Martha Wells's Blog, page 100
June 3, 2015
News of Me
Stories of the Raksura vol II: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below was officially released yesterday, and made it on:
* Barnes & Noble's New Book Round-up which said:
Stories of the Raksura: Volume II, by Martha Wells
Martha Wells continues her Raksura series with another collection of novellas and shorter works. If you’ve never read the original trilogy (beginning with Cloud Roads), this is a fine introduction, but you really owe it to yourself to read them all. It’s quite unlike anything else in the genre—with a core cast of non-human characters, it creates an entirely fresh, matriarchal fantasy world with its own biology, ecology, technology, and magic.
* and on Buzzfeed's 27 Speculative Fiction And Related Books To Read This June
* and I'm on A.M. Dellamonica's Blog: Martha Wells answers the Heroine Question
* and on John Scalzi's Whatever blog in the Big Idea series: The Big Idea: Martha Wells
* and I also had a post on Tor.com: Five Books About Exploring and Communicating with Alien Cultures
* also I'm not listed as a guest, but I'm going to be on programming Saturday, June 20, of ApolloCon in Houston.
Right now the US kindle of Stories of the Raksura vol II is at #8 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Anthologies on Amazon and I want to thank so much everyone who retweeted the release or passed on info about it or included it on a list. I appreciate it more than I can say.
* Barnes & Noble's New Book Round-up which said:
Stories of the Raksura: Volume II, by Martha Wells
Martha Wells continues her Raksura series with another collection of novellas and shorter works. If you’ve never read the original trilogy (beginning with Cloud Roads), this is a fine introduction, but you really owe it to yourself to read them all. It’s quite unlike anything else in the genre—with a core cast of non-human characters, it creates an entirely fresh, matriarchal fantasy world with its own biology, ecology, technology, and magic.
* and on Buzzfeed's 27 Speculative Fiction And Related Books To Read This June
* and I'm on A.M. Dellamonica's Blog: Martha Wells answers the Heroine Question
* and on John Scalzi's Whatever blog in the Big Idea series: The Big Idea: Martha Wells
* and I also had a post on Tor.com: Five Books About Exploring and Communicating with Alien Cultures
* also I'm not listed as a guest, but I'm going to be on programming Saturday, June 20, of ApolloCon in Houston.
Right now the US kindle of Stories of the Raksura vol II is at #8 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Anthologies on Amazon and I want to thank so much everyone who retweeted the release or passed on info about it or included it on a list. I appreciate it more than I can say.
June 2, 2015
Release Day for Stories of the Raksura II
This is the official release day for Stories of the Raksura vol II: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below
"The Dead City"
A tale of Moon before he came to the Indigo Cloud Court. As Moon is fleeing the ruins of Saraseil, a groundling city destroyed by the Fell, he flies right into another potential disaster when a friendly caravanserai finds itself under attack by a strange force.
"The Dark Earth Below"
Moon and Jade face their biggest adventure yet; their first clutch. But even as Moon tries to prepare for impending fatherhood, members of the Kek village in the colony tree's roots go missing, and searching for them only leads to more mysteries as the court is stalked by an unknown enemy.
Also includes the short stories "Trading Lesson," "Mimesis," and "The Almost Last Voyage of the Wind-ship Escarpment."
Trade Paperback:
Amazon US, Barnes and Noble, Mysterious Galaxy, Powell's, The Tattered Cover, Chapter Indigo, Books-a-Million, Book Depository, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon Spain, Amazon France, and all other Amazon sites, or look for it in an independent bookstore in the US through Indiebound.
ebook: Kindle US, Barnes & Noble Nook US, Kobo, iTunes, Kindle Canada, Kindle UK, Kindle DE, Kindle Spain, Kindle France, and all other Amazon sites.
There will be an audiobook, but it isn't out yet.
ETA: And I have a post up on the Big Idea series on John Scalzi’s Whatever blog: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/06/02/the-big-idea-martha-wells-3/
Excerpt from The Dark Earth Below
Moon followed with Chime and some of the other warriors as Bead led Pearl and Stone outside to one of the colony tree's garden platforms. As Moon flew down from the knothole entrance with the others, it hit him how much a relief it was to be outside. The air was fresh from a recent rain that had heightened the tree's own musky-sweet scent, and his wings felt as if they hadn't been stretched for a month. Maybe a few fast circuits around the tree's clearing wouldn't be as unfulfilling as he thought.
The platforms grew on all the mountain-trees and formed the suspended forest, the multi-leveled midsection of the Reaches, below the overarching canopy but well above the dangers of the forest floor. The trees' thick branches grew together and intertwined in broad swathes, and collected windblown dirt that eventually grew grasses and small forests, collected water, and became home to a large number of the creatures that lived in the Reaches. Including predators. On the colony tree the multiple levels of platforms had been planted as gardens and orchards, fed by the water expelled through the tree's knothole. The waterfall fell from pools on platform to platform, until it vanished in the mists above the forest floor.
Vine carried Bead, who directed them down toward the platform with the large patches of berry bushes. They landed out towards the edge, where Braid, one of the Arbora hunters, stood holding something that looked like a dead bladder fish. He was surrounded by a group of curious Arbora and warriors.
As they approached, Bead continued her explanation, "We noticed it when it floated up past the groundfruit garden. We thought it was an animal, and we were keeping an eye on it to make sure it didn't come at us. But then Needle saw it had that tied to it."
Needle, a young teacher, held up a big leaf rolled and tied with a dried vine, with a purple-blue flower tucked into the knot. "Briar flew out and got it, but she accidentally poked the bladder thing with a claw and all the air came out."
Stone took the dead bladder fish from Braid and held it up. It was actually several smaller membranes carefully sewn together, like the air bladder ships that the Aventerans used, but much smaller. Moon said, "Which direction did it come from?" Stone handed him the bladder, and he handed it to Chime, who spread it out to examine it.
"Up from below," Braid said, pointing down. Several of the warriors went to lean over the edge of the platform, but the mist was rising and Moon doubted they would be able to see anything.
"Hmm," was Pearl's comment. The reigning queen, she was a head taller than any of the Aeriat. Her scales were brilliant gold, the webbed pattern overlaying them a deep blue. The frilled mane behind her head was bigger than Jade's, and there were more frills on the tips of her folded wings and on the end of her tail. She wore only jewelry, a broad necklace with gold chains and polished blue stones. She held out a hand and Needle hurriedly put the leaf scroll into it. Pearl briefly examined the flower, then sliced through the vine with her claws and unrolled the leaf. The warriors and Arbora were too respectful of Pearl and her temper to cluster around. But Stone stepped in to look past Pearl's shoulder and Moon stepped in to look past his.
Scratched onto the leaf's green surface was a series of rough drawings. One was clearly meant to be the colony tree. The second showed a figure that had to be a winged Raksura flying down toward the base of the tree. The third depicted the Raksura standing with several bipedal figures among the tree roots. "That's got to be a message from the Kek," Moon said.
"Did we know the Kek could make these air bladders?" Chime asked, clearly fascinated.
"Presumably," Pearl said dryly. She handed the leaf to Stone. "Did they send messages this way in the past?"
"Maybe. I don't remember." Stone rolled the leaf up and handed it to Bead, who carried it away and unrolled it again to show the warriors. "I'll drop down and see what they want."
Moon took a breath to say he was going too, then thought about how far that was from Jade's bower. No, he couldn't risk it.
Watching him, Pearl said to Stone, "Take him with you."
Moon said, "I need to stay here." It took an effort to keep his spines flat. His temper was suddenly close to the surface. He knew it was just nerves, but knowing it didn't seem to help.
Pearl's expression was somewhere between annoyance and sympathy. It was how she had looked at him for the past month. Which was better than some of the other ways she had looked at him, but still. "It won't happen today. Or tomorrow, for that matter. Just go." She turned away.
"How do you know?" Moon couldn't stop himself from saying it, though he was well aware that Pearl's personal experience with clutching greatly exceeded his.
Pearl didn't answer, but the dismissive flick of her spines was eloquent. She took three long steps and bounded into the air.
Stone gave Moon a shove to the head, but not hard enough to make him stagger. Stone said, "She's right. Are you coming?"
Moon hesitated, but Chime and every other warrior on the platform was watching him hopefully. If he went, Stone would probably let some of them go too. He knew he needed a break from tension. Maybe everyone else did too. It was still an effort not to sound sulky about it. "All right."
***
In the end, Stone only let ten warriors accompany them, including Chime, Root, Song, and Vine, who had all been to see the Kek before. Moon knew half the court would have come if Stone had let them; everyone was curious about what the Kek wanted.
The Kek were groundlings who lived in the eternal twilight of the forest floor among the roots of mountain-trees. They preferred colony trees, and according to Stone, it was a common belief among Raksuran courts that Kek were good for the health of the tree.
Moon and the others followed Stone down the trunk of the mountain-tree, using the updraft of the waterfall, their wings out and cupped to turn the headlong dive into a more leisurely descent. The light under the mountain-tree's canopy was always dim and green, but it grew darker as they dropped past the last of the tree's platforms and into the lower part of the forest. There was a way down inside the tree as well, and doors out to the root area that were always kept securely sealed. But it was better to go this way and not open a passage into the lower part of the tree until they knew what the Kek wanted. The forest floor was far more dangerous than the suspended forest. It wasn't quite as dangerous with Stone here, who as a line-grandfather had a wingspan that was more than three times the size of Moon's twenty pace span. Most predators tended to avoid him.
Moon hoped nothing was wrong, that the Kek weren't asking for help with some disaster. The higher ground among the tree roots was said to be somewhat safer than the deep Reaches, the gorges and rocky outcrops and swamps that formed between the mountain-trees, but it couldn't be that much better. It helped that the Kek had little meat on their stick-like bones and seemed to be more plant than animal. There were few reasons for predators to be attracted to them.
As they passed down through the last layer of mist, Chime said, "I didn't know the Kek could build anything like that air bladder device. They've never done it before."
"They probably don't need them very often," Moon said. It seemed pretty simple to make, just some membranes, probably from snail skin, and a fire to heat the air to fill it. Down here, the fire was probably the hard part.
They landed on the ridge of a giant root, about forty paces above the spongy moss coating the ground. The great wall of the tree stretched up behind them to vanish in the mist. To the west were the ponds and swamps filled with the large snails that the Raksura sometimes harvested, and to the east the Kek village spread out through the roots.
The houses were big round structures woven from sticks, and they hung from the undersides of the roots that arched up off the ground. They were connected by a web of vine rope that the Kek walked along when the ground was too wet even for their light weight. It was a relatively dry day, and piles of grass mats lay under the houses, where the Kek sat braiding vines and doing obscure things with piles of flowers and other vegetation.
The Kek must have spotted the Raksura as soon as they dropped out of the mist; several had gathered around to wait for their arrival. They waved and made noises that seemed to indicate relief and pleasure to see them. Keeping his voice low, Chime commented, "Everything looks all right."
Moon thought so too. He was glad that nothing seemed badly wrong, but it was going to be a little disappointing if the Kek had sent the message just because they wanted to trade snail shells for more interesting flowers, or something similar. Stone tucked his wings in, and jumped to the ground, then shifted to groundling to give Moon and the others room.
The Kek had legs and arms that looked like lightly furred sticks, and their torsos were narrow and flat. Their heads were squarish, the eyes and mouth round, the nose just a slit, and their middles looked like they were all ribs. They wore drapes of vines as clothing, and bits of snail shells, insect carapaces, and flowers as decoration. Moon had never been able to tell what their sex organs were or where they kept them. He thought of the village elder Kof as male, mostly because the white stringy things growing out of his face and body were reminiscent of the beards that some groundlings grew. But the Kek could have had one gender or two or six or a dozen for all Moon knew; it had never seemed polite or relevant to ask and the language barrier kept it from ever coming up in casual conversation.
Kof moved forward to greet them. He was festooned with vines and wore necklaces made of tiny shells, and like the others seemed glad to see them. He gestured for the Raksura all to come forward into the village.
Moon followed Stone. He didn't shift to groundling, mainly because it was easier to get the moss off his scales than his skin. One of the nice things about the Kek was that they genuinely didn't seem to care. They had been a little nervous at the first meeting with the court, since at the time Indigo Cloud had arrived these Kek hadn't seen Raksura for more than twenty turns. But they seemed to like watching Raksura shift, and there weren't many groundlings who felt that way.
As they walked, Kof spoke to Stone, making gestures with the leaf-wrapped stick he carried. The structure of the Kek throat made it difficult for them to speak other languages, and equally difficult for other species to speak their language. They communicated with the Raksura in a kind of pidgin form of Raksuran and Kek that was often woefully inadequate. Moon suspected it was woefully inadequate now, from the way Stone's brow was furrowed in frustration.
When Kof stopped talking, Stone said, "They're asking for help. Some of their people are missing."
"Missing? From the village?" Moon's spines twitched. If some predator was creeping around the tree roots...
"No, they were hunters." Stone shook his head impatiently as Chime started to point out that the Kek didn't eat meat. "Plant hunters. That's what took me so long to understand him. We don't have a common word for it. The Kek have hunters who go out looking for new varieties of plants. Or at least that's what I think he means. The hunters were late coming back, and the Kek who went after them found traces where they were supposed to be, but no sign of them, and they couldn't track them. They've been missing for three days now."
Moon winced. This wasn't going to end well. Kof and the others nearby watched them with a hopeful intensity that was obvious even though Moon had trouble reading Kek expressions.
Vine offered, "We can look for them. Maybe we can find--" He glanced self-consciously at Kof, obviously reconsidering the words their bodies or what's left of them, even though the Kek probably couldn't understand him. "Something to show what happened to them."
Song said, "I'll go," and was seconded immediately by Root, Briar, and Aura.
Stone turned to Kof and said some Kek words. Kof shook his staff in approval and tugged on Stone's arm. Just about any other kind of groundling would never have dared to do that to a Raksura, let alone Stone, but Kof had never shown any inclination to fear them. Maybe the Kek thought Raksura were lucky, or good for the tree, the way the Raksura thought about the Kek. Kof went toward the other Kek, gesturing and talking, obviously filling them in on the conversation.
"Did they say how far it was?" Moon asked. Between the bad light of the forest floor and the uncertain terrain, it wouldn't be easy, but he could see why the Kek had summoned them. Warriors would still be able to move faster and more safely than Kek searchers.
"It's about a day's walk for them," Stone said. He lifted a brow at Moon. "You coming?"
June 1, 2015
Monday and Links
* First off, I have a post on Tor.com: Five Books About Exploring and Communicating with Alien Cultures
* Catherine Lundoff: Tanith Lee: Where to Start Reading
* Comicpalooza: The Cosplay of Comicpalooza a great sampler of some of the costumes from Houston's Comicpalooza. That convention was so much fun, I want to go back and do it all again.
New Book by Me
Tomorrow is the official release day of Stories of the Raksura vol. II: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below of the trade paperback and ebook. The audiobook is coming out at some point, I'm just not sure when yet.
If you like the book, there are things you can do to help it (and hopefully get more Raksura at some point). Preordering really helps, requesting that your local library buy the book for their collection really helps, and online reviews and ratings really help, especially at Amazon and GoodReads. The Amazon reviews actually cause the book to show up in more places and be recommended to people.
And I don't know how much longer it's going to last, but Stories of the Raksura I: the Falling World & The Tale of Indigo and Cloud is still on sale for $1.99 on Kindle http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Raksura-Falling-World-Indigo-ebook/dp/B00KK6BJJU/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 and Nook http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/stories-of-the-raksura-martha-wells/1118533919?ean=9781597805636
Flood Update
The lakes and rivers are flooding, but there's no rain in our forecast for the next few days, which is a huge relief. Hopefully (knock on wood) the worst is over.
* Catherine Lundoff: Tanith Lee: Where to Start Reading
* Comicpalooza: The Cosplay of Comicpalooza a great sampler of some of the costumes from Houston's Comicpalooza. That convention was so much fun, I want to go back and do it all again.
New Book by Me
Tomorrow is the official release day of Stories of the Raksura vol. II: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below of the trade paperback and ebook. The audiobook is coming out at some point, I'm just not sure when yet.
If you like the book, there are things you can do to help it (and hopefully get more Raksura at some point). Preordering really helps, requesting that your local library buy the book for their collection really helps, and online reviews and ratings really help, especially at Amazon and GoodReads. The Amazon reviews actually cause the book to show up in more places and be recommended to people.
And I don't know how much longer it's going to last, but Stories of the Raksura I: the Falling World & The Tale of Indigo and Cloud is still on sale for $1.99 on Kindle http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Raksura-Falling-World-Indigo-ebook/dp/B00KK6BJJU/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 and Nook http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/stories-of-the-raksura-martha-wells/1118533919?ean=9781597805636
Flood Update
The lakes and rivers are flooding, but there's no rain in our forecast for the next few days, which is a huge relief. Hopefully (knock on wood) the worst is over.
May 27, 2015
Wednesday
So, Tanith Lee passed away this week. This was terrible news. Her novel The Birthgrave was a huge influence on me.
There's an article on IO9 about her:
Tanith Lee, who died on Sunday, was one of the most prolific and influential authors of fantasy and horror. Everyone seems to know her for something different. Some people are obsessed with The Silver Metal Lover, while others devoured her fantasy series. And then there are the Blake’s 7 episodes. She left a huge bounty.
and one on the Advocate.com Remembering Tanith Lee, Celebrated Author of Queer Science Fiction
***
We've been having tons of flooding all over the middle part of the state, with a bridge washed away, a dam washed away, houses flooded or knocked off the foundations, some people killed and some still missing. We're okay, though some of the major streets near us were blocked with flash flooding on Monday night. Our friends all seem to be mostly okay, though some have had some flood damage. The amount of lighting Monday night was just incredible. We've got rain in the forecast for the rest of the week, so keep your fingers crossed for us.
If you want to help, Hays County was hit very hard and the Food Bank needs donations. To help animals, you can donate to the TAMU Veterinary Emergency Team. Shalom Austin is collecting for the Texas Flood Relief Fund. The Houston Food Bank could probably use some help too.
***
And I had a question from Veronica:
Will the newest Raksura novella be offered in an audiobook?
Yes, and it has the same reader, Christopher Kipiniak. I know it's been recorded but I'm not sure when it's being released.
There's an article on IO9 about her:
Tanith Lee, who died on Sunday, was one of the most prolific and influential authors of fantasy and horror. Everyone seems to know her for something different. Some people are obsessed with The Silver Metal Lover, while others devoured her fantasy series. And then there are the Blake’s 7 episodes. She left a huge bounty.
and one on the Advocate.com Remembering Tanith Lee, Celebrated Author of Queer Science Fiction
***
We've been having tons of flooding all over the middle part of the state, with a bridge washed away, a dam washed away, houses flooded or knocked off the foundations, some people killed and some still missing. We're okay, though some of the major streets near us were blocked with flash flooding on Monday night. Our friends all seem to be mostly okay, though some have had some flood damage. The amount of lighting Monday night was just incredible. We've got rain in the forecast for the rest of the week, so keep your fingers crossed for us.
If you want to help, Hays County was hit very hard and the Food Bank needs donations. To help animals, you can donate to the TAMU Veterinary Emergency Team. Shalom Austin is collecting for the Texas Flood Relief Fund. The Houston Food Bank could probably use some help too.
***
And I had a question from Veronica:
Will the newest Raksura novella be offered in an audiobook?
Yes, and it has the same reader, Christopher Kipiniak. I know it's been recorded but I'm not sure when it's being released.
May 25, 2015
Comicpalooza Report Part 2
Link to Comicpalooza part I
Saturday started early, with an 8:00 am to 9:00 am mini press junket for bloggers and podcasters and other reporters. I did a bunch of interviews with really fun people that I only got to talk to for five minutes. The Comicpalooza staffers and volunteers were all absolutely great, too.
After that, I went back to the hotel room to get the rest of my group and force them to take me to breakfast because I was starving. (When we were waiting for the hotel restaurant, we saw Stan Lee go by.) Then we headed over to the con, because I had a panel at 11:30, signing at the Barnes and Noble booth at 1:00 (and if you're still at the con, I signed stock for them so they should have signed copies of The Cloud Roads, The Serpent Sea, and The Siren Depths), and then another panel at 2:30.
I didn't say enough yet about how incredible the costumes were. Here's a picture of one:
Those wings actually snapped out when she pushed a button.
The panel at 11:30 was the worldbuilding panel, in a packed room. (The panel programming for the literary track was awesome, and the writing panels were well-attended, often standing room only.) The other panelists were P. J. Hoover, Steve Bein (M), Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Rachael Acks, Kerrelyn Sparks and we had a great panel with a lot of good questions from the audience.
The panel at 2:30 was tips for aspiring writers, also in a full room, with Patrice Sarath, Rachael Acks (M), Rachel Caine, Mercedes Lackey, Larry Dixon. We answered a lot of questions and had a fun time. Then I found my husband and our friend and we went to lunch (yes, at 4:00 pm) with Patrice. Between the panel and the lunch I was so tired I thought I was going to die, then after I ate, I had this weird false burst of energy again, so we went back to the con and did a more thorough walk through the Artists' alley section of the room.
Oh, and we got to see Peter Mayhew at his booth, and Henry Winkler. Henry Winkler was kind of awesome. He would walk around and go down the line of people and chat with everyone, and hug people, and generally act like he had invited you to a party he was having in his booth. It was just a fun place to walk by as everybody in line always looked so happy.
By about 7:00 I started to fall over again, so we went to the room and rested a bit, then met up again with Patrice at 8:00 for more food and deserts. We went back to our room at about 11:00 and collapsed.
On Sunday we were leaving in the late afternoon, so we went ahead and packed the car and checked out of the hotel after breakfast. We had a huge bout of bad storms and flooding through the central part of the state, including a bridge washed away, but luckily it wasn't near Houston. Though there was some rain and storms early in the day.
We did the floor for a while (no light sabres, no) and then I did another signing at Barnes and Noble, talked to some friends, and then did my last panel at 2:30. It was business tips for writers, with Jonathan Maberry, Kimberly Frost, and K. M. Tolan. I was the moderator (the program coordinator had emailed me earlier and asked me to do it when the other moderator had to cancel). We answered a ton of questions from a great audience, so it was fun too.
After that, we had to leave. I kind of didn't want to, because we kept running into friends and the con went on to Monday and I didn't get to see robots fight, but we had to go.
We got out of the downtown area without rain or traffic problems, but on highway 59, there was a slowdown merging onto 290, and someone almost rear-ended us. Like, I heard brakes squealing long enough to say twice "Please don't hit us." Looked back and there was a white car with smoke coming from the brakes. I think she must have stopped with inches to spare and I would like to thank her very much for being able to do that, because yeah, I can't afford to get another car. So we were very, very awake at that point and drove the rest of the way home with no problems.
Saturday started early, with an 8:00 am to 9:00 am mini press junket for bloggers and podcasters and other reporters. I did a bunch of interviews with really fun people that I only got to talk to for five minutes. The Comicpalooza staffers and volunteers were all absolutely great, too.
After that, I went back to the hotel room to get the rest of my group and force them to take me to breakfast because I was starving. (When we were waiting for the hotel restaurant, we saw Stan Lee go by.) Then we headed over to the con, because I had a panel at 11:30, signing at the Barnes and Noble booth at 1:00 (and if you're still at the con, I signed stock for them so they should have signed copies of The Cloud Roads, The Serpent Sea, and The Siren Depths), and then another panel at 2:30.
I didn't say enough yet about how incredible the costumes were. Here's a picture of one:
Those wings actually snapped out when she pushed a button.
The panel at 11:30 was the worldbuilding panel, in a packed room. (The panel programming for the literary track was awesome, and the writing panels were well-attended, often standing room only.) The other panelists were P. J. Hoover, Steve Bein (M), Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Rachael Acks, Kerrelyn Sparks and we had a great panel with a lot of good questions from the audience.
The panel at 2:30 was tips for aspiring writers, also in a full room, with Patrice Sarath, Rachael Acks (M), Rachel Caine, Mercedes Lackey, Larry Dixon. We answered a lot of questions and had a fun time. Then I found my husband and our friend and we went to lunch (yes, at 4:00 pm) with Patrice. Between the panel and the lunch I was so tired I thought I was going to die, then after I ate, I had this weird false burst of energy again, so we went back to the con and did a more thorough walk through the Artists' alley section of the room.
Oh, and we got to see Peter Mayhew at his booth, and Henry Winkler. Henry Winkler was kind of awesome. He would walk around and go down the line of people and chat with everyone, and hug people, and generally act like he had invited you to a party he was having in his booth. It was just a fun place to walk by as everybody in line always looked so happy.
By about 7:00 I started to fall over again, so we went to the room and rested a bit, then met up again with Patrice at 8:00 for more food and deserts. We went back to our room at about 11:00 and collapsed.
On Sunday we were leaving in the late afternoon, so we went ahead and packed the car and checked out of the hotel after breakfast. We had a huge bout of bad storms and flooding through the central part of the state, including a bridge washed away, but luckily it wasn't near Houston. Though there was some rain and storms early in the day.
We did the floor for a while (no light sabres, no) and then I did another signing at Barnes and Noble, talked to some friends, and then did my last panel at 2:30. It was business tips for writers, with Jonathan Maberry, Kimberly Frost, and K. M. Tolan. I was the moderator (the program coordinator had emailed me earlier and asked me to do it when the other moderator had to cancel). We answered a ton of questions from a great audience, so it was fun too.
After that, we had to leave. I kind of didn't want to, because we kept running into friends and the con went on to Monday and I didn't get to see robots fight, but we had to go.
We got out of the downtown area without rain or traffic problems, but on highway 59, there was a slowdown merging onto 290, and someone almost rear-ended us. Like, I heard brakes squealing long enough to say twice "Please don't hit us." Looked back and there was a white car with smoke coming from the brakes. I think she must have stopped with inches to spare and I would like to thank her very much for being able to do that, because yeah, I can't afford to get another car. So we were very, very awake at that point and drove the rest of the way home with no problems.
Comicpalooza Report Part I
So through a haze of heavy traffic, we got to Comicpalooza on Thursday afternoon. We got checked in to the hotel, and I headed over to get our passes. (Walking the length of the large hotel, then half the length of the large convention center, when there aren't a lot of people yet but you can hear movement and distant voices echoing through, is a very Bioshock experience.) I found a small outpost of civilization, got the passes, walked back without being eaten by zombies. Then I went to a press interview thing the convention was holding and did a couple of quick interviews. We went down to meet up with friends for drinks (including Diana Dru Botsford whose books you should check out), and then went out to dinner. (Luckily we knew people who would fight the traffic to come to the hotel to pick us up, because once you get parked in the hotel garage it's better not to leave it.)
Friday we went up to the pool on the 23rd floor and went swimming and sat in the hot tub. It was a gorgeous pool, really nice, and I'm glad we went that day because we had no time to do it the rest of the con. I didn't have a panel until 5:30, so we were able to do the con floor.
The con is basically three stories of giant convention center, with the entrance and skyway from the hotel on the second floor, where a lot of people were walking back and forth, etc, and the third floor, where the gaming, the panels, NASA, the celebrity q and a sessions, the wrestling ring, the roller derby (not kidding) and the bands and other events. The first floor was registration and the dealers' room, artists' alley, maker faire (3d printers, robots, science!, laser tag, virtual reality game booths, etc), food court (barbeque, stir fry, Cuban sandwiches, deli, etc. The pulled pork sandwiches at Southern Lady Barbeque were delicious) and the celebrity signing booths.
The con was bigger this year, and had the entire convention center, which allowed them to (I think) make the aisles bigger and not crowd the front of the room with the dining tables and the kids' play area, so there was far less crowding. The crowd flow seemed to work pretty well, as far as I could tell.
And it's a very diverse crowd. Houston is a very diverse city anyway, and you saw every kind of people, often in costume, and every age from 60s and 70s down to babies. Lots of women, lots of teenagers, lots of families with young kids. (Often in costume.) The con has a very exciting, vital feel, and you see a lot of people smiling and just having a great time. I think this is the future of fandom, and I like it a lot.
(Oh, and despite all the kids (day passes for kids were $10.00 and there was a programming track of kids activities) there are cash bars scattered through the dealers and artists areas. And a roving bar on a bicycle. And a booth for Virus Vodka giving samples in test tubes.)
We shopped a lot but didn't buy much, because after paying for hotel and food there wasn't a ton of money left. I did get a Doctor Who t-shirt, a couple of comic books, and SGC and Stargate Atlantis uniform patches. There was some beautiful original art, which was very tempting. And the light sabre booth. Oh god, the light sabre booth.
(Conversation I had with my husband: "No, no, no, you can not have something that expensive that's just a pretty toy."
Him: "If I get one I'll get one for you too."
Random man: "That's the way to do it."
Me: "No, no, (picking up a gorgeous silver and blue thing labeled Azure Reaper) no, no matter how pretty and wonderful and absolutely perfect toy it's-- No!"
We did not get light sabres even though he threaten to whine about it in the car all the way home.)
There weren't many celebrities on the floor yet, by Joel Hodgson from Mystery Science Theater 3000 was there, and I am a huge fan. But I have a weird phobia where I am terrified to speak to them. So my husband went and got a picture with Joel Hodgson, who asked why his wife was hiding twenty yards away by the pillar, and my husband told him why, and he pointed at me and called me cute and adorable. So that was my idea of a happy celebrity encounter, where I can have it at a safe distance.)
I did my first panel, Fifty Shades of Fae, about fairy in books, media, etc, which went really well. By then it was 6:30 and we and the friend who was staying with us went across the street to a nice restaurant for dinner. We're sitting there, eating, and I suddenly look up and coming in to be seated is George and Brad Takei. So that was pretty enormously cool. (We also saw Stan Lee coming out of the hotel restaurant the next morning.)
This is getting long, and I still have a lot more to tell, so I'll continue in another post.
(The rest of my photos are on my tumblr in the comicpalooza tag.)
Friday we went up to the pool on the 23rd floor and went swimming and sat in the hot tub. It was a gorgeous pool, really nice, and I'm glad we went that day because we had no time to do it the rest of the con. I didn't have a panel until 5:30, so we were able to do the con floor.
The con is basically three stories of giant convention center, with the entrance and skyway from the hotel on the second floor, where a lot of people were walking back and forth, etc, and the third floor, where the gaming, the panels, NASA, the celebrity q and a sessions, the wrestling ring, the roller derby (not kidding) and the bands and other events. The first floor was registration and the dealers' room, artists' alley, maker faire (3d printers, robots, science!, laser tag, virtual reality game booths, etc), food court (barbeque, stir fry, Cuban sandwiches, deli, etc. The pulled pork sandwiches at Southern Lady Barbeque were delicious) and the celebrity signing booths.
The con was bigger this year, and had the entire convention center, which allowed them to (I think) make the aisles bigger and not crowd the front of the room with the dining tables and the kids' play area, so there was far less crowding. The crowd flow seemed to work pretty well, as far as I could tell.
And it's a very diverse crowd. Houston is a very diverse city anyway, and you saw every kind of people, often in costume, and every age from 60s and 70s down to babies. Lots of women, lots of teenagers, lots of families with young kids. (Often in costume.) The con has a very exciting, vital feel, and you see a lot of people smiling and just having a great time. I think this is the future of fandom, and I like it a lot.
(Oh, and despite all the kids (day passes for kids were $10.00 and there was a programming track of kids activities) there are cash bars scattered through the dealers and artists areas. And a roving bar on a bicycle. And a booth for Virus Vodka giving samples in test tubes.)
We shopped a lot but didn't buy much, because after paying for hotel and food there wasn't a ton of money left. I did get a Doctor Who t-shirt, a couple of comic books, and SGC and Stargate Atlantis uniform patches. There was some beautiful original art, which was very tempting. And the light sabre booth. Oh god, the light sabre booth.
(Conversation I had with my husband: "No, no, no, you can not have something that expensive that's just a pretty toy."
Him: "If I get one I'll get one for you too."
Random man: "That's the way to do it."
Me: "No, no, (picking up a gorgeous silver and blue thing labeled Azure Reaper) no, no matter how pretty and wonderful and absolutely perfect toy it's-- No!"
We did not get light sabres even though he threaten to whine about it in the car all the way home.)
There weren't many celebrities on the floor yet, by Joel Hodgson from Mystery Science Theater 3000 was there, and I am a huge fan. But I have a weird phobia where I am terrified to speak to them. So my husband went and got a picture with Joel Hodgson, who asked why his wife was hiding twenty yards away by the pillar, and my husband told him why, and he pointed at me and called me cute and adorable. So that was my idea of a happy celebrity encounter, where I can have it at a safe distance.)
I did my first panel, Fifty Shades of Fae, about fairy in books, media, etc, which went really well. By then it was 6:30 and we and the friend who was staying with us went across the street to a nice restaurant for dinner. We're sitting there, eating, and I suddenly look up and coming in to be seated is George and Brad Takei. So that was pretty enormously cool. (We also saw Stan Lee coming out of the hotel restaurant the next morning.)
This is getting long, and I still have a lot more to tell, so I'll continue in another post.
(The rest of my photos are on my tumblr in the comicpalooza tag.)
Stories of the Raksura I ebook for $1.99
I need to do a Comicpalooza report, but wanted to say real quick that Stories of the Raksura I: the Falling World & The Tale of Indigo and Cloud is on sale now for $1.99 on Kindle http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Raksura-Falling-World-Indigo-ebook/dp/B00KK6BJJU/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 and Nook http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/stories-of-the-raksura-martha-wells/1118533919?ean=9781597805636
So if you wanted it in ebook and hadn't gotten it yet, now is a great time. I have no idea how long the sale is going to last.
So if you wanted it in ebook and hadn't gotten it yet, now is a great time. I have no idea how long the sale is going to last.
May 20, 2015
Links and Book Recs
* This Just In — Books Are Still Awesome
Liz Bourke says nice things about my collection Between Worlds: the Collected Ile-Rien and Cineth Stories
* My Comicpalooza schedule.
* Strange Horizons column: Movements: Use of Anger by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
At times, writing this column is like performing open heart surgery on myself. I have to take off all the protective armor and all the defense shields that I’ve learned to put up, and I have to sit down and gear myself up for speaking truth. Writing about the journey as I experience it, as I walk it in this field I’ve chosen to work in, is not always easy.
* Short story Breaking the Spell by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
* Bone Swans by C.S.E. Cooney is up for preorder in ebook.
* Waters of Versailles by Kelly Robson is up for preorder.
* Exclusive: BOOM! Studios Reveals SLEEPY HOLLOW: PROVIDENCE Miniseries
* Catherine Lundoff's Older Women in SF/F list Part One and Part Two
Liz Bourke says nice things about my collection Between Worlds: the Collected Ile-Rien and Cineth Stories
* My Comicpalooza schedule.
* Strange Horizons column: Movements: Use of Anger by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
At times, writing this column is like performing open heart surgery on myself. I have to take off all the protective armor and all the defense shields that I’ve learned to put up, and I have to sit down and gear myself up for speaking truth. Writing about the journey as I experience it, as I walk it in this field I’ve chosen to work in, is not always easy.
* Short story Breaking the Spell by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
* Bone Swans by C.S.E. Cooney is up for preorder in ebook.
* Waters of Versailles by Kelly Robson is up for preorder.
* Exclusive: BOOM! Studios Reveals SLEEPY HOLLOW: PROVIDENCE Miniseries
* Catherine Lundoff's Older Women in SF/F list Part One and Part Two
May 19, 2015
May 18, 2015
News
It's been raining off and on all weekend, and we're getting flash flood warnings all over the place. Because this weekend was university graduation on Friday and Saturday, and there were tons of extra people in town, and students packing up to leave, and moving to new places, it was a dark wet hellscape as far as traffic was concerned.
The drought map is shrinking, but Lake Travis still needs more water, while I think we're full up. We did get the electrical work we needed done on the house Thursday. (The electrical riser was pulling out of the roof and needed to be replaced.) The power was off all day so they could do it, then the power company ended up hooking it back up again during a thunderstorm.
* I'm going to have stories in these two anthologies, coming up later this year: The Gods of Lovecraft and Mech: Age of Steel.
* Pentapoda did some lovely Raksura fanart
* I posted this yesterday: http://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/119192066332/why-im-having-trouble-concentrating-this-morning
* On the Roar of Approval For Self-Defenestration by Adam-Troy Castro
You make friends among folks who will not correct you when you step over those invisible lines, but who will instead applaud you, who will react to you most positively when you slip up and allow this ugly lesion on your character to hang exposed. They laugh and clap and tell you that you’re speaking truth, when instead you’re engaging in a little bit of social Tourette’s. They call over others, even worse than themselves, and before long you find yourself playing to a crowd that is itself getting worse and worse.
This applies to so many different situations inside every kind of fandom and outside it.
The drought map is shrinking, but Lake Travis still needs more water, while I think we're full up. We did get the electrical work we needed done on the house Thursday. (The electrical riser was pulling out of the roof and needed to be replaced.) The power was off all day so they could do it, then the power company ended up hooking it back up again during a thunderstorm.
* I'm going to have stories in these two anthologies, coming up later this year: The Gods of Lovecraft and Mech: Age of Steel.
* Pentapoda did some lovely Raksura fanart
* I posted this yesterday: http://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/119192066332/why-im-having-trouble-concentrating-this-morning
* On the Roar of Approval For Self-Defenestration by Adam-Troy Castro
You make friends among folks who will not correct you when you step over those invisible lines, but who will instead applaud you, who will react to you most positively when you slip up and allow this ugly lesion on your character to hang exposed. They laugh and clap and tell you that you’re speaking truth, when instead you’re engaging in a little bit of social Tourette’s. They call over others, even worse than themselves, and before long you find yourself playing to a crowd that is itself getting worse and worse.
This applies to so many different situations inside every kind of fandom and outside it.
