Martha Wells's Blog, page 101
May 12, 2015
Stories of the Raksura vol II
Stories of the Raksura vol. II: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below will be released into the wild in just a couple of weeks on Tuesday June 2, in trade paperback and ebook. It's also being released in audiobook (by Christopher Kipiniak, who's been the performer for all the Raksura books so far!) but I'm not sure if that will be done by June 2 or if it'll be a little later.
You can preorder it at all these places:
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.
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?"
You can preorder it at all these places:
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.
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?"
May 7, 2015
Comicpalooza
On May 22-25, I'll be at Comicpalooza in Houston. It's a great con, with a ton of panels on writing and art and costuming and film and pretty much everything you can think of, on top of a massive convention floor with artists, dealers of all kinds, celebrity signings, robots, 3d printers, circus acts, etc.
(If you decide to go, I recommend that you get your pass online and then pick it up as early as possible. On Saturday last year there were huge lines to get in.)
Here's my schedule. Last year there were book signings at the Barnes and Noble table, but I don't know if they're going to do that this year.
Friday:
5:30-6:30 Fifty Shades of Fae: Fairies in Fiction (F) 03-350B
How have contemporary fantasy authors used the classical folklore and literature of fairies to create modern stories? What are some of the best stories involving the faerie otherworld?
Martha Wells, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Raven Raye, C. D. Lewis, Janet Wrenn (M)
Saturday:
11:30-12:30 Writing Tips and Tricks: How to Create Believable Worlds (CBW) 01-350A
World-building in fiction can be a challenge. How much is enough? How much is too much? Authors share techniques for creating believable, immersive worlds in fiction writing.
P. J. Hoover, Steve Bein (M), Martha Wells, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Rachael Acks, Kerrelyn Sparks
2:30-3:30 Tips for Aspiring Writers (CBW) 23-352B
New to writing? Not sure where to start? Come and learn from published authors, who will share tips, dos and don'ts, and personal stories about how they began their writing careers.
Patrice Sarath, Martha Wells, Rachael Acks (M), Rachel Caine, Mercedes Lackey, Larry Dixon
Sunday:
2:30-3:30 Business 101 for Writers (CBW) 05-350C
Writing is more than just finishing your short story or novel. Come learn from pro writers about the business side of writing: budgeting, networking, website creation, promotional materials, branding and more.
Martha Wells, Jonathan Maberry, Kimberly Frost, Jake Kerr (M), K. M. Tolan
(If you decide to go, I recommend that you get your pass online and then pick it up as early as possible. On Saturday last year there were huge lines to get in.)
Here's my schedule. Last year there were book signings at the Barnes and Noble table, but I don't know if they're going to do that this year.
Friday:
5:30-6:30 Fifty Shades of Fae: Fairies in Fiction (F) 03-350B
How have contemporary fantasy authors used the classical folklore and literature of fairies to create modern stories? What are some of the best stories involving the faerie otherworld?
Martha Wells, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Raven Raye, C. D. Lewis, Janet Wrenn (M)
Saturday:
11:30-12:30 Writing Tips and Tricks: How to Create Believable Worlds (CBW) 01-350A
World-building in fiction can be a challenge. How much is enough? How much is too much? Authors share techniques for creating believable, immersive worlds in fiction writing.
P. J. Hoover, Steve Bein (M), Martha Wells, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Rachael Acks, Kerrelyn Sparks
2:30-3:30 Tips for Aspiring Writers (CBW) 23-352B
New to writing? Not sure where to start? Come and learn from published authors, who will share tips, dos and don'ts, and personal stories about how they began their writing careers.
Patrice Sarath, Martha Wells, Rachael Acks (M), Rachel Caine, Mercedes Lackey, Larry Dixon
Sunday:
2:30-3:30 Business 101 for Writers (CBW) 05-350C
Writing is more than just finishing your short story or novel. Come learn from pro writers about the business side of writing: budgeting, networking, website creation, promotional materials, branding and more.
Martha Wells, Jonathan Maberry, Kimberly Frost, Jake Kerr (M), K. M. Tolan
May 6, 2015
News
I've been doing a quickie edit/revise of the book I just finished before I send it in to my agent, and that means doing about 100 manuscript pages per day, so I've feeling a bit swamped. And it's a longer one, about 140,000 words.
Sale
The YA fantasy I co-wrote with Aaron de Orive, Blade Singer, is on sale for $2.99 at Barnes and Noble and Amazon
Links
* Representing Marginalized Voices in Historical Fiction and Fantasy by Joyce Chng, David Anthony Durham, Kari Sperring, and Vanessa Rose Phin
* An interview with author Judith Tarr
* How to vote No Award in the Hugos
New Books
* The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor
A prequel to the highly acclaimed, World Fantasy Award-winning novel, Who Fears Death, it features the rise of another of Nnedi Okorafor’s powerful, memorable, superhuman women.
* Apex by Ramez Naam
Against this backdrop, a new breed of post-human children are growing into their powers. And a once-dead scientist, driven mad by her torture, is closing in on her plans to seize planet's electronic systems, and re-forge everything in her image.
* The Venusian Gambit: Book Three of the Daedalus Series by Michael J. Martinez
In the year 2135, dangerous alien life forms freed in the destruction of Saturn's moon Enceladus are making their way towards Earth. A task force spearheaded by Lt. Cmdr. Shaila Jain is scrambling to beat them there while simultaneously trying to save crewmember Stephane Durand, who was infected during the mission to Saturn and is now controlled by a form of life intent on reopening a transdimensional rift and destroying the human race.
* The first chapter of Charm by C.L. Hellisen
Sale
The YA fantasy I co-wrote with Aaron de Orive, Blade Singer, is on sale for $2.99 at Barnes and Noble and Amazon
Links
* Representing Marginalized Voices in Historical Fiction and Fantasy by Joyce Chng, David Anthony Durham, Kari Sperring, and Vanessa Rose Phin
* An interview with author Judith Tarr
* How to vote No Award in the Hugos
New Books
* The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor
A prequel to the highly acclaimed, World Fantasy Award-winning novel, Who Fears Death, it features the rise of another of Nnedi Okorafor’s powerful, memorable, superhuman women.
* Apex by Ramez Naam
Against this backdrop, a new breed of post-human children are growing into their powers. And a once-dead scientist, driven mad by her torture, is closing in on her plans to seize planet's electronic systems, and re-forge everything in her image.
* The Venusian Gambit: Book Three of the Daedalus Series by Michael J. Martinez
In the year 2135, dangerous alien life forms freed in the destruction of Saturn's moon Enceladus are making their way towards Earth. A task force spearheaded by Lt. Cmdr. Shaila Jain is scrambling to beat them there while simultaneously trying to save crewmember Stephane Durand, who was infected during the mission to Saturn and is now controlled by a form of life intent on reopening a transdimensional rift and destroying the human race.
* The first chapter of Charm by C.L. Hellisen
May 1, 2015
Avengers Friday
This weekend I still have a lot of stuff to do, but I'm also hoping to be able to see the new Avengers movie as soon as possible.
***
Con or Bust, which helps people of color/non-white people attend SFF conventions, end Sunday May 3.
I've posted four entries, with a set of audio CDs for the Wheel of the Infinite audiobook, a signed set of the Emilie books, a signed set of all the Raksura books, and a signed hardcover of Star Wars: Razor's Edge. There are tons of other items to bid on (books, jewelry, knitted goods, art, etc), so check it out if you have a chance.
***
Good Raksura news! Christopher Kipiniak will be narrator again for the audiobook of Stories of the Raksura vol II: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below. He's narrated all the Raksura audiobooks and he's fabulous, so I'm so glad he's doing this one too.
***
All the collections from the Six by Six Kickstarter have now been released! If you joined the kickstarter you should have gotten all your goodies by now. If you think you are missing something, email Brad, the kickstarter admin.
This was a really fun project and I'm really glad I participated.
If you didn't sign up for the Kickstarter, you can still get my story collection Between Worlds: the Collected Ile-Rien and Cineth Stories, with the new The Death of the Necromancer story, as an ebook on Kobo, Kindle, iTunes, Nook, etc.
And always, if you enjoyed something I wrote, and you have time, please consider leaving a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, GoodReads, etc. Those reviews really do help the books show up more on those sites, and it's a great thing to do for any author.
***
Con or Bust, which helps people of color/non-white people attend SFF conventions, end Sunday May 3.
I've posted four entries, with a set of audio CDs for the Wheel of the Infinite audiobook, a signed set of the Emilie books, a signed set of all the Raksura books, and a signed hardcover of Star Wars: Razor's Edge. There are tons of other items to bid on (books, jewelry, knitted goods, art, etc), so check it out if you have a chance.
***
Good Raksura news! Christopher Kipiniak will be narrator again for the audiobook of Stories of the Raksura vol II: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below. He's narrated all the Raksura audiobooks and he's fabulous, so I'm so glad he's doing this one too.
***
All the collections from the Six by Six Kickstarter have now been released! If you joined the kickstarter you should have gotten all your goodies by now. If you think you are missing something, email Brad, the kickstarter admin.
This was a really fun project and I'm really glad I participated.
If you didn't sign up for the Kickstarter, you can still get my story collection Between Worlds: the Collected Ile-Rien and Cineth Stories, with the new The Death of the Necromancer story, as an ebook on Kobo, Kindle, iTunes, Nook, etc.
And always, if you enjoyed something I wrote, and you have time, please consider leaving a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, GoodReads, etc. Those reviews really do help the books show up more on those sites, and it's a great thing to do for any author.
April 29, 2015
Wednesday
Still waiting to get our electrical work done, but there's been several big thunderstorms so the electricians are really backed up with work. And the other day we had a giant funnel cloud wandering around town. It never touched down (they aren't officially tornadoes until the land and start destroying stuff) but still, not fun.
Years ago when I was living in a fourplex at the edge of big field and wooded area, a tornado came right over us. Seen from directly below, they look like the sky is doing something terrible and wrong and terrifying.
It's a busy week for me. I've finished the first draft of a book and am revising it, plus I'm writing a short story for an anthology, plus a couple of guest blog posts. The story isn't due until the end of the summer, but it's less stressful if I do a draft as soon as I can and then let it percolate a bit.
Book recs
* Darkened Blade by Kelly McCullough
It’s been nine long years since the death of his patron, Namara, and exalted assassin Aral Kingslayer desperately misses the thrill and glory of being a higher power of justice. Now he is haunted by the ghosts of the past—and by the ghost of the lost goddess herself.
* Of Noble Family by Mary Robinette Kowal
Jane and Vincent's sense of peril is screaming out for them to flee, but Vincent cannot stand to leave an estate connected with his family in such a condition. They have survived many grand and terrifying adventures in their time, but this one will test their skills and wits more than any they have ever encountered before, this time with a new life hanging in the balance. Mary Robinette Kowal's Of Noble Family is the final book of the acclaimed Glamourist Histories.
* Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials by Ovidia Yu
Rosie "Aunty" Lee, the feisty widow and amateur sleuth and proprietor of Singapore's best-loved home-cooking restaurant, is back in another delectable, witty mystery involving scandal and murder among the city's elite.
Just read this one. It was like if Miss Marple was Chinese and lived in Singapore, I really enjoyed it.
Years ago when I was living in a fourplex at the edge of big field and wooded area, a tornado came right over us. Seen from directly below, they look like the sky is doing something terrible and wrong and terrifying.
It's a busy week for me. I've finished the first draft of a book and am revising it, plus I'm writing a short story for an anthology, plus a couple of guest blog posts. The story isn't due until the end of the summer, but it's less stressful if I do a draft as soon as I can and then let it percolate a bit.
Book recs
* Darkened Blade by Kelly McCullough
It’s been nine long years since the death of his patron, Namara, and exalted assassin Aral Kingslayer desperately misses the thrill and glory of being a higher power of justice. Now he is haunted by the ghosts of the past—and by the ghost of the lost goddess herself.
* Of Noble Family by Mary Robinette Kowal
Jane and Vincent's sense of peril is screaming out for them to flee, but Vincent cannot stand to leave an estate connected with his family in such a condition. They have survived many grand and terrifying adventures in their time, but this one will test their skills and wits more than any they have ever encountered before, this time with a new life hanging in the balance. Mary Robinette Kowal's Of Noble Family is the final book of the acclaimed Glamourist Histories.
* Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials by Ovidia Yu
Rosie "Aunty" Lee, the feisty widow and amateur sleuth and proprietor of Singapore's best-loved home-cooking restaurant, is back in another delectable, witty mystery involving scandal and murder among the city's elite.
Just read this one. It was like if Miss Marple was Chinese and lived in Singapore, I really enjoyed it.
April 21, 2015
Fall of the House of Usher, Part Million
If you've been following this blog for a while you may know we have had a lot of work done to our house in response to various problems (foundation work, plumbing, etc). At this point its basically had most of its insides replaced. (It was very solidly built - by amateurs - in 1969.)
So a couple of weeks ago I smelled gas in the kitchen. The emergency gas company people came and said the hose and valve for the gas stove were incorrect and leaking and needed to be replaced. So I got an appointment with our regular plumber to come do that. As they were making the repairs, (I dread the words, "Boss, I found something weird.") they realized that when they touched the stove and the gas line, they felt an electrical charge. This is really bad, because electrified gas lines can explode. Plumbers recommended an electrician and ran out the door. I called the electrician and they showed up within an hour (which was pretty fast considering there had been a giant storm the night before and they were slammed with calls).
There was a lot of worried searching by the very calm and methodical electrician, who finally traced it to the outlet the stove was plugged into, which was apparently completely jacked and had been since before we moved in. (And the breakers for it didn't work either, so we're just lucky we're not dead, basically.) (The electricians called it a "handyman special.") So that got fixed, but he also found that the pole where our electrical service is connected to the house is actually being pulled out of the house and that needs to be fixed Real Soon.
So I had them come out today and do an estimate, and it's not as bad as I thought, in that we may get out of the this whole situation for around $1000, and the stove is working again. Though that's a $1000 I wasn't planning on spending.
***
Recs:
Audio story: Toasted Cake 145: Boneshadow by Jessica Reisman, read by Alex C. Renwick
New Book: Edge of Dreams by Diana Pharaoh Francis
My Stuff:
* Between Worlds: the Collected Ile-Rien and Cineth Stories is out now in ebook
* Stories of the Raksura vol II: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below is coming out in June.
So a couple of weeks ago I smelled gas in the kitchen. The emergency gas company people came and said the hose and valve for the gas stove were incorrect and leaking and needed to be replaced. So I got an appointment with our regular plumber to come do that. As they were making the repairs, (I dread the words, "Boss, I found something weird.") they realized that when they touched the stove and the gas line, they felt an electrical charge. This is really bad, because electrified gas lines can explode. Plumbers recommended an electrician and ran out the door. I called the electrician and they showed up within an hour (which was pretty fast considering there had been a giant storm the night before and they were slammed with calls).
There was a lot of worried searching by the very calm and methodical electrician, who finally traced it to the outlet the stove was plugged into, which was apparently completely jacked and had been since before we moved in. (And the breakers for it didn't work either, so we're just lucky we're not dead, basically.) (The electricians called it a "handyman special.") So that got fixed, but he also found that the pole where our electrical service is connected to the house is actually being pulled out of the house and that needs to be fixed Real Soon.
So I had them come out today and do an estimate, and it's not as bad as I thought, in that we may get out of the this whole situation for around $1000, and the stove is working again. Though that's a $1000 I wasn't planning on spending.
***
Recs:
Audio story: Toasted Cake 145: Boneshadow by Jessica Reisman, read by Alex C. Renwick
New Book: Edge of Dreams by Diana Pharaoh Francis
My Stuff:
* Between Worlds: the Collected Ile-Rien and Cineth Stories is out now in ebook
* Stories of the Raksura vol II: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below is coming out in June.
April 20, 2015
Con or Bust Auction Starts Today
Con or Bust, which helps people of color/non-white people attend SFF conventions, starts today!.
I've posted four entries, with a set of audio CDs for the Wheel of the Infinite audiobook, a signed set of the Emilie books, a signed set of all the Raksura books, and a signed hardcover of Star Wars: Razor's Edge.
There are all kinds of items up for auction, including signed books, jewelry, etc. Items are still being submitted for the auction, so if you don't see something you want to bid on, keep checking!
I've posted four entries, with a set of audio CDs for the Wheel of the Infinite audiobook, a signed set of the Emilie books, a signed set of all the Raksura books, and a signed hardcover of Star Wars: Razor's Edge.
There are all kinds of items up for auction, including signed books, jewelry, etc. Items are still being submitted for the auction, so if you don't see something you want to bid on, keep checking!
April 15, 2015
Raksura Answers
pilgrim3
asked: tool use by the Aeriat. I know that the Arbora use tools (anvils, etc., have been mentioned), but it seems rare that the Aeriat use tools at all. Is not using tools the norm for them? Or are there exceptions lurking in future books?And an odd question - what is your next favorite race to write about in the 3 Worlds setting?
They do when they need to, but it's more from necessity, where the Arbora always used tools for things like making their living spaces more comfortable, making art, etc. The Arbora make all the material goods for the colony because they put a high priority on both having those things and the effort and talent it takes to make them. Without the Arbora, the Aeriat probably would only bother with the minimum they needed to survive.
Favorite race other than the Raksura: it might be the Kek, because they're a lot of fun to work with, because they're very different from the Raksura, and they're very different from humans, too. I ought to do a short story from the Kek's perspective, at some point.
April 14, 2015
Good News and Various
YAY!!!! I just got a great Publishers Weekly review for Stories of the Raksura: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below! "The Raksura world features innovative and alien creatures; Wells thinks far outside the humanoid fantasy box. The line between animal and person is drawn extremely thin, and the power structure among the races resembles nature more than it resembles any human civilization. With a strong sense of adventure, horror, and mystery, this is an enjoyable read for fantasy fans seeking a new series to sample."
I also got an invite to be on the WorldCon program, so I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and go. (Bite the bank account, actually, because the hotels are hella expensive this year.) I have a roommate so it shouldn't be too bad.
Writing ramble
One thing I've noticed is I still have an occasional plotting problem which I think of as getting ahead of myself and leaving the characters behind. When I trying to move the characters through a sequence of events because that's what I need to have happen, and it's just not working, because I'm not considering whether 1) the characters are actually going to want to do these things at this point 2) these things are or are not priorities for them at this point. These things have to happen, I just have to make sure the characters' motivations are lined up first and that there's space to deal with the stuff that they see as more important. It's a POV issue, which I tend to think lies at the root of most of the roadblocks and problems in writing. You have to see things from the characters' viewpoint at all times.
I also got an invite to be on the WorldCon program, so I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and go. (Bite the bank account, actually, because the hotels are hella expensive this year.) I have a roommate so it shouldn't be too bad.
Writing ramble
One thing I've noticed is I still have an occasional plotting problem which I think of as getting ahead of myself and leaving the characters behind. When I trying to move the characters through a sequence of events because that's what I need to have happen, and it's just not working, because I'm not considering whether 1) the characters are actually going to want to do these things at this point 2) these things are or are not priorities for them at this point. These things have to happen, I just have to make sure the characters' motivations are lined up first and that there's space to deal with the stuff that they see as more important. It's a POV issue, which I tend to think lies at the root of most of the roadblocks and problems in writing. You have to see things from the characters' viewpoint at all times.
April 13, 2015
Monday
We had a situation this weekend where I kept smelling gas in the kitchen, just a little bit. After overcoming that whole "I'm just imagining it and if I call someone about it I'll be made to feel stupid and all but called/actually called a silly little girl" we called an appliance place and on their advice called the emergency gas company number, and it turned out it was an emergency. There's a leak in in the hose and valve connected to the stove, so that's turned off now and I need to call the appliance place again today to see if I can get the hose etc replaced.
Then we found out the gas company didn't get the hot water heater turned on right when they suddenly decided to install a new meter, so we had to get them to come out and do that, so there was no hot water for a while.
So that was the weekend, small yay.
Fan art
Some lovely fan art of The Element of Fire by punkranger
Links
* The stories I wanted to read by Aliette de Bodard
Aliette writes about reading SF/F as she was growing up: There’s a lot of books in my reading that feature China, or some representation of the Far East–I read them all like I read invented worlds, because the China they depict is so out of touch with my family stories (I won’t say my family stories are all positive! Vietnam has… a complicated relationship with China)–surely they have to be about some kind of fictional China/Far East that doesn’t exist. They speak of martial arts and inscrutable, passive people awaiting to be saved; of some fount of mystical wisdom that awaits the traveller. I think fake!China must be some kind of faraway land invented by writers, because it cannot possibly be the real thing.
* Women in SFF Month Readers Recommendation Giveaway
* Right-Wing Trolls Hijack SciFi Oscars by Arthur Chu
This is about the Hugo awards situation, which I find really depressing. I have a voting membership this year, and I'm going to vote "no award" on every category.
* Talk with me about being a fan of SF and F by Mary Robinette Kowal
This is also about the Hugo awards
Novella rec
Introducing Midnight's Silence and a new series by T. Frohock
Then we found out the gas company didn't get the hot water heater turned on right when they suddenly decided to install a new meter, so we had to get them to come out and do that, so there was no hot water for a while.
So that was the weekend, small yay.
Fan art
Some lovely fan art of The Element of Fire by punkranger
Links
* The stories I wanted to read by Aliette de Bodard
Aliette writes about reading SF/F as she was growing up: There’s a lot of books in my reading that feature China, or some representation of the Far East–I read them all like I read invented worlds, because the China they depict is so out of touch with my family stories (I won’t say my family stories are all positive! Vietnam has… a complicated relationship with China)–surely they have to be about some kind of fictional China/Far East that doesn’t exist. They speak of martial arts and inscrutable, passive people awaiting to be saved; of some fount of mystical wisdom that awaits the traveller. I think fake!China must be some kind of faraway land invented by writers, because it cannot possibly be the real thing.
* Women in SFF Month Readers Recommendation Giveaway
* Right-Wing Trolls Hijack SciFi Oscars by Arthur Chu
This is about the Hugo awards situation, which I find really depressing. I have a voting membership this year, and I'm going to vote "no award" on every category.
* Talk with me about being a fan of SF and F by Mary Robinette Kowal
This is also about the Hugo awards
Novella rec
Introducing Midnight's Silence and a new series by T. Frohock
