Welcome to Ethshar!

I assume that if you've found this page you probably already know something about Ethshar, but just in case you don't: "Ethshar" is the name of an imaginary land that's the setting for an open-ended series of fantasy stories by Lawrence Watt-Evans.

Which is to say, me.

This is one portion of the Misenchanted Page, my somewhat tangled and over-ambitious personal and business website. Like many websites, it's perpetually under construction and mostly out of date; I have grandiose plans, but not the time to carry them out.

I do have An Introduction to Ethshar, which gives a quick overview of the setting, and pages about all the Ethshar novels, both published and planned. (They may not be entirely up to date, though...)

There is now an Ethshar Wiki. Serious Ethshar fans should give it a look and maybe contribute. No, I didn't start it or write any of it, though I've made some corrections.

For the latest news on my serials, see the Serial Box, which is updated much more frequently than this page.

Cosmos paperbacks
Tor paperbacks
Wildside trade paperbacks

News: The Final Calling is complete and has been retitled!

The eleventh Ethshar novel, and the third to be written as an online serial, is now called The Unwelcome Warlock -- the publisher (yes, it has one) wanted a new title, reader Allen Dobkin came up with a suggestion the publisher and I both liked, and here we are.

The novel is complete in first draft -- forty chapters and an epilogue -- and is under contract to Wildside Press. I'm still working on the second draft, so no publication date has been set yet.

The online serial was completed, but has mostly been removed at the publisher's request. The first two chapters are still there as advertising.

I'll still accept donations, if you want to send me money.

What's What with Ethshar Today:

Eight of the ten published novels are in print from Wildside Press in trade paperback and as e-books. Mass-market paperbacks, not so much.

Tor still owns the rights to Night of Madness and Ithanalin's Restoration. You may be able to find the paperback editions of those two with some digging (or by buying them from me), but there are no e-books. Sorry about that. I'm hoping to recover the rights to Ithanalin's Restoration this summer, and will get an e-book edition out there when I can. Night of Madness isn't revertable yet.

E-book editions of several Ethshar novels are available through Fictionwise, as well as the usual outlets.

The trade paperback editions of the first six novels include bonus short stories; the mass market editions do not, and the later novels do not, only the first six.

Yes, there have been nine short stories so far, and only six novels include reprints. One short story, "The Warlock's Refuge," was incorporated into The Unwelcome Warlock. Chapbooks of the other two stories, "Sirinita's Dragon" and "The God in Red," were sent to donors who supported the online serials of The Spriggan Mirror and The Vondish Ambassador, respectively. I've put "Sirinita's Dragon," "The God in Red," and "The Warlock's Refuge" online in their entirety now.

The chapbooks included illustrations by Kiri Evans; the online versions do not have these.

At present I don't plan to provide an extra like those with The Unwelcome Warlock -- it's a much longer novel than The Spriggan Mirror or The Vondish Ambassador, so I don't feel as much need to add value.

What Dreams May Come: The Future of Ethshar

Yes, it has a future. I don't expect The Unwelcome Warlock to be the end of the series.

However, I don't know what form future novels will take. The recent success of e-books is changing the publishing business; it may make more sense for me to simply self-publish in the future.

Also, it's possible that the series will return to normal publishing as a YA ("young adult") series aimed at teenagers; my agent likes this idea. I'm working on what I hope will be the first of these -- it's the story I called A Stranger in the Forest on the Planned Novels page, but it now has the working title Ishta's Playmate.

If that succeeds, the next three would most likely be A Feather from Her Wing, Azraya of Ethshar, and Dumery of the Dragon, and I'd hope to see four or five of the existing novels reissued as YA.

If I do more serials, the next might be The Sorcerer's Widow, but it's still far too soon to be definite.

One thing about e-books -- the pressures that force paper books toward certain sizes aren't there. E-books can be any length. This removes my major objection to doing a collection of all the short Ethshar stories, and discussions with Wildside Press on that possibility are in progress.

I'm also thinking about printing up maps -- maybe as posters, maybe in an atlas or guidebook of some sort. That's all still vague, though.