Marko Kloos's Blog, page 22

The current state of affairs

The novel is finally done and turned in, thank the old gods and the new. It has a provisional title that may change before release, but whatever it will be called, it’s going to be the first book in a series called THE PALLADIUM WARS.

This one is a different style than Frontlines: third-person past tense instead of first-person present, and different POV characters instead of just one. It’s also not 100% USDA-certified pure military SF–while there’s lots of military action going on, some of the POV characters aren’t military, so I’d classify it more as leaning toward Space Opera with a healthy dose of military detail. I hope that those of you who come here for the military SF will give this one a shot as well. So far, beta reader input has been very encouraging.

In other news, I have two novellas out this month. The Wild Cards stand-alone mosaic novel LOW CHICAGO comes out on June 12th, featuring my novella STRIPES, which in turn features a very bad-ass underworld bodyguard named Khan. He gets to mix it up with the criminal underworld of late 1920s Chicago, which was a ton of fun to write.

The second one is called PROBATIONARY, and it’s part of the Wild Cards novel KNAVES OVER QUEENS, the first detailed WIld Cards foray into the alternate British history of the Wild Cards universe. PROBATIONARY is told from the perspective of an ace I created, Rory Campbell a.k.a. Archimedes. His special ability is rather less flashy than Khan’s (who is a half-tiger), but I got to put him into the middle of the Falklands War and gave him a chance to rewrite that bit of history a little.

LOW CHICAGO will be published by Tor in the US and widely available on June 12. KNAVES OVER QUEENS will be out from HarperVoyager UK as a UK release (Tor will publish the book for the US market next year), which means that you won’t be able to buy the Kindle version outside the UK…but they’ll happily ship you a paper copy to a US address as it counts as a UK sale.

In other, other news, I have started work on a new Frontlines story. It’s a novella that will cover the events of Andrew’s tenure with the Lazarus Brigades in the three-year gap between FIELDS OF FIRE and POINTS OF IMPACT. I’m hoping to have this one out before the end of summer, and then I’ll be starting a new three-book story arc that will wrap up the Frontlines universe for now. Stay tuned for more news on that.

You know, every time I finish a novel, I tell everyone that I’m going to rot my brain with Netflix and video games for a month straight…and every time, I get bored after a week of that. Guess that means I’m in the right line of work.

Low Chicago

Today, Tor.com is featuring a long excerpt from LOW CHICAGO, the Wild Cards novel out in June. The stripey fellow on the featured image is my Wild Cards joker-ace Khan, and he appears in the excerpt (which is the interstitial for the novel, written by John Joseph Miller.)

It’s time-travel story, so you can probably guess from Khan’s attire in which period of Chicago history he finds himself after the events in the excerpt. I hope you give the novel a shot when it’s out because I really liked writing that particular novella, and I think it turned out pretty well.

(LOW CHICAGO will be released on June 12.)

Update from the word mines

I haven’t posted anything lately because I am still at work finishing the current novel. It still has a provisional title, but the series it kicks off has a name now: THE PALLADIUM WARS.

(It’s military SF, but the scope is a little wider than Frontlines because it’s written from multiple points of view, so if that kind of narrative is your cup of tea, you’ll probably like it. At least I hope so, because the sales of the first book will determine the future of the series, and I really like the world I cooked up for THE PALLADIUM WARS.) More on that later when I’ve turned in the book and we have concrete plans for the publication date.

Oh, and if you’re interested in getting into the Wild Cards universe and don’t know where to start: Macmillan has a special on the three books of the Fort Freak triad, which is a good jumping-in point. All three books together are $21 and change, and they’re available from all the major ebook retailers.

The latest (current) triad is called the American Triad: Mississippi Roll (published in December 2017), Low Chicago (out in June this year, and featuring my novella STRIPES), and Texas Hold’Em (out in October.) Gritty and fun superhero stuff, fun characters written by a group of super-talented writers, and now in development for TV…so get on board and become a fan before everyone jumps on that bandwagon once it becomes the next GoT. (And I hope it will do just that, because I want to see Khan tear off some faces in a live-action TV show.)

 

The Münster incident

There was a vehicle-based attack in Germany today. It happened in the city of Münster, which is where I spent much of my childhood. I went to kindergarten and elementary school there, and my family still lives in the surrounding area, so they are in the city a lot.

You want to know a Xanax moment? Try texting your siblings after learning of a terror attack in the city where they go to school and do their weekend shopping trips. Today was a sunny day, the first really nice day of spring, and the sidewalk cafes were full. Some asshole with a box truck intentionally crashed it into one of those sidewalk cafes, killed two people, and injured thirty more (six of which are still in critical condition.)

To the dismay of some of the German right-wing party members, the attacker wasn’t a Muslim. He was a 27-year-old German with no police record, but he had a history of mental illness. So nobody gets to make much hay out of this incident–just a brain wired wrong. The perpetrator killed himself with a gun right after he had plowed into the crowd, so this was clearly a suicide that was supposed to make a statement.

[image error]

I was in a bad mood for a while because I love that city. It’s a peaceful, beautiful, diverse, and vibrant place. (About ten years back, it was voted Most Livable City in the World in its size category, 250,000-750,000 people.) It’s the unofficial bicycle capital of Germany. It has 50,000 college students out of a population of 300,000. It’s a place where young and old, foreign and native-born all get along in peace. I ran the streets there when I was a kid, and it’s the city I identify as my hometown even though I was born in a village hospital about twenty miles away. It’s not a place where you’d expect the sort of senseless violence that happened today. Having to text your siblings and waiting for their responses to make sure that they weren’t there was not fun. (Turns out my sister was there earlier, but in a different part of the old city, and my sister-in-law and two of her kids were there as well, but at a birthday party for a friend. All are home safe and sound.)

But I keep looking at that picture, taken a minute or so into the incident. The first police car has just arrived on the left edge of the picture, and one of the civilians is hurrying over to them to let them know the situation. But look at the people by the van. They don’t know the background of the attack or the motivation of the driver (other than the fact that it was clearly intentional.) They don’t know if the driver is armed, or if there are explosives in the van. But before the authorities even get there, they are busy helping the injured and each other.

I have days where my view of humanity is rather dim, but stuff like this reminds me that most people are good at heart, and that events like today make the news in such spectacular fashion because they are rare aberrations. But this has been one of those days that call for a stiff drink and a nutritionally unwise dinner.

Texas Hold ‘Em

TEXAS HOLD ‘EM, the third book in the Wild Cards “American Triad” has a cover and a release date: 10/23/18.  I don’t have a story in that one, but it features work by fellow Wild Cards writers David Anthony Durham, Max Gladstone, Victor Milan, Diana Rowland, Walton Simons, Caroline Spector, and William F. Wu. The three books of the American Triad (MISSISSIPPI ROLL, LOW CHICAGO, and TEXAS HOLD ‘EM) are all stand-alone mosaic novels, as is the British WIld Cards volume KNAVES OVER QUEENS that’s going to be released in the UK in June. And both the American Triad books and the standalone UK volume are heavily featuring new Wild Cards characters written by the new additions to the Wild Cards consortium.

Look at Caroline Spector’s Amazing Bubbles on the cover! I can’t even be mad at her for cleaning Khan’s clock in the deathmatch we did at Woldcon 74 in Kansas City. Our fight was the first one up, so I was the first one to get dumped from the bracket. In Khan’s defense, the Amazing Bubbles was probably the worst possible opponent for him. She absorbs kinetic energy and turns it into energy bubbles, which are as dense as she wants them to be. And Khan is a bruiser whose tools are pretty much all in the “kinetic energy” department, so he didn’t last long against her. Such are the perils of being a one-trick pony.

 

[image error]

 

 

Knaves Over Queens

So there’s this new Wild Cards novel called KNAVES OVER QUEENS, and it has a cover and a release date for the UK edition:

[image error]

It’ll be out on June 28 from Harper Collins Voyager UK, and it’s the first time a Wild Cards novel sees publication in the UK before the US. There’ll be a US edition too, of course, but UK booksellers will gladly ship to the US as well if you don’t want to wait another year or so for the Tor version to appear on shelves here.

For KNAVES OVER QUEENS, I came up with a new ace called Archimedes, and then sent him right off to war on his very first assignment. If you’ve been reading my blog, you can probably guess which war that is, considering it’s a British-themed book with British aces.

Here’s the promo text from the publisher:

“The return of the famous shared-world superhero books created and edited by George R. R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire

For decades, George R.R. Martin – bestselling author of A Song of Ice and Fire – has collaborated with an ever-shifting ensemble of science fiction and fantasy icons to create the amazing Wild Cards universe.

In the aftermath of World War II, the Earth’s population was devastated by a terrifying alien virus. Those who survived were changed for ever. Some, known as Jokers, were cursed with bizarre mental and physical deformities; others, granted superhuman abilities, are known as Aces. Now the virus has reached Britain…

Queen Margaret rules over a country in which such legendary figures as Herne the Hunter, Spring-heeled Jack and Babh, the goddess of war, roam at will. Her Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill – gifted with extraordinary longevity – together with the Enigma ace – Alan Turing – set up a special organization named the Order of the Silver Helix. They will need all the wild cards they can find if they are to deal with the terrifying mutations thrown up by the virus.

KNAVES OVER QUEENS – the first ever Wild Cards novel set in the UK, and a perfect jumping-in point for readers new to this shared world – features a stunning collection of original stories from such luminaries of the world of science fiction and fantasy as Paul Cornell, Marko Kloos, Mark Lawrence, Kevin Andrew Murphy, Emma Newman, Peter Newman, Peadar O Guilin, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Caroline Spector and Charles Stross.”

June also marks the release of another Wild Cards novel in the US. That one is LOW CHICAGO, and I have a novella in that one as well, so June marks the first month in which I have two stories out. (Coincidentally, both are novellas, and almost the same word count in length.) I’ve never had a novella published–the Frontlines story MEASURES OF ABSOLUTION is technically a novelette at around 12,000 words–so this just doubles the awesome.

I know most of you are here for the military SF, but I have to tell you that I love working on Wild Cards stories, and I feel that the stuff I’m writing in that world is some of the best material I’ve ever written. I’ve done short stories, but I am primarily a novelist, and the constraints of the novelette/novella length of my Wild Cards contributions have made me much better at pacing and structure for the longer works as well. I hope you give the Wild Cards books a shot.

 

 

 

Life in Upper Cryogenica, winter storm edition

We just had another nor’easter up here in Cryogenica, and this one dumped the most snow we’ve gotten so far in a single storm this winter. Here’s a picture of the total snowfall level–the ground was bare before the start of the storm. For reference, the Renegade has 18-inch wheel rims :

[image error]

(A month into owning it, I am still impressed with that little Jeep, by the way. It does even better in the snow than the Subarus, which is no small feat. Just after I took that picture, I climbed in and drove the Renegade out of that spot and down to the bottom of the driveway so the plow guys could clean up. No shoveling required.)

I’m hoping that was the last snow storm of the season, but up here you never know. We’ve had nor’easters as late as April and as early as November. And now you know why every other car in New England has AWD or 4WD drive.

I do enjoy the four very distinct season, however, even the snow. It does have its beauty. (Which is easier to appreciate when you have a plow guy on call and an automatic propane backup generator that powers the whole house for a week in a pinch.)

[image error]

 

Veterans and mental health

Part of what I have tried to accomplish with Frontlines is breaking out of the typical military SF mold a little bit when it comes to depicting soldier mindsets. With the sixth book in particular, I wanted to address the endless wars we tend to fight lately, and their effects on the minds of the men and women we ask to fight those wars. I’m not just talking about PTSD, which is very much on the radar of the non-military public lately because of its prevalence among combat veterans. What I also wanted to show is the difference between the military and civilian worlds, and the alienation and anxiety this difference can cause in combat soldiers, who have to do a radical adaptation from one mindset and environment to a completely different one, mostly without assistance or mental preparation.

This article at the Social Health blog, “Military betrayal, civilian isolation”  addresses the problem in fascinating detail. It’s a year and a half old, but still very much relevant, and it’s incisive and thought-provoking. Long story short: PTSD is a problem, but the mental stress experienced by veterans is much more multi-layered.

Emerald City Comic Con after-action report

This past weekend, Robin and I went to Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle. My publisher, 47North, is an Amazon Publishing imprint, so they’re based in Seattle, which meant I finally got to visit the Mothership and meet most of the rest of the APub team.

The Doppler building, where Amazon Publishing is housed, is FULL OF DOGGOS. It’s a dog-friendly building, and it seems like every third or fourth employee brings a dog to work. We were hanging out in the lobby for a bit at the start of the business day, and the stream of Good Boys And Girls coming in with their owners was a cheery and relaxing sight. If I had to work in a corporate environment, a corporate headquarters with lots of dogs in it would be my top pick.

Oh, and the view from the office isn’t bad either:

[image error]

Then there are the Spheres, which are the most Science Fiction-looking piece of architecture I’ve ever seen. We didn’t have the time to check them out on the inside, though.

[image error]

I was on two panels at Emerald City Comic Con. One was a pop culture throw-down with fellow authors Chuck Wendig, Django Wexler, Cherie Priest, Amy Bartol, and Kevin Hearne. Chuck, Amy, and Cherie are friends (Cherie is a fellow Wild Cards writer, Amy is a fellow APub author, and I’ve known Chuck online and in meatspace for years), and it was great to meet Django and Kevin. My wife is a big fan of his Iron Druid books, which are narrated by the same guy who does my Frontlines books, the awesome Luke Daniels. She was thrilled when he came over to her and introduced himself before the panel.

The second panel was about world-building for magical and futuristic worlds, where I sat in with fellow APub authors Emily King, Charlie Holmberg, Amy Bartol, J.D.Horn, Robert Cargill, and Jeff Wheeler. Both panels were extremely well attended and a lot of fun, and I am happy to say that while I didn’t win the pair of fuzzy shark slippers for the victor of the throwdown (that honor went to Chuck Wendig because he got to answer ALL THE STAR WARS TRIVIA), I managed to avoid ownership of the Jar-Jar Binks mask that was the last-place prize.

[image error]

I did two signings, and there were quite a few fans showing up to get their books defaced, but my signing line wasn’t nearly as busy as those of the guys to either side of me (Chuck Wendig and Kevin Hearne), and all three of us put together probably didn’t sign as many books as Patrick Rothfuss or Terry Brooks did. Here’s Kevin and Chuck at work:

[image error]

[image error]

The thing I enjoy most about cons other than meeting fans is getting together with my friends and colleagues in the business. We go months or sometimes years without meeting in real life, but when we do, it’s always like we just saw each other at a con a week ago. The SF/F genre is so small and familial that it feels there are no more than two degrees of separation between any of the writers working in the field. If you don’t know the writer in question, you are friends with someone who does. (I may have said the sentence “How do YOU know each other?” in astonishment more than once last weekend.) My field of work is full of awesome people, and that’s part of what makes this writing thing the best job in the world.

There was only a single negative thing that happened on this otherwise excellent weekend trip, and that was the loss of my iPad Pro, which I left in the seat pocket of the plane to Seattle. I remotely activated Lost Mode and filled out the online lost property form with Delta, but I’m not terribly hopeful. Lesson learned, I suppose. Next time I’ll take the 10-pound Alienware with the 17″ screen, which won’t get lost in between the safety card and the in-flight menu because it won’t fit into the seat pocket. As a side effect, I only had my phone all weekend, but it was kind of nice to be mostly unplugged for a few days.

Now it’s back to work–I have a novel to finish that I meant to complete before ECCC (and the face-to-face meetings with my publisher). Thankfully, they didn’t lock me up in the secret author dungeon in the basement for blowing my deadline…

Evernight

There’s a new Wild Cards story up at tor.com, “Evernight” by Victor Milán. 

This is a bitter-sweet thing because Victor Milán passed away yesterday.

I understand that Victor was practically the father of Wild Cards (he’s the one who gave George R.R. Martin the RPG Superworld for his birthday, which inspired George to start Wild Cards.) I did not get to meet Victor because I only joined the Wild Cards consortium two years ago and haven’t had many chances to meet everybody in real life (it’s a huge group, and a lot of its members live out west, where I am not), and now I’m sad that I won’t get a chance to know him in person. I have a copy of Victor’s book The Dinosaur Lords on my Kindle, but I hadn’t gotten around to reading it yet. Now I’ll have to bump it to the top of the reading list.

It’s a strange thing, the human condition…it can make you feel kinship with people you’ve never met, and sorrow at the news of their passing even though you’ve never talked to them.