Your fantasy real estate: Palais de Papes

Credit: Jean-Marc Rosier from http://www.rosier.pro

I'm like a friggin' ReMax agent, showing you prime real estate for your campaigns. Just avoid Jimmy Nine Fingers; he'll sell you a subprime mortgage and homeowners insurance, then burn down your house with you in it and collect the insurance, which you so benevolently left to him.

Also don't ask him why he's Jimmy Nine Fingers.

Any hoot, the Palais de Papes was the seat of the Avignon Papacy back in the 14th century and is now a UNESCO world heritage site. What's the Avignon Papacy, you didn't ask? I'll get to that later. For now, let's ogle the pretty palace.

Credit: Jean-Marc Rosier from http://www.rosier.pro

Credit: Ingo Mehling.

Guess I wasn't in a reading slump after all

I thought I was because it felt like I hadn't laid a hand on a fantasy novel let alone read one straight through in a while and boy, was I ever wrong. I tallied up all the books I've read this year and while the number currently stands at only eight, I was very pleased that four of them were fantasy novels: Prince of Thorns, Furies of Calderon, Legacies, and The Crown Tower. I'm currently working on adding a ninth book before the year ends, Dark Jenny. Five fantasy novels in a year? Not great, but I'll sure as hell take it!

What will I read after Dark Jenny? Well, it depends on whether or not I feel like picking up another fantasy book or if I make a brief incursion into SF. If I stick with it, I might read King of Thorns, followed by The Mirror Empire or something from my own shelves. I really want to get my hands on some Joe Abercrombie, and that Ken Scholes book, Lamentations. Truth be told, if I ever made out a list of fantasy novels I want it would comprise several scrolls.

Five hundred thousand is certainly a nice number

(via FirstEmpireSeries.com)

Especially when you're a fantasy writer and that's the paycheck you're getting for a new series. That's how much Del Rey is paying Michael J. Sullivan of the excellent Riyria Revelations series. The new five book series will be called The First Empire and the the titles of each book are: Rhune, Dherg, Rhist, Phyre, and Fhrey. According to Fantasy Faction, there was a potential bidding war brewing between several publishers for the new series and Del Rey essentially said "screw that noise" and laid down half a million bucks. In addition, because this story needs some gravy, an audiobook company called Recorded Books picked up the audio rights for another six figures.

I think the reason why people are talking about the money is because I doubt a lot of writers - even a minority - get paid that much and the ones who do are probably the big timers like GRRM, Terry Brooks, and such. Welcome to the big time, Mr. Sullivan!

Edit: According to Michael J. Sullivan on reddit, just the first four books were included in the deal and the fifth will be negotiated later on.