Some readers have picked up the message on my Nonsuch Blog about the ‘one more fantasy book and that’s it’ entry. I thought I’d explain a bit more about it here.
Karen Brooks, another Australian fantasy author and yet another who has been battling her own cancer (she wrote about it in the Courier Mail, so I feel I can mention it here!) sent me a lovely anecdote about a woman who had been fighting cancer. Some time after this woman had finished treatment, her friends noticed that for several weeks she was no longer answering her telephone. Growing concerned, they were just about to send in the police to break down her door when the following message popped up on her voicemail. “My friends. As you know, I have been going through a personal crisis recently. As a result I have been making some profound changes in my life. If I have not returned your call in the past two weeks, then, my friend, I am sorry, but you are part of that change. Goodbye.” Click.
I got a good belly laugh out of that one, but it has deep meaning for anyone who has battled a life-threatening cancer. Most everyone makes some profound changes in their lives. I am not ‘out of the woods’, nor will I ever be, this is a killer cancer and I just don’t know when it will strike again, as it assuredly will.
So there have been some big changes in my life. One of these is fantasy writing. There is every chance I will move on. In the meantime, there is one more book to come in the DarkGlass Mountain trilogy (this was finished before I became so ill, but the cancer treatment interfered with its editing process). That book, The Infinity Gate, should be out in May next year.
After that, there will be one more fantasy book, The Devil’s Diadem. I signed HarperCollin’s offer memo for this last week (really Stephanie, it is in the post!). There’s always been a fantasy book I really, really wanted to write … and for various reasons I never got around to it. The Devil’s Diadem is it. So this book will be one for me, no holds barred, full on fun, everything I always wanted to put into a fantasy novel but never did as I was too busy second guessing myself as to what everyone else wanted. I am loving writing it. Should be out in 2011.
So that’s the news. As to where I am off after this, well, that’s for me to know and everyone else to wonder. 
(Read: I am not actually all that sure, but I am having fun exploring various possibilities.) If you want to keep track of me then keep up on the Nonsuch Blog, which I am also really loving, and where I discuss most everything: http://nonsuchkitchengardens.com/wordpress/
You can read more about The Devil’s Diadem at Sara’s website. Sara Douglass is the award-winning and bestselling author of seventeen fantasy novels published by Voyager, including the Aurealis-winning Battleaxe. Her next book, The Infinity Gate, will be out in May next year.
Filed under: Sara Douglass Tagged: | Axis, battleaxe, Darkglass Mountain, Enchanter, Sara Douglass, The Devil's Diadem, The Infinity Gate, The Serpent Bride
My sympathies. My mother had breast cancer and recovered, but her own mother died from it just before I was born. I know second-hand how tough it can be.
But I admire that you’re not apologising for moving away from fantasy; I may be just starting my own career but I have no intention of just writing fantasy forever either. If I run out of ideas, I’ll stop. If I come up with an idea for a book that’s not fantasy, I’ll write that.
In the end, it really is just down to us. Do it because you love it, and stop when the time comes.
KT
[...] week, posting on the blog of publisher Voyager, Douglass wrote that one of the things that would change in her post-cancer life was her writing. [...]
I will be joining Sara’s rake squad – I hope they’ve been successful in getting those nasty leaves into the incinerator in time! Am so glad to hear that The Infinity Gate will be out soon, and can’t wait to read the Devil’s Diadem (I thought her other books were no holds barred, full on fun – this should be good!)
JM
Sara you are such an inspiration!!!!
Whenever I read one of your books I am always left wondering about what your passions are when writing as you have such amazing strong themes in them. I’m nearly bursting out of my skin to read The Devil’s Diadem (so much so i might even burst (so messy)).
Cant wait to see what the furtue holds I know it will be wonderful no matter what you set out to do fantasy or not.
Thanks for giving us all such wonderful books xxx
J
I am raking that garden with every page that i read of your glorious books that are my friends when life gets tough. For you i say thanks, and know that you have given one person stregth through your writing. Thank you.