Martha Wells's Blog, page 109

Thursday Stuff

It's going to cost $500 to fix the car, which is painful but much less devastating than I was afraid it was going to be. So at least today I'll have a car back! I'll console myself with Project Runway tonight.

Book Stuff

Re above, if people wanted to buy my ebooks reprints of Wheel of the Infinite, The Death of the Necromancer, City of Bones, or The Element of Fire, now would be a good time. (These are self-published reprints, so the money goes directly to me, and gets used to pay my utility bills every month.)

There are a couple more reports of people receiving their preorders of Stories of the Raksura I so that's very exciting! To me, anyway.

On libraries, the_other_sandy says: Just an FYI from a librarian--libraries don't loan out books through interlibrary loan until they've owned it for 6 months so the taxpayers who actually paid for the book can have first crack at it. For the first 6 months after a book is published, you're better off filing a purchase request. Libraries really do take those seriously.

More Appearances:

I'm doing a signing at Murder by the Book in Houston on Saturday November 8 at 1:00 pm. If you aren't in town, you can use this page to order books in advance so the store can get them in and get them signed by me and ship them to you. That includes all three of the Books of the Raksura (including The Cloud Roads which is back in print) and the paperback of Star Wars: Razor's Edge (they might be able to get the hardcover too, but you might have to call them and ask for it). If you wanted to get a set of signed Raksura books, say as a Christmas or other holiday present, for yourself or someone else, this would be a great time to do it.

Other appearances include:

Saturday September 27, 2014.
Martha will be on the Fiction Writing panel at the Waco WordFest, 10:30 am to 11:45, at the Waco Convention Center, 100 Washington Ave, Waco, TX.

Saturday November 15, 2014, at 2:00 pm.
Martha will be doing a signing for Blade Singer with Aaron de Orive, at the Barnes & Noble Arboretum in Austin, Texas.

February 13-15, 2015.
Martha will be a panelist at ConDFW in Dallas, TX.

May 22-25, 2015.
Martha will be a panelist at Comicpalooza in Houston, TX.

I'm hoping to be able to afford to go to the WorldCon in Spokane (August 2015), but I don't know if I can get on programming yet.

Online Writing Classes

* Last chance to sign up for online writing classes with fantasy author Judith Tarr


Some Links

* Beyond Angkor: How lasers revealed a lost city But back in the 1860s Angkor Wat was virtually unheard of beyond local monks and villagers. The notion that this great temple was once surrounded by a city of nearly a million people was entirely unknown.

* In Defense of Clair Huxtable & the Angry Black Woman In TV & Beyond by Janet Mock I think it's hard now for people to realize what a huge important deal Claire Huxtable was on TV back then, just for women in general, especially young women. It was moments like this that led Slate to call Clair Huxtable "one of TV's great feminists" in celebration of The Cosby Show's 30-year anniversary on Saturday. Jason Bailey wrote, "Clair Huxtable was an ideal to strive for. Why would you not want to be—or be with—a proud, brilliant woman who was both a mother and a professional?"

* 100 Year Old Black Film Discovered by Diana Veiga
It's amazing when hidden treasures and gems are discovered! The New York Times reported that what may be the earliest surviving film with a Black cast, made in 1913, was found in the film archives of the Museum of Modern Art.

It's Wednesday, augh. We should get one vehicle back tod...

It's Wednesday, augh. We should get one vehicle back today so the other one can go in to get fixed. The good thing is, it was only a bad battery and it was under warranty, so that was a huge relief. After the big storms we had last week, the weather here has cooled off down to the mid-80s, so that's good too.

Another huge relief is it looks like Stories of the Raksura I is finally shipping in paperback and some people have already received their copies. Yay! The ebook and audiobook have been available since Sept 2.

Again, thanks to everyone who already left a review anywhere, good or bad.


A couple of kickstarters:

* Blackguards - Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries, and Rogues I don't have a story in this one but Carol Berg does. I will have a story in their next kickstarted anthology after this one.

* TEMPORALLY OUT OF ORDER Anthology (SF&F)
This project will fund a science fiction and fantasy anthology titled TEMPORALLY OUT OF ORDER, containing approximately 14 all-original (no reprint) short stories from established SF&F authors in the field—including David B. Coe, Laura Anne Gilman, Faith Hunter, Stephen Leigh, Gini Koch, Seanan McGuire, and Laura Resnick, plus others.

Tuesday

Okay, the dead truck got towed to the garage last night, so we'll see how expensive that's going to be. Then we deal with the car problem.

Augh.

Anyway, new books:

* Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan
This is the third book and I'm really enjoying this series. It's funny and scary and I love the characters.

* The first chapter of the YA The Girl Who Wanted to be Sherlock Holmes by Bill Crider

* The Broken Road by T. Frohock
"The Broken [Road] is a novella that showcases how dark fantasy & horror can make an intense combination. Teresa Frohock's exquisite prose & fantastical world-building also make this novella a top-notch read! Don't miss this exciting story about love, betrayal, & the need to save the world."

***

This Saturday (the 27th) I'll be on the Fiction Writing panel at the Waco WordFest, 10:30 am to 11:45, at the Waco Convention Center, 100 Washington Ave, Waco, TX, with Angee Taylor, Golden Parsons, and Patrice Sarath. I'll have copies of Stories of the Raksura with me and will be selling them after the panel.

Raksura Update

From emails the preorder people are getting, Stories of the Raksura I should be shipping on the 24th. Confusingly, a lot of places still list October 7 as the ship date, but also say "in stock."

The ebook and audiobook are already available.

And you can request your local library order it, or once it starts to be cataloged in various libraries, they may be able to get it for you through interlibrary loan. And some libraries are also set up to loan ebooks.

Reviews on Amazon, B&N, wherever else you got it, GoodReads, and LibraryThing are extremely helpful. Especially on Amazon, where getting 20-25 reviews, good or bad, means the book will actually be shown to more people in their algorithms.

If you missed it, I posted a Raksura snippet on Friday, where Moon and Stone go into a dive bar.

***

We did not have a good weekend. On Friday my husband's truck wouldn't start, then on Saturday we realized the car has some kind of wheel/balance/alignment problem that's causing it to shake like a wheel is about to come off. (It's not any of the tires themselves, they're all fine, have the right air pressure, are still attached to the car, etc.) So we are looking at a lot of extra expense this week. I really hope it doesn't cost that much.

And the Celtic Music Festival we went to Saturday was just not that great. Not many bands were there we wanted to see, few merchants and no new ones, just not a lot there. It was okay, just kind of blah. We did get some homemade soap and backyard mulberry honey from one of our favorite merchants, though.

I'm reading Maplecroft by Cherie Priest. A really neat, spooky dark fantasy starring Lizzie Borden. Very good Halloween book.

Raksura Snippet Post

Okay, because it's Friday, here's a Raksura snippet. This is the scene I said I was writing the other day: Moon and Stone go into a dive bar.

Note, this is from something that hasn't been sold yet, but the scene is sort of almost complete in itself, so I think it makes a nice little story.

Also Note, Kalam and the other people they are with know they are Raksura and know what Raksura are, etc, but the people in the port don't, and would probably mistake them for Fell if they shifted.






As they came around the last curve it was obvious that the nearest buildings all seemed to be selling food, and the smell of frying oil and grilled fish and sugar hung in the air. Moon's stomach grumbled, even though he wasn't hungry; groundling food tended to affect him that way. Callumkal and the others went past the food stalls and Moon stopped by one of the pillars at the base of the ramp to watch them.

The tower was on higher ground and the slight elevation let him see that the Kishan were taking a turn off the main road into a compound of larger, more substantial buildings. From the wrapped bundles, bags, and crates piled up in the yard, it was a trading factor and was probably where Callumkal meant to buy supplies. He turned to say that to Stone, and found Stone had disappeared.

Moon gritted his teeth to suppress an annoyed hiss. This went wrong fast. But a moment later, Stone stepped out of a food stall across from the end of the ramp. Relieved, Moon went to meet him.

Stone had a paper wrap filled with fried lumps of something that smelled intoxicating. Stone said, "Want some?"

"No." Moon was still mad about that moment of worry Stone had given him. "How did you buy it?"

"Traded an opal." At Moon's incredulous expression, he said, exasperated, "They change currency for trade too. They gave me a sack of metal bits that are good in most of the trading ports around here."

Moon grimaced in annoyance. "You don't go to the first place. They'll charge more than the others further away."

Stone sighed with weary patience. None of the Raksura understood trading or barter the way groundlings did it, and none of them understood why Moon cared. None of them had ever been stuck in a groundling city where they had to trade for food or not eat. Stone said, "So? If we need more metal bits, we'll get more." He held out the paper again and this time Moon gave in and took one. They were fried lumps of sweet dough, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Chewing, Moon said, "Callumkal and the others went to a trading factor over there." He turned in time to see Kalan walk out of the compound's entrance and head down the road toward the docks.

"Now where's he going?" Stone said, eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

Moon took another piece of fried dough. They had speculated that one of the Kishan close to the expedition might have been infected by the Fell, might be spying for a ruler without knowing it. "Let's see."


***


They set off at an easy pace, following Kalan at a distance.

Fortunately there were just enough groundlings out on the street to blend in with, but not so many that it was hard to keep track of Kalam. Most of the groundlings were going in and out of the market stalls, or occupied with moving cargo toward the port on the bird-thing carts. There was even more variety of species the closer they got to the port, though the Coastal species was still in the majority. The gray people with the weirdly-jointed limbs were even stranger close up, with bulging eyes that were set wide apart. Moon didn't see any blue-skinned Serican traders, but there were pale green people with the faint glint of scales on their skin, usually a sign that there were sealings in their ancestry somewhere. No one seemed unduly interested in Moon and Stone, or Kalam for that matter, beyond the occasional curious glance. Moon had always preferred this type of groundling city, where everyone was occupied with their own business and expected to see different species. He hated any place where he was stared at, hated to be singled out for scrutiny that might lead to suspicion that might lead to fleeing for his life.

The ground sloped slightly as it curved down toward the harbor. Over the low rooftops, Moon spotted the masts of the larger ships and the jungle-covered peaks of the closer islands. Moon circled a group of groundlings unloading a wagon, the bird-thing turning its head to glare at him as they passed. The road curved around another large cargo yard and opened out into the harbor front, a maze of walkways built atop the piled-up rocks covering the beach. The wind was stronger here and heavier with the scents of salt and dead fish and sea wrack. At a set of docks a little way down, groundlings loaded or unloaded big sailing vessels, and several shallow-draft barges floated further out. Down toward the other end of the harbor, the walkways curved back from the beach and naked groundlings were playing in the waves. It was too bad they couldn't bring the Arbora and the warriors down here, but there was no time, and they would want to shift and swim in their scaled forms. Even in a place like this, shifting would cause a riot.

Not far from the sailing docks, one of the broader walkways led out to several interlinked docks built of the same material as the towers. They extended out away from the shallow area into the deeper water, and Moon thought at first that there were several low-lying barges tied up there. But a closer look showed that they were structures sitting in the water.

And Kalam was heading for the walkway. Moon said, "I think he's going where we were going."

"To see the sealings?" Stone leaned on a piling. "If he was meaning to follow us, he did a bad job of it."

Kalam walked along the walkway, pausing to watch a large vessel lowering its butterfly-shaped sails as it angled in toward the next set of docks. The boy didn't look like he was doing anything surreptitious, and he didn't look like he was being compelled to go to a Fell ruler, either. "I don't think so. Callumkal told me about the sealing traders, I bet he told Kalam too. Maybe he just came down here to see them."

Stone made an annoyed noise. Kalam was moving again, out onto the docks with the trading station. Stone said, "Come on. If he's sightseeing, we're sightseeing too."

Moon followed, only a little reluctantly. If Kalam saw them he was sure to tell Callumkal, and Moon didn't want the whole crew to know their business. Because Kalam wasn't speaking to Fell didn't mean no one else was.

They went down the walkway and out onto the first dock. Moon saw he was right, that unlike the others which all looked to be wood and cut rocks, these were the same metallic stone as the towers. And the several structures standing only a few paces above the waves were built of the same material. So whoever had built the towers had built the trading station for the sealings. Or for whatever had lived in the water back then.

Moon was prepared to wave and look innocent if Kalam glanced back and saw them, but Kalam was heading for the outer dock, slipping past the other parties of groundlings who were coming and going. There were five structures partially above the water, and at least two further out that sat lower, their roofs just below the waves. The largest had heavy clear crystals set into windows along the sides, and two entrances, where stone steps led down into wells in the sides of the building. It also looked the most crowded, as both entrances were temporarily blocked, one by groundlings trying to carry large pottery jars down into the structure, the other by a Coastal who had a twisted leg joint and was being helped up the stairs by a companion.

The other groundlings on that part of the dock just milled around, waiting for the entrances to clear, but Kalam hesitated, then started for the smaller structures further down the dock. "No," Moon muttered, "He's going to the wrong one."

"What?" Stone squinted against the salt spray in the air.

"That's the trading station." Moon jerked his chin toward the large structure. "The one those groundlings are waiting to get into. I don't know what those are."

Those blocky structures were smaller, further underwater, and didn't have any sky lights. A few groundlings were going down into their stairwells, or making their way toward them along the dock. Moon's instincts for navigating groundling cities had all been gained the hard way, and they told him that while the trading station looked like a relatively safe prospect, those places didn't.

"Huh," Stone commented, and strolled after Kalam.

Kalam picked the first structure he came to and started down the steps into the entrance well, which again didn't bode well for the theory that he had been unconsciously compelled to meet a Fell ruler and wasn't just exploring a strange city. Moon was half-inclined to give up on Kalam and just go to the trading station where they were more likely to hear news of the sel-Selatra. But Stone was already following Kalam down the stairs, so Moon suppressed an annoyed hiss and went after him.

It was dark inside after the bright morning sun, but Moon's eyes adjusted quickly. It was a big oblong room, the walls of something that looked like light-colored stone, and there were long crystal windows, all below the surface so the light was dim and constantly changing as the waves crashed over the roof above. The artificial light came from glass lamps, placed on small shelves randomly studding the walls. Moon couldn't tell what was inside the lamps, if it was magical illumination or just a glowing mineral or plant material, but the light was white and not strong. The air was intensely damp and the place was also bigger than it looked on the outside. This was only the first level, and Moon spotted Kalam's head going down the circular stairwell in the middle of the floor.

There were only a few groundlings here, standing in groups and talking, and no one who looked like a sealing of any kind. A Coastal with patchy scales was selling cups of various caustic-scented liquids from a set of pottery urns in the far corner of the room, and that was the only activity taking place. Stone barely bothered to glance around and followed Kalam.

The stairs curved down into a bigger lower level, where the dim white light was even more murky and the view through the windows was darker, except for the occasional silver flicker of a fish, or the little blue shellfish clinging to the crystal. This room was much larger than the one above, and had doorways in the far walls leading to other chambers.

There were more groundlings here, standing and talking or sitting on cushions on the floor. And finally there were sealings.

There were a dozen round pools cut into the floor, that must have some passage outside, because the water scent was fresh and salty. The sealings swam or lounged on the edges of the pools, speaking to the groundlings gathered around. They had green scaled skin and long dark green hair that looked like heavy lengths of water weeds. Their hands and feet were heavily webbed and they had long prominent claws, and filmy fins along their arms and legs. Most were wearing jewelry, unpolished lumps of pearl and jasper in nets of braided cord. "Finally," Stone muttered, and wandered into the crowd, heading for the pools.

There were Coastals selling various things, mostly more caustic drinks and little glass cups that emitted vapor and were meant to be held under the nose. It competed with the more attractive scents of the water and the sealings themselves.

Moon looked for Kalam and spotted him partway across the room. Most of the crowd was dressed in lighter fabrics, and Kalam's reddish brown skin and dark hair stood out among all the grays and greens. He was trying to circle around a group to get closer to the pools, but suddenly the group circled him.

It had occurred to Moon that if Kalam had been compelled by the Fell, the rulers might have sent another infected groundling into the port to talk to him. He moved closer, trying to see what was happening. One of the groundlings, a tall gray male with a long head and limbs that made him look as if he might be related to the Aventerans, stooped over Kalan.

But as Moon stepped closer, Kalam tried to back away from the group. Kalam, clearly uncomfortable, said in careful Altanic, "I'm just here to look around. I'm not interested in company."

Moon hissed under his breath, annoyed. Kalam had picked the wrong place, all right; this structure must be mainly for getting intoxicated and meeting people to have sex with. Moon pushed forward and elbowed aside the groundling blocking Kalam's retreat. He said, "He said he's not interested."

The group edged back a little. The one Moon had elbowed fell back against the wall and was clutching his middle. Moon had gotten used to elbowing warriors and had lost the habit for being more careful with groundlings. The maybe-Aventeran jerked back a little, startled. In badly slurred Altanic, he demanded, "Who are you?"

Moon showed his teeth in an expression that was not a smile. "I'm a friend of his father's."

The maybe-Aventeran's companions and the other groundlings who had been gathering to see the fight immediately started to back away.

"How should I know that?" the maybe-Aventeran demanded again, hesitated in confusion as his support retreated, then hurriedly followed them across the room.

"Thank you." Kalam turned to Moon, a little breathlessly. "I didn't know what to do."

"Why are you here?" Moon hoped Kalam wouldn't ask why Moon was here.

Kalam, being young and flustered, didn't think to question Moon's sudden appearance. "I wanted to see the trading station. My father gave me permission. The people at the supply factor said it was safe."

Moon drew on the ability he had cultivated while raising fledglings to be patient in the face of the most willfully ignorant behavior. "Yes, but this isn't the trading station."

"I know, but it was crowded, and I thought this would be quicker. I'm not supposed to be gone too long."

Kids, Moon thought, exasperated. Kalam was probably old enough to be let out alone in a Kishan academic enclave, but maybe not old enough to wander a busy port city. "The next time you tell your father you're going to the trading station, you go to the trading station. You have to be careful in strange places."

"I know." Kalam's expression was a convincing combination of embarrassed and miserable. "I will."

Moon said, "Just stay with us." He looked for Stone and saw him sitting by one of the pools toward the center of the room, with a couple of other groundlings and a Coastal. A sealing floated in the pool, speaking to the Coastal.

Moon made his way through the sparse crowd, aware Kalam was sticking obediently close. He sat next to Stone as the Coastal and the other groundlings left. Kalam took a seat on the opposite side of the pool.

The sealing, a young female, stared at Moon in what was probably supposed to be a provocative way. Moon was still irritated from the encounter with the maybe-Aventeran, and it just made him want to bite through someone's neck artery.

Apparently this was obvious. The sealing turned to Stone and said in Altanic, "What's wrong with him?"

"He's in a bad mood," Stone explained, "He was born that way. Does the one who's down there with you want to talk too?"

The sealing sank into the water a little, swishing her fins in exasperation. "I take it you're not here for the usual."

Stone said, "I don't know what that is. I want to know if you've had any news from the waters in the direction of the place the groundlings call sel-Selatra."

Scaled brows drew down in thought. "Towards the wind passage? The land of the sea-mounts?"

"That's it."

"There was some--" The sealing's whole body jerked, as if something had grabbed her from below and tugged. Moon's brain said predator and he almost shifted, catching himself just in time. The sealing said, "Ah, someone else wants to talk to you," and sank below the surface and out of sight.

Stone gritted his teeth and gazed up at the damp ceiling. He said in Raksuran, "I hate talking to sealings. Everything's a damn bargain."

"You hate talking to everybody," Moon said, in the same language. It didn't help, but Moon felt he had to point it out.

"Shut up. Why is he here?" Stone jerked his head toward Kalam.

Moon said, through gritted teeth, "So I don't have to shift and kill everybody in this stupid stinking place."

Stone sighed. Another sealing broke the surface, and water lapped up over the edge of the pool. This was a female, older, or at least the faint dull sheen at the edge of her scales made her look older.

She studied them both thoughtfully, with an edge of contempt in her expression, then said in Altanic, "We sell isteen. If you want to buy that, stay. If you don't, get out before you regret it." She bared fangs. "We don't sell information."

Moon didn't know what isteen was and he didn't care. Considering the other groundlings in here, it was probably a simple that made you stupid. Stone just said, "That's good, because I wasn't planning to pay you."

She swayed in the water, as if considering. "Buy isteen, and perhaps I'll give you the information you want."

Stone said, "I don't want isteen, and I'm not giving you anything."

"If I give you information, I need to be paid." She nodded toward Moon. "I'll take that one."

After having to rescue Kalam from drunken groundlings who couldn't control their own genitals, this was too much. Moon said, "Try."

The sealing focused on him, really looking at him for the first time. Whatever she saw made her scales ripple. Whether it was aggressive or defensive, Moon didn't know, but it nearly set off his predator reflex. Stone tilted a sideways look at him and made a noise in his throat, just a faint growl, not enough to vibrate through the floor. "Moon. No."

The message was clear. Moon hissed at him, and lay down on the damp floor, head propped on his hand, as if prepared to wait as long as it took.

The sealing relaxed a little, the water splashing toward Kalam's side of the pool as she flexed her fins. She said, "I had to ask. What else have you got to pay me with?"

Stone smiled. Most groundlings wouldn't have recognized what was behind that expression but it would have made the warriors scatter like startled lizards. "You want me to come down there and ask?" he said.

The sealing stared hard at him, eyes narrowed, as if trying see past his skin. "What are you?"

Moon swallowed an annoyed snarl and said, "She wants to scare us. Why don't you just act scared?"

Kalam kept looking from Moon to Stone to the sealing, wide-eyed and deeply fascinated. At least somebody was having fun.

Still smiling easily, not betraying any impatience, Stone said, "I'm terrified. Want me to come down there and be terrified?"

The sealing looked from Stone to Moon to Kalam. Then she kicked once to glide to the far side of the pool. She leaned back against the edge and stretched her arms along it, claws displayed but relaxed. "Most of the groundling traders who come here defer to us. They're afraid of sealing females."

No one said we're not groundlings though Moon felt it hang in the air. He said, "Our females would have pulled you out of there and ripped your skin off by now."

"And that's why we can't be friends," Stone said. "Now do you know anything about the waters in the sel-Selatra or do I need to go to the next pool and start over?"

She exhaled, a salty breath that made Moon wince. "We speak to the Viar, who live mostly on the surface, in floating colonies. They say they've seen an island that should have groundlings that is now empty. It was on the edge of the first sea-mount. The Viar are not..." She made an elegant gesture with her claws. "Like us. They have no limbs or ears, they see in different ways, they care about different things. But these groundlings gave them powdered grain they like in exchange for driving fish into their nets during a certain season, so the Viar noticed when they went there and found them gone. There is no taste of them in the water anymore. It was a strange story to hear, so it was passed on through our nets of speech."

Moon thought that it meshed unpleasantly well with what they had already heard. Stone took it in thoughtfully. "Where did this happen?"

It took some time to figure out the location, as the directions and landmarks the sealings used were completely different from those used by water or air vessels, and were often seen only from below the surface. Both Stone and Moon had to ask a lot of questions, and Moon just hoped Kalam didn't realize that they had a suspiciously accurate picture of the sel-Selatra considering they were only supposed to have seen the map once and briefly. But Kalam seemed more interested in the sealing's descriptions of the sea bottom.

Finally they were able to leave, and climbing back up the stairs into the sunlight and clean wind and the crash of waves against the dock felt like stepping into a completely different world. It made Moon feel like they might just escape the port without anyone being murdered.

On the dock, Kalam hesitated. "Can we go to the trading station too? We're so close and I hate to miss it--"

Moon started to say no but just then a groundling walked up from the station's nearest stairwell carrying a paper wrap of something that smelled of sweet grease and salt. Stone shrugged and turned toward the station. "Sure."

Moon was about to protest, but inspiration struck. He caught up with them and said, "If the Arbora find out we took Kalam to the trading station and not them, they'll be furious." This had the virtue of being completely true.

Stone paused, catching on immediately. He told Kalam, "You have to promise not to tell anybody we were here with you."

Kalam, wisely realizing this would mean his father wouldn't hear about his adventure in the sealing drug bar, nodded. "I won't say anything to anyone."

***

Author's Copies

Here are the traditional author's copies photos:

It's Wednesday and at least we're still here

Still no sign of the trade paperback of Stories of the Raksura I. This is depressing and nerve-racking. And I feel like it's pretty much killed any chance the book might have had to you know, get attention and be bought by people who haven't already read the other books. So there we go. Again.

In other news, the ebook and audiobook versions are available and I want to really, really thank anyone who has posted reviews anywhere. You guys are awesome.

ETA: And my authors' copies just arrived via FedEx! Hopefully that means they'll be getting to retailers this week or next, before October 7.

***

Other people's books:

* The Magic Thief: Home by Sarah Prineas
Diana Wynne Jones, author of Howl's Moving Castle, praised this middle grade fantasy series filled with magic and wonder, saying of the first, "I couldn't put it down. Wonderful, exciting stuff."

* Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories By Sandra McDonald
Booklist Editor's Choice and winner of Lambda Literary award, this collection of whimsical and evocative stories takes readers to distant lands and unforgettable characters. Meet Diana Comet, the beautiful adventuress with passion in her heart and secrets under her skirt. Travel to the West with a gay cowboy seeking to mend his broken heart and find the elusive poet Whit Waltman. Listen to the wisdom of talking statues, fairy firefighters, miniature musicians and lady devils. Your heart and imagination will both be inspired.

* Revealing the Cover for Wesley Chu’s Time Salvager
Palmieri describes Time Salvager as "The tale of a fractured future beyond Earth, in which Time is running out for humanity. The key to saving it lies in the past, but the men and women charged with salvaging what was lost pay a terrible price for their service…until one man breaks the future’s highest law." Wesley was a John W Campbell Nominee this year.

* Kickstarter:
Straggletaggle by J. M. McDermott
Steampunk done as only J. M. McDermott, of critically-acclaimed books LAST DRAGON, the DOGSLAND TRILOGY, and MAZE, can do it.

* Royal Airs by Sharon Shinn is out in paperback
Master storyteller Sharon Shinn created the thrilling and enchanting world of Welce in her acclaimed novel Troubled Waters. Return with her to that elemental universe in this tale of secrecy, romance, and a battle for power.

* Exo by Steven Gould
Cent can teleport. So can her parents, but they are the only people in the world who can. This is not as great as you might think it would be—sure, you can go shopping in Japan and then have tea in London, but it's hard to keep a secret like that. And there are people, dangerous people, who work for governments and have guns, who want to make you do just this one thing for them. And when you’re a teenage girl things get even more complicated. High school. Boys. Global climate change, refugees, and genocide. Orbital mechanics.

* The Clockwork Dagger by Beth Cato
Imagine Murder on the Oriental Express set in a steampunk world. That's how debut author Beth Cato conceived of this captivating story about a young healer, an eccentric roommate, a winning gremlin, a dashing steward, and persistent assassins aboard a high-flying airship. With her orphan past and her special powers, Octavia Leander is a lead character you won't soon forget.

* Pre-Order: POISON FRUIT by Jacqueline Carey
The hot-as-Hel series with the “Sookie Stackhouse type of vibe” (Paranormal Horizon) is back—but this time the paranormal Midwestern town of Pemkowet is feeling a frost in the air and the residents are frozen in fear...

* Foxglove Summer: A Bit of Chapter One by Ben Aaronovitch
This is the next book in the Rivers of London/Peter Grant series, and I've been really looking forward to it. (And the series now has a music video: Rivers of London Rap.)

Friday Thinking

A twitter conversation made me think about my last day job. It started out great, and gradually spiraled down to a point where I would come home and be too depressed and angry to write. (I had gone part time with it because I was currently trying to finish the Ile-Rien trilogy.) It would take me a couple of hours of playing a game (we're talking Zoo Tycoon or Sim City) before I could do anything but replay the awful day in my head. (Anxiety issues and OCD really don't help with situations like that.)

Then one day after a particularly nasty berating for something I didn't do, I got the news that a friend had died. That weekend, going to the funeral, I decided life was too short, came back on Monday, and quit. This was bad timing because I was already having my first career crash at that point. (Though I had no idea the crash had started -- I had two books coming out that year, three short stories, and a non-fiction article, the most I'd ever published in one year since my first book sold. This is often the way with career crashes, you're face-planted on the floor before you even know you're falling. A friend compared it to having a job where you get fired, and no one tells you. You just keep coming in every day and working, and only gradually realize that they aren't paying you anymore and no one wants you there.)

But I didn't know then that it would be four years before I sold another novel, so I quit. I was lucky because my husband had a good job and I was able to quit without starving when my sales dried up. (He's been laid off more times than I remember, but his superpower is literally interviewing and finding a new job. He should teach a class but I'm not sure he has any idea how he does it. His superpower has made my writing career possible. I just wish I had a better career so I could pay him back.)

Anyway, not sure what the point of this is, other then wow am I glad I quit that job.

Mystery Guide Part IV

See Mystery Guide Part III


Martha's Guide to TV Mysteries Part IV

Happy Valley this is a new one now available on Netflix. It's an older woman police sergeant in a rural town in the UK, raising her grandson with the help of her sister, a recovering addict, and dealing with a lot of family issues. It's gritty and grim and deals with a lot of dark subjects, including sexual violence etc. None of that made me want to turn it off, though. There's something about the pacing or the emphasis or the viewpoint that kept it away from a woman-in-jep feel, at least for me. It's six episodes telling one complete story, and I meant to watch one episode on Sunday and ended up inhaling the whole thing in one go. (And at one point there was a fight scene that was so tense I may have yelled "NOW FINISH HIM" at the TV.)

Blue Murder I've seen the first episode of this on Acorn.tv and will watch more this week. It's a woman DCI with three kids, pregnant, and a cheating husband she has divorced. It had a somewhat lighter tone in that while the crime they were dealing with was horrible, the detectives were generally good people that I liked.

Trial and Retribution this is also on Acorn.tv. The first few episodes were really good, and do have a lot of the feel of the original Law and Order, and you can tell it's by the same writer who did Prime Suspect. Later episodes got away from that and more into character relationships and there was lots of stalking and I started to really dislike the male main character. (Not as much as the first season of Murder Investigation Team, where I was actively rooting for them all to die. The second season of MIT was better, first season right out.)

Okay, Murder Investigation Team: There is a scene in one of the first season episodes where one of the detectives perves on the bare breasts of a murder victim whose face has been smashed to keep anyone from identifying her and who has been in the Thames for a few days. You know who thinks that look is attractive? Serial killers. Serial killers think that. And this character is supposed to be a protagonist. I mean, I thought all the characters in Waking the Dead were way too shouty, but they were all basically good people and I didn't want any of them to die in a woodchipper.

Above Suspicion I haven't seen the first episode, but saw the other two, and enjoyed them. It veers off into unrealistic in a couple of noticeable ways. I mean, they're all unrealistic; TV mysteries require suspension of disbelief just like SF/F, but this was unrealistic enough it knocked me a bit out of the stories.

I watched the final season of Poirot and was a bit disappointed. I think it must have been different writers from the previous twelve seasons, because the plots were not as complex, there were not as many characters, not as many subplots. Just disappointing all around, even with the return of Japp and Hastings, and Ariadne Oliver. I did think Hastings was great in the last episode, though. Its worth it for the longterm fans, I think, but would be a very bad place for a new viewer to start. If I was a new viewer, I think I'd start with season 9, Death on the Nile, and work my way backwards and forwards, leaving season 13 for last.

I'll try to do some more when I get a chance. I want to talk about Touching Evil but I wanted to rewatch it first, and now I can't find it anywhere. And I'm waiting for Sleepy Hollow and Elementary to start back up again.

The iBooks glitch is fixed and Stories of the Raksura I i...

The iBooks glitch is fixed and Stories of the Raksura I is finally showing up as available. It looks like they didn't lose the preorders, either. That's a big relief!

It's here: itunes.apple.com/us/artist/martha-wells/id364545521?mt=11. Ignore the two single-novella versions, those aren't supposed to be there and won't do anything. The real one has the actual cover and is listed as Stories of the Raksura Volume I: The Falling World & The Tale of Indigo and Cloud

I guess this is release day #2. We're still waiting for release #3, the trade paperback. Which I still hope will be next week.