Hello from San Jose! I’m here for the Nebula Awards Weekend, and it’s already been a lot of fun. I’m continually impressed by how welcoming folks have been to the new kid on the block.
Since I’m helping out a bit with the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America’s publicity efforts this weekend, I was invited to join a small group of folks for dinner last night with SFWA Grand Masters Connie Willis and Gene Wolfe. Both are amazing writers, but perhaps more importantly, they’re just lovely people to be around. It was an honor to meet them both. They then went on to do great readings and an interesting discussion at SF in SF here.
As it turns out, The Daedalus Incident is a known quantity around here, and people seem quite interested in it, which is really gratifying to see. I mean, one person said, “Oh, you’re the guy with the book in limbo.” Yes, yes I am. But you HAVE heard of it. So that’s something, right?
Today I’ll be conducting a few audio interviews for SFWA, and sitting in on others, and tonight is the mass signing by SFWA authors. Although I don’t have anything to sign yet, I’ll be there with some information about Daedalus to hand out, and I may do an ebook giveaway for folks. So if you’re coming to the event, be sure to stop by and say hello!
Finally, I’d like to point you to Chuck Sambuchino’s great Guide to Literary Agent’s blog. Part and parcel with the “Breaking In” feature from the most recent issue of Writer’s Digest, today’s “Successful Queries” post talks about the query letter I sent to the Nelson Literary Agency and how it intrigued my agent, Sara Megibow, enough to eventually sign me on as a client. I admit, looking back, I can’t help but cringe a bit at the writing, but in the end, the letter did what it needed to do.
Many thanks to Sara for all the kind words and, more importantly, for taking me on! She’s done a ton of work to get this book out the door. She’s gone above and beyond under the circumstances, and I’m fortunate to have her in my corner.
, 
Michael J. Martinez 