R.L. King's Blog, page 4

A Vulcan and a nerdy kid: Some thoughts about Leonard Nimoy

I’ve been thinking a lot about Leonard Nimoy since hearing about his passing yesterday. It was so good to see the outpouring of love and affection from the geek community for this icon of a man—Mr. Spock’s passing should be, and was, sort of a worldwide day of nerd mourning.

Live long and prosper

I never met Leonard Nimoy, but like many nerds my age, I always felt a kinship with him. More than that, though, I think it’s safe to say that he is indirectly responsible for a lot of the directions my life took.

I discovered Star Trek in 1977. It was in syndication then on one of the Los Angeles off-channels (KCOP 13, I think), and it was always “that show my mom watched.” My mom and I rarely saw eye to eye on entertainment choices, so I (in the way young teenagers do) actively avoided watching it even as she raved about how good it was.

Then one summer night I was bored enough that I sat down and watched an episode with her. I don’t remember which one it was, though I’m pretty sure it was “Amok Time.” And from that episode, I suddenly got it. I got what my mom saw in this show, and especially in this tall guy with dark hair and pointed ears, who was always so calm and emotionless—except when he wasn’t. Except when he was fighting in an arena, or grinning his head off when he discovered that his friend Captain Kirk wasn’t dead. Here was just the kind of character I admired: strong, tough, capable, highly intelligent, and an outsider. And pretty easy on the eyes, too!

From that point on I was hooked. I watched all the episodes, and memorized the ones that had the best Spock bits in them. I recorded them on my little tape recorder because VCRs weren’t really a thing yet (or at least not one that most families could afford, and the tapes cost a fortune). I spent all my allowance money on Star Trek novels (the Blish novelizations of the episodes, the Alan Dean Foster novelizations of the animated series, which I wanted desperately to see), Spock Must Die, Spock Messiah!, The Price of the Phoenix (still one of my favorite Star Trek novels), and more. When I ran out of allowance money, I begged my parents to buy me more books. I drew pictures. I wrote fanfiction. From junior high through most of high school, I ate, slept, and lived Star Trek. And it was almost all because of Mr. Spock.

Not your typical Star Trek novel

I never attended a convention, but I discovered Star Trek Lives, written by Joan Winston, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, and Sondra Marshak. From reading that, I discovered that Jacqueline had written a book called House of Zeor, so I sought that out. I drove my friends crazy with my Trek and Zeor talk. And I wrote. And wrote. And wrote. And when I ran into difficult situations, or was scared or angry or hurt, I’d ask myself: “What would Spock do in this situation?” And it helped. It really did.

I took a break through most of college, discovering gaming (again, indirectly as a result of Star Trek—that’s where my nerd roots lie), which had a massive impact on my later life in the form of friendships, immersion in the gaming industry, and more writing. I even came this close to being able to take James Doohan out to dinner in college (he came to do a talk, and our club was responsible for making sure he had dinner—but I was a new member, so that honor went to someone else, who later admitted to not knowing what to talk about with him! His talk was wonderful, though!)

Then came the internet, and suddenly these people I admired as a child were right there. They had a presence on the web. Some of them even actually replied to me when I wrote to them. I met Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah, two old-line Trek superfans who were around when the whole thing started. I helped out with the original Sime~Gen website (the series that started with House of Zeor). I’m Facebook friends with David Gerrold, who wrote one of my favorite Trek episodes, “The Trouble with Tribbles.” I chuckle at George Takei’s postings every day. It’s unreal. If I’d gone back in time (in the TARDIS—I’m more of a Whovian than a Trekker these days) and told my 13-year-old self how things would turn out in the future, she’d have laughed. And hoped I was right.

And it all started with a night of boredom and a pointy-eared, dark-haired, green-blooded alien who captured my imagination and spoke to something deep inside a nerdy kid who always felt like she was on the outside looking in at life and who hoped that some day the key would show itself and she’d “get it.”

Always trust a smiling Vulcan

I never did get it—but I did something better. I realized I didn’t have to. Because there are a lot of great people out here with me, and somewhere along the line we all realized that we don’t have to go “in there.” Out here is just fine, thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Nimoy. For all us nerdy kids out there, you made the world a better place.

RIP, LLAP

Feeling like a real author this week

This week has been a lot of fun (notwithstanding some creeping crud’s mostly unsuccessful attempt to get hold of me the last few days). I don’t think there’s been another week when I’ve had so many different things going on to make me feel like a “real” author. The fact that they happened all at once made it a little stressful, but a lot of fun.

First, the galley proofs came back for my Shadowrun novel, Borrowed Time. Now instead of looking like a double-spaced standard MS Word manuscript, it looks like a book. Spent some time looking over that, made some suggestions, and now it’s in the hands of the Powers that Be. I think I’ll get one more chance to look it over–not sure. But I think it’s in about the best shape it can be in as far as I’m concerned.

Cover art should be coming soon–not sure when, but I think I might be getting the same artist as fellow SR freelancer Kevin Czarnecki, who wrote Crimson, the novel that comes before mine. That’s a good thing–the Crimson cover is gorgeous, and I can’t wait to see how the artist works his magic with Winterhawk. Holy cats…seeing Winterhawk on the cover of a real, honest-to-goodness Shadowrun novel…I’m still pinching myself about that.

News is good on my own series front, as well. The first one, Stone and a Hard Place, is back from editing, all the comments have been incorporated, and the layout is done. The second one, The Forgotten (newly revised and updated), is currently in the hands of the editor and expected back some time in early April.

The big news, though, is that I got the cover back for the first one. I used Streetlight Graphics based on a recommendation from someone whose cover I really liked and their online gallery, and it’s been a wonderful experience all around. They do good work, they do it fast, and they’re patient and responsive to tweaks.

I haven’t revealed the cover yet, because I’m trying to actually do some PR for the series launch and I want to do a cover reveal. But let me tell you–it looks sweet. I can’t wait to see what it looks like on an actual physical book.

The next couple of months are going to be pretty exciting for me, with the launch of both my Stone Chronicles series in March and Borrowed Time in April.

Getting excited now

Just a week or so ago, I found out that my Shadowrun novel’s publication date got pushed up from August to April. Wow, that was a happy (but somewhat terrifying!) surprise! Suddenly, instead of having 8 months to prepare, I’ve only got about three. I guess that’s what happens when you turn your manuscript in 3 months before it was due.

So now I’m doing fun things like sending in art notes and back-cover copy, and the book has been officially announced on Catalyst’s “coming soon” page. It’s real. I still have to pinch myself a little bit, since writing a genuine published Shadowrun novel has been a dream of mine pretty much since the game came out and I fell in love with it.

I’m steeling myself for the inevitable haters–because there will be haters. Every Shadowrun novel that’s ever come out has some contingent of readers who say it’s the worst thing they’ve ever read. Even the late Shadowrun fiction uber-god Nigel Findley has his detractors. For a while, I was nervous about it. I tend to take every negative comment personally, which is something I suppose most authors do until they get so big that they can laugh it off.

But I think I’m okay with it now. The other Shadowrun novels that have come out in this new batch (all of which I’ve enjoyed a lot) have gotten their good reviews and their bad, their five-star endorsements and one-star eviscerations. All they mean is that some people liked them and some people didn’t. So if I get some bad reviews, I’ll be in darn good company. And if I get some good ones, they’ll make me happy. Either way, it means people are reading the darn thing, right?

I do hope people enjoy it. I had a great time writing it, and I feel thrilled and privileged to be able to finally bring Winterhawk into an “official” fiction setting. I can’t wait to see it sitting proudly on the Barnes and Noble bookshelf next to its brethren that have come before.

Borrowed Time, coming April 2015.

2014: Writing and Stuff (mostly writing)

This isn’t going to be one of those “here’s everything I did in 2014″ updates. Partly because my brain is full of squirrels, who like to carry off relevant bits of information, hide it, and forget where they put it. I could probably reconstruct most of my year by going through my Facebook updates, but yeah, not gonna do that.

Writing-wise, it was a good year. I got a lot done, both in my freelance work for Shadowrun and for my own personal stuff. Here are a few highlights (some of which need to be vague since they haven’t hit the world yet):

Freelance bits and bobs:

Novella for an upcoming ebook
Short story for Run and Gun sourcebook
Short story and chapter for Run Faster sourcebook
Another project I can’t talk about yet

By far my biggest bit of news from 2014 freelancer-wise, though, was the news in August that my proposal for a real, honest-to-goodness dead-tree Shadowrun novel had been accepted! This is something that has been a dream of mine pretty much since there were Shadowrun novels, and given that I became a fan of the game in 1989 when it came out, that’s a long time. It always seemed like I was in the wrong place at the wrong time when the novel line got one of its periodic reboots, so the news that the stars had finally aligned and I was on the schedule made me a happy camper. I immediately put aside my personal projects and focused on the novel, turning in a first draft in December, 3 months early (yeah, I was a little motivated!) Now it’s in the hands of the Powers that Be, so the next step is to wait for editorial comments, get them incorporated, and go from there. I can’t really say much else about it since none of it has been announced, but fingers crossed, it’ll be out sometime next year.

Personal Stuff – Stone Chronicles

Lots going on in the personal department last year, mostly centered around my original urban fantasy series, The Alastair Stone Chronicles.

The series was a little weird to start with, because I already self-published two of the books when I originally thought it was going to be a trilogy. But then I started writing more, and realized that the trilogy had become a series. That would necessitate some rewrites in the two that were already published, to make them fit in better with the rest of them.

I also had the problem that I’d submitted the first book in the series, House of Stone, to Angry Robot Books’ Open Call at the end of 2013, and was waiting to hear whether they wanted it or not. They said that took around 6 months, so I figured I’d have my answer sometime in the summer. No such luck–the company was sold, and that put them far back in their schedule for reviewing submissions. That meant I couldn’t really move forward until I had an answer. I didn’t get the answer until late November (it was a no–I pretty much expected that, but hope sprang eternal). In the meantime, I:

Completed the fifth book in the series, Faces of Blood.
Completed the third book in the Forgotten Trilogy (and the fourth book in the series), The Source.
Edited The Forgotten (first book in the Forgotten Trilogy, second in the series) to make it fit in better with the rest of the series.

So now I’ve got five books done in first draft form, which leads me to the next bit of good news:

I have a professional editor! John Helfers, who’s the editor of all sorts of pro-published anthologies including the Shadowrun Returns Anthology, as well as the new Shadowrun novel line, has graciously agreed to find time in his schedule for my books! He’s got House of Stone right now, and I plan to submit the others to him whenever he has time available.

I’m also going to have some new, unified covers for the series. I’m really excited about that. Michaela Eaves has done beautiful covers for the first editions of Forgotten and Threshold, but she’s got a busy schedule and I made the decision (which she’s cool with–I asked her) to switch to a different approach for my covers.

Sooo…this year I’m hoping to really start making the push to get the series out there where people can read it, and I’m tremendously excited about that. Look for House of Stone probably some time in the first quarter of 2015, depending on how long it takes me to get all the editor comments incorporated and get the cover squared away. I can’t wait!

Personal Stuff – Other

I’m trying to branch out a bit and connect with other writers. I’m very proud to have been accepted into the Stanford Online Certificate Program in Novel Writing, where I get to interact with writers from all over the world as I work on yet another Stone Chronicles novel. I’ve finished the first course already (got an A!) and had a great time with it. The next one starts soon. It’s a two-year program, with lots of cool and useful stuff coming up!

Aside from that, I’ve also joined a local Meetup group for writing critique, and just joined the South Bay Writers, another group of local writers that’s been around for many years. I’m hoping to make some connections and maybe find some new channels for selling my books.

Con-wise, Dan and I attended the San Diego Comic Con with some friends. I got to be on the panel for the SCRIBE Awards (given to media-tie in writing). That was very scary, but a lot of fun. I definitely felt out of my league among all those published authors, but I didn’t make too much of a fool of myself, I hope. I also got to meet Jim Butcher, which was a highlight of the trip, and get a sneak peek at the pilot episode of Constantine.

Went to Gen Con, where I attended numerous seminars for the Writers’ Symposium, had a chance to chat with John Helfers about writing, publishing, and the industry, and hung out with the folks from Catalyst Game Labs, who make Shadowrun. Had a great time–Gen Con is my favorite convention, and it’s always over too soon.

Well. This has been a bit windy, hasn’t it? I promise, the blog entries won’t all be this long. But I do want to try to update the blog more often (wouldn’t be hard, since I haven’t been updating much at all). I hope everybody has a great 2015!

This is a test

I think I’ve successfully connected this blog to Facebook, so when I post here, it will mirror it there (yeah, I know, don’t laugh.) If it works, then I’ll start updating my blog more often because there’s a chance somebody might read it. This is the first step in my plan to take over the world using social media (okay, maybe not. I’ll probably just post cat pictures, talk about Doctor Who, and every once in a while plug my writing so I don’t become annoying).

Hey, everybody needs a plan, right?