originally posted by Zorana Lewis
Well you've already recruited one new reader. I got Curse of the Mistwraith lent to me by my dad when I went into hospital and I'm now hooked! Since coming out I've gone out and bought the rest, and now got my entire Degree course at university reading them. lol.
But yeah, couldn't believe how long it took me to find these - looking in the bookstores, all I could find were the Empire series, and Stormed Fortress. Ended up getting most of them off of Green Metropolis.
Hi Zoranna Lewis - welcome here. Glad to see you're having fun, and of course, that you're back on your feet - if I might ask, what is Green Metropolis?
You must have a very interesting crowd in your degree course…
originally posted by Clansman
To all:
I have just been added to FantasyLiterature.net as a reviewer.
My first project: Stormed Fortress! A nice thing about the site is that the viewer can simply click on the book cover and be linked to amazon. In the case of SF, it will link directly to amazon.co.uk. I am not doing this to support Janny's books, but it is a happy coincidence for me. I am doing it to support good fantasy literature, which is what Janny writes, so I automatically get to support her books anyway.
I will be reviewing other books for Kat also, and CotMW would be next, as I read it only last summer, and it is a glaring hole on the site (IMHO).
However, I won't be able to post here as often as I have. I need the time to figure out how to work "Twisted Sisters" into my review…
Cool for you, Clansman.
Guess we at Paravia will have to visit you on the forum topics at Fantasyliterature. They have some nice discussions going on many authors' works.
And after a lurk, there, information is so needed. It appears - at least one person who posted, as a former reader, erroneously believed my series ENDED, because they failed to see it on a shelf at a bookstore. Or hear any buzz, apparently. (Argh! bangs head.)
But now - could I start my creative week with better news???
Yeeehaaa!
originally posted by Zorana Lewis
Thanks Janny, and yeah, my degree course are an interesting bunch to put it mildly.
Green Metropolis is a website that offers second hand books for '3.75 with free delivery, which, if you can find what you're looking for, is a very good deal. I feel somewhat bad about not buying the books new, but play.com are all out of stock, and me and Amazon had a bit of a falling out (which is putting it mildly) some time ago and they blocked my account, so I can't buy through them. *grin* So yeah, good site.
originally posted by Trys
And Green Metropolis donates 5p for every book sold to the 'Tree For All' campaign run by the Woodland Trust.
I have a new author's page at redroom.com
Redroom provides space for registered members to write reviews of titles posted on the author's pages. Anyone who wishes to sign in and participate, or just lurk by as a visitor, here's the welcome to see what the site is about.
A wave of thanks to the gryphon for superb help with the technical stuff!
originally posted by Trys
You're welcome. 
originally posted by Clansman
Reviews of TK and SF have just appeared on FantasyLiterature.net!
By yours truly!
originally posted by DarthJazy
hey clansman:
Just read your review was the Star Wars inuendo on purpose? I gotta know hehe
originally posted by Clansman
If there was Star Wars innuendo it was completely unintentional. I try not to slag books by reference, unless I am honestly and directly reviewing them. (I do have a rather short and highly negative review of another author on FanLit.net, but that is only because he deserved it. I was not alone in my opinion, either!)
So what innuendo did you find?
originally posted by DarthJazy
when you said there is no direct dark lord. Dark Lord would be the star wars reference as in Dark Lord of the Sith. See how much Star Wars has influenced the world hehe. Another question is how do I submit for something to be fixed on an authors page? I was serving through the site and went accross Mercedes Lackey review page. Now i admit i dont agree with the review but that niether here nor there as the books listed are said to be in order of time Line and several mistake were made in the order as well as published dates of books.
originally posted by Clansman
Mr reference to the Dark Lord was how evil in fantasy, since Tolkien did it, has been represented by a Dark Lord. George Lucas and his cast of writers have probably unintentionally, or intentionally, borrowed the Dark Lord theme. Just look at the first Star Wars movie, and the plot is almost identical to the quest to destroy the Ring.
This Dark Lord theme, since Tolkien (with Sauron in LOTR and Melkor/Morgoth (Sauron's boss) in the Silmarillion), has been repeated over and over again, by the likes of Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks, and Dennis McKiernan (who virtually copied LOTR in his first series), and many many others who did it a whole lot worse.
I honestly never thought of Star Wars when I wrote that review, because I haven't read Star Wars books since the Timothy Zahn novels (set right after the defeat of Palpatine in Return of the Jedi). It likely applies, though the traditional Dark Lord is all-powerful, but with one horrible, incredible weakness (like the Ring in LOTR) that allows him to be defeated by some farmboy with an amazing sword or an instant knowledge of magic (just who trained Rand 'al Thor anyway???).
Once Tolkien did the Dark Lord thing, no one else should have tried. It's been done, and now it just looks ultra cheesy and unimaginative (except when I read LOTR again in about 10 years). Jordan was doing it well enough to get away with it (until he wrote too many books), but still, the idea has been done, over and over again.
My point was that the conflict in WoLaS is much more human, much more real, which makes the books more important to the reader.
originally posted by DarthJazy
well atleast starwars dark lord was never ment to be viewed as all powerful which as you read into the story you come to see that while one on one sith tend to have more raw power they loose cause of interfighting while the jedi get there stregnth from being one group with a single purpose with none of the interfighting. hince why the sith use the rule of two and use subterfuge and the like to gain control.
originally posted by Lyssabits
"Once Tolkien did the Dark Lord thing, no one else should have tried. It's been done, and now it just looks ultra cheesy and unimaginative "
Heh, you can count me as one who thought it was cheesy when Tolkien did it also. But I'm one of the rare people who, while appreciating what a trail blazer he was, really doesn't like Tolkien.
originally posted by Hellcat
If you read a bit of George Lucas' inspiration for Star Wars , he was heavily influenced by Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" and his thesis that the basic heroic story was based upon a single archetype with various plot points of which the "saving from evil or gaining a boon for mankind" was the goal/reward of the hero's quest.
I'm not sure I fully agree with Campbell's ideas but it definitely true how you can see the same themes coming repeatedly in many fantasy books.
Hellcat
PS: Campbell is very worth a read both Hero with Thousand Faces and his comparitive religion quartet. His lack of pro-Christian bias and depth makes him one of the fathers of comparitive studies of faiths.
There was a question put forward in another topic that should properly have been here, so, I will answer it here.
There is only one petition that I know of that will absolutely motivate a publisher: sales. Sales happen by the spread of awareness to other readers.
There are about five major forums on the internet that I am aware of, devoted ENTIRELY to Fantasy and SF…if you visit there, and poke about, lurking, you will quickly see why the big guys are getting bigger. And you will see which authors are growing to match them.
Threads on these general forums – started by readers for this series – do not exist. Or in one recent case, someone started one and it quickly fell idle. Posts for these books found in the general threads are too thin on the ground to gain momentum. Unlike here, where you all make plenty of noise, but an uninitiated reader is unlikely to visit.
originally posted by DarthJazy
I have a few friends that would love to buy your books and generate support but have a super hard time finding your books still in print in the US. even border and barnes and noble only have one or two books i ussually will find the books I want at a local bookmans. Should we order the used copies from amazon if this will help my friends who want to start reading your series will do so since we are unable to find new copies of the series. whats our best course?
If a person is starting the series, reading new, and they cannot get the books from the UK, then, getting them used, reading a library copy - starting them any way they can is a good thing.
If a new reader enjoys the series, they are going to talk about it to friends - and that spreads out to others.
The books are not generally going to be available in the US stores ON SHELVES because they are not stocked, which is because they are not in print (except, I think, for Fugitive Prince). The US Amazon lists plenty of copies available on the resell or used market. Therefore books should not be hard to acquire, from the US, except for perhaps Traitor's Knot, which had no mass market release, and of course, Stormed Fortress, only printed in London. If those loose copies sell, of course, and word of mouth keeps going, then the London editions will benefit. There would be frustration, here, that readers had to get the books from the UK, and UK numbers would rise…which creates more interest. It's getting the snowball rolling…I have not bothered with this, UNTIL NOW, because I felt the Alliance arc required the finale of Stormed Fortress.
With that bit out there, I earnestly believe this is the moment - that the series as it stands now shows the readers what it's made of, (and only going to continue to deliver, in ramping spades) and that this is a Golden opportunity to have the pretty new package in London do what it was designed to do - make the story shine!