There is nothing that infuriates us readers so much as a great author who quits and we don’t know why! Back in 2004 Roc published Lorna Freeeman’s first book in the Borderlands series, Covenants. It was great fantay, I loved it and waited eagerly for the next book, which arrived in 2006, The King’s Own. There was a long gap after that, a miserable four years, before we saw Shadows Past. But almost as soon as that was being read we were seeing that The Reckoning Flame was the next – except that while it may have been intended, mentioned, listed as that, it’s never appeared. The Lorna Freeman blogsite was last updated right at the start of 2011 and no more posts. Inquiries by a number of readers both to ROC and elsewhere have received no informative response.
We are left hanging, we don’t know if Lorna Freeman has died (under another name) has been struck for the past four years by terminal writer’s block, or if for some incomprehensible reason, ROC decided not to publish her next book, and don’t want to bring down the wrath of her devoted readers by admitting it. All we know is that book four has not been forthcoming and WE DON’T APPRECIATE IT! If anyone has any information on this, I’d love to know, because I bought her first book when it appeared, bought the next two, want to buy the fourth… fifth, sixth, seventh, ad infinitum. I love the books, the characters and the background. And I’m deprived. Anyone out there know anything?
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Finally I’ve found someone who is asking the same questions I want an answer to. I’ve ended up buying extra paperback copies of Lorna’s first two books, because I’ve read them so often that the pages are coming out of the binding. And why is the third book the only one available for the Kindle?? Sure would like to know what is going on!
Author
How true. A friend loved her first book and bought me a copy when it originally appeared. I bought the next two having loved book one. Book three took twice as long as promised to appear, and I wonder if perhaps her publishers weren’t putting too much pressure on her so that she choked? The next book has been promised a long time with nothing seen and I have a nasty feeling that we may never see it. That the three books could be it. I plan to ask about, and see if she can be contacted in some way. But I don’t have high hopes.
I just wish we knew what happened. I love the first three books and have been hoping that book four would come along eventually (especially since there’s a bit of a cliffhanger) but there’s no real reliable way to find out if the author gave up or died or what. I think Roc still has her on the books as one of their authors, but I’m not sure that means an awful lot. The more time passes the less likely it is that we’ll see another book, but hope is a nagging, stubborn thing. If three is all we’re going to get I wish someone would tell us so we can stop worrying and hoping.
I’ll “4th” these comments. I love the characters and the series. What’s with all three existing books being published in e-format in German but not English??? I’d love to see the 4th book. And the 1st and the 2nd in e-format (I’m converting my library due to space limitations.) In the meantime, I’ll keep my paper copies of the first 3. A wonderful, humorous, detailed world. Different. We want more!!! (And please, if anyone finds out why the delays, pass it on!) In case it is “publisher related” – keep searching Lorna Freeman on the bookstore websites, and hitting the “I want this on my Nook” button (or equivalent for Amazon). Maybe they’ll notice….
Author
Last week I had another trawl through google to see if I could find any updates on the possible fourth book. It’s clear from the authors own blog over 2010 and the very beginning of 2011, that she had begun this book. In early 2010 she said on her blog that
“The Reckoning Flames is coming along—Rabbit has found himself in a predicament and it’ll be interesting to see how it resolves. While I generally know a story’s beginning and end, the middle is a wild, uncharted terrority with the plots taking twists and turns that surprise even me. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the best part of writing—having your characters come alive and shock the heck out of you.”
With another comment nearly a year later indicating the book was progressing, suggesting to me that somewhere out there is most of the book written and an outline for the work in its entirety. If the author has died, perhaps her estate could be approached by the publisher to obtain rights for another author to complete this work at least. I’m not suggesting myself, (I don’t write in that style and wouldn’t be suitable) but I wrote seven books in two of Andre’s worlds with which she was happy, and I’m sure there are other authors out there who could do a good job in the Borderlands Universe.
The big question really is what has happened to Lorna Freeman? It may be that Lorna Freeman is in reality someone else, which could explain why if she died, no one in the SF community has heard about it. (No, I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but with this much deafening silence for comning up four years you can’t help wondering.) Again, if anyone out there can shed any light on this, we’d all love to hear.
Thank you, Ms McConchie, for bringing this up. I, to, have missed Ms. Freeman’s wonderful stories. I think I will write to ROC and ask what has become of the fourth book. I hope others will do the same.
I feel like repeating the comment from #1, Finally someone asking the same questions!
I too have muddled over what the cause of this now 4 year total loss of contact with Ms Freeman could be. I bought and followed her books and then blog as they came out, and as I posted on her blog (after waiting years and finally creating an account with which to do so) from the tone of her blog posts it did not sound like someone struggling and ready to give up on her craft. She was self-admittedly wanting to have more contact with her fans via the blog itself, and exploring the 4th story as it unfolded before her, etc etc.
Her third installment did take an exponential amount of time to release compared to the second, and both sequels seemed to suffer from publishing ‘weirdness’ for lack of a better term, both in terms of tracking down a copy and when the release dates actually were. It stands to reason there are 3 potential answers to our question:
Lorna Freeman was an assumed pen name and the author passed away, leaving little to no way of confirmation.
She quit her profession mid-book and refuses to make any contact with the world at large.
Or she has encountered yet more publishing ‘weirdness’ and the book will not be released due to them having the rights or somesuch nonsense. Even if this was the case, however, one wouldn’t think she would just disappear without a trace…
Sorry if this is a little rambling… just happy(?) to have found another venue dealing with this subject.
Author
Hi Skylin,
tell me about it! I emailed the publisher a couple of times – no response. Either they don’t know what’s happening either, or don’t want to say. I continue to keep an eye open for any info, and will post it if any comes to hand, but so far it’s a black mystery.
Thank you for posting this. I’ve been wondering and worrying too. While we readers can be sometimes greedy and demanding, but we do also care about our favourite authors – it’s like we are somehow part of their world through the books that we love so much. I too, would love to hear some word about her – not just the next book – but also if all is okay, and to convey a huge appreciation for all the awesome Borderlands series.
I’ve just tried contacting Roc via Facebook and twitter to see if I get any response.
Author
well, if you get a response, please let me and everyone else know, because I’ve never been able to.
No response so far and I chased today.
She mentioned on her blog that she plays MMORPGs — maybe she’s just living in someone else’s fantasy world instead of her own for a while?
I’m adding my email to your notification list as I love the books and have searched for info on her for years. It’s good to know others are searching too. I’ve also been requesting ebook versions as I need larger fonts these days to read comfortably.
Hi, Lyn,
Am thirding or fourthing the sentiments above about “Finally…”! I also have been hoping for another book or 1200, as I love the characters and the world and the scope of it. I would love to follow Rabbit’s journey until he and his friends reach doddering old age! I picked up the first book when it was first released in 2004, was hooked, and have snapped up each sequel as soon it hit store shelves (and pre-ordered the last 2, just to be sure I’d get one!).
I am also concerned and would love to just know whether she is alright and just side-lined, having publisher’s issues or … I have also contacted the publisher (some time ago, 2012 or thereabouts) by email and got an automated response about the 3 existing books, but no further info.
I have attempted to find out who Ms. Freeman’s agent was/is, thinking that he/she would possibly be able to give some insight, but cannot locate that anywhere. She mentions her agent in her thank you’s in the first book, (I believe, I need to double check) but no names. I just really would like to know what is happening.
There are many fantasy worlds that I would love to visit, but Middle Earth, Witch World, Discworld, Valdemar, and Iversterre (in the order that I discovered them) are the ones where I would like to apply for citizenship!
Thank you for this. Oh, and by the way, any chance of a sequel to Questing Road? Just asking……
Author
Hi Peg, it’s a black mystery as the Scots say. I’m currently contemplating phoning the publisher and seeing if I can talk to the editor who dealt with the author’s work. It may be that Roc is worried that telling us readers why there have been no more books will be damaging to them in some way. It may be that if the author has died, they are afraid that knowing there’ll be no more books will get around and many who are buying the first three will cease buying. But I (and a really long list of others out there) would like to know, and things never stay a secret for ever. Sooner or later one of us will find out.
Hi, Lyn, I canna help but agree! I’ve double-checked the books against my memory and the memory was, indeed, amiss… No agent mentioned, but a Tod who is listed as mentor, friend , etc. (My memory has again slipped a cog and misplaced his last name, I’m afraid, have to check again and write it down.). It would be a wonderful thing if they’d acknowledge her, at the very least. An unfortunate fact of human nature is that an author’s passing usually has the opposite effect to what they fear, so the real irony of that particular worry would be that as they only list the 3rd book, and don’t acknowledge Ms. Freeman as an author at all on the website, and the other 2 are only available used, or via Amazon, they would make nothing nor lose nothing by open disclosure. Another possibility is that their silence is due to a contract dispute of some sort, which might very well do them harm, whatever the author’s status is. I agree, tho, no secret can stay one for long, if more than 2 people know it! If we persevere, we will find it. Thanks again for this and for your response. I’d love to hear what happens if you decide to attempt contacting the editor!
So glad I’ve found this post and thread! I’ve been going nuts trying to find out what’s happened to Ms Freeman. I also emailed ROC about a year ago and got a standard response about not giving out author’s information due to privacy.
Is there something we can do as a group to help uncover the mystery?
Author
we can keep asking, find others who’d like to know and have them keep asking. Few authors operate in a complete vacumn. Someone somewhere will know that their friend is also the author ‘Lorna Freeman.’ If she did die, they won’t see the harm in telling us. If she didn’t they may also be happy to at least tell us she’s alive. Privacy laws are both a pain, and a shield, and while I don’t want to know details, I would like to know if there’s any chance of more books in the series. I don’t have to know who the author really is if she writes under a pseudonym, just that there will or won’t be additions to the series. And if she did die, it’d be useful to know because it makes it clear the series is ended – unless she has died, ROC has it in mind to ring in another author under the pseudonym and doesn’t want us to know that! All this secrecy is, I know, starting to make a number of Lorna Freeman fans wonder if there isn’t something ‘sneaky’ being planned. Anyway, let’s all keep asking, and sooner or later it’s likely we’ll strike paydirt.
Please keep digging, I love these books and hope the next book will be published
Author
Oh yes, I plan to. And if I can ever remember one early morning, (because I’m not at my best then for remembering things) I plan to phone ROC and ask in person. That may or may not get a useful/informative response, but I’ll know (and report back) that I tried.
Also hope to find out. Thanks for this thread!
I recently stumbled upon the Borderlands series, reading “The King’s Own” out of sequence, as the copy of “Covenants” is not longer available in our library system (worn out?). What a great and pleasant surprise to find such vibrant characters and witty writing. And now it looks like once I finish “Shadows Past” I’m not going to find anything more about Rabbit and his fellows. Thanks for following up on the search for Lorna Freeman, Lyn. I hope you find good news (about her and the series) at the end of your search.
I’m wondering if the folks at Locus Magazine might know something, or have a back issue with the agent’s name. I too love her books, and periodically search to see if anything new has been posted. All 3 are phenomenal for any age. They deserve at the least to be reprinted, assuming rights are clear, as ebooks. If only there were more…. Publishers, I’d make the purchase. If you remarket to the Juv market, you may have an even bigger hit on your hands! Not a fantasy, but I recommend reading Kipling’s Kim while we wait this out. Some aspects of Freeman’s title reminded me very strongly of that title, or perhaps Robin McKinley.
Craving word on the next book. Keep sluthing.
I’m also a big fan of Ms. Freeman’s Borderlands series. As an author myself, I’d hate to leave my fans wondering what happened to me. I fear that the fact that she appears to have dropped off of the face of the globe for such a long period of time isn’t a positive sign. I do hope that she is well, no matter her plans to continue writing/publishing her work(s). The publishing industry is in such a volatile flux today, so who can say for certain what might have transpired on the “business side†of this issue? Nevertheless, as a great admirer of her writing style and vivid characters, I hope that we might one day see the appearance of additional works by her, if only to bring Rabbit’s adventures to a satisfying close. Hang in there, fellow fans. Life is truly stranger than fiction. Best wishes to Lorna Freeman wherever she might be!
Author
I do plan to keep sleuthing, and keep hoping. But with all contact cut since 2011, I’m beginning to think that she may have died under a ‘real’ name. I’m between books myself this week, so intend to spend some time going on line to various sites and asking if anyone knows anything at all about her.
Since the publisher will not give the courtesy of any response, I believe they are involved in some negative way. How rude!
Author
that’s possible, but then again it could be panic over privacy. As in, if we say anything at all about this author, she could sue us. Even if we merely say she died, under her real name, we could end up with hundreds of emails demanding to know her real name which we couldn’t give out. Better to sit tight and say nothing. Except that in doing so they are infuriating an increasingly long list of Freeman fans who are feel they’re being left hanging. In fact I don’t believe IF the author has died under a different name that it breaches privacy to simply say that. But ROC’s lawyers may feel differently. Sigh.
I’m inclined to think it’s over-caution caused by this sue-happy era we inhabit. At least, I hope so. Thanks, Lyn, for carrying on, both with the search and writing excellent books to keep us going while you do!
Oh, M(r)s Freeman is a real person, she is on facebook though that also has not been updated in forever and a day.
https://www.facebook.com/lorna.freeman.9?fref=ts
I can only imagine that life has interfered as it often does :/
“Lorna Freeman” I missed you guys too. I’m so happy to have a working computer again.
And I’m glad you enjoyed the book I’m about 2/3 through the first draft on book 4, The Reckoning Flames.
March 20, 2010 at 3:28pm · Like
Author
Quite possible – meanwhile I have been pointed to a Lorna Freeman website https://www.facebook.com/lorna.freeman.9?fref=ts However i would advise caution. On checking I found the following which raises alarm bells about about how genuine it may be…Photos wouldn’t load, “chat” promptly disconnected after initially claiming 26 people were chatting, nothing listed under ‘about’, no profile picture and no one whose name I recognized on the friends list.
(Which with 74 friends is unusual, I normally find that any SF/F writer and I have a known person or two in common, since I too write SF/F and also Andre Norton was an old friend and introduced me to many other people in the genre when I stayed with her at various times over a number of years.) It is also odd that a writer that is so popular and her books so much loved, would have only 74 friends listed. I would expect unless she (as I do) confines her friends list to only those she really does know, she would have far more.
If anyone else can tease more out of the site than I can please let us know. I tend to the mildly technoilliterate and living in a rural fastness as I do, I am on dailup so some sites can appear blank because they take forever to load on my system. Alternatively if any of you know one of the people listed as “friends” on the site, can you approach them and ask if that is true, but be very wary. I’m not sure the site rings true and I don’t want anyone boobytrapped.
I went in and did a little recon of her friends list (my FB is such a mess already that trolls would be hard pressed to find anything anyway!) and noticed that among her friends are at least 2 names that match those of her sisters (from one of the book’s dedication page) as well as a match for the man she mentions as her mentor/writing coach for the first 2 books, Tod Goldberg. So, could be? Unfortunately, no one I know on there. :-( Since the last posts were shortly before she went ‘radio silent’ on her website (sept 9, 2010), it actually fits with either the worst happening or that’s she’s just chosen the “Garbo Option” and has made the FB site private with very restricted public access. I will check the dedications page list of her siblings and see if it matches any others than those 2. BTW, I found it interesting that one post from 3/2/2010 mentions that she is 2/3’s of the way thru the first draft of book 4. And there’s an odd post that shows that it (the post) went public on September 11, 2014. Just a stylized icon of an infant with a hyperlink “Born” underneath, but the link doesn’t go anywhere; clicking it only reveals the above date and the globe symbol for went public. Checking the site found more mysteries than it solved, I’m afraid. Anyone have any insight?
I am also a huge fan of the series. When I noticed she joined facebook I sent a friend request that was accepted. I posted on her page how much I liked the books and she responded to me. Around the time she stopped blogging she also stopped posting to her fb page. Recently someone posted a bunch of pictures and tagged her in them. I am optimistic that she hasn’t passed away because When her last birthday passed there were only wishes nothing that said missed you etc. I hope she publishes the book soon.
Author
that’s a great job, I wonder if contacting any of her friends might bring a response, not anything intrusive, just an affirmation that she IS alive, and that we are going to see the next book sometime. (a timeline for that would be even better but not essential.)
Author
I had wondered if I could learn more by joining her friends on Fb, but if she hasn’t posted there either for years, probably not. As for photos recently posted, the question is, were they taken recently?
I’m wondering if there’s someone in SFWA, since she was published by ROC, that could help to get the word to “Lorna Freeman” that her fans are concerned for her well being and support her art, and that we would all love to hear from her — if only to let us know she’s okay and to give us the good or bad news on the status of her series.
I’ve reached out to some of the folks in SFWA that I know, but nothing yet. Lorna, could you please update your page? And if you are a gestalt, could one of you post?
It’s a longshot, but I wonder if the person that did the cover art might know anything. They would likely commission a new image for a coming title if it was on final drafts. Was that ever done?
Author
It’s a good idea, but the last info posted on that book said it wasn’t more than 2/3rds done in first draft. It’s unlikely an artist would have been commissioned so early. My experience has been that publishers don’t usually look for an artist until the ms has been turned in, and sometimes not until after the revision has also been completed and a publication date scheduled. But asking around the SFWA is a great idea.
Just wanted to say thanks for looking into this! =)
I’d be willing to try a friend request, just to see what the result is. I didn’t find any recent photos, so they must be friends only. I agree that the artist wouldn’t have been contacted as yet. That said, the same artist has done all 3 of her previous covers, so may have a closer relationship that most…. just a thought. Unfortunately, I don’t have any contacts with SFWA. Would love to hear what happens if anyone contacts them!
I really like Lorna Freeman’s books about Rabbit and every once in awhile I try to google some news about her series. There isn’t anything new though.
It’s nice to know that there are more readers like me out there who are waiting to read more of her stories. I hope there is going to be some good news about her soon.
Author
So do we all, Angelika, unfortunately what we’re getting is no news. And I can add to that as of last night when my copy of the SFWA author directory arrived. I read through the listings and no, no Lorna Freeman. That could mean one of two things, either she didn’t join, or she is under another name. But I would have thought she’d belong.
Periodically I take my Rabbit books off the shelf and reread them. Then I Google Lorna Freeman’s name and sigh in disappointment when I find no new posts or web sites. I, too, would love to know what happened to this talented author.
Author
a steadily increasing number of us would like to know what happened to Lorna Freeman. It surprises me that it’s so hard to discover this. Plenty of writers use a pseudonym, (if that’s what she did) but normally someone knows who they are – or were – in reality, and that gets out sometime. In this case, it remains a case of my original question. And we don’t know if she is ‘dead’ ‘blocked’ or what?
I did do a FB friend request a month ago and still haven’t gotten any kind of response. Any ideas on anything else to try?
At the least, Roc should release the Kindle versions of the first 2 :(.
Author
yes, but that won’t get us a new book, just probably a LOT more Freeman enthusiasts wanting to know what happened.
Author
What might help is knowing who her editor was at Roc. If so then it is possible one of my friends may have that editor and I could approach the editor through them.
I love these books but sometimes I do not like reading them because then I get upset that there is no resolution and no new books coming out. Just a simple tweet, or Facebook message, or blog update saying that she is on this earth would be nice.