Starred review...

[desperance]

Hem. This is slightly difficult, on account of (as you all know by now) my next novel is pseudonymous, and I'm not supposed to be spreading the new name about.

However, Publishers' Weekly has just given the book a starred review; so I will over-indulge myself with a discreet quote or two:

"... captures the foggy mysteries of feudal China in exquisite style with this
rich fantasy series opener. Pirate captain Li Ton needs a new ship's boy,
having worn out the old one, so he captures apprentice scribe Han, who
becomes infected with magic in a duel. When Li Ton kills the monks who forge
links to the chain binding an ancient undersea dragon, he and Han are caught
up in a multilayered tale of supernatural creatures, a deposed emperor on the
run and jade that grants extraordinary powers. ...'s concisely elegant style
mirrors the light brush strokes and deep colors of ancient Chinese paintings,
finely balancing detail, emotion and action. Where many Western authors try
and fail to capture the nuances of Chinese culture and mythology, this
melodious tale quietly succeeds."

Hee. I love that. Pirates and dragons and jade, all snared in a paragraph (took me a whole book, forsooth...). And "concisely elegant". That's not what I said about it, but hey. I could be wrong.

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hee. What goes around, comes around. Originally I was a crime writer under my own name; when agent & Other Publisher encouraged me to write horror too, the plan was to publish the horror as by ****** ***, in order to keep the two voices separate. Then my first publisher started putting horror covers on the crime books, the two voices got Dreadfully Confused - with what dire results we know - and the *** name fell into desuetude.

And then when the notion came up (from me, originally) that this new series should be pseudonymous, I had that name to hand and still liked it, and so. I should probably have made better efforts to guard the secret - like moving the *** short stories off my own website, f'rexample - but hey. The point is to fool the computers, not the readership...

[mantichore.livejournal.com]

At the time, I understood the *** name was used on action novels. Hence I didn't search them out. I wonder if I misunderstood or the explainer had it wrong. Dreadfully confused indeed.