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Miss Freedom will be for general publication. No hardcover — just want to be done with The Prisoner series. We’ll get out the regular edition and then walk away like you did from that person you never should have dated in college but you thought, what’s the harm?
Hey, Simon!
I’m slowly trying to get this site to be a little more “alive” again — I also need to get the old Omega Diary hooked up on my new williamlatham.net website — the pages are loaded up on the server, I just need to enable some links.So I’ll use this space to dispense a little information on three topics, to reward those who come up here.
Mary’s Monster Redux — so the new edition won’t be a Powys Book — I’m spinning off my own little publishing company and that will be one of its first books. The new version is a lot of fun to work on — just don’t get much time to do it. For anybody familiar with the old version, this has some pieces from the old book but I’d say it’s 95% different. I’m trying to keep it in the same scope of the original but the overall story will be very different. I’d say it’s about a third finished, so probably not for this year.
Eternity Unhinged — so, what is this anyway? Well, I’m not going to give too many details. When Balor’s on his asteroid, he’s going to remember something that happened on Progron — it’s a whole story within a story kind of thing. It won’t change any of the events from Eternity Unbound really, at least plotwise, but it will give some additional glimpses into our favorite Progronian whackjob.
Odysseus Wept — well, this book is a lot of things. It’s something of a sequel to The Forsaken. It’s also the end of the line for our book series, and as you’d probably surmise, the characters (or some of them, anyway). But it’s not all as bleak as it sounds, there will be things left in place for…well, don’t want to give anything away, really. There’s obviously some business from the end of Final Revolution that needs addressing.
Assuming we do special hardcovers of Omega and Alpha, I may rip apart Chasing the Cyclops and do an annotated version of the two books. I may also write out a prequel novella of Adantia’s story — I’ve always wanted to go back to that.
Let me also not ignore Steve Foster in my posting, who also comes to visit regularly, even if he’s mad when I kill off characters! Not to worry, Steve — you’ll have to decide after it all turns out in Odysseus Wept if I am as evil as I seem!
Anyway, that’s what’s exciting. Happy Spring everybody!
BL
Updated answer for #2:
“Originals with modifications from the scripts as needed.”
So that doesn’t necessarily specify US or UK — the big thing is novelizations of the actual episodes themselves, where they’re weren’t always “representative” of the broadcast episodes, will be made more representative — meaning we want you to be able to read the episodes just the way you’d watch them, without missing bits of dialogue. Where it’s appropriate, we’ll add little bits of Powys-ness to make everything complete.
Okay, here we go!
1. Yes, there will be a Year One Omnibus. Remember back in 2010 when all sorts of coolness was coming out of Powys after a long sleep? Well, yours truly spent New Year’s Eve of 2009 at home scanning paperback pages for the Year One Omnibus, pausing only long enough to watch the ball drop. So it pains me that the book’s not out yet. While I’ve tried to focus my efforts on getting the new stuff written, I step in from time to time to help this project along. It’s actively being worked on right now, we have the contracts all signed — now it’s up to us to deliver.
2. I’ll get you an answer for #2 — I know that the primary mover on the project right now is dipping into multiple sources to get the best stuff in place for the final text.
3. I want hardcovers for me! So yes, they will happen. Lulu’s been frustrating the past year or so with the way they stop supporting some format sizes for their international distribution, and it’s a pain to reformat the books. I basically need big blocks of time to do it and while I’m in there, proofreading starts to happen and the next thing I know, my weekend’s gone. But I personally want hardcover editions, so that’s reformatting for me that I can just share with everyone else.
Okay, that’s 3 questions, 7 to go, and I’ll get you an answer that’s more definitive on question 2.
Thanks, Tex! Keep ’em coming.
BL
Oh, my gosh, didn’t we just put a book out this year?
Well, more stuff coming. On vacation from work for a bit with lots of Powys work on my agenda. Don’t know if I’ll hit that March deadline, Zack, but you can never tell.
Happy holidays everyone out there in TV land…
BL
Hello, anybody, it’s a little over a year from the posting where I said it would be interesting to revisit this in a year…I’m just saying… 👿
Have a heart, everybody — if you’re going to spoil content from the book, please use the spoiler tags.
Lulu has been extremely challenging of late — apparently, the standard paperback size that we’ve used (and even 6 X 9 books) aren’t being printed internationally like they have in the past — we can’t get our same ISBN numbers and distribution options as we have previously which is REALLY frustrating. But, continuing to try to get a straight answer from lulu.
I’d say steer clear of expedited shipping for international orders at the very least until we hear more.
I’ll keep everyone posted.
BL
Mrs. Sokol is reading, Ken’s been busy, lulu is luluing, I am proofing…
We’re not days away from release yet, but we could be weeks…I’ll be more excited when I finish it! I’m in the final act with all the juggling pins in the air and they’re about ready to fall into place in that final surge that usually means a day or two of solid writing and then it’s done — the trick is getting the day or two when you’re busy deflecting hackers (nice try, last time! hahaha, we win!).
I will say this — the bad guy in the book is about the most reprehensible villain I’ve done — I think he makes Balor look almost honorable.
Some folks out there have had an opportunity to see a little glimpse of chapter one, which usually means the end is nigh…
Hey, folks — been all over the place of late. Still trying to get Final Revolution finished — it’s been a very challenging book to write! I think Resurrection played with some interesting concepts in physiology and this book is playing with some interesting concepts in cosmology. So every time I go through the plot lines it’s like a Rubik’s cube — I have to rearrange pieces and make sure they still line up correctly.
Still trying to nail down a project plan for the Year One Omnibus — it’s such a major undertaking, and the rights-holders have been very patient with me — there’s a small team of people trying to make sure it CAN be done before we actually commit to doing it.
Prodigal Moon is just waiting for some last minute entries and then we’ll announce what’s going to be in the final version.
Black Doves is still in kind of a limbo state — nothing to report on it definitively, yet.
I think I have all the pieces I need for The Prisoner book — just need the time to put it together. And still no decision on Eternity Unbound/Eternity Unleashed. It pains me to see people charging $75 to $150 dollars for the existing book (and I certainly hope nobody’s paying that amount).
Anyway, making little steps forward on all of these fronts (but it’s hard when you’re a one-man-band). Bill the novelist needs to finish his work — then Bill the publisher can really get busy on everything else.
Lastly, shoutout to our friend Mr. Nimoy, and wish him well on his final frontier. I’ll never forget (spoiler alert!) back in the 1970s, the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, when Spock turned out to be working for the pod people, man, did it feel like there was just no hope. Bitter dregs indeed!
Hey, Blomkamp, do right with Ellen — take the grand lady out in style, could you? Somebody wake up Hicks…
BL
Quick shout out to John Muir, as well, who has done much behind the scenes as well.
I’d love it if we could do electronic versions of our novels, but we’re prohibited by contract from doing it. My own little “Scary Stories of Stamford” (what? you don’t have a copy? address that at once!) is the only eBook we currently have. But if my energy level is up this weekend, Chasing the Cyclops may join it.
Good to see the old faces stopping by to help us enjoy our own wake — but there’s still so much to happen between now and then…
