tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post2813882673585462909..comments2023-10-25T03:40:54.655-07:00Comments on Neth Space: Who Is K.J. Parker?Nethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16963540055415924510noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-26639456941307655252014-12-19T20:52:14.548-07:002014-12-19T20:52:14.548-07:00I heard a friend mention that he thought KJ Parker...I heard a friend mention that he thought KJ Parker was Scott Lynch which to me was ludicrous (totally different styles)!but then reading the introduction to Scott Lynch's story in the Rogues anthology I read that he was married to Elizabeth Bear and the light went on....a Lynch/Bear collaboration?elbrucehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14121189104892003882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-83115185742530946212014-09-26T17:59:21.852-07:002014-09-26T17:59:21.852-07:00Addendum: I also think it's very likely indee...Addendum: I also think it's very likely indeed that Parker belongs or has belonged to the Society for Creative Anachronism and/or a British equivalent. In the essay on swords, for example, there is a very typical reenactor attitude that actually using equipment always triumphs over purely academic study. It also explains why she personally knows blacksmiths--reenactor groups often gather together individuals with obscure historic pastimes for which there is little room in mainstream society. From my observation, also, the reenactment groups for pre-20th-century cultures are often at least somewhat prejudiced against female members involving themselves in "male" interests (such as sword manufacture) on the grounds that it "isn't period." This might be one reason for the pseudonym.Frances Grimblehttp://www.lavoltapress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-39718406062571906982014-09-26T17:48:44.304-07:002014-09-26T17:48:44.304-07:00I think J. K Parker is female because Subterranean...I think J. K Parker is female because Subterranean Press fairly recently let slip and referred to the author as "she" in a news post. I also see no need for Parker to be the same person as any author we already know of. Especially since she is fairly prolific and how much publishable work can the average author manage to write?Frances Grimblehttp://www.lavoltapress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-11828188057229735822014-03-05T20:30:13.435-07:002014-03-05T20:30:13.435-07:00So now I'm reading Coetzee's Waiting for t...So now I'm reading Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians, and woowee is Parker almost dead on with JMC's tone and settings... Seems improbable, but. You can see why a Nobel Prize winner might want to make only limited forays into "fantasy" writing (JMC verges quite a bit). and maybe hide his or her more genre-specific efforts. Of course, then you'd have to throw out the "bio" info we supposedly have about KJP. JMC attended school in both the UK and the US, btw. <br />Claudia Putnamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17578341858018837436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-68573639641527512212013-08-27T10:02:33.805-07:002013-08-27T10:02:33.805-07:00K j Parker's style is not totally dissimilar t...K j Parker's style is not totally dissimilar to Thomas Holt (Tom Holt's historical fiction alterego ego)... But very different to comic fiction Tom Holt.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-77269352039055998392013-06-11T17:28:35.498-07:002013-06-11T17:28:35.498-07:00I've always thought she was female. Otherwise ...I've always thought she was female. Otherwise why bother with the pseudonym? The books are so male--it would be no surprise if a male wrote it, but the fact that they've kept this secret for so long to me says that the wow factor has to do with a female writing such ruthlessly tactical, war-oriented books that focus so much on male camaraderie and rivalries. It's not surprising to me or to other women writers, perhaps, but...usually a female writer would throw in a romance or two, such as with Mary Stewart and the Arthurian trilogy. But these books don't have that, or at least the several I've read haven't. So I'm with the person who said it's a military historian... I agree, but it doesn't have to be a male historian on the grounds that most military historians are male--she might be an amateur, or someone who studied ancient Greece and Rome in college. It could be some political campaign manager who studied Rome in college... You just need to understand tactics and men. I think the JKR theory probably derives from similarities in plotting, rather than in writing styles. Both writers have a huge grasp of a complicated world, and it's clear that JKR knows a little about tactical thinking and also about history/classic literature. I don't think they're the same person, but I entertained the idea for a while (also, I really don't think someone had time to write both--JKR struggled as it was to finish the HP books). Stephen King isn't as tight a writer as Parker is. <br /><br />Anyhow, I don't have an idea who this might be, don't know enough of "the genre." But. As far as fantasy goes, this is fantasy like Octavia Butler, or Ursula LeGuin... or guess who, whosiwhats, the Game of Thrones guy. Though again, he is much more bloated as a writer. Anyhow, it's not high fantasy, just a change of geography and dates for the author's convenience. It might as well be Rome, IMO, and sometimes I wonder why it's not, except to get around the "historical fiction" label (hey, what about Robert Harris? If it's male. He knows that world and isn't SO prolific he couldn't possibly get it done. Or someone else along those lines, the lines of IF Stone and Irving Stone, but obviously they're dead) and also to avoid the hassle of making things historically exact. Claudia Putnamhttp://www.claudiaputnam.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-61858091846076634502013-04-26T23:32:34.924-07:002013-04-26T23:32:34.924-07:00No clue who he/she is but very much looking forwar...No clue who he/she is but very much looking forward to the next book from him/her.<br /><br />One thing noted between reading the Fencer trilogy and the more recent Engineer trilogy + The Company is that his/her writing style seems to have become a lot less onerous in the newer works...OOPManhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16297690248050589689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-62499933806913482682013-03-21T18:08:35.855-07:002013-03-21T18:08:35.855-07:00I guess we will never know untill she or he, or ev...I guess we will never know untill she or he, or even they tell us.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11998145771213574655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-2671735692200229042012-09-03T14:25:01.950-07:002012-09-03T14:25:01.950-07:00Neal Stephenson. When I read Parker's first no...Neal Stephenson. When I read Parker's first novel, I immediately couldn't help but think it was Stephenson.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-26743713411467575612012-04-21T05:41:17.914-07:002012-04-21T05:41:17.914-07:00I loved this whole article, after randomly stumbli...I loved this whole article, after randomly stumbling across it in a search for more info.<br /><br />I find it hard to believe that Parker is Holt, Salvatore, or god help us, Rowling, mostly due to instinctive feelings on writing styles, but I could be loosely open to the possibility.<br /><br />I am, however, highly intrigued by the analysis "her" being TH's wife. After all, there is still some stigma in literature, arts and the media about playing off a friend or spouse's name, and it could have been a deliberate choice from the outset to let the novels stand on their own feet, without connotations from a shared surname and so on.<br /><br />I suspect this is a mystery I may come back to time and time again until it's solved, as a rabid fan of all the books, but I can't offer much additional thought at the time.<br /><br />However, the worlds of law and independent coin dealing are sometime suprisingly small, especially the latter, and I wonder how hard it would be to find a crossover name, particularly combined with the blacksmithing clues, and other details. For that matter, there can't be that a particularly large number of blacksmithing courses around, can there?<br /><br />I doubt the internet has all the answers, but at the risk of sounding a little stalkerish, some real life leg work might pay dividends in solving the mystery.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-40811138628222346592012-04-02T03:51:34.024-07:002012-04-02T03:51:34.024-07:00Knowing absolutely nothing about this; here is my ...Knowing absolutely nothing about this; here is my guess.<br /><br />KJ Parker is two people, male and female, and possibly even husband and wife. KJ could even be their initials. Kevin and Jessica.One if probably European the other American, which would explain why KJ Parker understand both American and European idioms.<br /><br />KJ Parker is a hobby while one work/worked as a lawyer. The other half, probably the male is the author; however, he is not a genre writer. <br /><br />He would want to keep his identity secret because he feels that fantasy would discredit his other main work. Possibly a writer of children's books, but I'm guessing that he's a military historian (why I think he's a male*), or a biographer. After all, who would want their biography written by a fantasy author? A historian would also have a wealth of information from the topic he would be researching, so they could, hypothetically, have 5 or 6 different outlines for a book a year.<br /><br />In the end, my guess is, European Lawyer marries American military historian.<br /><br />*Not aware of too many female military historians.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-54444457103064318982012-04-01T04:04:10.372-07:002012-04-01T04:04:10.372-07:00On french blurbs, KJ Parker is described as some s...On french blurbs, KJ Parker is described as some sort of lawyer. It also says that she is a woman. I'm not sure if it's totaly reliable but anyway.Antoinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14236916281965182442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-17652940898559330362012-03-31T11:16:18.460-07:002012-03-31T11:16:18.460-07:00Salvatore has discussed wanting to write outside o...Salvatore has discussed wanting to write outside of genre under a pseudonym and has hinted at possibly having done so already. So K.J. Parker would be out unless one considers the work non-genre.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16504273309594020933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-12300296878430181622012-03-31T07:28:46.096-07:002012-03-31T07:28:46.096-07:00John Twelve Hawks! God, I had forgotten about all ...John Twelve Hawks! God, I had forgotten about all that silliness.<br /><br />I'm familiar with Holt's work, but I don't find his stuff convincing one way or the other - I think his fiction reads like someone completely different to Parker and his non-fiction (book reviews) as quite Parkerian. (Parkerlike?)<br /><br />Honestly, the Mrs. Tom Holt theory makes a lot of sense, but I still think Parker published under another name somewhere (and not as Tom Holt). <br /><br />The whole "masculine/feminine" writing style is an enormous red herring. See: James Tiptree Jr. <br /><br />I find absolutely no similarities at ALL between Parker's style and that of King, Bakker, Salvatore or Lawrence. Or Rowling, for that matter. (Although the insane Rowling theory is [slightly] aided by Rowling's new deal with Little, Brown... but no.)Jaredhttp://www.pornokitsch.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-21789359118652921612012-03-31T06:22:18.513-07:002012-03-31T06:22:18.513-07:00Oh yeah, she's almost certainly female because...Oh yeah, she's almost certainly female because of an old interview on the Orbit website (since removed) where she talks about being a 'tomboy' and playing with toy swords rather than dolls houses. <br /><br />However, the possibility that Parker is a man was refloated last year when Orbit started using a new author bio that says 'he'. And the theory is that the issue has to remain a mystery because there would likely be a strong and angry backlash about a male writer using a female pseudonym and pretending to be female.<br /><br />I think Orbit actually did that to further the mystery (which is actually a marketing tactic as well, like that American author who has a Native American pen-name - which I forget at the moment - and who sends minions to book signings for him). Mrs. Holt remains my guess.Adam Whiteheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11383677312079611311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-62821978749752317212012-03-31T06:17:17.510-07:002012-03-31T06:17:17.510-07:00I'm familiar with Tom Holt's reviews and o...I'm familiar with Tom Holt's reviews and occasional articles in SFX Magazine, but not his novels.<br /><br />I am also strongly of the opinion that she is very likely Mrs. Tom Holt, or at least that is the most likely possibility, and that she has probably (under a totally different name) written in another genre where the revelation would be a surprise.<br /><br />I've also been told by Orbit reps (whilst they were laughing about it) that she's not JK Rowling :-)<br /><br />I doubt very much Parker is Salvatore on the grounds that Salvatore hasn't written a good book since about 1994. If Salvatore could write as well as Parker, why not use those skills to improve his Drizzt fiction or other books? Is a frustration at not being able to swear or use sex really responsible for Salvatore's FORGOTTEN REALMS work sucking continuously for 18 years? I doubt it. And having read 4 Parkers and about a dozen Salvatores, their writing styles are completely and totally different.<br /><br />Another issue with the theory that Parker is either Holt or Salvatore is that they are both very prolific authors. It seems unlikely they'd have time to thrown in a Parker novel and novella on a near-annual basis as well.Adam Whiteheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11383677312079611311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-24459376678267312372012-03-31T06:10:57.323-07:002012-03-31T06:10:57.323-07:00Yes, I know next to nothing about Tom Holt other t...Yes, I know next to nothing about Tom Holt other than he's a dude who writes.Justinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18030992882575439420noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-80092896948357860252012-03-31T04:56:48.135-07:002012-03-31T04:56:48.135-07:00@Jared
Well, my theory includes the possibility t...@Jared<br /><br />Well, my theory includes the possibility that K.J. Parker does also write under the name of Tom Holt. (More about that below.)<br /><br />@Cursed Amanda<br /><br />I have only read The Folding Knife by Parker, but I wouldn't say that that was typical male writing. It looks very typical of someone who has read a lot of history, but other than that I'd say it was gender nautral.<br /><br />I did however find that some of the twelve Holt books I have read seem to have had some feminine input. <br />In fact I started reading Holt before I was online, and because of the Kim Holt byline on the copyright pages, I was actually entertaining the possibility that Tom Holt was the pseudonym of Kim Holt.<br /><br />-<br />I'm not sure here, but it seems that I am the only one in this discussion that is familiar with Tom Holt's books. Am I right about that?Weirdmagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10999326013335351617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-63635152033356397072012-03-31T01:55:02.155-07:002012-03-31T01:55:02.155-07:00@Cursed: We've got some signed Parker around a...@Cursed: We've got some signed Parker around as well, but I'm not getting the masculine (or feminine) vibe from the signature. Better handwriting than mine, at least!<br /><br />@Justin: Hey! At least I didn't choose one of the two authors that KJP explicitly said he/she <i>wasn't</i>. I'm cautious. I really like Ole's work, although I do still hold to my KJP writes under another name theory, meaning we'd have to find that Mrs. Tom Holt had published elsewhere. Unless Tom Holt is married to R.A. Salavatore.Jaredhttp://www.pornokitsch.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-66381191006704944802012-03-30T13:36:42.229-07:002012-03-30T13:36:42.229-07:00Okay as to K.J. Parker's sex I'm gonna go ...Okay as to K.J. Parker's sex I'm gonna go with male for sure. 2 Reasons for this: I have a signed copy of Purple and Black and the signature HAS to be male... Secondly Parker's writing is very military-esque and it's just a gut feeling that I think Parker is a male. <br /><br />Now if I had to guess on who is K.J. Parker??? I'm gonna go with either Stephen King, R. Scott Bakker, or Mark Lawrence. <br /><br />BTW the idea that Parker is actually R.A. Salvatore is straight blasphemy lol.Cursed Armadahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11231771423272385479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17224228.post-87869207713190116382012-03-30T13:07:35.105-07:002012-03-30T13:07:35.105-07:00Have to give the Ole some credit. That's a fin...Have to give the Ole some credit. That's a fine guess. Hey Jared, way to go out on a limb there buddy...Justinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18030992882575439420noreply@blogger.com