Monthly Archives: March 2014

March 30, 2014 · 4:52 pm

The Enceladus Crisis ebook available for preorder on Kindle and Kobo

enceladuscover-frontI’m very happy to report that The Enceladus Crisis ebook is available for preorder on Kindle and Kobo devices/platforms. I haven’t seen it up on Google Play, iTunes or Nook yet, but I’ll keep you posted if I do.

Because The Daedalus Incident was delayed last year due to Skyhorse Publishing’s buyout of Night Shade Books, the first book in the Daedalus series didn’t really get a ebook preorder. So I’m pretty psyched to see Enceladus getting out there ahead of time. I expect the second Daedalus book will be on all the platforms as the first, and I’m told the Audible audio version will launch around the same time as the book’s official May 6 release date.

Note the “official” in that statement, because at this point, May 6 is more of a “no later than” date. Amazon says the Kindle preorders will be released April 29. And last summer, I know that many folks who preordered print books from a variety of booksellers got them several days ahead of schedule.

This is not a bad thing, though. I can’t wait for folks to read this one. And I hope you guys feel the same way.

Still, I’m keeping May 6 as my official date. That’s when I’ll start carpet-bombing the Internet with interviews and excerpts and all sorts of other goodies. And that’s when I’ll be opening my official book-launch beer. The Daedalus Incident was launched with a 2006 Brooklyn Monster Ale, after all, so I’ve got my eyes on a few different bottles for May 6. My Untappd page will, of course, carry the results live.

Long story short, if you use Kindle or Kobo, you can now go preorder The Enceladus Crisis. And that’s a very cool thing. Of course, the print version is available for preorder right now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Books-a-Million, and lots of other places. So however you like your sailing ships in space delivered, you can ensure you get your fix.

#SFWApro

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March 27, 2014 · 5:00 pm

A few links for your reading pleasure

Found a couple of pieces online that might be of interest to readers here, both of which make kind reference to The Daedalus Incident.

First, English teacher and writer Scott Reintgen talks about how he teaches his students to write antagonists. I won’t spoil it here, but it’s a pretty good read, so if you’re afflicted with the desire to write, you should check it out. Turns out The Daedalus Incident fits into Scott’s model neatly. I’d love to say I totally planned it that way.

Secondly, author Richard Ellis Preston Jr. of The Chronicles of the Pneumatic Zeppelin series was featured on the Kindle Daily Post talking about steampunk and its splinter genres. He gave a very nice shout out to Daedalus as an example of “alchemypunk.” The article is also a pretty nice primer on steampunk for those new to the genre.

And…that’s about it for now. I’ve lined up some great stuff in the weeks ahead to mark the release of The Enceladus Crisis on May 6, and keep an eye out for a variety of giveaways coming very soon. Yes, free books. I’m also heading on vacation in less than two weeks, and looking forward to getting a bunch more writing done on The Venusian Gambit. 

As for where on vacation…well, keep reading the blog and peek over at Twitter and you’ll find out when I’m there!

#SFWApro

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Filed under Books, Writing

March 25, 2014 · 6:15 pm

A deleted scene from The Daedalus Incident

TDI-bigcoverThe Daedalus Incident went through a fair number of drafts and permutations before it became the novel that’s on bookshelves now. Whole strands of plot were upended, characters changed substantially, you name it. And there were a few scenes that simply didn’t make the cut, like this one.

I was bummed to drop this scene because it was a cool bonding moment between the protagonist, Shaila Jain, and her boss, Maria Diaz. It showed their growing chemistry and gave a peek into their characters. It foreshadowed a bit more about Jain’s first mission, the ill-fated Atlantis, and how it might affect her reactions while it was hitting the fan at McAuliffe Base. And there were some nice Martian setting elements there.

And yet…ultimately, the scene didn’t carry enough water to move the plot forward, which is pretty much a cardinal sin of storytelling. It felt like it arrested the momentum of the story, and there were other ways of building character and relationships and backstory without that kind of pause in plot. Plus, the point-of-view here is that of Diaz, and this was the only time that happened in the entire book. (I basically stuck with Shaila’s POV in the future sections and Weatherby’s in the past.)

Looking back on this section, I do think it holds up decently, and could probably be inserted into the book without a major hiccup if you can forgive the shifting POV. Of course, reading this again more than three years after writing it, I can see how I’ve improved since and how that affected my approach to The Enceladus Crisis. (While Enceladus was revised thoroughly, I don’t have any full scenes that I tossed in their entirety. Progress? I’d like to think so.)

So here you are, a deleted scene, just like in a DVD. Except it’s a book. Enjoy.

—

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March 24, 2014 · 6:00 pm

One week to go before Hugo nominations close

Just a quick blog-based reminder that you have until Monday, March 31, at 11:59 PDT (in case you really want to procrastinate) to nominate eligible works for the Hugo Awards and the Campbell. The nomination form is here. In order to nominate, you have to have been a member of the 2013 WorldCon in San Antonio, this year’s WorldCon in London, or the 2015 WorldCon in Spokane.

Not a member and don’t plan on going? You can purchase a supporting membership to the London WorldCon for $40 in order to nominate works for the Hugos. And you’ll get access to the voter packet once the nominations are firmed up, which means you’ll get to read the vast majority of nominated works for the cost of your supporting membership. In other words, it’s a good deal.

I suppose this is a good place to remind folks that I’m eligible for the Hugos in the novel category (The Daedalus Incident) and the novella (The Gravity of the Affair). I’m also eligible for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. No, I really don’t expect to be nominated for anything, but I’m quite willing to be incredibly surprised.

I’ve already cast my votes (and no, I didn’t vote for myself), and I’m excited for the great writers I’ve read and, in some cases, have gotten to know personally. I had particular fun with the fan writer, website and podcast nominations. I’ve interacted with many of these folks over the past year, and they’re a good bunch.

If you’re eligible, get voting! And if not, consider giving it a shot.

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March 21, 2014 · 9:00 am

Interview with Lauren Saint Onge, cover artist for The Enceladus Crisis

enceladuscover-frontThe reaction to the final cover of The Enceladus Crisis has been really positive; I’m psyched folks seem to like it as much as I do. That image of HMS Fortitude, guns blazing as she sails through the Rocky Main, was brought to us by artist Lauren Saint Onge, who was kind enough to answer a few questions about her work.

In addition, she agreed to let me post some of her initial sketches and drafts for the cover below so that you can see how it evolved into the final, awesome image.

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March 20, 2014 · 9:30 am

Revealed: The final cover of The Enceladus Crisis!

Here it is, you guys. I may be biased, of course, but I think it’s incredibly awesome. Behold, The Enceladus Crisis!

enceladuscover-front

The 74-gun third-rate on the cover is HMS Fortitude, captained by…well, you’ll see. The ship bits heavily damaged in the foreground belong to the French, naturally.

The artwork is by the insanely talented Lauren Saint Onge. Like me, she has a day job (doing concept art, no less), and suffers from the same affliction of wanting to do more work as a hobby. She’s awesome, and I’ll be posting an interview with her tomorrow.

And yes, that’s none other than Django Wexler, author of The Thousand Names, saying very nice things about the book on the cover. Django took the time to read the book even though he’s got two books coming out this year: The Forbidden Library next month, and the Thousand Names sequel The Shadow Throne in July. You should all go buy his books now. Thank you, Django, for all the kind words!

The folks at Night Shade Books did a great job putting this all together. They also asked for, and then put up with, my input throughout the process, which was a lot of fun for me. The graphics folks put in a lot of effort to give the title and lettering and such the same look-and-feel as The Daedalus Incident, which is saying something since it’s an entirely different team now. Well done all around.

And here’s the back cover:

enceladuscover-back

I was hoping we’d get one positive review blurb to put on the back. To have three, and these three in particular, was an embarrassment of riches. The PW and SFSignal reviews have already been published, while GeekDad plans to run theirs closer to the book’s May 6 launch.

Did I mention May 6? As in…what, six weeks? Crazy. Pre-orders are available now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and you can go through IndieBound to pre-order through your friendly neighborhood independent bookseller too. It will be out in e-book on May 6 as well, and we do expect Audible to release the audiobook around the same time.

My thanks again to all involved in making this cover. It’s incredibly amazing. And a hat-tip to SFSignal for giving it a nice boost this morning.

#SFWApro

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March 15, 2014 · 12:05 pm

A member of SFWA for another year

SFWAlogoYesterday, I ponied up another year’s dues and renewed my membership with The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. And I was happy to do so. I find a lot of value in the organization, and for the most part, I find my fellow members to be among the best sort of people.

That’s not to say SFWA is one big happy family. Like any organization that includes a broad array of personalities, beliefs and identities, SFWA has had its share of controversy. I’ve no desire to get into the details here, except to say that I believe that the vast majority of the stuff you may have heard about are the actions of a very few people who seem to think that being on the Internet, or even simply being a writer, absolves them from the need for basic decency and civility. (It doesn’t, by the way.)

The vast majority of folks in SFWA are good people and good writers who want to broaden the reach of the genres and protect the interests of authors. These are very worthy pursuits, and that’s why I support SFWA with my membership and involvement.

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March 13, 2014 · 5:30 pm

It’s official: I’m going to DragonCon this year!

I’ve never been to DragonCon, but I hear tell it’s a pretty big to-do. Something on the order of 50,000 people show up to geek out over, well, pretty much everything worth geeking out over.

And this year, I’ll be there, too.

The organizers have named me an attending professional for this year’s convention, held over Labor Day weekend in Atlanta. That means I get to go (on a comped badge, no less) and participate in programming, panels and such. And I get to see what all the hoopla is all about.

This year’s con will feature lots of TV stars from great SF/F shows, along with a lot of comic creators, video gamers and, of course, authors. My personal goals will include getting selfies with Ron Glass (Firefly) and Grant Wilson (Ghost Hunters). And I’m looking forward to seeing author folk like E.C. Myers, Kevin Hearne, Lee Martindale and Gene Wolfe again.

Honestly, it’s a huge convention, and I’m just this guy with a couple books, you know? But the nice thing is that they have programming tracks dedicated to book lovers, including one in Alternate History that I’m looking forward to. I’m hoping that I can reach some new fans and maybe spread the word about The Daedalus Incident and The Enceladus Crisis a bit more than I might otherwise.

So if you’re heading to DragonCon this year, be sure to come find me!

#SFWApro

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March 11, 2014 · 5:00 pm

Hello, new blog followers! Here’s what you got yourself into.

Last week, I got an e-mail from one of the editors at WordPress saying that a recent post about publishing was selected to be “Freshly Pressed.” Nice to be recognized for producing any sort of quasi-useful writing, though I had to actually look up what Freshly Pressed was, since I don’t really explore my WordPress Reader as much as I could. But hey, it seemed like a nice thing.

Then boom. Hello, several hundred visitors. And a heap of new blog followers. So that‘s what Freshly Pressed is and does. All right then.

I’m very happy that this particular post was well received, and doubly so that the comments have been respectful and encouraging, no matter where you fall on the self-publish/traditional publishing argument. Civility on the Internet…who knew?

Anyway, I thought I’d take a moment to say hi to the new followers and introduce myself. Continue reading →

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March 8, 2014 · 9:20 pm

It’s Saturday night, my daughter has a sleepover, and this is what we do

So my 9-year-old daughter is having a sleepover with a friend tonight, and just as I finished work on The Venusian Gambit for the evening, I was asked to participate in an impromptu carnival. Because I successfully ran a gamut of homemade carnival games (such as throwing a clementine into a shoe), my prize was being the star of my own video, blindingly enhanced by a very colorful iPad app.

Enjoy the show. I’m going to go wash the glitter out of my hair.

 

Yes, it ends abruptly, but I think that was a creative-team decision. Or they got bored with it. Anyway, the other prize was this:

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