Why You Should Be Excited about Spellbound
About a week ago I turned in a more polished draft of Spellbound to the Editing Powers that Be. I now forge on to Disjunction and get back to my medical research day job until the edit letter comes back. In the meantime, I’m really excited about Spellbound. Here are a few, non-spoiling reasons why you should be too:
- A female physician protagonist who might best be described as genetically engendered love child between House MD, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, and Locke Lamora.
- Airships made of massive magical manuscripts.
- A fleet action of said airships.
- The most believable neurosurgery scene ever written in epic fantasy.
- A sentient textual construct who has to solve his author’s murder.
In other news, I’ve spent the last week on a mini-East Coast book Tour. With a reading down in Manhattan, in which I teamed up with Saladin Ahmed, David Barr Kirtley, and Laura Anne Gillman. The reading was well attended and lots of fun. There after I had the pleasure of hanging out with The Mad Hatter, Rob Berg, NK Jemisin, and Peter V. Brett among others. As fantasy writers and readers are likely to do, we high tailed it over to a bar named Valhalla. Things got a little wild, as Nora documented here. Here’s also a link to my Facebook photo album. But what happens in Valhalla, stays in Valhalla. Thereafter, I caught the Greyhound up to Boston and read at Pandemonium Books & Games—a really amazing specialty book store and gaming emporium (check out Your Move Games). The good-sized crowd was a lot of fun and asked great questions.
This Tuesday I’ll be flying back to Stanford to get back into the med student research assistant groove. Also will be giving a lecture entitled “Write What You Fear” at San Francisco/Peninsula Writers Club, in the Belmont Library, Saturday, August 21 at 11am.
Comments
31 Responses to “Why You Should Be Excited about Spellbound”
ediFanoB
8:02 am Aug-15-2010
Blake,
how can you do that! I’m far more than excited I’m salivating like a waterfall. My shirt went wet in seconds.
I WANT IT AND I WANT IT NOW!
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
When can I get a Spellbound copy?
Could not step copy and paste have had a cramp in my fingers.
blakecharlton
8:15 am Aug-15-2010
haha! yeah, don’t be too hard on your fingers. i’ll get the “edit letter” in a few weeks and from there i should be able to guess when we’ll have an ARC ready
ediFanoB
8:24 am Aug-15-2010
I try my best to take care on my fingers
leorc
8:45 am Aug-15-2010
Just a moment ago finished your Spellwright, Its one of the most interesting and vivid books I read, easily became my most favoured book half way through. I cant wait for the second I feel like anything else I read will fail in comparison.
Will be watching the shelf’s of all my local book stores till I’m able to read more, look forward to all your upcoming books I feel they will become better with each release.
On another note I wish you and elaborated more on his stay at heaven tree more, the trials he faced and wished you followed him in “the new moon war”, but I am just been greedy and longing the book was longer.
waiting patiently till I can read how you will integrate the quotes and how the textual airships will play a part as well as the new characters,
LeoRC
leorc
8:49 am Aug-15-2010
P.s. If possible could you upload images of the “Pithan” & other magical languages.
thank you,
LeoRC
blakecharlton
3:27 am Aug-16-2010
Hey LeoRC, thanks so much for stopping by. And thank you kindly for the encouraging words. They certainly help inspire me to keep my fingers moving on the keyboard. As you can tell, I’m pretty excited about the sequel.
I _wish_ i did have images of all the magical languages. But, sadly, I have negative skill in the visual arts. If I try to draw something to show you what it looked like, I’d probably decrease your knowledge of what it looks like. Right now, the only graphically representation I’m aware of is that of Numinous on the Dutch cover, which you can see here
Maybe with some luck, a graphic artist will become a fan of the series and illustrate some of the languages! *fingers crossed*
leorc
12:05 pm Aug-16-2010
Thank you for replying & it’s OK they looked very slimier to the Nordic runes but I thought that was my mind trying to fill in the blanks with something I already knew.
good luck and have fun cant wait to read more of the story.
LeoRC
Dave
10:24 am Aug-15-2010
Dude, dude, dude… That’s just EVIL! Cannot wait, man, Spellbound is going to be AWESOME!
blakecharlton
3:27 am Aug-16-2010
Nadie
7:34 pm Aug-15-2010
I am excited.
I still have to snag my copy of Spellwright, but I have time, right? Right? I mean, editing takes a while, right?
I read off your reasons to be excited to my gf, too, and she is also terribly excited. Granted, she didn’t hear anything past “House, MD”, but hey, whatever floats her cookie.
Nadie
7:35 pm Aug-15-2010
Also: any East Coast tour, mini or not, is incomplete without hitting NC. Just sayin’.
blakecharlton
3:32 am Aug-16-2010
heh. and my goal is to float as many cookies as possible with this book
and you do indeed have plenty of time to snag a copy of Spellwright and-should you feel the need-praise it in the public domain 
this east coast tour was very much not complete, sadly. when i grow up, i’ll start making it down to NC!
Tyson Perna
8:48 pm Aug-15-2010
You realize that’s a song/album by Paula Abdul, right?
blakecharlton
3:29 am Aug-16-2010
okay, hermano, i’m going to admit that exists just this once…then we’re never going to talk about that again. Deal?
Tyson Perna
1:46 pm Aug-16-2010
Hey, I’m just looking out for ya.
Lood
3:00 am Aug-16-2010
Why, oh why do you insist on doing this to us, your loyal fans? It’s like telling a 5 year old you’ve bought him a present in February but he’s only allowed to open it in December!
Cannot wait!
blakecharlton
12:31 pm Aug-16-2010
*sigh* you are right. i should not get so excited about it this far out. i’ll try to curb my enthusiasm until next spring…. *double sigh*
Sensei1973
5:16 am Aug-16-2010
As you well know, I loved the book, and its the first time since Harry Potter that Im actualy waiting in anticipation for the next book.The idea of using the magic text on something as massive as airships is a brilliant idea. I can already picture it. Looks spectacular.
ps.I loved leorcs idea about actualy seeing what the magical text looks like. Have a chat with your editors man and get them to put up some dosh for an artist.
leorc
12:10 pm Aug-16-2010
I know what you mean about been able too see the airships, just out of curiosity are you seen like a blimp like ship with binding text and maybe ignition text swirling inside with a physical boat/basket attached underneath?
blakecharlton
12:39 pm Aug-16-2010
@leorc, the hierophants have a magical language that moves within cloth and once cast out of cloth produces wind. a number of authors working together can create constructs out of cloth and words (e.g. streamer-like warkites that follow them into battle) or airships that can carry fly a limited number of people. There are several types and classes of airship, and I had better not write more than that or I’ll likely spoil too much
leorc
1:24 pm Aug-16-2010
OMG, that is so much better mine was a “don’t go too deep or you’ll get lost” type of thought but that sounds amazing, the intensity of my desire to read spellbound just increased three fold witch I could not imagine before hand.
I may have to stop replying due to fear I might like pass out with anticipation to see how it all fits in,
but I have to try and speak like a author,
“like any paragraph you start at the beginning but always keep in mind the way you want it to finish”
it is how I feel you think about your next book, I hope my attempt was good enough & did not offend you if it was poor.
blakecharlton
12:34 pm Aug-16-2010
@Sensei1973 am gathering up all my most convincing words for a depiction of the different languages…maybe we could get some mileage out of it with a “what magical language should you study” fbook quiz, like what brent weeks did with the “what color is your magic” quiz.
Elicius
9:15 am Aug-16-2010
1) I think I may be as excited as it’s possible to be, so you can just stop teasin’ [although....y'know....don't, heh].
2) I want me one of those sky-books.
3) Murder-mysteries rock me socks.
4)
5) ’cause 4 isn’t a prime number, and that’s just plain wrong. Whooo!
Elicius
9:16 am Aug-16-2010
Gosh-darn, apparently Angular brackets make things dissapear. Doh.
[Edit:]
4) {At this point I just screwed up my eyes and grinned like a crayzee}
[/Edit]
blakecharlton
12:40 pm Aug-16-2010
haha! awesome i’ll be sure to avoid non-prime numbers and square brackets
Vicky
1:11 pm Aug-24-2010
thank you for such a great book
hope next comes out soon
Murf61
4:08 am Aug-25-2010
You are such a tease!!!
A female HouseMD-like physician? Now that is a definite hook for me… how could I resist that AND a sentient textual construct!
I was already looking forward to Spellbound, now I’m downright impatient
BlakeCharlton.com
8:34 am Sep-8-2010
[...] Why You Should Be Excited about Spellbound Posted 7:42 am 15-Aug-2010 | 27 responses [...]
curtis
6:48 am Sep-15-2010
hey i loved sellwright but was wondering you talked about some of the cool new stuff that’s coming out with spellbound, but I’m was curious how will nichodemus’s half sister play into this book or is she mentioned at all?
blakecharlton
11:30 am Sep-15-2010
oh, mi amigo, you have picked up on a very important plot line…which i can’t tell you about without spoiling. i hate it when authors say “read and find out” (the dreaded RAFO), but in this regard RAFO is a must
Jared
12:14 pm May-1-2011
Your book is great! Easily one of the most creative fantasy books I have ever read! I can’t wait for spellbound and disjunction!