Hello! I loved Gideon the Ninth so much!! and would like to draw fan art, would you mind sharing any helpful summaries of what each character looks like? or must us fans hunt through the book for every offhand line of description? (not that I'm not planning on rereading it anyway)
tazmuir Said:
I have let myself drift back onto Tumblr after two weeks, am deeply affrighted and excited at the idea that anyone has drawn my kids (I had an AMA on Reddit and as said there, my editor every so often hollered into my inbox about amazing shit people were doing, but I was too busy complaining back to him that my face had gone numb and that I no longer slept, but instead the darkness of the grave claimed me for four to five hours each night). Thank you so much to anyone who has already done this. Many people on my team have yelled and yelled.
Back early on in the piece I made a document for him about what characters looked like in terms of basic ideas/outlines for copyediting, covers and sense purposes, and I’ve dug out that document and slapped it up here for general delectation. As a note: I imagine specific things when it comes to my characters (I am a Kiwi: I write Kiwis In Space as a default) but as I have nothing but joy in my heart for how anyone would want to draw these characters, feel free to glance over this, then toss it out the window. It would bring tears of beauty to my eyes if anyone was like “Yes, but when I was reading I imagined Naberius Tern as a huge monitor lizard,” because absolutely yes, Naberius Tern was just a huge monitor lizard, godspeed.
I had only described below the specific cavalier-necromancer pairs, so that’s what you’ll find below, sorry if anyone wanted Teacher.
hi! so i discovered your book due to work - i'm currently working an internship at my local library and i was asked to peruse several different publication magazines to find new titles for the library to purchase. i found Gideon the Ninth through one of the listings, recommended it for my library, and now i'm personally so excited to read it! i just found your tumblr and i just wanted to share that with you :D can't wait to read Gideon the Ninth!
tazmuir Said:
This is enormously charming and I’m really delighted – I hope that Gideon the Ninth lives up to the promise of the listing and that you squeeze all enjoyment you can from its pages – but what is best about this is your profile picture and name, because now I am imagining Geralt of Rivia is really enjoying his internship buying cool new titles for his library. Bartender, he has witched long! Pass him the latest in speculative literature
(Hope your internship is rad! Man, it’s really cool to think that people will be able to take Gideon the Ninth out of a library. My mum is a librarian, and for a long time I worked as a library assistant, a career I had to give up because I can’t bear the touch of paper.)
So I linked to the first couple of chapters here on this very blog, but time got away with me and I didn’t keep up. Thankfully, my laziness means that you benefit with a masterpost of the whole first eight chapters of Gideon the Ninth!! Click on the read more for the chapters plus illuminating “last episode on Buffy” text which, for some reason, Tor.com let me write!!!
I love this cover, honestly. The title? Perfection. It reminds me of runes and old Irish oghams, as well as rib bones and such. And usually I have nothing to say about the reviews, but this one is genuinely the best possible thing they could’ve put on there. I fucking love it. Just the “Skeletons!” is so genuine and excited. A+ choice.
And the colors!!! That’s what I’m talking about! The title matching the bones and the author name matching her hair! That pop of orange! It frustrates me so much when they choose secondary colors for subtitles and taglines and author names that don’t coordinate with the illustration.
God, and look at that illustration. There’s so much movement around her, but even though she’s swaggering towards us (and I mean that in the best way), she’s a pillar of calm and self-assurance. Like, I don’t mean to wax poetic, but she is the eye of a storm coming to wreck your shit. The aviators, man. Everything about this illustration is both technically and conceptually perfect. Note how the background gradually gets darker behind her, but still grey where her jawline is painted black—it makes her makeup stand out that much more.
9/10, maybe I just found a bad crop but it’s shifted a little to the left.
The wild ride continues in Chapter 3! Here’s some of what you can expect:
Skurch (skull church)
Skayers (skull prayers)
Skunger Skuames (skull Hunger Games)
If you had not read the previous chapters they are linked here too.
This chapter contains a lot of Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus. It also hints as to the deeply nuanced backstory behind her personality (SPOILER: she was given three gifts by good fairies at her christening, the gifts of being a dickhead, being a creep, and unnatural bone love).
Happy Monday! It’s chapters one AND two of GIDEON THE NINTH, morality novel that teaches you how to be a good space goth!
If you love skeletons, the dark mysteries of the sealed tomb and wearing black vestments, congratulations, you are already a good space goth. If you love huge fuck-off swords, girlie mags and the army, oops, you are NOT a good space goth.
In either case maybe read the excerpts just to be sure.
WHAT A GOOD QUESTION, SHAME I HAVE PREVIOUSLY FAILED TO ANSWER IT IN ANY CAPACITY
Here’s my book on Amazon. It arrives September the 10th, the same day as some sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale comes out by somebody called Margaret Atwood, so that’s fine
Get it on Kindle! Get it in hardback! Get it on audiobook, at some point! If you don’t like Amazon get it on Barnes & Noble! More links await ye on my Goodreads page! These guys thought of everything!
Previously you could pay no money to possess two chapters of GIDEON THE NINTH, but we heard your complaints (”That takes effort” “I cannot do it in countries that are not America” “I am very weak and feeble and have only one click to spend before expiration”). All you need to do is hit this link, and the whole first chapter will leap into your eyes!
To me this feels very much like publishing the first chapter of one’s fanfiction online, but wearier. I remember those days when I was green and jejune, earnestly letting people know on Livejournal and Tumblr that the first 10k of my latest magnum opus was up for the five people in the universe interested in Yuffie Kisaragi/Freya Crescent/Gamzee (Bad ship – Ed.), but those days were characterised by modesty and shame. When you start to publish professionally, you become filled with a hot and neurotic desperation that cannot exist alongside shame. “Maybe read this, if you’ve a mind to,” I used to say, eyelashes downcast, fanning myself shyly, hitting PUBLISH on Ao3.
Now I’m like: Read it!!!!!!! Read it to your dog!!!!!!!!!!!! Please, God, I’ve edited this so much!!!!!!! I am assured that if you DON’T read it Satan will read it to me ceaselessly in Hell!!!!! I’ve put in as many jokes as humanly possible on the off-chance you’ll laugh at one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Before I come undooooone, save me from the nothing I’ve becoooooome.
Tor.com will be running the whole first act over the next couple months. Follow along; you might like it.
(Were you here on the Internet when every YouTube video was a different Naruto and Sasuke AMV set to the All-American Rejects’ It Ends Tonight? I never knew much about Naruto, but this book is all those AMVs at once.)
It bewilders me more than I can articulate that people are now going to say my characters’ names, out loud, in the air; I have put together a pronunciation guide in order to help you on your way to describing to other people your “PALAMEDES SEXTUS ATE MY BALLS” GeoCities page.
Have you ever wanted to read the first two chapters of GIDEON THE NINTH for no money? Now you can, as well as reading free excerpts from authors including Sarah Gailey, JY Yang and Brian Naslund! It’s cheap as free!!!
These two chapters are some of my favourites from the novel because they involve Gideon failing to come up with believable names for monthly porn magazines. This is the type of quality content you have come to expect from me, and I deliver.
otonin Asks:
tazmuir Said:
butawitcher Asks:
Anonymous Asks:
drowsilybearzerk Asks: