FANTASY ALERT!!! THE DELUXE EDITION IS IN THE WORKS & THE AUTHOR IS TODAY’S NEWSLETTER SPONSOR!!
I’m Mercedes Lackey. After forty years and 140-plus novels, and honors including the Dragon Award, the Lambda Award, and the title of SFWA Grand Master, I’m collaborating with Zombie Orpheus Entertainment to publish a deluxe 40th-anniversary omnibus of my first three fantasy novels, the Heralds of Valdemar trilogy. This is my personal “Red Book of Westmarch,” the definitive edition I want Valdemar fans to have on their shelves. (I also want it on my shelves!)
…The Deluxe Heralds of Valdemar presents Arrows of the Queen, Arrow’s Flight, and Arrow’s Fall in a foiled, leatherbound collector’s edition. It features original artwork by eight modern fantasy masters, including Nene Thomas and Rob Carlos, exclusive interviews, sheet music, and a companion album of new Valdemar music by mythpunk performer S. J. Tucker.
She says:
HERALDS OF VALDEMAR DELUXE EDITION IS NOW FUNDED
With over 40,000 ratings and 1,600 reviews on Goodreads, Mercedes Lackey’s 1987 novel Arrows of the Queen tells the story of Talia, a daughter of the repressive Holderkin, who is Chosen by the Companion Rolan to become one of the legendary Heralds of Valdemar.
A massive team of artists, musicians, fans, and designers has been collaborating with Misty to create the ultimate 40th anniversary deluxe edition of Misty’s Heralds trilogy, including art by Nene Thomas and Rob Carlos, new maps by Larry Dixon, new interviews with Misty, and more. And yes, there’s a soundtrack too, by mythpunk performer S.J. Tucker! The first single is out already at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vi1OoM1QFY.
The campaign to fund the new edition has already raised more than $340,000 on BackerKit, unlocking a stunning number of stretch goals. It’s open through June 26.
A fair warning — what began as a single book in the 1980s turned into a series that’s still going strong, with over fifty novels and anthologies published to date. So if you plan to start reading, there’s three-thousand years of Valdemar history waiting for you.
So what’s it about?
With over 40,000 ratings and 1,600 reviews on Goodreads, Arrows of the Queen tells the story of Talia, a daughter of the repressive Holderkin, who is Chosen by the Companion Rolan to become one of the legendary Heralds of Valdemar.
With Rolan’s help, Talia will learn to master her uniquely strong Gift of empathy, and will grow from a shy and uncertain Herald trainee to become the most important Herald of all: the Queen’s Own.
INTERVIEW EXCERPT:
Ben: So there’s this quote: “Only the Circle knows about Ylsa and me.” There’s a lot of “special friends.” And Keren replies, “I’ve never figured on that, old rocks that they are.” Just kind of wondering what kind of intentionality there was around portraying that relationship.
Misty: Oh. Oh, they were lesbian. Absolutely lesbian. And the “special friends” thing — I’m referring to what used to be called a Boston marriage. A Boston marriage is two lesbians moving in together. Apparently it was supposed to be very prevalent in Boston — from everybody outside of Boston. But that was a way to refer to a couple of lesbians moving in together back in the — oh god, it goes all the way back to the ’30s, I think, maybe even earlier, as a Boston marriage.
Ben: Wow. So this lesbian representation and queer representation — it clearly has been part of these books since the very, very beginning. Did you get any pushback at the time when Arrows of the Queen came out? Or was it that people missed it?
Misty: No, not really. Not really. I didn’t get any pushback at all that I know of — but again, there was no internet back then. And as I have said before, there’s been queer representation in science fiction and fantasy books for a very long time. Going back to at least the ’30s, if not further. So it was one of those things where, back then, you had people recognize: if you don’t like the book, do not read it — as opposed to “I don’t like the book, nobody can read it.”
The Complete Arrows Trilogy (Heralds of Valdemar)
