A great new Enceladus review, and good times at BEA

I wanted to talk a bit about my experience at Book Expo America over the past few days, but before I do that, I’m quite happy to link up to a great review of The Enceladus Crisis by Abhinav Jain, a.k.a. Shadowhawk. He reviewed The Daedalus Incident for The Founding Fields (read it here), and had this to say about the sequel:

Everything that was great about The Daedalus Incident makes a comeback in this novel and it is all better than before…. I wanted a rock-solid story and I got it. I wanted some awesome characters, whether heroes or villains and I got that. I wanted to see an exploration of both the realities and their particular quirks that have developed and I got that. … Michael has clearly improved his craft going from his debut to his first sequel, and it is a change that I approve of wholeheartedly, both as a reader and a blogger.

You can read the whole review here at Shadowhawk’s Shade. Many thanks to Abhinav for the very kind words.

I also got a lot of kind words at Book Expo America.

There were fans who had heard of, and read, my book. There were a few who brought their copies of The Daedalus Incident for me to sign, which was quite lovely. Many other BEA attendees were introduced to my work for the first time via my SFWA booth signings, and went away with book in hand, intrigued. And that’s what I was there to do. Mission accomplished.

My two favorite signings: There was a librarian who wanted a signed book for a fundraiser, which is awesome. I love doing that. And then there was a librarian who worked for the Wallkill Correctional Facility in upstate New York, who asked me to dedicate a book to the inmates there. That was most assuredly a first.

I also got to see bloggers and fans I usually only interact with via the Internet, such as Sally “Qwill” Jenin, Feliza Casano and Marty Cahill, all of whom rock. I am quite sure the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America would collapse in mere hours without the dynamic duo of Jaym Gates and Kate Baker to keep us going. Ardi Alspach is a wonderful and generous advocate of my books, even though she moved on from her gig at my publisher and thus isn’t paid to be such, which makes her even more awesome. And really nice to see agency-brother Mike Underwood again, among so many other great authors there I had the privilege to meet and/or catch up with again.

I also met Steve Hindy, a fellow Associated Press alumni/refugee (though before my time there) who went on to found Brooklyn Brewery. He has a new book out, and he did a tasting at of two beers at BEA: Sorachi Ace, one of my all-time faves, and Greenmarket Wheat, which I hadn’t had before but very much enjoyed. We were able to talk beer, journalism and books for a bit, which made my inner beer geek happy. Thanks, Steve!

So yeah, it was a good time. I was excited at the enthusiasm for my work. I shared some “what’s next after book three” thoughts with a few folks and got enthusiastic responses, which was even more exciting. (And no, I’m not sharing them here because they’re not ready for public consumption yet. Patience, padawans.) I had some beers. In fact, I brought a six pack of homebrew to share with my SFWA peeps and others, and it went over so well that some folks are asking me to bring a few cases to World Fantasy down in D.C. this November.

I had best get brewing. Maybe I should call Steve Hindy.

Reminder: You have until Monday, June 2, at 11:59 p.m. Central Daylight Time to sign up for the Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing newsletter, which serves as your entry to win copies of both The Daedalus Incident and The Enceladus Crisis. Click here to sign up.

Finally, if this is what makes for a good author signature these days, I had best step up my game.