I spoke to Catherynne Valente while she signed some books for me at FOGCon, in Walnut Creek, CA, last weekend. With a bit of trepidation, I asked her about the third book in the Prester John series. I say “with a bit of trepidation” because I’m sure writers don’t like to be nagged about their work.
Valente was charming. She said it was “heartening” to hear the outpouring of support for those books. (Maybe she was just reacting to my plea to her not to hit me*.) She said she will be starting a Kickstarter Campaign in April to help fund the third book. She promised she would not leave her readers hanging.
Regardless of how I feel about a dynamic, changing publishing industry that has shifted more and more of the risk on a book to its creator, I was thrilled by this news. I will pledge as soon as the campaign opens. Valente is an amazing writer with an almost magical control over prose, and a sense of story that I can only envy. I love all of her work but the Prester John series has me enthralled, especially the second book, The Folded World. I eagerly await the final book in the trilogy.
*Please note for the record that to my knowledge, Cat Valente has never threatened to hit anyone.
This is the best news I’ve heard in a long time!
I love everything about this series. I’ve got a million-and-a-half conflicting thoughts that you’ve posed about publishing but I’m too excited about the book to even begin!
Right there with you. I will definitely pledge, and I can’t wait.
She said, “I would never leave you all hanging that way.” I thought that was nice, and a slightly pointed comment about others writers of series.
As smart as she is, I have to believe she knew exactly what “I would never leave you all hanging that way” meant. And to your her point, I usually stay away from books in a series unless it’s an older one that is already finished.
How many decades did it take Stephen King to finish The Dark Tower?
Dark Tower… hmm, first published in the eighties, finished in the twenty-teens ( or was it the oughts?)
Point taken!