News Archive

 

 

01/04/02

 

Late news: SLW's story "Team Sharon" was released in the small-press (but much loved) anthology Mitch?3: Hacks to the Max.

 

Also, the Russian edition of Evergence: The Dark Imbalance arrived.  Here's the cover:

 

 

 

20/04/02

 

The Hebrew translation of "Evermore" (now called "LE'OLAMIM") by Rani Graff has been released on the webzine Bli Planika (which translates as "Don't Panic").  This is SLW's first appearance in Hebrew.  To see the story, click here.

 

 

19/04/02

 

The Storm Weaver & the Sand (the Third book of the Change) has been submitted to Stephanie Smith at HarperCollins Australia.  The current release date is set at December 2002.

 

 

18/040/2

 

Following the appearance of the Russian edition of The Prodigal Sun (see the note 01/04/02 below) AST has just released its edition of The Dying Light.  And the cover is even better:

 

 

 

15/04/02

 

Work on the third Star Wars: New Jedi Order novel, Force Heretic: Reunion, has commenced.

 

 

01/04/02

 

Increasing pressure on the work front has forced a slowdown on this site.  Some of the many things that have happened in recent weeks include:

 

- The trade paperback of The Sky Warden & the Sun (the second Book of the Change) is now in print.  An A-format of The Stone Mage & the Sea (book one) should be out any day now.

- A first draft of The Storm Weaver & the Sand (the third Book of the Change) has been completed and is currently being re-written.

- Release dates have changed slightly for The Sky Warden & the Sun and Storm Weaver.  The former has just been released in trade paperback; the A-format will be released concurrently with the trade of Storm Weaver in December of this year.  The A-format of Storm Weaver is now due April 03.

- A swag of positive reviews have rolled in for Echoes of Earth and The Stone Mage & the Sea (see the reviews section for more info).  Australian publishers HarperCollins have confirmed a local release date for Echoes of June 02.

- Force Heretic I: Remnant has been submitted to Star Wars: New Jedi Order publishers Del Rey.

- Adelaide Writers' Week was a success for all involved.  For a condensed version of SLW's four speeches, see the Opinions section.

- SLW was forced, with extreme reluctance, to cancel SwanCon due to work commitments.  Other commitments, such as the Sydney Writers' Festival and ConVergence are still planned to go ahead.

- Russian publisher AST has just released its edition of The Prodigal Sun.  See below for the cover:

 

 

 

25/01/02

 

Work has begun on the third Book of the Change, The Sky Warden & the Sand (due in September from HarperCollins Australia).

 

 

05/01/02

 

The final short-lists of the 2001 Aurealis Awards have been posted, and SLW has earned another nomination.  As well as a nomination for Best Fantasy Novel for The Stone Mage & the Sea, the conclusion of the Evergence trilogy, The Dark Imbalance, has made it up for the Best SF Novel category.  The date and venue of the announcement ceremony has yet to be confirmed.

 

 

04/01/02

 

After hearing from Damien Broderick some weeks ago that Jet Li's new movie, The One, seems to be based on an idea SLW once discussed with DB, the possibility is confirmed upon seeing the trailer.  All thoughts of writing The Longest Life as either a script or a novel are now abandoned.  SLW is a big fan of Jet Li, so will bear no grudges. :-)

 

 

01/01/02

 

Year in review: One trilogy finished in print (The Dark Imbalance) while another began (The Stone Mage & the Sea); both came out to good reviews and have been selling well.  2001 also saw SLW completing four full-length novels (The Sky Warden & the Sun, Orphans of Earth, Force Heretic: Refugee and Force Heretic: Reunion) at a total of 400,000+ words.  That didn't leave much time for short stories; in fact, there's only one listed, and that was the flash fiction piece (50 words) mentioned further down this page.  He made several public appearances, including SwanCon and the Newcastle Writers' Festival, and was talked into nominating for the Chair of the SA Writers Centre.  He was invited to be a peer assessor for the Literature Board of the Australia Council, which turned out to be a time-consuming but very rewarding experience.  He appeared on television, most notably on the two episodes of the ABC's Aftershock series, was mentioned in the occasional papers, won a Ditmar award (with Shane Dix, for The Dying Light) and flew to Skywalker Ranch to meet all the wonderful people a LucasFilm Licensing.  2001 has, in short, been an amazing year.

 

2002 promises no less.  Another new trilogy begins this month, one that "promises to rev its Ideas right past the red-line and drive them hard" (according to Locus).  Echoes of Earth will be on bookshelves in the US by the time this hits the Web.  The Books of Change will be next, with The Sky Warden & the Sun due in April and The Storm Weaver & the Sand in September.  Storm Weaver is in progress, with Force Heretic: Reunion and Heirs of Earth to follow.  The last book SLW will begin this year is his first solo SF novel since The Resurrected Man.  Widow of Opportunity has been a long time coming, but it's time is almost here.  SLW will also be at both major Australian cons -- SwanCon and ConVergence in Perth and Melbourne respectively -- and will be appearing for the first time at Adelaide Writers Week.  Whew!

 

 

31/12/01

 

SLW has handed the first draft of Force Heretic: Refugee to his co-writer, Shane Dix, and will be shortly moving onto his next novel, The Storm Weaver & the Sea.

 

 

16/12/01

 

The Stone Mage & the Sea has been nominated for a 2001 Aurealis Award under the Best Fantasy Novel category, along with novels by Sara Douglass, Juliet Marillier, Garth Nix, and Cameron Rogers.  The winner will be announced at a ceremony to be held in Melbourne in February/March 2002.

 

 

10/12/01

 

- The ms of Orphans of Earth has been accepted for publication in 2003.  This is the sequel to Echoes of Earth, which is due for publication by Ace January 2002.  HarperCollinsAustralia is in the process of negotiating to publish these books in Australia.  Dates have not been finalized as yet.  (See below for more news on EOE.)

- A very small short story is due to be published by aurealisXpress (the online service of Aurealis magazine) in December 2001.  A work of flash fiction (no more than 50 words) it is called "Nightmare" and features a first line inspired by a dream of SLW's partner, Kirsty Brooks, a couple of weeks back.
- Work continues apace on Force Heretic II: Refugee.  Completion date is currently set at mid-January.

- Recent appearances in major Australian newspapers (including The Australian, on Harry Potter vs. the Lord of the Rings movie adaptations, and in the Sydney Morning Herald/Melbourne Age lift-out magazine e)mag on life in 2011) accompany a number of non-writing DJ gigs (including the SA Premier's Party coming up on the 21st, followed by Xmas eve and New Year's Eve).

- The first review of Echoes of Earth has come in from Locus.  Russell Letson says: ""...the book can't be discussed or even described without spoiling some of the surprises, which are mutually reinforcing as well as juicy in themselves. I will, however, give into the temptation to drop a few more of the names that came to mind as I was reading: the Three Gregs (Bear, Benford, Egan), Linda Nagata, and Frederik Pohl... As the first of a series...Echoes promises to rev its Ideas right past the red-line and drive them hard."

 

 

23/10/01

- Sadly, FPR Books recently decided to forego any future releases on its Swift imprint, meaning that three planned collections for SW and a hardcover reprint of The Resurrected Man will no longer see print from that publisher.  Lovely UK editions of Evergence and Metal Fatigue are still available, however.

- SW recently started working on the first draft of Force Heretic II: Refugee.  Immediately prior to that, he complete a third and final draft of The Sky Warden and the Sun, the sequel to The Stone Mage & the Sea, for HarperCollinsPublishers Australia.

 

 

28/09/01

 

Computer problems have halted the regular updates of seanwilliams.com.au.  Time has also been an issue.  The last two months have seen SLW:

- finish the first draft of Force Heretic: Remnant, the first book in the trilogy he and Shane Dix are writing for the Star Wars: New Jedi Order series

- begin work on a third draft of The Sky Warden & the Sun

- release The Stone Mage & the Sea from HarperCollinsAustralia

- travel to Sydney for "extracurricular activities" (more on that later).

Future trips include an appearance at Perth's Fremantle writers' festival in November.  SLW's next project is Refugee, the sequel to Remnant.

 

 

24/6/01

 

The first draft of Orphans of Earth (the sequel to Echoes of Earth) has been finished, three weeks ahead of schedule.  From here it goes to Shane Dix for a rewrite, then comes back to SLW for a final pass.  Publication date of this novel hasn't been set yet.

 

 

22/6/01

 

SLW has been promoted from Treasurer to Chair of the SA Writers' Centre.

 

 

17/6/01

 

- The date of SLW's second appearance on the ABC series Aftershock has been set for July 19.  The topic is privacy, which should guarantee a feisty debate.

- Copyedits of the first books of two new series have recently been returned to their respective publishers.  The Stone Mage & the Sea went to HarperCollins Australia only a couple of days after Echoes of Earth went to Ace Books in the US.  Both are still on schedule for publication in September 2001 and January 2002 respectively.

- A rough blurb for Stone Mage now exists, concocted with the help of HarperCollins editors Stephanie Smith and Lisa Berryman, plus significant final polishing from Kirsty Brooks.  To read it, click here.

 

 

27/5/01

 

News on the YA fantasy front:

- The Sky Warden & the Sun (the Second Book of the Change) is finished and will be submitted to HarperCollins Australia this week.  No publication date has been set, as yet, but it's expected to appear some time in 2002.

- The Third Book of the Change is likely to be re-titled The Storm Weaver & the Sand.

 

Also:

- A second appearance in the ABC series Aftershock has been confirmed.  The topic this time will be Privacy.

 

 

9/5/01

 

The title of SLW's next book is confirmed as The Stone Mage & the Sea: First Book of the Change.  It is due to be published this September in trade paperback by HarperCollins Australia with cover art by Shaun Tan.

 

 

4/5/01

 

A busy week or two:

- A final edit of The Stone Mage & the Sea has been submitted to HarperCollins Australia while, at the same time, work continues on the second draft of its sequel, The Sky Warden & the Sun.

- Work has commenced on Orphans of Earth, the second book of a new space opera with Shane Dix.

- Initial cover concepts are in for the UK hardcover edition of The Resurrected Man (Bob Warner) and Stone Mage (Shaun Tan).  Both look fantastic.

- The first episode of Aftershock, a new ABC television series concerned with the near future, went to air last night, featuring SLW.  The episode dealt with the thorny issue of longevity, one of SLW's favourite topics.

 

 

15/4/01

 

The 2001 Ditmar Awards were announced at Swancon, among them one for Best Novel for The Dying Light.  This is the first time that SLW and Shane Dix have won a Ditmar together.  (They were first nominated in 1996 for The Unknown Soldier.)  This pushes SLW's count to three in a row (following Best Collection for New Adventures in Sci-Fi in 2000 and Best Novel for The Resurrected Man in 1999) out of eight nominations since 1994.

 

 

13/4/01

 

The launch of Mitch? 2: Tarts of the New Millennium brings a new SLW story into print.  "On this Rock" incorporates three of SLW's favourite themes -- conspiracies, music and religious fanatics -- and, in keeping with the theme of the anthology series ("short stories for people with short attention spans") it is uncharacteristically brief.

 

 

11/4/01

 

HarperCollins Australia, responding to strong sales since the release of The Dark Imbalance, has decided to reprint the first two books in the Evergence series. 

 

 

23/3/01

 

More title news: "Orphans" might have been problematic, but the Star Wars: New Jedi Order series certainly wasn't.  The trilogy title is confirmed as FORCE HERETIC, with the individual books called Remnant, Refugee and Reunion.  All three are due in 2003.

 

Also, sales of Evergence titles seem to be going well.  The/A Dark Imbalance has a 5-star rating on Amazon.com and has appeared on a local Dymocks store's best-seller list (at number 6).  The Prodigal Sun is being reprinted in the US.  A plug on the national Today Show certainly won't hurt, either ...

 

 

23/3/01

 

The final decision on the titles of the new series for Ace is in.  The books will be called Echoes of Earth, Orphans of Earth and Heirs of Earth, as per a previous proposal.

 

 

17/3/01

 

Back from a brainstorming session at Skywalker Ranch, SLW can confirm that he and Shane Dix have been contracted to write the 15th, 16th and 17th novels in the Star Wars: New Jedi Order series.  Titles are still in the pipeline (see them first at www.starwars.com) but will be reported here soon.  If all goes according to plan, this brings to five new novels SLW expects to see published in 2003, following two novels and a possible three reprint collections in 2002.

 

 

7/3/01

 

The first draft of The Sky Warden & the Sea is complete, just in time for the trip to Skywalker Ranch.  Due for delivery in May, editing and reworking will overlap the beginning of Planets in Their Stations, due in October.

 

 

6/3/01

 

The Dying Light might not have picked up the Aurealis Award for best SF novel at last Friday's ceremony, but it has been nominated for a 2001 Best Novel Ditmar Award, announced yesterday.  Every one of SLW's novels has been nominated for both the Ditmar and the Aurealis Award (apart from The Prodigal Sun which was judged ineligible due to its close relation to The Unknown Soldier).

 

 

23/2/01

 

Richard Curtis (SLW's agent in New York) has secured a deal with Del Rey for a trilogy of Star Wars: New Jedi Order novels.  Titles and storylines are still unknown; SLW will be visiting Skywalker Ranch in month to brainstorm plots.  Publication dates are also unknown, but delivery of the three mss will take place between March and September 2002.

 

 

22/2/01

 

The title saga continues.  The proposed titles for the new trilogy with Shane Dix are now as follow: Sculptures in the Sky, Planets in their Stations, and The Sentinel Stars.  The due date is still January 2002.

 

 

16/2/01

 

US publisher Ace Books has accepted for publication the first novel of a new series co-written with Shane Dix.  Originally titled Crown of Thorns, the book has been re-titled Echoes of Earth.  The second and third books of the series were originally called Orphans of Earth and Nature of Gravity.  The third will now be called Heirs of Earth.  Echoes of Earth, originally due in March 2002, has been pushed forward to January.