storytelling

I rarely look at Amazon reviews. I try not to, because it's frustrating, and there's nothing I can do about it.

Today, however, I had to go over there to check an ISBN and I looked at the first comment (most recent), to find this, from KT of New York:

The one big thing that threw me off was that this 'sequel' to 'The Last of the Mohicans' is actually for the movie version not the classic by James Fenimore Cooper. For one thing, Cora Munro dies in the original story with Uncas, and there is no mention of Hawkeye marrying anyone.

So now I'm going to say this once and for all. I'm going to say it loud and clear: I never, ever said that Into the Wilderness was supposed to be a sequel to Last of the Mohicans. A reviewer called it a sequel to Last of the Mohicans and people assumed that the reviewer had his or her facts straight. This was the same reviewer who said my penname is Rosina Lippi and my real name Sara Donati. So, not a reliable source of information, okay?

Thus: Into the Wilderness is not, was never meant to be, a sequel to any version of Last of the Mohicans, movie, book, whatever. It was meant to be a retelling of The Pioneers.

Finally, let me point out that a retelling is just that: the story reimagined. I gave Hawkeye a wife, a son, a home. Because I wanted to. My retelling.

And now, less cranky:

Good progress today, fifteen pages, give or take. Jennet insisted on writing a letter, among other things.

Posted by at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Does anybody know of a website that will provide a list of ISBNs for a single title or author? For example, if Author X has four books out, and I put in Author X's name, I'd get a list of all editions of all books with ISBNs.

Or if I put in one title, I'd get all the editions, each with its ISBN.

Because you know, this would be great. Really great. If it doesn't exist, some clever person should put it together, she said hopefully.

Posted by at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Stephanie asks:

In my Amazon.com "Recommended for you" section today, they recommended a book also titled "Queen of Swords" by Judith Tarr. The subject is very, very different from yours, but I was just wondering about the duplication of title - can you do so, and if not, who gets to decide the new title? You, the publisher, name out of a hat?

By law, you can't copyright a title. They get reused all the time, as a matter of fact. A year after Into the Wilderness came out, there was another novel with that title. Fire Along the Sky was used as a title about fifteen years ago.

The only time the publisher hesitates about this is if they have another book with the same title on their own list. I wanted The Farthest Shore as the title for Dawn on a Distant Shore, but I couldn't have it, because Ursula LeGuin, who is also published by Bantam, had a book by that title. If she had a different publisher, I could have had it.

I wasn't aware of the Queen of Swords title, though. Thanks for pointing it out.

Posted by at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)