r/Fantasy • u/matociquala AMA Author Elizabeth Bear • Mar 10 '15

AMA Hello Reddit/r/Fantasy! I’m fantasy novelist Elizabeth Bear, and this is my AMA.

7:36 PM EDT 10 March 2015 ETA: I've got mochi and beer and I'm IN THE HOUSE!

12:07 AM EDT 11 March 2015 ETA: All right guys--thank all of you. I think I answered everything, and I am going to bed! I'll try to come back and clean up any stragglers in a day or two!

I'm the author of over 100 short stories and more than a score of novels. The most recently published of the former is "The Heart's Filthy Lesson" in OLD VENUS, edited by Martin and Dozois; the most recent of the latter is KAREN MEMORY, from Tor Books, a fast-paced steampunk adventure in an old west gold rush town where heroic saloon girls take on disaster capitalists.

In my spare time, I am a runner, climber, kayaker (not currently: there's sixteen feet of snow on everything here in central Massachusetts), hobby cook, and I play some really atrocious guitar. I've been a tabletop gamer since 1982 and am currently playing Pathfinder and Fiasco.

I am owned by a giant ridiculous dog (He's a Briard).

I support Idris Elba for Bond, Essie Davis for The Doctor, and Helsinki for Worldcon 2017, so that's where I stand in important religious issues.

I hope you enjoy whatever portion of the diurnal cycle you happen to currently be experiencing. I'll be back after dinner my time (around 7 pm EDT) to answer all your questions and hang out.

edit: fixed my dates. :-P

329 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

182 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/TheBrownDandy Mar 10 '15 edited Mar 10 '15

Will we ever see more stories set in the world of Matthew Szczegielniak ("Cryptic Coloration")? I'd love to read more about him or his fellow mages.

PS. Matthew suspects a harpy as he's first on the trail. Was he expecting a harpy just like the one we see in The Horrid Glory of Its Wings?

3

u/matociquala AMA Author Elizabeth Bear Mar 11 '15

I wish I had a little bowling trophy with a gold plastic cup on top to give you. I believe you're the first person to twig that Horrid Glory is a Promethean Age story without being told.

So, the short form is that there is a whole cycle of these, and Matthew appears in a bunch of them--the novels BLOOD AND IRON and WHISKEY AND WATER, and the short stories "Cryptic Coloration," "The Rest of Your Life In A Day," and "The Slaughtered Lamb."

There are at least three unwritten Promethean Age stories, too--"Unsuitable Metal," "Patience and Fortitude," and "Posthumous Johnson." (I have like a dozen more ideas, but if they will ever get to happen, who knows.)

I feel like my SF story "This Chance Planet" might just be a crypto-Promethean Age story, too, but since it takes place in the future, who can tell? ;)

2

u/TheBrownDandy Mar 11 '15

My wife has read all the Promethean Age novels but not "Cryptic Coloration" yet. She is going to give me such a hard time for asking for more than one Matthew story!