Sylvia’s Comments (group member since Dec 21, 2007)

Sylvia’s comments from the Sylvia Engdahl Discussion and Q&A group.

My new novel Defender ot the Flame is now available in both paperback and ebook editions. Although it concludes the trilogy begun with Stewards of the Flame and Promise of the Flame, it is a completely independent story set 200 years later that can be read alone. Like the rest of the trilogy it's an adult novel and is not appropriate for middle-school readers (if you're curious as to why, read the Flame Trilogy FAQ at http://www.sylviaengdahl.com/flame-fa....) Full information about the book is at http://www.sylviaengdahl.com/dotf.htm.

My YA novel This Star Shall Abide (known in the UK as Heritage of the Star) is now back in print, separate from its inclusion in the one-volume edition of the Children of the Star trilogy. It's of interest to younger readers (age 12 up) than the rest of the trilogy, so since it has been the most popular of my novels apart from Enchantress from the Stars, I've reissued it to be discovered by a new generation.

The book is available only at Amazon.com and from me. Its retail price is $10.95 but I'm selling signed copies at a 20% discount, i.e. for $8.75, with free Media Mail shipping (please add $2 for Priority Mail). Discounted international shipping is $8 to Canada and $10 to other countries. There's an order form for PayPal at www.adstellaebooks.com. I am selling to schools and libraries at a 50% discount plus shipping cost; I accept purchase orders, which can be faxed to 866-302-3827.

My new novel Promise of the Flame has just been published. Though it's a sequel to Stewards of the Flame, it can be read by itself -- it doesn't depend on any more knowledge of the first book's plot than is explained in it. (However, reading it first will spoil the suspense of Stewards if you plan to read both.) People to whom the controversial view of health care in Stewards didn't appeal may like it better, as it doesn't deal with that -- but I can't say what it's about without giving away the ending of Stewards, so I won't do so here. There's full information about it at
www.stewardsoftheflame.com.

I sent them a review copy about 6 months ago, after it won the bronze IPPY medal (along with about 25 other libraries) saying in the cover letter that they should consider it a donation even if they didn't choose to buy more copies -- so unless they have discarded it, hopefully they will now process it! According to WorldCat, only a few of the libraries I sent it to have put it in their collections so far.

However, the King County Library has it at 5 branches, so you should be able to get it from there if not Seattle.

Stewards of the Flame has just been named a semifinalist for the 2008 Independent Publishers Book Award (IPPY) in the Visionary Fiction category.

I have always described the book as part science fiction and part visionary fiction, but comparatively few readers know what visionary fiction is and science fiction readers who associate that label exclusively with "New Age" ideas are sometimes turned off by it.
So though I thought readers of visionary fiction who don't usually read science fiction would like the book, I wasn't sure whether or not it had been wise to use the term in publicity. Now I'm glad I did!

A discussion guide to Stewards of the Flame for reading groups is now available at www.stewardsoftheflame.com. Starting in April, it will also be available at ReadingGroupGuides.com. If you belong to a book club or know someone who does, take a look at it.

The questions may also be interesting to you as an individual if you've read the book or are wondering whether you want to read it (there are no spoilers in the guide). And I would be very interested in seeing various answers to the questions, either here or in private e-mail! I'm always looking for more feedback.

Thanks for your comment on the video, Dora. It's certainly true that it oversimplies the theme and plot, but I'm not sure what wouldn't, in less than 2 minutes. I didn't have any choice other than to use stock photography, as I could hardly afford custom-produced art. The main purpose of it is to attract the attention of people on YouTube and elsewhere who don't know the book exists. Several people have told me that it made them eager to read the book -- at least one of them was familiar with my work, but I'm not sure about the others.

Does anyone else here have a reaction to the video trailer? If you don't have a high speed connection and can't see streaming video, the stills from it are at www.stewardsoftheflame.com -- though they are not as effective without the music and my license for inclusion of the music doesn't allow me to use it separately.

I have just read somewhere that the secret to getting print-on-demand books into libraries is for people you know in other cities to request them from their own libraries, which may then buy them. Folks, I know some of you who don't have my book would like to read it -- so please request it from your library! That way I'll get multiple readers. Even if you already have a copy, maybe someone you know in your area would like to request it.

It's a common misconception that it's better for authors if people don't get their books from a library because that means "lost sales." This isn't true. A lot of people can't afford to buy books that aren't available in mass-market paperback form, and even those who can often prefer to look at a library copy before deciding. Readers who like the book well enough will buy it after having borrowed it -- and more importantly, many people will come across it in the library who would otherwise never know that it exists.

Thanks for your comment, Jeanette! I am not sure that any change can be made in our society's medical situation either, but I'd like to think we can at least avoid more government control over people's personal healthcare decisions.

I don't remember how or when I first thought of it, except that it was long before I wrote the book. I got the idea for the story first and then had to figure out why the villagers hadn't been able to develop technology after generations has passed. When I did write the book, my editor was afraid there couldn't be such a thing as a planet with no metal, and she contacted the Museum of Natural History to ask them! Of course they didn't know -- at that time scientists had no evidence that there actually are extrasolar planets. But it was no less credible than many of the other things imagined in science fiction. There are metal-poor stars, though whether such stars have planets isn't known.

I've cataloged all my books on LibraryThing.com so I won't be doing it again here. But I did list a few that I especially recommend, mostly those dealing with subjects dealt with in Stewards of the Flame. There are lists of more books on many of these topics at www.stewardsoftheflame.com, in the background information section.

Thank you, Elissa! That's what I was afraid of, that librarians wouldn't consider books from authors they never heard of. Yet you say I can send reviews. Should I send reviews first, and ask if they want me to send a copy of the book? Would it help to including quotes from the many reviews of my YA novels, considering those books are of interest to adults and some have won awards? At least they show I'm not an amateur writer.

I know that a lot of you are librarians, so I would appreciate some advice on how to get Stewards of the Flame into libraries. All my other novels are in libraries and that's where most of my readers have found them. But I understand that libraries are ordinariliy able to order books only through their normal distributors. Print-on-demand books aren't carried by those distributors. The book is available at wholesale from BookSurge, Amazon's print-on-demand subsidiary, but libraries would have to order directly from there to get their normal discount. Can any of them do this?

The other problem is that the major review media won't review the book because they have to receive an advance copy of a book at least 3 months prior to publication in order to consider it.
It's getting good reviews on the Web but it won't be mentioned in the journals that librarians read, and so they won't even know it exists.

Furthermore, few librarians who choose adult fiction have ever heard of me -- I'm known only to YA and children's librarians. I'd be happy to send review copies to a limited number of libraries, but would they look at them and add them to their collection, or would they simply assume that a book by somebody whose name isn't familiar that wasn't issued by a major publisher is not worth considering?

What do you think?

I'm particularly eager to discuss my new adult novel Stewards of the Flame, but I realize that probably most of you haven't seen it yet -- I hope in time to get some feedback from its readers. In the meantime I'll be glad to answer questions about it. And what do you think of the video trailer?

If you have read it and want to comment on plot developments, please put SPOLIER in your subject line! Many of the most interesting things in it come as surprises to the reader (at least I hope they do).

There is a higher-quality recording of the video plus a book description, review quotes, and sample chapters at http://www.stewardsoftheflame.com. Also there is a lot of detailed background information on the topics with which the novel deals: the problems in our society's medical philosophy, the influence of the mind on health, and "paranormal" capabilites such as ESP and healing.

I should explain that this novel isn't going to be in local bookstores because it is print-on-demand. But it's available at Amazon.com and from a number of other online dealers (they are listed at http://www.stewardsoftheflame.com).

I'm happy to find so many people here who've enjoyed my books. Please do make comments about them, and feel free to ask questions.