Congratulations To Kelley Armstrong!

Kelley Armstrong, a Canadian fantasy author who sets her stories in contemporary North America, is one of my favorite authors. She has five published books and one more to come out in May. She also has about five novella's worth of free fiction available on her website, with updates available once or twice a month. How can she afford to be so generous?

Well, this month's news certainly helps. You know that you have arrived in the publishing world when publishers have purchased the rights to your next four novels sight (and apparently even title) unseen.

Congratulations Ms. Armstrong on your success. Your fans look forward to the next installments.

Meanwhile, while I'm on the topics of favorite authors, I should also note that Kate Elliott, another of my favorites, has finally completed her seven volume, 4678 page (plus appendixes) epic Crown of Stars fantasy series. Given that I've already read her four volume epic science fiction series, four novels written before she adopted her pen name, and almost all of her short fiction, finishing the last half of the last volume of the Crown of Stars series is a no brainer. But, I am increasingly coming to the conclusion that maybe she is not the best role model for my own meager science fiction writing efforts (seen in my currently stalled serial novel effort at Wash Park Poet which is about a third of the way to its expected completion point), as I don't really have the time to write a several thousand page multi-volume novel with half a dozen plus different subplots co-existing at any one time. If it takes her seven volumes over a great many years to bring that kind of story to a neat conclusion, I'm sure that I can't do any better.

Incidentally, one of the main reasons I like both authors is that they are among the very few authors of any quality who allow you to read science fiction/fantasy stories about grown ups who have to deal with issues like raising children of their own, rather than limiting themselves to the childless young adults who are the lifeblood of the genre. At my stage in life, that means a lot.