity demanding he return to Earth and warning him of an impending threat. After he is released, an attempt is made on his life--resulting in the deaths of a dozen innocent people.

Upon his return, Imre learns Earth is in crisis. His administration is under attack by saboteurs and dissidents. And as his empire crumbles around him, Imre can't help but wonder if his enemies are connected to his murder nearly half a millennium earlier...

And here's the link to the cover, which I still think is kinda neat.

In the February issue of Locus, Russell Letson name-checked Geodesica, I am late in observing (thanks Daniel).

I wish I could go back in time and get this line on the cover:

mixes elements of New Space Opera with a melancholy Stapledonian long view that nearly annihilate each other.

Me, I'd buy a book with that description.*

While speaking of blurbs, here's what Kevin J Anderson (very kindly) had to say about Saturn Returns:

A compelling story of bravery and loyalty set against a huge backdrop of galactic disaster and the very end of civilization.

That will definitely go on the cover. :-)

Fingers crossed Russell Letson likes the new series too.

( * Wot Russell said... )

Following up on its recent PopBitch appearance, here's the UK back-cover blurb of Saturn Returns.

It's more substantial than the US version, since there's more room on a trade paperback. I think they complement each other nicely, without giving too much away.

The UK cover should be here soon, and I'll post that as soon as it comes.

As an added bonus for fans of the Change fantasy novels, I've included the draft blurb for The Changeling, which is coming out in September.

( blurb city )

The cover of my next novel has just been unveiled to the world, and it's a corker! Stephan Martiniere is a god. I've been extraordinarily lucky with covers throughout my career. Even my foreign covers have been fun.

Saturn Returns also has a draft blurb, if you follow the link.

More news to come.

Hey, love those long publication names. We've come a long way from "Analog", "Omni" and "Eidolon" (or have we come full circle?).

Anyway, I'm still behind on posting properly and replying to comments, thanks to a couple of tight deadlines. My apologies. Excuses include: working on the final draft of Saturn Returns and making last-minute edits to The Devoured Earth. (Cover and blurb of the latter now available.) I'll catch up soon.

A couple of quick things:

There's an article on tie-ins by Carol Pinchefsky on Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. I'm quoted a couple of times. Read it here.

Also, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine published a collaborative story ("Dying for Air", with Simon Brown) and a collaborative interview (with Simon Brown and Shane Dix) in Issue 23, available for purchase as a PDF here

Sci-fi Wire ran an interview with me concerning The Crooked Letter, which has just been released by Pyr in the US. See here for the full text of the interview, and here to order the book from Amazon.

Here's part of the blurb from Publishers Weekly: "Drawing on worldwide myths and legends, Australian author Williams (The Resurrected Man) expertly twists the familiar into the grotesque in this deeply spooky story, the first in a new fantasy series. When Seth Castillo is stabbed and killed, his spirit is whisked away to the Second Realm, a literally inside-out place full of hideous monsters, while his mirror twin, Hadrian, remains in the First Realm of the living. Their psychic link draws the two realms together, precipitating a world-warping cataclysm..."

But the really big news concerns a new series: The Broken Lands trilogy, written for kids of 10 and up, which HarperCollins Australia has picked up for publication in 2007-8. Set in the same world as the Books of the Change and Cataclysm, the new books--The Changeling, The Dust Devils and The Scarecrow--follow the adventures of a young boy living on the north side of the Divide. The Changeling was the ms I submitted for my MA in Creative Writing last year. Expect golems, crabblers, sand bandits, man'kin, ghosts, strand beasts and more!

It's been an unhappy few weeks, but there is always a silver lining. The Changeling, the short, dark fantasy novel for kids that I wrote for my Masters, has been printed, bound and submitted for examination. With help from certain very generous members of the local community, plus my fellow students in the Creative Writing unit at Adelaide University, I think it's turned out pretty well. Grade and publication details to follow (touchwood!).

Also, the last installment of the Books of the Cataclysm, The Devoured Earth, has been rescheduled for September next year. Apologies in advance for the delay, but that gives me some much-needed space at the moment to sort a few things out. I'm not used to life getting in the way of writing; normally it's totally the other way around. :-/

Here's a short blurb for TDE that I knocked up for a HarperCollins catalogue last night:

"It's the end of the world--again. Last time, Seth and Hadrian Castillo trapped Yod in the Void Beneath and sacrificed their future to keep it there. Now Yod is stirring and an even greater sacrifice is demanded of the twins and their new companions.

"A conspiracy of seers fights to peel back the veil from the darkness ahead. Strange new beings from forgotten corners of existence converge on the tomb of the Goddess. A dragon with its own agenda takes an unlikely ally--and gives a ghost from the future the chance she needs to save the man she loves.

"Among the ruins of two worlds, with the future of every living thing at stake, a handful of lives are all that stand between success and utter failure."

Now all I have to do is write it. :-)

Cheers,
Sean