Posted Reflections to my web site. This was the first Giliead and Ilias story to appear in Black Gate, issue #10, March 2007. All these stories were prequels to the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy.

Other free fiction on my site:

Short stories: Thorns (Realms of Fantasy June 1995), Bad Medicine (Realms of Fantasy June 1997), Wolf Night (Lone Star Stories August 2006), The Forest Boy July 2009, The Potter's Daughter (Elemental May 2006), Holy Places (Black Gate #11 August 2007)

Novel: The Element of Fire The complete revised edition of the novel.

First chapters of novels:

Wheel of the Infinite
City of Bones
The Death of the Necromancer

Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary
Stargate Atlantis: Entanglement


Each book of the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy has the first five chapters posted:

Book One: The Wizard Hunters
Book Two: The Ships of Air
Book Three: The Gate of Gods

rachelcaine got a best present ever, version Michael Shanks from Heidi!

And linking to my best present ever, version Joe Flanigan because I like looking at it. :)

Just noticed that my first SGA book, Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary is now available on Kindle.

Other Kindle editions of my books are listed here.

The Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy is also available at Fictionwise, in Secure eReader/Mobipocket/Microsoft Reader/Adobe.

You guys are posting some great questions, and I'll definitely get to all of them.


supurnuva had also asked: 2. Is it difficult for you put your characters through bad events or write them doing bad things? Especially if you don't intend for them to have a happy ending later?

Yes, it is. I think if you don't care about your characters it's much harder to get your reader to care about them. If I'm going to kill somebody off, I usually have to psych myself up to it early in the book, so I don't wimp out at the last minute. And yes, it is harder if I know things aren't going to work out in the end.


grammarwoman asked: How did you get involved in writing books in the Stargate universe? Were you a fan first, or did that come after?

I was a fan first. I've been a media fan since around 1983, when The Empire Strikes Back came out and I got my first Star Wars fanzine. I loved the Stargate movie, but didn't get to see any SG-1 until the second season or so, when we were dying of summer TV doldrums and ended up getting Showtime just so we could watch it. Friday night was our big TV night for a while, when SG-1 and Farscape were both on. From seeing the previews, I was really looking forward to Stargate: Atlantis and watched the first season as it aired. After the first season was over, I happened to be talking to rachelcaine (who wrote the SG-1 novel Sacrifice Moon) about SG-1, Firefly, SGA, and our mutual love of other TV shows and she suggested I contact the publisher about doing a novel. I decided to do an SGA book rather than SG-1, since I'd fallen in love with the characters so recently.

I wouldn't be interested in doing a novel for a show I wasn't a huge fan of. Life is too short, and opportunities to write novels are too limited, to write about something I didn't love.

Still taking writing questions here.

And here's the photo:

( Present from Heidi2524, taken at the Vancouver SG1-SGA convention )

You guys, I just got the most awesome present ever! heidi2524 sent me a photo taken at the SGA-SG1 convention in Vancouver, of Joe Flanigan holding a sign that says "Hi Martha." I've had a bad couple of weeks, and this was just the perfect thing. Yay, and thank you again, Heidi!

Just noticed that my second Stargate Atlantis novel, Entanglement is now available in an
Amazon Kindle Edition. I don't know if the publisher will make Reliquary available that way too, or if they'll be doing other ebook formats. Hopefully, they will, but I haven't heard anything.

Gateworld is reporting that Don S. Davis, who played General Hammond on Stargate, passed away. The Gateworld entry has information about making donations in his memory to the American Heart Association.

Amazon US has finally fixed the link for Stargate Atlantis: Entanglement. It's in stock here.

Barnes and Noble also has it in stock (at a discount for members) here.

ETA: Who North America has it in stock also.

Stargate Atlantis: Engtanglement is finally up for preorder on Amazon US here. You can see the cover and sample first chapter on web site here.

Amazon Canada is now taking pre-orders for Stargate Atlantis: Entanglement. It's getting closer and closer to the US.

(ETA: someone's started a community for discussing the SG-1 and SGA books here: gate_pages)

I did a bunch of updates to the web site. Most of it was just cleaning up old links, adding new ones, re-organizing, etc.

Still plugging along on the new fantasy novel. I had to throw out about 15,000 words (yikes) but I'm a lot happier with what I'm doing now.

The elusive pre-order button has appeared on the listing for Stargate Atlantis: Entanglement on Amazon.uk and Amazon.fr. It's not showing up on Amazon.ca yet (though it may show up later today or tomorrow, since I think it's on the same thingy as amazon.uk). The listing isn't on Amazon US or B&N/Borders/etc yet, but hopefully it'll turn up there soon. The release date is still listed as March 31.

ETA: beanie_j also found it on Play.com

Having a fraught week, but I wanted to post a link to Geek Movies Not on DVD, on RevolutionSF. I've got an entry coming up in the next section of the article, N-Z.

Also posted the first chapter excerpt of Stargate Atlantis: Entanglement up on my web site. The pre-order links aren't showing up yet on most of the online outlets, but hopefully they'll be up there soon. It's due out towards the end of this month.

Just updated my web site with the cover and description for Stargate Atlantis: Entanglement. The publisher is saying it's at the printer and should be available in March. (Link to the big version of the image.)

ETA: Just grabbed this from jamesenge: The preview of Black Gate #10 is up. Publication date is March 18. The preview for my story is here: Reflections. Note: that's not the entire story and I don't think they'll post the whole thing online at all. The art is by Storn Cook, whose site is here.

Found out yesterday that my next Stargate Atlantis book, Entanglement, should be out in March. I'll post links as soon as I get the cover and it comes up for preorder, etc. (I spent all day reading the proofs yesterday. Eyes=ouch)

I also started going back to body bar aerobics, and wow, my entire body hurts.

It's Joe Flanigan's birthday today (see icon) and also the day that marks my realization that after a lifetime of admiring actors who were older than me (Harrison Ford, etc) I'm now admiring one who is younger than me. That's, uh, yeah.


Locus listed the reprint of The Element of Fire under their classic reprints section, which I find really flattering, especially considering the other books listed there. The Amazon link they posted doesn't work, though, and I can't figure out why. I suspect it's something on Amazon's end. (And Lulu (with media mail postage) and Barnes and Noble (with a membership) are cheaper.) It can also be ordered through an independent bookstore with Booksense.


themis asked: One of the things that I really loved about the Ile-Rien books was that they're set in a different time period than most fantasy. Usually, writers fall back upon the middle ages, the pre-Roman Celtic era etc. Was the decision to start Ile-Rien at a later date, so to speak, a conscious one (did you think "I'm really tired of stupid Celtic fantasies, let's try something with corsets and steam engines") or did it just...happen?

Because, as I said, that was one of the things I really loved about your books. Especially Death of the Necromancer, I really felt that the time period figured in prominently. I know "Victorian" fantasy has become a bit more popular (partly, I suppose, to steampunk expansion) but it's still a minority. Personally, I find it a more interesting time period for reading about and creating characters in, if only because the vices are so much more interesting. You can't put cigarettes in a story about Renaissance Italy, after all.

It was very much a conscious decision. When I started The Element of Fire back around 1991 or so, I wasn't finding very much fantasy set in time periods that weren't the middle ages, and I was cherishing every one I did find. (And also books using settings and mythologies from other parts of the world, like the Barry Hughart books set in China, Charles Saunders' book Imaro and his other stories set in Africa, etc, and that's more where City of Bones and Wheel of the Infinite came from.) At the time, I was researching the 17th century in France, reading The Three Musketeers, watching Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers, and so that was my first choice for a time period. I wrote a short story first which was set in Vienne, with Thomas as the main character, decided I really did like this setting, and started the novel.

The Death of the Necromancer was written for much the same reasons. I wanted to read Victorian/La Belle Epoque fantasy, and couldn't find any.


And birdhousefrog had a quick question Seems to me you wrote a tie-in novel recently, but I've lost track of that posting. Was it Stargate or something else?

I have one out now, Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary, and another that should be coming out in the next few months, also SGA, called Entanglement. You can always check the Bibliography page on my web site, which lists everything I have out and what's coming out in the future, including short stories, non-fiction, etc. (And if you hit the main page to this journal, there are links to all my books and other stuff in the sidebar.)


I've got at least one more question to answer, which I'll hit later, and I'm still taking them in this post here. And it doesn't have to be about my books, it can be about writing or publishing in general, though my level of coherency may drop at random.

Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com have been sold out of SGA: Reliquary for a month or two, but Barnesand Noble.com finally has copies again. Amazon US I think got enough to fill the back orders and is now sold out again. Amazon UK has copies in stock.


The next book, SGA: Entanglement has been approved by MGM and should be out early next year. It was originally scheduled for December 2006, but it looks like now it's going to be February 2007 at the earliest. I'll post a note when it goes up for preorder.

Sorry to spam, but a friend just sent this to me. It's a trade ad for the SG-1 and SGA novels in The Ingram Advance magazine:

( Stargate Novels ad )

Finished the first draft of the new Stargate: Atlantis novel. It's supposed to come out in December, but since I was late I think it'll probably be later in 2007. It's called Entanglement which sort of makes sense once you read the book. It's set very early second season, and has Ronon in it. Brief synopsis of plot: they go looking for something and things go horribly wrong. Again, it was just a lot of fun to do.


I also started the edit of my first novel, The Element of Fire, which I'm going to put online sometime in the next couple of months. I've talked to Revolution SF about releasing it concurrently, which will be cool.

Plus other stuff. I've been trying to get the new book started, but it's resisting furiously.


existance had asked How do you manage your character development, when you write? Do they just come to you, do you think about what you want as a character, do you draw inspiration from friends or family?

Probably a combination of all three. I think characterization is very much affected by the setting, the culture, the plot. Someone who is living under desperate conditions -- scarcity of food or shelter, a war, hunted by zombies -- is going to have different skills, priorities and so on from someone who up to the time the story starts has had a fairly uneventful life. Though I like to write about characters who are adults, in their 30s or 40s or older, already in the middle of their adventures. Tremaine (from The Wizard Hunters) and Kade from The Element of Fire are the youngest characters I've used in novels, but they both still had backstories and previous adventures.

Bad news: Amazon.com seems to be out of copies of Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary yet again.


Good news: It's finally available at Barnes and Noble.com. It's $7.15 if you have the membership card thingy, and free shipping if you order $25.00 worth of books.


Even better good news: I sold a story "Wolf Night" to Lone Star Stories! It's fantasy, and should be on the August issue.