I made this big announcement at Conflux, the Australian National Convention, and I believe the news has also been sent to Locus, so I am making it public.
I have sold another trilogy, the name of which has yet to be determined.
The first book is called
THE LASCAR’S DAGGER
To be published worldwide by Orbit early next year
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“Lascar” is not a made-up word. It has Persian/Bengali origins, where it means “soldier”, but in English it came to mean a sailor from one of the southern or south-east Asian countries who worked on European-owned ships.*
So is the trilogy about a lascar?
No, not really, although he’s part of the story. It’s about the spice trade between two countries (evocative of the Netherlands and Britain of the 18th century) and the spice islands (evocative of the eastern archipelago of Indonesia during that same period).
It’s about great wickedness and enormous sacrifice and amazing bravery. And love. And unique magic systems, both evil and good, of a kind you won’t have read before.
It’s also the story of a clash of cultures…
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*And if you think there weren’t all that many of them, you’re dead wrong. By 1660, the
number of lascar seamen employed on British ships was so great that a
new law required 75% of the crew of a
British ship carrying Asian goods to Europe must be British! Lascars
often settled in England, and were thus the first wave of Asian
immigrants to Britain.
number of lascar seamen employed on British ships was so great that a
new law required 75% of the crew of a
British ship carrying Asian goods to Europe must be British! Lascars
often settled in England, and were thus the first wave of Asian
immigrants to Britain.
Hooray, Hurrah, Huzzah. I am so pleased to hear this and will look forward to the trilogy some time next year. I am so pleased you have finally got someone to publish your work. You must be so pleased.
WOOT! Although I already knew that, having been at your reading at Conflux 😀
So glad this news is now out there. Woot!
Karen
Wonderful news!
Oh Glenda, I am so pleased for you and for me, because I will have a new trilogy to look forward to. I have enjoyed all of your books!! I loved The Little Princess (obviously not by you) but Sara Crewe knew all about lascars because of her time in India. It was one of my favourite books as a child.
Whoo! Really, really awesome news! I'm looking forward to reading more of your books.
Hey Welcome to India. As an Indian myself I have wondered, maybe because of oft competitions/comparisions, why India as a setting features much less than, say, China in fantasy. And now that I think of it, one of the reasons might be because it is because much of our myths are rooted in religion, and going there without understanding might hurt more than entertain. Yet we have a glorious present and some authors, indian and western alike, are going there.
Sandeep, maybe the reason is that there are less novels published about the Indian experience written by non-Indians is that there are so many wonderful novels out there published –in English–by Indians. China, not so much. Great novels about
China are often written by Westerners of Chinese background, writing the stories gleaned from their families.
This coming trilogy of mine is not going to be set in India, either, actually. It's going to Indonesia, far less featured in novels than either China or India.