On writing, my publisher and travel

So before I get to the big news, I wanted to point out that I’ve got a new post up on the Night Bazaar, talking about breaking the rules of writing. It’s been an interesting discussion over there, so go check it out.

All right. If you follow SF/F books and publishing on line, you’ve likely heard that my publisher, Night Shade Books, is in the process of having its assets acquired by a larger company, Skyhorse Publishing. Yes, The Daedalus Incident is an asset. (Probably better than being considered a liability, I suppose.)

The deal is contingent on a majority of Night Shade authors agreeing to Skyhorse’s acquisition terms for their individual books. If the deal falls through, Night Shade is likely to declare bankruptcy. If that happens, all operations would freeze and no books would be published, and nobody would get any money. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (man, that membership fee has already paid for itself) has supported the deal, and worked incredibly hard to ride herd on everything. I’m very grateful to them.

As for me, all I’m willing to say is that my incredibly talented and hard-working agent, Sara Megibow, is reviewing everything with her usual diligence. Right now, I’m going to assume The Daedalus Incident will hit stores as scheduled on May 7. Reviewers have their copies, I have a full slate of guest blogs, interviews and promotional efforts, and I’m hopeful you’ll all have a chance to enjoy the adventures of HMS Daedalus and the McAuliffe Base mining colony on Mars in about a month.

In the meantime, I’m going to be off on a very different adventure. I’m heading to Japan for a vacation with the family, something we’ve wanted to do for a while now. I’m sure I’ll be tweeting some thoughts and pics while I’m there, and I’ll try to keep up with the blog as well. The real expert on travel is my wife Kate, so if you want to see what we’re up to, you should follow her blog and her Twitter for all the details!