Tobias S. Buckell's Blog, page 31

I’ve been invited to be writer-in-residence by Bermuda this October

Last month Dr. Kim Dismont Robinson from the Bermuda Ministry of Community and Cultural Affairs reached out to me to ask if I would come and be a part of the Writer-in-Residence Programme in Bermuda this October. I would be responsible for helping direct some three weeks of workshops for interested writers, with a focus on genre.

It’s always a huge honor when the islands reach back out to me. And for anyone to reach out to ask me to teach or guide up and coming writers.

I accepted, and am happ...

Humble Bundle eBook Bundle, second week, new titles: Cory Doctorow and Jim Morrow books added and more

Humble Bundle is a super cool idea. You name your own price, help support charity, and get cool stuff. The Humble Bundle eBook Bundle IV features a collection of great eBooks, including novellas by me and Paolo Bacigalupi (The Alchemist and The Executioness) if you pay more than the average amount for the bundle.

Now it comes with addition work. Cory Doctorow has an audio novella up there based on his Little Brother work. Jim Morrow’s Shambling Toward Hiroshima is up as well.

More details:

Thir...

Name Calling, by Celeste Rita Baker, is up at Abyss & Apex

Celeste Rita Baker was the author being edited that prompted a post on this blog not too long about dialect and how to use it in fiction. It’s always exciting to see another Caribbean voice in genre, I hope it’s the first story of many:

“Celeste Rita Baker says: When I was young woman, an ‘other mother’ of mine gave me a journal titled ‘How Can I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say?’ And so I write. I have published short stories in The Caribbean Writer, Calabash, Margin’s Magical Realism...

SpaceX Dragon 2 capsule

I’m sure you’ve probably already seen this. But in case you haven’t, I’m looking at pictures of the Dragon version 2 capsule. This is the one that Elon Musk hopes to send astronauts up in sometime in the next couple years.

And in keeping with his focus on reusability, this one has parachutes as a backup. The main way it’s planned to land is by using rocket thrusters. So that it can be sent back up after being refueled. Thus, bringing costs down.

But also, that means it can be used on other plan...

Ozone hole, global warming, same playbook being used against fixing them

I remember my stepdad rushing to get air conditioning coolant for his Buick. Later he took me out in the car. “This will be the last AC fluid charge for AC this cold,” he told me. “After this, it’ll be weaker. We’ll never have frigid air conditioning like this again, so soak it in.”

At the time, it felt like a total Mad Max moment. Like society was changing and we’d lost something.

At first, it was true. The replacement coolant fluids didn’t create AC as cold. But over the years, systems were t...

Smashwords says “Amazon’s Hachette Dispute Foreshadows What’s Next for Indie Authors”

When I write this, certain people say it’s because I’m a for-hire servant of Big Publishing and that I have Stockholm syndrome.

I wonder how they’ll explain how Mark Coker of Smashwords is brainwashed by New York publishing?

“The dispute with Hachette foreshadows what comes next for indie ebook authors at Amazon who have grown comfortable to KDP’s 70% royalty rates.

Think about my divide and conquer reference above. Indies are already divided and conquered at Amazon, but most don’t realize this....

The Humble Bundle eBook Bundle IV is live! Get amazing books, support charity! Name your own price!

Humble Bundle is a super cool idea. You name your own price, help support charity, and get cool stuff. The Humble Bundle eBook Bundle IV features a collection of great eBooks, including novellas by me and Paolo Bacigalupi (The Alchemist and The Executioness) if you pay more than the average amount for the bundle.

Check it all out. And name your own price. You can even choose how much goes to charity and how much goes to the author and/or Humble Bundle.

More details:

Nine digital literary works....

An appreciation of Jim Hines

For no particular reason, I’d love to share with you the Guest of Honor appreciation that I wrote for Millenicon earlier this year in honor of Jim Hines being their guest.

Jim is one of my favorite human beings in the world, and I’ve known him for a long time. So when the folks at that convention asked if I’d write up the appreciation, I was genuinely excited.

Here we go:

So the humble task of writing a few words about this year’s amazing, multi-talented, Author Guest of Honor has fallen to me....

“One white cat shy of a Bond movie” -Publishers Weekly on Hurricane Fever

Publishers Weekly weighs in on Hurricane Fever, another positive early review:

In this near-future techno-thriller, monster Category 6 hurricanes and bio-warfare are the world’s two biggest threats. After thwarting an overheated anti-global warming scheme in Arctic Rising, Prudence “Roo” Jones, former agent of Caribbean Intelligence, returns to home waters. Drawn by the death of a colleague, Roo joins the dead man’s sister in poking into the business of a billionaire who employs neo-Nazi secur...

Site relaunch sale, just use the code ‘siterelaunch’ to save when buying directly

Since relaunching the website last week I’ve been pretty happy with the faster loading times, cleaner layout, and an easier-to-navigate ‘buy my books‘ section.

I’ve updated how you can buy books directly from the website as well. Instead of using a shopping cart system, I’ve moved all the eBooks over to Gumroad. Gumroad is a nifty 3rd party site that accepts credit cards, delivers the files, and basically makes it painless and worry-free for me to offer direct sales of the eBooks.

Books with th...