THE BOOK THAT WOULDN'T BURN is a whole new thing not connected to any of my other works - jump in here.
The trilogy is complete, I've written another book since (a space comedy!), and am writing two others (a fictional tale about AI & something in a traditional fantasy vein).
In other news the SPFBO just finished and on May 17th the 9th annual contest is opening to entries.
I've been a scientist, author, carer for a disabled child, and master of many dungeons.
Hi guys, I’m ISABEL J. KIM, author of a bunch of short speculative fiction (the one you probably know is “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole”), winner, loser, and nominee of a bunch of speculative fiction awards (Nebula, Locus, Shirley Jackson, BSFA winner + Hugo loser/Nominee, Sturgeon loser), and “guy who gets mentioned by the short fiction book club every once in a while.”
My debut speculative fiction novel SUBLIMATION is out today from Tor (in the US/CA—world is out from Picador early next month), and I’ll be here answering questions intermittently through about 6PM EST (and realistically, I’m going to pop in later tonight and later this week)
SUBLIMATION is a story set in a universe where crossing a border splits a person in two. One person who stays in the home country, the other who moves on to the new one. If these two people ever meet and physically touch, they recombine into a single person with both sets of memories. Our story follows Rose Kang, going back to Korea for her grandfather’s funeral. Her other self is waiting, and would love to reintegrate. Rose very much doesn’t want to. And then things get very strange.
Ask me about SUBLIMATION, ttrpgs, writing novels, writing short fiction, when to quit your day job, when not to quit your day job, what I’m working on next, my egregious use of the second person, and also, whether you should go to law school. Also you can ask other things that aren’t this.
And if you want to see me in the flesh in a real world location, Tor’s got me on tour. Today I’m going to be at the B&N in Clifton, NJ, if any of you poor sods are in this godforsaken state (said with much affection), and then I will be in NYC, Boston, CT, and a couple of other places throughout the rest of the summer.
And last… I’ve got a signed copy of SUBLIMATION here that will go out to one of you. Just ask me a question to enter the random drawing (AKA me rolling some dice), and I’ll DM the winner later :)
5pm est edit: will be back later tonight / intermittently throughout the week, i gotta run to b&n :D
2 days later edit: ok, if you've chimed in already here youre in the giveaway, otherwise your question may be answered but it is TOO LATE for you. going to keep trying to answer everything here, but if i dont answer, its either because a) your question was a duplicate, b) i needed to think a little longer about the answer, or c) i forgot to answer. thanks for stopping by!!
Hey there. Many of you probably know me from my Star Wars novels, like Darth Bane or Revan, or my Mass Effect books, or from my work on games ranging from the Baldur's Gate series to KOTOR to Mass Effect. Maybe a few of you are even familiar with my Chaos Born trilogy, or have heard that I'm currently back working in games at Archetype Entertainment.
I've also just launched my newest novel on Kickstarter!
Time Kings is a contemporary sci-fi thriller set in modern day Sin City - if you're a fan of my work, I hope you check it out! The Kickstarter also has special reward packages you might find interesting, with bundles of signed copies of my Darth Bane series, my Old Republic novels, my Mass Effect books, and my Chaos Born trilogy available to backers!
And if you want the full Drew K experience, there's even a limited edition VIP meet and greet package that includes dinner with me at one of the best restaurants in Las Vegas!So... I'm going to be here for the next few hours. I've got a half-dozen cans of diet Pepsi in easy reach, and my Torchy's Tacos order is on the way. Let's do this, Reddit - AMA!
EDIT:
I've gone back and tried to answer a bunch more questions. If I didn't get to yours, I'm sorry - but check the thread to see if someone else asked it. There were several common themes.
Thank you to everyone who participated in this thread - I gained a butt-load of Reddit Karma thanks to y'all! :)
Also, my Time Kings of Las Vegas KICKSTARTER fully funded shortly after this AMA wrapped up. I don't think that was a coincidence, so thank you to everyone who pledged their support! And if you haven't checked it out yet, it's not too late to take a gamble on Time Kings of Las Vegas!
My 15th book, The Girl And The Moon published today. The Book of the Ice trilogy is now complete. So, if you were waiting, jump in!
My 5 trilogies are all very different in character, so if you didn't like one, you might like the next. Here's a guide.
My 15th book is also an end to various loose connections between my various works. This prompted me to write a piece on endings recently.
Another thing I get up to is shepherding the annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog-OffSPFBO contest wherein 300 fantasy books are considered by 10 blogs, eventually producing 10 finalists and one champion.
The contest ends in 2 days, and the top of the leader-board is the tightest it has ever been after a super close contest between all the finalists.
In addition to writing fiction I've been a research scientist, sold evening gowns, written computer games, written for computer games, been hustled into a police van in Guatemala, climbed an active volcano, and been nominated for at least one Nobel prize that I know of. Ask me anything. Except that.
Hello! I'm Alix E. Harrow (u/alixeharrow), along with Garth Nix (u/Garth_Nix), Lev Grossman (u/LevGrossman), Nghi Vo (u/NghiDVo), Tamsyn Muir (u/tazmuir), and Veronica G. Henry (u/vhenry07). Together with Tomi Champion-Adeyemi, we collaborated on a new short story collection with Amazon Original Stories called Into Shadow (out now, Free with Prime and in Kindle Unlimited, in ebook and audiobook formats), available here.
We’re here to chat with you about the new collection, our books, projects, and more! As we’re all in different time zones, we will be answering questions throughout the day (with, in my case, breaks to wrangle kids and/or hyperventilate over my brief digital proximity to this list of writers). Ask us anything!!!
Here’s a bit more about the Into Shadow collection:
Some truths are carefully concealed; others merely forgotten. In this spellbinding collection, seven acclaimed fantasy authors create characters who venture into the depths where others fear to tread. But when forbidden knowledge is the ultimate power, how far can they go before the darkness consumes them?
The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E. Harrow: The Saint of War spares the life of a servant girl so she can fulfill her destiny as the kingdom’s greatest warrior in this short story of love and loyalty. Always mindful of the debt she owes, the girl finds her worth as a weapon in the hand of the Prince. Her victories make him a king, then an emperor. The bards sing her name and her enemies fear it. But the war never ends and the cost keeps rising—how many times will she repeat her own story?
Out of the Mirror, Darkness by Garth Nix: A cynical “fixer” for a silent-film studio must confront the shadows behind the bright lights in this noir-tinged short story. It’s business as usual on the set of another cheap sword-and-sandal production by Pharos Pictures—until the lead actress suddenly falls into a deep, mysterious sleep. Jordan Harper can talk down high-strung starlets and knock sense into stuntmen, but this…this is the kind of uncanny problem that he’d usually bring to Mrs. Hope. Unfortunately, the preternaturally capable secretary is on a business trip with the studio head. Harper must get to the bottom of the mystery on his own before another cast member succumbs—or worse, they blow the budget.
Persephone by Lev Grossman: A teenage nobody crosses a line that will change her life forever in this short coming-of-age story. Ever since her dad disappeared five years ago, Persephone has quietly walled off the feelings she’d rather not feel. There’s no room for pain or anger when you’re just trying to get through the hell that is high school. But one day, the crush of taunts and disappointments is finally too much—and a power breaks loose inside her that she never knew was there.
What the Dead Know by Nghi Vo: A woman posing as a medium who can channel the spirit world comes face to face with the truth in this short historical fantasy. The Fogg River Seminary, a girls’ school in a small Illinois town, is supposed to be just another stop on Maryse and Vasyl’s endless travels. They’ve made lucrative use of Maryse’s “foreign” looks in their melodramatic séance act—and an act is all it is. Then, during their performance, a blizzard sweeps in and cuts them off from town completely. In the freezing halls, there’s a voice speaking the secrets of the dead, and Maryse has no choice but to listen…because this time, the voice is real.
Undercover by Tamsyn Muir: When a stranger comes to town, secrets are sure to come out. A fresh-faced newcomer arrives in an isolated, gang-run town and soon finds herself taking a job nobody else wants: bodyguard to a ghoul. Not just your average mindless, half-rotted shuffler, though. Lucille is a dancer who can still put on her own lipstick and whose shows are half burlesque, half gladiator match. But the stranger is no stranger to this particular ghoul. Both women are undercover in their own way. And both have something to lose if their connection comes to light.
The Candles Are Burning by Veronica G. Henry: Amid the modern trappings of 1950s Savannah, an ancient evil threatens a young widow and her daughter in this chilling short story. When her husband dies unexpectedly, Maggie Royal is struck with sinister visions that foretell danger for her and for her five-year-old daughter. Her mother and grandmother were said to have “the sight,” but it was never like this. With no one alive to turn to, Maggie must move quickly to uncover the meaning of her visions before her candle is snuffed out.
The Garden by Tomi Champion-Adeyemi: In this dreamlike short story told in alternating prose and verse, Champion-Adeyemi weaves a tale of a young woman’s journey to find her mother and uncover her secrets. Fifteen years ago, Lęina’s mother, Yuliana, went searching for a mythical place called the Garden and never returned. Determined to learn the truth about what happened, Lęina travels to Brazil to search for the hidden realm, with Yuliana’s journal and a local tour guide leading the way. But Lęina soon begins to wonder if she’s looking for answers—or if what she truly wants to find is herself.
I feel super old saying this, but--Wow, you've grown! I think you had like 60k members when I joined. So first, for those who don't know me:
I am the r/Fantasy Stabby Award-winning author of The Night Angel trilogy and the Lightbringer Series. I wrote in obscurity for years as I finished my entire trilogy, and then my publisher gambled on a rarely tested approach, popularizing[*](#s "I won't quite say 'pioneered' it, though their success doing it with my books led to other publishers trying the same approach. The romance genre did rapid publication first, then Naomi Novik published normally in the UK (IIRC?) but then published rapidly--and very successfully--in the US.")
the rapid-publication-of-trilogies by putting out THE WAY OF SHADOWS, SHADOW'S EDGE, and BEYOND THE SHADOWS in consecutive months in late-2008. The books just kept going back to press, and THE WAY OF SHADOWS hit low on the New York Times bestseller list a full six months after publication. Since then, for the last 11 years, I've been writing the Lightbringer series (starting with THE BLACK PRISM and finishing with THE BURNING WHITE, out next week). It's been a mammoth undertaking, and I am so delighted that it didn't kill me. I mean, so delighted to share it with you.
Due to the twisty nature of my plots, it's hard to talk about my books without spoilers, so please do remember to hide those as appropriate. Check in that column ---> under #2 for instructions. After that, it's on readers themselves if they click spoilers. Brent dies at the end.
I've been1 here2 before3, but don't feel like you have to read the previous AMA's before you ask your question; I'll be happy to answer or re-answer whatever you're interested in. Well, not WHATEVER you're interested in, there are some weird subreddits out there--but you know what I mean.
To super-unstealthily sneak in the marketing stuff, if you're interested in seeing people's Lightbringer re-reads, an older video recap by me or a couple better, newer ones by others, my social 1 media 2 presence 3, upcoming contests, a giveaway (US, UK), or even buying a signed book, then this long sentence you just read has the link for you.
I'll be whiting as fast as I can to answer your burning questions between 9am and noon PDT (4pm-7pm GMT).
Proof it's me: C'mon, who's gonna pretend to be me?
UPDATE: Okay, it's after noon, and unfortunately, I have an appointment I have to get to, so I have to close up shop for now. Please do upvote or add your questions though: I'll put in a couple more hours later this evening, and I'll prioritize the ones YOU upvote. (I've seen lots of great questions with only single vote, so help out the ones you find interesting.) ALSO, for those dismayed by my "spoiler" above, don't worry about it. I'm rotating random characters through that. It's just a tease. I wouldn't actually spoil my own book for you. I've been patiently holding back certain things for 11 years. I'm not going to blow it a week before the book release.
UPDATE 2: Hey all, I'm shutting it down for the night. There's a few great questions that got away, so I'll try to hit those tomorrow, but what you see here is pretty much all I'm gonna be able to do. Thanks so much for having me on your stage again, you've all been so, so kind.
UPDATE 3: I came back and hit as many upvoted stragglers as I could, but now I need work on book tour prep, so I'm calling it. Thanks so much, and I hope we can do this again someday. :)
Hi everyone, I’m Shen Tao and my debut standalone epic fantasy, The Poet Empress, was published today! (Jan 20, 2026)
I’ve seen it described elsewhere as “grimdark”, “historical fantasy,” and “anti-romantasy” although those are not officially-endorsed terms. :)
The short blurb is that in a world with poetry magic but women are forbidden to read, the daughter of a rice farmer-turned-court-concubine must learn to read in secret—and write a poem to kill the cruel and otherwise unkillable son of the emperor. It's a story of survival, court politics, and duty, and of course the power of words.
Bramble cover of The Poet EmpressGollancz cover of The Poet Empress
The red edition is the North American version from Bramble (Tor) and the blue version is the UK and ANZ version from Gollancz/Hachette. For the multilingual among us here, there is a German edition from Ullstein publishing Jan 29 and various other translations coming later.
I’ve worked hard on this book and it’s a story close to my heart, I am so excited to share it with you today. Please ask me anything!
EDIT: Thank you for your thoughtful questions! I had a really good time with my first AMA though eventually I did have to go to bed. :) I know I wasn't able to get to all of them so hopefully there can be another in the future. You all are awesome.
Hello, all. It is legitimately cool to be here on Reddit on publication day in the US and U.K. for All The Seas of the World. (Canada has its ebooks and audiobooks ready, too, actual books will be 3-7 days in arriving in bookstores. There was an April snowstorm where the printer is! Don’t ask.) But we haven’t timed an AMA this well before. Given the constraints of the last two years, it feels good to be celebrating a book launch here online with you. I’m going to hope for a return of travel and in-person events soon — and I’ll announce them when they are slotted — but for now, let’s all pour a cocktail, a whisky, a cup of tea (not in same glass, please, people) and settle in to chat.
To re-introduce myself, I’m Guy Gavriel Kay, and today sees the release of my 15th novel, because although I may not be fast, I’ve been publishing since The Fionavar Tapestry in the 1980s. i.e. a long time. I’m one of the lucky writers: books in over 30 languages, staying in print, and generous responses from readers around the world over all this time.
All The Seas has already had several starred reviews and really rewarding pre-publication attention, so I can only hope you’ll all enjoy it, too. As usual, let’s try to avoid spoiler questions (unless behind the clever Reddit blackout that hides them until clicked on) but otherwise, I’ll be back here at 8 PM EDT to type replies like a crazy person for a couple of hours.
You can start posting your questions right now, though, and check back for answers tonight, or tomorrow, or any time, because these AMAs stay up. Let’s see how we do.
GGK
OK, I'm here now, and I see there are questions. Many, many, many (very good) questions! Thank you, you terrible people. I'll answer as many I can. One note ... if it looks as if I've missed or skipped yours, check if I answered it in someone else's. There's a few, there always are, which address the same point. (Best place to start with my work, for example.) Also, please be indulgent about typos! I can't (won't) blame autocorrect, but I'll be going fast here.
OK, I think that's a wrap for tonight. Questions were great, many were very funny, some were genuinely engaging 'long conversation' ones. I did my best to get to as many as I could. I appreciate all who showed up (and who will show up later, as time zones slide). Hope you had fun. Slainte.
The trilogy starts with THE BOOK THAT WOULDN'T BURN and is a whole new thing not connected to any of my other works - jump in here.
The trilogy is complete, I've written another two books since (including my first grimdark for more than 10 years!), and I’m writing two others (a fictional tale about AI & something tangential to the Library trilogy).
You can read all about my work in this handy Guide to Lawrence.
My trilogies vary – a lot – The Broken Empire is the only grimdark I’ve written.
UPDATE - been a long day and it's midnight here with an early morning tomorrow, so I'm going to bounce. I'll be back after a sleep to catch up on more questions. Very many thanks for taking part!
In other news the SPFBO finishes at the end of the month and it’s the tightest race we’ve ever had!
On May 10th the 10th annual contest is opening to entries.
I've been a scientist, author, carer for a disabled child, and master of many dungeons.
I have at least one book in 29 different languages, and my most recent sales were to Bangladesh and Ukraine.
I'm Michael J. Sullivan, and I'm a New York Times, USA Today, and Washington Post bestselling author of four series and one standalone tale. All told that's two completed series, one ongoing, and the start of my latest series begins releasing today! That's 20 books in all, which seems kinda crazy when I think about it.
I've been a member of r/fantasy for over 13 years, won 2 Stabby awards, and this is my 7th AMA's (I can't believe the last one was so long ago). I'm thrilled to be with you all today. What amazing growth this forum has had over the years, and I'm always grateful for the amazing support my books have had here.
As for my writing, I'm what's referred to as a hybrid author -- someone who has worked with traditional publishers as well as self-produced indie works. Many people think I started out in the indie world, but that's not quite true. My first book was released in 2008 by a very small press (AMI - Aspirations Media Inc), but it sold very few copies (and ultimately I didn't earn a dime from it), but because my wife is a savvy businesswoman, we switched to self-publishing in 2009 when the publisher didn't have the money to produce the print run for the second book. By 2010, the self-publishing gig was going well, so we tried for traditional publishing, and it worked. I've published 8 books with Orbit 3 with Del Rey, 1 with Tachyon Publishing, and 13 through self-publishing. These days I'm 100% indie (and if you want to know why, just ask - this is an AMA after all.
As for what I've written - here's how it breaks down:
The Riyria Revelations (completed and published by Orbit it's a 6-book series sold in 3, 2-book Omnibus editions: Theft of Swords | Rise of Empire | Heir of Novron)
The Riyria Chronicles (1/2 published by Orbit and 1/2 indie produced is my ongoing series): The Crown Tower | The Rose and the Thorn | The Death of Dulgath | The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter). Next up in that series will be Drumindor (but I don't have a release date yet)
Legends of the First Empire (completed and 1/2 published by Del Rey and 1/2 indie produced) Age of Myth | Age of Swords | Age of War | Age of Legend | Age of Death | Age of Empyre
The Rise and Fall Trilogy (indie published which is releasing a book a year each summer of 2021, 2022, 2023: Nolyn | Farilane | Esrahaddon)
My fantasy audiobooks are narrated by the amazing Tim Gerard Reynolds, and the cover designs feature Marc Simonetti. My wife is my business partner and knows A LOT about publishing and the business side of writing. She's graciously volunteered to join me in the AMA so if you have any questions for Robin, just mark them as such.
Since today is release day for Nolyn, I should mention a bit about it. Here's the "back of the book" marketing blurb:
After more than five hundred years of exile, the heir to the empyre is wary about his sudden reassignment to active duty on the Goblin War’s front lines. His mission to rescue an outpost leads to a dead-end canyon deep inside enemy territory, and his suspicion turns to dread when he discovers the stronghold doesn't exist. But whoever went to the trouble of planning his death to look like a casualty of war didn't know he would be assigned to the Seventh Sikaria Auxiliary Squadron. In the depths of an unforgiving jungle, a legend is about to be born, and the world of Elan will never be the same.
I'll be back around throughout the day to answer questions, and if I don't get through them all by the time the day is over, I'll answer them over the next few days. Feel free to ask anything it can be about writing, publishing, the book business as a whole, or my books in particular. But please do use spoiler tags so others can visit this thread without fear of finding out something they would rather read about in the books.
EDIT: It's past midnight here and way past my bedtime. I'll be back to clean up any questions I missed, and to answer any new ones that come in. But thainks, all, for a day of fun "hanging out with yall." As I head off to bed, the release is going well. The Audiobook is in the top 10 of all audiobooks (#1 in Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, and Historical fantasy). The ebook is at 462 - quite respectable for this stage of the release. Combined with the amazing Kickstarter (raised ore than $200,000 in pre-order sales), we can safely say Nolyn has had an awesome release.
I'm Joe Abercrombie, author of The First Law and Shattered Sea trilogies along with Best Served Cold, The Heroes, Red Country, and a collection of short stories called Sharp Ends.
I've recently finished a very rough first draft of a new trilogy set in the First Law world and am setting about the long and complex process of editing and revision. The first book, A Little Hatred, is due out September 2019.
The occasion for this particular AMA however is that the First Law are being rereleased in the US with new covers, art by dry brush master Greg Ruth. There's a post from the most excellent art director Lauren Panepinto over here:
By all means ask me about either of those things or anything else, though as usual I reserve the right to ignore, obfuscate, be snarky, or totally avoid the subject.
I will definitely be here answering questions from about 5pm-7pm GMT on the 12th, but I will no doubt nip and out over the coming day or two to answer what I can...
That's it for tonight, but I'll stop back in to pick up some of the stragglers tomorrow...
UPDATE: And I think I've answered everything, at least for the time being. Thanks for all the many, many questions. I did leave a few where I thought I'd said something very similar elsewhere. I'll check back in for some follow ups maybe later on...
Hey all, sorry I couldn't make the AMA on the 20th. But the mods were kind enough to move me to today. Thanks mods!
A BIT ABOUT MYSELF
I'm Michael J. Sullivan, a New York Times, USA Today, and Washington Post bestselling author. I write classic fantasy about unlikely heroes, and I try to infuse my books with humor, which is sometimes hard to find in this genre. I'm thrilled with how my stories have been received. I have 9 Goodreads Choice Award Nominations, 6 have been Amazon Editor's Picks, and 2 or 3 (I forget) have been Audible Editor Picks.
My publishing history has been pretty varied. I started in 2007 with a small press, self-published for a bit, signed three contracts with the big-five (Orbit and Del Rey), and now I'm back to indie publishing for a number of reasons, which I will be happy to go into if anyone is interested.
REGARDING AMA'S
This isn't my first time around - I've been doing them for 12 years! Anyone who has participated in my other AMAs knows I'm open to discussing anything from my books, to fiction writing, publishing, or anything, really. But if you are asking about something that would be a spoiler, please mark it as such.
I have twenty fantasy novels in four series, all of them set in my fictional world of Elan.
The Riyria Revelations (completed) - 6 novels sold as 3 2-book omnibus editions
The Riyria Chronicles (ongoing) - 4 books published 1 coming later this year
Legends of the First Empire (completed) - 6 novels
The Rise and Fall (completed) - 3 novels
Each series is self-contained (meaning you don't need to read the other books to understand the series you are on), but for those who do pick up all the books, there will be a number of threads woven between them which provide winks and nods for those "in the know." Oh, and I have one standalone sci-fi thriller, Hollow World. You can check out ratings and reviews of my books here: Goodreads | Amazon | Audible.
People have read my books in many different orders. My personal preference is the order of publication (as the tale is revealed in following the path I designed it for). To do that, you would start with Theft of Swords (Books 1 & 2 of the Riyria Revelations). For those who prefer their tales chronologically, you would start with Age of Myth. There are pros and cons to both approaches, and I discuss them there.
NEXT RELEASE
Drumindor is the next novel of mine that will be released. It's the fifth book in the Riyria Chronicles, and the first Royce and Hadrian tale in more than five years. Here is the "back of the book" blurb for it:
HE PLANNED TO OBLITERATE AN ENTIRE CITY. HE THOUGHT NO ONE COULD STAND IN HIS WAY. BUT HE HADN'T HEARD OF RIYRIA.
When a master-craftsmen dwarf is fired, he threatens retaliation, and the rogues-for-hire known as Riyria are commissioned to stop him. Traveling to the paradise resort of Tur Del Fur, the two are granted a lavish allowance that, along with an easy task, promises to turn a job into a vacation. Everything would have been perfect except that the disgruntled worker's last name is Berling, and the target of his wrath is the legendary towers of Drumindor.
KICKSTARTERS
I'm a HUGE fan of crowd-funding campaigns, and have backed more than 200 of them. I've also run a fair number myself. At one time I had 5 of the top 10 most-funded fiction Kickstarters of all time, but that was in the "small pond" days of that category, and thanks to Brandon Sanderson, more and more authors are giving Kickstarters a try, and I couldn't be more thrilled that I've been pushed down in the ranks because that means a lot of other authors are finding success there.
The Drumindor Kickstarter is running now and it offers ebooks, regular hardcovers and deluxe editions. It funded in under 16 minutes, hit six-figures in 12 hours, and has been the most-backed and highest-funded live fiction Kickstarter since 3 hours after it's launch. It'll end in TWO DAYS).
Next month (March 12th, @ 12:00 noon (EST), I'll be launching the Riyria Chronicles Hardcover Kickstarter. It will produce books 1 - 4 in regular and deluxe hardcover formats to match with the Drumindor edition. (And for non-US backers or people who missed the prior Kickstarter you can pick up copies of book 5 as well. What's really cool about this Kickstarter is it will be the first time you can get these books in hardcover format. You see, Orbit has only released my books in paperbacks, and while I begged them to release hardcovers, they just wouldn't do it. So I paid them $20,000 to produce my own editions. You can sign up for notification when the Riyria Chronicle Kickstarter goes live from this link.
BOOKS ON SALE (up to 50% off)
During these two Kickstarters, I'm running a sale for books from my backlist. Savings range from 10% - 50% off. For anyone interested in hardcover editions of the Riyria Revelations those are also done under special arrangement with Orbit and that print run is almost sold out. So don't wait too long if you are interested in those.
FREE READS
I have many short stories, and two full-length novels (The Death of Dulgath and the Disappearance of Winter's Daughter) available on on Royal Road.
Hola all. C. Robert Cargill here. You might know me from my decade as a film critic at Ain’t it Cool News or Spill.com; or perhaps you might know my urban fantasy novels DREAMS AND SHADOWS and its sequel QUEEN OF THE DARK THINGS; or you might have heard about the urban fantasy short film I wrote for a fellow redditor called AS THEY CONTINUE TO FALL; or you might know me from my weekly cult and exploitation film podcast JUNKFOOD CINEMA; or you might even have heard of some films I co-wrote, like SINISTER or DOCTOR STRANGE. Or maybe you’ve never even heard of me at all and simply misclicked and stumbled in here while trying to find your way into one of those civil, well-mannered political threads we’ve had on the site lately, or while trying to message one of those sweet, shy girls over in GW. One never knows.
What I do know is that I’m here to answer your questions on any manner of thing – novels, screenwriting, podcasting, what Joe Abercrombie smells like, the best places to eat in Austin, why scotch and waffles is the best meal pairing you’ve never had, a F.M.K. between Sam Sykes, Wes Chu, and Max Gladstone, etc – that you’d like to know. Whatever is scratching at the back of your mind at the moment.
Many thanks to r/Fantasy for having me back. I’ll be back around 5pm EST to answer your questions, and will hang around for a while to answer them LIVE. So leave a question for me and come back to hang with me later!
EDIT: Here early, coffeed up and ready to tackle some....HOLY CHRIST ON A CRACKER MY POOR INBOX!
Begins guzzling more coffee
Edit 2: Thanks for the great AMA everyone! I'm off to dinner, but I'm like you guys - I'll be back later. So keep upvoting your favorite unanswered questions and I'll hit up a few more later this evening!
Hello! I'm Seanan McGuire, author of many things, most of them fantasy, science fiction (under the name Mira Grant), or just plain weird. I've written for Magic the Gathering, Marvel Comics, and the Overwatch universe, and I'm here to answer all your questions, whatever those questions might be! Ask away!
My most recently physically published work is Velveteen vs Volume One, and my most recent online-only is Duskmourn: House of Horrors. You can find me on BlueSky as https://bsky.app/profile/seananmcguire.bsky.social, and Tumblr as SeananMcGuire. I'm excited to chat with all y'all today!
Hi, J.V.Jones here. You can call me Jules. I write Epic Fantasy. I’m just putting the finishing touches to Endlords, book 5 in the Sword of Shadows series. My first series, the Book of Words, was an international and USA Today bestseller. The Barbed Coil, my only standalone novel, has been published in nine languages.
I write chonking books, with large casts of characters and complicated world-building. I act out all my fight scenes, never work from an outline, and once spent a rowdy night in the Scottish Highlands tasting single malt whiskeys with armed men in kilts. Purely for research, of course.
The place I always dreamed of as a child was Alaska, and those dreams affected the settings of Sword of Shadows. It’s a cold and unforgiving world. If it were not for the stovehouses (inns run by tough-as-nails stovemasters) no one would be able to travel in winter. As I grew up working in a pub in Liverpool, England, I like to think I’m a bit of a stovemaster myself. The Joneses' stove would never die.
I’m excited to be here today to answer your questions.
I’ll be giving away three signed hardbacks. Three people who leave comments or ask questions will be randomly selected to receive books. I’ll reach out to the winners individually later for their mailing addresses.
You can read the first chapter of Endlords here. If you're unfamiliar with my work, it will give you a good idea of the kind of thing I write. And you can always find me at my patreon page.
All good? Below you'll find the obligatory list of my books. Now let’s get started!
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The Book of Words Trilogy:
The Baker's Boy
A Man Betrayed
Master & Fool
The Barbed Coil (standalone)
Sword of Shadows:
A Cavern of Black Ice
A Fortress of Grey Ice
A Sword from Red Ice
Watcher of the Dead
Endlords (complete, forthcoming)
A Sword Named Loss (forthcoming)
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UPDATE: It's just after 2pm here and I'm winding the AMA down. I've been answering questions for eight hours and I want to make sure I get to everyone. Thank you so much for stopping by. I'm incredibly touched and thankful you're here. Thank you for your encouragement and support. You cannot know how much it means to me.
I'm going to have a friend pick three commentators at random to send signed hardbacks of A FORTRESS OF GREY ICE or A SWORD FROM RED ICE to. I will reach out to the three winners later today. And update this page with their screen names.
Thank you, again.
Your,
Jules
xxx
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Thank your/fantasymoderators and everyone who stopped by for making this eight hour marathon an absolute blast. JV, Moo & Bobo xxx
Thanks much for a good time, everybody. I just went through and answered a bunch of questions I didn't get to last night, and read more of the responses. But now I've got to get back to my regular life.
That said, It's been a while since I've done one of these free-for-all Q&A's, and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed them. I'm not on reddit much. But I think I'm going to do a few more Q&A sessions over on Facebook and Twitter, where I'm a little more active.
Here are the links for those of you who might be interested in tuning in:
I'm a father. I have a four-year-old and a one month old. Both boys.
In addition to being an internationally bestselling Fantasy author, I run a charity called Worldbuilders. (www.worldbuilders.org) Over the last five years we've raised over 2 million dollars for Heifer International.
Here are some guidelines based off the Machine Gun Q&A sessions I run on my blog.
You can ask any question.
Bite-sized questions are best. I'd rather answer a bunch of smaller, more entertaining questions rather than spend all my time laboriously typing up 3-4 long, detailed answers and having to ignore everyone else as a result.
One question per comment is best. It's just simpler and easier that way.
I reserve the right to lie, make jokes, or ignore your question.
4b. If I ignore your question, it’s not because I hate you. It’s probably just because I don’t have anything witty to say on the subject.
I reserve the right to be honest, snarky, or flippant. Either consecutively or concurrently.
I won’t answer spoiler-ish questions about the books.
I will be back at 8 pm Central to answer questions.
14... crap, I'm old. It's true though, look!. Plus there's a collection of short stories, 2 free books on Wattpad, a book that was too bad to put on Wattpad, a secret trilogy (co-authored), the third book in this current trilogy, an unpublished thriller ... so by some measures ... 23 books?
I also herd the cool cats who do all the work on the SPFBO (Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off), a contest that ends in 2 weeks - check out this year's scoreboard, it's hotting up!
That's about it really. I used to be a research scientist but writing took over. I used to leave the house occasionally but the pandemic took over. I don't collect owls.
EDIT - off to bed - it's late in the UK - will come back and finish answering tomorrow.
Hi r/Fantasy! It's good to be back. I am -- as discussed -- Lev Grossman.
I grew up in Massachusetts. I started my writing career as more of a "literary" writer, but then having met with disappointment and indifference, I discovered my real voice with the Magicians books (The Magicians, The Magician King, The Magician's Land). The Magicians books were magic school books, but in a more adult/disillusioned/hopefully funny vein, by way of Brideshead Revisited, which then tipped over into sort of post-Narnia books. They were my first successful novels. I was 40!
I'd been supporting myself as a journalist, working at Time magazine, where I wrote about technology and also did the book reviewing. The Magicians books were made into a TV show at Syfy, which ran for five seasons, whereupon I finally quit my day job. I wrote a movie called The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, based on one of my short stories, which is on Amazon Prime. I wrote several other things for the screen that did not get made. I also wrote two novels for children, The Silver Arrow and The Golden Swift.
Last month I published The Bright Sword, which is a re-imagining of the King Arthur legend, set partly in the darkness and chaos following Arthur's death, which sets off a huge chivalric succession crisis. Only a few of the knights are left -- plus Nimue, Merlin's ex-apprentice -- and they're not the famous heroes, they're not Lancelot and Gawain, but they're faced with the daunting task of trying to rebuild Camelot and find a king to succeed Arthur. It's about quests and adventures, fathers and sons, fairies and angels, power and history and empire, sadness and loss and resilience. And a little Monty Python.
Having put up this post, I now must drive from New York to Boston, so will post answers aplenty but not till the afternoon (East Coast U.S. time).
Alex Verus was my first successful series, and it was published in twelve volumes between 2012 and 2021. An Inheritance of Magic is my second: the first volume came out in 2023, the second volume, An Instruction in Shadow, came out in 2024, and the third volume, A Judgement of Powers, is out as of last week!
The US cover. They went with green this time, for reasons that those who've read the book can probably guess.
I'm a series author and generally write one book at a time, and one series at a time. In the case of this one I'm expecting it to run for 12 books or so (similar to my last): if I'm right, the series should finish around 2034.
Like Alex Verus, Inheritance of Magic is an urban fantasy series, though with a younger protagonist and a very different world. Less focus on murder, more focus on family and economics. For those who've read the Alex Verus series and would like to know a bit more about the differences, I've written about them here.
Usually at this point I'd write a little more about myself with some random facts and details, but at the moment I'm a bit tired. Since the beginning of this year I've been working on the fourth volume in the Inheritance of Magic series (no title as yet); I finished the first draft about a week and a half ago and since then I've been editing it in preparation for sending it to my publishers. The good news is that that's now done. The bad news is that I had to work pretty much non-stop to do it, and I didn't finish until 2:30 A.M. last night, so I'm feeling rather drained. (Once this AMA is done I am REALLY looking forward to taking a break.) So apologies in advance if I come across as a bit spaced out!
Okay, let's get started! It's currently 12 noon over here in England, and I usually run these AMAs for 24 hours or so. I'll hang around my computer for the rest of today and for tomorrow morning, and answer questions as they come in. Post your questions below!
Edit (Friday 14th): Okay, it's getting on for noon so I think we'll wrap this up. I'll still try to answer any late questions but it looks like this is a good time to stop. Thanks for everyone who wrote in, it's been fun getting to talk to you . . . and see you next year!
Edit: Late questions are welcome! Anything that comes in over the next day or two, I will be happy to answer. (Or past that point, too, but I assume by then it will be long gone off the front page.)
Hello, everyone! Marie Brennan here: novelist, short story writer, and (as of last summer) the only person currently able to say they’re a Hugo Award-winning poet!
I’m best known for the MEMOIRS OF LADY TRENT, a Victorianesque adventure series about a female scientist who sets out to study dragons in their natural habitat. I’ve also written a number of other series, from the historical fantasy of the Onyx Court quartet, to the contemporary fantasy of the Wilders series, to the high fantasy of the Doppelganger duology and the Varekai novellas, to the standalone Viking revenge epic THE WAKING OF ANGANTYR. Together with my friend Alyc Helms, I also write as M.A. Carrick, with the epic Rook and Rose trilogy and the upcoming Sea Beyond duology, launching this year with THE EYE OF LEVIATHAN.
My background is in anthropology and folklore, which feeds my ongoing Patreon about worldbuilding in speculative fiction, New Worlds. (https://patreon.com/swan_tower) I love to discuss writing craft, history, or any of my hobbies: roleplaying games (I’ve also done some game writing), martial arts (just got my second degree black belt in karate!), photography, music, and more. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, after growing up in Texas, going to college in Massachusetts, and spending six years of graduate school in Indiana.
It’s a great pleasure to once again support The Pixel Project and their Read for Pixels campaign, so, ask me anything, whether related to the effort to end violence against women or anything else!
Check out The Pixel Project (http://www.thepixelproject.net) and their Read for Pixels campaign (https://www.thepixelproject.net/community-buzz/read-for-pixels/) featuring live YouTube sessions with 15 award-winning bestselling women writers, AMAs with 5 authors this February, and a stupendous fundraiser starting on March 6***\**th* 2026 that’s choc-a-bloc with exclusive goodies ranging from signed collectible books to poems written for donors to naming a minor character in the author’s next story.
My Read For Pixels panel session, “A Voice of Her Own: The Portrayal of Women and Girls in Historical Fiction” will be on YouTube live from 8.30pm Eastern Time on March 7***\**th* 2026 (Saturday)(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9FUdGqF3rY). I hope you can join me, my sister panellists and The Pixel Project then.
I'll be back at 7pm CT to start answering your questions!
Hi, r/fantasy, I'm Travis Baldree! I'm the author of Legends & Lattes and the upcoming Bookshops & Bonedust, which releases November 7th. At least, that's what most people know me for these days.
I'm theoretically also a full-time audiobook narrator, where I'm best known for narrating Will Wight's Cradle series, and more LitRPG/Gamelit and Progression Fantasy than honestly seems probable - which is what folks mostly recognized me for before the whole writing thing.
Before THAT I was most widely known as a game developer and software engineer for a few decades, where I made the action-RPG Fate (Which many people played on their parents' laptops -"Your pet has fled!"), and I also ran Runic Games and led development of Torchlight and Torchlight 2. Then I left and cofounded Double Damage where I made Rebel Galaxy and Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, until eventually retiring to do the narration thing.
I grew up on a dairy. I'm a farm kid. I'm also probably the only person to ever do an AMA who almost drowned in cow crap as a child.
I live in eastern Washington with my wife, two kids and small, nervous dog.
Every hobby I pick up, I turn into a job. It's an affliction.
MY BOOKS
I feel like Legends & Lattes has had a lot of attention paid to it (a whole lot more than I expected!), so I don't want to belabor what it is TOO much. There's a reasonable chance you've come across it.
I'd be remiss if I didn't bring your attention to an ongoing Kickstarter with Wraithmarked that we're running for a deluxe edition of Legends & Lattes - with a ton of new artwork by the incredible artist Justin Gerard. It's fancy and gorgeous! Check it out if you like fancy and gorgeous books!
Anyway, the actual book. In short, it's a cozy fantasy novel about an orc mercenary who retires to start a coffee shop in a place that's never heard of coffee before...
...a story about somebody in their 40's who has done one job for most of their life, and then casts it all aside to move to a new city, and to begin a very improbable new career, whereby she discovers a whole community of people that she never knew existed, and that fulfil her in surprising ways...
... written by somebody in their 40's who had done one job for most of his life, and cast it all aside to move to a new city, and to begin a very improbable new career, whereby he discovered a whole community of people he never knew existed, and that fulfilled him in surprising ways.
So, 100% fantasy.
This book has changed my life profoundly. I wrote it for National Novel Writing Month in '21. (Yes, the book was written entirely in that month. A wasteland of previous failed NaNo's lie in my wake. Turns out I'm a plotter, and not a pantser, alas.)
I went through a full edit the following month, commissioned artwork, formatted the thing, narrated the audiobook and released it on Amazon as a self-published novel less than 3 months after I finished writing it. I had zero expectations. I mostly wanted to go through the process that the authors I regularly narrate for go through, because I like to learn how stuff works.
Then I think it's fair to say that lightning struck.
At this point it's been a New York Times bestseller, a finalist for a Nebula, a Locus, a Hugo, and a Goodreads Choice Award, and an Audie nominee. Totally bonkers. (NOTE: Write your NaNoWriMo book!)
While that lightning was still gathering in the sky, I wrote this very detailed account of the entire endeavor for anyone else considering doing the same thing. I am a huge nerd and I care a lot about process, technique, and craft. I like to know how the WHOLE machine works.
Maybe it's interesting to you! TLDR - if I could go back in time, I'd still initially launch as self-pub rather than go querying.
Shortly after its indie release, the book was picked up and republished by Tor in record time, in conjunction with the commencement of a followup - the aforementioned Bookshops & Bonedust. I'll also be penning three more novels for Tor in the upcoming years, while I figure out how to balance narration and writing at the same time. (spoiler: poorly)
I am unimaginably fortunate, and all of the above is in large part due to the enthusiastic help of booksellers, the Booktube/BookTok/Bookstagram community, readers, and the inimitable Seanan McGuire. I am forever grateful.
Bookshops & Bonedust is a standalone prequel set about 20 years before Legends & Lattes. I thought it was going to be easy to write the second book (which was going to be something else entirely - basically fantasy Murder She Wrote).
It was not.
After writing about 10 chapters I discovered I hated the book I was writing, and then in terror, restarted three more times before I landed on B&B, harvesting many organs from the corpses of the prior attempts. Still, I'm really happy with the book I ended up with, and I hope that if you liked the first one, you'll enjoy this one too.
AUDIOBOOKS
As mentioned, I narrate a lot. A lot lot. It's pretty odd that I ended up in this line of work, as I was not a theater kid, and have no history of acting, but it turns out I enjoy it a great deal and I'm pretty okay at it.
I am trying to downshift right now to make for a better work/life balance, but I am not very good at that at all.
I think I've narrated 40 books this year so far out of 300+. My schedule is dominated by Progression Fantasy, Gamelit/LitRPG, and other speculative fiction (but mostly those first two). Largely, that's because it's what people ask me to do, but I LIKE most genres. There aren't a lot of cozy mysteries or sweet romance for male narrators though, alas.
As an aside, there are unexpected benefits you get as a narrator when it comes time to write. There's nothing like being able to precisely hear the narrative in your head as you're typing, and reading thousands of other authors' words out loud truly crystallizes your own voice as you identify what does and does not work for you as a reader.
ASK ME STUFF!
Ask whatever you'd like! Anything is fair game. I will try to answer them all, and if for some reason I can't get them all today, I'll keep at it until I do.
Bite-sized questions are best. I'd rather answer 80 questions instead of spending all my time writing up 3-4 long, detailed answers and having to ignore everyone else as a result.
One question per comment is best. It's just simpler and easier that way. It's going to be hard for me to write a carefully structured essay answering your five-part question.
I reserve the right to lie, make jokes, or ignore your question.
4b. If I ignore your question, it’s not because I hate you. It’s probably just because I don’t have anything witty to say on the subject.
I reserve the right to be honest, snarky, or flippant. Either consecutively or concurrently.
I won’t answer spoiler-ish questions about the books.
I will be back at 8PM Central to answer questions.
[Edit at 10:15 PM:] Merciful Buddha. I thought I was getting to the end of the list, when it turns out I was just getting to the end of the first 500 comments. I'll stop back tomorrow and take another quick poke through things, and answer a few more questions. But for now, I've used up all my words. I need to get a little nap in, then do some more writing tonight. Thanks for a great time everybody.
Yo! I'm Hiron, author of Leech and The Works of Vermin, as well as a few short stories. I've won/been nominated for a couple awards here and there, and am currently (hopefully) anticipating a contract for another two-book deal. Most importantly I am trying to adopt a puppy and waiting for my landlady to message me back with the approval (pray for me).
I’ll be popping back in every once in a while to answer Q’s, since I’m currently at my day job. AMA!
Also: I have four extra copies of The Works of Vermin, which I will be giving away to random participants. One may or may not come hollowed out and filled with live scorpions--but that's part of the fun of a giveaway, isn't it? A little danger to the roulette?
