here’ve been lots of interesting things happening this month, some of which we can now share with you. Yesterday, Tad Williams, author of the classic “Memory, Sorrow and Thorn” books, announced the completion of The Witchwood Crown, volume one of “The Last King of Osten Ard”. The book is scheduled for release in April 2017, just a few months after The Heart of What Was Lost, another Osten Ard novel, is scheduled to hit store shelves.

Williams writes:

Hi, guys. I’ve just sent in the final manuscript (except for the page proofs, once it’s been typeset) for [The Witchwood Crown]. My last pass actually added a few lines, net, I think. 347K words — that’s about a 1200 page manuscript for me. I think that might come in second behind only [To Green Angel Tower] — I’d have to go back and check the Otherland books. Anyway, it’s good to have someone take something like this out of my hands, because I’d keep fiddling ’til Doomsday otherwise.

347,000 words would make The Witchwood Crown Williams’ third-longest novel, with the order in length being:

1. To Green Angel Tower (520,000 words; 1,083 pages)

2. Sea of Silver Light (443,000 words; 922 pages)

3. The Witchwood Crown (347,000 words; 721 pages)

4. City of Golden Shadow (303,193 words; 770 pages)

5. Shadowheart (295,038 words; 730 pages)

6. The War of the Flowers (686 pages)

7. The Dragonbone Chair (288,297 words; 654 pages)

8. Mountain of Black Glass (285,272 words; 689 pages)

9. Shadowmarch (269,602 words; 656 pages)

10. Shadowplay (266,486 words; 656 pages)

11. River of Blue Fire (266,003 words; 634 pages)

12. Stone of Farewell (269,000 words; 589 pages)

13. Shadowrise (236,103 words; 564 pages)

(The Heart of What Was Lost comes in at a comparatively slender 224 pages). Williams later added:

The sad thing is, I can’t be as celebratory as I’d like because I’m several weeks overdue to start writing [Empire of Grass], the second full volume. However, the good thing is that means I can sit around staring into the air for a few days while I order my thoughts about how the book is going to be shaped. That’s my favorite part of writing, to be honest. The part where you just think, not write yet.

Meanwhile, legendary illustrator Michael Whelan is hard at work creating the cover art for the new book, which will be the fifth in the Osten Ard series. On his official website, Whelan writes:

I’ve been painting a LOT of weird trees lately for the new Osten Ard Trilogy, trying to come up with a design idea that Tad Williams, Betsy Wollheim, and I like. The trees figure importantly in the new books so I’ve been working on them for weeks! It’s been a long slog, but I edge a little closer each day and I know it will all be worth it in the end.

Excerpts of The Heart of What Was Lost are already appearing in the Blogosphere, as Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist shared an excerpt on October 9th, and Treacherous Paths’ own contributor ylvs laDuchesse shared a sample of the text on Twitter yesterday. We at Treacherous Paths will be sharing more excerpts soon!

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