News! News!
So Gollancz & I have agreed a deal for two more Ketty Jay books, to follow The Black Lung Captain. The first, with a working title of The Iron Jackal, will probably land on the shelves a year after the release of its predecessor, making it July 2011. The fourth is a bit far in the future to predict with much accuracy, but it’ll be targeted for roughly July 2012, assuming that year’s predicted Armageddon doesn’t put a crimp in book sales. News on US release dates for the new books when I get it; we still have to sort out all the little contract details in the UK first.
So, more adventures for Frey & co! Yay!
I’m pleased to say Malice has been shortlisted and longlisted for various awards around England, including the Manchester Book Award, which will be awarded on March 11th. Posi-vibes, please!
Eastercon: I shall definitely be there on Saturday and more than likely Sunday, but due to panel congestion I probably won’t be doing any this time around, unless there are cancellations. Not to worry: Gollancz will be running a little Retribution Falls promotion, which I’ll announce when we’ve got the deets sorted out, and I’ll no doubt be lurking about shiftlessly somewhere.
Mass Effect 2 was one of the best games I ever played except my XBox exploded just as I embarked on the finale. Since this is the second XBox that’s borked on me in the space of three years (especially considering I don’t play it much) I have got a little tired of Microsoft’s shoddy engineering and I won’t be buying another. Guess I’ll never know what happened, although I probably saved the universe so that’s okay. Am on Heavy Rain now. On the PS3. I trust those Sony guys.
Couple more deals in the works, still churning away behind the scene. News to come.
Great news about the Ketty Jay books, more Chris Wooding novels can only ever be a good thing
Glad to hear Mass Effect 2 was good, I almost bought it yesterday but picked up BioShock2 and Aliens vs Predator instead as I haven’t actually finished Mass Effect yet. Shame about the 360… I had one for two years and it never complained once, but it was stolen recently so now I bet the replacement will RRoD on me out of pure spite within minutes of being used. Good old Microsoft, eh? Hope you have more joy with Heavy Rain
Oh and just wanted to say a very, very belated thank you for signing my books at the Forbidden Planet signing last November. I was the very shy girl in a ridiculously bright pink hoodie who mumbled “it’s my birthday” at you. Meeting you made it the best birthday EVAR
so thank you.
First of all, excellent news on more Ketty Jay. The second I finished I was hungry for more Frey. Colour me excited.
Mass Effect 2 was beautiful. Whilst I can definitely agree with the sentiments towards the Xbox’s fragile nature, I implore you to at least borrow a 360 so you can finish the fight… The ending… Maybe it’s because I’m a huge fan boy for what Bioware have created, but it was fantastic (Not to mentioned it involved what I consider one of the more messed up plot points I have come across in quite a while)
I won’t ruin anything, but just don’t be sure you saved the universe… well, just yet…
Great news! I imported Retribution Falls after reading a great review, and now my friends here are squabbling over the borrowing rights and plaintively asking when it’ll be out in the US.
I’ll placate them with the promise of more books.
Fantastic! Get yourself to America to a book signing, Mr. Wooding.
Fracking wrong word.
Can we get a synopsis for Black Lung?
@ Laura – Yes, I remember you: my retinas still have the imprint of your hoodie burned in
Seriously, glad I could help with the whole birthday thing. It’s mine tomorrow… 33… urgh.
Hey, if it makes you feel better, if you’d had that XBox two years then the thieves who got it no doubt sat down cackling for a stoned session of Viva Pinata and it immediately blew up. I mean, 2 years for an XBox… that’s like 300 in cat years.
@ David – Nice idea, but when it died it also took all my saves with it. I just don’t have the heart to do it all again…
@ Stephanie – Yes! Spread the word
Can’t have you guys in the US waiting till 2011 to get hold of it!
@ CJ – indeed you can. Observe:
(THIS IS THE OFFICIAL BACK-OF-THE-BOOK BLURBY THING FOR THE BLACK LUNG CAPTAIN: IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE BOOK, LOOK AWAY NOW)
Darian Frey is down on his luck. He can barely keep his squabbling crew fed and his rickety aircraft in the sky. Even the simplest robberies seem to go wrong. It’s getting so a man can’t make a dishonest living any more.
Enter Captain Grist. He’s heard about a crashed aircraft laden with the treasures of a lost civilisation, and he needs Frey’s help to get it. There’s only one problem. The craft is lying in the trackless heart of a remote island, populated by giant beasts and subhuman monsters. Dangerous, yes. Suicidal, perhaps. Still, Frey’s never let common sense get in the way of a fortune before.
But there’s something other than treasure on board that aircraft. Something that a lot of important people would kill for. And it’s going to take all of Frey’s considerable skill at lying, cheating and stealing if he wants to get his hands on it . . .
Strap yourself in for another tale of adventure and debauchery, pilots and pirates, golems and daemons, double-crosses and double-double-crosses. The crew of the Ketty Jay are back!
Hey Chris, congratulations on the book deals and being nominated for all the awards. I’ll definitely be wishing for you to win.
Very Happy Birthday to you as well. Hope you have fun and get lots of awesome presents.
Hey Chris,
You might remember I inquired earlier about the rights to the Malice screenplay. Could you contact me via email? I’d like to know a bit more about the production. Although my dream of adapting Malice myself has ended, I’d still love to get involved with the production in any way. I really love the world you’ve created, and to be part of bringing it to screen would be really up my sleeve. Hope to hear from you.
Regards,
Aditya Wadhwani
*props up net in front of face* SHOOT.
Buy another? Not a fan of the free replacement service for red-ringed 360s (even when it’s another problem, it’s usually simple enough to just deliberately overheat it/make it red ring/tell them it red ringed, and they’ll fix it anyway)?
I’m told Heavy Rain was the opposite of what was expected – the play mechanics it uses are actually fairly solid in the end for telling a story, but the story that was told fell short of expectations with bad voice acting, worse dialogue writing and a big, highly noticeable plot hole near the end. Feed back your opinion sometime!
Otherwise, more Ketty Jay can only be a good thing. Still champing at the bit for the second, after all. Nice to know a third won’t be coming out during my year out of the continent, either.
Never posted before but hi!
Great news ’bout more Ketty Jay novels, I’ve managed to buy every single book you’ve put out so far although I still haven’t finished The Fade or even managed to start Malice or Retribution Falls. They’re sitting by my bed in the “to read” pile. Unfortunately I normally get about 20 pages into a book and then disappear off to my computer to continue writing my own stuff. Hopefully once I’m out of school I’ll have time to do both in one day! Well one can hope anyway.
Speaking of the Ketty Jay, I saw the Retribution Falls got longlisted for the British Fantasy Awards so grats; hopefully it gets shortlisted and then onwards to victory!
Hello Chris.
My wife and I visited your mum and dad last summer and as I am an avid reader, I was very lucky to be given some of your books to read by your mother. Now I am a great fan of yours and am amazed at your imagination and depth of story. Truly fantastic
I am very proud to say that my wife and I knew you and your brothers as young boys.
I await your books being transferred onto the big screen.
Good luck for a mega future Jim Goldie
Hello Mr. Wooding.
Since i first read Broken Sky some 10 years ago, your works have spurred my imagination and I wish to thank you for the worlds you have build.
I read a lot of different genres and I have many favorite book, but somehow i always find myself returning to Ryushi and Kia. Some might say I have “out-grown” them, but I just never seem to tire of their universe.
Therefore I have a request. I am currently developing a board game, and I have for the past month, been harboring a strong wish to base the theme on Broken Sky.
I am not a professional game designer, and I have no reason to think that this game will ever be published, but I am very interested in your opinion on the project, and whether or not you could approve of this kind of adaption of your work.
Best wishes and happy writing,
Magnus Boye
Copenhagen
Denmark
@ Pombar – Heavy Rain was disappointing in the end. I wanted to really like it, but the game mechanics formed such a small part of the game that it ended up being like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure movie, except that you had to twiddle the joystick whenever you moved your elbow. I’m currently all about Uncharted 2.
@ Joseph – Didn’t make the shortlist, unfortunately. Oh well!
@ James – Oh, God. I’m afraid I don’t remember you visiting us, but no doubt my brothers & I were punching each other and screaming when you did. Oh well, glad you like the books, anyway
@ Magnus – Here’s the deal on fanfic/tie-in stuff/whatever. I’m all for anyone doing stuff based on my work as long as it’s not for profit. As soon as it becomes about money then it gets legal. By all means make a board game of Broken Sky if you like, but before it ever saw the light of day it would have to be approved by Scholastic and myself, otherwise you’re breaking copyright. Honestly, though, I think you’d have a hard time getting games publishers interested: Broken Sky doesn’t exactly have the same kind of pulling power that something like Artemis Fowl or Skulduggery Pleasant would have to a buying public. But if you’re just doing it for fun, then go for it.
Uncharted 2! \o/
Have fun scoring headshots! ;D
I am currently playing FFXIII but I get distracted by U2:AT time and time again. I must admit that I am spoiled by Uncharted’s seamless gameplay. :I
I mean, I didn’t give it much thought but it is so much more engaging when you don’t get loading screens every five seconds. Which also means that you kinda lose track of time and then suddenly it’s past midnight. >_> Luckily that was a weekend.
Hope you have as much fun with it as I did. It’s my favourite PS3-game and I doubt that FFXIII will ever get close… ._. Which is kind of sad as I always loved FF. Oh well.
And RE5 is only fun when played in co-op.
Read many such reviews of Heavy Rain. I did want to buy it but now I guess I’ll just wait until I can borrow it from one of my friends who have it. ;D
Hi Chris,
Really looking forward to the new books, haven’t quite finished Retribution Falls yet, but finished Malice last night and was thrilled when i found out that Havoc was out soon. How on earth do you manage to write them so quickly? I’m terrible when it comes to my writing, i don’t have the attention span to stick with one novel at a time so i have about five on the go at once, depending on the mood i’m in. Is that a bad idea? Maybe i need to focus on one and get at least a first draft finished before i start something new? what do you think? I’m hoping to get some work published at some point but i’m nowhere near organised enough yet i don’t think. Any advice?
Advice: finish a first draft. The number one cause of death in fledgling authors is that they never finish anything, because they endlessly tweak it as they’re going along, and then it takes them three years to write the first quarter of the book and they give up. There’s no point writing dozens of beginnings if you don’t learn how to finish a book, or how to deal with the middle sections. So yeah, pick one, write it, and don’t worry about making it good, just get it finished. Then you can go back and look at improving it when you’ve got the whole thing down.
How do I write so quickly? Because daytime tv rots my soul. I blame society’s lack of adequate distractions for my high work rate.
@ Kath – Uncharted 2 = awesomely slick. I love it. They’ve really integrated game & movie mechanics so well. And, of course, you get to headshot people from miles away. I’m a natural sniper…
Really? You….trust (my archenemy) Sony….
I’ve never had a PS2 last more than a few years….I bought a new PSONE back in…2004 maybe. It lasted about four years….so good on Sony there I guess (actually, it still comes on sometimes-and I can usually play it ’til I get through some rough part and then it dies and vanquishes my hard work.) But my (Mom’s) SNES is still working….after twenty years. Go Nintendo!
Got to say, excellent news that you are writing more books regarding the crew of the “Ketty Jay”. I’m half way through “Retribution Falls” and really loving it. I love the not-exactly-steampunk setting (reminds me a little of China Mieville’s world in Perdido Street Station), but I keep waiting for someone to call Frey, “Mal” – am I the only person who keeps thiking that the “Ketty Jay” looks like a Firefly? D.
So why should I care when your books are NOT available through Amazon for the Kindle?!?
Ignoring for a moment the snotty tone of your post, it took me all of a minute to go to Amazon.com Kindle store, type in Retribution Falls, and there it was. There now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?
If Amazon won’t send it to you because you live in a different region or whatever, then that’s Amazon’s fault, and nothing to do with me.
Hey Chris, You are certainly my favourite author!! My Brother introduced me to Broken sky many, many years ago, and it took me almost two years to rent or buy the first eight parts, and then it was re-released as a trilogy, and i could no longer get the ninth part, so instead I just went and bought the entire trilogy for collectors value
I’ve probably read through the broken sky series three or four times now! Love it!
I’ve also read the fade, retribution falls, and the braided path trilogy (which I just finished, and loved)
Sucks that broken sky isn’t bein made into a film, but the new Ketty Jay book will make up for that
omg! I just read ‘D.’s comment, and I was thinkin the same thing!! Retribution falls reminded me loads of firefly!! Both are crazy awesome