Category Archives: Events

May 18, 2015 · 12:30 pm

Reminder: Get to Scottsdale, Ariz., by May 27 to see 17 SF/F authors in one place!

A week from Wednesday, Scottsdale, Ariz., will briefly become the nexus of SF/F awesomeness — and you need to be there. Yes, YOU.

The Poisoned Pen is hosting a SciFi extravaganza signing on Wednesday, May 27, with a total of 17 authors you really, really want to see, myself included. Heck, there’s a few people on this list that I’m gonna fanboy over. Subtly, of course, because you really gotta be a pro at these things, right? (*squee*)

The list:

Seriously. SEVENTEEN authors. I’m still kind of amazed at how this particular signing is shaping up, and I’m pretty excited to be a part of it. If you’re a SF/F fan anywhere between, oh, let’s say Los Angeles, Albuquerque and Salt Lake City, this is absolutely worth the trip. And, of course, Phoenix Comicon starts the next day, so if you’re in town for that, you’re officially out of excuses.

The Poisoned Pen is at 4014 North Goldwater Blvd. in Scottsdale, Ariz. The event starts at 7 p.m., and I’m told it’ll basically spill out into the parking lot, since the store literally cannot contain the awesome of 17 SF/F authors in one place. It’s gonna be that good.

A huge thanks to Kevin Hearne for setting this all up, and to the store for putting up with an ever-increasing roster of authors (myself included). Yes, I’m bringing you beer, Poisoned Pen, because you deserve it and it’s how I roll.

#SFWApro

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May 14, 2015 · 9:42 am

The Reddit AMA is now live! And I’ve invaded Chuck Wendig’s site, too.

Let’s kick this morning off right. The Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) on Reddit’s r/Fantasy is now live. Click here to post your questions, and I’ll circle back at 9 p.m. ET to answer. Ask about The Venusian Gambit, the Daedalus series, other writing, travel, beer, whatever. Note that I’m also doing a thing in this AMA where you tell me what you’re reading, and I choose a craft beer to accompany your book. Yep, book-and-beer pairings. This is how I roll.

**segue** And I’m also rolling through Chuck Wendig’s blog today! **/segue** The Great Bearded One offered me a full-blown guest post at Terribleminds, then wrote an incredible introduction that left me laughing so hard my kid gave me the stink-eye. So I’m over there talking about the writing process, and how mine different from yours and my wife’s and Chuck’s and how that’s OK.

So check out the guest post, and go ahead and ask me anything on Reddit. Be sure to swing by r/Fantasy later this evening for the answers.

EDIT: The Reddit AMA was a lot of fun. Click here to read through it. My thanks to the gang at r/Fantasy and everyone who participated!

#SFWApro

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May 12, 2015 · 6:00 pm

Your handy event reminders

The Venusian Gambit rolls on, and my thanks to everyone who’s been buying it, liking it, reviewing it, etc. Your Tweets and Goodreads posts and blogs really do make a difference when it comes to the success of authors you like, and it’s very much appreciated!

So I’m going to be out and about, online and off, over the next several weeks; here’s a handy schedule:

Thursday, May 14: Reddit r/Fantasy AMA. It’s high time I went and did this, and I’m excited to check out the questions. As an added bonus, I’m going to suggest craft beer pairings for whatever folks are reading — good books deserve good beer, after all. My introductory post will go live Thursday morning, with answers coming in the evening.

Wednesday, May 27: Sci-Fi Extravaganza at Poisoned Pen Bookstore, Scottsdale, AZ. If you like SF/F any anywhere within, oh, 500 miles of Scottsdale, you should make plans to hit this up — if the magnetic pull of this much awesomeness hasn’t drawn you near already. I’m one of 15 authors — Kevin Hearne, Naomi Novik, Beth Cato, Django Wexler, Chuck Wendig, Jason M. Hough and others! — who will be there. Seriously, this is insane. Be there.

Thursday, May 28 through Sunday, May 31: Phoenix Comicon. This is going to be such a big, crazy celebration of all things geek, how could you miss it? HOW, I ask? I’m on six panels, doing three different signing thingies, plus Drinks With Authors. You can find my schedule here. The hard part will be getting on a plane Sunday night for Los Angeles, followed by a full day of day-job meetings on Monday.

Saturday, June 27: Vermont SF Writer’s Series, Burlington, VT. Official details to come on this one, but it’ll be in the evening at the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington, which is a fantastic little city that you should all visit at some point and, really, this is an excellent excuse to do so. Plus, I’ll be bringing home a trunk full of Vermont beer.

And that’s all I have on deck for now. Yes, I’ll be at DragonCon in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend, but there’s still an entire summer to experience before that, so we’ll talk about that later.

Oh, and a few more Gambit items. The good folks at Black Gate Magazine did a “New Treasures” piece about the Daedalus series, which was great to see. And Matt Mitrovich included Gambit in his weekly roundup on Alternate History Weekly Update. I’m proud to be a Friend of The Update!

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March 2, 2015 · 5:00 pm

New event: A massive, awesome group-signing in Arizona this May!

As you may be aware, I’m heading to Phoenix Comicon in late May to join a great group of fans, participate in a bunch of panel discussions, and eat many, many tacos. And now I’m going to do one other thing, too….

…one amazing, truly epic THING with a huge group of amazing, truly epic PEOPLE.

Seriously, if you’re anywhere near Arizona for this, you need to be there.

I’m joining fourteen other fantasy and science fiction writers for the Poisoned Pen’s massive “SciFi Extranvaganza” on Wednesday, May 27 at 7 p.m. in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area. The event was once called ELEVENGEDDON back when only 11 writers were signed on; also, it was originally supposed to be held at the Poisoned Pen itself in Scottsdale, but could end up finding a new home because of all the amazing people involved.

Which people? Well, I’ll tell you:

I mean, HOLY CRAP, you guys. Do you see this list? Do you see it? These are some of SF/F’s best and brightest here, plus, you know, me. I may act all cool and composed on the outside during this thing, but inside I’m going to be a wigged-out fanboy.

So what are we doing? Well, the event listing has us up for a night full of fun quirkiness, but I have no idea what this means. However, I know many of these authors and their ways from first-hand experience, so I dare say “fun quirkiness” will be a rather impressive understatement.

Plus, apparently, there will be drinks and snacks, along with a few giveaways for folks who buy a book there. Yeah, that’s right…SNACKS.

Oh, and if you buy books, we’ll sign them. Some may doodle in them as well, but that’s not a guarantee.

I’ll update with any changes in venue or appearances as we get closer. Anyway, this will be amazing, so be there!

#SFWApro

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February 21, 2015 · 5:01 pm

Post-vacation roundup of fun stuff

I’ve been away for a bit, busy with day-job work, some very good flashes of creative writing and, well…vacation. We were originally heading for the Bahamas, but winter weather here and stormy, rainy, cool weather there made us rethink the trip at the last minute.

So we went to Vermont, which is always lovely. (For a post on the last time I visited, click here.) We did some skiing, caught up with family and friends, ate and drank exceptionally well, and wistfully plotted our retirement to the Green Mountains at some point. For a nifty take on our adventure, head over to Kate’s blog for some great pictures and thoughts.

When I returned, I found a care package from Night Shade Books waiting for me:

gambitARCs

Aw, yeah. The Venusian Gambit is looking pretty sweet. In addition to these ARCs, I just signed off on the front-and-back cover copy — including a new blurb from an outstanding author that I can’t wait to tell you about, along with a really nice review, too.

At some point soon, I’ll likely do an exclusive blog-and-Twitter giveaway for one of these bad boys. I’m also saving one or two for charity as well — the Con or Bust auctions are coming in April, after all. So stay tuned for opportunities to win and/or donate to get an early copy. And I’ll note that the Goodreads giveaway of The Daedalus Incident goes until March 10, and there are 10 copies up for grabs there — signed, no less! Sign up to grab one.

On another note, it looks like there may be a chance to save Borderlands Books in San Francisco! This is great news — it’s such an awesome store, and San Francisco will be poorer for its absence. They’ve decided to see if they can sell paid sponsorships to people to keep the store going, and it seems to have worked really well. They needed to sell 300 sponsorships, at $100 each, to keep their doors open. As of yesterday, they sold 230. I’m just getting up to speed on this now, but the sponsorship seems like a great idea. So if you’re in the area, or really just want to support a great institution, get a sponsorship! Click here for how to do it.

UPDATE: 

You should still get a sponsorship, though. Every bit helps!

That’s about it for now. I’ll be traveling again in the coming week — this time to Los Angeles for day job stuff — so I probably won’t be blogging a heap. But when the May 5 release date for Gambit gets closer, you’ll be inundated with stuff, no doubt. We have a lot of great, cool things planned to celebrate.

And as for Vermont, well…I’ll be back for the Vermont SF Writer’s Series in June up in Burlington. If you’re around, hope to see you there!

#SFWApro

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February 2, 2015 · 6:00 pm

Author appearances and indie bookstores

First, a few housekeeping items. I’m confirmed as a guest at Phoenix Comicon and as an attending professional again at DragonCon in Atlanta. (I even have my very own Phoenix Comicon guest page, which is very awesome.) This will be my first time at the Phoenix event, but I know many of the authors going and they recommend it highly, so I’m quite looking forward to it. And I had a most excellent time at DragonCon last year, and can’t wait to go back.

Now, for some bad news. I missed out on reading at Borderland Books in San Francisco last summer due to the passing of my mom. Jude was, of course, very understanding and completely awesome, and I was able to stop in and sign some stock this past December while in town for day-job work. It’s such a cool store, and I was looking forward to returning this summer to read and sign The Venusian Gambit.

Sadly, Borderlands is closing. Charlie Jane Anders put it best:

https://twitter.com/charliejane/status/561954818550296577

I e-mailed Jude and asked if there was anything I could do, or if there was an effort underway to try and save the store. And there yet may be such an effort. However, it seems like the folks who run the place are very much in the acceptance phase of things, whereas many of us are still surfing through anger and denial. So unless the store itself comes up with a new plan — or if someone with deep pockets comes in and offers to buy the joint outright — I’m going to work on the acceptance thing on my end.

If you’re in the San Francisco area, please consider stopping by the store on Thursday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. to learn more and see what they need — and buy as many books as your wallet can manage. They’re also selling shelves and fixtures, too.

If you’re not local, I recommend you to check out the store’s site and, if you can, make some purchases between now and closing time. They’re also going to make some commemorative hoodies, and I certainly plan on buying one if I can.

Finally, I’d simply urge you to support your own local booksellers, whether they’re focused on SF/F or not. Bookstores are great for communities, and indie stores are such amazing places, run by people with passion for the written word. Go buy some books. Become a regular customer. Yeah, it’s a few bucks more per book, but it’s totally worth it.

#SFWApro

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January 12, 2015 · 9:00 am

Events, appearances and conventions: Find me in 2015!

TVG-cover

I love this cover so much, I’m just going to put it on any post remotely related to the book.

A few days ago, a commenter asked whether I’d be going on tour to support The Venusian Gambit. Bless his heart…we don’t have funding for that sort of thing!

But that said, I do have plans.

There will be several opportunities to catch up with me after The Venusian Gambit comes out May 5. I’m planning to go to a handful of conventions this year, and I’ll crop up in a few other places besides. Some are, at the moment, tentative and thus aren’t listed here. In fact, let’s remember that this is January — everything is tentative.

Here are my preliminary plans for events and appearances and such:

It’s also highly likely I’ll do a reading at Borderlands Books in San Francisco in either July or August, depending on when my day-job travel takes me there. Likewise, since my corporate mothership is in Los Angeles, there’s a strong chance I’ll be heading out there at some point; if I do, I’ll try to set up something in SoCal, too.

Finally, I’d really like to do something local to New York around launch time, but right now I don’t have anything definitive. So, you know, if you own a bookstore or something in the city, let me know.

#SFWApro

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December 31, 2014 · 6:00 pm

Happy New Year!

I’ve seen more than a few authors close out 2014 by posting their blog stats and most-read posts, but that’s kind of like when your favorite TV show does a clip-show. Sure, you can revisit favorites, but you’ve seen ’em all already. For this blog, I had roughly the same number of visitors this year as in 2013, and I’m grateful for everyone stopping by.

The past year was, frankly, difficult and exhausting. We lost my mom to cancer over the summer — something I didn’t blog about at the time because I simply didn’t have the heart to do it — which made the summer and fall tough sledding. Actually, that’s quite an understatement. Thankfully, I have an amazing family and wonderful friends who helped me through.

Because of all this, I missed the original deadline for The Venusian Gambit, but I have fantastic and understanding editors and I’m happy it’s in the can and looking great. In the middle of all this, I also traveled for work about three times more than usual. At times, the travel was a bit of a respite, but mostly I missed my family and found my writing and other personal endeavors thrown well off track.

To be fair, while the year was trying, it wasn’t all bad. The Enceladus Crisis came out to great reviews and sales, for which I’m immensely grateful. My day job continues to like me a lot, which means I continue to put food on the table and take nice vacations now and then. I enjoyed going to BEA, DragonCon, NYCC and World Fantasy and meeting up with fans and writers and wonderfully creative folk. I went to Iceland, which was pretty awesome. Most importantly, my wife and daughter are healthy and happy and still enjoy my company.

Overall, though, I’m quite content to say farewell to 2014. I’m looking forward to a bit more routine in 2015, with (so far) less work travel scheduled. I’m hoping to revamp my exercise regimen and to write with more regularity and discipline; it’s not that I’m fat and lazy, but after this year, I’m craving a bit more structure and a lot less chaos.

I’m very much looking forward to the release of The Venusian Gambit, which marks the conclusion of the Daedalus trilogy, and doing all the blog posts and podcasts and fun stuff associated with that. I plan on going to Phoenix Comicon this May, and will hit up DragonCon, NYCC and World Fantasy again if all goes well. I’ll be back in San Francisco over the summer and hope to do a reading at Borderlands Books. It’s going to be fun. I’m proud of Gambit, both as a stand-alone novel and as a conclusion to the story I started in The Daedalus Incident. I can’t wait to see it out there in the wild.

I’m not under contract for more novels at this point, but I do have something cooking that I think will be super cool. It’s a departure from the sailing-ships-in-space, four-color adventure of the Daedalus series, and I’m excited about going in some new and different directions with my writing. The concept has been very well received by folks who matter, so it’s now about me getting it in gear and making it into a real thing. And that’s all I got to say about that; naturally, I’ll keep you posted.

Thanks for reading this blog and keeping up with my doings. Thank you to everyone who’s read and supported The Daedalus Incident and The Enceladus Crisis. My thanks also to all the folks who helped make 2014 better than it might have been otherwise.

Here’s to the new year.

#SFWApro

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December 2, 2014 · 11:14 am

Grounded in Newark. Will have to miss the io9 meetup.

Figures the San Francisco area is getting hit with heavy weather on the day I’m trying to get there. Because it’s all about ME, darn it.

I’m stuck in Newark waiting for my flight, which has been delayed quite a bit. Currently supposed to depart two hours late, but the desk says it’s more like five. So if that’s the case, it’s highly unlikely I’ll make the io9 meetup tonight in San Francisco.

Bummer, because I do love io9 and all the great folks who write for it. But at this point, unless we magically get out earlier, y’all will have to geek out without me.

That said, if you’re in the area, you should totally go. Raise a cup of coffee in my honor. And if my flight does get out early enough, I’ll try to get there. You can follow my Twitter feed – as seen on this page to the right of this post – to see if the weather gods oblige.

#SFWApro

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November 30, 2014 · 11:28 am

I’m going to the io9 meetup on Tuesday, Dec. 2, in San Francisco

And if you’re in the area, you totally should as well.

I love me some io9.com — they’ve been absolutely fantastic with regard to me and my writing. They covered the whole Night Shade Books thing early last year, and they posted excerpts of both my books. (Here’s Daedalus, and here’s Enceladus.) They even named The Daedalus Incident a book you can’t afford to miss last year.

Plus, they generally have awesome geek-stuff on a daily basis. Books, TV, movies, games, science, society, space…it really is my go-to site for all things awesome. If you’re not reading it, you should totally check it out. Great topics, neat ideas, excellent writing throughout.

Anyway, the io9 crew will be at the Borderlands Bookstore Cafe in San Francisco on Tuesday, Dec. 2, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The details of the meetup are here. It’s billed as an informal thing, which is awesome. I’m gonna go and hang and basically say thanks to an awesome group of people for all the love they’ve shown me, and all the love they show geekery in general.

It just so happens that I’ll be in San Francisco for my day job, and the timing of this could not be better. So if you’re around, I hope to see you there!

#SFWApro

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