riding the rollercoaster
Sorry for the long silence -- this is a summer of what already feels like incessant traveling, though not half-done; all of it to delightful places but still a little overwhelming, and I haven't been able to catch up in-between. My livejournal reading has been somewhere short of skimming the first page of my friends list every ten days or so; as for book reading... let us not speak of it.

I am lately back from a spectacular visit to Africa on research for book 4, complete with the experience of having a tree nearly knocked on my head by an elephant. I am already plotting my revenge in literary form (little did that elephant know he would soon be joining Temeraire for dinner...), and I will be putting the photos in the website gallery shortly. It will take a little while, as I was perhaps a little over-enthusiastic in my documenting, and I think I should probably do some culling through the 5 GB of photos instead of just uploading wholesale.

Meanwhile, I am off to San Diego Comic-Con next week, arriving Wednesday evening and leaving Sunday. My official schedule is:

Thursday: 2-3 PM signing at the Del Rey booth
Saturday: 1-2 PM signing at the Del Rey booth

Saturday: 4-5 PM panel in Room 9
Panel: Bearing the Torch—and the Sword, and Shield, and Dragon…
How do established writers and new voices in the fantasy field balance giving readers the familiar elements they crave with telling stories in a fresh way? Moderator Maryelizabeth Hart (Mysterious Galaxy) seeks answers from Comic-Con special guest Peter Beagle (The Last Unicorn), Canadian-born teacher and fantasy writer David Keck (In the Eye of Heaven), best-selling author Todd McCaffrey (Dragon’s Fire), Temeraire historical fantasy creator Naomi Novik (His Majesty’s Dragon), A Song of Ice and Fire creator George R. R. Martin (A Feast for Crows), popular novelist Rebecca Moesta (Crystal Doors), and fantasy author and screenwriter Eldon Thompson (The Obsidian Key). Room 9

Saturday: 5-6 PM post-panel signing at Table #AA4 (Autograph Area 4)

I am simultaneously looking forward to it and mildly alarmed -- NY Comic-Con was crazy enough, and everyone has been telling me SDCC is several orders of magnitude vaster, so I am prepared for it to be a complete madhouse, but a madhouse full of shiny things to be excited about.

In the meantime, I leave you with a disinterested monkey:

(Post a new comment)

pandarus 2006-07-14 07:24 pm UTC (link)

Nice to have you back! Your Africa trip sounds MARVELLOUS - I'm all envy, for I never *did* get around to going to SubSaharan Africa and doing the safari thing whilst I was in Egypt. (I comfort myself with the thought that I'll be moving to Thailand in a month, and so elephants and tigers and leopards and monkeys and suchlike will be see-able then.) I have been trying to find Black Powder War in Yorkshire to no avail, which is most frustrating, having thoroughly enjoyed the first two books. Guess I need to order it, since the universe is not co-operating and serving it up on a plate. Stupid Universe. (I sold my copy of Temeraire to a second hand bookshop in Cairo, incidentally [for I had to sell or give away pretty much everything, and was ruthless in disposing of books], where it will have been fallen upon gleefully by members of the English-speaking community.) (Reply to this)

	dauthi 2006-07-14 07:27 pm UTC (link)
	Glad you liked your trip to Africa; it seems like an interesting place to visit (except for elephants knocking trees onto your head, that just sounds rude). (Reply to this)

	coppervale 2006-07-14 07:36 pm UTC (link)
	Wear comfortable shoes. I am in no way kidding, here! Charles told me you were a'travelin'. Glad you're back! James (Reply to this) (Thread)

	naominovik 2006-07-15 07:42 pm UTC (link)
	I will take the advice! Sorry to see, from your lj, that you won't be there. :/ (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

(no subject) - coppervale, 2006-07-15 07:53 pm UTC (Expand)

michael_b_lee 2006-07-14 07:42 pm UTC (link)

SDCC is, indeed, enormous. Standing at one end of the exhibition hall and not being able to see the other end is something that must be experienced to be believed. Having that entire space packed full of people on Saturday is something else again. Bring comfy shoes and cool clothes. On Saturday the hall gets downright stifling with all the people milling about. I hope to get the chance to see you and say hi! My wife will be at the dinner on Saturday, but no spouses are permitted. :( (Reply to this)

	winter_elf 2006-07-14 07:43 pm UTC (link)
	Yep, a madhouse with everything happening all at once. Wear sneakers, bring water and snacks and be prepared for overload! I'm looking forward to it, and I'll bring my books to the booth to be signed! (Reply to this)

	rachelmanija 2006-07-14 07:48 pm UTC (link)
	Hey! I'll be at Comic Con too. We should grab a coffee, if you have time. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	naominovik 2006-07-15 07:42 pm UTC (link)
	Yes, absolutely! Will you be around Thursday? Want to get together after my signing is over? (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

(no subject) - rachelmanija, 2006-07-15 08:48 pm UTC (Expand)

	tpod 2006-07-14 11:54 pm UTC (link)
	Alas, yet another reason to regret not being able to make it to SDCC yet again. :o/ Heh. Nice monkey. You are SO beneath its contempt. BTW, any plans to be at Dragon*Con? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	becket 2006-07-15 05:24 pm UTC (link)
	She's probably too new to get an invite from the hoary bastages. I would love it if she were there, but dragoncon is notoriously dismissive of people with less genre history than say, HG Wells. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

(no subject) - tpod, 2006-07-15 06:48 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - naominovik, 2006-07-15 07:29 pm UTC (Expand)

	saeadame 2006-07-15 03:23 am UTC (link)
	Random and strange question: Do you think you'll ever do your convention/book signing things outside of the US. Or maybe you have. I'm not sure. Really. *cough* Bye. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	naominovik 2006-07-15 07:44 pm UTC (link)
	There are some vague and unformed plans for a UK signing tour in '07 sometime, but no details as yet! (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

(no subject) - saeadame, 2006-07-16 08:23 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - larkrawr, 2006-07-17 06:05 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - oniwitch, 2006-08-08 04:45 pm UTC (Expand)

	allaboutm_e 2006-07-15 04:46 pm UTC (link)
	:: waves :: Looking forward to seeing you in San Diego! Wear comfortable shoes, bring water, as suggested, and make sure you have lots of cash in hand for the Dealers' Room, as the lines at the ATMs are grim... (Reply to this)

	suboshi 2006-07-15 05:27 pm UTC (link)
	Welcome back! :) I'm glad to hear you're working on book 4 - I just finished Throne of Jade, and I'm on my way out the door in the next 10 minutes to pick up Black Powder War from B&N. Keep up the great writing!! (Reply to this)

Temeraire - vs - Pern dragons compliment (Anonymous) 2006-07-15 07:15 pm UTC (link)

I have had a running love affair with dragons since grade school, when I first had the great pleasure of reading Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels. I hadn't thought to find another dragon as wonderful as those on Pern - but I find that, while wholly different from those on Pern, Temeraire & Company have gained my admiration as well. I just devoured all three books for the first time, and now can hardly wait until the fourth Temeraire book is published!! I do hope that this happens soon - I have not much more patience than does Iskierka! It's nice to see dragons written about with the respect that these magical creatures deserve - if only they really existed! Please write quickly, Ms. Novik!! Sincerely, Vickie from the USA (Reply to this)

(Anonymous) 2006-07-15 10:57 pm UTC (link)

Hello Mrs. Novik. I deeply enjoyed the first three books of this set. Your books' world is very easy to immerse one's self in and watch play out. I also enjoyed the "Feast or Famine" sub story on this site. How about: Temeraire gets a love letter from Lung Qin Mei, coming all the way from china. That seems like it would be funny, like "Feast or Famine." I patiently await your next book in this series. Jeff (Reply to this)

	mareklamo 2006-07-16 06:06 pm UTC (link)
	Hello - I just inhaled Temeraire yesterday, and am looking forward to reading Throne of Jade later today. It's all anghara's fault for lending me the first two books! I was also very happy to read the short story on your web site. P.S. Levitas made me cry :( (Reply to this)

	cabil 2006-07-16 09:13 pm UTC (link)
	SDCC is much crazier, but has porportionally more space, While it will be at least 5x more attendees, it will have 10x more space than NYCC. So it will be bad, and you will wonder why five things you want to see are scheduled against each other, but other than that... (Reply to this)

	Amazing! (Anonymous) 2006-07-17 03:05 am UTC (link)
	Ms. Novik, I borrowed His Majesty's Dragon from the library on Fri at around 4 something and prob read about 150 pages in one sitting. I finished it today, at work. Absolutely. Amazing. I LOVED it. I love Laurence and cheered him when he dragged out Lankin. Thank You for writing this. Sean (Reply to this)

bkun 2006-07-17 03:03 pm UTC (link)

Hi Miss Novik, Just wanted to drop you a line and let you know how much I'm adoring "Her Majesty's Dragon", which I just picked up last week. I'm still in the midst of reading it, but I've been liking it so much I felt compelled to rush out to pick up vols. 2 and 3. I'm happy to know that you'll be making it out to the San Diego Comic-Con, I hope you don't mind terribly autographing my dog-eared paperback copy. :) (Reply to this)

	So Jealous (Anonymous) 2006-07-17 03:08 pm UTC (link)
	You're going to sit on a panel...with...Peter....BEAGLE! (dies of envy) Man, he has been my fantasy Idol since 1968, whe I grabbed The Last Unicorn off the library shelf. another Naomi, looking forward to the next Temeraire. (Reply to this)

	lianneb 2006-07-20 12:44 pm UTC (link)
	Woo! I just saw in Locus that you've sold three more books in the series! Hmm, how fast can you write? We wait in breathless anticipation. (Reply to this)

(Anonymous) 2006-07-21 08:16 pm UTC (link)

Since there seems to be a wave of people praising you, I will add my two cents as well. I read your books in two days, lent them out to all my friends to make sure they read them too (alas we are poor college students so they couldn't really buy your books and we sort of have a communal library), and have just finished reading them a second time. All I can say is, I haven't enjoyed any books so much since Jennifer Fallon's Second Sons series, which were my favorites. Now they're tied. Anyway, keep writing and I think we all will buy your books the moment they hit the shelves. Claire Griffin (Reply to this)

	lala_lady_r 2006-07-21 10:08 pm UTC (link)
	Your Africa trip sounds great. I can't wait to read the next book (hint hint) and see the poor elephant becoming an hors d'oeuvre. Also, will you be doing any signings/conventions in Washington D.C.? (Reply to this)

	resonant8 2006-07-22 12:56 am UTC (link)
	Hey! Don't know if you get Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, but His Majesty's Dragon is recced in issue 18 (June 2006), page 55. Not a big rec, just "Kelly recommends ..." Still, pretty cool. You're in the company of three other books, a Neko Case CD, and the movie "Slither." (Reply to this)

Umm... thank you! (Anonymous) 2006-07-23 01:13 am UTC (link)

I just finished reading Throne of Jade and I just have to say... I haven't enjoyed reading this much in a long time, I love to read but I don't think I've enjoyed any book in a long time. I bought His Majesty's Dragon and Throne of Jade at the same time, I bought Black Powder War earlier today but I only had time to read the first chapter. I know I'm probably being a little rude to post like this, bah, I'm 16, I'm still developping proper manners... Oh, my name is Sieg, I probably should have mentioned that before even adressing you... Well, I don't really know what to say to you, I like to call myself an author too, I've written a trilogy, it's kind of silly and I haven't really done much editing, only one person has read them, I'm better at poetry though- oh, excuse me for ranting... I have one confession, ever since I started reading The Temeraire Series I've been having dreams about having my own dragon... Except I dream more about beating up Rankin and "saving" Levitas even though he wuold maul me for hurting his rider... Rankin may have been evil to him but Levitas love him nonetheless... I have no idea what I'm talking about... Hehe... I guess I should shutup now... Um, well it was nice to have this opportunity to send a message to you and I'm looking forward to the fourth book! (oh, if you want to contact me, my email is masakatsu.agatsu@hotmail.com) (Reply to this)

	(Anonymous) 2006-07-23 01:02 pm UTC (link)
	Isn't this a baboon? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	gwangi 2006-07-28 05:25 pm UTC (link)
	It's a macaque. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

(no subject) - gwangi, 2006-07-28 05:46 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - mythusmage, 2006-08-06 05:31 am UTC (Expand)

rosaleeluann 2006-07-26 12:15 am UTC (link)

Hi, I commented here once before, on your previous entry, and here I am, back again. The Africa trip sounds like it was interesting and fun. You didn't find any, um, three-layered fungi down there, did you? (Hint, hint. ;) My family recently went on a road trip, and I brought all three of the books as reading material, as well as a couple other books, which I didn't really want to read (Crime and Punishment for school, and Ivanhoe). They were read, re-re-read, re-re-re-read... you get the idea. They impromve upon re-reading. Which is saying alot, because they were pretty darn awesome to start out with ;) (I'm afraid that, with all of this re-reading, part of my mind became sort of stuck on dragons.) I'm looking for more dragon books to read. Being an ardent bibliophage, but also poor and unemployed (and frugal and miserly to boot!) and rarely able to make the drive to the library or bookstore, books that can be enjoyed as much or more when re-read are very valuable to me. (Reply to this)

	lieran 2006-07-26 11:45 pm UTC (link)
	Wow wow wow! I just read the first book and was glad I already own two and three because it would be a bitter moment if they couldn't be found. Fabulous. (Reply to this)

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