Seatbelts on and here we go!
This is it—the start of the final phase of the Craft universe, a return to where it all began: Tara, walking out of the desert to the home where she never quite belonged. She’s older, more powerful, maybe a little wiser—a Craftswoman who’s made her way in the world as counsel to Gods (even if they don’t listen any more than your average replacement client). She set off to change the world. She’s found, to her mild horror, that she may have to be the one to save it.
But first she has to bury her father. And train a young witch-girl, new to her powers, feared and hated by the same folks who threw Tara out of town all those years ago…
If you’ve been reading Craft novels for a while now, welcome back. If you’re new, welcome! I wrote Dead Country to be a good jumping-on point for the series. You’ll learn all you need to know—and if you want to know more, the previous books are a click away.
(Oh, and—apologies if you’re subscribed to both this newsletter and the announcements list! You’ll have two copies of this in your inbox. Someday I’ll figure out how to stop that from happening!)
Back when I wrote the first draft of Dead Country I tried several angles of attack before I found one that worked. That happens a lot with the Craft novels—I’ll find myself with some overwhelming central concept, like the idols and faith-banking of Kavekana’ai in Full Fathom Five, and maze around for a while trying to guide the reader into them. The method—I mean, the way I figure out how to scout through the maze—changes from book to book. This time, I went back to my phpBB forum fanfic roots, and emailed raw scenes to Amal almost as I typed them out. In my early books I really wanted to professionalize, to do things in a ‘proper’ and writerly way. I sought out software for novel writers and distraciton-free writing environments and so on, and I won’t lie, some of that has been really helpful. But with Dead Country (and to some extent every book after) I found myself deprofessionalizing, in favor of the basic and core technique: tell a story so someone wants to see what happens next. Come to think, my earliest fiction was written longhand, like most of my work today… You arrive at the place where you started, and know it for the first time, as the guy says.
Those rough scenes have been revised extensively—but for all that’s changed (I can’t say much for fear of spoilers but even fundamental aspects of the book’s concept shifted during composition and revision as I realized what story I really wanted to tell), the structure of those early chapters have remained—the tale told to a friend.
And now I get to share it with you.
Dead Country is available wherever fine books are sold or borrowed—like, say, my local indie bookshop, the big river omnimart, Barnes & Noble, and your friendly local library.
If you have time free tonight, the folks at Mysterious Galaxy are hosting a virtual book event at 9pm ET / 6pm Pacific. Amal El-Mohtar and I will discuss Dead Country, the Craft Sequence as a whole, and the future of the Craft Wars project. I’ve sent Mysterious Galaxy a bunch of book plates, so if you want a singed copy, one way to do it is to register for the event, buy a copy, and request a book plate.
I’ll be in person at Pandemonium Books and Games in Cambridge on Thursday, as well—register here! If you order through Pandemonium and request a signed copy, they can mail it to you. And I’m always happy to sign copies ordered through Porter Square Books. In years past I’ve arranged for a fancy signed pre-order link, but this year between parenting and, well, more parenting, I haven’t managed to make that happen. But if you order through them and indicate that you’d like a signed copy in the comments section, I’ll walk over and inscribe them myself.
If you want to support the launch: thank you! Reviews really help, wherever you choose to post them. And: talk about the book. Ask for a copy at your local library. Ask for a copy at your local Barnes & Noble, now that B&N’s ordering is more controlled by local managers than the central office (a cool development in my opinion though like any change it complicates publishing as currently instantiated—but that’s a sidebar beyond the limits of my professional knowledge, more on that subject in future maybe as I come to understand it).
But, most of all: recommend the book to people that you think might like it. That remains the core of this whole endeavor—the community of books. My uncle Danny gave me my first copy of Lord of Light. An older Scout handed me my first Robert Jordan novel. A friend of my parents’ encouraged them to give me Dorothy Dunnett. To all those of you who have been doing this work already—thank you. It really matters.
Take it easy, friends. Enjoy. And—I’m about two books ahead in the series, and I can’t wait for you to catch up. We’re going into the wilds here, friends. Happy reading. Hold onto your hats.
Max Max Max Max MAX I AM SO EXCITED for this book! Tara is not so secretly my favorite; I still remember getting the ARC of Three Parts Dead and just THE COVER made me fall in love. I'm gonna try to make it to the virtual event tonight (if I don't get distracted by Mary Beard lectures on YouTube, my current obsession), but if I miss it, please give Amal my love.