Category Archives: Books

November 19, 2013 · 6:00 pm

Daedalus reviewed in Amazing Stories

Very happy to see a good review for The Daedalus Incident out today in Amazing Stories magazine, courtesy of Matt Mitrovich. (Matt also runs the excellent Alternate History Weekly Update blog.) Matt gives a good synopsis of the book without giving away any spoilers, and goes on to say:

Although a part of me wonders whether Napoleonic history will give away the ending of the sequel, The Enceladus Crisis (due out next year), I still recommend this fun adventure story that was a solid debut for the author.

Now, for those who already read Daedalus, I’m aware there’s some history to contend with in the book’s last scene. But it’s no secret that The Enceladus Crisis is set firmly in the Napoleonic Era and will be informed by historical events. Rest assured, I’m giving nothing away there. The cool thing about writing historical fantasy is that there’s definitely a time and place for history to take a left turn.

Matt also mentions some unanswered questions about the Known Worlds setting, particularly around colonization and slavery. And yes, they’re unanswered for now. I like having some openings to explore different ideas, and I deliberately left some things unsettled in Daedalus. That doesn’t mean I’ll get around to answering everything in Enceladus or even in the as-yet-untitled third novel. But I have options.

Many thanks to Matt and Amazing Stories for the review!

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November 16, 2013 · 5:16 pm

Support for the Winter in the City Kickstarter

I mentioned briefly last week that I supported my first Kickstarter — an anthology of urban fantasy tales called Winter in the City. A couple days ago, the folks running the campaign announced I was one of the authors who agreed to submit something to the anthology. It’s something I’m incredibly excited about for a number of reasons, and I’m hoping the Kickstarter gets more backers soon.

Why excited, you ask? (You didn’t, but I’ll assume as much on your behalf.)

For one, I have what I think is a pretty darn good idea for a submission. Yes, it’s urban fantasy and, no, it has nothing to do with the Known Worlds of the Daedalus series. It’s still going to have a historical bent to it, but the history will be much more recent. I also like the wintry theme of the anthology, as winter is one of my favorite seasons in general, and seems to be fertile ground for storytelling as well.

Plus, it’s a nice stretch for me. I’ve proven I can write a novel (well, two now) and I’ve written a novella as well. I’ve found short fiction to be generally more difficult, because there’s so much to get into a piece in a short amount of space. I started writing fiction in part to challenge myself, after all, so why shy away from another challenge?

And have you seen the list of writers who have agreed to participate? We’re talking some amazing folks here, like Mike Resnick, Kevin J. Anderson, Ken Liu, Nick Mamatas, Jack Skillingstead and the great Harry Turtledove (who is a fantastic guy in addition to pretty much owning alternate history fiction). I mean, seriously, there are too many great ones to list here. I totally want to be in an anthology with these people just to say I was, you know?

So here’s the deal. The campaign needs to raise $15,000 for the anthology to become a reality. Right now, they’ve raised just under $4,000. That means we’re looking at making up $11,000 in just 14 days. I’ve chipped in, and I’m hoping you’ll consider backing it as well. You’ll get a whole heap of excellent urban fantasy fiction from some of the best folks writing today (and, well, me). The reward tiers are also pretty cool, with lots of goodies for folks who chip in more.

If you’re so inclined, check out the Kickstarter campaign here and see if you’d like to chip in. I think it’s an exciting project, and I hope you do too.

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November 12, 2013 · 5:30 pm

New video review of The Daedalus Incident

The folks over at Club Fantasci, a book club for all things SF/F, recently took on The Daedalus Incident — and posted an hour-long video discussing the book.

Now, perhaps this is a self-deprecation thing, but I didn’t realize I had enough stuff in there for people to discuss for an hour. Apparently there is. The participants are all writerly folks, and they dig deep into the book’s character, setting, plot, point-of-view, voice, etc. Aside from a bit with an overly curious cat, there’s not a lot of fluff in the conversation. So to speak.

The best part, of course, is that they really liked the book. I didn’t transcribe anything, but words like “original” and “must read” were used. There were differing opinions of things that worked well, or didn’t, but overall, it was a really good showing for Daedalus. So thanks to Club Fantasci revierers Ciara Ballintyne, Melody Kaufmann and Dionne Lister for the review!

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November 7, 2013 · 10:00 am

Assorted tidbits: Podcasts, Kickstarters, auctions and art

So I’ve ended up with a bunch of little things I’ve wanted to blog about, and it’s gotten to the point where separate blog posts would be a pain. So here’s a bunch of cool stuff for you to check out, all in one handy post:

The Daedalus Incident got a pretty nifty plug from Renaissance man Michael Pusateri on the latest Gweek podcast over on BoingBoing.net. The book comes up at roughly the 42:00 mark in the conversation between Michael, technologist/hacker/writer Joshua Klein and host (and BoingBoing founder) Mark Frauenfelder. But hey, give the whole thing a listen. It’s a really smart, fascinating podcast. Thanks for the kind words, Michael!
I’ve backed my first Kickstarter — Winter in the City: A Collection of Urban Fantasy Tales, edited by fellow NIght Shade alum Marty Halpern. Marty’s put together an outstanding group of authors, and I may be submitting a story to the anthology as well in an attempt to spread my authorial wings a bit. They have 23 days left to get to their goal, so give it a read and, if you’re so inclined, lend a hand!
You have until midnight tonight to bid on my critique of your SF/F fiction — up to 10,000 words — at Kat Brauer’s Crits for Water charity blog. The proceeds go to help communities in India ensure fresh water and sanitation, and you get a fresh set of eyes on your writing. Go bid!
Having Daedalus as Tuesday’s SF/F Kindle Daily Deal was nothing short of awesome. The book topped out at #28 on the Kindle sales chart, and is at a very respectable #172 now (and still #16 on the SF/F chart). I’m grateful so many folks were introduced to the book.
Finally, awesome artist Sarah Bittel has done another bit of Daedalus-inspired fan art! (Check out her first one here.) Below are sketches of Lt. Thomas Weatherby, first lieutenant aboard HMS Daedalus, and another take on Lt. Shaila Jain of McAuliffe Base on Mars. Sarah did a great job with the period touches on Weatherby, and I think captured Shaila’s attitude well there. Thanks, Sarah!

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November 5, 2013 · 7:44 am

The Daedalus Incident is $1.99 on Kindle today!

So this is pretty nifty: The Daedalus Incident is a Kindle Daily Deal today, which means you can go buy it for just $1.99. That’s right — all the great sailing-ships-in-space action you’re craving for just $1.99! (Salad spinner not included.)

The inner workings of Amazon remain a mystery to most folks, and I say this having covered the company as a reporter in Seattle for a few years. I don’t know how Daedalus was selected, and I just found out on Twitter, of all places.

But seriously…$1.99. You’re officially out of excuses now. Go check it out!

Update: Behold the power of Amazon! As a result of the one-day sale, The Daedalus Incident topped out at #27 on Amazon’s bestseller lists, and #2 on the SF/F list, behind some book called Ender’s Game. (Heh.) Thanks to everyone who spread the word, especially John DeNardo at SFSignal, and to everyone who picked up the Kindle edition yesterday!

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November 4, 2013 · 1:27 pm

The Gravity of the Affair coming in e-book and Audible audio on Dec. 6

It’s been a while since I serialized my novella, The Gravity of the Affair, here on the blog. Over the summer, while I was waiting for The Daedalus Incident to get a release date, I started to release bits and pieces of Gravity to whet everyone’s appetite, and to say thanks to the SF/F community for all the support and patience.

Gravity started a few years ago as a short story that, over the course of the past year, eventually filled out into a novella. I really enjoyed writing it, and as it turned out, people seemed to enjoy reading it. With Daedalus finally coming out and doing well, the novella’s seen some increased interest and opportunities. I received a great offer from Audible to produce an audio book of Gravity, and when that happened, I decided to move forward with an e-book as well.

As a result of all this, The Gravity of the Affair will be released in e-book and Audible audio on Dec. 6!

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October 27, 2013 · 11:25 am

Publishers pay authors, NOT the other way around

I got an e-mail recently from an author — a boy of fifteen, actually — who said his novel had been accepted by a publishing company. The problem was, the publisher wanted the author to pay more than $7,000 for the right to see his book on a shelf. Was this, my correspondent asked, normal?

Whoa.

Thankfully, it was apparent even to a teenager that someone asking for this kind of money wasn’t quite kosher. Some Web searches led him to SFWA’s excellent Writer Beware column and, from there, to my author profile on the SFWA site, and finally to my e-mail address.

The publisher is, as you might imagine, a vanity or subsidy publisher. They’ll pretty much accept anyone so long as you pay them. And what you get for that payment varies widely, though I have yet to hear of any such publisher landing a title on The New York Times bestseller list. Whether or not a given publisher can even get your book onto Amazon or in Barnes & Noble remains an open question, depending on the outfit.

I’m glad this young man wrote, because I was able to tell him to run away from this deal as quickly as possible. There is, I believe, one maxim that every novelist should hold near and dear to their heart: The publisher pays the author, not the other way around.

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October 22, 2013 · 6:00 pm

Writing tip: Save everything!

There’s a binder stuck in a drawer with the first draft of what would ultimately become The Daedalus Incident. It’s covered in red copyedit marks and is altogether not-good. But I’m keeping it. And more importantly, I’ve kept every draft of everything I’ve written.

Why? Because even if the overall draft is bad, there may be parts in it that are good. I know this seems like common sense, but I think it’s worth mentioning.

There was a whole sequence of events in The Enceladus Crisis that ultimately didn’t work. The pacing was off, the timing was wrong, the characters just weren’t ready to go do what they were doing. But I knew there would be a time within the narrative where all that hard work, primarily in worldbuilding and plot, would be necessary. So I slapped it in another file and kept going.

And when I reached the point in the draft where that worldbuilding and plot came to the fore, I gleefully cannibalized that older version to suit my needs.

There’s a couple of scenes in the early Daedalus drafts that I’m keeping handy, just for that purpose. It’s highly unlikely they’ll be dropped straight into a future work, but there are writing lessons in there, and some ideas that may yet be used.

The point is, don’t overwrite your old files. Save them and store them. It’s not like Word (or Scrivener) files are that big, after all.

They say “kill your darlings,” and at times, that’s exactly the right thing to do. But be sure to keep the bodies handy. You never know.

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October 18, 2013 · 5:35 pm

The Daedalus Incident fan art!

Of all the authorial stuff I’ve enjoyed this past year, being able to show off some fan-made art inspired by The Daedalus Incident ranks right up there.

Below is an image of JSC astronaut Lt. Shaila Jain, as envisioned by Syracuse artist Sarah Bittel and posted to her Facebook account. (Hat tip to Kate for pointing it out to me!) Sarah says she was inspired by Indian actress Deepika Padukone and femShep from the videogame Mass Effect 3.

And her she is:

This is, of course, all kinds of awesome, and more than a little humbling. It’s really something else to see my writing inspire art. Sarah says she’s working on more, including a portrait of a young Royal Navy Lt. Thomas Weatherby. Her Shaila is fantastic, so I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

And if you want to check out Sarah’s portfolio of other work, surf on over to her DeviantArt page and her blog for more.

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October 16, 2013 · 6:00 pm

Mind Meld: SF/F in my life

Whenever Paul Weimer (a.k.a. @PrinceJvstin) asks me to do a Mind Meld over on SFSignal, I know it’s going to be a good one. And he didn’t disappoint this time.

Today I’m answering the question: “How has reading science fiction and fantasy changed you as a person or changed your life?” It was a great topic, allowing for some always-healthy introspection and thoughtfulness. And I’m joined by a lot of great writers, too. Surf on over and check it out.

And while we’re on the topic…how has SF/F affected your life? If you read this blog regularly, chances are you’re a SF/F fan. So throw some thoughts and introspection in the comment box below!

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