Well, you see, it’s like this…
I know I said I wasn’t going to do another pantheon book. I’d had enough of gods and families of gods and humans and their families, makeshift or otherwise. But then Jon the Editor asked would I mind doing another one for him and the other fine gentlefolk at Solaris, and soonish? And I thought about it, not for very long, and said, OK. Because I’m a nice obliging chap and because, frankly, I realised I did want to do another one after all.
Soooo… Dust is going on hold for the time being. It’s not been abandoned, it’s just being placed on the back burner, where it can bubble and froth to its heart’s content until such time as it’s ready to re-emerge.
Which pantheon will I be covering? I’ve been having fun with assorted blog-thread correspondents, especially one Nick Sharps, discussing the various deity clusters available, but the one that strikes me as having the most potential is the MesoAmerican lot. I’m already working up the synopsis, so I can’t say much else here. But there will most likely be flying saucers. Yes, you read that right. Flying saucers.
In other news, The Age Of Odin is doing nicely for itself sales-wise, especially Stateside, where… Well, take a look for yourself. You’ll need to scroll down a bit, but there it is, in at #33 in this week’s New York Times mass-market paperback bestsellers list. Hurrah! (NB. The link is valid only for the current week.)
Sorry to hear DUST is being pushed back…I am anxious to see what you do with it and, while I’ve loved your “Age of…” series, I’m ready for something different. Though I do have to say “Age of Odin” was a favorite of mine from the last few months. I saw the ending coming a mile away, but that’s not to say the build up and how you got there wasn’t some of the most fun I’ve had in a long time…
Looking forward to more goodness…
Yeah, it’s a pity about Dust, but to be honest, it really wasn’t ready. Some time spent in the mulling-over part of my brain will do it no end of good. Is Redlaw different enough for you? Vampires, after all, are a far cry from gods, particularly the way I’ve done them.
I wished the ending to Odin could have been a bit subtler, perhaps, but it was the only way to do it. I wanted to make the point about mythic archetypes and the notion of divine mythologies being embedded in us all, inclining humans to religious experience and interpretation of the world.
How on earth are you going to get “The Age of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli” on the cover of the book?!
I loved Ra and bought Zeus immediately…and it sat on my shelf until the first week of this year. So I ended up reading Zeus and Odin back-to-back. Thoroughly enjoyed them both. So glad you’ve decided to do more.
How about the Hindu gods? “The Age of Kali” has got a nice ring to it.
A very good point, Scott. I was going to use The Age Of Quetzalcoatl as a working title but even that’s a mouthful, not to mention a coverful. Those Aztec names all look like nightmare Scrabble hands. However, I have come up with a solution, and it’ll apply to this and the next Age Of book and the one after, if this turns out to be another threesome, which it may well do. It’s quite neat in that it’ll differentiate them from the first three but make it clear they’re all part of the same series. Moorcock used to do something similar with his Eternal Champion cycles. Watch this space…