Deborah J. Ross's Blog, page 81

Pearls of Fire, Dreams of Steel – A Journey into Print

I am what’s called a slow adopter of technology. I’m not the draggiest of the late-comers, but I am a far cry from the cadre of those eager to try out all things shiny and new, especially electronic gadgets. I got dragged, kicking and screaming, into the world of cellphones when my tempestuous younger daughter started community college and for various reasons it was important that she be able to contact me in a speedy fashion (and vice versa, although less crucial). We tromped down to the physical store and came away with a pair of stupidphones, sequential phone numbers, and a family service plan. Needless to say, one of the first things she did when she was on her own was to get a smartphone with a new number. My stupidphone lasted almost another decade, when I broke down and joined the app-generation. (I am gradually learning new things to do with my device, although I keep leaving it at home or forgetting to charge it, which tells you how important it is to me on most days.)
My relationship with e-readers followed somewhat the same path. I kept having the thought that one would be handy but there wasn’t money in the budget for it (and it wasn’t high enough priority to shove other things lower on the list – I had plenty of paper books to read, after all). That same daughter, now in college, passed on her very-early-version Kindle to me, and I loaded up a bunch of BVC editions and jumped in. I took that Kindle with me while taking care of a friend in the final months of her life. Being able to carry around an entire library in an object the size of a thin paperback opened up a new world for me. Now I tuck my much newer e-reader into my purse whenever I expect to have to wait, and I get a lot of reading done that way.
In these two examples, I was the consumer, the recipient of technology or technological products. As a professional writer, though, I have learned how to actively use this technology. I came of age as a writer long before electronic publishing appeared on the horizon. My first sales, in the early 1980s, were to print markets, mostly mass market books, anthologies, and magazines. Vanity presses existed but were not to be considered by any serious author (money flows to the author, remember?) Fans produced various ‘zines, using mimeograph or ditto machines. Eventually publishing shifted from print-only to the digital era. For a time, neither publishers nor agents considered how to treat royalties for sales of electronic copies, but eventually terms that were more fair to authors became the standard. I watched and tried to stay informed. Then I found myself in the same state as many authors: I had a growing list of out-of-print novels and an even longer list of stories in out-of-print anthologies and magazines.
Enter Book View Café.
Here’s Mindy Klasky’s description of how it came about:

Book View Café grew out of a conversation among a group of science fiction and fantasy authors. In 2008, during the ancient days of electronic publishing, a group of women joined forces to cross-promote each other’s work. 

The first Book View Café website was a site for free online fiction, along with a group blog. Participating authors typically wrote an electronic short story or novella set in the world of an established speculative fiction series with the goal of introducing new readers to print books available for sale elsewhere. 

Within months, the website evolved. Full-length e-books were added to the mix. The online presence expanded to include a bookstore where customers could purchase Book View Café writers’ works in MOBI, EPUB, and PDF formats.

I joined the following year, delighted at the prospect of volunteering my own skills in exchange for those I lacked, namely formatting e-books, cover design, and shared promotion. In those early years, the Book View Café catalog was exclusively e-books, but eventually members delved into the new technology of Print on Demand. Gone were the days when the only way to produce a printed book were to sell to a publisher or pay a printer (or vanity press) and then find a way to store inventory, and distribute and sell the copies. Small presses sprang up, now able to circumvent the problem of storing an entire print run but instead to order copies as needed. Some of those early POD books were pretty awful in terms of production values (typesetting, paper, binding, covers, you name it) but with the passage of time, the quality improved to the point that it is difficult to distinguish between a well-designed and produced POD edition and one from a traditional publisher.
As Book View Café members learned how to use this technology, often through CreateSpace or similar programs, the online catalog included links where readers could purchase print editions. (Similarly, many BVC books are also available in audiobook editions, with similar links.) The sharing of skills that made BVC e-book publishing so successful expanded to include print book formatting and re-sizing of cover designs.
Finally I took a deep breath and plunged in. Over the years, I had brought out BVC e-book editions of my backlist novels, and also collections of short stories and essays that were not available elsewhere. For my first foray into POD publishing, I selected one of the short story collections, Pearls of Fire, Dreams of Steel. The multi-step process began with a proofread digital file, which was then turned into a PDF file by another member, Marissa Doyle. Marissa and I discussed fonts, sizes, and decorative spacers. Sometimes I had an opinion, but mostly I relied on her suggestions. The original cover, designed by Amy Sterling Casil, wasn’t of a suitable size (and, being intended for e-books, was only the front of the cover). Using the original stock photo and following Amy’s design concept, Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff produced a gorgeous wrap-around design, perfect for a printed book.
So far the process had gone smoothly for me. After all, I was dealing with friends as well as fellow authors. Now I had to brave setting up an account on a website and figuring out how to upload the book. In the interim, rumors had sprung up about CreateSpace being merged with Amazon’s Kindle Direct, or disappearing entirely, or some such catastrophe. I retreated into a dither of indecision. But the membership of BVC came to my rescue once again, in a private forum discussion of just this topic. Members with extensive POD experience were switching to IngramSpark for various reasons, and IS, which usually charges a set-up fee, was having a sale. I liked the idea of a POD provider who then distributes to both Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and brick and mortar bookstores.
With my usual trepidation, I set up an account, carefully noted the code for the discount, and uploaded the files. To my dismay, I got a series of error messages in red letters. The result was overwhelming paralysis. It was hard enough to get this far and make all these check-the-box decisions, but then to be told the this or the that didn’t meet their requirements and the results would be dreadful, was more than I could cope with. I saved the draft, signed off, and binge-watched Grey’s Anatomy for the evening. The next day I returned to the fray, determined to “do science” and investigate just what they meant by “inferior results.” I ordered a proof copy.

The proof arrived promptly, and here it is. It’s breathtaking, or so I think. All the aspects thewebsite got so upset about turned out just as polished and crisp as anything out of a traditional publisher. The interior in particular is elegant and easy to read. With the matte cover finish, the book has an exquisite “hand feel.”

Plus…I did it myself. Well, with a lot of help from my friends, which is why you’ll see the BVC logo on cover and interior. Plus…you can order it through your favorite bookstore as well as online vendors. Or here, through the BVC links. Isn’t that nifty?
Over the next months, moving at the speed of volunteers, I plan to release print editions of my other collections. I have some exciting brand-new projects in the works, too, and those will come out in print and electronic editions simultaneously.Stay tuned!

Short Book Reviews: Encrypted Blood

Implanted, by Lauren C. Teffeau (Angry Robot)
This dystopic YA novel revolves around several nifty premises: the Earth has been so polluted that the majority humans survive only in domed cities, while efforts are underway to ameliorate the toxins and re-establish a viable ecology; the dome cities are stratified, with the rich elite living on the topmost levels, with access to greenery and sunlight, while the poor scrabble for a living in the “Terrestrial” slums; brain implants that permit direct mind-to-mind communication as well as social media are near-universal and because of this, data is highly insecure, so... sensitive material gets encoded in the blood cells of specially trained couriers who physically transport it from sender to recipient. That’s only the setting.
The plot itself draws together a variety of threads. The heroine, Emery, comes from a lower level and has worked her way to better prospects. She’s been on a crusade that’s pit her skills against the thieves who rip implants from the skulls of their victims. She’s also become romantically entangled with a fellow gamer, although they’ve never met in person and she doesn’t even know his real name. As for the agency that recruits her to carry encrypted data in her blood, she uncovers plots within plots as New Worth (the city built on the ruins of Ft. Worth, Texas) stumbles toward “Emergence” into the supposedly restored outer world.
The setting, main character, and evolving action were absorbing enough to keep me reading for most of the book, but toward the end I had problems with the lack of focus. It seemed to me that the book couldn’t decide what it was about, and my attention kept being pulled in different directions: ecological disaster story? Romance? Techno-spy thriller? Victim seeking revenge? “Betrayal and reconciliation”? Other readers might feel differently. The book certainly stands out for creativity of conception and narrative voice. I’ll be keeping an eye out for the author’s next adventure.

Today's Moment of Art

Clark Hulings (1922-2011); French Ducks In A Puddle

Short Book Reviews: The Last Man Alive

Relic, by Alan Dean Foster (Del Rey)
In the far future, humanity has managed to wipe itself out not only on Earth but on every other colonized planet. So far as he knows, Ruslan is the last human in existence. He’s not alone, though. A race of benign (seeming?) aliens, the Myssari, have taken him under their care. Their goal is to use his cells to clone a new generation of humans, thereby extending their knowledge of sapient races. His price for participating: their help in rediscovering Earth, birthplace of humanity. Of course, things go wrong, among them the appearance of a rival alien race who also want to form an alliance with him. And various other things that fall under the “spoiler” category.
This sounds like pure, classical Alan Dean Foster, full of action and imagination.  Alas, that is not the experience I had reading this book. I’ve loved Foster’s work for decades, and I don’t know if he ran out of ideas, got sedate in his prose, or simply tried something more thoughtful, but the result was a soporific, meandering narrative punctuated here and there with a bit of suspense or action. (I highly recommend it for insomniacs.) It felt like a perfectly respectable piece of short fiction padded out to novel length with emotionally distant, almost Victorian prose.
Here’s an example:

He had no doubt that the dedicated if diffident Wol’daeen and her colleagues would try their utmost to successfully revive some of the other cold-stored humans. It would be a scientific triumph for them if they could do so. But having seen what he had seen and heard what he had heard, he was not sanguine.

The ratio of prose to passage of time in the story varies from plodding and repetitious to the whiplash feeling that all the interesting parts got skimmed over and it’s months or years later.
In the end, the story elements came together well. I would expect no less from an author as seasoned as Foster, but on the whole I found it neither absorbing nor satisfying. Which was a pity, because I'd been so excited to read it.

New Paperback: Pearls of Fire, Dreams of Steel

I have now embarked upon the wonderful and terrifying world of Print On Demand. My first project is a print edition of my collection of short fantasy fiction, Pearls of Fire, Dreams of Steel, that spans my literary career from my earliest sales to more recent work. It's been available as an ebook for awhile, but now is in tangible, hold-able, sleep-with-it-under-your-pillow form.

And, need I say so, it's gorgeous. Both the wrap-around cover designed by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff from an initial design by Amy Sterling Casil, and the amazing interior formatting and designs by Marissa Doyle make the physical book a delight.


It's available nowat Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the usual suspects, plus will be orderable by your local brick-and-mortar local bookstore through Ingram. Only $12.99 for right now.

The Table of Contents:


Bread and ArrowsA Hunter of the Celadon PlainsStorm GodNor Iron BarsPoisoned DreamsSilverbladeThe Sorceress’s ApprenticeFirewebUnder the SkinOur Lady of the ToadsPearl of FirePearl of TearsDragon AmberThe Casket of BrassThe Hero of Abarxia

Scientific Wonders, July 2018 edition

A potpourri of nifty discoveries to remind us, in the midst of so much political anguish, what an amazing universe we live in.

Baby Snake That Lived Among Dinosaurs Found Preserved in Amber
Using uranium-lead dating, a research team led by Lida Xing from the China University of Geosciences and Michael Caldwell from the University of Alberta dated the fossils to about 99 million years old. A technique called synchrotron x-ray micro–computed tomography allowed the researchers to get a close look at the tiny specimens inside the amber without having to break them apart.
Wandering Star May Have Disrupted Outer Solar System's Order
Astronomers have been wrestling with a few puzzles about the neighborhood for a while now. First, there's just not nearly as much stuff out there, all told, as they would expect. Also, it's odd that Neptune is more massive than the closer-in Uranus. And many of the small objects in the outer swath — like Sedna, a strange dwarf planet — follow extreme, stretched orbits at stark angles to the rest of the solar system's more orderly inhabitants.Those quirks suggest that something must have stirred up the pot after the planets and large moons clumped together and formed out of the cloud of dust surrounding our sun early in its life. One possible culprit is a star that might have slipped next to our solar system and tugged objects off their original paths, throwing some out of the solar system entirely and skewing the orbits of others.
A new ankylosaur found in Utah had a surprisingly bumpy head
These armored dinos first appeared in Asia around 125 million years ago and had reached western North America by about 77 million years ago. One other known North American ankylosaurid, a different species found in New Mexico that’s 3 million years younger than the newfound dino, also has a rugged noggin comparable to A. johnsoni’s. The new find adds to evidence that at least two types of  ankylosaurids migrated from Asia to North America during the late Cretaceous, possibly via a land bridge between the continents, the researchers report July 19 in PeerJ.



High fruit and vegetable consumption may reduce risk of breast cancerDate:July 19, 2018Source:Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public HealthSummary:Women who eat a high amount of fruits and vegetables each day may have a lower risk of breast cancer, especially of aggressive tumors, than those who eat fewer fruits and vegetables, according to a new study.

Short Book Reviews: The Ghost Who Said No to a Mortal Life

The Girl in the Green Silk Gown, by Seanan McGuire (DAW)
This novel continues the story of Rose Marshall, killed in the 1950s when her car was forced off the road by a lunatic bent on immortality. She’s bound to the “ghost roads” (the name of this series), taking on physical form to steer drivers safely away from avoidable accidents and guide the newly dead to a more peaceful place. But Rose’s nemesis isn’t done with her, and now he’s scheming to harvest her soul to buy him more time. After he strips away her supernatural protections, she makes a desperate bid to be rid of him, but he’s a step ahead of her and she ends up in a mortal body. 
From there, as to be expected, matters descend into chaos as Rose realizes that she has become, essentially and forever, a road ghost. The changes a living person experiences, whether a cold or a cut or the slow aging of her cells, are now intolerably terrifying. The way back to her ghostly condition involves a journey to Hades to petition Persephone for aid, but a journey that depends entirely upon a human ally, the woman who had sworn vengeance on Rose for the death of the drag racer boyfriend.
The “Ghost Roads” series continues to delight me with its combination of angst-ridden narrative voice, plot convulsions, and moments of unexpected compassion and wisdom. My suggestion is to start at the beginning, because on the Ghost Roads, the ride is the destination.

Lace and Blade 5 Table of Contents Reveal

The fifth volume of Lace and Blade isn't scheduled for release until next Valentine's Day, but here's a sneak peek at the delicious treasures within. (Stay tuned for the cover reveal, and author interviews...)


THE FERRYMANby Dave SmedsASCENTby Shariann LewittTHE GOLDEN FIRby Harry TurtledoveALLONSby Gillian PolackTHE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRYby India EdghillTHE CLOCKWORK UNICORN     by Doranna DurginSPIRE WITCHby Marella SandsTHE GHOST OF LADY REI by Adam StempleTHE BOTTLEby Steven HarperWATER BOUND by Julia WestSEA OF SOULSby Robin Wayne BaileyAN INTERRUPTED BETROTHALby Lawrence Watt-EvansTIL DEATH DO US PARTby Pat MacEwenFIRE SEASONby Anne Leonard

My WorldCon Schedule (yes, I actually have one)

There's a whole lot of outrage and discussion right now about the failure of WorldCon 2018 programming to accord even a single panel to many long-time professional authors. I'm not going to comment on that here, but to invite any of you who will be there to come hang out with me at my two events (I believe sign ups are necessary). I'd love to see you!


Kaffeeklatsch: Deborah J RossFormat: Discussion Group
18 Aug 2018, Saturday 17:00 - 18:00, 211B1 (San Jose Convention Center)
Deborah J RossWriters Workshop #11Format: Workshop
19 Aug 2018, Sunday 14:00 - 16:00, 212A (San Jose Convention Center)
Writing Workshops are one of the best opportunities to get your work in front of published authors and publishing professionals for advice and critique. The format is as follows:
Scheduled workshop participants will apply to submit the first 5,000 words of a work in progress (novel, essay, short story, novelette, screenplay, videogame script, etc.) via email to the Area Head for Writers Workshops. A panel of professionals will read your work in advance and then critique it at WorldCon76. There will be time for questions as well after each critique. Each workshop lasts 2 hours, so each work will receive 30 minutes of critique and 5 minutes for questions, with a 5 minute break between participants. There are three participants in each workshop. You'd be surprised at how much you can learn from someone else's critique.
Jason Schachat (M), Kevin Andrew Murphy, Deborah J Ross

Short Book Reviews: A Welsh Legend in Chicago

Rough Justice, by Kelley Armstrong (Subterranean Press)
Continuing stories that center on the same cast of characters, advancing their relationships yet complete in themselves, face a number of hurdles. Whether linked short stories, novellas in this case, or entire novels, they must furnish enough backstory and setting to orient the reader. The first episode is in many ways the easiest; everything is new, nothing taken for granted. Often the protagonist explores the world via the plot, taking the reader along. In subsequent stories, the task requires progressively higher levels of finesse to give the reader the necessary history and detail in a smooth, unobtrusive fashion without interrupting the dynamic flow of action. Too much information will becalm the reader in a Sargasso Sea of exposition; too little creates disorientation and puzzlement.
At the same time, each story must stand on its own in terms of plot: inciting event, reversal, tension building to a resolution, and so forth. Not all ends need to be neatly tied up, but the reader should finish with a sense of satisfaction.
Rough Justicesucceeds to a greater or less degree in these areas. Two concepts drive the story: a set of characters, avatars of ancient Welsh figures, who lead the Hunt, giant black red-eyed hounds and all, while wrestling with their previous incarnations and present lives (an attorney, a PI, and an ex-biker, all living just outside present day Chicago); and a very nifty murder mystery, complete with twisty turns, devious motives, and red herrings. PI Olivia (“Mathilda of the Hunt”) is on the brink of ordering the deadly finale to her first Hunt when her qualms allow the condemned man to escape. The Huntsmen claim to have an infallible supernatural method of determining guilt according to their “rough justice,” but Olivia isn’t convinced. She and her lover, attorney Gabriel (Gwynn in the old story) investigate what turns into a double murder/coverup/setup. That part is sneaky enough to please anyone who loves a puzzle.
The problems arise with the way the ancient Welsh myths play out in the lives of Olivia, Gabriel, and Ricky (Arawn). There’s an enormous amount of backstory and lore including how these three learned of their past lives, their roles in the Hunt, history and rules for same, the romantic triangle between Mathilda, Gwynn, and Arawn and how it relates to Olivia, Gabriel, and Ricky (or not). Plus the personal stories, relationships, and dark secrets of the three modern characters. This is where Rough Justice succeeds less well.
A certain amount of this setting and history is of course necessary but much more is presented in ways that paralyze the forward momentum of the pot. Although the story opens with the dramatic Hunt, it’s soon bogged down in backstory and long discussions of why the head Huntsman would set newbie Olivia up with a questionable verdict (and the question of whether the Huntsman is manipulating Olivia is never resolved).
On the other hand, Gabriel’s abusive, now-senile mother is being cared for by two women whose roles and relationships were never clear to me – family, professional caregivers, or fae guardians who strangely know little of Gabriel’s childhood? Therein lies the problem of trying to develop novel-length subplots in novella-sized chunks while reiterating everything that has gone before.
The setting and characters are intriguing enough to interest me in searching out the earlier installments of “Cainsville Tales” and certainly looking out for newer ones, especially if they contain similarly fascinating mysteries, but I can’t help thinking this tale would work better as a single-volume novel.