New Tad Williams Interview: details about The Witchwood Crown

Tad Williams, author of the classic Memory, Sorrow and Thorn fantasy series as well as the upcoming Heart of Regret and The Witchwood Crown sequels, all set in the world of Osten Ard, was interviewed by British publisher Hodder Books this week. The full podcast interview runs just under 12 minutes, below. The Osten Ard part of the interview begins at 2:58. (The interview contains some minor spoilers for The Witchwood Crown, including some basic plot details, as well as major spoilers for Memory, Sorrow and Thorn).

The character of Simon Snowlock is based at least partially on Tad Williams' younger brothers, according to Williams' latest interview.

The character of Simon Snowlock is based at least partially on Tad Williams’ younger brothers, according to Williams’ latest interview.

Williams reveals several tidbits during this interview. The first is that his character Simon Snowlock, the main protagonist of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, was modeled on his younger brothers. He also states that some fact-checking has been done on The Witchwood Crown, to make sure there are no conflicts with the original text.

The tentative dates for publication of the upcoming Osten Ard books are late 2016 for Heart of Regret and early 2017 for The Witchwood Crown. Subsequent volumes set in the same universe, titled Empire of Grass, The Navigator’s Children, and a fifth, as yet unnamed volume, will be published  sometime thereafter.

Williams also reveals some details about his Bobby Dollar books (at 0:20 in the interview), and also discusses Tailchaser’s Song, his first novel (at 9:40).

New covers for British “Memory, Sorrow and Thorn”

Hodder Books announced last week that Tad Williams‘ classic “Memory, Sorrow and Thorn” series, as well as Tailchaser’s Song, will be getting new cover art.

The new black and white cover art was created by Ben Summers (who previously created the cover art for the UK edition of Sleeping Late on Judgement Day). The cover art includes only one cover for To Green Angel Tower, so it seems as though publication of To Green Angel Tower will be in one volume instead of two.

The new “Memory, Sorrow and Thorn” covers appear to show the fabled chair of dragon’s bones (book one), Binabik’s wolf companion Qantaqa (book two), and a vulture (book three).

Along with the announcement was word that Hodder will publish e-books of the classic series, which will go on sale on August 6th of this year:

The Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series will be available (for the first time ever in the UK) as ebooks from August 6th and Tailchaser’s Song will be available in print and as an ebook on August 20th. And don’t forget – we’ll be publishing the the first sequel to Memory, Sorrow and Thorn next year…

It is hoped that the e-books will contain fewer mistakes than the current US e-books, which are riddled with typos.

After the release of “Memory, Sorrow and Thorn” and Tailchaser’s Song, Hodder is set to release The Witchwood Crown, volume one of “The Last King of Osten Ard“, a sequel series to Williams’ beloved original series. The Witchwood Crown is scheduled for a Spring 2016 release date.