red snow Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 7 hours ago, Darth Richard II said: Someone should have asked him is he was Maarkis Williams. Oh and which twist are we talking about Reveal hidden contents The dead king being his bro or that he only exists as a hologram? I'd never heard of Mazarkis Williams until you mentioned him but his goodreads bio makes it seem like a gigantic co-incidence if two Anglo-americans are writing fantasy from Bristol with several children and loves Josiah Bancroft's books. That would have been a great question to ask him especially since he does drop that he's comfortable with using aliases for future books. This means he's even more prolific than I thought. So has anyone read the Tower and Knife series? Or is this maybe part of his pre-million words work? Oh, and if Mazarkis is on the board we should keep this on the down low so we can interact with him but never in discussion of that other challenger to his Bristolian throne- mark lawrence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 I don't think it's ever been confirmed but it's been hinted at strongly that Lawrence co wrote this books with some else. I read the first one, thought it was pretty good, it's...weird though. In that nightshade books in it glory day weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 3 hours ago, Darth Richard II said: I don't think it's ever been confirmed but it's been hinted at strongly that Lawrence co wrote this books with some else. I read the first one, thought it was pretty good, it's...weird though. In that nightshade books in it glory day weird. hmm I wonder if the other person has gone on to write other books? I guess by subtraction we could gain more clues eg does Lawrence have a degree in history (he does have one in Physics), does he have 6 kids (I know he has several) etc, etc. Is the other person called Bill? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unJon Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/43c7z4/pen_namesauthors_pseudonyms/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=comment_list Good analysis of who MW is on this Reddit page. I also didn't realize that Lawrence was not Mark's real last name Mark is Mark. But according to British newspapers (he and his family were involved in a public kerfuffle with British PM David Cameron), his name is Mark Williams. As to the book in question: it appears very likely to be The Emperor's Knife by Mazarkis Williams. This matches the timing (mentioned in the cited article) with the publishing dates of Prince of Thorns (August 2011) and The Emperor's Knife (December 2011). I've written about this before. When The Emperor’s Knife was published, “Mazarkis Williams” was introduced as a pen name, without disclosing the author's gender (or number). The name “Mazarkis Williams” is now obviously being used by a female author, as anyone who listened to her on a recent podcast or who is a FB friend of hers is doubtlessly aware. She has not yet publicly revealed her actual name, but she stated in a Reddit AMA: “My publisher chose the pen name, but it does have some relationship to my real name.” As is well known, Mark is a close writing friend of hers, and he thanks someone named Helen Mazarakis for her help and support in the Acknowledgements section of Prince of Thorns, and as his reader in the Acknowledgements sections of King of Thorns and Emperor of Thorns. So I am virtually certain her real name is Helen Mazarakis. But notice how well “Mazarkis Williams” blends “Mark Williams” into it too. The Amazon bio for Mazarkis Williams says: “Mazarkis Williams is a writer with roots in both the US and UK, having worked in and been educated in both countries. Each year is divided between Boston and Bristol and a teleport booth is always top of the Christmas wish-list. Mazarkis has degrees in history and physics with a diverse set of interests accumulated while misspending a hectic youth. Cooking has always been a passion and in addition to feeding six children and a sizeable herd of cats Mazarkis regularly caters for crowds of permanently hungry friends.” On her FB page, the current Mazarkis Williams has stated she has 2 children, and Mark is known to have 4 children, which equals 6 children. He lives in the Bristol area, she in the Boston area. He has a Physics degree, she has a History degree. This is all too perfect a match with the bio to be mere coincidence. The bio was either intended as an elaborate lie (using a combination of Mark and Helen’s bios) by the publisher, or is a cleverly-worded bio for the pseudonym of the collaborative writing team of Helen and Mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 seems a pretty tight case. I'm curious about his run in with David Cameron. Knowing Cameron's cut backs on social care and visiting careworkers I can imagine Mark being someone angered by him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 Yeah pretty much all that. Didn't know she(he? them) had a fb page, i should get on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Patrek Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 On 16/02/2017 at 7:30 PM, Darth Richard II said: Someone should have asked him is he was Maarkis Williams. Reveal hidden contents The dead king being his bro or that he only exists as a hologram? I asked Lawrence and he replied that he can't comment on this. . . So his no-comment could be construed as an answer. Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted February 19, 2017 Share Posted February 19, 2017 On 16/02/2017 at 0:06 PM, red snow said: Same here. I try to keep checking in on his blog and get email updates but it is a shame we don't have that immediate contact with him any more. Mark is very active on both his Facebook page and on Goodreads, as well as Reddit. I think he does flybys on other forums like SFFWorld (maybe SFF Chronicles as well?). Quote Lol half joking. I know who it is but I've never read a word from George MacDonald. Does that make me like, a major literature bumpkin or something? George MacDonald Fraser. There's actually a separate, highly influential and important fantasy writer just called George MacDonald who wrote one of the very earliest fantasy-as-we-know-it novels, Phantastes, in 1858, which was hugely influential on CS Lewis and Tolkien. Both are certainly worth reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Patrek Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 There is an extract from Red Sister here. Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowjack Posted February 22, 2017 Share Posted February 22, 2017 On 2/15/2017 at 9:28 PM, Lord Patrek said: I asked him and it's not likely Lawrence will come back. The way things were handled when Only Requires That You Hate went at him and how his posts in response were deleted by the mods here left a very bad taste in his mouth, it appears. . . Wasn't even aware of that. . . Patrick His departure came well after the ROTYH dust up. His departure came after the rehash posts started and he felt some of his posts were unfairly and unreasonable deleted without response from the mods. His presence is really missed. This board used to see active participation by Mark and Joe Abercrombie. People move on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 I think Joe is just genuinely busy with his new series and life in general. His posts over here tend to reflect his output on his own blog and he rarely updates his own blog these days (compared to 5 years ago). I'd be more worried about his absence if we still got regular updates on his own site. Based on his last blog entry it seems he simply has less time for a lot of distractions - he even plays less video games. Probably goes hand-in-hand with having a family more than him not wanting to post here. I was always amazed at how Mark somehow found the time to join in here as much as he did. I seem to have convinced myself the new book was out at the begining of March but it's actually in april Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 Lots of people got super super early ARCs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 On 25/02/2017 at 1:13 AM, Darth Richard II said: Lots of people got super super early ARCs. That's probably why I feel it should be out. Amazon has been kindly promoting it for a while now in true "new for you" click bait where i then discover it should be in "coming soon". I guess the hype's working. If it had been another book from the broken empire I had decided to shift to digital and wait for a bargain but as it's a new series I'm quite curious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Patrek Posted March 5, 2017 Share Posted March 5, 2017 My review of Red Sister is up! If anyone is interested, you can read it here. Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowjack Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 23 hours ago, Lord Patrek said: My review of Red Sister is up! If anyone is interested, you can read it here. Patrick Spoilers much? Jeez... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRevanchist Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 Just finished The Red Queen's War trilogy last night. While it wasn't as good as The Broken Empire (and Jalan isn't Jorg) it was a decent read, with a lot of good moment. In addition, it clarified some of the events of the original trilogy, and the highlight was when Jalan talked with Jorg. I think that there is another book set in the same world (a collection of short stories) that I am eventually going to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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