Christopher L. Bennett's Blog, page 19

An eSpec book discount for my Twitter debut

I’ve finally decided to take my first tentative steps onto Twitter. I’ve resisted signing up in the past, both because I’ve never seen the appeal of such a bite-size way of communicating and because of the alarming stories I’ve heard about authors and celebrities being harassed off the platform. But I’ve realized I’m just not getting enough attention for my blog, my books, and my Patreon page from Facebook alone. And I’ve been reassured that the harassment incidents are the exception rather than the rule. I don’t understand much yet about how Twitter works, but I’m hoping it’ll be a new avenue to get the word out more widely. My Twitter handle is @CLBennettAuthor.

I don’t know how much I’ll use the platform going forward. I imagine I’ll use it mainly just for publicizing my blog and Patreon posts, but we’ll see. Anyway, as part of this new publicity push, eSpec Books has given me a special discount code for my social media followers. When you buy Among the Wild Cybers, Arachne’s Crime, Arachne’s Exile, The Arachne Omnibus, or Footprints in the Stars at https://especbooks.square.site, you can get 15% off by entering the coupon code BENNETT15. There’s also a 20% discount code offered exclusively to my Patreon subscribers. Hopefully that’ll encourage a few more people to sign up for my Patreon, which has membership plans as low as $1 a month.

For more info on the offered books, see my Original Fiction page.

A good week, but I can’t talk about it

Some good things have been happening with writing projects these past few days, although I can’t go into specifics. I got a comfortably large check from the publisher of the big project that I hope will be announced soon, and there’s still one more installment to follow in another 2-3 months, so I should now be financially set through early next year at least. I’m happy with how promptly this publisher pays.

Meanwhile, a feeler I put out a while back to a different publisher unexpectedly bore fruit this week, when their editor reached out to ask about my interest in some upcoming projects they’re developing. As it happens, they have one thing in the works that’s a good fit for me, and they’ve asked me to work up a couple of pitch ideas for them. It means I’ll have to split my focus from my current project over the next few weeks, which should slow me down a bit, but I have enough of a cushion before my deadline that I should be able to pull it off. If they accept one of my pitches, that will be the next thing I tackle once the current project is done, and should keep me busy for the rest of the year. If not, I may get another chance with them in the future. It could be a pretty interesting project, and quite a change of pace from my current one. About the only thing they have in common is that I can’t say what they are.

Well, except that they aren’t Star Trek. I’ve been thinking for a long time that I needed to diversify my publishing connections beyond Trek and Gallery (formerly Pocket) Books, so I wouldn’t be in such a fix at the times the Trek work slows down for whatever reason. I’m glad that I’m finally managing to do that, with my Arachne duology from eSpec, my current secret project, and this new opportunity that’s just come along.

I guess the one good thing writing-wise that I can talk about in specific terms is that Star Trek: The Original Series — Living Memory has now been out for ten days and is getting mostly very good reviews so far, from what I’ve seen. Oh, and Analog‘s book reviewer, the late Don Sakers, covered Arachne’s Exile in his final review column and called it “a fun, exciting read.” So that’s bittersweet. (Here’s the link, but it’s a “current issue” link, so it should only work until the next issue comes out.)

One other good thing is that the Brood X cicadas seem to be gone already, a week or two ahead of predictions. So I should be able to resume normal outdoor activities at last, which means I can start taking more walks and get back into shape.

All in all, then, a fairly good week. Let’s hope it lasts…

New fiction on Patreon: “The Monsters We Make”

First off, a belated apology to my Patreon subscribers for not posting a Fiction entry for May. When I started my Patreon page, I hoped I’d be able to post something new in the Fiction tier on a monthly basis, but I’ve been very busy with The Big Exciting Project I Still Can’t Talk About, and that will still be ongoing for a couple of months more. I may have to dial back to every other month for new fiction, at least for a while.

However, I do have a new story out this week, along with its annotations. It’s not entirely new, since some of the Kickstarter backers for the Arachne duology got a look at it as an extra bonus when they increased their pledges. But this is technically its first publication. It’s called “The Monsters We Make,” and it’s the latest of my efforts to devise a plausible, hard science fiction approach to a usually fanciful genre — in this case,  kaiju/giant monsters. Did I pull it off convincingly? Well, that’s for my readers to decide. But due to its genre, it’s certainly the most dystopian thing I’ve ever written. Might make an interesting change of pace for my readers.

The story can be read at the $10/month Fiction level here:

“The Monsters We Make”

And the annotations are available at the $12/mo Behind the Scenes tier here:

“The Monsters We Make” annotations

This is good timing, come to think of it, since we’re now just days away from the global release of Netflix’s anime series Godzilla Singular Point. Naturally, I’ll be reviewing that series here on Written Worlds, as part of my ongoing (and free) Godzilla/kaiju review series. I could pretend I timed it this way intentionally, but it’s pure coincidence and I only just realized it as I wrote this post.

STAR TREK: LIVING MEMORY is out today!

Today is the official on-sale date for Star Trek: The Original Series: Living Memory. This is the fifth installment in my ongoing post-Star Trek: The Motion Picture continuity which began way back with my first novel Ex Machina, and the second in as many years, after a long hiatus. It’s the second novel (the third work overall, after Mere Anarchy: The Darkness Drops Again and The Higher Frontier) to cover the pre-Wrath of Khan period when Spock commanded the Enterprise and Chekov served on the Reliant, and the first one set entirely in that period.

Star Trek: The Original Series — Living Memory

An all-new Star Trek movie-era adventure!

While attempting to settle in as commandant of Starfleet Academy, Admiral James T. Kirk must suddenly contend with the controversial, turbulent integration of an alien warrior caste into the student body—and quickly becomes embroiled in conflict when the Academy controversy escalates to murder. Meanwhile, Captain Spock of the USS Enterprise and Commander Pavel Chekov of the USS Reliant are investigating a series of powerful cosmic storms seemingly targeting Federation worlds—unstoppable outbursts emitting from the very fabric of space. Endeavoring to predict where the lethal storms will strike next, Spock and Chekov make the shocking discovery that the answer lies in Commander Nyota Uhura’s past—one that she no longer remembers….

, ®, & © 2021 CBS Studios, Inc. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Available from:

Simon & SchusterAmazonBarnes & NobleBooks-a-MillionIndieBound

I’ve updated my TOS Motion Picture Era page with general discussion and a link to the annotations:

https://christopherlbennett.wordpress.com/home-page/star-trek-fiction/tos-ex-machina/#LivingMemory

My first outing of cicada season

Some weeks back, after I got vaccinated, I got a call from my dermatologist to schedule my yearly checkup, which I missed last year due to the lack of a vaccine at the time. I was aware that the time they suggested would be during the once-every-17-years emergence season of the Brood X cicada swarm, but I was in the first flush of post-vaccine eagerness to get out into the world, and maybe a bit embarrassed to admit my phobia, so I accepted the appointment and figured I could just reschedule later if I felt it necessary.

Now, I fully expected to find it necessary. This is the fourth Brood X emergence of my lifetime, though the third I’ve been old enough to remember. The first of those, in 1987, was toward the end of my first year of college, and it was awful for a lifelong entomophobe like me. I particularly resented the cicadas for preventing me from getting closer to a woman I thought I had a chance with romantically, since she was untroubled by them and happy to hang around outside while I was desperate to get indoors as soon as possible. The second time, in 2004, was not long after I moved to my current apartment (yes, I’m still here, since the right opportunity to move elsewhere has never quite come together), and I managed to weather it fairly well by staying mostly indoors and only going out in the mornings before the cicadas became active. I was hoping to repeat that this time, but my dermatologist’s appointment was at 2 PM.

So I figured I’d just reschedule when they called to confirm the appointment. But when they did call, it was an automated “please press one” sort of system, and it was while I was watching a show, so I was distracted. So to avoid having to think about it, I just confirmed the appointment before I could stop myself. (Never ask me to make an important decision on the spur of the moment. I usually choose badly.)

I was thus pretty worried about what I might have to face out in the world today, but I decided I just had to weather it. I’ve spent the past year sheltering indoors as much as possible, and I figured I needed to get some practice at facing my fears and getting out into the world again, reminding myself that cicadas are just a nuisance, not a threat.

As it turned out, it wasn’t so bad. There were a few dead cicadas on the hallway floor of my apartment building, but I wasn’t swarmed by them in the parking lot on the way to my car (just a couple took off from the sidewalk ahead of me), nor in the lot of the medical building (or on the moderately long freeway trip between them). Maybe the rain earlier in the day had delayed their emergence.

So it all went pretty smoothly, to my relief. But once I got back, I decided to stop in at the local pharmacy to see if the prescription from my dermatologist had come in yet. Before I got out of the car, I noticed that there were dozens of cicadas swarming around the parking lot. Either that was a busier area for them, or they’d finally come out in greater force. So I just put my seatbelt back on and drove away without getting out of the car, figuring maybe I could come back in the morning or use the drive-thru or something. (They still haven’t called to confirm the prescription anyway, so I don’t know what’s up there. It’s for a minor irritation, so I don’t even really need it.)

I almost made it back into the building unaccosted, but one cicada flew headlong into me as I had my keys in the lock, coming right between me and the door and bumping into me. My tote bag took the hit, but still, there went my perfect record of avoidance. (Why do they just fly right into people like that? Can’t they see where they’re going?)

But overall, the trip was far less stressful than I feared. I’m not sure it really counts as facing my fears, since I chickened out of going into a visibly cicada-heavy zone, but at least I took the chance of going out in the first place, and it turned out not to be so bad. Although I’m still planning to minimize my trips outdoors until the cicadas are gone.

The SPIDER-MAN omnibus is out!

Today is the release date for the e-book edition of Marvel Classic Novels – Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours Omnibus, reprinting my 2008 novel Spider-Man: Drowned in Thunder along with Jim Butcher’s The Darkest Hours and Keith R.A. DeCandido’s Down These Mean Streets.

Collecting three classic fan-favorite Spider-Man novels together for the first time in a brand-new omnibus edition.

THE DARKEST HOURS by Jim Butcher

When Black Cat foils Spider-Man’s attempts to stop the Rhino rampaging through Times Square, she informs him the Rhino is just a distraction. The real threat comes from a group of Ancients, members of the same race as the being called Morlun, seeking revenge for Spider-Man defeating them years before. Spidey must rely on Black Cat if there’s any hope of stopping them again, before they can steal his life force.

DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS by Keith R.A. DeCandido

A mysterious drug known as Triple X has been giving users super-powers as well as rendering them mentally and physically unstable. Only by teaming up with a police force that hates him can Spider-Man find the source behind this lethal drug and protect people from those using it. But one of Spider-Man’s most fearsome enemies may be behind it all as part of a greater scheme to bring down the city.

DROWNED IN THUNDER by Christopher L. Bennett

The ongoing conflict between Spider-Man and his longtime outspoken nemesis, crusading newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson, reaches a whole new level when JJJ exploits several mysterious attacks on Manhattan island in his propaganda war against the web-slinger.

As expected, the omnibus contains the three novels in the order listed on the blurb, which is the correct chronological story order, though Keith’s novel was published first. The three books are standalone tales, but they all take place around the same period in the comics’ run, and mine makes brief allusions to the other two.

The trade paperback edition of the omnibus is still a few weeks away; it will be released on June 1st. Here’s the ordering info:

Buy from:

AmazonBarnes & NobleBooks-a-MillionGoogle PlayIndieBoundPenguin Random House

Also, it turns out that the audiobook edition of my other Marvel novel, X-Men: Watchers on the Walls, published by Dreamscape Media and read by Frankie Corzo, has been available digitally since April 26, and will be released on CD June 11.

Buy from:

AmazonBarnes & NobleBooks-a-MillionIndieBound

I’m glad to have both my Marvel novels back in release, one way or another. Of course, GraphicAudio’s full-cast audiobook of Drowned in Thunder is also available in a Dreamscape re-release; see my Marvel Fiction page for links.

Face front, true believers!

Braving the store

I’m just back from another post-vaccination venture. I was out of a few grocery items, including sliced bread, since on my last pickup order, they substituted a smaller size than I wanted. I didn’t need enough to justify a whole pickup trip, and I was getting a little tired of not being in control of substitution choices, so I decided I’d make a quick in-person trip inside the store, for the first time in over a year.

It wasn’t as quick as I would’ve liked, though, since they’ve rearranged some things, and I’ve gotten rusty anyway. I had a hard time finding where they kept the mayonnaise now. Otherwise, though, it went pretty smoothly, aside from being fairly crowded. Most people were masked, at least; the one unmasked person I noticed was a guy who stood in the middle of the aisle and didn’t make way for me when I said “Excuse me.” Go figure.

I see that they’re phasing out disposable plastic bags in favor of reusable bags, due to a recent law banning the former. I guess that explains why I’ve stopped seeing those ubiquitous plastic bags in my pickup orders; now I get a more robust, theoretically reusable kind of plastic bag, though they’ve been piling up in my closet until my last grocery trip before this one, where I unloaded a bunch of them into the recycling bin inside the store foyer. The self-checkout thingy offered me the option to buy several reusable bags, but I was in too much of a hurry to figure out how that worked.

Honestly, I prefer the convenience of pickup — not having to negotiate crowds and search for items I don’t know where to find is a plus. The ideal would be to use that as my default and only make occasional side trips for things I didn’t get on pickup. But sooner or later, they’re going to reinstate the extra pickup fee that they’ve waived due to the pandemic, and at that point, I’ll probably have to go back to shopping the old-fashioned way.

—

Another thing I meant to do on this trip was something very, very long overdue: mailing the last two autographed Star Trek novels that I sold last year but never got around to sending out, due to my reluctance to go into the post office and my lack of a working printer to print out postage labels for home pickup. Those aren’t issues anymore, so I’m finally ready to mail those books out at last. However, when I got to the post office, the parking lot was full, which meant it would’ve been quite busy inside, and I wasn’t comfortable doing both that and a grocery trip on the same day. Even with vaccines and masks, it’s best to avoid spending too much time in crowded indoor places. So I had to give the post office a miss today. I’ll try again tomorrow, hopefully at a less busy time. I’m really sorry to my buyers for the absurdly long wait, but it’s almost over now. (Andrew S., if you read this, please confirm you still have the same address as last year.)

My first post-vaccine outing

Yesterday was two weeks since my second COVID-19 vaccine shot, so I’m protected now (at least as much as anyone can be, in conjunction with continued distancing, masks, etc.). Yesterday was rainy, so I waited until today to make my first foray. I decided to start out small and just dropped into Clifton Natural Foods, in hopes of finding some things I haven’t been able to get at the regular grocery store. I didn’t find the vegetarian Italian sausage I was hoping for, but I got some other stuff, including some cookies to give some variety to my dessert options, and some pumpkin butter (a fruit spread like apple butter). I had a nice little chat with a store staffer about how satisfying it was to be able to go places and feel some peace of mind again. This is the first time in 6 months that I’ve been inside a store, and only the second time in the past 12 months (third if you count the post office).

I thought about going to the library too, but I didn’t want to overdo it my first time out. I have a post office trip planned soon, so I can go then, since the two are just a couple of blocks apart.

Speaking of the library, it just now occurred to me that I can resume borrowing DVDs again. So I’ve just put in holds on the most recent season of Doctor Who, which I haven’t managed to see since I don’t have cable TV anymore. I think this was the first time I’ve used the library’s new online catalog format for requesting items, which was instituted within the past year. However, it seems that at some point I already set it to default to my preferred branch as my pickup location, so I don’t have to set it every time. I guess I did that months ago when the new system went online, but forgot about it since it’s been so long since I needed to use it.

Speaking of things returning to a semblance of normality, this is the first time in months that I’ve gone for a drive without bringing my emergency jump-starter power pack with me. (I keep it in my apartment instead of in the car so that I don’t forget to top up the charge every three months as recommended. Although I don’t think I’ve ever managed to go that long between jumpstarts since I got it.) I didn’t need it, but I should try to stay in the habit of bringing it with me just in case.

Vac-scene two

Well, this past Thursday was the day of my second COVID vaccination appointment. After the first one three weeks ago, my main side effect was my upper arm being quite sore for about a day. The only other effect was that when I undressed for bed that night, I started to shiver uncontrollably until I got in my nightclothes and under the covers, even though I didn’t actually feel cold. I guess that’s what the information sheet called “chills.” But it was only for the first night.

So anyway, I was expecting another painful injection and a worse reaction afterward, though I wasn’t sure how mild or severe it might be. Still, it would be worth it to feel more or less safe again, and to do my part to keep others safe.

I’d been hoping I might take advantage of the decent weather and walk to the hospital this time, but I’d somewhat strained my hip the day before while cleaning the bathroom, so I wasn’t up to it. I made the same drive as last time, but had a bit of trouble getting into a parking space in the garage, since I’m out of practice at it. I kind of held up one or two cars behind me before giving up on that space. Then I found an open space right at the top of the ramp, so I could drive straight into it, which was nice. (Although it proved tricky when I left. To get out required going down the reverse of the way I came up, and I couldn’t turn 180 degrees from where I was, so I had to go up another level or two to find enough open space to turn around.)

For some reason, the vaccination center at the hospital was far less busy than it was the last time. I would’ve thought that all those people getting their first shot the same day as me would’ve been scheduled for their second shot the same day as me also. I hope that doesn’t mean a lot of them skipped out on their second doses, since it won’t last long that way. But I was able to get my shot pretty much immediately after checking in, and the check-in process was easier because I could hand them my vaccine card. I was expecting the shot to hurt again, but instead I barely felt it; indeed, I wasn’t entirely convinced I’d even gotten it. Maybe the nurse this time had a gentler touch, or maybe it was because I made more of an effort to relax my muscles first. Or maybe it was because I’d taken ibuprofen for my hip pain.

On my way out of the clinic, I overheard a couple of hospital staffers chatting about how the Pfizer vaccine had milder side effects than the Moderna one, which was nice to hear as a Pfizer recipient. And that turned out to be entirely true. Not only did I have much less arm pain this time (though just enough kicked in by that evening to reassure me that I had indeed gotten the shot), but I haven’t had any side effects beyond a mild fatigue and a slight dry-ish cough. I was afraid I might lose a day or two of work on the novel I’m writing, but I’ve managed to keep going after all.

So now I’m starting to think about things to do in two weeks’ time once I’m fully vaccinated and can feel safer going into buildings, as long as I stay masked and distanced for others’ benefit. The library will be one of my first stops. I may also drop into the natural-foods store for some groceries I haven’t had in a while. I’m not sure about going to the supermarket, which would have more people in it, but I might stop in for a quick visit, probably to a more distant store than my usual pickup location, in search of items they don’t have in stock there.

I read a day or two ago that it might be necessary to get annual booster shots, but that’s okay; we do that for flu shots anyway, and it makes sense with new variants likely to keep cropping up. The essential thing, as always, is to educate and encourage more people to get vaccinated. Although, sadly, that’s easier said than done in the current climate of ignorance. But at least there’s hope for things to get better now.

Now on Patreon: “The Science of Sacrifice”

This month’s Fiction entry on my Patreon page is “The Science of Sacrifice,” a newly revised version of an unsold story set in Thayara, the same fantasy universe as last month’s reprint, “The Melody Lingers.” It’s actually the first of the two Thayara stories I wrote in 2009-10, and takes place about a generation before “Melody,” laying some foundations for its concepts.

Yet while “Melody” focused entirely on the human cultures of Thayara for simplicity, “Science” is set in a more cosmopolitan city where multiple sapient species interact (since it was written as a “pilot” for the universe), so it has a rather different flavor. As a supplement for subscribers to the Behind the Scenes tier, I’ve published edited excerpts from my Thayara worldbuilding notes, including discussion about the various species and a map of the planet (which is an alternate-history Earth whose evolution was shaped differently by the magic-like phenomenon called Wyrd).

The story is here on my $10/month Fiction tier:

Fiction: “The Science of Sacrifice”

The notes are on the $12 Behind the Scenes tier:

Thayara worldbuilding notes and “Science of Sacrifice” discussion

Meanwhile, my Patreon reviews of the Logan’s Run TV series conclude next week, after which I’ll start reviewing season 3 of the 1988 syndicated Superboy TV series, retooled and retitled The Adventures of Superboy, and vastly improved from the first two seasons.