Candlekeep Forum
Candlekeep Forum
Home | Profile | Register | Active Topics | Active Polls | Members | Private Messages | Search | FAQ
Username:
Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

 All Forums
 Forgotten Realms Products
 Forgotten Realms Novels
 support for our writers

Note: You must be registered in order to post a reply.
To register, click here. Registration is FREE!

Screensize:
UserName:
Password:
Format Mode:
Format: BoldItalicizedUnderlineStrikethrough Align LeftCenteredAlign Right Horizontal Rule Insert HyperlinkInsert Email Insert CodeInsert QuoteInsert List
   
Message:

* HTML is OFF
* Forum Code is ON
Smilies
Smile [:)] Big Smile [:D] Cool [8D] Blush [:I]
Tongue [:P] Evil [):] Wink [;)] Clown [:o)]
Black Eye [B)] Eight Ball [8] Frown [:(] Shy [8)]
Shocked [:0] Angry [:(!] Dead [xx(] Sleepy [|)]
Kisses [:X] Approve [^] Disapprove [V] Question [?]
Rolling Eyes [8|] Confused [?!:] Help [?:] King [3|:]
Laughing [:OD] What [W] Oooohh [:H] Down [:E]

  Check here to include your profile signature.
Check here to subscribe to this topic.
    

T O P I C    R E V I E W
shorac Posted - 14 Mar 2014 : 20:29:44
With wotc keeping a lot of our favorite writers in limbo like Kemp , Cunningham, byers , Debie and list goes on and on how do we as fans put pressure on them to keep the books coming? I have purchased every realms and dragonlance book ever printed ' which was a huge task and took along time'. Recently though I have had a feeling that they are doing to the realms what they did to dragonlance and that was a tragedy. I hope its just paranoia and that they don't pull the rug out from under us, I know that personally I would be done with wotc if they do fade the realms away, and I spend a lot of money on their products 'MTG d&d, board games novels etc'. I'm still angry about dragonlance if the realms were gone I don't think I could deal with it..
27   L A T E S T    R E P L I E S    (Newest First)
RealmsForgedChild Posted - 29 May 2014 : 05:26:02
quote:
Originally posted by Richard Lee Byers

I would like to continue with both the REAVER characters and the Brotherhood of the Griffon series, but so far, I have no deal in place to do anything more for WotC. I hope that will change eventually.



I need more brother hood!
RealmsForgedChild Posted - 29 May 2014 : 05:24:49
Do you know how many years I waited for Wizards to let Paul publish Godsborn and how much they pushed it back and pushed it back. What was it like at least 5 years I want to say 7 but that feels like to much. Ha ha ha ha ha ha I'm sorry I just read Richards last message. Sorry Brother. But seriously there are very few realms authors I don't love and support. I'll be writing me email tonight.
Richard Lee Byers Posted - 16 May 2014 : 01:49:17
I'm not really comfortable getting into a discussion of my sales figures. Let's just say that all my FR novels have at least earned back their advances and leave it at that.
jornan Posted - 16 May 2014 : 00:47:26
Richard, I know Paul Kemp has shared sales figures with some of his books in the past and perhaps you are not interested in going into detail, but overall how did the Brotherhood books sell comparatively to some of your previous book series, either in the Realms or otherwise? It just seems like there is a disconnect happening between what readers of the realms want and are actually getting.
Richard Lee Byers Posted - 15 May 2014 : 20:05:39
I would like to continue with both the REAVER characters and the Brotherhood of the Griffon series, but so far, I have no deal in place to do anything more for WotC. I hope that will change eventually.
zenmichael Posted - 15 May 2014 : 18:03:38
quote:
Originally posted by Thauranil

quote:
Originally posted by Madpig

I will most certainly send something similiar to WOT.

As businessman, I have no clue what are they doing at WOT. They should increase amount of novels, not make them few and far between.


I agree completely. After all the Sundering turned out to be quite popular so why not start some new series or at least continue the sagas of existing characters.



Well, it looks like Erin at least is continuing with existing characters:

http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Blood-Erin-M-Evans/dp/0786965290/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=008Z55NVSMSZCQHEGJFM

And as Erik mentioned above, Ed & Bob are still going. I haven't heard anything about Troy, Richard or Paul continuing on with anything from their Sundering books, or anything else Realms fiction-related, and I only found out about Fire in the Blood moments ago because it was under the recommendations when I followed the link for Erik's books above.
Thauranil Posted - 15 May 2014 : 12:02:05
quote:
Originally posted by Madpig

I will most certainly send something similiar to WOT.

As businessman, I have no clue what are they doing at WOT. They should increase amount of novels, not make them few and far between.


I agree completely. After all the Sundering turned out to be quite popular so why not start some new series or at least continue the sagas of existing characters.
ElaineCunningham Posted - 14 May 2014 : 18:30:18
Thanks for the kind thoughts, folks. The Realms was my first fiction home and remains my favorite. I have been busy elsewhere for several years, but I often miss the old haunts and old friends.
Erik Scott de Bie Posted - 13 May 2014 : 16:23:30
It's a bit off-topic, but I'll answer your question in brief.

I've written five Forgotten Realms novels, including the current thief-turned-paladin, champion-of-Fallen-Helm Shadowbane series, paused at book 3 until WotC decides to continue it. (And yes, I was doing the Last Paladin of Helm thing before it was popular. ) More info on those books can be found on my website.

The World of Ruin is a post-apocalyptic fantasy world that I like to describe to people as Game of Thrones meets Fallout by way of Assassin's Creed. Centuries after a magical war has devastated the landscape, the few surviving humans emerge into a darkened world of sentient pollution, barbarians twisted by radiation, and multifarious dangers. The last few bastions of civilization struggle to hold out against encroaching doom. The first book, Shadow of the Winter King, follows the story of Regel Winter, former court assassin to the fallen Winter King, seeking to avenge his master and mete out justice for his lost family. He forges an alliance with the knight Ovelia, with whom he has a complicated history steeped in resentment, desire, and regret. But when they confront their enemy--the sorcerer-assassin Mask (no relation to the FR deity)--they realize that all is not as it seems, and get caught up in a quest that will shake the foundations of power in the darkened world.

The second book, Shield of the Summer Prince, I'm writing right now, and hope to have it out by Summer 2015. (In time for GenCon, if possible!) And the third book, Mask of the Blood Queen, would be 2016 at the earliest. I have a total of seven (7) books in mind for the series, but we'll see how well these three do.

I'd love to discuss it in more detail, but it's probably best to do that in my own thread.

Cheers
yurilowell Posted - 13 May 2014 : 14:54:40
quote:
Originally posted by Erik Scott de Bie

Well met, all,

I want to echo the sentiments of my esteemed colleagues and friends. I am also heartened and touched by your support and good will, and I wish you luck in advancing your goal. Gods and Goddesses know I'd love to finish off the Shadowbane series. It's the sort of thing that would cause me to set aside the vast amount of non-Realms writing I'm doing these days.

(In the meantime, if anyone is looking for dark, intrigue-and-action-heavy, Realmsy fantasy fiction from me, might I suggest my latest novel Shadow of the Winter King or the forthcoming Scourge of the Realm? I think you will be very pleased with either of those!)

As for where the "fear" of the vanishing Realms comes from, well, WotC has been steadily trimming down its fiction department for years. They lost their best editors years ago, and the department is down to two people--one editor and a story manager--for all the fiction they put out. Currently, as far as I know, Ed, Bob, and Erin are the only authors writing for the Realms right now. The Sundering has brought a flood of readers, but it remains to be seen if WotC will effectively capitalize on that.

All affection to WotC, mind you. I don't envy them the challenges they've faced over the last 5-6 years. I hope they pull out and go back to publishing many great stories about the Realms from many great writers.

Cheers



Hi Erik - First I have to apologize for my ignorance, but I was not that familiar with your work before seeing this post. I hope this isn't considered off topic here, but am I correct to assume that 'Shadow of the Winter King' (World of Ruin)(Volume 1) is the first of a planned series? Could you possibly elaborate on this and give us an idea of where you see this headed? How many books you are currently planning on this series being, and maybe a rough timeline of when they will be out? Thanks in advance!
Erik Scott de Bie Posted - 12 May 2014 : 23:42:38
Well met, all,

I want to echo the sentiments of my esteemed colleagues and friends. I am also heartened and touched by your support and good will, and I wish you luck in advancing your goal. Gods and Goddesses know I'd love to finish off the Shadowbane series. It's the sort of thing that would cause me to set aside the vast amount of non-Realms writing I'm doing these days.

(In the meantime, if anyone is looking for dark, intrigue-and-action-heavy, Realmsy fantasy fiction from me, might I suggest my latest novel Shadow of the Winter King or the forthcoming Scourge of the Realm? I think you will be very pleased with either of those!)

As for where the "fear" of the vanishing Realms comes from, well, WotC has been steadily trimming down its fiction department for years. They've been pruning down their editorial staff, and as far as I know, the department is down to two people--one editor and a story manager--for all the fiction they put out. Currently, as far as I know, Ed, Bob, and Erin are the only authors writing for the Realms right now. The Sundering has brought a flood of readers, but it remains to be seen if WotC will effectively capitalize on that.

All affection to WotC, mind you. I don't envy them the challenges they've faced over the last 5-6 years. I hope they pull out and go back to publishing many great stories about the Realms from many great writers.

Cheers
Dave_Gross Posted - 07 May 2014 : 19:54:22
Thanks for including my name on your lists. As Erik pointed out, while some of us might be writing in other worlds, if you enjoyed our Realms stories you may well dig our Pathfinder, Iron Kingdoms, or original fiction.

Some of the other folks on your list have appeared in the Creative Colleagues interviews on my website, and others are sure to appear in the future. There's a new interview almost every Wednesday. If you'd like to keep up with what some of us old Realmsians are up to lately, that's a good page to bookmark.

http://frabjousdave.com/tag/creative-colleagues/
Firestorm Posted - 22 Mar 2014 : 23:47:29
I wish I was a Multi-billionaire.

I would buy the rights to Forgotten realms
Dennis Posted - 18 Mar 2014 : 12:54:02

Publishing is a business. Poor sales means good-bye books. Simple as that. So how to ensure Wizards keeps publishing FR novels? Why, of course buy and buy lots and lots of them. I make it a habit to buy at least two or three copies and give the third one to a friend, especially one who has never sampled a Realms novel yet or a particular Realms author. And when I have time, I write reviews (mostly positive) and post them in several sites, this included.
ksu_bond Posted - 18 Mar 2014 : 07:42:46
I think the concern has more to do with a few of the authors stories/characters which are currently sitting in "Limbo" (ie. have not been "finished").
Caolin Posted - 18 Mar 2014 : 05:34:42
quote:
Originally posted by shorac

With wotc keeping a lot of our favorite writers in limbo like Kemp , Cunningham, byers , Debie and list goes on and on how do we as fans put pressure on them to keep the books coming? I have purchased every realms and dragonlance book ever printed ' which was a huge task and took along time'. Recently though I have had a feeling that they are doing to the realms what they did to dragonlance and that was a tragedy. I hope its just paranoia and that they don't pull the rug out from under us, I know that personally I would be done with wotc if they do fade the realms away, and I spend a lot of money on their products 'MTG d&d, board games novels etc'. I'm still angry about dragonlance if the realms were gone I don't think I could deal with it..



I certainly don't want to tamp down any efforts to pressure WoTC to write more Realms novels. I've been trying to be vocal for years about my desire for more Realms novels.

I'm really curious though where your fear comes from that Realms fiction will go way some how? Sure there are some iconic Realms authors that we don't hear from any longer. But one of the great things about the Realms fiction is that it has had a plethora of authors all with their own unique voice in the Realms. It's a living world and that means change and for every Cunningham, Denning, or Grub/Novak you'll get an Evans, de Bie, Byers, or a Kemp.

So take heart, in my humble and totally inconsequential opinion I don't think Realms fiction is going anywhere. They may have slowed down for now, but I am beginning to think everyone is just taking a deep breath to prepare for then next bout of story telling.
shorac Posted - 17 Mar 2014 : 23:35:42
I'm glad to see that people are rallying for the realms I've been sending emails everyday and have a lot of my friends doing the same. If we can get back to the good old days when there were ten or more books a year that would be amazing. A few years ago I was at the lowest point in my life and I know its cliché but reading these books brought me back and gave me a safe place to go, one that took me away from the pain I was living through. It also inspired me to chase a dream and gave me direction that was long ago lost.I watched dragonlance fade away 'still hoping they bring it back in the near future' and I don't want that to be the fate of the realms.wotc has a incredibly gifted stable of writers at their disposal it would be a tragedy if they didn't give them a chance to continue on with there stories.I've expressed how exited I am for the future of the realms and how great the sundering novels have been, as well as my desire to see other storylines continue on and authors that I miss terribly. If they do this right the realms could be the best they have ever been , I just hope they see that too. For all those who are writing wotc to express their feelings and to try to motivate them to keep our authors buisy I thank you as a fan ,and to the authors that frequent this forum and keep in touch with us please keep the great novels coming....and thank you for the amazing adventures you have taken me along with you on...
Lothlos Posted - 17 Mar 2014 : 16:06:29
I will certainly send a similar email to WOTC (see below)

Greetings, I just wanted to drop a quick line to say that I have been a reader of the Forgotten Realms novels for the past 20 years. I own every book published and many of the game supplements as well.

I know the Sundering event is an effort to get the Realms back to a place and feeling that it used to be and these authors and story arcs are some of the best in the rich history of the Realms. This is classic realms. A couple of the Authors already have continuations of their series in the works such as RA Salvatore, Greenwood and Erin Evans, However, I just wanted to formally express a huge interest in seeing future novels by Paul S Kemp and a continuation of his Cale series as well as Richard Lee Byers and his Brotherhood of the Griffon series (and Reaver series as well, two books a year?)

Other great authors and story arcs that I would purchase in a heart beat are:

Anything by Elaine Cunningham
Conclusion of the Shadowbane series Erik Scott de Bie
Continuation of Richard Bakers characters or new stories
Continuation of the Chosen of Nendawen by Mark Sehestedt
Anything by Jaleigh Johnson
Anything by Rosemary Jones
Anything by Lisa Smedman
Anything by Stephen Schend
Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb
Troy Denning
Dave Gross
James Lowder

I know there are many more readers who feel the same, and there has been much discussion on [link removed] about this.

Thanks,


Madpig Posted - 17 Mar 2014 : 10:10:34
I will most certainly send something similiar to WOT.

As businessman, I have no clue what are they doing at WOT. They should increase amount of novels, not make them few and far between.
Richard Lee Byers Posted - 16 Mar 2014 : 22:26:01
Ditto what Paul said.
PaulSKemp Posted - 16 Mar 2014 : 18:57:39
quote:
Originally posted by jornan

Just sent this message to wizards,



You know, as silly as it may sound, I'm touched by that and offer my thanks. :-)
shorac Posted - 16 Mar 2014 : 04:17:26
I've made it a point to send them an email each day urging them to keep the stories coming and tell them what great writers they have and ones I miss dearly. I encourage anyone in these forums who feels like wise to go to wizards website and contact them with their input ,please let's do our part as fans to keep 'pressure' on them in a positive way . Aside from purchasing merchandise its our only voice and believe it or not they do pay attention to feed back.. ty
Lothlos Posted - 15 Mar 2014 : 22:00:13
Erik Scott de Bie had some suggestions for ways to support his Shadowbane series; many of which could be applied to any of your favorite Forgotten Realms authors.

http://erikscottdebie.com/writing/shadowbane/support-shadowbane-2/

I would also like to read some more books by Jaleigh Johnson in addition to those authors mentioned in previous posts.

jornan Posted - 15 Mar 2014 : 20:18:22
Just sent this message to wizards, would be great to see a similar rally from members here:

Greetings, I just wanted to drop a quick line to say that I have been a reader of the Forgotten Realms novels for the past 20 years. I own every book published and many of the game supplements as well.

I know the Sundering event is an effort to get the Realms back to a place and feeling that it used to be and these authors and story arcs are some of the best in the rich history of the Realms. This is classic realms. A couple of the Authors already have continuations of their series in the works such as RA Salvatore, Greenwood and Erin Evans, However, I just wanted to formally express a huge interest in seeing future novels by Paul S Kemp and a continuation of his Cale series as well as Richard Lee Byers and his Brotherhood of the Griffon series (and Reaver series as well, two books a year?)

Other great authors and story arcs that I would purchase in a heart beat are:

Anything by Elaine Cunningham
Continuation of Richard Bakers characters or new stories
Continuation of the Chosen of Nendawen by Mark Sehestedt
Anything by Rosemary Jones
Anything by Lisa Smedman
Anything by Stephen Schend
Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb
Troy Denning
Dave Gross
James Lowder

I know there are many more readers who feel the same, and there has been much discussion on [link removed] about this.

Thanks,
jornan Posted - 15 Mar 2014 : 15:00:07
Where is the best place to send said courteous message so that it is actually read?
shorac Posted - 15 Mar 2014 : 02:35:05
Good advice .. and I agree whole heartedly I recently purchased a tablet and started acquiring ebook copies aswell as the actual books I have . I understand wotc is a buiseness and if they don't see a way to make money they are not going to do it, so its important if we like a particular author or product that support it by purchasing it . Word of mouth is important too I've been loaning books to friends and encouraging them to read them and I have helped make a few fans for the realms I'm glad to say. I think its important for us all as fans 'if we want to keep this place alive and well' that we do what we can to get the word out. Writing to wotc is a good idea it gives us a voice in addition to our $$$$ that let's them know how we feel and what we are eager to see , so let's all drop them a line and let them know that we appreciate e realms and why it matters..
Richard Lee Byers Posted - 14 Mar 2014 : 23:24:37
If anyone wants to encourage Wizards to keep publishing our books, here's how you can exert influence.

1. Buy the ones you don't already own.

2. Post reviews.

3. Recommend us to other potential readers.

4. Send friendly, courteous, positive messages to Wizards telling them you have enjoyed the books by Author X (or Authors X, Y, and Z) and you hope there will be more.

Please note that "friendly, courteous, positive" part of the above. Even if you feel exasperated with Wizards, you're unlikely to motivate them with browbeating, insults, etc. Whereas cordial messages just might do some good (although there are, of course, no guarantees.)

Finally, may I suggest that if you enjoy a writer's work in the Realms, you may want to try his other work as well? Paul, Elaine, Erik, and I all write other things, and it is, after all, the same storyteller no matter what the universe. I know it would be a great day for me if everyone who likes my Faerūn fiction started buying my other books as well.

Candlekeep Forum © 1999-2024 Candlekeep.com Go To Top Of Page
Snitz Forums 2000