This is a business decision, not a lack of enthusiasm. The people who have contacted me about the Inheritors’ Cycle have loved it, as do I, as does my publisher. But let me try to explain what happens in the life cycle of a book (and writer).

THE QUEEN’S BASTARD sold pretty well; THE PRETENDER’S CROWN, rather less so. Therein lies the problem.

When bookstores order books to put on their shelves, they look at the last book a writer has produced. If that book sold 10 copies at their store, then they’ll probably order 9 copies of the next book. Maybe even eleven. It doesn’t matter if it’s part of the same series. All that matters is who wrote it.

So if the last book sold 3 copies, they’ll order two. And it still doesn’t matter if it’s a different series. They’ll order two, and that means only 2 people are going to be able to grab it off the shelf when it comes in. And they might say, “Great, those sold, we’ll order two more!”–but if there’d been 10 in the first place, and 10 people had snatched them up, they’d be ordering 10 more.

So if PRETENDER’S CROWN sold 3 copies, the bookstores aren’t going to say “Oh, different series, these ones move faster!” when DEMON HUNTS comes out. They’re going to say, “Oh, she only sold 3 books last time, let’s not order more than that.”

You can see the potential knock-on effect this has on a writer’s career.

So at the moment, both the larger part of my reputation as a writer and the market is interested in urban fantasy, not alternate history epic sci-fantasy. That’s what’s selling for me, and it’s what my publishers are interested in, and it is therefore what I’m interested in.

Don’t get me wrong. I hope the worm will eventually turn and I’ll have the opportunity to go back and write more in that world. But for now, well, this is how I pay rent, so I’m pitching urban fantasy ideas, and we’ll see how that goes.

On June 1, 2010, my 13th novel and 19th published work, DEMON HUNTS, hit the shelves.

If anybody asks what I was doing during the Oughts, this is mostly the answer:

Go me. :)

Seattle’s a great place to live…if it weren’t for the undead.

No one’s getting out of there alive.

To go along with WALKING DEAD’s release, my web guru, Laura Denson, recently did a recording of “Rabbit Tricks”, the Walker Papers short story that fits chronologically between COYOTE DREAMS and WALKING DEAD.

My longtime friend and writing partner Sarah Palmero did a two-minute voice recording from THE QUEEN’S BASTARD. I think both of these are pretty damned cool (if utterly bizarre, because wow, really weird to hear someone else reading my words!), and would like to thank them both profusely for doing these and letting me post them publicly!

Fifth, I’m terribly smug to show off the (tiny–if you want to see it full sized you’ll have to buy the story) cover for “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight”, which was painted by manga artist Lanny Liu.

Along those same lines, “Hot Time” has debuted amongst its patrons today. (I wasn’t thinking, when I changed its due date to September 1st, that that was also the release date for WALKING DEAD. Oh well, everybody got WD early anyway, so “Hot Time” still gets to be a little bit special.) For those who didn’t join the fundable commission the first time through, the novella will be available to purchase in February 2010, after which it’ll go off the market permanently until it finds a traditional publisher.

And I just noticed several of my books have been nominated as contenders for 101 Best Fantasy novels. I have to admit that given some of the company (which ranges from Lloyd Alexander to Diana Wynne Jones with all points between), I feel my presence there is a bit ludicrous, but also quite wonderful and I wouldn’t mind making it onto somebody’s top 100 list, so if you wanted, you could go vote. :) And my thanks to whomever nominated me, how cool of you. :)

Someone asked recently if there would be more books in the Inheritors’ Cycle. I have plans for 2 or 3 more books in that series, but I haven’t yet sold them to Del Rey, the publisher for that series. I’ll be writing up a proposal toward the end of the summer, so hopefully I’ll have more information about whether the series will continue by the end of 2009.

In the meantime, DEMON HUNTS, book five of the Walker Papers, has been completed and delivered. There is, however, still time to bid to become a character in that book, and if bidding on both my auction items combined (the Irish gift basket is here) goes over $450 by the close of the auction on Sunday, I’ll write a new Walker Papers or Old Races short story for my internet audience. :)

And speaking of the Walker Papers, the mass market editions of books 1-3 should be available now! I’m ridiculously excited about these, as they’re my first mass market releases under the CE Murphy byline. May they be the first of many!

Today, my good people, is Release Day! THE PRETENDER’S CROWN, Book Two of the Inheritors’ Cycle, is on the shelves! I’ve written a bit about it here, at Suvudu.com (Random House’s sf/f website, where I’ll be posting weekly in the future), and now I come to do the dance of joy at my own website. :)

This is 8th C.E. Murphy book since June 2005 (10th if you count the anthologies), and my 13th published work in that same time frame. It puts me very, *very* close to the absolute culmination of what I set out to do four years ago in terms of shelf space, and I am *utterly* delighted by that. (Also relieved!)

I’m also pretty pleased with the book. Get your sex, politics, murder and betrayal right here, on a silver platter….and then buy a copy for your friends, so I can keep writing in this world. :)

Read an excerpt
Order it now!

Belinda – Michelle Trachtenberg
Javier – Kyle Schmid
Lorraine Walter – Tilda Swinton
Eliza Beaulieu – Natalie Portman
Lord Drake – Eric Braeden
Marius Poulin – Henry Cavill
Sacha Asselin – Paul Walker
Sandalia – Orla Brady
Irina – Cate Blanchett
Akilina – Shirley Henderson
Rodrigo – Javier Bardem
Dmitri – Clive Owen
Gondola Boy – Jim Sturgess

The most interesting thing about this contest, for me, is that not one of the actors is somebody I’d thought of when I ‘cast’ this book in my mind–and TQB is about the only book I’ve ever cast anybody for. I *love* the choices people made, but it’s fascinating to see the different ideas!

Also:
I have received in the mail a small box of A FANTASY MEDLEY.

Many people said “Gosh, I could cast the Old Races or the Walker Papers”, and so, because there will be no more Negotiator books, I will give you the opportunity to win a copy of A FANTASY MEDLEY, which has a Janx & Daisani story in it, by casting the Negotiator trilogy. My favorite cast list gets a copy of the anthology. Major characters: Margrit Knight, Alban Korund, Grace O’Malley, Janx, Daisani, Kaimana, Cole, Cameron, Tony. Bonus points for casting any of the following: Margrit’s parents, Chelsea, Russell, Cara, Tariq, Biali, Malik, Ausra, Kate, Ursula, Sarah, Hajnal.

It isn’t necessary to cast all of them. It’s not even necessary to cast most of them. Just have fun with it. :) I’ll close the contest a week from now, at about noon Eastern time on Tuesday April 14th.

So! I have two copies. One must go on my Shelf Of Books I Wrote, but the other, I think, cries out to be sent into the world. So there will be a contest!

I will be the director. You will be the Casting Agents. The book will go to the person who builds what is to my mind the best complete cast for THE QUEEN’S BASTARD. The integral characters, therefore, are Belinda Primrose, Robert Drake, Lorraine Walter, Sandalia de Costa, Javier de Castille, Eliza Beaulieu, Marius Poulin, and Sacha Asselin. Bonus points for also casting Dmitri Leontyev, Rodrigo de Costa, Irina Durova, and Akilina Pankejeff. And I’ll be really impressed if you also cast Viktor, Ilyana and the gondola boy. :)

The parts don’t have to be cast with current actors, I wouldn’t say, or people at their current ages. That makes it more fun, I think. :)

Here’s the catch: I only have the one copy to send out, and this post goes out at mizkit.com, cemurphy.net, mizkit.livejournal.com, Facebook, and Myspace. I expect answers will come in from most of those places, so you might not see the winning entry wherever you actually do your own answering. I will, of course, post the winning entry here.

Let’s see. I’ll choose a winner (EDITED: deadline extended!) at noon EST on Tuesday, April 7.

Have at!

Several people have emailed to ask when the next Walker Papers will be out. I’m delighted to let you know that book four, WALKING DEAD, will be out in September 2009.

It is, in fact, going to be a busy year for releases. This is what this year’s publication schedule looks like:

March: A FANTASY MEDLEY (anthology featuring a story of the Old Races)

May: THE PRETENDER’S CROWN (book two of the Inheritors’ Cycle)

June: mass market paperback re-releases of URBAN SHAMAN, THUNDERBIRD FALLS, & COYOTE DREAMS (books 1-3 of the Walker Papers)

September: WALKING DEAD (book four of the Walker Papers)

October: mass market paperback re-release of WINTER MOON (anthology featuring “Banshee Cries”, a Walker Papers novella); also, THE PHANTOM QUEEN AWAKES, a mass market anthology with an original short story about the Morrigan

November: TAKE A CHANCE graphic novel, compiling issues 1-5 of TAKE A CHANCE, my new superhero comic currently being released as monthly issues

Frankly, I’m exhausted. :)

It’s high time, too, that I showed off the cover for THE PRETENDER’S CROWN, and along with it, a teaser excerpt from the book. The scene is from chapter one, and Belinda has been summoned to discuss recent political developments with her mother the queen…
Read the teaser!

I talk quite a bit about the nerve-wracking aspect of this book over at Magical Words today, and Joshua Palmatier invited me to participate in his author introduction series…where, it turns out, I talked about the nerve-wracking aspects of this book, albeit in a *slightly* different way. :)

I should be less nervous, maybe. It’s my tenth book, which you’d think would settle my nerves some in and of itself. It’s gotten some really nice reviews (money shot from Booklist’s starred review: “…the first of what promises to be an outstanding series featuring a masterfully intricate dance of politics and intrigue in a world with parallels to the Elizabethan era., and Kate Elliott said it was really good, which means more to me personally than Booklist, because ZOMG Kate Elliott! o.o). It has, in fact, already gone back to print, thanks to a big library supplier order, which, y’know, bodes well.

Still. Nervous. Excited. Hopeful. Very hopeful.

I’d love to astound my editor by having the book go back to print again by the end of May. It only (only!) needs to sell about 15,000 copies to do that. So send people to read the excerpt and to drool over the cover and help me make a little noise about this one, please? *looks charming and hopeful* :)