Quote:
Originally Posted by wayrad
Story of the Stone and Eight Skilled Gentlemen. I agree, they're fun, but they aren't the little gem that Bridge of Birds is. Somewhere on the web, I've seen Hughart quoted as saying that he himself felt that he'd exhausted the possibilities and didn't plan to write any more Master Li stories.
|
Excerpt
(The following interview with Barry Hughart was conducted via mail during January-February, 2000. --Jerry. Kuntz )
JK: All fans of the Master Li books want to know why the series stopped after Eight Skilled Gentlemen. Can you explain?
BH: The Master Li books were a tightrope act and hard to write, but not, alas, very remunerative. Still, I would have continued as originally planned if I'd had a supportive publisher: seven novels ending with my heroes' deaths in the battle with the Great White Serpent, and their elevation to the Great River of Stars as minor deities guaranteed to cause the August Personage of Jade almost as much trouble as the Stone Monkey. Unfortunately I had St. Martins, which didn't even bother to send a postcard when I won the World Fantasy Award; Ballantine, which was dandy until my powerhouse editor dropped dead and her successors forgot my existence; and Doubleday, which released The Story of the Stone three months before the pub date, guaranteeing that not one copy would still be on the shelves when reviews came out, published the hardcover and the paperback of Eight Skilled Gentlemen simultaneously, and then informed me they would bring out further volumes in paperback only, meriting, of course, a considerably reduced advance.
NB: The "powerhouse editor" mentioned above would be the late Judy Lynn Benjamin, later Judy Lynn Del Rey. Judy had been editor at Galaxy Magazine before joining Del Rey books and marrying Lester Del Rey. She was also a dwarf, with the associated health issues. Her death was tragic but not exactly unexpected.
______
Dennis