Colin Alexander's Blog, page 4

Mid-week Maunder 30 September 2020

I was late to the idea of audiobooks. I grew up reading books and the idea of listening to them instead didn’t click for me. If nothing else, I can read a whole lot faster than someone can narrate. So, when I started to write, the idea of producing an audiobook never crossed my mind. That lasted until a discussion at Boskone this year when I was told that I was being an idiot – actually the author was far more polite in the way she said it; I wrote it the way it probably should have been said. It was made very clear that I needed to change with the times. I had published Starman’s Saga just a few months before and I went through ACX to have an audiobook produced. That has been well-received, so I decided it was time to do an audiobook for Accidental Warrior. That is now in production and the new book, when it comes out, will have an audiobook version, too. Old dogs can learn new tricks. At least, this one is trying.

On the reading side of things, this one is a fun departure from the usual science fiction and fantasy book. Zombies & Calculus by Colin Adams. I’m not kidding; that is the title. In a way, I suppose you could say this is really hard science fiction; it is – literally – full of equations. The story is of how a professor along with his family, and some students and other faculty at small school in New England survive a zombie apocalypse – through differential equations! Yup, there are differential equations for how fast (dZ/dt) the zombie population grows (you could take the equations and apply them to COVID-19 if you were so inclined), for how to out-maneuver zombies, and even for modeling how humans and zombies could end up in an oscillating equilibrium. If you like math (don’t hate me here), it’s a hoot. There are some downsides, of course. The plot is pretty standard zombie apocalypse. The characters are two-dimensional at best. It’s really a math book that was eaten by a zombie. It is fun, though, to see the math applied to zombies and at only 228 pages, including appendices, it doesn’t take that long to go through it. I recommend it for the general sf reader, with the caveat that I think you should have one course in calculus under your belt.

Weekend Maunder 19 September 2020

Book reviews, I mean official editorial ones.  Important to have when you are launching a book so the book will be noticed, especially if you are indie and self-published, but that is exactly where they can be hard to get.  So, a notice came the other day from Barnes and Noble about a new partnership they have with BookTrib, a service that can, among other things, provide a book review.  So, I went and looked.  They offer paid book reviews; i.e., the author pays a fee and they will review the book.  They also offer other services of a promotional nature, fee-for-service, of course.  These are usually red flags, an indicator that you will pay out money and not get much of value for it.  I checked SFWA's Writer Beware and nothing came up on search.  That's a good thing but always remember the saying: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.  There are pay-for-review services that are completely legit.  Kirkus Reviews, for example.  NetGalley also is a pay service to have your book in it.  Both are well-known and well regarded and it is well-known that you have no guarantee of a positive review.  I have placed books with both for reviews and will again.  Where does BookTrib fall?  Right now, I can't find enough information to know - positive or negative - so I'm going to keep an open mind and keep looking around.  If you've had experience with them, I would like to hear it.

On the pleasure reading side, bought John Scalzi's "The Last Emperox."  The is the third and supposedly final book of the Collapsing Empire series.  I enjoyed it.  A lot.  Scalzi has come up with one of the most original concepts for interstellar travel - the Flow - a physical property of the universe that is in the process of going away.  The series concerns the actions of an interstellar civilization that depends on the existence of this to connect worlds and stations that cannot survive in isolation.  It's a great adventure plot - hey, the end of civilization is a pretty existential issue - and his world-building is excellent.  There are some points I didn't like as much.  His characters have attitude and tend to be snarky, which is fine, except that they sound too much like each other.  Even Kiva, a main character whose signature is dropping an f-bomb in almost every sentence, sounds (if you remove the f-bombs) like a lot of the others.  It tends to leave the characters a bit flat.  That said, this is a plot-driven book and is a fast, enjoyable read.  I said "supposedly final book" above because that is the claim.  There would be room for another one and I would read it if he writes it.

Weekend Maunder 5 September 2020

It seems the week is gone in the blink of an eye, and that's without going to an office anymore.  A lot of it is the thousand and one details of self-publishing and indie work, all of which has to be done if you are planning to have anyone beyond family and close friends read what you write.  I don't claim to be a master of the business side of this - 'cause I'm not - but I try to keep learning with each book and with each mistake.  Remedial marketing is the current project.  Like it or not, marketing is part of the business of writing and, if you are not with a traditional publisher, it is as much a part of the job as writing the book in the first place.  That means understanding what works in advertising and learning how to do it.  All of which is part of being ready for when "Complicated" comes out this fall/winter.

I did find time to read "A Song For A New Day" by Sarah Pinsker.  Picked it up in a bookstore and thought it would be interesting and I was not disappointed.  First, a word about the setting.  The author has built a world in which a viral plague has led the government to pass laws against congregating, large crowds (including concerts) are forbidden, and many people self-isolate as much as possible.  No, this is not today's news - the book was published a year before COVID-19 hit!  The crystal ball isn't perfect, of course, and many differences between the way people act in the world of the book and the way they are actually acting in the real world stand out, but it is overall a fascinating experience to read it with COVID-19 going on around us.  The story follows Luce Cannon - best name ever invented for a singer, guitarist and songwriter - and Rosemary Laws, a talent scout, as they look to bring rock back to the people.  Pinsker is a musician and it shows in the wonderful detail around the bands and the music.  The setting and the story work really well.  The characters with their strong points and their flaws are terrific.  You know this when you hesitate to start a chapter because you know there has to be a big reveal/break-up/blow up coming and you're sufficiently invested in the characters that you wish it didn't have to happen.  A few things don't work so well.  The Luce POV chapters are first-person narrative while the Rosemary ones are third-person restricted.  I found the shift a bit jarring in some places.  I also wish we saw more of Luce's story.  Rosemary gets most of the growth arc.  These are minor and don't spoil the enjoyment of the book.  If you like rock and near-future, slightly dystopian sf (which could almost be on CNN now) you should read this.  Highly recommended.

Mid-week Maunder 19 August 2020

I want to mention again the Mars Society meeting that will be October 15th - 18th. Okay, this is not science fiction.  This meeting is focused on the science and engineering necessary to get us to the red planet - and to plant a colony there.  Speakers are from JPL, from NASA, from overseas, and a number of them are involved with current Mars missions.  If the science fiction you read has ever made you wish that we could go out into space (and it has done that for me from the day I started reading it), then think about attending.  We can go to Mars for real and we should.  And then we can go further.  Check out www.marssociety.org.

I went on a Seanan McGuire run a while ago (obviously). The fourth book in the Wayward Children series is "In An Absent Dream."  This is the story of Lundy, who appears (briefly but importantly) as a secondary character in the first book. This is truly a tragedy, in that it follows the old Greek design of a character blessed with talent and promise who, as a consequence of their internal flaws, loses everything important to them.  It is, in fact, a rather sad story.  That said, the story is beautifully told.  As with all the books in this series, it is short but the character of Lundy is very well-described with all her good and not-so-good attributes. I really felt for her at the end. This book could be a complete standalone; it does not depend on any of the others (it is a "prequel" to the first book).

Mid-week Maunder 13 August 2020

The upcoming new book will be titled Complicated: The Interstellar Life and Times of Saoirse Kenneally and I'm aiming to have it out at the end of this year or beginning of the next.  There's a lot of frantic work between now and then and editing and proofing is only part of it.  A book needs a cover, for example, so cover art has to be obtained.  But to use the available digital tools to have a POD paperback, the artist has to know the thickness of the book's spine and that depends on the final page count of the formatted pdf and that can't be determined until we reach "pencils down" on any changes that might affect the page count.  Sometimes, life can feel like a Gantt chart ...  Anyway, it is on the way and more on this in the fall.

"Beneath The Sugar Sky" is the third book in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series.  This one, I'm afraid, is not on my favorite list.  The story focuses on different characters than the first two (not all of them different, but the leads are different) and I did not feel invested in them.  The story lacked the real sense of danger that was present in the first two; it felt more like a bedtime story for a young child.  This is an adventure in a Nonsense world and while the writing is very inventive, the world did not feel substantial.  Finally, the plot device involved in success of the kids' quest did not work for me.

On the non-fiction side, Dilip Hiro's "The Longest August" is an history of the conflict between India and Pakistan from the end of the British Raj up to 2014.  The succession of confrontations, mis-judgements, outright wars, near nuclear war, terrorist incidents, assassinations, and coups involving these nations is a roller-coaster of events that I doubt any writer of fiction could produce - and this is real history.  The book is written in an objective and dispassionate manner that presents the events in an accessible manner.  I found this an excellent read and overview of this important history, especially for one who has not studied this area.

Mid-week Maunder 5 August 2020

Been reading my way through Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series.  I don't usually go for series, but to my mind, that's a set of books with a small number of continuing characters who have a different adventure (or mystery) in each book but the characters don't change (or grow) that much from book to book.  McGuire's books are starting to feel like each is a part of a much larger story.  (Either that, or I simply like them and am finding reasons to be positive.)  Anyway, "Down Among The Sticks And Bones" is the second.  It is actually a prequel in that it gives the story of Jacqueline and Jillian (Jack and Jill) before what happens in the first book.  Jack is my favorite character in the books (so far), so I was looking forward to this one and I think it is excellent.  All of the principal characters feel real; they have virtues and flaws; they have their quirks and their motivations flow organically from who they are.  These points are conveyed well, despite the brevity of the book.  The plot carries a sense of impending doom which is handled well despite the fact that, as a prequel, we know a lot about how things turn out.  I wondered for a while whether it would be better to read this book first, but I don't think so.  The first one is fun without knowing all the detail.  

I think these books are a good illustration of the fact that you don't need a ton of backstory or character soul-searching to create individualistic, three-dimensional characters.  As in real life, the good guys can't be all good and the bad guys can't be all bad (okay, there have been some real world characters with no redeeming traits whatsoever, but that's a, thankfully, rare event).  This is particularly something to think about when penning the secondary characters in a story.  If we want the reader to believe in the story as a whole, the way the secondary characters participate is very important.  They can't be cardboard.

Mid-Week Maunder 15 July 2020

Working hard on a new story, which means days when it feels like it’s really coming together and other days when the predominant thought in my mind is, “Who would ever want to read this?” It’s always like that early on. I tell myself to tell the story and we’ll see when we get to the end. I do set a goal of writing something each day. It may not be a lot, but I want something down on paper. I don’t have a set word count for the day, although I do want to fill at least one page of my writing pad. It’s easier now that the office job has been retired, but there are still some days the brain doesn’t want to work.

A couple of notices. The folks who do Boskone (Nesfa) are having a virtual meeting on Aug 15th – ReCONvene20. I’m excited to see this program and looking forward to the con. Check their site (nesfa.org). This may turn into a dress rehearsal for Boskone 2021, if we are still not able to hold an in-person con at that point. Personally, I fear that is a realistic consideration. Concerns for the future aside, check this one out on it’s own merits. On a non-fiction, serious science side, check out the Mars Society convention October 15-18. This one has moved online as well, which means that you can attend from anywhere. This is a serious scientific and space-flight meeting (the goal is humans on Mars), but for folks who read and love science fiction, it’s worth seeing our fiction come to life. The program is top notch and I recommend looking into it.

On the reading side, I finally got to “Every Heart A Doorway,” by Seanan McGuire. I wish I’d read it sooner. This is a delightful and delightfully dark story of children who have found their way through portals to fantasy worlds and, having returned, want only to go back. They are out of place in our world and considered crazy, so they are placed at a “school” that will help them get better. The characters are all unique individuals and uniquely twisted. This is a really short book, but McGuire’s prose makes all of these teenagers come alive. That’s an interesting sentence for this book, because then we get to the murders and the mystery of who is doing the killing (and why). Perhaps the one point I did not like (other than I didn’t want it to end) was that I was sure of the killer earlier than I would want to be in a mystery. Bottom line: I am ordering all four of the subsequent books in this series.

Mid-week Maunder 27 May 2020

Looking forward to the online Nebulas this weekend, albeit with a little trepidation as to how it will work.  Well, I’m game to try it.  One of the more interesting parts of the weekend is that this year the Nebulas overlap with a professional meeting that I usually attend.  I had figured that I would have to choose between them: I could only fly to one city after all.  Now, with everything online, I think I can toggle between sessions at the two meetings.  Maybe crazy and I may end up with a cranium full of mush, but it’s worth a try.  We’ll see.

Read To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers this week.  She is possibly my favorite new writer (well, pretty new).  I’ve read and loved all of her first three novels.  This is really a novella (it’s labeled that way) as it’s only 134 pages (that’s the length of the story, there is extra material at the back).  Things I liked most about the book start with the characters.  As always, Chambers has drawn a set of compelling individuals that come across as real people.  I could see them crowded around one of those small tables in Starbucks, deep in conversation, (well, in non-COVID 19 times), even if I don’t think I could join them.  They really do come across as a tight group.  She has also done a brilliant job creating not one but four worlds, each with its own interesting science aspects.  (And the realistic science is focused on biology and chemistry, which I like.)  There were also a couple of things I didn’t like.  The plot is rather thin.  Okay, in only 134 pages with all the detail on the characters and the worlds, there isn’t much room left, but I would have liked to understand a little more about what was happening.  What I really didn’t like, though, was the ending.  The storyline sets up several ways for the book to end and – I’m sorry – I felt that the one chosen was the weakest possible.  I’m not going to do spoilers, so I will bite my tongue and stop, but that ending was a big let down.  Sigh.  I would still recommend this book to both general sf readers and especially hard sf readers.  It is fun.

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Mid-week Maunder 20 May 2020

A fairly light week this week, but then we have the online Nebulas at the end of next week.  Very interested to see how this works.  While the scale will be reduced and the spontaneous personal connections can’t happen, the online modality does make it possible for people to participate without having to buy airline tickets and hotel rooms.  So, maybe there is a silver lining here that we can find a way to use in the future, even after we can have in-person conventions again.

Took a look at my to-read pile and it is heavy with non-fiction, particularly history and biography.  So, why does a guy who writes science fiction (and has been reading science fiction since he was ten) spend so much time reading history?  Part of it, I think, is that the old saying, “truth is stranger than fiction” is really true.  In fiction, the writer has to convince his reader (and his editor in a traditional setting) that the story is credible, that it’s believable.  History, on the other hand, is simply what happened regardless of crazy or unlikely it might seem.  I like that.  It is a good place to get ideas.

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Mid-week Maunder 13 May 2020

The audiobook is now on sale!!  Check it out on Amazon or Audible.

Mostly buried in the new draft this week.  I did have time to do some reading, though.  Picked up Sharan Newman’s Defending The City of God, non-fiction history of the Crusader states concentrating on the first half of the twelfth century.  I had picked it up primarily looking for information on Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem.  She was a true ruler and, from the little available, seems to have been a strong one.  The book is interesting and the author frequently gives her opinion or impression of what was going on, which is different than your typical history.  I found it a bit thin, I’m afraid, particularly where Melisende is concerned.  This is not the author’s fault, really.  The problem is that there simply isn’t enough about Melisende that has survived the years and, ultimately, it left me disappointed.  I think this would be a great topic for a writer of historical fiction; there is enough there to pique the imagination while so much of the story is unknown that a writer could let their imagination roam.  That brings me to the topic of female leads and that is something I will leave for next week.

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