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Milkweed Triptych
"A major talent... I can't wait to see more."
—George R. R. Martin
"Mad English warlocks battling twisted Nazi psychics? Yes please, thank you. Tregillis's debut has a white-knuckle plot, beautiful descriptions, and complex characters-- an unstoppable Vickers of a novel."
—Cory Doctorow on Bitter Seeds
"Ian Tregillis triumphantly concludes his astonishing, brilliant, pulse-pounding debut trilogy, The Milkweed Triptych."
—Cory Doctorow on Necessary Evil
"Tregillis' conclusion of the Milkweed Triptych is the pièce de résistance of the series. Necessary Evil is a perfect marriage of science fiction, fantasy and alternate history."
—RT Book Reviews (4.5 stars, Top Pick) on Necessary Evil
"Darkly fascinating…A thoroughly fascinating conclusion to an imaginative tour de force."
—Kirkus on Necessary Evil
"A cross between the devious, character-driven spy fiction of early John le Carré and the mad science fantasy of the X-Men... Despite the jaw-dropping backdrop and oblique plotting, the narrative is driven by character and personal circumstance...
Grim indeed, yet eloquent and utterly compelling."
—Kirkus on The Coldest War
"The characters come alive via [Tregillis's] imaginative dialogue and his storyline will keep readers spellbound and on the edge of their seats with an intense sci-fi/alternate history thriller plot."
—RT Book Reviews (4.5 stars, Top Pick) on The Coldest War
"Well-drawn characters and a feel for time and place make this an excellent journey into an alternate Britain."
—Library Journal on Bitter Seeds
"Engrossing... Tregillis ably mixes cold war paranoia with his mythology."
—Publishers Weekly on The Coldest War
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The Mainspring of His Heart, the Shackles of His Soul
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Wednesday, January 12 2011, 05:28 AM

Well, so far 2011 is off to a nice start.  Even if nothing else happens this year, at least I can say I made one sale.

Late last year I wrote a relatively short piece for a new DAW anthology edited by Jennifer Brozek.  I'm happy to be able to say that "The Mainspring of His Heart, the Shackles of His Soul" has been officially accepted into the forthcoming Human For A Day anthology.

It's a story of tulips and alchemy, clocks and human rights, slavery and unconsummated love.

Vic Milán, who knows a thing or two about clever turns of phrase, calls it a "gears and geas" story. I rather like that.

Once I got past the first couple of pages, the story went pretty quickly.  But I found I had to keep forcing myself back to the story at hand, because I wanted to wander off and explore the world.  That doesn't happen to me very often.  In fact, I don't think it has ever happened to me before.  But in this case, I had the idea for the story before I knew what the setting would be.  And once I figured out the setting, I realized I needed to spend more time there than I could justify in a single story.

So hooray for having a backlog of ideas I want to play with.

And speaking of clocks, I also consider the story a successful experiment in terms of how I organize my writing time.  Usually, during the week, my writing time is set aside immediately after I come home from work, before I eat dinner.  But for work-related reasons I had to push everything back an hour for one week.  Rather than eat dinner at 9pm all week, I decided to see how much I could write if I confined all of my writing time to the morning.  It worked pretty well.  (In terms of feeling productive.  I make no claims about the quality of the story.)

I'm considering permanenly shifting my work schedule.  I think I like writing in the morning more than writing in the evening.

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Comments (1)
untitled - Dan Goodman, Thursday, January 13 2011, 04:24 PM
I really like the title of that short story, Ian. It's great that you're trying some new stuff aside from Milkweed- I find that short fiction itself, especially when "long-term" writing doesn't work, can really 'unlock' the brain.
I've noticed as well that early hours let writing come more naturally to me as well. Unfortunately, after surgery, nothing comes as easy right now.

In closing, maybe this unique food will jog your brain a bit.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/wacky-edibles/e5a7/

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Interviews
Interview with SFX Magazine
Unwalkers interview [English | French ]
Interview with Speculate! Podcast Interview with Adventures in SciFi Publishing
Ian Tregillis on the Sword and Laser Podcast
Ian Tregillis on John Scalzi's The Big Idea
Interview with Pat's Fantasy Hotlist
Interview with SFRevu
Interview with Mad Hatter Book Review
Interview with Apex Books

Interview at Literary Musings Interview with Pat's Fantasy Hotlist
An interview with the authors of Busted Flush at Pat's Fantasy Hotlist
Interview with Travis Heermann at The Write Line
9-way interview with the contributors to the Wild Cards novel Inside Straight at Pat's Fantasy Hotlist
Interview in the February, 2008 newsletter of the Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
An extended interview with Ian Tregillis by Ty Franck, on www.wildcardsbooks.com.

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