Merlinscribe: The Journal of James P. Mallory

I see I posted this in entirely the wrong place and most of you won't have seen it. Ah well. Copypasta to the rescue.

A happy day to you all, and I hope it is spent with the family and friends you wish.

No further word on the Dragon Prophecy IX book, but I'm a third of the way through an English Civil War book and making good time. I don't actually expect to hear a peep out of Tor before February, but they could surprise me.

Dear Friends:

This is not an email I wanted to write. But I have always promised I would keep you "in the loop", as it were, and not simply retreat into a mystifying silence when things happened.

So.

About a month ago, around the time I was expecting my revision letter for The Art of War, what I got instead was an email from my agent that Tor was rejecting the book. This is a fairly rare occurrence, especially for the ninth book in a series. They said they required major changes before they would consider accepting the book.

Since they would not specify what these changes should be, aside from "a better ending", there is a bit of a scramble going on, especially when working within the constraints of eight previous books of lore and canon.

I have one in mind, and it should certainly work, since Ancaladar told Vestakia about it all the way back in the first trilogy, but right now you know as much as I do about the state of play. Negotiations, as they say, are ongoing.

I am currently, and off my own bat, revising the manuscript so that I can add on the sort of ending Tor may be thinking of. As it stands right now, The Art of War is more like a book report on the book I actually wanted to write—and I have to find room for another rather large chunk of story. Somehow.

I am very sorry. I did not expect anything like this to happen, and I apologize.

TL;DR: The Art of War will not be out this year because editor.