So, it’s looking like Heavy Ice might turn out to be another duology. I’m sorry, people – it seems like my natural writing length is the ‘too big to fit into one book, not big enough to be a trilogy’. It’s not the usual ‘sod off, characters / plotlines who wish to show up late in the day and steal the book’ that every writer has to deal with, it’s that the whole thing is just turning out too big. It’s a good thing I don’t knit, or I’d be regularly starting out on cat sweaters and ending up with house-cosies.
Also trying to come down the pipe are the Nameless Side Project and various ideas for the book where Kallisty actually has a romantic plotline and the book where Kjarten grows up, none of which help, brain.
Ankaret Wells 
No brickbats here – having two books to look forward to instead of one is all win in my book!
I think it’s because I’m needing to do more worldbuilding – there’s several external societies butting heads, as well as the usual Requite factions. Thank you for the reassurance!
I’m looking forward to reading it whether it is one book or two.
I’ve just got Kindle copies of the first two, as I’ve lent the paperbacks to someone else, and after ‘Death and the Order’ have been looking forward to a re-read.
Yay! I’m surprised how well the Kindle editions came out – the Amazon convertor is the only thing I’ve ever met that likes the HTML you get out of pressing ‘convert to HTML’ in Word 2010, but I’m very happy about that, as it means I don’t have to go through a couple of hundred thousand words putting paragraph breaks in by hand.
I keep poking at what I’ve got so far and thinking ‘could I take this bit out?’ and it’s actually a lot more linear and less full of minor characters and their subplots than the first two were, though there is a lot of exposition. Though that’s what you get with first contact stories, I suppose.
They’ve come out beautifully on the Kindle. I’ve become a complete convert, not to getting rid of paper books, but to the joys of an e-reader, except in those odd cases when someone hasn’t checked how the convert process worked.
Tzenni is in the Spire and has just met Innes, and I am tearing myself away so I will have something fun to read on the tube when I go back to work.
One of the things that’s happened since I got the Kindle that I really didn’t expect is that I read a lot more long fanfic, because I can download it from AO3 and read it on the e-reader wherever I happen to be rather than having to stare at a backlit screen for hours.
I feel the same as Sadie – more Requite to look forward too is only a good thing! The new short has made me want to re-read the first 2 as well, I think they are next on my list after I finish Kushiel’s Chosen 🙂
If you end up having weird dreams where some of the Requite cast are anguisettes I accept no responsibility. 😛
I wish I had that problem! I usually don’t have the stamina to write enough for a duology or even that long a book!!
I’m always really impressed with how you manage to fit three-dimensional background characters into so short a book length, though – everyone feels real, even if they only have three lines.
Thank you! That’s very kind. I try to base my characters on people in my life, so I’m glad they seem grounded!