seanan_mcguire @ 2011-07-18T08:36:00

2011-07-18T15:36:19Z

For me, every book has a theme song, one that doesn't always have anything to do with the actual book. It's just the piece of music that gets stuck in my head whenever I start thinking about it. And for One Salt Sea, the song is "Ten Years," by Talis Kimberley.

Here's how it was, after he left me,
Queen of this island, and mother of his child.
I knew the risks—war's always chancy—
Still, I was happy to wait, for a while...

In fifty days—less, if historical stocking oopsies bear out one more time—you'll be able to walk into your local bookstore and pick up a copy of One Salt Sea, the fifth of the October Daye adventures. In fifty days, you'll be able to find out what happens next. In fifty days, you're done waiting, for at least a little while.

I admit it: I'm terrified. Late Eclipses was incredibly well-received, and that makes the stakes even higher for book five. What's more, One Salt Sea is the book that, for a very long time, I couldn't write, because I was so sure that the series would never find a home that I ran out of steam about a quarter of the way into book five, over and over and over again. In a way, I never did write that particular book. The one you'll be able to buy is very different, even though the skeleton is the same. The Brightest Fell, my original book five, may never see the light of day...or if it does, it will show up as something new and strange. And that's okay.

Fifty days. I can barely believe it. We've come so far, so fast, and it's all so strange.

Thank you for coming with me.

Because ten years is a very long time
When there's no guarantee he'll come home,
And the war was so far away,
And I was still Queen...Queen, and alone...

(All lyrics quoted today are by Talis Kimberley, who is awesome.)
(All twitchiness is mine.)

Rose-Owls and Pumpkin Girls

seanan_mcguire @ 2011-07-18T08:36:00