Dublin Worldcon: The Adventure Begins

Worldcon proper doesn't start for another week, but I'm taking my "extra time" before the convention this time. At the point when I'm writing this, everything is packed, cleaned, organized, set up, checked in, and so forth. (All those little details like "let the credit card holder know I'll be traveling" and "set up the international day-rate plan on my phone" and "remember to withdraw cash for the cat sitter.") And I have hours yet before I have any need to be at the airport--though if you know me at all, you'll know I won't be comfortable until I'm on the other side of security and will head for the airport well in advance of any reasonable need.

Expect random but regular blogs about the trip and convention.

But I have another topic to talk about today. Because, as a well-behaved author, I'm not allowed to talk back to reviews and discussions that have mistaken ideas about my books (this is sparked by a book index website that lists the forthcoming Floodtide as a "contemporary romance"), I thought I might expend some of that frustration in setting up some official FAQs for the series. Now, as is often the case, I'm not going to sit around waiting for people to actually ask particular questions frequently so I can include them, I've drawn up a list that I'm going to answer anyway. Here's my tentative draft so far:

• Are the Alpennia books romance?
• Are the Alpennia books historical?
• Are the Alpennia books SFF?
• Are the Alpennia books lesfic?
• Are the Alpennia books YA?
• What order should I read the Alpennia stories in?
• Why are there so many points of view? (Expressed variously as: Why are these old characters hanging around? or Why aren’t we getting more of the existing characters’ stories? or Why is the storyline so complex and fragmented? I'll do my best to file off some of the prickles on this one.)
• How long will the series be?
• Why are your books so expensive?
• Will the Alpennia books ever be available in audio?
• Why can’t I find your books in bookstores?

Can you think of any other questions that fit well under the rubric "frequently asked" that might be worth including? This isn't the place to talk about obscure details of worldbuilding or anything too spoilery. Just the sort of general questions that someone who's either started reading the series, or thinking about reading it, might want answered in advance.

Many of the answers will start out, "It's complicated..." because, of course, it always is.