S.L. Huang's Blog, page 5

Using Statistics to Choose What People Think Is Best: Not As Straightforward As You Might Think

The Goodreads Choice Awards are in their first round of voting, which prompted some discussion on Twitter concerning the fact that their shortlist for Best Science Fiction has only one woman on it (out of 15 books).

Goodreads states that they “analyze statistics from the millions of books added, rated, and reviewed on Goodreads” to choose the shortlists.

Well, this seems pretty straightforward, right? Their awards are about what books their users think are best. So they pick the top 15 books...

Demonstrative Pronouns in Japanese: Or, How My Spanish is Helping

Yikes, I’m behind on blog entries I’ve been meaning to write! I WILL GET TO THEM.

I’m going to start a blog series on learning Japanese — selfishly, just to clarify things for myself. But perhaps it will also be helpful to other Japanese learners! Disclaimer: I am a raw beginner at Japanese. What I say may make no linguistic sense at all. It may even be completely wrong. I’m just sorting through thoughts.

A few weeks ago we learned demonstrative pronouns and demonstrative adjectives in Japane...

ROOT OF UNITY is out today!

“It’s a gloriously unapologetic action novel, full of explosions, and I enjoyed it tremendously.”— Liz Bourke, Tor.com

“Huang has really stepped up her game in this book.”— James Davis Nicoll

Read it now:Amazon|Amazon UK|Apple|Kobo| B&N(coming – the B&N elves are processing it!)

Back for book three . . .

Cas Russell has always used her superpowered mathematical skills to dodge snipers or take down enemies. Oh, yeah, and make as much money as possible on whatever unsavory gigs people will h...

Mmmm … Delightful Nova Scotian Foreskins

While we were in Nova Scotia, we visited Jost Vineyards, the province’s biggest and oldest winery. The main building had walls of bottled wine surrounded by a steampunk décor that reminded me of Restoration Hardware. Ugh, more quaintness. How can the locals take so much quaintness? I would just die.

A staff woman approached and greeted me. A few words of mundane pleasantry ensued. My eyes hopped over to a sign that advertised the wine tasting. Her eyes followed mine. “Would you like to try ou...

Zero Sum Game is on sale! Also, some math for you about socks.

In celebration of the release of Root of Unity(less than a week away, w00t!), today marks the first day of a 99-cent sale of the ebook forZero Sum Game!

Amazon * Amazon UK * Barnes & Noble * Kobo * Apple

In honor of this sale and so I’m just not Promoty McPromotion, I’m going to tell you about the title of the series.

Russell’s Atticmay not be the best title for a book series about violent superpowered mathematicians — it doesn’t quite speak to the superheroaspect, or suggest adrenaline-pu...

Oreo Cows in New Scotland

‘Tis hard to believe, but it’s been over two (long) months on the road.

We just left Nova Scotia, a Canadian province whose name means New Scotland. Before we left Los Angeles, we didn’t plan on going to Canada, much less Nova Scotia, which is so far away from LA it might as well be the old Scotland. In fact, Nova Scotia is farther away from LA than any contiguous USA location. It’s more northeast than Maine, which is already super far.

The most common comment we’ve been getting from strang...

FIGHTING DEMONS is out today!

Read “Fighting Demons,” the sequel to “Hunting Monsters,” today at The Book Smugglers!

What is this story about? It’s about parents and children, culture and identity, individuality and family. It’s about the daughter of Beauty and Red Riding Hood meeting the son of Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian from the famous Chinese tale “Legend of the White Snake.”

If you want to read about how awful and hard it was to write about my own cultural heritage for this story, by the way, I wrote about it here:

Doubt...

Betty Makes Damn Good Pies

I recently watched David Lynch’s TV showTwin Peaks, season one. Disappointed.To be fair, I had high expectations of the cult favorite. It’s rare for a show to live up to high expectations.

Still, my reaction was surprising, given that I love love David Lynch’s movie Mulholland Drive. It’s a spooky mystery wrapped in a surreal atmosphere, a rare art movie with an engaging story.

Back to Twin Peaks. My first reaction was: this is slow. Well, actually it was: wow, does Kyle MacLachlan look youn...

The 20-Week Scan

Getting a scan done is always an exciting thing. It’s awesome getting to see how the bebe has grown. Are her legs still little nubs that resemble green beans? Will we finally be able to see her wee face?

The 20-week scan is probably the most exciting one, because it’s also known as the anomaly scan, where the doctor will check for, well, anomalies. Is your baby’s heart developing well? Her brains? Her liver? Her spine? It’s also the first scan where you might catch a glimpse of her actual fa...

ROOT OF UNITY will be out September 30!

HOLY CATS FOLKS LOOK HOW AWESOME THAT COVER IS! It is my FAVORITE COVER YET. Credit as always is to my wonderful cover designer, Najla Qamber.

My first readers tell me this is also the best book in the series yet. Feedback included“SOOO EXCIITINGSAUUCE” and “WHEN IS NEXT BOOK?” To answer, next book is done and already through its first round of beta, and will likely release in spring of 2016. \o/

So what is this excitingsauce book about? Here is the blurb!

Cas Russell has always used her su...