Tag Archives: Daedalus Trilogy

March 30, 2016 · 5:45 pm

Learning from rejection

Now that The Daedalus Incident is out in mass-market paperback — nearly three years after it first launched in trade paperback and became a Library Journal SF/F debut of the month — I’m going to give the wayback machine a spin and talk about how the book was rejected…several times over.

Rejection is an inevitable consequence of seeking publication. A would-be debut author going the traditional publishing route has to first find a literary agent who gets what the author is trying to do and determines that, yes, said author has the chops to pull it off. Then it’s a question of finding an editor at a publishing house who feels the same way.

So yes, The Daedalus Incident was rejected repeatedly. Now, I only queried six agents, five of whom rejected my query letters, before the incomparable Sara Megibow worked with me to whip it into shape. But once that happened, the book then got rejected by several publishing houses before I ended up getting two offers, one of which was from Night Shade Books, my eventual publisher.

I recently went through all the “passes” Sara forwarded to me (thanks to the magic of Google mail), and I was really struck at how few common threads there were. So I thought I’d share some of the feedback I got.

Please note that I’m not doing this out of spite, nor do I have any sort of revenge mentality going on here. I’ve been really fortunate in my career to date. I’m just hoping that folks going through the process of getting published might find this useful. Others may find it interesting to peek behind the curtain to see how things get done. These are all anonymous, and I’m never going to tell anybody who said what. So don’t ask.

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Filed under Books, Publishing, Writing

Tagged as Daedalus Incident, Daedalus Trilogy, MAJESTIC-12, MJ-12: Inception

March 28, 2016 · 10:30 am

My favorite character development hack, courtesy of a role-playing game

Back in college, I was a big fan of White Wolf’s role-playing games. I still think Vampire: The Masquerade was absolutely groundbreaking in terms of playing the monster rather than the hero. Until that point, horror games were about what happened to normal people facing the supernatural — think Call of Cthulhu and Chill. Then White Wolf came along and upended things.

A beast you were, lest a beast you became. Heady stuff.

Yes, it was all very early 90s, very Goth, very pretentious. But our games were interesting, fueled by a referee with a devious and chilling imagination. I learned a lot about character and story from both the game books and my friend Drew’s chronicles. So much so that, years later when I began writing The Daedalus Incident, I found myself leaning on a particular mechanic used in the classic World of Darkness books to bring my characters to life.

Now, I’m sure I’m not the first author who leaned on RPG mechanics to help flesh out characters — I know of a few who went and did entire character sheets for each of their main characters. I didn’t go that far, but I did rely on White Wolf’s personality archetypes to bring my characters to life. They’re quick and easy to use, but when you start looking into the result, you can get a real complexity of character as you think things through.

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The Daedalus Incident out today in mass-market paperback!

The Daedalus Incident sails again! This time, in a more affordable, compact format. What’s not to love?

Very excited to see my novel debut out there again, and I hope this new, less expensive format will introduce the Known Worlds to a whole heap of new readers. What’s more, the paperback features Chapter 1 of MJ-12: Inception at the end, a teaser for the launch of the new MAJESTIC-12 series coming in hardcover this September.

So not only do we get to see Thomas Weatherby and Shaila Jain in an encore, we’re also introduced to Lt. Frank Lodge, U.S. Army, as he patrols occupied Berlin in 1945 — and finds something that will not only change his life forever, but alter the course of the future Cold War.

The mass-market paperback edition of The Daedalus Incident can be found online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, Borderlands Books, Mysterious Galaxy, The Poisoned Pen and at many fine bookstores across the country. (Want to shop indie and local? Check out the book’s Indie Bound page, and be sure to ask your local bookseller to order it if it’s not in stock.)

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Look what showed up in the mail

I arrived back from Los Angeles late Friday night and the book gods decided to welcome me home with a care package Saturday. To wit:

The Daedalus Incident in mass-market paperback!

The cover quote is from the Tor.com review way back when, and they put the Library Journal snippet on the back. It’s the same cover art — courtesy of Sparth — with a similar but pared back design. There’s also a nice callout to MAJESTIC-12 on the back cover, because, spoiler alert… Continue reading →

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Filed under Books, Publishing, Writing

Tagged as Daedalus Incident, Daedalus Trilogy, MAJESTIC-12, MJ-12: Inception, Operation: DAEDALUS

March 2, 2016 · 7:00 pm

Less than two weeks before The Daedalus Incident sails forth in mass-market paperback

That’s right — less than two weeks to go before The Daedalus Incident returns to bookstores in a shiny new package.

It’s always nice to have a book come out, even one that’s already been out. I see the mass-market paperback release of The Daedalus Incident on March 15 — and its sequels in May and July, respectively — as a great chance for folks to give the books a try at a lower cost. And it’s also nifty to let folks get a sneak peek at MJ-12: Inception before it comes out in hardcover in September.

And for the record, each of the Daedalus novels will have a different MJ-12: Inception excerpt — plenty of opportunities to check out the first of the MAJESTIC-12 series of paranormal Cold War spy-fi novels. Because, dammit, I’m all about value.

If you want to get your hands on Daedalus now, you could slide on over to Amazon, where the mass-market paperback is already available for $7.99. And the Kindle edition is now selling for $7.59. I don’t know when or whether other ebook sellers will drop the price, so tell your friends to move fast if they’re Kindle readers.

As for other print retailers, we still expect them to go with the March 15 release. And as always, I would encourage you to head over to your local bookstore and buy it there, or go online and get it from folks like Borderlands Books or Mysterious Galaxy. Independent bookstores rock.

Finally, I would point out that Operation: DAEDALUS remains in full effect, so if you want to win a copy of the mass-market paperback and an advance reader copy of MJ-12: Inception when the latter becomes available, use your social media powers to spread the word about The Daedalus Incident and the new release. Each time you post to Facebook, or Tweet or Pin or whatever, you’re automatically entered to win. Post early, post often. And you get multiple entries if you leave a review of the book on Amazon, B&N, Goodreads, etc. — wherever folks buy or review books.

Don’t worry about pinging me about your entries — I’m watching and searching and will compile the entries myself. The random number generator will do the rest.

As always, my thanks to all the readers who have made the Daedalus trilogy a success, and to those who are actively introducing the books to new readers. You all rock, and I hope MJ-12: Inception will be up your alley as well.

#SFWApro

Crouching Tiger, Hide This Sequel: Why do some sequels work and others…don’t?

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a masterpiece, and I will brook no argument to the contrary. It’s a film that manages to be many things at once: A heart-wrenching romance, a character study, a contemplation of a certain time and place, and an epic, kick-ass Wuxia film. The acting is superb, the directing brilliant, the writing spot-on, the cinematography dynamic and lush, and don’t even get me started on the music.

So when Netflix said they were doing a sequel — the epically titled Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (seriously, a comma and a colon) — I was excited. I didn’t even think to be super nervous about the quality of it. Sure, Ang Lee wasn’t directing and Chow Yun Fat would obviously not be returning, but still. You take a title like Crouching Tiger and you’re taking on some responsibility, man. There are expectations. Of course it would be done well.

It’s amazing, the naivety I still have despite 43 years in the world. Continue reading →