by Nancy Kress
Most of all, I didn’t expect to never write another book at all similar in any way to Prince, with its deliberate mix of tongue-in-cheek fantasy quest, metaphysical philosophizing, historical anachronisms, and middle-aged angst. My next two books were earnest, conventional fantasies, and after that I left fantasy entirely for the technologically greener pastures of science fiction, with its very different quests. Every novel since then (there have been fifteen as of this writing, plus four collections of short stories and three how-to-write books) has concerned itself with genetic engineering, space exploration, environmental change, and the mysteries of the human brain.
And yet I have a covert fondness for Kirila and Chessie. Chessie is the friend we’d all like to have. And Kirila... Kirila is of course the author, in that most expected and somehow-always-a-surprise-to-the-writer cliché: the first novel that is an autobiography. Which this one very much is.
Prince of Morning Bells was out of print for a long time: twenty years. Copies of it are so scarce that I was delighted when my stepson gave me his, doubling my total stock. I’m delighted that it’s back in print again, and that you are contemplating, or are, or have just finished, reading it.
Nancy Kress
March 2011
About the Author
Nancy Kress is the author of twenty-three books: fifteen novels, four collections of short stories, and three how-to-write books. Her fiction has won four Nebulas, two Hugos, a Sturgeon, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. For sixteen years she wrote the "Fiction" column for WRITER'S DIGEST magazine, and currently teaches fiction writing at various venues around the country. Nancy lives in Seattle with her husband, writer Jack Skillingstead, and with Cosette, the world's most spoiled toy poodle. She blogs at nancykress.blogspot.com.
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