entire current report can be found on the Panix gopher (gopher.panix.com)
in the Del Rey Books subdirectory, under Publishing Information.)
No updates this month, except the happy news that Julian May's MAGNIFICAT
is finally out from Knopf in hardcover! A sample chapter is available on
our Web site, gopherspace, and fileserver (see below for addresses).
---------------------------------------------------------------
SIGNING, READINGS, CONVENTION ATTENDANCE BY DEL REY AUTHORS
LAWRENCE WATT-EVANS will be Guest of Honor at CREMECON in Glendale,
Wisconsin, February 2-4.
ROBY JAMES will be signing COMMENCEMENT at the following stores: February
17: B. Dalton, Northridge Fashion Mall, Northridge, California 12-1PM.
February 21: Barnes & Noble Superstore, Encino, California, 7:30PM.
February 24: Super Crown, Encino, California, 1PM. February 26: Barnes &
Noble, Northridge, California, 7PM.
DEL REY NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS===================================
BIG CHANGES IN WHO RUNS DEL REY
Owen Lock, formerly Del Rey editor-in-chief, has been appointed to the
newly created position of Vice President, Editor at Large for the
Ballantine Publishing Group. In his new position, Mr. Lock will be
acquiring properties for the company's expanding military nonfiction line
as well as in the areas of new media and science fiction. He will continue
to work with bestselling fantasy author Terry Brooks.
Meanwhile, Kuo-Yu Liang, formerly Del Rey Sales Manager, has been named
Associate Publisher of Del Rey Books. In his newly created position,
Kuo-Yu will be responsible for editorial direction as well as sales and
marketing for all Del Rey books. Shelly Shapiro, Executive Editor of Del
Rey, will continue to supervise the Del Rey staff.
Tim Kochuba, General Manager of Ballantine's House of Collectibles imprint,
has been named Vice President and General Manager of Del Rey Books, a new
position with overall responsibility for Del Rey's publishing program. He
will work closely with Kuo-Yu Liang. Prior to joining the Ballantine
Publishing Group, Mr. Kochuba was Products Manager at MBI, Inc. (the
Danbury Mint). In that capacity, he published signed first editions of
works by such major science fiction authors as Anne McCaffrey, Frederik
Pohl, Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Harlan
Ellison.
---------------------------------------------------------------
WEIS AND HICKMAN SIGN WITH DEL REY FOR TWO ALL-NEW FANTASY SERIES
Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, bestselling fantasy authors, have signed
with Del Rey for six books in two brand-new series: a science-fiction
series tentatively titled _Starshield_ and an as-yet-unnamed epic fantasy
series. We hope to publish the first of these new acquisitions--the first
_Starshield_ novel--in November of this year.
LATEST EXCERPTS ONLINE=============================================
Sample chapters of some of our upcoming and recent (and some of our
favorite, neither upcoming nor recent) books are now available online (for
free, of course). This month's books are FIRST KING OF SHANNARA, MAD AMOS,
THE WIND AFTER TIME, and STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO VEHICLES AND
VESSELS by Bill Smith. Descriptions above in "What's New in the Stores."
And we also have a sample chapter of Julian May's MAGNIFICAT, third book in
the _Galactic Milieu Trilogy,_ which is out this month from Knopf in
hardcover.
You can get the sample chapters a few different ways: they're on the Del
Rey Web site (http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/) and on the Panix gopher
(gopher.panix.com) in the Del Rey Books directory; you can request them via
e.mail from the Del Rey fileserver (delrey@tachyon.com; SENDME
sample.first_king_shannara, sample.mad_amos, sample.wind_after_time,
sample.sw_guide_vessels, or sample.magnificat) and they'll be available in
CompuServe's SF Library 4 and AOL's SF and Fantasy libraries, too. (For a
list of all sample chapters available via the fileserver, send a message to
delrey@tachyon.com with "LIST sample" as the body of the message.)
IN DEPTH========================================================
Terry Brooks, bestselling author of the Shannara series, is at it again
with FIRST KING OF SHANNARA, a prequel. Here Mr. Brooks tells us why he
wrote another book in the series, why it's a prequel and not a sequel, and
what he might be working on next.
ORIGINS OF SHANNARA
I wasn't going to write FIRST KING OF SHANNARA. Really I wasn't. I was
going to begin work on a new fantasy series, one that I had been mulling
over for almost five years, one that takes place in this world in present
time. With the completion of WITCHES' BREW in the Magic Kingdom series, I
was more than ready to tackle this newest project. But then my editor
intervened, as editors sometimes will, albeit in a kindly way, suggesting
that perhaps I should do another Shannara book first. What? Another
Shannara book? Already? I was flummoxed! Besides, I didn't have another
Shannara book to give him. The story after THE TALISMANS OF SHANNARA
requires a two book set, and I definitely wasn't about to do two.
Then I remembered my often considered, but still unrealized plan for a
prequel to the series. It was you, the readers, who kept asking for it.
Tell us about the time before coming of the Ohmsfords. Where were
Allanon's origins? How did he become a Druid? How was the Sword of
Shannara forged? How were the Druids destroyed at Paranor so that Bremen
became the last? Where did Jerle Shannara come from and how did he end up
with the Sword? Those were the kinds of questions I would receive on a
regular basis. But I steadfastly refused to answer them, saying that it
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Msg : 76 of 101
From : Serge Berezhnoy 2:5030/207.2 .он 05 .ев 96 08:09
To : All
Subj : 2 Del Rey Internet Newsletter #37 (Feb. 1996)
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.Newsgroups: ru.sf.news
.Subject: Del Rey Internet Newsletter #37 (Feb. 1996)
.Date: Mon, 05 Feb 1996 08:09:32 +0000
.X-Newsreader: GoldED 2.50+
was better if the readers imagined it for themselves, thinking slyly that
I would someday write that story myself. Well, here was my chance.
But this seemed to me a hard story to write. The ending was already known
to every reader of the series. So how could I make it exciting and
suspenseful? I didn't want to give a bland recitation of the events
surrounding the battle between the rebel Druid Brona and Jerle Shannara,
and let it go at that. Then after some thought and some casting about for
a solid plotline, I came up with what I thought was a good story.
There were some new characters, including the Borderman Kinson Ravenlock,
the Druids Risoa and Tay Trefendwyd, the apprentice Druid Mareth, and Jerle
Shannara's great love Prela Starle. There were old friends like the
once-Druid Cogline. There were more than a few new tales to be told about
some familiar people, and a few revelations about how things came to be.
To my surprise, the outline came together in about three weeks. I knew it
was going to be a big book, because the story was sprawling and covered a
large period of time. Don't worry, said my editor. Don't worry, said my
wife. I immediately began to worry. But the ease with which the story
unfolded once I began to write it was a pleasant surprise.
Even Keke the cat got in on the action. Early in the writing of the book,
I left the computer on and walked downstairs for a short break. While I
was gone, Keke must have walked across the keyboard, because when I came
back, the sentence I had left unfinished now read:
"There is time yet before it reaches us," Bremen whispered. "I think we
should aaaaeeaeaeaeeeeiiiiii. . ." Of course, maybe it wasn't the cat.
Maybe it was the things that live under the house. Maybe they're getting
impatient. The book I put off doing, after all, is about them.
--copyright 1995 by Terry Brooks
IN DEPTH II--------------------------------------------------------------
(Didn't like the previous In Depth, perchance? In honor of the DRIN's
third anniversary, this month we have two.)
Bill Smith is the _Star Wars_ roleplaying game line editor for West End
Games. Since joining West End in 1991, he has edited or written over 30
_Star Wars_ game books and he has entirely too much fun doing his job. He
lives in Northeastern Pennsylvania with Amy (his understanding girlfriend)
and a mountain of _Star Wars_ "stuff." Here he tells us a little about his
latest project:
George Lucas captured my imagination when an Imperial Star Destroyer first
rumbled overhead. What can I say? I was only a kid. Now that I'm
twenty-seven--an adult by some standards--I guess you're expecting me to
say I've outgrown such things. Guess again. _Star Wars_ is my favorite
fictional playground. It has heroes and villains, aliens and droids, and,
of course, starships and vehicles.
Which brings me to THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO VEHICLES AND VESSELS. Soon after
getting the chance to write this guide, I realized that my biggest
challenge would be making a book of technological gadgets as much fun as
the movies from which they were drawn.
So, I went back to the basics. For example, the Rebel Alliance's X-wing
fighter has always fascinated me. From the first time I saw this sleek
ship, I wanted to know more. Who built the X-wings? How did the Rebels
get them? How do they stack up against ships like Y-wings and TIE
fighters? I didn't much care about the theoretical physics of hyperdrives;
I cared more about understanding Star Wars technology in a practical,
useful way. I wanted to understand this universe and the ships that
belonged to it.
After choosing one hundred vehicles and vessels, graphic artist Troy Vigil
(known for his popular Star Wars Blueprints), illustrator Doug Chiang (from
Industrial Light and Magic), and I went to work. The resulting guide covers
the ships and vehicles from the movies, as well as many from the novels,
comics, and role-playing and computer games. Each ship or vehicle entry
includes a technical diagram, an illustration, and an essay discussing its
history, uses, and capabilities. Ever wonder why Darth Vader's TIE fighter
is special? Or how AT-AT walkers unload troops? Or how the Jawas got
their greedy little hands on sandcrawlers? The GUIDE answers these
questions and many others.
And the GUIDE details ships you've never seen on-screen. You'll learn
about the Katana Fleet Dreadnaughts used in Timothy Zahn's three-book cycle
and the infamous Sun Crusher from Kevin J. Anderson's _Jedi Academy_
Trilogy. There's even a sneak peek at the upcoming _Shadows of the Empire_
saga. We put together THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO VEHICLES AND VESSELS to be
your handbook to these wonders of the _Star Wars_ galaxy. I hope you enjoy
reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
--Copyright 1996 by Bill Smith
Q & A ====================================================================
Q: I am writing to find out about Christopher Stasheff's fantasy series, _A
Wizard in Rhyme._ I was wondering if there is another book in the series
and what is it called? A: Mr. Stasheff is working on a _Wizard in Rhyme_
book right now. In the meantime, he's taken a 2-book detour, starting a
new series called _The Star Stone._ Book One, THE SHAMAN, is already
available in hardcover, and Book Two, THE SAGE, will be out in July.
Q: Will there be any more books by Donald E. McQuinn in the WARRIOR,
WANDERER, WITCH series? A: Currently, Mr. McQuinn doesn't have any novels
