Happy Thanksgiving. Clearly, I have a great deal to be thankful for – wonderful wife, devilishly clever yet sweet son, a novel in stores, another coming in a year, some good shows done this year. And there’s something I can’t talk about yet that makes me doubly happy. Yes, life is treating me well, and I am grateful.
Now, on to the closing post regarding titles to sequels. Since you haven’t yet read VOICE OF THE FALCONER (like how I slipped the new title in there?), I can’t really speak to the plots of Books 3 & 4. But the titles are, in fact, perfect. These I have no question about, as they are attention-grabbers, quotes from R&J, and also speak to many levels of the story. Perfection on every plane. Here they are:
- FORTUNE’S FOOL
- THE PRINCE’S DOOM
They have just the right tone. I can hardly wait until they’re in the hands of readers. FORTUNE’S FOOL is 3/5 complete, and THE PRINCE’S DOOM is about 1/3 done.
The only thing I can say about the books without giving away plot points is to speak about size. THE MASTER OF VERONA is around 220,000 words, which translated to 569 pages. As things stand, VOICE OF THE FALCONER will be about 165,000 words (around 430 pages). FORTUNE’S FOOL looks to come in at around 200,000 words (520 pages). THE PRINCE’S DOOM will probably drop in at 150,000 words (corrected! – 400 pages). A pattern is beginning to emerge…
The only other thing I can say is that the books follow both Cesco della Scala and Pietro Alaghieri. Slowly we will hand the reins of the narrative over to Cesco. While Pietro will always be a part of the tale, as Cesco grows we will be following his adventures more and more. But certainly in VOICE OF THE FALCONER and FORTUNE’S FOOL, the action is divided rather evenly between them, and they both play vital roles in the climax of each tale.
There. Informative, without being too spoilery. A clever soul might be able to deduce more from the titles than I’ve revealed here. We’ll see.
Cheers, and have a great Thanksgiving. I’m off to watch the Lions and Packers tear it up.
– DB
I think there’s a typo in the numbers. If 165K equals 430 pages, 150K won’t be as few as 150, I think. 🙂
I want my books big, so don’t worry about adding a few words. *grin*
Yes, I know the publishers do worry.
Quite right. I’ll fix it now. And I very much liked your Smeagal impression…
Yeah, when I talked to Dan at Amazon, I actually asked about the availability on the other sites (.uk,.de,.ca) and he said that they hadn’t worked out quite how to make that happen. Sorry!