Kameron Hurley's Blog, page 18

On Kindness and Conventions

I want to talk a little about kindness.

We like to think that geeks are kind, that geeks understand what it is to be outsiders, and so we open up our circles and are super inviting to everyone. But what happens more often is that once we find our groups, we jealously defend them to keep outsiders away. Once we’ve created an “us” we work even harder to define the “them.” This is one of the reasons that conventions have always been so excruciatingly difficult for me.

Last year at ConFusion in D...

Yes, We’re All Going to Die

People often ask me why I work so hard at the writing game. I’ve answered that question in long form dozens of times over the years, but the short form is simply, “This is all I ever wanted to do, and I know the time in which I haveto do it is limited.”

We share a lot of similarities and life experiences, we humans. One of those is that eventually, all of us are going to die. For folks who have never head-butted death in the face, this is a largely abstract idea. Yes, yes, of course we’re all...

Don’t Tell Me I’m Talented

I remember when I used to be really annoyed with John Scalzi’s arrogant swagger about being a good writer. No, scratch that. It wasn’t annoyed so much as jealous of the fact that he had confidence in his writing abilities. This was way back in 2005/6 when I was still working a shitty admin job and had never compared myself to other working professional writers and Scalzi was just that guy who’d sold a book he published on his blog.

I have now spent a decade working witha truckload of other wr...

ConFusion 2016 Appearances

Still a little shocked that I somehow survived 2015 long enough to arrive more-or-less whole at my first convention of 2016, which will be what is becoming the annual writer gathering at ConFusion just outside Detroit.

It’s a nice centralized con, just a couple hours by plane from either coast and a three-hour drive from my digs here in Ohio. The low-cost-of-living Midwest writing contingent is pleased with this. Most of my programming is Saturday. I’ll also have plenty of books that you can...

Awards Eligibility & Reading Recs

It’s here! It’s time!

I know, I know, seems like it was just yesterday we went over this, eh? But ’tis the new season, and so: the new post.

BEST NOVEL

The second book in the Worldbreaker Saga, EMPIRE ASCENDANT came out in October of 2015, and is eligible in all the best novel categories.

That said, this was another insanely great year for books, and I don’t have my fingers crossed for this one. It’s a middle book, and it’s up against some books I’ll be happily nominating for best novel, incl...

Team Hurley’s Goals for 2016

However you feel about New Year’s resolutions, hard data backs up the fact that those who write down and refer to their goals throughout the year are more successful in keeping them. I spend enough time reading up on psychology and marketing that I know it works, so that’s why I’m doing it. YMMV.

Note that the list below includes only things that I can control. So I’m not saying I want to “sell 25 stories!” or “sell 85 novels!” or “hit the New York Times Bestseller list!” because these are ar...

Faces I Make When Reading Reviews

A lot of people think authors take reviews personally, and I suppose there are many who do. Those are the folks who should really steer clear of reader reactions to books, or rather, what some readers believe the books say about the author, which is always far more amusing.

There are great reviews with insightful criticism of my work, and glowing reviews about how it changed people’s lives.

But, this being the internet and people trying to poke an author for a meltdown, I’m often asked about...

10 Most Popular Posts of 2015

It will surprise no one that the most popular posts in 2015 on this blog were about writing and money. People are hungry for numbers, and they’re here. Fandom topics – Mad Max, Man in the High Castle, my tongue-in-cheek awards posts – also rated high.

Just missing the top 10 was the post on The Traitor Baru Cormorant. I was also pleased to see that the 2007 postWhy Writing Colorblind is Writing White continues to rank in the top 15 for traffic year after year. Numbers are fun, but at the end...

2015 in Review: All that’s Fit to Print (and Some That’s Not)

This has been a hell of a year. Like, a HELL of a year. But as goes the saying largely attributed to Churchill (but probably not actually his): “If you find yourself going through hell, keep going.”

And I did. Which brings us here.

In February the final book of the God’s War Trilogy, RAPTURE came out in the UK. I forget about these books a lot because as most folks know, the new Night Shade Books overlords, Skyhorse and Start, have never paid me the subsidiary money for these books, which is...

Why I Chose to Write Publicly About Anxiety

A lot of people think I’m invincible.

Oh, certainly, one gets a reputation in certain circles. Reputation can be great. Fewer people fuck with me. Folks know I’m not afraid to post about or call out bad behavior in person. That’s nice.

But for writers coming up behind me, seeing me writing three books a year while holding down a day job, getting nominated for awards, and having an increasing sales record can give folks false ideas about how one manages to have a career like this. We look at s...