Authors who vanished from the face of the planet

[Darth Richard II]

SO, I was thinking about J.V. Jones the other day, and how she has been MIA aprrently from the internet since 2011, which got me thinking about Sarah Micklem, who also seems to have vanished(although I found an article from 2014 where she says she was "thinking about thinking about writing the third firethorn book, which doesn't exactly give one hope).

So i was wondering

1. Does anyone know what the hellk happened to these authors and

2. What authors do you follow that seem to have vanished/given up?

[Lyanna Stark]

Kelly Gay! But it seems she is back and has some stuff she is working on, so yay for that.

[Darth Richard II]

I remember Robert Asprin dissapeared for like a decade for various weird legal reasons. 

[Calibandar]

Ken Scholes has been quiet for a good while and the last book in his series keeps getting delayed.

JV Jones, obviously. She could have stopped writing all together actually. 

KJ Bishop hasn't published something in a long time I think. 

[mgambino]

Michael Curtis Ford

[Free Northman Reborn]

Philip G Williamson. During my teenage years I read a very enjoyable book called Dinbig of Khimmur, but the author sadly seems to have gone to ground since then. He did write some sequels loosely following on the original book, but the world that had been built seems to have been woefully underutilized since then.

[Inkdaub]

William Browning Spencer is the big one for me.  He's one of my favorite writers and he hasn't published anything in ten years.  He's over 70 and never had a big online presence so it's hard to know what he's doing.

Salvador Plascencia published one of my favorite books ever in 2005 and I haven't heard a peep out of him since.

Jeff Long seems to have left fiction behind or is taking a long break from it.

Tamara Siler Jones hasn't really disappeared but I wish she'd get back to her Dubric Byerly series.

Sarah Langan hasn't published anything in a while.

[Cadiva]

5 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

I remember Robert Asprin dissapeared for like a decade for various weird legal reasons. 

That's who I was going to mention, he was one of my favourite comedic fantasy authors, I loved his Myth Inc series. Sadly he's now dead so no more Skeeve and Aahz stories

[Werthead]

Ken Scholes I believe has been suffering from repeated long-term medical issues.

JV Jones does go radio silent for long periods. It is frustrating because she published five very large fantasy novels in four years (the complete Book of Words trilogy, The Barbed Coil and the first Sword of Shadows book) and has only published three further novels in the seventeen years since then, which seems unusual. Her going completely radio silent between books, followed by being quite active for a year or so around release and then going completely radio silent again is unusual. This has been the longest gap between books so far, so I'm hoping they might it get it out at least in the next year or two.

Patrick Tilley went almost completely silent after releasing his last stand-alone novel in 1995, itself coming five years after the sixth novel in the Amtrak Wars series which was only supposed to be halfway through the story. I actually swapped emails with him a few times and it was down due to him losing interest in writing a violent, action-heavy SF/fantasy series in the wake of things like the Balkan Wars and 9/11, and at least one failed attempt to finish the series with another writer.

Steph Swainston got quite annoyed about how much onus on marketing and self-promotion was put on her by her publishers and went and got a day job. That's why it's taken six years to write the next Castle book, although that will now be out later this year.

However, I think a big part of it is that many writers are solitary, even shy people who don't really like the limelight and who write exactly because they're uncomfortable in jobs where being outgoing and conversational are more the norm. We may never quite know how many such authors (who may be brilliant) have been put off by the current "need" for writers to tweet what they had for breakfast every day.

[Lyanna Stark]

6 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

I remember Robert Asprin dissapeared for like a decade for various weird legal reasons. 

 

The Thieves' World novels were among my gateway drugs to Fantasyland and I will always be thankful for that.

[sologdin]

ambrose bierce.

[maarsen]

B. Traven

[Darth Richard II]

Paolini has a sci fi book coming out :/

Jody Lybe Nye has written a few myth stories post aspirins death. She actually nails then pretty good.

i though KJ bishop had a new book recently but I may be thinking of Parker.

[Cry_Havoc]

Thomas Pynchon

[williamjm]

6 hours ago, Werthead said:

Steph Swainston got quite annoyed about how much onus on marketing and self-promotion was put on her by her publishers and went and got a day job. That's why it's taken six years to write the next Castle book, although that will now be out later this year.

I saw her at a small SF con in London a couple of years ago where she read the prologue of her next Fourlands book, so she's didn't entirely disappear.

[Darth Richard II]

Ken Scholes has a blog he updates though doesn't he? Or maybe not, I'm unaware what his current situation is. Health problems suck though.

I remember Elizabeth Haydon, author of everyone's favorite series of all time, Rhapsody, disparaged for liek a decade. Her husband had a heart attack then her house burned to the ground. And a few other terrible things. But she seems to be back at work(yay?).

 

[polishgenius]

I don't think Steph Swainston counts, coz she announced she was doing it. And did she disappear from social media in any case? She just stopped writing.

She's already well into writing the next Castle book so the next wait probably won't be as long.



DM Cornish, of the Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy, appears to have vanished completely since the release of a couple of novellas in 2014. His blog last updates with an apology for previous long silences and delays to the serialised story he'd been putting up (but also an implication that things were coming together and he'd post more often soon), his other official website (as an illustrator) is dead altogether, he doesn't appear to have a twitter or anything, and there's been no kind of noise I can see on any further work. Does anyone know anything about what's going on with him? He mentioned depression so he might be dealing with something privately, understandable, and also a baby, so that might explain things too, but I do hope all is well. I enjoy his work immensely.

[Darth Richard II]

Yeah, I don't mean people who stay active on social media, I mean people who just go completely radio silent. JV Jones is really the perfect example.

[Andrew Gilfellon]

1 hour ago, Darth Richard II said:

Ken Scholes has a blog he updates though doesn't he? Or maybe not, I'm unaware what his current situation is. Health problems suck though.

I remember Elizabeth Haydon, author of everyone's favorite series of all time, Rhapsody, disparaged for liek a decade. Her husband had a heart attack then her house burned to the ground. And a few other terrible things. But she seems to be back at work(yay?).

 

Elizabeth Haydon finished her Symphony of ages saga but the later volumes were badly done and appeared mostly to be rushed. She's pretty much stated that she prefers writing for YA which is why her original series took so long to complete.

[Darth Richard II]

Uh, as someone who still reads them(they're terrible honestly, its a guilty pleasure soap drama thing, I think), no, she Hasn't. There are still one or two books left. And she didn't stop just writing adult books, she went completely silent for almost a decade, for reasons I stated.