King

Backed

M A Koning
Tale of the Seven Stones

Hey Tom,

Lovely writing, I must say. Nice and confident, and just a little bit different.

Your pitch... made no sense to me, so you might work on that a bit, although it conveyed some interesting images.

In the first chapter, I was only tripped up by the paragraph that starts 'His Queen...' I had to read back, and tease out the surrounding text, to figure you were talking about the dead king's mother, although it says so in the text, but it's buried a long way down. Could you say 'His mother' instead of 'His Queen', because I wondered if the current widow was a second-hand wife.

Hi Tom, So pleased you like Sim. No- no social commentary- I promise. The lad just finds himself in a situation with no other way out. And they are appalling people. Bit like the old question- would you have killed Hitler as a baby if you could go back in time? I suppose the only social commentary is the desire to say that everyone is pretty complicated and you can't just slap a Thatcheresque label on them. I'm so pleased you think Sim is funny- there are some really prissy-arsed reviewers out there who can't see it. I was beginning to think that no-one in the world shared my sense of humour. Back to Stonebringer later- promise! Now off to chuck snails over the fence before the neighbour wakes up. jak

Well pshaw, plagarism is unacceptable? Guess I'm screwed then.

Ha. Thanks so much Jak for the comment. I really appreciate it! Glad the historic/histronic language didn't go over the top for you. That is kind of a fine line. I'll take a gander at Sim for sure.

Tom

I want Judi Dench to read me this story! It has such an utterly convincing female voice with the historic language just kept under control to remind us of 'otherness' without going all fey on the reader. Some of the phrasing was chillingly brilliant 'A pit in reality, or a tear in the fabric of existence' makes me wish for a world where plagiarism is acceptable. Loved the blurb as well. I'm watchlisting this because I've a shrewd idea it'll do well.
You love Earthsea -even better! I'd beg you to look at Sim: as a writer of adult fantasy I'd value your view ,but i'm afraid it might suck. Jak