Category Archives: Books

July 4, 2013 · 10:51 am

Kirkus picks Daedalus, and a guest post on world-building

I’m very stoked to see that The Daedalus Incident made Kirkus Reviews’ highlights and top picks for SF/F in July, especially with so many other excellent books out there right now. Kirkus notes:

If you like history, check out The Daedalus Incident by Michael J. Martinez, a gripping historical fantasy adventure which combines the late-18^th-century Age of Sail with space travel. Think of it as Master & Commander…in spaaace!

The extra A’s totally make that blurb. Many thanks to Kirkus and to John DeNardo, who also runs the Hugo-winning site SFSignal.

Also today, I’m a special guest up at the Irish writing site writing.ie, talking about world-building in speculative fiction. I discuss how I used basic journalism questions — who, what, when, where and why — to flesh out the worlds of The Daedalus Incident.

Writing.ie is also doing a giveaway of The Daedalus Incident along with the guest post — click here to enter, though I suspect this giveaway would be better suited to folks in Europe than here in the U.S., given that I haven’t done an overseas giveaway yet. For folks in America, I’m currently running a Goodreads giveaway of two signed copies, so be sure to enter!

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July 3, 2013 · 5:00 pm

The Daedalus Incident arrives in print Aug. 13!

It’s official, folks — The Daedalus Incident will hit bookstores on Aug. 13! I just reviewed the final proof today, made a couple of tweaks (geez, how did I miss those?) and it’s off to the printers. To be printed. As a book. That you can buy.

It’s been a long and winding road, but I’m thrilled that it’s finally getting out there — and just in time for my first official signing at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in Redondo Beach, Calif. on Aug. 17. It’ll be fun to have a signing in which I can, you know, sign books.

Of course, if you’re not in southern California, you can still get in on the fun. I’ll be the guest on the #SFFWTRCHT Twitter chat on July 10, and I’ll also be doing a Shindig event on July 24. (For those that don’t know — I didn’t until they approached me — Shindig is a Web-based group video chat platform. And the best part? It’s FREE. Click here to RSVP.) In fact, I did up a little events calendar in the right sidebar on the blog to keep everything straight, so check it out.

And you can now safely pre-order The Daedalus Incident with the knowledge that, yes, it will indeed arrive by Aug. 13…or a day or two after, depending on shipping and such. I’ve compiled a handy list of ordering links toward the bottom of this page, because I’m helpful. And, of course, Daedalus is available now in ebook, in case you like your gratification of the instant variety.

Many thanks to everyone at Skyhorse Publishing for pulling out the stops to get Daedalus printed on short notice. They’ve been really great to work with, and I have confidence Skyhorse and Start Media are going to be good stewards of Night Shade Books. Happy to be publishing Daedalus with them!

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July 3, 2013 · 10:07 am

A new interview, and a Goodreads giveaway

Today I’m interviewed by the awesome Kristin Centorcelli, proprietor of My Bookish Ways. She asked some neat and thoughtful questions, and I had fun answering them. Go check it out here and enjoy!

Also, with the print version of The Daedalus Incident coming out soon (and no, I don’t have much more than “soon” yet, but ideally early August), I figured it was high time to do another Goodreads giveaway. So click on over and sign up to win one of two signed copies of the book.

Of course, you don’t have to wait to read Daedalus — it’s available on the Kindle, Nook and Kobo right now! So even if you sign up for the giveaway, you should totally check out the ebook. And if you win, you’ll have a very pretty, signed book on your shelves to show off to friends and family. They’ll be intensely jealous.

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July 1, 2013 · 5:30 pm

Guest posting on genre mashups, and save the date for #SFFWTRCHT!

What makes a good genre mashup? That’s the question I’m tackling today in a guest post on Bryan Thomas Schmidt’s blog. My feeling is that while you can have a great idea for a genre mashup — such as Horatio Hornblower in space, for example — you need to double-down on the rest of your story elements so you don’t come off as a one-trick pony. I’d like to think The Daedalus Incident manages pretty well.

Bryan, by the way, is the moderator of the #SFFWTRCHT (SF/F Writer Chat) on Twitter, and I’ll be on the hot seat July 10. So save the date, get your questions ready and, to make your lives easier, be sure to follow me on Twitter so you can easily ask questions about Daedalus and all the other cool stuff I’m cooking up in my brain-things. (Or just follow the #SFFWTRCHT hashtag…but really, I tweet fun stuff, so if you follow me, I’ll entertain you regularly.)

And remember, Daedalus is now available for the Kindle, Nook and Kobo, with iBooks and the print version coming soon. If you’ve read it, I’ll be happy to answer any lingering questions you have, and if you haven’t…I’ll try not to be too spoilery.

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June 26, 2013 · 5:00 pm

Women in The Daedalus Incident

I’m really very pleased to have had the opportunity to talk about the female characters in my debut novel, The Daedalus Incident. This comes courtesy of Justin Landon of Staffer’s Book Review, who was gracious enough to offer me a guest post today.

I’m quite conscious of the role women have played in the genre through the years. There’s been an evolution — one that’s come in fits and starts — of female roles in SF/F, from damsel-in-distress to outright protagonist. If we as authors are going to write about the future, it behooves us all to give genuine consideration to the evolution of women’s roles in whatever futures we come up with.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I hope that Daedalus does its little part in that evolution. Check out the guest post for more.

And I have to give Justin a great deal of thanks for his support of Daedalus over the past year. As he described a few months ago, Night Shade Books asked him to provide feedback of a couple of titles in their pipeline…one of which, I can now say, was mine. I didn’t know it at the time, but his ideas and insights likely helped shape the book into what it is today.

Given his role in Daedalus‘ path to publication, Justin didn’t feel right giving the book a full-on review, but he was kind enough to publish a “not review” in support of the book’s ebook launch, saying he really enjoyed it. He concludes:

…this is the right kind of novel to be the first from the new publisher of Night Shade titles. It is representative of the kind of fiction the list has been known for in the past, and hopefully will be known for moving forward.

Again, many thanks for everything, Justin.

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June 24, 2013 · 5:00 pm

Tor.com excerpt, SFSignal review and a podcast

Happy Monday indeed! It’s been an eventful day for The Daedalus Incident, with a new excerpt, a major review and a nifty podcast interview.

First off, the folks at Tor.com ran a substantial excerpt of The Daedalus Incident — the entire first half of chapter 2, in fact. So if you want a good sense of what I’m up to, click on over and give it a read! Thanks to everyone there for giving me some prime digital real estate.

Next, Paul Weimer (@princejvstin to followers of his reviews and photography) reviewed Daedalus in the Hugo-award winning SFSignal — and saw fit to give it four out of five stars, calling it “an ambitious and fun romp.” Click here for the full review, which concludes:

Overall, The Daedalus Incident is, especially in its Space Fantasy parts, entertaining and fun to read and despite its delays in publication, I hope it reaches its deserved audience, and that the author has the opportunity to explore the universe of the Daedalus, especially, much further.

Paul’s review is very thoughtful and shows off his deep knowledge of the genre. I respect his reviews a lot, so I’m quite gratified he liked it. As for exploring the universe further…I’m workin’ on it, believe me.

In addition to the review, I’m the guest today on the SFSignal Podcast, hosted by Patrick Hester, now available for download wherever fine podcasts are found. The interview is slightly dated; I didn’t know what would become of Night Shade Books (since acquired successfully by Skyhorse Publishing) and my book (now available for the Kindle, Nook and Kobo, with print coming soon). But it’s a fun chat, and we talk a lot about Daedalus and The Gravity of the Affair, as well as beer and other topics, so give it a listen.

Finally, there’s only a few days left in Stefan Raets’ giveaway of The Daedalus Incident, so click on over and sign up to win a print copy of the book.

Many thanks to Tor.com, Paul, Patrick, SFSignal and Stefan!

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June 21, 2013 · 5:45 pm

Listen to a sample of the Daedalus audiobook!

All right, this is freakin’ cool.

As you probably already know, you can pre-order The Daedalus Incident audiobook, which is due out July 19. What I didn’t know until today was that Amazon posted a sample on its audiobook page.

And it sounds fantastic.

The bit they posted was a snippet from the beginning of Chapter 2, when we first hear from Lt. Thomas Weatherby as he writes in his journal to his father. Bernard Clark is the narrator for the Weatherby sections, and does he ever nail it.

I was a touch leery of listening to the audiobook because, well, I already have the characters’ voices in my head, and wasn’t sure whether hearing someone else’s interpretation would drive me up a wall. But this narrator…I could listen to him all day.

Kristin Kalbli is the other narrator for the book; she’ll be doing the sections featuring Lt. Shaila Jain in the 22nd century Mars setting. Sadly, they didn’t post samples of her work, but if it’s anything like Mr. Clark, it’s gonna rock.

Check it out, and if you like audiobooks, pre-order it! And even if you’re not an audiobook fan, the sample makes a nice intro to what you’ll find in the book, should you prefer to experience Daedalus in writing.

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June 21, 2013 · 12:48 pm

Review redux and a Daedalus giveaway

When Stefan Raets reviewed The Daedalus Incident for Tor.com several weeks ago, there was still a lot of uncertainty about when and how the book would come out. Now, with Daedalus available in most major ebook formats (and print coming soon), Stefan was kind enough to re-run his review on his own blog, Far Beyond Reality.

The folks at Skyhorse/Night Shade liked Stefan’s review so much, they’ve put it on the back cover of the book itself. To refresh your memory, this is part of what Stefan said:

The Daedalus Incident is a true genre-bender. It mixes alchemy, quantum physics, and historical figures in ways you haven’t seen before…it’s adventurous, original, and a blast to read.

Be sure to check out the whole thing on Stefan’s blog. And to sweeten the deal, Stefan and I have teamed up to offer a giveaway of The Daedalus Incident to one lucky reader! So click over to the review on his blog; you’ll find the giveaway details at the bottom.

Note that since I don’t yet have print copies in hand, it could take a few weeks before I’m able to drop your copy in the mail. If you can’t wait that long — which I would totally understand — you can order the ebook today and be reading in, like, mere minutes. Instant gratification!

As part of my continued celebration of holy-crap-my-book-is-finally-out, I’ve got a couple of awesome things lined up for next week. So stay tuned!

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June 20, 2013 · 10:56 am

Answering Chuck Wendig’s 10 questions

There’s a few reasons while I keep the swearing to a minimum here on my blog. The biggest one is that my kid (and my Official Author Photographer) will probably read this at some point — and well before she’s ready to see her dad drop f-bombs.

The other is that, despite whatever writing skill I may possess, no salty language I put forth will approach the sheer quality of the dizzying, euphoric, creative profanities that spew forth from the mind of Chuck Wendig. Plus, he’s an awesome writer in general.

I’m over at Chuck’s blog today, answering 10 questions about The Daedalus Incident. I loved the questions, loved the tone of his blog and had a blast answering them.

He also gives a ton of great writing advice and has more than a few amazing books of his own, so when you’re done reading about Daedalus — including a new tidbit from the book itself! — check out the rest of his stuff.

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June 19, 2013 · 12:29 pm

Guest post on historical fantasy up at SFSignal

Just a quick note: I’m guest posting at the Hugo award-winning SFSignal today, talking about historical fantasy. Given that it’s my subgenre at the moment, I enjoy writing it very much, but I’m also well aware of the pitfalls of playing with history.

And if you’re a fan of science fiction and/or fantasy…man, you really need to be reading SFSignal. They do a great job there.

While I’m here, I also got a great review this past weekend from European book blogger Michael Below, proprietor of Edi’s Book Lighthouse. His verdict on The Daedalus Incident:

“This amazing mix of alternate history, science fiction and mystery is highly entertaining and stands out like a lighthouse in the fog of books.”

Read the whole review here. Thanks, Michael!

Daedalus is now available via Kindle, Nook and Kobo, with print coming soon. Hope everyone’s enjoying it thus far, and if you did, I’d be mighty grateful if you wrote up a review on Goodreads or your venue of choice.