Hawkspar almost never made it to print.

The drama started in September 2006, when Holly Lisle’s editor told her that the manuscript was too long. It weighed in at a hefty 190,000 words. So either 55,000 words needed to be cut, which would gut the story, thereby ruining it; or else it would have to be published as two volumes, which would split the story down the middle, thereby ruining it. Then the editor left, and the new editor asked Holly how many galleys she wanted. Joy of all joys; the book was going to press, whole and intact. Except that it wasn’t, not even close.

The old editor, before she disappeared, had gutted the manuscript with a chainsaw, leaving it a reeking mess. So Holly was left back where she started.

But barreling through an emotional exhaustion that probably would have sent me into a depressed resignation to fate, Holly went to bat for Hawkspar. And delay after delay, it did eventually come out, whole and intact. (Comically edited, too, but that’s a different story.) Now that I’m almost finished with the novel, I just want to say: Thank you so much, Holly. This story was certainly worth the battle. I don’t know, as you once said, whether it’s the best story you’ve ever told. I still think it might be second-best, next to Talyn. But you can’t read one without the other, anyhow.

UPDATE: I take that back, about Hawkspar being second-best. Having now finished the last few chapters of Hawkspar, it’s on par with Talyn. They run neck-and-neck, because of the best ending ever. Had me in tears. Incredible.

After reading these two, and mourning that the third book, Redbird, will probably never be written, I have only one comment left:

I so wanna be Tonk!

(I’m sorry that I forgot to bring Jen Knox’s excellent memoir with me when I did the video. But she is giving away two copies, hosted on this blog.)

Don’t forget to check out the full giveaway listing at www.JTimothyKing.com (with more books coming, continuing into February).

Stolen away from their families, they are slaves, women with no names and no futures. Every moment of their days controlled by the avatars of the stone Eyes–Obsidian, Emerald, Raxinan, Ruby, Windcrystal, Sapphire, Sunspar, Tigereye. And the most powerful of them all, Hawkspar, the eyes of time. Kings and despots come to her to know their futures, and she wades in the river of time, pulls apart its sticky threads, to arrange the world to her satisfaction. But she too was once a slave, plucked from her home, chosen by the Eyes to live in service to them, as much a slave now as she ever was. And with her sight into past and future, she can see the secrets of the Eyes–and the evil of the Eyes. Before the death of Hawkspar, another must be chosen by the Eyes–but the avatar has her own plans, and chooses a slave for her courage and rebelliousness, rather than her dedication to the goals of the Eyes. This slave is put to trial, but time after time, she is protected by forces unseen. Once she has swallowed the bitter liquid and has her eyes pulled from her head and replaced with the Eyes of Hawkspar stone, she can slip into the streams of time… and use time to her own ends – to free the slaves once and for all, and destroy the Eyes, even if it means destroying herself in the process.

I’m giving away a new hardcover copy of Hawkspar, which I’m still reading, but which I’m loving. Of course, I knew I was going to enjoy it. Holly Lisle is one of my favorite contemporary authors, because all of her books are worth reading. Hawkspar is not really a sequel to Talyn, a copy of which I’m also giving away, but it’s set in the same world, set some time after the events of Talyn took place.

You may remember, I absolutely adored Talyn the first novel in this series. I have to admit that it was hard to pick up the sequel Hawkspar, because I had become so attached to Talyn and her cohorts. But Holly wasted no time hooking me on Hawkspar’s plight.

This is the story of a slave, stolen from her family when she was very little, now with no name, every moment of every day mastered by the avatars of the stone Eyes. But she has not given up hope, has begun to organize a rebellion, to plan for the slaves’ eventual escape. And she has a destiny of which even she herself is unaware.