New dates for the new series

HarperCollins has let me know the new publishing dates for the upcoming series:
Book 1 (currently called The Cursed Tears but may well become Bridge Of Swords or indeed something else entirely!) will be out in August 2012.
Book 2 (now The Grieving Son but hopefully Pass Of Arrows) will be out February 2013
Book 3 (now The Raging Night but perhaps Hill Of Shields) will be out August 2013.
Now this means it will be fully two years between The Radiant Child (July 2010) and the first of the new series.
That's my fault!
HC pushed my dates back partly because of overseas releases but mainly because I have rewritten the first book so dramatically - and taken a long time about it.
Part of that was the injury to my index finger, which stopped me writing for the best part of a month but it was mostly the sheer scale of the rewrite.
Basically I took the main character, Sendatsu, and changed him completely. This means about 25% of the rewrite is all new and 50% is substantially changed - not a task you can finish in a few days.
The other issue was book two, which I had written about 80,000 words. Now Sendatsu had changed, about 70,000 words of this had to change. Basically I was back to the beginning with book two - and had to deliver that by the end of the year because of the old deadline.
I took the decision because of the feedback I was getting from my beta readers. The bottom line was the original character was too polarising - a real love/hate character. Hanging an entire trilogy on someone like that is too much to ask. The danger was readers would turn off him before he was redeemed.
It's a classic trap of a trilogy ... your character's arc is designed over three books, so you begin with an unsympathetic character who wins over the reader (ideally). The problem is, you can end up with one who turns off the reader, so they don't read on to find out what happens!
I've written before about David Gemmell, one of my inspirations for writing fantasy. He managed to do something similar with Sigarni in Ironhand's Daughter. His follow-up book, The Hawk Eternal, relegated her to a minor character and put someone more sympathetic front and centre.
Of course Gemmell had, by then, a large and dedicated readership who stuck with him.
I don't have that luxury!
I have many other stories I want to write - and want the opportunity to see them in print.
It was a big call to rip up a main character, change them utterly and go again. But the alternative was worse.
Honestly, it was a scary call but I've always been of the opinion you should do things that scare you!
The good news is, I'm sure it was the right decision.
Of my two beta readers, one said the new opening was ``100 times better'' and the other said they ``love, love, loved it'' and was ``instantly sympathetic to Sendatsu''.
Infinitas Bookshop, which has been a wonderful supporter of The Dragon Sword Histories, once said to me that fantasy was ``all about the characters''.
That's absolutely correct.
I had to get the characters right. I think they are now ... but it has taken longer than I thought.
Hopefully the wait will prove worthwhile!

Compared to David Gemmell in a review

The late, great British fantasy author David Gemmell has been a huge inspiration for me - in fact, as I have written before, without his seminal work, Legend, I may never have read any fantasy beyond The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings.
As well as being a fan of his work, I felt a certain affinity for Gemmell's work.
He was a long-time resident of Hastings, in Sussex, while I lived in both Eastbourne and Brighton, both towns in Sussex, less than 50 kilometres from Hastings.
Gemmell was an editor of local newspapers in Sussex, I was an editor of local newspapers (albeit in Australia!)
The thought of one day meeting David Gemmell as a published author myself was a secret ambition of mine - although no doubt shared by many other would-be authors.
Sadly he died in July 2006, more than a year before I received my contract for The Dragon Sword Histories, robbing the fantasy world of one of its greatest writers.
Naturally he left many thousands of devoted fans wondering where the next Gemmell-esque book was going to come from.
No doubt there are quite a few authors jostling for this position.
I have to say, while I loved his work, I would hate to be thought of as 'the next David Gemmell' - for a wide variety of reasons. I would rather be thought of as the first Duncan Lay!
But to be compared to him is still, in my opinion, praise of the highest order.
Certainly his work had some flaws, such as his (self-confessed) problems with writing female characters - but his books had a marvellous depth, making them an experience to read both as a teenager and then something different as an adult.
Anyway, the point of all this is a review in the upcoming edition of Australian Bookseller And Publisher of my second book, The Risen Queen, which will be out in the shops from December 15.
The key passage, for me is: "Fast paced and dramatic, Lay writes the kind of battle scenes that I have not seen since the late David Gemmell, and booksellers should definitely be recommending this to his fans."
I've been absolutely pumped since reading this!
To be in the same sentence, particularly one recommending me to David Gemmell fans, is fantastic. This whole experience is a dream come true but let's just say that being compared to David Gemmell is something of a fantasy realised!

Thanks to Gemmell and Feist

These books would not exist without two of fantasy’s top writers – David Gemmell and Raymond E Feist.
Like most teenagers, I had read Tolkein and thought fantasy consisted of endless description, long passages of verse in other languages and a healthy dose of elves, dwarves and orcs. While I enjoyed it, I had no plans to read more.
Then a mate of mine presented me with David Gemmell’s first novel, Legend, and insisted I read it, over my protestations.
Long story short, I read it, enjoyed it so much that I have every one of Gemmell’s novels and began to read fantasy – Eddings, Brooks, Feist and more.
I loved the gritty, realistic fantasy, as well as fantasy with great characters and intricate plots. Gemmell had begun a fascination with fantasy, opened the door into that genre for me.
I tried to write my own fantasy – plots were no problem but characters were and I had zero success in interesting people with them.
Flash forward a few years and I was – like so many others – a frustrated writer, while working as the editor of the Hornsby Advocate, a paper serving the far north of Sydney.
I had no more plans to write fantasy but was trying to write a contemporary Australian novel – and getting nowhere.
HarperCollins (one of those quirks of fate/destiny/whatever) brought out Raymond E Feist for his Talon Of The Silver Hawk tour. Feist was one of my favourites and I lobbied to get him to visit Borders at Hornsby, where I could interview him.
Success! I met him at Starbucks and spent a fascinating 45 minutes chatting to him – so much so that the publicist had to call a halt to our interview!
But I had enough time to talk to him about writing, and we discussed how he works through his books, how his characters sometimes take him off into subplots or on entire arcs that he never imagined when he sat down to write.
As he put it, he knew the characters have to get from A to Z – but they don’t go via B, C, D, E etc etc. They might begin that way, then jump to M, N, before darting back to J.
I listened, fascinated. For that was exactly the way I like to write.
Inspired, thinking that I was, unwittingly, emulating Feist, I began work on fantasy once more.
Seven years later, The Wounded Guardian will be on the shelves.
Incidentally, after I signed the contract, I tracked down Mr Feist. He was generous enough to reply to my email.
It said, in part:
Don't go blaming me, mate, if you got the storytelling bug. And if you somehow manage to get rich and famous doing this, it's not my fault!
Anyway, continued success to you and if I played even a small part in motivating you to live your dream, thanks for letting me know.

So thanks to Mr Gemmell and Mr Feist, I am about to become a published author!