Jared Millet's Blog, page 2
June 2, 2023
HuntsvilleCon - June 24
The graphic above says it all! Any science fiction and fantasy fans in north Alabama and south Tennessee, come have a blast with me at Huntsville Con on June 24. The convention will take place at Huntsville's Embassy Suites Hotel from 10:00 - 5:00. Tickets are $20, but kids get in free! Check out the poster below for more details.
I've added a few more dates to my convention schedule, so here's where it stands now:
Georgia Pop & Horror Con - August 4 - 6
AshevilleCon - September 23
ColumbiaCon - October 1
AugustaCon - November 4
CoastCon - March 1 - 3
Hope to see you all at one of these coming up!
March 31, 2023
Kirkus Reviews The Shadow Jubilee!
Back when I bought books for libraries for a living, Kirkus Reviews was always one of the sources I trusted the most. Here's what they say about The Shadow Jubilee:
A fun, entertaining, heartfelt adventure among the stars.
A brother and sister reunite after years apart to fight an enemy who threatens to destroy their home world in Millet’s SF/fantasy novel.
In the author’s rich, engaging blend of SF and fantasy, Merlin and Kite come into vivid focus as they share the narrative with alternating first-person points of view along their parallel journeys toward self-empowerment as they face impossible odds.
Available in ebook and paperback from Amazon and Barnes and Noble
Ebook also available from Smashwords, Kobo, Odilo, and Apple
March 8, 2023
Convention Schedule 2023
So you missed out on CoastCon 45 in Biloxi (which, by the way, was a blast). Never fear! There are plenty more to attend - and buy my books at, hint hint - for the rest of the year across the Southeast. Here's my schedule as it stands so far:
June 24: HuntsvilleCon (Huntsville, Alabama)
August 4-6: Georgia Pop & Horror Con (Columbus, Georgia)
October 1: ColumbiaCon (Columbia, South Carolina)
October ??: (Shhh.... TBA)
January ??: (Shhh... TBA)
March 1-3: Coast Con 46 (That's right, I'm-a comin' back.)
Updates will follow!
February 5, 2023
The Shadow Jubilee — On Sale Now!
First: Happy Mardi Gras! Second: My long-gestating novel The Shadow Jubilee is now for sale. It’s what I call a “Louisiana horror story / space opera mashup” because I’m the kind of guy who thinks any story idea gets better if you add the words “in space” at the end. At this moment, it’s available in print through Amazon and Barnes & Noble and on ebook on Amazon and Smashwords. It should be appearing through even more ebook vendors shortly, but right now you can get it and the rest of my catalog half-off at Smashwords if you use the coupon code at the end of this entry.
BUT FIRST: a blurb.
After fifteen years of exile, Kite returns to her homeworld, New Bretagne, where an ancient evil secretly waits to use her as a means to escape from its prison. Kite’s mind can see across reaches of space, a skill she uses to navigate her starship back to the planet of her birth, not knowing that her home drifts in the shadow of a vast and sinister alien god—one that's ensnared her own brother in its clutches.
From now until March 2 you can get all my ebooks 50% off at Smashwords by using the coupon code QN47G at checkout. (All my books except The Blood Prayer, that is, because it’s already cheaper than a bottle of Fanta). The Shadow Jubilee will make its public debut at CoastCon45 from March 3-5, where I’ll be offering the paperback at a special convention rate. However, that’s no reason not to get your copy early!
In case I’m being too subtle: SHOP NOW at Smashwords or Amazon.
January 29, 2023
Coast Con, March 3-5
Hear ye, Hear ye! I'm happy to announce that I'll be selling and signing books in Biloxi, Mississippi, at CoastCon 45 from March 3 - 5, 2023.
The convention will be held at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center right across from the sandy beaches of Biloxi. It'll feature special guests, gaming, panels, and vendors galore.
Also, I'm elated to reveal that CoastCon 45 will be the public debut of my brand new novel, THE SHADOW JUBILEE.
"What the hell is a shadow jubilee?" you might ask. Stay tuned and find out...
October 21, 2022
A Tale of Two Stories
It never rains, but it pours. At least that’s how it feels when you’re an author waiting for stories to sell, and then waiting for those stories to crawl into print. It’s been six months since “Three Knives” appeared in On Spec, and then suddenly two stories of mine dropped within a week and a half of each other. This happened last fall when “Discontinuity” and “The Librarian of Babyl” came out, and now it's happened again. My new stories this month have a special connection, which I’ll get to in a minute. But first, a taste:
“The God In the Bottle” ~ The Colored Lens, Autumn 2022
“Here’s the scoop,” Hector said with a smile. “The planet Brobdin wants to eat you. That’s what it does. This world has nothing even remotely resembling plant life. Aside from some microbes that feed off thermal vents, everything here eats everything else. It’s a ‘kill or be killed’ world, and you’ll probably get eaten anyway for your trouble.”
Mora steered three cameras at once. She kept one in orbit around Hector’s head while another recorded the view through Gulliver Station’s meter-thick window, just beneath the surface of Brobdin’s world ocean. Hector gestured wildly for his imaginary audience.
“There are a billion hungry leviathans on this nightmare water-world. Stick with me and we’ll ride the back of one.”
Between one moment and the next, a god stood in front of my table. He’d squeezed himself into the form of a man wearing a gray business suit.
“I am Wealth. Don’t pretend not to worship me. Your presence is commanded by the Highest.”
Always knowing when people were lying made life among humans a headache, but being around gods was even worse. Everything they said was true by definition. When a god as powerful as Wealth called, it was more than a half-breed like me could resist.
What's awesome about these two stories coming out together is that, in their original forms, they were both written at pretty much the same time.
Turn the Wayback Machine to 2014, when I was gearing up for my 8th NaNoWriMo. The year before, I’d done a serial novel which became my first draft of The Whisper . This year, my goal was to write a month of short stories, from which I’d later pick the best, polish them off, and send them out for submission. My NaNo project that year was a success. The follow-through... less so. Instead, I let everything I wrote that month languish in authorial limbo and focused on my library career.
Fast forward to 2018. I’d quit the aforementioned library career and was busy circumnavigating South America with my wife (as chronicled in The Escape Hatch). I also decided it was time to dig into that trunk of first drafts I wrote in 2014 and see if any were worth a second look.
The first one I tackled was “Bigger Fish,” a follow-up to “River Ascending” that put the same characters into an even hairier dilemma. “Bigger Fish” had originally been written with the same non-sequential framing device that I employed in “Discontinuity,” which I’d finished in the first month of our South American odyssey. Not wanting to use the same trick twice, I flattened out the older story’s timeline so it flowed in a traditional, linear manner. By October (in Lima, Peru) I had it whipped into a shape that made me happy and started sending it out to editors to see if any would bite.
“The God In the Bottle” was a harder nut to crack. It’s a noir-ish urban fantasy with a tone I really love, but I felt it needed a heavier rewrite to get it into publishable form. I dug into it deep while trudging through Brazil in March, 2019, but I wasn't happy with it until May when we were in Columbia and almost ready to come home. I started sending it out in the summer as I was writing the first draft of yet another novel - one that will hopefully see the light of day soon.
Scroll ahead to the present, and both of these stories are out in the world! If you’re watching the clock, that’s a month shy of eight years between initial conception and publication. Four of those are my own fault for letting them sit in limbo so long, but the other four years just show the glacial pace of submitting short stories and awaiting publication. But now the wait’s over and both stories have a home. Follow the links and check them out today!
“Bigger Fish” ~ Aurealis #155
“The God In the Bottle” ~ The Colored Lens, Autumn 2022
September 23, 2022
Next Chapter Con, October 1
For any and all readers between Chattanooga and Atlanta, get ready for Next Chapter Con in Dalton, Georgia on October 1!
This is specifically a convention for authors and readers. Every genre under the sun will be present, with books galore for everyone. There will also be panels (I may be on one) and no excuse whatsoever not to blow your annual book budget supporting your local authors. Tickets are a steal at only $7.
In other news, I've got two (count 'em) two new stories coming out just around the corner. "The God in the Bottle" is slated to appear in the Autumn 2022 issue of The Colored Lens, while my story "Bigger Fish" will be unleashed upon the world in an upcoming issue of Aurealis. Stay Tuned!
June 21, 2022
Magic City Con, June 24 - 26
Greetings, fellow Earthlings, and especially those who live within an easy drive of Birmingham, Alabama. This very weekend, I'll be joining you all at this year's Magic City Con.
Magic City Con is Birmingham's premier convention for science fiction, fantasy, gaming, cosplay, and all things that make us fans feel right at home. It's being held at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham - Wynfrey Hotel, adjacent to the Riverchase Galleria. Doors open and 3:00 pm, Friday June 24, and the show continues through Sunday afternoon. There are special guests, artists, game rooms, discussion panels, and (of course) awesome vendors galore.
I'll be sharing a booth with my good friend, Birmingham's very own space opera queen, author Teresa Howard, whom I've known since my years with the Hoover Library Write Club (and whose story, "Dead In Me," was featured in my Summer Gothic anthology). Come stop by our table and see what's on offer!
(I'll give you a hint: Books. Lots of books. And possibly discounts.)
On a personal note, this will be my first SF convention since I started writing full-time as my career. Stay masked, stay safe, and I hope to see you there!
April 21, 2022
"Three Knives" in On Spec Magazine
If it please the court, I'd like to offer the following into evidence. "Three Knives" is my first foray in to pure, straight-up, skin-crawling horror, and it's available now in On Spec Magazine. Here's a taste for free:
On Spec is Canada's premier science fiction and fantasy magazine, and I'm thrilled to be included in the latest issue. And while I'm not Canadian myself, I've got enough Cajun in me that I would have been Canadian if my ancestors hadn't been kicked out three hundred years ago. But then again, if they hadn't, we'd never have learned to boil crawfish.
A padded envelope addressed to my five-year-old daughter Stacy sat outside our door when I brought her home from afterschool. There was no return address and worse, no postage. I waited to open it until after she’d gone to watch cartoons in her room.
The only thing in the package was an old straight razor. I dropped it on the kitchen table and my heart skipped a beat. The grip was soft and pitted from use. The blade was tarnished, and there were specks along its edge that may or may not have been rust.
I knew that razor as well as I knew each scar it had traced on my body. But it couldn’t be the one I remembered. When I was ten years old, I’d thrown that razor in the fire of my burning house. The blade might have survived, but not the wooden handle. I fell into a chair and watched it, as if it might somehow come to life. It took me longer than it should to call the cops.
But I digress. Unlike my other recent stories that I've posted, this one isn't available for free. However, you're welcome to buy an ebook copy of the magazine from Weightless Books, or subscribe and get it in print. It's well worth it!
April 12, 2022
Apex Magazine Kickstarter
All right, readers. Today I'm here to shill for Apex Magazine, the wonderful people who published my story “Discontinuity” online back in September. Their new goal is to publish a shiny new anthology, in print no less, including all forty-eight original stories that appeared in Apex in 2021. For anyone counting, that was six regular bi-monthly issues and two special issues: one highlighting indigenous authors and another focusing on international SF.
What do you get for supporting their Kickstarter? Lots of options are available, including ebook and print copies of the anthology, a subscription to the magazine, a chance to have your own name immortalized in an upcoming story, an editorial critique of a story of your own, and... if you shell out the really big bucks... you can get every copy of Apex ever printed. (Not to mention the gratitude of the editors and all of the authors.)
So get thee to Kickstarter and support the Apex 2021 Anthology.
Meanwhile, in the not-too-distant future, another new story of mine is shuffling toward publication. More details soon!
