Monthly Archives: October 2017

October 27, 2017 · 5:30 pm

The Daedalus trilogy’s first translation sale!

Big in Budapest! Huge in Hungary! At least, one hopes, right?

I can now safely tell y’all that some of my books have scored my first international rights sale. The Daedalus trilogy will be translated into Hungarian by publishing house Főnix Könyvműhely.

I don’t really know yet when the books will hit shelves over in Hungary, nor whether they’ll use the same cover art, or how the titles will translate. I know I’m getting paid at some point, which will be lovely indeed, and that the rights to all three books were purchased. Of course, I’m quite happy to visit Hungary to help promote the books. That said, I imagine anybody footing the bill for that would be unlikely. Might make a fun tax write-off, though.

My thanks to superagent Sara Megibow and the good folks at Night Shade Books for reeling this one in. May it be the first of many to come!

#SFWApro

A LGBT shout-out for Maria Diaz in the Daedalus trilogy

A reader flagged this for me on Twitter, and I admit, it really made my day. The Alternate Historian — also known as reviewer and all-around good guy Matt Mitrovich — put up a YouTube video naming his top five LGBT characters in alternate history. And to my surprise and utter delight, the indefatigable Gen. Maria Diaz of the Daedalus trilogy was among them.

If you’ll recall, then-Colonel Diaz was in command of the mining colony on 22nd century Mars in The Daedalus Incident, was promoted to major general to lead Earth’s interdimensional defense in The Enceladus Crisis, then battled Napoleon’s zombies on 19th century Venus in The Venusian Gambit.

The fact that Diaz is gay was certainly a conscious decision on my part, but Matt correctly understood that Diaz’ orientation not the primary focus of her character. My portrayal of her was to show the kind of inclusiveness in the future I hope we can all achieve, where one’s orientation is simply accepted for what it is. Matt even quoted me directly from this blog post, which has more details on the character and inclusiveness and why I did what I did.

I’m super grateful for the mention, and doubly grateful to have Maria Diaz placed among other great characters: Capt. Marian Alston from S.M. Stirling’s Nantucket trilogy, Sewer Jack from the George R.R. Martin-edited Wild Cards books, Scholar Wolfe from Rachel Caine’s Great Library series and — my favorite — Fenris from Beth Cato’s Breath of Earth and Call of Fire. (Beth’s books are among my favorites in general, so go buy them.)

For ease of viewing, I’ve embedded the video here. But you should totally subscribe to Matt’s channel on YouTube for all kinds of thoughtful alt-history goodness.

#SFWApro

An ode to the role-playing games of my misspent youth

So, OK, not really an ode. More like a roundup.

The other day I saw that Beth Elderkin over at io9, my all-time favorite geek site, did a nifty retrospective on the role-playing game Call of Cthulhu, which is based, of course, on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. I remember playing it when I was in high school and college, and I credit CoC with introducing me to Lovecraft’s stories.

Yes, that means there’s a direct thread from Call of Cthulhu to my story “On a Kansas Plain” in the Cthulhu Fhtagn! anthology from Word Horde. I sold a story because a role-playing game introduced me to Lovecraft’s work.

And I’ve done a couple of direct tie-in stories for games, too. There’s “Tiger,” in last year’s The Endless Ages Anthology for Vampire: The Masquerade, and “Crisis of Faith” for Paizo’s Pathfinder setting, which uses the d20 rules made famous by the granddaddy of them all, Dungeons & Dragons.

Oh, and I interviewed Gary Gygax and Steve Jackson during my reporting days. I’m never not gonna link to that.

So yeah, games mean a lot to me. They were my very first introduction to the whole idea of worldbuilding, and character. I admit, I wasn’t much of a Dungeon Master/game master/referee/whatever, but I did try my hand a few times. Plot’s hard, of course, especially when you’re, like, ten.

Here’s a fun little list of games that had an influence on me, and a few I simply played and thought were cool. Continue reading →

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Filed under Books, Geek

October 17, 2017 · 6:00 pm

Heading to World Fantasy next month? Me too!

*comes up for air*

Yeah, it’s been busy, hence the dearth of blog goodness. Sorry about that. But I wanted to quickly note that I’m going to be at the World Fantasy Convention in San Antonio next month, and if you’re of a bookish and possibly traveling sort of person, you should totally check it out.

The convention takes place Nov. 2-5 at the Wyndham Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio. I’ll definitely be at the autograph session on Friday, Nov. 3 at 8 p.m., and I’ll be doing a reading of my own on Saturday, Nov. 4, also at 8 p.m. I’ll also be hanging out, checking in on other panels and readings and such, and most definitely finding good tacos and barbecue.

I’m told that Night Shade Books is sending some free copies of MJ-12: Inception to populate swag bags for convention attendees, and it’s highly likely I’ll be packing a few copies of MJ-12: Shadows to do a giveaway while there. Because free books are always good.

Hope to see you there!

#SFWApro

Like gaming? Check out Adirondicon on October 14!

If you’re a fan of table-top gaming — board games, card games, strategy, RPGs, the whole bit — and if you’ll be around the Albany, N.Y., area on Saturday, October 14, I have a good idea of what you should be doing.

The first annual Adirondacon is taking place that day from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. — that’s right, twelve straight hours of gaming goodness. The event is sponsored by First Stall Productions and the Adirondack Tabletop Gamers and Game Developers, and it’ll cost you just $5 for adults and $2 for kids. The proceeds go to the Bernard and Millie Duker Children’s Hospital at Albany Medical Center.

So it’s for charity, which means you get to play games all damn day for a good cause. This does not suck.

The convention will have a number of organized games throughout the day, as well as open gaming and a large lending library full of games to play on your own. We’re talking Magic: The Gathering, Settlers of Catan, Star Trek Attack Wing, Pathfinder, Arcadia Quest and a bunch of stuff I ain’t even heard of. Plus, I hear tell of food and prizes and swag for sale, too.

Sadly, I won’t be able to make it, but games are awesome and charity is even more awesome. So check out the Adirondacon website to get your badges and sign up for games. (You can also just wander in if you’re not sure of your plans yet or you’re just, you know, lazy.) They also have a Twitter and Facebook presence if you want to reach out to them. It’ll be at the Elks Lodge in Queensbury, N.Y., right near Glens Falls and about an hour north of Albany.

Have fun!

#SFWApro