Warren Ellis's Blog, page 141

THREE PANELS: Molly Crabapple

Molly Crabapple is very busy right now, working on a graphic novel for First Second with John Leavitt, painting huge pictures for rich patrons and masses of other stuff I don't have the strength to list because I've only been awake an hour. I asked her to do Three Panels for you, but I didn't think she'd have the time. I was delighted and amazed when this arrived in email this morning. Even though she used it to explain why, well…

Thank you, Molly. I love it.

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THREE PANELS: Pia Guerra (warrenellis.com)

Bookmarks for 2011-04-13

Planets Could Orbit Singularities Inside Black Holes – Technology Review
"The discovery of stable orbits inside certain kinds of black hole implies that planets and perhaps even life could survive inside these weird objects, says one cosmologist"
(tags:space )
3quarksdaily: A Modest Proposal for an Interstellar Communications Network
"…powerful beams of neutrinos could be used to turn entire stars into flashing beacons, broadcasting information across the galaxy. Outlandish as this sounds, it is an idea that can easily be checked, for astronomers are already sitting on the data that might contain these extraterrestrial messages. They just need to analyse those data from a new perspective."
(tags:space )

Station Ident

(Brian Lopez)

Off to London for quick BERG drinks then dinner with my publisher.  Got to do a phone interview about GUN MACHINE on the way.

The first interview request to pop through the Mullhollan...

The first interview request to pop through the Mullholland PR process about GUN MACHINE is with Kat Curtis, over here.

Email interview requests can come to me at warrenellis@gmail.com, and will be forwarded on to Mulholland.

On The Mulholland Book Deal

Daily Blam has Mulholland's actual press release.

It was John Schoenfelder, the editor of Mulholland Books, who brought me in.  It was Michael Pietsch, the publisher of Little, Brown (but perhaps still best known as David Foster Wallace's editor on INFINITE JEST) who made it clear, in the middle of it all, that there was a seat for me there.  Which was hugely affirming for a hack like me and came at just the right time.  But it was John who was tireless, inventive, collaborative and determined.  And so I am now a Mulholland Books author, along with Charlie Huston, Greg Rucka, Michael Marshall Smith, Duane Swierczynski, and… christ, it's an amazing list, go and look for yourself.

John Schoenfelder is scarily clever and erudite and I are not.  But he has an absolute passion for all the things we like.  Which is why there are crazy people like Charlie and rock stars like Greg on his list – people who like the weird stuff and the pop stuff as well as the literary barricades and the deep waters.

GUN MACHINE came out of a shedload of latenight email volleys between myself and John. We were just trying to establish the parameters of where we could go with a book.  An inciting event that encapsulated the tone as well as opening up a story of many levels.  A weapons cache became a room filled with guns.  A room full of guns became a room with guns arranged in waves and swirls.  Light falling into the room in narrow golden shafts.  A gunmetal church.

Somewhere along the way, it became a two-novel deal.  So I live at Mulholland Books now.  Which suits me.  The imprint, and the book itself, will give me the space to explore a bunch of ideas in any way I want, in any depth I want.  So long as someone gets shot every now and then.  But that's my bias, not theirs.  I just like killing people.  The chances of finding an imprint editor who likes and can quote from FELL and DOKTOR SLEEPLESS at will were pretty fucking slim, but here I am.  And the space between those two books, undiluted, is pretty much where I am with GUN MACHINE.

A few of you had probably already noticed that I'm not producing as much comics work as I was.  I have two novels to write now, so I won't be increasing the amount of comics I'm doing.  I have a couple of things still in the pipeline at Avatar and Image, one or two other possibilities float around, and I'm still producing one comic a month for Marvel for now, but I won't be adding much to those, if anything at all.  It's time to do something else for a while.

I may even set up one of those word count things Cherie Priest uses, just so I can go completely fucking mad within days.

So… yeah.  That's all I can think of to say, right now.  Except to thank my long-suffering literary agent, Lydia Wills, who is a star and an angel.  (I must show you her business-card art soon.  You'll love it.)

I'm a novelist again.  That'll piss off the guy who ensured that only the bad review of CROOKED LITTLE VEIN made it to its Wikipedia page, I bet.

Announcing A Two-Novel Deal At Mulholland Books

There's the news from Reuters.

And here is the news, with a short essay written for Mulholland, at the imprint's website.

More in a bit.

Bookmarks for 2011-04-11

Physicists discover new way to visualize warped space and time
"When black holes slam into each other, the surrounding space and time surge and undulate like a heaving sea during a storm. This warping of space and time is so complicated that physicists haven't been able to understand the details of what goes on — until now."
(tags:space )

Station Ident

By Rich Stevens of DIESEL SWEETIES. Thanks, squire.

It's going to be a day.

Pye Corner Audio: Black Mill Tapes Vol?.?2

Click through to buy a copy for very little money:

Black Mill Tapes Vol.2 by Pye Corner Audio Transcription Services

SWING 4

On its way.