I never intended to commit trilogy, I sort of fell into it, and here I am, two published trilogies later. I wish I’d known at the outset what I learned while doing it.

A little background:
Having made the rookie mistake of trying to write a trilogy before I’d sold a book I realised that you can waste a lot of time writing Book Two (in my case, two years) but it will never see the light of day if Book One doesn’t sell. Having learned my lesson I decided to write standalones with potential for sequels. By the time I got my first book deal from DAW, I had seven completed novels, some (not all) with potential to turn into trilogies. DAW bought Empire of Dust (SF), ordered a sequel on a one-page synopsis, and bought Winterwood (F). Later I got the go-ahead to complete both trilogies.

Trilogies take…

Here are comments and observations by a variety of writers in the Milford family. We had a Milford stand this year to promote upcoming events and the bursary for SF writers of colour.

Sue Oke says:
This year’s Eastercon, Ytterbium, was held at the Park Inn. A familiar venue from previous years and while the panel/workshops rooms were more than adequate, the hotel seemed totally unprepared for the number of people requiring lunch/drinks etc. (almost as if they didn’t know how many people were coming). Conversations at the bar revealed that quite a few people had to wait until the evening before their room was ready—come on guys, you’ve hosted a convention before, it’s not exactly unexpected for most of the convention guests to arrive around about the same sort of time.

Putting the (let’s face it, the usual) gripes aside—I thoroughly enjoyed my day at the convention. I was…