Robin Hobb

Aprendiz de Assassino

2013-05-07T16:06:39Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

I am very pleased to say that in July, the first volume of The Farseer Trilogy, Assassin’s Apprentice, will be published in Brazil by Leya Brazil. The title will be Aprendiz de Assassino. (There’s a link hidden there! You just have to mouse over it to see it. Must fix that!)

This will be Fitz’s first venture into South America!

Thank you Boston

2013-05-01T02:42:49Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

The Boston Public Library gave me a wonderful welcome this evening. Thank you to all the readers who came tonight, and thank you to Pandemonium Books and Games who supplied books for sale at the library. Afterwards, I made a visit to Pandemonium and found it a wonderful place. They have tables and space for gamers as well as a large selection of SF/fantasy books and all sorts of games and gaming gear.
I signed a lot of stock for the store, so if you live in the Boston/Cambridge area and you want a signed book but were not able to attend tonight, you should definitely drop by 4 Pleasant Street in Cambridge. In addition to my books, I saw autographed book from George RR Martin, Richard Kadrey, John Scalzi and many others.

Boston Public Library and Powells in Beaverton

2013-04-28T17:45:21Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Those are my stops this week!
Tomorrow I fly to Boston, but my actual event is on Tuesday at 5:30 at the Boston Public Library on Boylston Street.

Then, on Friday, I’ll be back in the Pacific Northwest, cruising down to Beaverton, Oregon, to see old friends at Powell’s Books and do a reading and signing at 7 PM. Coffee with whoever hangs around afterwards if we can find someplace that’s still open!

I’d make the same offer for Boston, but I don’t know if there are any nearby coffee shops that wouldn’t mind an invasion. If anyone knows a good one, please do buttonhole me after the event. Late coffee and chat with readers is one of the pleasures of a book tour.

See you there, I hope!

P.S. Is it hard to see the links in the post above? Please let me know. You should be able to click on the Boston Public Library or Powell’s for more information.

Ship of Magic Graphic Novel

2013-04-18T19:35:18Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

For those of you interested in the behind the scenes work that goes into a graphic novel, this link from Audrey may prove very interesting. It’s in English as well as French, so do not be shy!

Here you can find some brief introductions to the artists involved, as well as some samples of the pages.

Enjoy!

(If you cannot easily see the link, just roll your mouse over ‘Audrey‘!

Reddit Ask Me Anything

2013-04-16T18:14:16Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Please come on over to Reddit today to Ask Me Anything.

Well, almost anything. If you ask me something that’s already here on my FAQ, I shall be quite grumpy and feel perfectly free to tell huge lies instead of giving you a simple answer.

If you post an unmasked spoiler, I will respond with the full lyrics to the song about ‘The Duck Walks Up To the Lemonade Stand.’

And if you ask a question that has already been asked more than three times, well, then I will flood your email with the answer to that question. 500 times. Small children with I-pods are standing by to help with that task.

Okay, I’m kidding. Mostly. Come on over to Reddit and let’s chat.

Hudson News at SeaTac Airport and Reddit AMA

2013-04-16T05:55:27Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Well, tomorrow looks to be a busy day for me!

Hudson News is planning a Grand Re-Opening of its bookstore in the SeaTac International Airport tomorrow. Now, I know you cannot just drop in there, as it’s on the other side of the security gates. But if you will pass through SeaTac airport tomorrow, you will find several authors doing signings. Adrian Wood and S.C. Stephens are taking the 8:45 to 9:45 am shift, followed by Jonathan Evison at 10:30. At 11:30, you may encounter William Dietrich and Mike Lawson. At 12:30, Elizabeth Boyle and Julia Quinn. And finally, at 1:30, I’ll be dropping by. Even if you aren’t flying tomorrow, we plan to sign stock there, so you may find some autographed books if you are flying in the near future.

And for those of us who are only piloting our computers tomorrow, I’ll be doing a REDDIT AMA (Ask Me Anything) at 6 PM Pacific Time. These are always great fun. You can drop in and pose any question you wish. If you want to see how one of these works, you might want to take a look at this one that Brandon Sanderson did earlier today.

You can drop in early at Reddit Fantasy to post your questions. Please, before you post, take a look at the FAQ on this site to find answers to old favorites such as “Why do you write under two names?” and “Will you ever write about Fitz and the Fool again?” Both are excellent questions, but I’ve answered them far too often! So I’m looking forward to new and creative questions for the Reddit. Oh, and please be spoiler wary, especially for Blood of Dragons. I so greatly appreciate that!

Liveships Graphic Novel Cover

2013-04-12T06:17:23Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Soleil (French Graphic Novel)

I only wish it were in English and being published in the US as well! But for French readers, here is the cover fo the Soleil graphic novel adaptations of The Liveship Traders, part one, Ship of Magic!

This is scheduled for release in June of this year.

At Goodreads today

2013-04-11T19:56:44Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Just a quick reminder that today, April 11th, I am over at Goodreads answering reader questions.

There are already a lot of them, but I am soldiering through them! And I always welcome a new and thoughtful question.

A Fresh New Look for Robinhobb.com

2013-04-07T20:16:51Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

So, what do you think? Please do let us know!

Many thanks to Eric of Goldspace web design for his patience during this ongoing update process!

We are still a work in progress, so please do keep coming back to see what we are changing, updating and adding to the website. And you feedback is sincerely welcome.

Two Cool Things . . . well, actually Three

2013-03-26T04:19:54Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

The first is, if you have pre-ordered Blood of Dragons in the US, you can get a signed bookplate to go in it!

Fill out this form on Facebook and the bookplate will be sent to you.

Second cool thing. Recently, I joined Goodreads, a social media site where it is far too much fun to assemble a library of books you have loved and post reviews of them. Now, as I consider myself an optimist, I only post about books I’ve enjoyed. So you can consider my library there something of a recommended reading list.

On April 11th, I’ll be doing a ‘featured author’ event there. Basically, it’s a chance to interact with readers. You can visit, ask question, and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Oh, and yes, I should add that I’ll be doing an AMA (Ask Me Anything) over at Reddit fantasy on April 16th. So if you miss the one on the 11th at Goodreads, don’t hesitate to join us there.

Assassin’s Apprentice in Hardback in the UK

2013-03-22T17:12:25Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Assassin’s Apprentice is the first volume in The Farseer Trilogy, my first work as Robin Hobb.

It has never been available in hardback in the US. And the UK editions with the stunning John Howe covers quickly sold out. You can occasionally find them on E-bay for shocking sums of money.

I frequently receive queries as to how to find this book in hardcover. HarperCollins Voyager is offering a solution to that knotty problem. This is a cloth bound book intended for those who would like to make a permanent edition to their library.

Speculate Part 3~!

2013-03-21T06:18:49Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

In a previous post, I mentioned that I’d done an interview with Speculate and greatly enjoyed the questions offered.

Speculate commonly does a triptych when they select an author. They focus first on a work (in my case, The Inheritance), follow that up with an interview, and the third piece is a writing discussion based again on The Inheritance.

Well, the writing discussion is now live.

My thanks again to Bradley Beaulieu and Gregory Wilson for this opportunity!

Signed First Editions of Blood of Dragons

2013-03-13T18:34:10Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

The release date for Blood of Dragons, the concluding volume of the Rain Wild Chronicles, will be April 8, 2013. I will be doing a book tour to promote the book and sign copies for readers, with visits to Seattle, Olympia, Los Angeles, and Boston. But if you don’t happen to live in one of those cities or don’t wish to wait, you can contact Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore and pre-order your signed first edition right now, to be delivered to your door by the release date!

Thanks again for your readership, and I look forward to meeting many of you in person at the signing events!

British Fantasy Society Interview

2013-03-08T20:10:17Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

I just conpleted an interview with the British Fantasy Society. I very much enjoyed it. It wasn’t the standard set of questions.

Thursday

2013-03-08T05:49:47Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Yesterday, I was virtuous. I sat at my desk and let nothing distract me. I worked on my revisions all day.

Today I shoveled most of a pick up truck of soil into the raised beds that I’d lined with landscaping fabric. Then we went down to the building-that-is-soon-to-be-a-dojo where I rewired a pigtail for the pump that theoretically makes hot water reach the bathrooms faster, hung signs for the handicapped bathrooms in braille at the appropriate height, hosed out the truck bed, pressure washed part of the side of the building, and nearly broke a drill bit trying to get through some ancient masonry to hang toilet paper dispensers at the prescribed height in the bathroom. Then I picked up half a truck load of construction debris from our site. On the way back to Tacoma, we stopped and picked up vermiculite, more landscape fabric, extra pipe hangers for the saggy pexpipe, two more drill bits, and the hangers for the rain gutters.And we came home.

Fred wants me to come down there again tomorrow with him to shovel another truck load of soil into raised beds and possibly get the rain gutters hung on one side of the dojo and try out the new drillbits that may get through the masonry. Oh, yes, we have vermiculite to mix into the filled beds of soil. And if we have time left over, we need to paint the trim in the janitor’s closet. And if the drillbits work, I can put the pipehangers on the saggy pexpipe.

Or I can stay home and write.

And I’m really tempted to go with him, because that sounds like a much easier day than trying to make the words go right on the screen.

Speculate review, and more to come there!

2013-03-06T00:55:33Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Over at Speculate you will find a review of my story collection: The Inheritance & Other Stories.

Here is Speculate’s own description:

Welcome to Episode 69 of Speculate! The Podcast for Writers, Readers and Fans. With this episode we begin a new triptych of shows on the work of Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm, looking at the 2011 short story collection The Inheritance and Other Stories–the first time both pseudonyms have been brought together in one volume. In particular we talk about Lindholm’s stories “A Touch of Lavender” and “The Fifth Squashed Cat,” along with Hobb’s stories “The Inheritance” and “Cat’s Meat”; although both names belong to one author, the voices and emphases are quite different, and we look at both those differences and the assured touch of a speculative fiction master evident throughout all of the book. If you like what you hear, don’t forget to check back next week when we’ll continue the triptych with our interview of Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm herself. Until then, thanks as always for listening to the show, and please continue to spread the word.

I had a wonderful time doing the interview via Skype (but it is audio only!) despite the challenges of doing this in a lively household. The first time we attempted it, I was knocked off the internet several times, possibly by my home phone ringing.

In the second episode, I waged a mostly silent battle with Diego the desk cat over whether or not he was allowed to stroll on the keyboard, or perhaps just sit on it during the interview. And, of course, I was knocked off Skype once, and had three phone calls making my house phone ring. I’m trusting those will be barely audible.

Nonetheless, it was very enjoyable and I hope readers will likewise enjoy the interview when it comes up.

In the meantime, I commend to your attention the Speculate interview with Peter V. Brett and Myke Cole, findable (did I just invent that word) on the right hand side of the Skype site. Good stuff there.

Happy March!

Willful Princess and Piebald Prince Excerpt and Fitz goes to Brazil

2013-02-23T21:56:11Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

A excerpt of my novella The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince is now available over at Tor! Why Tor? Well, why not? If you’d like a peek at the tale before you commit to buying, follow the link and see if you like it! At the very least, go look at the lovely cover art! You won’t regret it.

And another quick bit of news. For the very first time, I will be venturing into South America. Or rather, my books will. Maybe I’ll have the opportunity to follow them eventually!

I’m very pleased to announce that my amazing agent Chris has negotiated a publishing agreement with Texto Editores LTDA. They will be publishing the Farseer Trilogy sometime before December 2014, followed by the Liveship Traders before December 2014, in Portuguese.

I am so very pleased about this!

Blood of Dragons

2013-02-19T19:05:18Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

I’ve received a number of queries recently, so I decided I should re-post the information here. Blood of Dragons will be released in the US on April 9, 2013. Australia and the UK will have it on the shelves by then also.

You may even find the book on US shelves at the end of March, as some bookstores put books out as soon as they arrive.

Thanks for being interested! The amazing cover is by Jackie Morris.

Jackie Morris and I! University Book Store tonight.

2013-01-28T23:29:50Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Pulling myself together to head up to University Book Store for my 7 PM event with Jackie Morris. Jackie will be reading from one of her books, perhaps I am Cat or East of the Sun,West of the Moon and doing some sketching. I will read a bit from the forthcoming Blood of Dragons. We have a gift basket to raffle off to attendees. It has all four of the Rain Wild Chronicles books in it, all with cover art by Jackie. It includes an ARC (advance Reading Copy) of Blood of Dragons, the unreleased finale to the Rain Wild Chronicles. Hope to see some readers there! 4326 University Way, N.E. – Seattle, Washington 98105

Want to write fantasy or science fiction?

2013-01-16T18:32:15Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Clarion West.

Among the genres, I think that the readers of SF and fantasy have the highest percentage of readers who also dream of being writers. And look at that lineup of instructors for 2013. That’s a wonderful spectrum of writers from the full rainbow of SF and fantasy.

I never had the good fortune to be able to attend Clarion. I think that if I had, I would have achieved success decades earlier. Perhaps Clarion or Clarion West is right for you?

Clarion and Clarion West are probably the best known writing workshops for people who want a six week boot camp on how to be a writer.

The upcoming session�
(June 23 to August 2)
will be taught by�
Elizabeth Hand,
Neil Gaiman,
Joe Hill,
Justina Robson,
Ellen Datlow, and
Samuel R. Delany,�
our 2013 Susan C. Petrey Fellow.

The fee for applications received by midnight Pacific Time on February 10, will be discounted from $40 to $30.We’ll need the full $40 fee from anyone applying after that.ALL applications for this year’s session must be RECEIVED by our final deadline of midnight on March 1. These deadlines are fast approaching. To apply now, or to find more information and a PDF of our call-for-applicants with instructor bios, visit 2013 Clarion West Six-Week Workshop .

And on we go into 2013

2013-01-07T03:22:06Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

I’ve just finished update my appearances for the year or as many as I know of right now. I’ll be at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, and I’ll be doing an event at the Boston Public Library on Boyston St. Later, I’ll be a guest at Hypericon in Nashville, Tennessee and late in October, I’ll do a book tour of the UK, wrapping it up at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, England. I hope I’ll get the chance to meet many more readers!

Buzzy Magazine Interview

2012-12-04T19:15:10Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

I did this interview at Dragon Con with Jean Marie Ward. She had some very interesting questions about magic and power.

Sorry about the constant blinking! Watching this, I realize how difficult bright light is for me to endure! But of course it’s necessary to the filming process!

Sword and Laser Interview

2012-11-09T19:22:25Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

So, here it is, my very first Skype experience, an interview with Sword and Laser!

And I’m also very pleased to report that the Lee Moyer 2013 Literary Pin Up calendar is now available for order at The Tinkers Pack. Only $20 and the money goes to a good cause, Heifer International. This charity helps needy families to acquire livestock that enables them to better their standard of living.

an Epic anthology and a Calendar for a Cause

2012-10-24T01:01:33Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Today Epic becomes available. This anthology from John Joseph Adams has an amazing line-up of authors. I feel privileged to be among them. Here’s a sneak peek at the Table of Contents:

Foreword—Brent Weeks
Introduction—John Joseph Adams
Homecoming—Robin Hobb
The Word of Unbinding—Ursula K. Le Guin
The Burning Man—Tad Williams
As the Wheel Turns—Aliette de Bodard
The Alchemist—Paolo Bacigalupi
Sandmagic—Orson Scott Card
The Road to Levinshir—Patrick Rothfuss
Rysn—Brandon Sanderson
While the Gods Laugh—Michael Moorcock
Mother of All Russiya—Melanie Rawn
Riding the Shore of the River of Death—Kate Elliott
The Bound Man—Mary Robinette Kowal
The Narcomancer—N. K. Jemisin
Strife Lingers in Memory—Carrie Vaughn
The Mad Apprentice—Trudi Canavan
Otherling—Juliet Marillier
The Mystery Knight—George R. R. Martin

Visit the site for a link to sample the stories and links to interviews with the authors.

And here is a link to an update on the Patrick Rothfuss/ Lee Moyer calendar for 2013! The calendar is sold as an fundraiser for Heifer International. This is not, as some thought, a charity to benefit animals, but one that supplies farm animals such as heifers, goats, pigs and chickens to families to enable them to lift their standard of living. It’s a charity that keeps on giving, as the gifted families then extend your gift by passing on some of the animal’s offspring to other families. It’s a great charity, and a wonderful calendar! I’m proud to say that one of my characters will be featured in the 2013 calendar.

The Joyous Story of Astrid by L. Adams Beck

2012-09-14T20:19:08Z

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Cleaning my bookshelves today. Some volumes will go off to the second hand store. A lot of the YA is moving upstairs to the bedroom that the kids use when they visit. Many of the out grown books will come down to be sorted into ‘keep’ or ”give away.’

Some of the books are no-brainers as to where they go. My father’s illustrated by Louis Rhead editions of Treasure Island and Kidnapped. Old fairy tale books illustrated by Edmund Dulac. The old Oz books. Family treasures. I always stop to look at them and read a few pages. And there it is, among my other treasures: the first fantasy novel that I ever found on my family shelves and read to myself. The Joyous Story of Astrid. Sadly, the book I had when I was a kid disappeared a long time ago, but I replaced it with one discarded by the Orangeville Public Library. It’s a first edition, I now realize, from 1931.

It’s about a child who is born half in the old year and half in the new. She has green eyes and laughs aloud instead of crying. She is left on the doorstep of The Man Who Wrote Stories. Here is a bit about that: “The Man carried her in and they looked and looked at her and could not think where she had come from. And her laughter amazed them becasue babies usually cry. They put her to bed and gave her milk and wished she had been left anywhere else. They did not like babies and they expected every baby to do exactly the same things as every other baby has done from the beginning of the world, and that was foolish becasue if babies all did the same old thing we should never gat any farther. So everything she did they thought was wrong.”

Here’s a paragraph from chapter two, called Early Snow and Inu.

“ Next night, when Astrid woke up and ate her supper there were little oranges, very sweet, which had come up the sound in a ship from Japan. She took one in each hand when she went out in the snw where the Lady in the green dress was waiting for her, and Astrid gave one to her one to Starlight, the youngest Wolf. It was a great treat to him, for Wolves hardly ever see oranges. You should think of that when you eat them.”

This book has a section on how to make mind flowers. And how to dream true. It tells about the Rabbit in the Moon, and the Tea Kettle Princess. And The Cats that Told Time.

And I was once convinced that it was written exactly for me. After all, Astrid is part of my name, and my eyes are green. And I always wanted to stay awake all night and sleep by day.

The Asian influences in the story are quite clear. I suspect the author is Lily Adams Beck, a Canadian writer of that era, but I don’t see this book listed in the bibliographies of her works that I’ve looked up. Still, the Asian influences in her other writing are very clear. So I think that this is hers, and somehow it has been overlooked. She is referred to as ‘first prolific female fantasy writer in Canada.’

I think maybe it’s time to read this book aloud at my house.