Hugh Howey's Blog, page 76
January 15, 2013
New York Meet-Up #3!
This is totally not fair. I haven’t had my first Saskatchewan meet-up, and here I am having my third in the Big Apple. I wasn’t sure if I’d even be able to do this, as my week has gone from Brittany Spears insane to Lindsey Lohan insane, a considerable bump on the Cruise-a-Meter. But I posted on FB that I’m here, and readers are threatening to leave me for Sue Grafton if I don’t complete the NYC Meet-Up Trilogy.
The only way I can make this work is to do it right here in the hotel. I’m in room number
(That was for my wife. Sorry, honey!)
I was thinking we would just meet in the lobby bar at the Hilton Hotel on 6th and 53rd. There are two of them, actually. One is called “Bridges.” The other is just tucked away in the corner of the lobby. I vote for the latter. I’m going to say 8:00 tomorrow night (the 16th). Chime in if you plan on coming or to tell me about that awesome place right around the corner that you wish we could go to and is probably super noisy and packed to the gills.
January 13, 2013
The Beginning of Busy Time
So many incredible mentions and developments this week, I don’t know where to begin! THIRD SHIFT is completely written. It’s in the hands of editors and betas, and will be out before the end of the month. I’ll get working on DUST tomorrow and hope to have that moving along nicely, so keep an eye on the progress bar!
WOOL was reviewed in the Guardian ahead of its UK release. That’s the British equivalent of the New York Times. A true honor and thrill (should that be honour?)
Here’s an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald that’s pretty cool.
I’m this month’s reading selection for one of the best Goodreads book groups of all-time! Check out their review, join the group, and get in on the discussion! I’ll be checking in on the thread starting tomorrow and twice daily.
What else? Oh, Dublin has been added to the UK tour. That’s exciting. And I’m leaving on Tuesday to go to Digital Book World in NYC and then off to LA for a week to discuss film stuff. 
This means signed books won’t be going out for at least two weeks. I’ll catch up when I get back. I’ll also be slow to respond to emails, Facebook, Twitter and the like. The next few months are going to be wonkish like this. Bear with me!
January 10, 2013
Update on Third Shift
Well, I finally got an angry email about Third Shift. A reader has threatened to leave me for another writer. From what I hear, D.J. Molles’s The Remaining series is equally as good as Wool and Shift. You all might want to check them out. (I am!)
The word counters, sadly, only show the progress of my first draft. Hence this update. I am a third of the way through my final revision before the manuscript goes out to editors and beta readers. I expect to be done by Monday (working through the weekend). Once I get back the suggestions and corrections, I’ll incorporate those and be ready to publish. The version you all get from me will then be cleaned up even further for the UK and US releases from Random House and Simon and Schuster, so feel free to wait for these superior versions (I would!)
Cool, you clicked after the break! Okay, the plan is to have Third Shift out by the end of January. And if you all knew what my days were like right now, you’d be impressed. I sure am. Impressed and terrified. And now for those of you who clicked through, here’s a peek at the cover for Third Shift. I think it’s Mike Tabor’s best work yet:
Click here to see the full spread! (The back is just as purty!)
January 6, 2013
Raconteurs’ Rousing Writing-Related Roundup!
A handful of great reads on the blogosphere right now if you are an aspiring writer or just care about the state of the book industry.
The best read of the week, however, goes to Elle Casey, who discusses the state of the publishing industry with an agent. It is one of the great reads on the subject of publishing right now. I liken it to a buggy-whip maker scratching their head and listening to Henry Ford go on and on about some strange new invention of his. The essence of a shifting tide is seen right here, folks. A must-read.
Finally, Anne R. Allen discusses the bizarre world of book reviews. Everything about this post screams the need for all of us to review the works we read. The only way to drown out the noise is with a chorus of honest voices. Making this difficult is the new policy whereby authors can’t review books. That’s a bind when more and more readers are becoming authors!
January 1, 2013
Happy New Year!
Thank you from the Down Deep of my heart to everyone who made this past year the wildest of my life. It has been an amazing ride. Ever since I was a young boy, wearing out paperbacks like there was no tomorrow, I’ve dreamed of being a writer. I never expected to be a decent one, or one who sold more than a handful of books, I just wanted to complete a novel. One book. And then I’d be able to die happy.
One book turned into ten. The hope of selling a handful turned into an appearance on national bestseller lists. The aspiration of reaching a reader or two has led to amazing friendships and thousands of acquaintances.
Thank you, each of you. I hope 2013 is as amazing for you as 2012 has been for me. Whatever you dream of, chase it. Even if you don’t catch it, you might give it a good scare.
December 21, 2012
An Unbelievable Flurry of Media Mentions
What a crazy way to wrap up what has been an utterly surreal and unbelievable year.
First, I heard that Huffington Post listed WOOL on their list of books to look out for in 2013.
Then, BoingBoing mentioned the SHIFT books in a follow-up to their review of WOOL earlier in the year (BoingBoing, along with Wired, were among the first to review and mention Wool. They rock).
Finally, my socks were blown clear off when iO9 added me to their Science Fiction and Fantasy Power List. It’s simply not possible to convey how strange it is to be listed alongside my icons. Flabbergasting. What a crazy year.
December 17, 2012
WOOL Art Competition – Win an iPad!
Listen up you doodlers and graphic artists, you photogs and knitters, you sculptors and puppeteers, Random House has just launched an unbelievable art competition for fans of WOOL. The gig is simple: You create something artistic inspired by the series, and they hand one lucky winner an iPad. AN iPAD!!
Good gracious, it gets even better. The winning entry will also be featured inside my next book, SHIFT, which will be released by Random House UK in the Spring. So you’ll be sitting there with your new iPad and be famous, too.
WOOL seems to attract the most talented of readers, so I can’t see what you all come up with. They’re allowing any medium, so if you enter something irreproducible and it wins, a picture of your piece will go in the book. Random House wants this to be open to as many artists as possible.
The details are right here: http://apps.facebook.com/woolbooks/PhotoContests
Best of Luck!
December 14, 2012
See you at year’s end!
Barring anything major happening over the next ten or so days, the blog is going to be awfully quiet. I’m heading out west to spend Christmas with family. I’ll also be doing a lot of writing and a lot less online stuff. Hopefully that comes as good news to most of you.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all. Love on your families. I’ll check in before the year is up to look back at a wild and crazy 2012.
December 12, 2012
The Next Big Thing
I was tagged by John Joseph Adams to take part in The Next Big Thing meme, which basically asks writers to answer a set of questions that appear on blog after blog. There’s nothing I hate more than a chain letter. There’s nothing I love more than a good Q&A. Evenly balanced, I was swayed by my adoration of all things John Joseph Adams and decided to participate. I’ll start by imploring you – begging you – to read Wastelands, the finest post apocalyptic anthology ever created. Okay. Now to the questions.
What is the title of your next book?
Third Shift. It’s the sequel to Second Shift . Before that was First Shift.
I’m sorta famous for my wild imagination.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
Readers. They were very upset at me for Second Shift. They insisted it should’ve been longer. They said the same thing about First Shift and Wool. It’s never enough with these people.
What genre does your book fall under?
Romance. My book is science fiction, so alphabetically, I think it falls under Romance.
Are these the real original questions or is John Joseph Adams having fun with me?
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
I picture myself playing the lead role of Donald, so I would say Brad Pitt. The character of Mission, who is a lot younger but equally handsome, would also be played by Brad Pitt. But with CGI. Like they did in that film where he shrank.
What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
You do know that Proust was able to stretch a sentence along for page after page, and if you weren’t aware of this fact, well then I’m here to tell you that he indeed was capable of such a thing, and that just when you thought his mega and ridiculous sentences were going to end, he’d do something clever, like use a semi-colon where good sense calls for a period; my book is about people living underground after the world has been made uninhabitable.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
That’s a tricky one. I like to think of myself as a self-published author, because the chicks dig that, but in truth I’ve become something of a hybrid, and nobody but Monsanto thinks that’s cool. I’ll put Third Shift out on my own here in the U.S. via Kindle Direct Publishing and CreateSpace. Random House will release the Shift trilogy in the UK and Australia a little later. Hopefully, Simon and Schuster will want to print the book here if Wool does well in March. It’s all a bit confusing, to be honest. I like this question the least.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
The one I’m working on right now? It took a month. Exactly. I wrote it as part of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The challenge is to write an entire 50,000 word novel in the month of November. And then you revise it afterward until it becomes legible.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
That’s tricky. Nobody else is foolish enough to write books as strange as these. I would say the Shift trilogy is part Rip Van Winkle and part Pelican Brief.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Bill Pillow. He was my boss at my old day job in a bookstore. I no longer have that job, which means I better keep writing and selling books. Food costs money, you know.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
This will be one of my only books not to feature a cliffhanger epilogue. I promise. Maybe. Or…
****
Cool, I did it! Now I get to tag five other contestants And here they are! May the odds forever be in their favor!
Erik Wecks
Susan Kaye Quinn
David Adams
Sara Cannon
Bella Andre
(Check their blogs next week and see if they rose to the challenge or slunk off into the woods like ninnies!)
Luddites, Rejoice!
In March, Simon and Schuster is releasing a print edition of WOOL here in the United States, and I couldn’t be more excited. This deal is all about the new publishing paradigm. There are no clauses limiting what I can write and how quickly I can release. I keep control over the ebooks, which means the prices will stay where they are. And nobody will have to suffer my horrible pagination skills any longer. You’ll finally get a print edition with the utmost in quality and design.
And it gets better. Simon and Schuster is planning a simultaneous paperback and hardback release. This is something I begged for as a bookseller and more recently as a writer. Bookstores will get the paperback, which means WOOL will be affordable. Libraries (and those of us who prefer them) can order a hardback. It’s the best of all possible worlds. Affordable e-books published swiftly, paperbacks where anyone can find them, hardbacks for the libraries.
Throughout this process, I’ve tried to make decisions based on what readers and other authors deserve. My agent and I walked away from round after round of strengthening deals. Last month, we declined two separate 7-figure offers. What we wanted from the beginning was a contract that seemed fair. Simon and Schuster has earned my eternal respect and gratitude for coming through. I couldn’t be prouder to be one of their authors. I just hope this book lives up to their prestigious reputation.
