Okay, it’s not exactly a serial, but it’s close enough — I’ve just launched my Kickstarter campaign to finance the publication of a science-fantasy novel entitled Vika’s Avenger. You can get the details on the Kickstarter page, but here’s a little about the story:

On a distant planet, 12,000 years in the future, a country boy named Tulzik Ambroz comes to the ancient city of Ragbaan seeking the man who killed his sister Vika. Ragbaan’s civilization has risen to astonishing heights of power and technology several times — and then collapsed each time, so that now most of the city is abandoned and empty, and the three million remaining inhabitants make no distinction between magic and technology. How can a stranger, with only a portrait his sister drew to identify his quarry, hope to find a single individual in such a place?

And if he does find him, what will he do about it?

If you want to have a chance to read the book, come pledge something. You have just thirty days: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/217993880/publish-lawrence-watt-evans-vikas-avenger

Meanwhile, the fine folks at Wildside tell me that advance copies of The Sorcerer’s Widow should be along in another week or so. I’ll post further details when I have them.

No actual news, really, but I had to log on here to clean out some spam, so I figured I’d post. It’s scheduled for June now instead of May — sorry about that. I still haven’t seen the cover art.

Once I’ve mailed out all the donor copies, I’ll start the next Ethshar serial. It will be either Ishta’s Companion or Stone Unturned, don’t yet know which. Both titles are subject to change.

Ishta’s Companion has been known by several titles over the last thirty years — yes, it’s that old an idea. I think I’ve mostly referred to it as A Stranger in the Forest. I’m midway through writing Chapter Four of maybe twenty.

Stone Unturned has also had several titles, but in a much briefer period; around here I’ve generally called it “the big fat Ethshar novel,” because none of the previous titles were any good. This one looks like it might stick. I’m midway through writing Chapter Five of… a lot. Like, maybe fifty, if it stays a single novel. It could split into three or more — not the usual way, being chopped up chronologically, but by getting split among the viewpoint characters. If that happens, three of the pieces will be Lord Landessin’s Gallery, The Petrified Prince, and The Demon’s Master. Lord Landessin’s Gallery was previously known as The Wizard’s Garden. A couple of other old story ideas, A Slave of Wizardry and Pender the Jeweler, are probably also going to be incorporated into this one. (The Petrified Prince is new.)

Stone Unturned may be too complex to do as a serial; we’ll see.

Anyway, whichever serial it is, it should start in late June or early July. I hope.

Just a quick note: Contracts are signed, text is finalized, and Wildside has The Sorcerer’s Widow scheduled for May 2013. The long delay is because they’re planning to distribute it to comic shops as well as the usual online outlets, and that requires several months of lead time — it has to go in the catalog, orders come in, etc.

It may actually be available some places (particularly in e-book form) sooner than May; we’ll see.

I don’t know anything about cover art yet.

Sorry it won’t be out sooner.

Oh, yeah — my current plan is that I’ll start the next serial (whichever story it is) as soon as I’ve mailed out all the donor copies of The Sorcerer’s Widow, which should be late May, 2013.