From the story card:
Carpe Diem 107,000 words Lee & Miller #9
11/2/87: Proposal and first 56 pages sent to Del Rey (they didn’t like it)
10/3/1988: Submitted entire manuscript to Del Rey
11/17/88: SOLD!
12/7/88: Revision letter received
1/19/89: Revisions sent to Del Rey
PUBLISHED: 10/1/1989
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2/1998: Sold reprint rights to Meisha Merlin as part of a 7-book deal
2001: Ace buys mmp rights to all 7
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So, Carpe Diem was the first book we sold on proposal, and also the first book we sold that was actually under contract at the time we wrote it.
As it says on the story card, our editor at Del Rey was Not Happy with the sample chapters or the proposal, but, to my memory provided no guidance regarding what she would like to see instead. We pointed this out to our agent, who once again called our editor, who subsequently sent us another letter, which began in this very positive and cheerful manner: “Well, Katherine sold it to me.” And then went on to specify things like deadline, word count and various etceteras.
Carpe Diem is also the first book we wrote that broke 100,000 words, because that was the target word count.
We’ve told this story numerous times, but, just to have it all down in one place: Carpe Diem was the book where Pat Rin yos’Phelium began his part of our projected seven-book story arc. When we received the revision letter, we were explicitly directed to write him out, because his line did not resolve within the space of the novel, and since we were writing a trilogy, that meant he had to go.
And, no, Katherine could not sell those additional four books for us, though she did her best.
Carpe Diem was also the first time an editor told us she didn’t want any more of whatever it was we thought we were doing here.
However, we were required by contract to write one more book, which Del Rey had the Right to Refuse. Our editor specifically told us this book had to be completely different from the three books we had published with Del Rey.
We wrote and turned in The Tomorrow Log, which was rejected very quickly, and by a phone call (Note: editors usually call writers with good news, reasonably enough. Bad news went into letters.), and specifically because it was “nothing like” the other three books.
During the course of this phone call, we were also specifically informed that we had no “writing career.”
And for a long time, it looked like that was really true.
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Tagline: “Even stranded on a backwater planet, the two fugitives were not safe from their past . . .”
Back cover copy:
HIDE AND SEEK
Bloodthirsty alien pirates were the least of Val Con and Miri’s troubles. The besieged couple topped the unofficial wanted list of a ruthless interstellar crime cartel, and they didn’t dare show their faces in known space. So they went to ground on a backwater planet where a quiet farm life should have been the perfect cover.
But the mob’s assassins were not the only ones hunting the fugitives. Val Con’s worried family wanted to restore him to his rightful place as Clan head, so Shan and Priscilla combined their unique mental talents to seek their missing brother. And Val Con’s superiors, determined to debrief their rogue agent — dead or alive — had set their most deadly operative on the case. If Val and Miri had thought their spying and fighting days were over, they were very, very wrong . . .
FIRST TIME IN PRINT
Artwork by Stephen Hickman
