Monthly Archives: November 2012

November 25, 2012 · 3:33 pm

Writing tip: Bring a gun to a knife fight

Sometimes, you just have to throw down.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we had occasion to drive past Philadelphia and reminisce about eating at City Tavern, a very old establishment with excellent food and a ton of Colonial ambiance. As we drove, my wife asked whether eating there resulted in anything that contributed to The Daedalus Incident.

It did, actually. I found a lot of inspiration in Philadelphia, as you can see in this blog post. And there was a point in time when The Daedalus Incident featured a scene set at dinner in City Tavern itself.

That scene was cut early on, and I’m not sorry it went. Without giving too much of the story away, here’s why.

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LIVE on Blog Talk Radio tonight!

A quick reminder: I’m on SupaFi64 tonight at 10 p.m. EST talking about The Daedalus Incident! It’s my first podcast guest spot, so come see whether I sound all cool and suave, or I choke completely under the pressure. Either way, good times!

It’ll be live-streamed on Blog Talk Radio and will also be available as a podcast on iTunes. So check it out!

First podcast! Final revisions! Good editors!

I’m here Wednesday at 10 p.m. Come listen in!

I’m officially enmeshed in final (one hopes) revisions to The Daedalus Incident, but I’m taking time away from the wordsmithing to make my very first guest spot on a SF/F podcast. On Wednesday, I’ll be on SupaFi64 at 10 p.m. EST to talk about the book and, most likely, a wide variety of other geeky topics. You can listen to the podcast LIVE on BlogTalkRadio, or download it later from iTunes. The SupaFi64 gang put on a great show, so come check it out.

Meanwhile, I received my editorial letter this week from Ross Lockhart, editor extraordinaire at Night Shade Books. I had previously scoffed at the wailing and gnashing of teeth I saw from other authors about this particular phenomenon. Surely, I thought, this wouldn’t be a bad thing. One’s editor was there to improve the book, and the author by extension — not to subject writers to torture. This faith was tested slightly when I read this:

…I’ve marked up a Word file of the manuscript, highlighting approximately two hundred individual points…

Oh, boy.

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Filed under Books, Writing

November 14, 2012 · 7:31 pm

In defense of geek inclusion

Costumes at Comic-Con. No matter who you are or what you wear, you should be welcome. (Wikimedia Commons)

I saw Twitter erupt earlier this week over comments regarding women at geeky conventions like Comic-Con. Turns out that comic book artist Tony Harris had some choice words to say about women dressing up for said conventions; the inestimable John Scalzi posted Harris’ comments here, along with a typically humorous and scathing response.

I’m not going to get into the details of what Harris said, nor will I respond directly to his misogynist comments, because Scalzi did a far better job than I. Scalzi is one of those few writers who makes me wish I could write at his level. (Another is Ken Liu; read his amazing, award-winning short story here. I despair of writing anything so profoundly excellent.)

What I am going to do is talk about what kind of environment is fostered by these kind of inflammatory screeds. Because this stuff is giving geeks a bad name.

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Six months to go, and the to-do list grows

There’s a lot of stuff sneaking up on me these days. Like giant shark jaws.

Writing a novel was a great personal accomplishment. Getting an agent, and an awesome one at that, was even better. Landing an offer from a well-respected publisher — on my 40th birthday, no less — was freakin’ incredible.

Now, with less than six months to go before The Daedalus Incident is released into the wild, I have to say…there’s a lot more to do.

Of course, you’ve seen the blog updated regularly with details on the cover and pre-orders. (There’s more sites up and running with pre-order pages, including those in Canada and the U.K., so find your favorite here.) But there’s also a lot going on behind the scenes. The machine is gearing up, and I’m going to be a big part of that.

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