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And if 'The Mark of Ran' is out in small paperback I'll have to put it on my 'wishlist'
Paul Kearney Q&A
#81 Guest_Ouki_*
Posted 22 November 2005 - 04:00 PM
Just read your entry, nice!
And if 'The Mark of Ran' is out in small paperback I'll have to put it on my 'wishlist'
And if 'The Mark of Ran' is out in small paperback I'll have to put it on my 'wishlist'
#82
Dagger 
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Posted 01 January 2006 - 03:06 AM
corfe said:
The Old Forest, as we called it, is long gone, twenty acres of tangled woodland which furnished the best environment for growing up imaginable,now lost to the twenty-first century's besetting sin; greed.
Well said, sir, or rather, well written.
"I can see my days of not taking you seriously are coming to a middle." - Mal Reynolds
#83
Svaran
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Posted 06 January 2006 - 09:11 PM
Werthead said:
I was tired of there not being a Wikipedia entry for the Monarchies of God so in typically humble style I decided to create one. Just wondering what people though of it.
Long-time lurker, first time poster on this site. Enjoy.
Long-time lurker, first time poster on this site. Enjoy.
Just read it, nice job very comprehensive in its synopsis. I actually figured that ultimately thats what would happen to the Fimbrians. Through out the whole series they are lurking there, with none of the protagonists willing to really try their luck against them.
#84
pat5150
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Posted 03 March 2006 - 03:46 PM
Hi guys!
I just did an interview with Kearney. Check the blog if you are interested!
Patrick
www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com
I just did an interview with Kearney. Check the blog if you are interested!
Patrick
www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com
#85 Guest_starn_*
Posted 22 April 2006 - 01:08 PM
I'm trying my hand as a fantasy writer with short stories on the laptop. Can I ask you how many thousand words was The Mark of Ran. I found reading that book entertaining and a little depressing at the same time because you were effortlessly describing landscapes and pratical situations. Attention to that kind of detail is my weakness and something that really separates the professionals from the amatuers more than anything else I think. In the first chapter you were describing the livliehood of Rol's family- the house they lived in, the berries and seaweed collecting and all that along with the setting on the coast of Dennifry. Did you have to research that kind of thing or did you just pick it up as you went along in life. Great novel.
#86 Guest_corfe_*
Posted 30 June 2006 - 02:11 PM
Starn -
Feel guilty as hell about not having looked in here as often as I should, and thanks for the kind words about Ran. The book was 92,580 words long, according to Wordcount. And believe me, I've been there at the place where you're using wordcount every couple of days, hoping that the number will somehow miraculously rocket while you're sleeping.
About description. I've gone down a long, hard road on this one myself. After fourteen years of writing professionally, I can only repeat a tired old dictum. Less is more. But the thing is, that less which ends up on the page is distilled from a bloody shedload of more. it's easy - easy - to write pages of description. But to boil down all that guff into one or two sentences, that's hard. Same with dialogue. Less is more. Don't explain things - the reader doesn't care what the hell is going on, or who's married to who, or what breed of horse the hero rides, or what colour his eyes are, as long as he keeps wanting to know what happens next. That's the key.
As far as Rol's home goes, well I live at the sea, and my father in law is an old fisherman. I simply drank Guinness with him, and listened to his stories about life by the sea in Ireland in the 1930's. It's that simple.
The story is the thing. Everything else is a bonus. Have a good, clear, gripping story in your head, and all the rest can go hang - you can fill it in later. I hate worldbuilding. I hang books around character, pure and simple. If the character wants to do something, I let him do it, and then figure out the plot ramifications later.
I hope that helps. Keep writing- like everything else, you have to practice to be worth a damn.
Feel guilty as hell about not having looked in here as often as I should, and thanks for the kind words about Ran. The book was 92,580 words long, according to Wordcount. And believe me, I've been there at the place where you're using wordcount every couple of days, hoping that the number will somehow miraculously rocket while you're sleeping.
About description. I've gone down a long, hard road on this one myself. After fourteen years of writing professionally, I can only repeat a tired old dictum. Less is more. But the thing is, that less which ends up on the page is distilled from a bloody shedload of more. it's easy - easy - to write pages of description. But to boil down all that guff into one or two sentences, that's hard. Same with dialogue. Less is more. Don't explain things - the reader doesn't care what the hell is going on, or who's married to who, or what breed of horse the hero rides, or what colour his eyes are, as long as he keeps wanting to know what happens next. That's the key.
As far as Rol's home goes, well I live at the sea, and my father in law is an old fisherman. I simply drank Guinness with him, and listened to his stories about life by the sea in Ireland in the 1930's. It's that simple.
The story is the thing. Everything else is a bonus. Have a good, clear, gripping story in your head, and all the rest can go hang - you can fill it in later. I hate worldbuilding. I hang books around character, pure and simple. If the character wants to do something, I let him do it, and then figure out the plot ramifications later.
I hope that helps. Keep writing- like everything else, you have to practice to be worth a damn.
#87
Werthead
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Posted 02 July 2006 - 05:02 PM
Just to say I've enjoyed your books since I picked up Hawkwood's Voyage on the strength of the SFX review ten years ago, and am still disappointed I haven't managed to track down copies of those first three pre-Monarchies novels. I just wanted to ask about the title change for the second Sea-Beggars book. Both are great titles, so do you still plan to use The Stars We Sail By at a later date? Thanks.
Visit The Wertzone for reviews of SF&F books, DVDs and computer games!
"Try standing out in a winter storm all night and see how tough you are. Start with that. Then go into a bar and pick a fight and see how tough you are. And then go home and break crockery over your head. Start with those three and you'll be good to go."
- Bruce Campbell on how to be as cool as he is
- Bruce Campbell on how to be as cool as he is
#88
Morgoth
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Posted 02 July 2006 - 10:40 PM
Well, I really enjoyed Mark of Ran.. Finished book two on the plane and liked that too. It's almost a bit frustrating. The story is so damn captivating. Opened the book on the plane and finished it by the time I reached Norway..
I truly loved how you turned the typical fantasy cliche of a young boy with unknown parantage and a great destiny into a story that is both original and surprising. Rol is a very interesting character. How he is unable to escape Phselos' teachings until he is confronted by their consequences in Bionar (or so that's how I see it) made his transformation from survior to saviour perfectly believable I think.
Hope you'll sacrifice your social life to finish the next one
I truly loved how you turned the typical fantasy cliche of a young boy with unknown parantage and a great destiny into a story that is both original and surprising. Rol is a very interesting character. How he is unable to escape Phselos' teachings until he is confronted by their consequences in Bionar (or so that's how I see it) made his transformation from survior to saviour perfectly believable I think.
Hope you'll sacrifice your social life to finish the next one
Take good care to keep relations civil
It's decent in the first of gentlemen
To speak friendly, Even to the devil
It's decent in the first of gentlemen
To speak friendly, Even to the devil
#89
pat5150
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Posted 18 July 2006 - 10:44 PM
Hi there!
As I did with Sarah Ash, R. Scott Bakker, Jacqueline Carey, L. E. Modesitt, jr., etc, I once again acted as the middle man to help rivages-maudits.com get an interview with Paul Kearney.
Next up, Brandon Sanderson and Scott Lynch!
Patrick
www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com
As I did with Sarah Ash, R. Scott Bakker, Jacqueline Carey, L. E. Modesitt, jr., etc, I once again acted as the middle man to help rivages-maudits.com get an interview with Paul Kearney.
Next up, Brandon Sanderson and Scott Lynch!
Patrick
www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com
#90 Guest_corfe_*
Posted 21 July 2006 - 08:00 AM
Thanks for the kind words about Ran and Forsaken. Werthead, the original title of Forsaken was actually The Stars We Steer By, and though I and my editor loved it, the marketing people at Bantam were loud and bitter in their condemnation of it. I was preparing to dig in my heels when I chanced across another book by the same title, already in existence - a Mills and Boone style romance. I immediately went off that title! Forsaken was a title I'd already had in my head for book Three, so I chucked that into the mix instead, and everyone was happy...
As I type, Book Three is well under way, and Rol and his friends are out upon the deep oceans.
My first three books can still be picked up second hand via amazon and various other internet booksellers - pretty cheap, too. Kingdom is the best of the three, so get hold of it if you can.
As I type, Book Three is well under way, and Rol and his friends are out upon the deep oceans.
My first three books can still be picked up second hand via amazon and various other internet booksellers - pretty cheap, too. Kingdom is the best of the three, so get hold of it if you can.
#91
Tsundoku
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Posted 21 July 2006 - 08:30 AM
I dunno Paul, I kinda preferred The Way To Babylon myself. It was a great spin on the whole "dude finds himself in another world" schtick.
I await eagerly the Authors' Preferred Edition of MoG Book 5. With the extra 50,000 words.
Love your work. "Mark of Ran" etc is high on my "To Get" list.
Cheers,
La Sombra, already pimping it to my friends
I await eagerly the Authors' Preferred Edition of MoG Book 5. With the extra 50,000 words.
Love your work. "Mark of Ran" etc is high on my "To Get" list.
Cheers,
La Sombra, already pimping it to my friends
"Fortune favors the bold, though statistics favor the cautious." - Indomitable Courteous (Icy) Fist, The Palace Job - Patrick Weekes
"Well well well ... if it ain't The Invisible C**t." - Billy Butcher, The Boys
"I have strong views about not tempting providence and, as a wise man once said, the difference between luck and a wheelbarrow is, luck doesn’t work if you push it." - Colonel Orhan, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City - KJ Parker
"Well well well ... if it ain't The Invisible C**t." - Billy Butcher, The Boys
"I have strong views about not tempting providence and, as a wise man once said, the difference between luck and a wheelbarrow is, luck doesn’t work if you push it." - Colonel Orhan, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City - KJ Parker
#92
Valgard
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Posted 21 July 2006 - 10:16 AM
Hi Paul have read both "Mark of ran" and "This Forsaken Earth" and love both of them they are great.
I was wondering how many books is the current series planned to be?
Glad to hear that the third one is being written as am looking forward to it greatly now.
I was wondering how many books is the current series planned to be?
Glad to hear that the third one is being written as am looking forward to it greatly now.
#93 Guest_corfe_*
Posted 23 July 2006 - 08:14 AM
Well, the current series should go to four books, though my UK publisher is remarkably relaxed on that score. I can tell you that book three will be 90% at sea, and book four will be narrated from the standpoint of Elias Creed. No more, for fear of spoilers...
About Babylon - I have a soft spot for it too, as it was, after all, my first published book. Also, a lot of it was autobiographical.
Touching wood, if the Sea Beggars series does well, Bantam have verbally (over lunch, it must be admitted) promised to take on the Monarchies, and at that point I will rewrite Ships from the West. If nothing else, a novella could be written about the sixteen years between Empire and Ships, and the very end of the series could have quite a sizeable coda tacked on to explain just what happened next, for those interested in the history of Normannia.
About Babylon - I have a soft spot for it too, as it was, after all, my first published book. Also, a lot of it was autobiographical.
Touching wood, if the Sea Beggars series does well, Bantam have verbally (over lunch, it must be admitted) promised to take on the Monarchies, and at that point I will rewrite Ships from the West. If nothing else, a novella could be written about the sixteen years between Empire and Ships, and the very end of the series could have quite a sizeable coda tacked on to explain just what happened next, for those interested in the history of Normannia.
#94
lfex
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Posted 23 July 2006 - 08:34 AM
Very good news! I am certainly interested in that coda, and I agree that Ships from the West could also use other additions.
I have just finished This Forsaken Earth, and I liked it a lot. Keep it going! I also think that Stars We Steer By would be better title - and it seems to be majority opinion. I wonder what was publisher's reasoning?
I have just finished This Forsaken Earth, and I liked it a lot. Keep it going! I also think that Stars We Steer By would be better title - and it seems to be majority opinion. I wonder what was publisher's reasoning?
#95
Tsundoku
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Posted 24 July 2006 - 11:14 AM
corfe said:
About Babylon - I have a soft spot for it too, as it was, after all, my first published book. Also, a lot of it was autobiographical.
Yeah? As in some of the locations, or more than that?
Quote
Touching wood, if the Sea Beggars series does well, Bantam have verbally (over lunch, it must be admitted) promised to take on the Monarchies, and at that point I will rewrite Ships from the West. If nothing else, a novella could be written about the sixteen years between Empire and Ships, and the very end of the series could have quite a sizeable coda tacked on to explain just what happened next, for those interested in the history of Normannia.
I think I just had a geekgasm. Excuse me please.
EDIT: do you have a website, or is this as close as you get?
Cheers,
La Sombra, will have to now go out and do his bit to help make sure Sea Beggars does well
"Fortune favors the bold, though statistics favor the cautious." - Indomitable Courteous (Icy) Fist, The Palace Job - Patrick Weekes
"Well well well ... if it ain't The Invisible C**t." - Billy Butcher, The Boys
"I have strong views about not tempting providence and, as a wise man once said, the difference between luck and a wheelbarrow is, luck doesn’t work if you push it." - Colonel Orhan, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City - KJ Parker
"Well well well ... if it ain't The Invisible C**t." - Billy Butcher, The Boys
"I have strong views about not tempting providence and, as a wise man once said, the difference between luck and a wheelbarrow is, luck doesn’t work if you push it." - Colonel Orhan, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City - KJ Parker
#96 Guest_corfe_*
Posted 25 July 2006 - 05:10 PM
Babylon is set, initially at least, on the isle of Skye. I used to go climbing there every year, and the descriptions in the book of the mountains, the hike, they're all real. The bothy at Camasunary is a real place. I usually went in winter, being something of a masochist in those days, and on one trip I took a hairy tumble down a mountain which scared the hell out of me, but which also really got me thinknig. Babylon was the result.
I have a website at paulkearneyonline.com, and it's just been getting a revamp after being neglected for a couple of years. It'll be finished off in a week or two, and when that happens, there'll be a forum and a message-board, and also a blog, all of which I promise religiously to use often!
I have a website at paulkearneyonline.com, and it's just been getting a revamp after being neglected for a couple of years. It'll be finished off in a week or two, and when that happens, there'll be a forum and a message-board, and also a blog, all of which I promise religiously to use often!
#97
Morgoth
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Posted 25 July 2006 - 06:37 PM
corfe said:
Babylon is set, initially at least, on the isle of Skye. I used to go climbing there every year, and the descriptions in the book of the mountains, the hike, they're all real. The bothy at Camasunary is a real place. I usually went in winter, being something of a masochist in those days, and on one trip I took a hairy tumble down a mountain which scared the hell out of me, but which also really got me thinknig. Babylon was the result.
I have a website at paulkearneyonline.com, and it's just been getting a revamp after being neglected for a couple of years. It'll be finished off in a week or two, and when that happens, there'll be a forum and a message-board, and also a blog, all of which I promise religiously to use often!
I have a website at paulkearneyonline.com, and it's just been getting a revamp after being neglected for a couple of years. It'll be finished off in a week or two, and when that happens, there'll be a forum and a message-board, and also a blog, all of which I promise religiously to use often!
Sounds excellent
.. This wont steal you away from us entirely I hope? And btw, there's something about the way you write that rings a kind of bell in my head.. You use, in my opinion, a lyrical language in a way, which I really enjoy. It does remind me of some other author but I seem to be unable to identify which..
So I was wondering; what is your favourite book?
Take good care to keep relations civil
It's decent in the first of gentlemen
To speak friendly, Even to the devil
It's decent in the first of gentlemen
To speak friendly, Even to the devil
#98 Guest_corfe_*
Posted 26 July 2006 - 08:36 AM
Madre de dios, there's a question. Favourite book - ah, hell, that's far too hard. Favourite authors, Patrick O Brian, Cormac Mc Carthy, Tolkien. As for the lyricism you mention... Well, I know that a book which influenced me profoundly when I was an adolescent was Sword at Sunset, by Rosemary Sutcliff. It's a realistic retelling of the Arthur myth - the best I've ever read. And I think in Artos there may be the seed which grew into Corfe and his Cathedrallers - the struggling leader and his doomed cavalry brotherhood. Read it - it's one of the finest historical novels ever written.
#99
Ivan the terrible
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Posted 28 July 2006 - 08:43 PM
I think some ppl should give Corfe some more rep. Come on don't be mean this guy is taking time out of his busy schedule to talk to us freaks and weirdos:) give the man some respect. Shame on you all
#100 Guest_corfe_*
Posted 07 August 2006 - 10:11 AM
Thought I might mention that my own website has (finally) been totally revamped and is up and running at paulkearneyonline.com. There will be a forum there in working order in another week or so, and I intend to post up on the site a lot of hitherto unpublished stuff, just for the hell of it. All are welcome!
