Comments on: The Big Idea: Marcus Sakey

By: Renee Giroux

Renee Giroux — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 03:34:13 +0000

I just wanted to pass along that Marcus Sakey gave an awesome interview on our site on Monday. He was really funny, easy to listen to, and very insightful about quite a lot of unexpected things. Sort of Yoda or Zen insightful. Great interview, archived on blogtalkradio’s Coffee with an Author and on the home page for Ijustfinished.com.

By: Marcus Sakey

Marcus Sakey — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:01:25 +0000

Joe, you actually just made me spit water on my keyboard. And thus our rivalry deepens… ;)

Thanks for the good wishes, brother. Nice to “meet” at last.

And Clay, thanks! Hope you enjoy.

By: Joe Abercrombie

Joe Abercrombie — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:03:20 +0000

Marcus,

We meet at last.

I’m very glad you enjoyed the REAL Blade Itself. I must send you an ARC of my latest effort, in which an unloved orphan discovers he is actually a powerful wizard responsible for saving the world.

It is called: “At the Edge of the City.”

Sometimes I don’t know where the ideas come from…

Best of luck with the new book, man.

By: Clay

Clay — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:39:28 +0000

I liked the sample on your website enough to add your books to my wish list. I also dug your “read this suckas” list, you managed to make a few sales for some other authors. Love me some book pimpage.

By: Hobbyns

Hobbyns — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:12:00 +0000

I’m in the same boat with the name confusion, but it’s cool–I have two more books on my “must read” list, that just happen to have the same name. And it’s a very cool name, I might add.

Thanks, Marcus, for the post!

By: Shane White

Shane White — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 02:05:42 +0000

Marcus,
I assume the other book of the same name is the one by Joe Abercrombie. I agree – it’s very good. Now I have to read yours.

By: Marcus Sakey

Marcus Sakey — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 01:46:09 +0000

Hey folks! Thanks for reading, and thanks to John for having me.

I found it hysterical–and deeply odd–that there was another book named THE BLADE ITSELF released about the same time. The title is a reference to a Homer quote, so it’s that we have the same weird brain. Hopefully not too many people were confused, but the other TBI is very good, so even if they chose the book they didn’t mean, they didn’t lose.

Aplomb, thanks very much for the kind words–much appreciated.

Rembrant, you got it–at least for me. I do keep waiting for that perfectly formed story idea to land in my lap, but so far, no go.

Mark, thanks! You doing any cons this year?

Matthew, I hear that, brother. Funny thing is that once I do figure out what I’m trying to say, it’s really helpful to reduce it to a one-sentence pitch–it clarifies my thought process. For example, the one-liner for this one is, “A discharged soldier returns from Iraq to find a similar war raging in his Chicago neighborhood.”

The getting there, well, that took awhile.

Cheers all, and thanks again.

By: Matthew Kirby

Matthew Kirby — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:05:42 +0000

I like what Sakey says about the a-ha big ideas. My favorite books and movies defy the one-sentence hollywood pitch. To borrow a line from the intelligent design crowd, they have an irreducible complexity. When I try to summarize my favorites to recommend them to friends, I usually end up frustrated, telling them, “you just have to read it, ok?”

By: Adam Lipkin

Adam Lipkin — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:39:52 +0000

Unlike Aplomb, I’d never heard of Sakey’s book with this title, and thought that Scalzi had really misspelled “Joe Abercrombie” (especially since I just put the second book by Abercrombie on my wishlist today).

By: Rembrant

Rembrant — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 18:10:17 +0000

Sounds like Mr. Sakey is of the Edison school of thought. “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”