Category Archives: Books

December 7, 2014 · 3:00 pm

Order signed copies of my books from Borderlands Books and Mysterious Galaxy while they last!

I’ve been fortunate enough over the past month to visit two of the world’s great independent SF/F bookstores – Borderlands in San Francisco and Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego. And because I was in those particular neighborhoods, I signed some books.

Signing books, by the way, never gets old.

Now, I’m not in everybody’s neighborhood, so the chance of finding signed copies of my books at your local bookstore is pretty slim. Thankfully, these two bookstores do a brisk business in mail order and e-commerce, so if you’re inclined to give the gift of Daedalus and Enceladus this holiday season, you’re in luck. And I’d be mighty grateful and flattered.

Here’s the thing, though. Both stores have a limited supply. I signed probably a dozen of each at Mysterious Galaxy, but that was back in early November. And I signed roughly half that at Borderlands on Friday. So you can certainly take a chance and order online from either place, but there’s a risk you’ll end up with an unsigned copy.

So here’s what you do: Drop them an e-mail or give them a call. It’s that simple. Just click on their sites (linked above) for the contact info, and ask if they have any left. If they do, go ahead and pull the trigger on that purchase.

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November 26, 2014 · 9:28 am

Memorable first lines

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

You know, I don’t even remember which book that was from without Googling. (A Tale of Two Cities, post-Google.) But we know the line — it’s embedded in our cultural consciousness at this point — and that’s a pretty impressive feat when it comes to writing. First lines make a first impression. And that’s something I’ve tried to think about in my work.

Apparently, the folks at Blooming Twig Books think I did OK. They’ve been posting first lines they like from a variety of books, one each day, and both The Daedalus Incident and The Enceladus Crisis have been featured. That’s really very awesome, given that there’s a lot of cool openers out there. You should check out their archive and see what else they’ve uncovered.

And since we already know the first lines of both Daedalus and Enceladus (click on the links if you’ve forgotten), I figured I’d throw out the first line of the upcoming The Venusian Gambit:

Mars will rise once more.

If you want to read the next 110,000 words or so, you can find all the pre-order links on this page. Gambit is due out May 5.

 #SFWApro

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October 21, 2014 · 6:00 pm

How to respond to bad reviews (Hint: Don’t.)

I spent this past weekend up in the Catskills with family and friends, where we hiked and made food and drank good beer and let the kids experience some honest-to-goodness natural settings. It was awesome. Turns out, though, I missed something that set my Twitter feed aflame.

Author Kathleen Hale wrote a piece in The Guardian about confronting an influential book blogger/reviewer who gave her book one star on Goodreads. And by confronting, I mean seriously going to extreme lengths to find this particular blogger. Hale divined the pseudonymous blogger’s real identity through Internet searches, paid for a background check and showed up at her house.

Good Lord.

Hale justifies this rather unjustifiable action by stating that the review was oddly biased and factually in error and that she was being “catfished.” In reading her piece, I got the sense that she wanted to gain some measure of justice, or at least convince herself that the blogger who may have “sabotaged” her book wasn’t really credible, even though the damage was already done.

So I’m going to put something out here that, I think, should be something every author should take to heart: This is not OK.

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October 10, 2014 · 5:30 pm

Thank you, New York Comic Con!

So this was the scene this morning at Night Shade Books’ booth at New York Comic Con.

Yes, that is a line. And no, the bathrooms were nowhere near the booth.

I signed at least 150 books this morning, and we ran out before my hour was up. Many thanks to the Night Shade crew for rustling up all that interest, and a huge thank-you to everyone who waited in line for copies of The Daedalus Incident and The Enceladus Crisis. You are all lovely human beings, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!

And remember, The Venusian Gambit is out in May! Here’s the Barnes & Noble pre-order page. You can also get it from Mysterious Galaxy, Books-A-Million, Amazon or Amazon UK and Chapters in Canada. (E-book and audiobook pre-orders will be available closer to launch.)

#SFWApro

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September 30, 2014 · 6:15 pm

Goodreads “Ask the Author” now open, plus more Venusian Gambit pre-order links

I might have been slightly remiss in not having done this until now, but I’ve officially opened up my “Ask the Author” submissions over on Goodreads. Just go to my author page and submit a question in the appropriate field; I’ll generally answer within a day or two.

Also worth noting: The Venusian Gambit now has its very own Goodreads page, fully linked to my author page and the Daedalus series page. Very exciting stuff. If you’re on Goodreads, don’t forget to add Gambit to your to-read list!

Finally, there’s a couple more pre-order pages up for Gambit. In addition to the vendors already available, you can also pre-order the third volume of the series from two excellent independent bookstores: Powell’s and Northshire Bookstore.

Everybody who likes books tends to know about the awesomeness that is Powell’s, while Northshire was one of my local bookstores growing up in Vermont. Both are worth checking out in general, and I’d be quite pleased if you ordered my work from either.

#SFWApro

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September 23, 2014 · 6:30 pm

Mysterious Galaxy reading! Venusian Gambit pre-orders! Plus wikipedia!

There’s stuff going on! You should totally be informed of these happenings, so here you go. I suppose I could’ve made you sift through three different blog posts, but that would’ve been slightly lame. Besides, I don’t get paid for putting ads up on here, so page-views aren’t really a concern. Anyway.

First off, I’m excited to be returning to Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore for my second reading/signing/Q&A event. Sadly, the Redondo Beach store is no more, so I’m heading down to beautiful San Diego to visit the MG mothership on Thursday, November 13 at 7:30 p.m. I hadn’t planned on being in southern California, actually, but there’s an off-site meeting for work, and the excellent folks at MG agreed to have me over afterward. Perhaps word got out that I brought beer last time. (I am not above beer bribery.) Anyway, if you’re in the area, come on out and say hello. I’ll likely read from The Enceladus Crisis and maybe even give a sneak-peek at The Venusian Gambit. 

Speaking of The Venusian Gambit, the pre-order sites are up and running for the print version, so you can go and order one now! Which is…super-early, actually, but why not? Think of it as a gift for your future self. I haven’t seen a page up on Barnes & Noble yet, but you can order it from the aforementioned Mysterious Galaxy as well as Books-A-Million, Amazon or Amazon UK and Chapters in Canada. Or better yet, you can bug your local independent bookseller about it via IndieBound, which makes you a fine individual in my eyes.

Note that the pre-orders are for print only. E-book pre-orders tend to come later on, and I don’t expect them until next year. Same goes for the Audible version, which I do expect will be a thing given that we got the first two.

Finally, I’ve discovered the first mention of my work on Wikipedia, which was a small but proud moment. The entire Daedalus series has been listed on the Saturn’s moons in fiction page. And wow, there’s a lot of great works that play in the Saturn system. Happy to be bulleted among them.

#SFWApro

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September 18, 2014 · 9:29 am

Going beyond “comfort zone” books with a SF Signal mind meld

I’ve been traveling and thus remiss in pointing this out when it landed yesterday: I participated in a “mind meld” with many other excellent people over on SF Signal. The topic, ably managed by Paul “Prince Jvstin” Weimer, was about books that pushed us out of our comfort zone.

I took a slightly different tack on it, based on my early reading of steampunk and other alternate histories. A lot of these books didn‘t really push me from my comfort zone at all, and I wanted one that would. Ultimately, I found a really excellent steampunk book that took its storytelling quite seriously.

Which book, you ask? Read the mind meld!

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September 16, 2014 · 6:30 pm

Author FAQ: On what I can realistically do for you

We’ve tackled writing, agenting, traditional publishing and self-publishing, and yet there are still a handful of frequently asked questions left, primarily surrounding the question of what I personally can do to help you, a potentially aspiring writer, in your career.

Yep, I’ve been asked all these questions, and it’s very flattering; by no means do I want to discourage anyone from asking me stuff. Hopefully, these answers will be a good place to start.

Ready? Of course you are.

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September 14, 2014 · 6:30 pm

Author FAQ: On self-publishing

So far, these FAQs have been pretty straightforward, and have primarily dealt with the writing process, which is something every scribe can relate to, along with agents and traditional publishing. Today, we get into self-publishing.

This is a touchy subject for some, and I genuinely believe there’s a lot of sturm und drang here that’s unwarranted. (I’ve blogged about this before.) If you disagree with my take on self-publishing — which is by no means meant to be the end-all, be-all on the topic — feel free to comment here. But please do so respectfully. Let’s have a discussion without name calling and such. I know this the Internet, but I don’t feel I’m asking too much.

As always, this is my take, and your experience will vary, as will the experiences of other authors.

Ready? Let’s go:  Continue reading →

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September 12, 2014 · 6:30 pm

Author FAQ: On publishing (and my publisher)

So far, we’ve tackled frequently asked questions about writing and getting an agent. Today, I’m going to talk about publishing.

Now, granted, my experience with the publishing world has been both limited in scope and complex in nature. I’ve had two contracts total in my fiction career, so it’s a limited sample. And as I’ve said before, your experience likely will differ. In fact, I hope it goes a bit smoother. But that said, I can’t complain. My books are on shelves, and that’s an awesome feeling.

Again, as a reminder, other authors may have different opinions, which is great. Don’t just rely on me to inform your authorial and/or publishing escapades. Do your homework!

With that said, on to the next:  Continue reading →

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