Hey everyone! I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the blog tour for TREMONTAINE!
I have a promo post to share with you today! And make sure to enter the giveaway below!
Haven't heard of TREMONTAINE? Check it out!
Title: TREMONTAINE
Author: Ellen Kushner, Joel Derfner, Karen
Lord, Delia Sherman, Racheline Maltese, Paul Witcover, Tessa Gratton, and Liz
duffy Adams.
Pub. Date: October 11, 2017
Publisher: Serial Box
Formats: eBook & audiobook
Since launching last year, serial fiction startup Serial Box has been featured from coast to coast including stories on NPR, Wired, BuzzFeed and i09. Serial Box was called “a godsend for a niche market of readers” by The Chicago Tribune.As one of the flagship serials from Serial Box with tens of thousands of readers across multiple platforms, Tremontaine has made waves in the serial, LGBTQ, and fan fiction community.Tremontaine introducers readers to a world where ambition, love affairs, and rivalries dance with deadly results. In this serial, Ellen Kushner and a team of writers return readers to the world of scandal and swordplay introduced in her cult-classic novel Swordspoint. Readers familiar with the series will find a welcome homecoming while new fans will learn what makes Riverside a place they will want to visit again and again. Tremontaine follows Diane, Duchess Tremontaine, whose beauty is matched only by her cunning; Rafe Fenton, a handsome young scholar with more passion than sense; Ixkaab Balam, a tradeswoman from afar with skill for swords and secrets; and Micah, a gentle genius whose discoveries herald revolution. Sparks fly as these four lives intersect in a world where politics is everything, and outcasts are the tastemakers.
Team-written by some of today’s most exciting authors, Tremontaine season 3 is brought to you by Ellen Kushner, Joel Derfner, Karen Lord, Delia Sherman, Racheline Maltese, Paul Witcover, Tessa Gratton, and Liz duffy Adams.
Now on to the post
How We Wrote It
REAL TALK WITH TREMONTAINE PRODUCER RACHELINE MALTESE.
This piece
originally appeared on the Serial Box blog. You can find a link here.
Tremontaine
is the critically acclaimed prequel to Ellen Kushner’s beloved Riverside
novels, which developed a cult following beginning with Swordspoint in 1987.
The “Fantasy of Manners” focuses on decadent world building and
interpersonal intrigue, and has been noted for its progressive expression of
gender and sexuality. Team-written by some of today’s most exciting authors,
Tremontaine season 3 is brought to you by Ellen Kushner, Joel Derfner, Karen
Lord, Delia Sherman, Racheline Maltese, Paul Witcover, Tessa Gratton, and Liz
Duffy Adams. The first episode is available for free at Serial Box and can be
found here.
(link: http://bit.ly/TremS3RST)
One of the
questions I keep hearing about Tremontaine is “but how does the writing process
work?” to which the short answer is “Well, first we were all locked in a room together for three
days.”
Serial Box
serials start with a writer’s retreat, where the team gets together and figures
out who the characters are, what the story is about, and who is going to write
what. For Tremontaine, this was complicated by the fact that we were playing in
an existing sandbox, and, like any good creator, Ellen wanted to give us free
rein while also maintaining control and consistency over a world readers have
known for decades.
So we went into
the retreat, held in Ellen and Delia’s New York apartment, with Ellen’s draft
of the pilot and some verbal sketches of our new characters, including Micah
and Kaab (whose name was originally Chalchi). Other possible characters – including a swordsman – vanished as Rafe took shape and we
realized who we could use that readers were already familiar with. Most of this
happened on our first day.Tremontaine Series Cover
Which meant we
came back into day two needing to figure out what on earth the first season of
Tremontaine would be about, while also making sure each of main characters had
personal objectives beyond just supporting the narratives of other people.
Overall, the
Tremontaine writers are a loud, aggressive group. We shout when we get excited,
flap our hands when we get really excited, and aren’t fantastic about letting
each other finish our sentences. And
while that can be frustrating for everyone at times, it’s also a positive,
because it means we’re all putting the story and our potential vision for it,
ahead of pretty much anything else.
Deciding what
Tremontaine would truly be about got intense. Sometimes we worried our idea
were too complicated, odd, or complex. And every time we hit one of those
doubts, we all looked at each other and doubled down. This was a room that
loved anti-heroes.
After surviving
day two and figured out what Tremontaine was about (and because it’s a mystery,
I still can’t tell you), we had to decide what part of the story would happen
in each episode. This involved a lot of
notecards on corkboards and borrowing the Friends episode naming convention of “The one with….”
Who would write
what was a process defined by of how many episodes people were contracted for, what
we thought would be easier for our guest author Paul Witcover to step in on (as
he wasn’t a part of this room), and what people’s particular strengths and
interests were. Some episodes everyone
wanted. Some episodes no one wanted. And much later, after all the episodes
were written, many of us found our experiences with them were different than we
anticipated. Writing, of course, is always like that. There’s fun, serendipity,
and really hard work lurking in all sorts of places.
Most of all
though, in a process like this there is knitting. Each episode has to not just
lead into the next, but each episode has to successfully seed small details
needed later in the plot. So while each story is absolutely that of its lead
author(s), we all went to each other for help on things. What do Tess’s living
arrangements look like? How should fighting styles differ between characters?
What is the physical and political geography of Kaab’s homeland? Are household
servant roles modeled on the 19th century or the 17th century or something else
entirely?
During the
weeks and months of Tremontaine we read each other’s drafts, offered feedback,
reminded people of items we needed set up for our own episodes, and consulted
experts on a wide range of topics including math and cards. We also enlisted
outside readers in places, including regarding Micah’s experience of the world.
Many of us had written ASD characters (or characters our world would perceive
as ASD) before Tremontaine, but we wanted fresh eyes, especially because of
Micah’s affection for numbers.
But before any
of that could happen we had to, on the last day of the retreat, name the
series. I’ll share some of those discarded names after this season concludes,
as at least one of them is a spoiler, but the discussion went on for hours. And
hours. By then, half of us were lying on Ellen and Delia’s floor eating bagels
and moaning in pain. Would the retreat ever end? Would our serial ever have a
name?
Eventually,
Ellen asked, “If
it’s about the duchess, why can’t we just call it Tremontaine?”
We decided the
duchess would be very pleased with that turn of events indeed.
About Seral
Box:
A new kind of
publishing company for a new age.
While technology has
rapidly evolved, the way publishers and writers bring books to readers really
hasn't. Storytelling in TV has become more sophisticated and multilayered,
podcasts have risen to mainstream media status—but ebooks are just books on digital
devices, not easier, more fun, or more social than they were before.
Serial Box is here to
change all of that: artfully blending together the best of series television
and the convenience of ebooks and audiobooks to bring readers a new form of
story telling. Releasing fiction serials over the course of 10-16 week seasons,
Serial Box is about delivering addictive episodes straight to the user’s
digital device to be read or listened to anytime, anywhere.
Taking a few pages
from the world of television, Serial Box hires a team of a talented and
award-winning writers to collaborate on each serial, pulling the best ideas to
develop great characters and craft a narrative that captivates readers over the
course of the season. A new ensemble of writers works on each series, so each
will vary in genre and length, but they'll always be entertaining page-turners
that keep you wondering what will happen in next week's episode.
Giveaway Details:
3 winners
will receive season 1 of TREMONTAINE, International.
Tour Schedule:
Week
One:
11/6/2017- A Dream Within A
Dream- Excerpt
11/6/2017- Jamieson Wolfe- Review
11/7/2017- Books,Dreams,Life- Pre
Made Post
11/7/2017- BookishRealmReviews- Spotlight
11/8/2017- Novel Novice- Excerpt
11/8/2017- BookHounds YA- Review
11/9/2017- Owl Always Be Reading- Review
11/9/2017- BookCrushin- Review
11/10/2017- Read Lovely Books- Excerpt
Week
Two:
11/13/2017- Owl Always Be Reading- Review
11/13/2017- YA and Wine- Pre Made
Post
11/14/2017- Hauntedbybooks13- Review
11/14/2017- Texan Girl Reads- Review
11/15/2017- Hooked To Books- Spotlight
11/16/2017- A Gingerly Review- Review
11/17/2017- Owl Always Be Reading- Review
11/17/2017- Two Chicks on Books- Pre
made post
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