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Sword & Sonnet Is Out!

SWORD & SONNET IS OUT!

The anthology Sword & Sonnet, a badass collection of stories about female & non-binary battle-poets (yes, battle-poets!) has emerged into the world! My story “And The Ghosts Sang With Her” graces these lovely pages, along with a ton of other amazing stories by writers including Cassandra Khaw, Alex Acks, Merc Rustad, Matt Dovey, SL Huang, Khaalidah Muhammed-Ali, and a bunch of others.

When I got the prompt for “female or nonbinary battle-poet,” I really had… no idea what to do with that. I can write other genders, I can write poets, and I can write battles… but putting them together?

Plus, I’d been writing the Starfire novels, and I hadn’t really tried a short story in… uh, *checks watch* two years. Eeeesh.

In desperation, I turned to my enormous and neverending corpus of stories set in a Crusades-ish Arabian-Nights-ish world. (The Crusades, but the Muslims are telepaths and the Christians are shapeshifters.) About five different failed novel drafts came out of this world, but they gave me this story and this story as well. And I wrote… and wrote… and wrote. I wrote a massive story, almost a novella, chronicling Laila the battle-poet and the three times she tricked Death out of her lyre.

Yay!

It was too long.

In desperation, I tried some other stories about Laila the battle-poet. According to the original story, she had forty children. How’d she feed them? That became a story. Why did she make a song for a lame horse?

And then, of course, I had to know what happened with the ghost firebird in the ghost city. Or why a rat owed Laila a great debt.

You get the idea. It’s a fantastic anthology getting a lot of love on Twitter, but we’re still a little poor on Amazon & Goodreads reviews, so do drop a review if you enjoy it.

Norwescon Schedule

I’ll be a conquering novelist at Norwescon! And… not sure whether you’ll actually be able to buy my novels there. I’ll try to have some available at the signing for purchase. Here’s the schedule. Note the reading at 4 PM Friday; there will be fun! Snacks! Prizes! choooocolate!

 

Friday

Building Alternative Histories

10:00am – 12:00pm @ Evergreen 3 & 4

Russell Ervin (M), Adrienne Carlson, Spencer Ellsworth, Pat MacEwen, Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Michael Ormes, V Whitlock

Young Fen Filk and Sing-Along

3:30pm – 4:00pm @ Olympic 1

Spencer Ellsworth (M), Adia

Reading: Spencer Ellsworth

4:00pm – 4:30pm @ Cascade 4

Spencer Ellsworth (M)

My Editor Wants What?!

6:00pm – 7:00pm @ Cascade 9

Laura Anne Gilman (M), Patrick Hurley, Patrick Swenson, Spencer Ellsworth

Saturday

Pardon Me, Are You Aaron Burr, Sir?

10:00am – 11:00am @ Cascade 9

Spencer Ellsworth (M), Lisa Mantchev

Writers Workshop: Charles Walbridge

11:00am – 12:00pm @ Rainier

Dean Wells (M), Spencer Ellsworth, keerawa, Emily C. Skaftun

Autograph Session 1

2:00pm – 3:00pm @ Grand 2

Chris Pramas, Galen Dara, Ken Liu, Matthew Wedel, Nicole Lindroos, Alexander James Adams, Brenda Cooper, Cat Rambo, Donna Barr, Echo Chernik, Ethan Siegel, Evan J. Peterson, Greg Bear, Jennifer Brozek, Jeremy Zimmerman, John (J.A.) Pitts, Julie McGalliard, Kay Kenyon, Kent Hamilton , Laura Anne Gilman, Lisa Mantchev, Django Wexler, PJ Manney, Spencer Ellsworth, Dr. Vicki Wedel, Lish McBride, Kurt Cagle, Tim Pratt

The Slippery Slope From YAY To EWW!

3:00pm – 4:00pm @ Cascade 9

Spencer Ellsworth (M), Amélie Mantchev, Lisa Mantchev, Sienna Saint-Cyr, Lish McBride

Organs of Control:  The Totalitarian State

4:00pm – 5:00pm @ Cascade 11

Bill Gruner (M), Spencer Ellsworth, Andy Dudak, Norman K. Moss

Death is Easy, Comedy is Hard

7:00pm – 8:00pm @ Cascade 9

Spencer Ellsworth (M), Matt Vancil, Lish McBride

An Interview With Saint Jaqi Her Own Self

There are so many people to thank and hug and cry with as we reach the last of three intensely close release dates… none more so than the main character herself.

Let’s hear now from the one person who’s suffered the most during this process… the main character of A RED PEACE and the following books, Jaqi. Folks I present an interview with my favorite scrappy smuggler and ne’er-do-well.

(Picture by Cory Skerry, the amazing Ink Shark.)

Welcome, Jaqi.

Salutes, slab. You got anything to eat around here?

Uh, yeah, you can feel free to make a sandwich, just don’t use–

Oooh! Smoked salmon! I en’t got the first clue what salmon is, but it sounds well by! Tastes a bit rubbery. Oh, that’s cuz I en’t opened it yet, just crunched on the package. Well, the package en’t bad.

Jaqi, we were saving that for dinner Thursday.

Aiya! You put me through some serious grim in those three books. It weren’t bad enough that my home got smashed up, and I went crawling through the guts of a space tick? Just in this last book I went on a trip ‘twixt galaxies, and met some robot folk and had to face down them devils and again, and thenyou went and–

Spoilers! Not everyone who gets this newsletter has read the book yet!

I’ll keep my airlock shut if you let me have this salmon.

Sigh… Okay, I’ll let you eat it if you just answer a few questions for me.

Shoot, slab.

Now that you’ve gotten through the adventure–or at least the first big stage of the adventure–what will you do with your free time?

Learn how to make a big fancy cake. I been trying, but I eat all the batter first each time.

That’s a goal I myself have trouble with. In Memory’s Blade, you’re finally learning to read. What’s the first book you want to pick up?

Not the books about me, that’s for sure. I had enough of that prophecy babble. I been looking around the giveaway bin on the spaceship and I saw this book called Eat Pray Love and I reckon there’s two of my favorite things in it so I’ll just read the bits with the eating and loving.

Now that you’ve fought the Shir–

Aiya! Don’t name the devil!

Now that the trilogy is ended… how did you feel about that ending?

Slab, I en’t read none, but I kinda reckoned that we was all gonna end up at a big feast. Like with some critter all crisped up and tasty. That en’t how you ended it!

So I should have written you into a Song of Ice & Fire book.

Lots of eating in them books, then?

Yes, but…

Point the way, slab. I’m done getting written by you. I’ll find this fella who knows how to feed his characters.

Jaqi, everybody!

MEMORY’S BLADE Is In The World!

The entire Starfire Trilogy has been released upon the world as of February 27!

And we ring in the new day with a great review from RT Book Reviews:

“The conclusion to Spencer Ellsworth’s Starfire trilogy begins with a jolt and maintains a frenetic pace that doesn’t let up until the story reaches its close. As with previous installments, the greatest draw in Memory’s Blade is the characters. All of the POV characters feel nuanced and have arcs that will resonate with readers. Araskar’s arc remains particularly compelling, as he continues to grapple with addiction and depression. All of the characters are made to consider who they are beyond the enormous conflict they have become irrevocably embroiled with, and what life beyond survival looks like. The characters of Ellsworth’s trilogy may not all be human, but he never forgets to consider the human factor.”

2017, The Year That Was… Busy

Traditionally, at the end of the year writers gather round a merrily blazing fire and toss in all their computers. Any computers that are left after the fire burns out are then published, as-is, and that’s exactly how publishing works.

In case you want to know.

Wait… no, I’m just getting an update that actually, at the end of each year, writers tend to write a summary of their yearly doings! Ah. That makes more sense.

I published two novels this year, one novelette (that’s writer-speak for “longish short story”), and one verrrrry short collaboration.

When Stars Are Scattered came out in April and is still my favorite of all my published stories. I think I managed to do some things in this story that I have never been able to do in other stories. Quick Sip Reviews said some nice things about it and it’s on the Nebula Recommended Reading list, which (cough cough) you can upvote if you feel the need.

Category: Novelette. 13,000 words

Carbon Dating was a funny little flash story about the Internet becoming sentient & looking for love. My first collaboration with the amazing Effie Seiberg!

Category: Short Story (Flash Fiction) 900 words

And then the NOVELS, of course.

A Red Peace: First in the Starfire Trilogy, with pretty decent reviews and blurbs from Kameron Hurley, Tobias Buckell, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Beth Cato. Aaaand my first novel. Wow. I’ve been looking forward to this a long time, and it’s been out now for 4 months! WHAAAAAAA.

Novel, 53,000 words

Shadow Sun Seven: The sequel to A Red Peace, second in the trilogy, out for four weeks now, and… I blabbered about it all over Chuck Wendig’s blog. Liz Bourke says, and I quote: “Ellsworth’s worldbuilding continues to grow ever more mind-bendingly batshit.”

Novel, 64,000 words

It was a really busy year. Between edits on Shadow Sun Seven up through spring, completing the third book Memory’s Blade, (out February 27th!) and a couple of other projects, plus a mind-bending 98,000 words for NaNoWriMo, I done… wore myself out.

Another post to come about the fiction I enjoyed this year, but honestly, I gotta catch up on my reading first.

SHADOW SUN SEVEN Has Landed! With A Squishy Bug Sound!

BEHOLD!!! Starfire: Shadow Sun Seven, the second book in the trilogy, hits the stands today.

Let’s see that cover, by Sparth, again.

Ahhhhhh….

As for the book itself, a little excerpt from the interview:

Shadow Sun Seven is about a caper through the guts of a space tick. Because…I’m gross. The purpose of said caper: to rescue a prisoner who knows secrets that could undo the reign of John Starfire, which began in A Red Peace.

The first book was all chase. Jaqi, our ne’er-do-well smuggler, was running from Araskar’s division of soldiers. But in Shadow Sun Seven, you get to see our heroes fight back, make some dirty deals, and sneak around, steal stuff, lurk in disguise, and fight, of course.

Oh, and they crawl through the guts of a giant space tick. In case you forgot.

I answered some questions about the book over here, and also blabbed about it a bit in this interview with the Unreliable Narrators podcast. And I talk about bugs in general at Tor.com here.

Getchoo one on

Amazon – Barnes & Noble – Kobo – Powell’s

Music Monday: Thirty Ought Six

I haven’t done Music Monday in a while because… things… but someone used “adamantine” in a sentence today and I was reminded of the best little post-grunge trio in the world.

 

Starfire: Memory’s Blade cover!

Book 3 has a cover!

DROOLS

That’s it. Nothing today but drool.

Book Release Shenanigans!

I am home after a whirlwind tour of Washington & Oregon, with a few events yet to do, and overall… it was great!

I’ve released a book.

Whoa.

First event was at University Bookstore on August 25th, with a great turnout thanks to Duane’s tireless efforts to promote the book & the events. I read. I quizzed the audience on space opera. We ate space bug cookies. A SPLENDID TIME.

Next, I went off to Oregon to read and sign with the incomparable Wendy Wagner. We wandered around Salem in hundred-degree heat, and wobbled around Eugene in slightly less heat looking for chocolate, stayed in a super-hippie hostel where they had musical instruments just lying around for the playing.

I also signed all the stock of A RED PEACE at Powell’s, and I have to say… I might have cried a little when I walked into Powell’s and saw my book on the shelf.

And they had a lot! Uh… if you’re in Portland, please buy one!

 

 

Finally, I made my victorious conquest of Village Books in Bellingham. And oh, what a conquest it was. Cory Skerry and my best gal Chrissy built a ridiculous quiz. If I answered the questions right, I got to win my Transformers back. If the audience answered right when I failed, they got prizes.

THIS WAS NOT FAIR. Especially since the questions included such gems as “which planet would you eat if you were a space spider?” Who could choose? They all look so tasty.

At least Cory drew me as a space spider to remove the sting of almost losing my robot toys.

 And there it is. Right there on the shelf in my home bookstore.

It never gets old. I know Tor.com books are focused on ebook/POD and I won’t see it in many bookstores, but just a few bookstores is enough to set my little heart racing. When I was 13, I decided I wanted to write and promptly started a goooooooooooood-awful novel called Starfire: The Last Jorian. Other than a few names, it bears nothing in common with A RED PEACE, but I envisioned this moment then, and it’s nice to see the work pay off.