Pamela Dean Dyer-Bennet

Historical Archive

This is the archived copy of Pamela's previous site; her main site is over there.

Firebirds Rising (9-Jul-2006)

The original anthology Firebirds Rising, edited by Sharyn November, includes my short story "Cousins," which is a Liavek story and the first piece of fiction that I've published since 1998. Here's the cover.

Here's a link to a review that actually quotes a bit from the story. And here is a more detailed review of the anthology as a whole.

I was going to list my favorite stories, but after having read so many reviews of the book that did not mention mine at all (this is indeed the fate of most short story writers whose work appears in anthologies); mentioned it favorably but only in order to beat up on somebody else's story; or contained weird notions of what YA is and whom it appeals to and why—I don't think I will. I think it's a brilliant anthology, as it would also be if I did not have a story in it, and I will just leave matters there.

Good News for Devotees of Tam Lin (19-Jun-2006)

Whether you read a library copy long ago and have never been able to find your own; or whether you are cossetting a falling-apart copy held together with duct tape, packing tape, blue ribbon, rubber bands, or hair ties; or whether you are not a devotee, having not ever found a copy at all, but are curious, rejoice.

Here is the cover. Carleton people, take especial note of the bridge and of the building in the background.

The Firebird reprint of Tam Lin will be officially released in early August of 2006, and can already be pre-ordered from Amazon or Barnes and Noble or Powells. This reprint, like the earlier ones of the Secret Country Trilogy, was made possible by Sharyn November. Unlike the earlier ones, this is a trade paperback (in the common meaning of a larger size).

Going North News (19-Jun-2006)

I'm still working away at Going North, the joint sequel to The Dubious Hills and The Whim of the Dragon. The Dubious Hills will be reprinted in trade size the same year as the new novel is published, and, to my great joy, will contain at the end the novella "Owlswater," originally published in Jane Yolen's fine original anthology Xanadu, now sadly out of print.

People have written to me expressing the hope that their favorite characters from the earlier books will show up in Going North. Since they don't always say who those characters are, I have found these missives difficult to answer. It's also the case that books do not ususally go as the author planned. I can say fairly confidently at this point, however, that Arry and Ruth will figure very prominently, that Fence and Randolph will be important to the events chronicled, and that Ted and Laura will make several appearances, as will their parents.

Last Copies of Tam Lin

We found a box with a few copies of the hardcover (first) edition of Tam Lin in the library, and will be selling them from time to time on Ebay and perhaps elsewhere, as seems appropriate. When an auction is running there will be a link to it here.

Update on Works in Progress

I have sold a to-be-written book called Going North to Sharyn November at Viking, who masterminded the reprints of the Secret Country books. Going North is a joint sequel to The Dubious Hills and The Whim of the Dragon. I must be crazy.

The manuscript is due August 1, 2006, with the hardcover to be published in 2007 and the paperback in 2008. Yes, those dates are very far away, but I have to write the thing, and I don't do that either quickly or consistently.

Tor rejected the Liavek novel, for quite good reasons having to do with my sales figures. I'm still working on it. My agent thinks we would do better to wait until it is finished, or at least much further along, before trying to sell it to a different publisher, and I think she probably has a point.

The two books are very different from one another, and I'm hoping that they'll provide relief from one another's irritating qualities.

Older News

Older news items are archived here.

Novels

• The Secret Country, Ace, 1985. [cover] [annotations]

• The Hidden Land, Ace, 1986. [cover] [annotations]

• The Whim of the Dragon, Ace, 1989. [cover] [annotations]

• Tam Lin, Tor Books, March 1991. [cover] [annotations] [amazon]

  I've essentially run out of copies, and am not accepting further orders for this, see detailed note at the top of this page.

• The Dubious Hills, Tor Books, April 1994. The covers on the paperback [cover] [amazon] and the hardcover [cover] [amazon] are quite different. That little strip at the right edge of the paperback is all that remains of the hardcover artwork (and the image of the book is used on the back).

• Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary, Tor books hardcover, May 1998. [cover]. [Amazon]

  Tor trade paperback released May 1999. [Amazon]

  This book is an expansion and, inevitably, an alteration of the short story of the same title. The short story will give away one major plot point, but can't spoil any of the subplots of the novel because they aren't in the short story at all. The book is based loosely on Child Ballad #1, "Riddles Wisely Expounded," which will give away the same aspect of the plot.

• The Secret Country trilogy, Firebird books reissue, November-December 2003.
  The Secret Country [cover] [amazon]
  The Hidden Land [cover] [amazon]
  The Whim of the Dragon [cover] [amazon]

• Tam Lin, Firebird reissue, August 2006. Trade-size paperback. [cover] [amazon]

Short Fiction

• "The Green Cat," in Liavek, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull, Ace, 1985.

• "Two Houses in Saltigos," in Liavek: The Players of Luck, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull, Ace, 1986.

• "Paint the Meadows with Delight," in Liavek: Wizard's Row, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull, Ace, 1987.

• "The Last Part of the Tragic History of Acrilat," in Liavek: Spells of Binding, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull, Ace, 1988.

  Note that while this story deals with the preoccupations of the Benedicti family (also chronicled in all my other Liavek stories), to actually discover what happened you'll want to read Patricia Wrede's "Mad God" in the same volume.

• "Spells of Binding," (a less than successful sonnet), in Liavek: Spells of Binding, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull, Ace, 1988.

• "A Necessary End," in Liavek: Festival Week, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull, Ace, 1990.

• "Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary," in Things That Go Bump in the Night, edited by Jane Yolen and Martin H. Greenberg, Harper & Row, 1989.

  This story is expanded into the novel of the same name, just out from Tor as of early May 1998.

• "Owlswater," in Xanadu, edited by Jane Yolen, Tor Books, 1993. [amazon]

  This story is a sort of historical footnote to the three Secret Country books but can be read on its own.

• "This Fair Gift," in Sisters in Fantasy 2, edited by Susan Shwartz and Martin H. Greenberg. ROC Books, April 1996. [amazon]

• "Cousins," in Firebirds Rising, edited by Sharyn November. Firebird books, August 2006. [cover] [amazon]

The [amazon] links above take you to the particular book at Amazon.com books.