Category Archives: Writing

June 10, 2015 · 5:30 pm

Yes, there’s a gay character in the Daedalus series

TDI-bigcoverThey say, of course, that one should not respond to bad reviews, and I wholeheartedly believe this to be correct. Nonetheless, a recent reader review — on a site that will go unnamed and unlinked here — asked a question:

Is it absolutely necessary to make a gay character these days!? They’re 3% of the population!

The reviewer in question left a four-star rating, which was lovely and greatly appreciated, so this was by no means a bad review. And since the question was asked, I’m inclined to provide an answer. (Note: Very mild spoilers for The Enceladus Crisis and The Venusian Gambit below.)

I’m going to assume that the character in question is Maj. Gen. Maria Diaz, USAF, 22nd century commander of the DAEDALUS task force. She started off as a colonel in command of a backwater Mars base in The Daedalus Incident, then (quite appropriately) found herself promoted to lead DAEDALUS’ efforts to study interdimensional rifts and, as needed, defend against further incursions.

And yes, she’s gay.

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June 5, 2015 · 9:30 am

Unexpected short story successes

I would absolutely love to say that the three short stories I have coming out over the next several months are part of an overarching career plan designed to slowly but inexorably claw my way to the top of the heap of science fiction and fantasy. Or that they represent just a fraction of the creativity spewing from my, er, creativity font.

Yeah…no.

Now, bear in mind: I could not be prouder of these three stories. The first, the Pathfinder story “Crisis of Faith,” will be serialized on Paizo.com in June/July, and it’s a nice dose of classic D&D-style fun. “On a Kansas Plain,” a very sparse, creepy story that I think hits pretty hard, will be in Cthulhu FhtagnI in August from Word Horde. Finally, “Confessions of an Intergalactic Art Fraud” will be in Unidentified Funny Objects 4 in November; this one is pretty antic and insane and, hopefully, funny. They are all very different from each other and from my novels. It would seem I have range as a writer.

But if you think I actually planned all this, that’s not the case. I already explained how “Crisis of Faith” came to be via Twitter, which was a very happy accident indeed. The other two were similarly unplanned, though at least more deliberate.

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May 26, 2015 · 10:00 am

A look at outlining in Excel

With the release of The Venusian Gambit, I’ve been doing a fair amount of stuff, including a guest post on the writing process at Chuck Wendig’s Terribleminds, as well as a Reddit AMA on r/Fantasy. And a question came up in both places: What’s with this Excel outlining you keep talking about?

Well, it’s a long answer, but I figured I’d give it a go. I use Excel to outline my novels in a far more complete, intensive way — more like a storyboard, really. I can include not just what happens, but to whom it happens, why, their reactions, the effect on the setting, etc. I found Excel useful because my books tend to have some complexity to them — different dimensions, multiple POV characters, lots of moving parts — and it helps me keep things straight. Plus, I like being able to storyboard a scene before writing it because I’ve spent two decades writing to spec, and that’s what works for me — even if I create the spec.

OK, let’s see what one of these outlines looks like. Continue reading →

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May 25, 2015 · 9:30 am

How a Twitter conversation led to a nifty short story sale

It’s funny sometimes how things come about. Take this Twitter exchange from last year’s Book Expo America, which ultimately led to me being able to announce a new short story sale today. It all started when SF/F copyeditor Richard Shealy (a.k.a. SheckyX) talked about the books he scored at the event.

Yes, I brought homebrew for my peeps at BEA. I’m good like that. But his tweet was initially misunderstood.

https://twitter.com/FredKiesche/status/473427725374738432

As it happened, I had given Shecky The Enceladus Crisis , as well as a beer. So things got conflated a bit.

https://twitter.com/FredKiesche/status/473521334803505152

For those of you who are unaware, Pathfinder is a role-playing game by Paizo Publishing that’s built on the d20 license. It’s a fantastic high-fantasy setting with some really imaginative elements to it. Of course, I grew up on Dungeons & Dragons, and I really liked what I had seen of the Pathfinder setting to that point.

But it’s true, I hadn’t written a Pathfinder story. At the time, The Enceladus Crisis had just come out and I was busy working on The Venusian Gambit. The sentiments were super nice, though.

Then this happened:  Continue reading →

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May 22, 2015 · 9:23 am

I have a story in the forthcoming Unidentified Funny Objects 4 anthology!

image descriptionWell, here’s something new and different. I’m quite excited to announce I have a short story in the upcoming SF/F humor anthology Unidentified Funny Objects 4, edited by Alex Shvartsman and due out in November.

My story, “Confessions of an Intergalactic Art Fraud,” will join new original stories by the likes of Piers Anthony, Esther Friesner, Gini Koch, Tim Pratt and the prolific and indefatigable Mike Resnick, and a couple of classic stories by Neil Gaiman and George R.R. Martin.

Yep, somehow I’ve ended up in an anthology with Gaiman and Martin and so many other exceptionally talented writers. The mind, it boggles.

The cover by Tomasz Maronski is just perfect, isn’t it? Here’s the complete table of contents:  Continue reading →

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May 20, 2015 · 5:00 pm

A brief Venusian Gambit excerpt, and a new review of Daedalus

TVG-cover-finalThere were a couple of things that hit the Internet over the past couple days I wanted to flag for you guys, especially if you’re fans of the Daedalus series. The books keep chugging along, and yet again, I’m really pleased and humbled with the reception. Thanks for your support and your ratings and reviews! Here we go:

On the Page 69 Test blog, I talked about The Venusian Gambit and discussed some of the elements of the story found on — you guessed it — page 69 of the book. It’s a pretty neat exercise, and I think page 69 of Gambit doesn’t disappoint. Click here to read it, along with the entire page from the book.

TDI-bigcoverOver at SFFWorld, Rob Bedford reviewed The Daedalus Incident and had many nice things to say about it, such as:

The Daedalus Incident is a clear indication of a writer with an interesting and fun story to tell who possesses writing and storytelling skill. All three books have been well-received and I very much look forward to finishing my journey along with Weatherby and Jain through the Solar System in both (maybe more?) universes. Recommended.

Read the whole review here. My thanks to Rob, a man who knows his beer and books.

Finally, I did a guest post today for the New York City Writers Network on how my two decades of experience in journalism and communications prepared me for fiction writing far better than I had realized. There are definitely days where I still have to pinch myself when I realize this whole novelist thing is working out well, but in retrospect, I had been building toward it for a while. Check out the post here.

#SFWApro

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May 18, 2015 · 5:45 pm

New interview at SFFWorld, and what’s next at the Qwillery (with giveaway!)

TVG-cover-finalCouple of new items came out today in the parade of all things having to do with The Venusian Gambit.

Over at SFFWorld, Dag Rambraut interviewed me about the series, publishing and writing — there was a great question about sensibility in writing that particularly caught my attention. When I first started, I tended to err on the side of characters making sensible decisions. While characters should, of course, behave according to their personalities and internal logic, the demands of the story often call for a bit more mayhem. Striking that balance is one of many things I’ve learned to do. Check out the full interview here.

And over at the Qwillery, I wrote a guest post on wrapping up the Daedalus series, and what might be next. I’ve had a few folks remark that they’re sad the series is over — which, really, warms my black writer’s heart to no small degree — but for me, it’s kind of been over now for a few months. So I got to riff a bit on what that means, and what’s next. Here’s the post; my thanks to Sally and the gang for having me on.

Speaking of the Qwillery, they’re giving away a signed copy of The Enceladus Crisis as part of that post; you have until May 28 to enter, so get clicking!

Finally, for those attending Phoenix Comicon, I wanted to point out that the now-traditional Drinks With Authors is a go. It’s happening Saturday, May 30, at 6 p.m. at the Sheraton in the Valley of the Sun room — which is possibly the best name a room could possibly have. There will be door prizes and raffles (including, perhaps, some books by yours truly), with all proceeds to benefit the Kids Need to Read charity. Come see authors in their natural habitat — i.e. where drinks are served — and help kids get books. No brainer, right?

 #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!

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May 8, 2015 · 5:30 pm

Interview on Publishers Weekly radio, plus Gambit Audible pre-orders

Yesterday I had the distinct pleasure of returning to Publishers Weekly Radio to talk once more with Rose Fox and Mark Rotella. We had a great chat about getting the Daedalus series published, writing, community…you name it. You can listen to it here, or download it from iTunes. They interview so many awesome authors on the show (Ken Liu! Brandon Sanderson! Gay Talese! Joyce Carol Oates!), so it’s a real honor to do this one. My thanks to Rose and Mark for having me on again,

And here’s a bit of good news for audiobook fans — the Audible edition of The Venusian Gambit is now available for pre-order. It’ll be available on June 23. Why then, as opposed to, say, now? No idea. But it’s coming, and it has the same awesome narrators, Kristin Kalbli and Bernard Sotero Clark, that did the first two books. So get it queued up!

Finally, it’s been a busy couple of weeks, and there’s been a lot of stuff out there on The Venusian Gambit and yours truly — interviews, guest posts, podcasts, reviews, etc. Yes, we basically wallpapered the Internet with the book, if only to remove the chance of anybody being unaware it exists. The good people at Night Shade Books created a handy-dandy blog post with everything done so far — and what’s coming up.

And with that, I segue into a weekend of domestic bliss, including helping out at the 5th grade car wash fundraiser and running a 5K with the family, plus celebrating Mother’s Day. Next week: More stuff, plus my r/Fantasy Reddit AMA on Thursday, May 14. And as a reminder, there’s just nine days left to win a signed copy of The Daedalus Incident in the Qwillery’s giveaway.

Have a good weekend, gang.

#SFWApro

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May 6, 2015 · 5:45 pm

A new Gambit review, plus interviews on publishing and editing

First off, thanks to everyone who’s been so supportive of The Venusian Gambit this week. Your blog posts and Twitterings and reviews mean a lot. I appreciate it!

I also appreciate this review from Tracey “TrinityTwo” of the Qwillery, who had this to say about the final book of the Daedalus trilogy:

Part of the beauty of this series is that it’s not simply sci-fi, it’s also daring exploits, nail-biting espionage, brilliant war tactics, and mortal danger experienced by characters the reader truly cares about. In short, it’s kick-ass action with great human drama…. The conclusion of the series is very satisfying; the conflict is resolved in an explosive burst of action with results that made me a bit emotional. I was honestly sad to reach the last page. I will definitely miss reading about Jain and Weatherby’s exploits. The Venusian Gambit is truly sci-fi magic that you won’t want to miss.

That’s pretty much the definition of an awesome review. Thanks to Tracey and Sally for all the good stuff the Qwillery does. The Qwillery is doing a giveaway of a signed copy of The Daedalus Incident, by the way — click here and sign up by May 17 to win!

A couple interviews landed today as well:

  • Over at Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing, I talked with Robert Junker about, well…my adventures in sci-fi publishing. We talked about the writing and editing, self-publishing vs. traditional, and which beers I’m geeking out on at the moment. Great interview, Robert!
  • And the illustrious Dan Hanks had me on his site 10:07 to talk about editing. Dan’s a fellow writer and we had a good deep dive on how the books came together, my writing process, the contributions of my fantastic agent and editors — you name it. Check it out!

Finally, an early heads-up for everyone. I’m going to be doing a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) over on r/Fantasy on Thursday, May 14. Basically, you stop by in the morning, lay down a question or two in the as-yet-unposted-thread, and I’ll swing back in the evening to answer. (You do need to be a registered Reddit user to chime in, but it’s an easy thing to do.) Really looking forward to this one, as r/Fantasy is a pretty awesome community.

#SFWApro

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