Peter ([info]maverick_weirdo) wrote,
@ 2009-02-17 22:13:00
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Entry tags:books

I hate waiting 17 years for a sequel
Back in 1990 I picked up a good short story collection called Barrow by John Deakins. While it was the work of a single author, in style it was similar to the "Shared Universe Anthologies" of the time. The stories were set in and around the city of Barrow with interweaving of characters.

Unfortunatly the book came out just as the trend of short story collections was ending (Santuary, Liavek, & Merovingen Nights all wraped up in 1990 or 1991) and the trend of Epic Novels was begining (Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World, The Wheel of Time, Book 1 came out 1990)

So even though the end of Barrow was written pointing to a sequel, there wasn't any. Today I discovered that a publisher has reprinted Barrow, and that #2 & #3 came out in 2007, and #4 came out at the end of 2008.

Horay!


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[info]bercilakslady
2009-02-18 12:16 pm UTC (link)
Ooh! I'll need to get me the sequels. Good times, that book.

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[info]varianor
2009-02-18 01:38 pm UTC (link)
That's always a pleasant find. What did you like about the first collection, said the avid reader of fiction?

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[info]outlander
2009-02-18 02:15 pm UTC (link)
If you are willing, I may be interested in borrowing it.

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Let's see...
[info]maverick_weirdo
2009-02-23 03:51 am UTC (link)
Simple answer, it was like Thieves' World/Santuary without the Doom & Gloom.

Off the top of my head:

Barrow is a humble trade port at the edge of The Empire, filled with the usual types of people (Moneychangers, Gypsies, Preists, Wizards, Bartenders, Fishermen, Sailors, Nobles, Businessmen, Adventurers, Beggers, and a Parrot).

In the Market Quarter of the city is an alley that ends in a wide cul-de-sac (so that wagons making deliveries would be able to turn around) where an old storyteller teaches children for whatever donation their family can afford. The old storyteller has been there as long as anyone can remember, teaching history, letters and figures to any who comes along, without consideration of station or class. Some have even said that as long as the children keep going to him to learn, that no harm befalls them, but of course that could only be an old wives tale.

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Re: Let's see...
(Anonymous)
2009-03-03 04:22 am UTC (link)
Hey, I don't want to be Anonymous. I want to just be me - John Deakins - the guy who wrote the "Barrow" series. Wanna buy a book? It's getting late here, and I have a test in the morning, but I'll write again tomorrow night.

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Re: Let's see...
(Anonymous)
2009-03-04 03:02 am UTC (link)
As indicated, BARROW came into existence because of the "Thieves World" series. I was fascinated by the "shared world" concept, and I wrote a Sanctuary story, using what I thought were "throwaway" characters, never fully developed by the contributors. Andrew Offutt, a major Thieves World contributor and then-president of SFWA, advised me to get out of the Thieves World universe. If I was going to write, it needed to be in my own world, not a universe copyrighted and owned by someone else. I didn't have a universe, but had once written a D & D module. On its map was a dot named Barrow, where the player-characters went to sell their treasures and re-supply. I did own that. My stories and my characters packed up and moved, undergoing some radical transformations and another re-write
It's a curse. If you're ever bitten by the writing bug, you'll never be able to stop. I had no market; I was making no money, but I began to live in the Barrow universe. By the time I had the fourth segment done, I realized that what I had was book. I went shopping for an agent, with success. My agent got me a job as a ghost-writer with TSR. I was one of the original authors of the "Forgotten Realms" Avatar Trilogy. After five hundred pages in four months, we parted less than amiably. That is a long, sad story - for another night. Within a month, I had a contract with New American Library for BARROW. ROC Books, their new SF imprint brought out my book in its first month's releases, along with books by Isaac Asimov and Joel Rosenberg. I made B. DAlton's SF best seller list for two weeks. Whee! I'm on my way! The rights to my book sold overseas. I got a contract for BARROW II and BARROW III.
In 1991, following the Gulf War, a recession hit. The publisher decided to retain only proven known-name authors. (Steven King got $8.3 million for three books he hadn't yet written; they dumped my $8000 contract instead.) More than a hundred writers on the dread Mid-list were canned. A contract made no difference. NAL "lost" the photographic plates to BARROW. They let my books go out of print, despite my rights to buy both from them. They stopped answering letters and phone calls. I was frozen out - for seventeen years, as it turns out.
Technology changes. The photographic plates of 1990 have been replaced by pure computer programs. The completely re-written BARROW and the three other parts of the tetroogy exist as print-on-demand. None of the four has ever seen a paper manuscript in their current form. Unfortunately, none of the four have ever seen a profit, either. My publisher is too small to publicize my work at all. Wanna buy a book at author's discount? $7.00 each for the first three big paperbacks and $10.00 for the fourth (It's a whopper.) $3.00 more for hard-back. $1.00 more gets you a CD with a novella from the Barrow universe. No S & H anywhere in the U.S. Write me. I love fan mail. I have both of them posted in my office. John Deakins, 10202 Mtn. Pines Dr., Harrison, AR, 72601, email: deak@eritter.net. The gripping story of how to be a famous author contiues with the advice: Don't quit your day job. More of the story later. John Deakins

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