I’ve finally got off my backside and installed a sub-blog on my author site. At the moment, all posts from here are mirrored there.
If you subscribe to this blog, you may wander over there and test the subscribe function. I will gradually post less here until it all works fine.
Shifting Reality is marching towards its official release. You can already see it in the right-hand column, and yes, the link is live.
Tsana is one of my Tweeps and feebs who grabbed the ARC, and she has been so awesome to write a review, which you can see here. I would love it if a few other ARC-readers posted their comments on Amazon and/or other sites, too.
On the review front, I also got this awesome review by a mother and her son for The Far Horizon.
I have quite enjoyed posting the book on my blog and making material available to followers, but I may do this a little different in the future, because I prefer to keep ARCs in the hands of “real” people. Making them publicly available opens the way for piracy. In the right-hand-column on this page, you will see a “subscribe to my newsletter” link. If you click that, you will be taken to a Mailchimp form. I intend to use that newsletter only for new releases and “special function” promos like ARCs. There won’t be much email. A post will go out within the next few days, but then not until the next book comes out. I’d love to see you there.
Talking about the next book, the project I’ve already started is Trader’s Honour, the standalone sequel to Watcher’s Web. After that, I will probably tackle book 2 of the Ambassador series. I have not yet talked with Russ about the ebook rights for book 1 (how awesome is it to have a publisher who doesn’t grab all the rights and never uses half of them?). He may end up doing an ebook version of book 1, or I may do it, but it would be cool to have book 2 come out at roughly the same time. Alternatively, there is a loosely-related sequel to Shifting Reality, or the Allion novel. Or what about a seriously demented alternate history set in the time of the great ocean voyages? Or an urban fantasy set on Sydney’s north shore involving were-possums?
Clearly, I am not desperate for things to write.
If you are wondering what the Icefire Trilogy is all about, you can read the story that inspired it for free, at Smashwords. It will go up on other sites, just give me a week or two until Smashwords approves the premium status.
Also, I’d been thinking of a self-published book site away from this blog or my website, so I started a book blog Have Kindle, Will Read which will feature self-published books I’ve enjoyed and I can recommend. Yes, you see that correctly, I have a “suggest a book” form. ZOMG! I shall be drowing in the great unwashed torrent of teh awful self-publisherz! Sure.
Did I ever tell anyone that I am the Queen of Ignoring Email?
First of all, I am very happy that my short story Where the plains merge with the sky went live at Scape magazine. This is a short story that makes me cry every time I read it.
The first few paragraphs:
The subhuman’s name was Eleven. All day, the creature had trailed me with the insistence of a shadow. Whenever I glanced aside, its dark eyes were watching me. And now, while I was helping in the kitchen, its chest darkened with hormonal flushes.
I looked away, my hands trembling, and kept rehearsing the lines of my story.
The night was cold and full of stars. I brought the knife down on the cutting board. Two potato halves bounced over the table.
The world was covered in a coat of snow. No, it was a blanket of snow, not a coat. I picked up the potato halves and flung them in the pan. Water sloshed over the side, which Eleven hastened to mop up.
Drops of sweat tickled on my upper lip. I would never remember the lines. I would freeze up when facing the gathered clan.
Mother stood at the stove, stirring the soup, her broad back to me. Her stoic face never showed disappointment, but I knew it was there. I might attain the middle name Vana because the elders knew whose child I was, but I’d never carry on the legend of the Muravi clan’s great storytellers.
…
Secondly, I started my own writer’s group on goodreads
I don’t do many housekeeping posts on this blog, but I can’t see myself making another intelligent post before Sunday morning, when I leave for the US.
For those of you as yet unaware, I’ll be attending the Writers of the Future workshop and ceremony.
More details here
I’ll be away from 8-19 May. I will blog about this event, but I can’t promise that any blogging will happen while I’m there.
It’s more likely that I’ll be posting some brief snippets on Facebook or Twitter.
Meanwhile, I’m also on goodreads where I’d love to hear everyone’s book recommendations. Also check out the ‘Where to find my work’ page above, which now comes with nifty goodreads buttons.
A new blog project!
Readers of speculative fiction like finding new authors and books. They may be looking for something a bit different, or something in a subgenre that’s not widely available. That’s why we read things online.
More and more authors are self-publishing their books. They either do this to keep out-of-contract material in circulation or they publish entirely new fiction. They like to let the world know, but a lot of conventional reviews sites are closed to them and it gets tiring to beat your own drum. They’re in a catch-22.
Readers may want to try out a few of these authors, but they don’t like the risk of buying something that is not up to scratch. Another catch-22.
This blog series will be about meeting the two in the middle.
For each post, I will give the stage to an author to talk about their self-published book. But, in order to be featured here:
– the author must have some publishing credentials or be seriously underway to getting them (published at least one story at pro level, be a member of SFWA, have attended intensive writing courses such as Clarion, or won awards).
– the book must have a cover
– it must be freely available on ebook sites such as Smashwords and the Kindle store
– it must be speculative fiction
– it must not be free
At this stage, I have no idea how many posts there will be, but I envisage posting no more frequently than once a week, and I’ll keep this open for as long as I think this is useful.
Want to write a 500-word post on your book? Reply below.
Because April is Aussie Author Month, I’ll giving first dibs on Aussie authors.
A new day!
I took some time off the internet to sit on the back veranda and actually–uhm–write. Because that is what writers do, right?
So now I’ve parked the zombies in the parking lot, and am getting ready to post some more editor comments on our entries.
But first, some housekeeping:
I’ll be closing the entries tonight 8pm AEDT. We have a decent number of entries to show various aspects of story beginnings, and I don’t want to wear out my willing and kind co-editors. At the moment, there are three of us commenting. If people think this is useful, I’m willing to run this workshop again at some time in the future.
There is one very important way in which you can show your appreciation, and that is by buying a copy of our latest issue, or taking out a subscription to ASIM (paper or PDF). See the ASIM website.
Lastly, people may remember the devastating earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which almost 200 people died and an entire town was reduced to rubble. Following this event. two kind New Zealand writers, Cassie Hart and Anna Caro, have put together an anthology named Tales for Canterbury (Canterbury being the name of the Christchurch region). It will be available in April both in ebook and print version. Pre-orders are now open. Several of us at ASIM have contributed stories. Fellow editor Simon Petrie is from Christchurch, although he now lives in Canberra. Simon and I share the table of contents with great names like Jay Lake, Sean Williams and Neil Gaiman. Get your copy from Random Static , the publisher, and help Cassie and Anna raise $5000 for the New Zealand Red Cross to help the victims.
Back soon with some editor comments!
Hello all writers, Authonomites, Twitterers and others. I’ve had a blog at LiveJournal for a while, but thought it was time for a new initiative. My LJ blog will remain, but I wanted something more writerly, something less about the process of writing, and more about the results.
I want to offer fiction and articles in the genres of SF and fantasy, by me and others. I will announce new posts on Twitter.
I’m trying out this site, and if I like it, expect to see a lot more action here.
Must Use Bigger Elephants 