UPDATE: Wow, can I ever get this announced on a Monday. Sorry for the delay, folks. The winner of THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS by N.K. Jemisin is The Original Drama Mama. Please email your physical addy to Contests@KnightAgency.net.
CLIENT NEWS: Rob Thurman's sixth Cal Leandros novel, BLACKOUT, debuted at #19 on the New York Times mass market list. We are incredibly proud of Rob! WTG!
TKA NEWS: Lucienne Diver talks about the agent/author relationship with Romantic Times web editor Morgan Doremus:
Report from Cyberspace:
Amazon says hasta la vista baby to Illinois after Governor Pat Quinn signed new sales tax fairness legislation into law requiring online retailers to collect sales tax - Bookselling This Week
USA Today bestselling, self-pubbed ebook author Amanda Hocking warns those using her as an example of why traditional publishing is on death's doorstep to rethink their position - Amanda Hocking's Blog
Author, journalist and former repairer of ripped newspapers at the New York Central Library, Cory Doctorow pokes holes in HarperCollins's 26-ebook library lending theory - The Guardian ___________________________________________________
Leave a comment to win a copy of ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS by Nebula-nominated author N.K. Jemisin. The winner will be randomly drawn and announced on Monday.
The 411: Yeine Darr, mourning the murder of her mother, is summoned to the magnificent and beautiful city of Sky by the king, her grandfather. He names her his heir but has already assigned that role to both his niece and his nephew, so what he’s now done is set up a competitive and thorny three-way power struggle. Yeine, looking more like her Darre father than her Arameri mother, may be a baroness in the Arameri world, but in the matriarchal North she is a chieftain of her people. She is also terrified and fascinated by the gods who roam Sky, including the nocturnally monstrous Nahadoth and the childlike Sieh. In just a few days, Yeine discovers that every action has consequences when she inadvertently sets up Darre to be attacked and realizes that her role in the succession to the throne may be that of a human sacrifice. This complex tale of politics, assassination, racism, and gods too intimately involved in the lives of humans is a challenging read and a notable authorial debut. --Diana Tixier Herald, Booklist
N.K. Jemisin joined us in the TKA chat room last Thursday to talk about her Inheritance Trilogy novels, which include THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS, THE BROKEN KINGDOMS, and the upcoming THE KINGDOM OF THE GODS. We had an awesome time talking about her series, writing habits and giving away books! Click here for the chat transcript.
Chat Online with N.K. Jemisin TONIGHT @ 9pm ET -- Pub Convo and Prizes!
It's only 9am here, but we've already got our evening planned out. Tonight we'll be hosting the fabulous N.K. Jemisin in The Knight Agency chat room. N.K.'s books have received major accolades from the fantasy community, and she's also picked up a few nominations from Romantic Times and made the Best of 2010 book lists for both Amazon and Publishers Weekly. Not too shabby.
If you unfamiliar with N.K.'s books, I'm sorry to report you're behind the curve. Luckily there's a way to catch up fairly quickly. Check out the interview she recently did in our newsletter, or read the excerpts on her website of THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS and THE BROKEN KINGDOMS. (Hint: This research will be super helpful in the chat tonight when I'm throwing out trivia questions for several awesome giveaways.)
Chat with One of PW and Amazon's Best of 2010 Authors N.K. Jemisin This Thursday!
This Thursday @ 9pm ET we're featuring N.K. Jemisin, author of THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS and THE BROKEN KINGDOMS in TKA's chat room. N.K. was recently included on Publishers Weekly's Best of 2010 for both her debut and sophomore titles in The Inheritance Trilogy, and THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS was picked for the #5 spot on Amazon's Best of 2010 list for Sci-Fi/Fantasy. The author was also nominated for Romantic Times BookLOVERS awards in the fantasy and epic fantasy categories.
Don't miss out on a chance to talk to this amazing author and win books from her highly acclaimed series!
HOW TO CHAT: Enter any combination of username and password. Login. Your computer must be Java enabled to chat.
The 411 on THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS: Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky, seat of the ruling Arameri family. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle with a pair of cousins she never knew she had. As she fights for her life, she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother’s death and her family’s bloody history.
The 411 on THE BROKEN KINGDOMS: In the city of Shadow, beneath the World Tree, alleyways shimmer with magic and godlings live hidden among mortalkind. Oree Shoth, a blind artist, takes in a strange homeless man on an impulse. This act of kindness engulfs Oree in a nightmarish conspiracy. Someone, somehow, is murdering godlings, leaving their desecrated bodies all over the city. And Oree's guest is at the heart of it...
UPDATE: THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS is onPublishers Weekly's 2010 Best of List for Sci-Fi/Fantasy! Congrats N.K.!
Last week we posted the first chapter of N.K. Jemisin's THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS. This week we will continue with the second chapter.
Since our last post, the second book in N.K.'s critically acclaimed Inheritance Trilogy, THE BROKEN KINGDOMS, was made the November feature on the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi/Fantasy discussion board; she scooped up two RT nominations for THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS and THE BROKEN KINGDOMS, respectively in the Epic Fantasy Novel and Fantasy Novel categories; THE BROKEN KINGDOMS made Borderlands October Bestseller list at #7 in the paperbacks category; and finally, THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS was chosen as #5 on Amazon's Best of Sci-Fi/Fantasy List for 2010. Whew! That's a lot of excitement for one week!
So, now's the time to find out what all the buzz is about. Read below for the second installment of THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS. Also, don't forget N.K. will be our featured guest author in the Knight Agency chat room next Thursday (11/18) at 9pm ET!!!
Next on TKA Serials -- Maria Geraci, author of THE BOYFRIEND OF THE MONTH CLUB (11/29) --------------------------------------------------
THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS, Sample Chapter 2 (missed Chap 1? Click here.)
The capital of my land is called Arrebaia. It is a place of ancient stone, its walls overgrown by vines and guarded by beasts that do not exist. We have forgotten when it was founded, but it has been the capital for at least two thousand years. People there walk slowly and speak softly, out of respect for the generations that have trodden those streets before, or perhaps just because they do not feel like being loud.
Sky — the city, I mean — is only five hundred years old, built when some disaster befell the previous Arameri seat. This makes it an adolescent as cities go — and a rude, uncouth one at that. As my carriage rode through the city’s center, other carriages went past in a clatter of wheels and horseshoes. People covered every sidewalk, bumping and milling and bustling, not talking. They all seemed in a hurry. The air was thick with familiar smells like horses and stagnant water amid indefinable scents, some acrid and some sickly-sweet. There was nothing green in sight.
Today, we are excited to introduce a brand-spanking new feature on our blog -- TKA Serials. This month two authors, N.K. Jemisin and Maria Geraci, will share free reads. N.K. will be up first with excerpts from THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS, the first book in her Inheritence Trilogy, on November 1st and 8th. Maria will share an excerpt for THE BOYFRIEND OF THE MONTH CLUB on November 29th.
Also, don't forget to mark your calendars for our next chat event. N.K. will be the featured guest author on Thursday, November 18th at 9pm ET to celebrate the release of the second book in her Inheritance trilogy, THE BROKEN KINGDOMS.
About N.K. Jemisin: N.K. Jemisin is an author of speculative fiction short stories and novels who lives and writes in Brooklyn, NY. Her short fiction has been published in pro markets such as Clarkesworld, Postscripts, Strange Horizons, and Baen’s Universe; podcast markets and print anthologies; and has received Honorable Mentions in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and The Year’s Best Science Fiction.
Her first novel in the Inheritance Trilogy, THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS, debuted in February 2010. The second book in the trilogy, THE BROKEN KINGDOMS, will be released this November.
She is the recipient of a Gulliver Travel Grant from the Speculative Literature Foundation, and a graduate of the Viable Paradise writing workshop.
I am not as I once was. They have done this to me, broken me open and torn out my heart. I do not know who I am anymore.
I must try to remember.
My people tell stories of the night I was born. They say my mother crossed her legs in the middle of labor and fought with all her strength not to release me into the world. I was born anyhow, of course; nature cannot be denied. Yet it does not surprise me that she tried.
My mother was an heiress of the Arameri. There was a ball for the lesser nobility — the sort of thing that happens once a decade as a backhanded sop to their self-esteem. My father dared ask my mother to dance; she deigned to consent. I have often wondered what he said and did that night to make her fall in love with him so powerfully, for she eventually abdicated her position to be with him. It is the stuff of great tales, yes? Very romantic. In the tales, such a couple lives happily ever after. The tales do not say what happens when the most powerful family in the world is offended in the process.
The 411: Yeine Darr, mourning the murder of her mother, is summoned to the magnificent and beautiful city of Sky by the king, her grandfather. He names her his heir but has already assigned that role to both his niece and his nephew, so what he’s now done is set up a competitive and thorny three-way power struggle. Yeine, looking more like her Darre father than her Arameri mother, may be a baroness in the Arameri world, but in the matriarchal North she is a chieftain of her people. She is also terrified and fascinated by the gods who roam Sky, including the nocturnally monstrous Nahadoth and the childlike Sieh. In just a few days, Yeine discovers that every action has consequences when she inadvertently sets up Darre to be attacked and realizes that her role in the succession to the throne may be that of a human sacrifice. This complex tale of politics, assassination, racism, and gods too intimately involved in the lives of humans is a challenging read and a notable authorial debut. --Diana Tixier Herald, Booklist
