Martha Wells's Blog, page 113

People Who Need Help

Save a Mule:
http://www.gofundme.com/b270fo
We took her to our local vet who did an ultrasound and biopsy which confirmed it is a type of cancer called a Mast Cell Tumor. The best course of action is to have it surgically removed as soon as possible! We contacted three seperate equine vets for estimates and have scheduled her surgery with Dr. Davis at Reata Equine Hospital in Weatherford, which is about an hour away. Once the tumor is removed she will have a drain put in and so she will have to stay there at the hospital for at least 3-5 days, possibly a whole week. After that I will be taking care of her here at Dancing Moon Farmstead.

Save a Hip:
http://www.gofundme.com/alj39o
On July 14th I am having hip-replacement surgery and will be out of work for at least two months. I've been suffering from severe pain and loss of mobility, and also spiking hypertension and pre-diabetes as pain and lack of exercise have increased over the past few years. I am at the point where I can barely walk even with a cane, and now that I finally have health insurance and have lost a little weight and dropped my blood pressure I can have the surgery I need to, literally, help me get back firmly on my feet. But because of this condition I have only worked part-time for the last few years and have almost no resources to use as I face several months without a real paycheck.

Save a House:
http://www.gofundme.com/b5ez3o
We're under forclosure with the sheriff's sale date set for August 16th. We have no where to go. I'm worried about my two boys and I'm scared about what'll happen to my cats. I work two jobs and have applied for a third. My husband is a truck driver who is gone six days a week. We need help getting back on our feet. Thank you so much for your support and help. It means the world to me.

Save another House:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/please-help-me-repair-my-mom-s-home
They are divorced, but the damage to the house remains and is a constant reminder. He ripped a hole in the bathroom "intending to fix the plumbing", but never did. This gaping hole has been here for over six years, and because of that we can't take showers for longer than 5 minutes otherwise the entire apartment will flood and it will go into the apartment below. The mirror is falling out of the wall, and the shelves inside it are broken because of his tantrums, the pan beneath the bathtub is busted (the original plumbing problem he was "going to fix"). Essentially, the entire bathroom needs to be ripped out and redone.

Remember even small amounts can help, and reblogging is really appreciated.

Date for Raksura Novellas Volume II

Raksura News: It looks like the second volume of Raksura novellas will be scheduled for April 2015. (first one is out on Sept 2 this year.) It's going to be: Stories of the Raksura: Volume II: two novella collection, with "The Dead City" and "The Dark Earth Below," plus some additional short story reprints. Night Shade Books, ISBN 978-1597805360

We had a huge storm last night with several power losses. Also, the neighbors on one side have a giant vegetable garden, and they've done something to it that's causing rainwater to draining off to miss the stand of trees in the way and come along the fence right up to the side of our house. I've gone out and dug around and moved some landscaping rocks to hopefully deflect it down toward the street, but it's hard to tell how much it will help until the next rainstorm.


Kickstarter:
Dreamers of Wonder photographer Beth Gwinn will do a photo and interview book of SF/F authors, artists, producers, etc.

Article:
Entitlement In Writer Culture by Kait Nolan

Link:
Welcome to Rereading Melanie Rawn: The Dragon Prince Trilogy! a re-read by Judith Tarr, at Tor.com

Recap from yesterday:* My good news from yesterday: Stori...

Recap from yesterday:

* My good news from yesterday:
Stories of the Raksura vol. I was reviewed by Publishers Weekly:
"Wells is adept at suggesting a long, complex history for her world with economy, and, while her protagonists may not be human as we understand it, they are definitely people, sympathetic figures constrained but not defeated by their environments. Longtime fans and new readers alike will enjoy Wells's deft touch with characterization and the fantastic." —Publishers Weekly

* New story in new anthology.


links

Posting this again, as it's getting closer to the Hugo voting deadline: An important note for Hugo voting.
More so this year than most years, it's important to understand how voting "No Award" works.

The Teal Deer: If you want to vote No Award over something, put No Award at the end of your ballot and DO NOT list the things you're voting No Award over.


Kickstarter: A sequel to The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

Yay!

Just got sent the Publishers Weekly review of Stories of the Raksura, Vol I:

"Two novellas and two short stories expand the setting of Wells’s dreamlike fantasy novels. In "The Falling World," a vanished envoy triggers a diplomatic crisis between two courts, and investigation reveals a long-forgotten tragedy. "The Tale of Indigo and Cloud" sets two queens against each other, with an unhappy consort as the prize. Familiar characters appear in "The Forest Boy," a prequel to The Cloud Roads that examines a brief encounter between Moon and forest dwellers, and "Adaptation," in which Chime deals with an unwanted transformation and its disquieting implications. Wells is adept at suggesting a long, complex history for her world with economy, and, while her protagonists may not be human as we understand it, they are definitely people, sympathetic figures constrained but not defeated by their environments. Longtime fans and new readers alike will enjoy Wells’s deft touch with characterization and the fantastic." —Publishers Weekly

Yay! It’s coming out September 2, in ebook, trade paperback, and audiobook.

New Story and Other Books Available

I have a new story out in Tales of the Emerald Serpent II: A Knight in the Silk Purse. It's another Jelith and Kryranen story, the same characters from the first volume Tales of the Emerald Serpent.

These were both kickstarted anthologies, and the A Knight in the Silk Purse backers should all have gotten their ebook copies this weekend. (If you did back it and didn't get your ebook yet, be sure to email the editor.)

It's edited by Scott Taylor, cover by Todd Lockwood, interior illustrations by Jeff Laubenstein, Janet Aulisio, Todd Lockwood, and has stories by me, Julie Czerneda, Todd Lockwood, Juliet McKenna, Lynn Flewelling, Dave Gross, Elaine Cunningham, Dan Wells, Mike Tousignant, Rob Mancebo, and Howard Tayler.

So far it's available in:

Trade paperback: CreateSpace ebooks: ePub, Amazon.com, Amazon.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.es, Amazon.fr (and all the other Amazons.)

The first one, Tales of the Emerald Serpent, is available at: Trade paperback: Lulu.com, ebooks: Amazon.com, NookBook, Amazon.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.es, Amazon.fr.

More Current Stuff:

* Stories of the Raksura: Volume I
The Falling World and The Tale of Indigo and Cloud is up for preorder for a September 2 release. It'll be available in ebook, trade paperback, and audiobook.

* At this point, with Strange Chemistry shutting down, Emilie and the Hollow World and Emilie and the Sky World won't be reprinted, so if you want a copy at some point, please keep it in mind that I don't know how long they'll be available.

* Blade Singer a children's book co-written with Aaron de Orive, is available at Barnes and Noble, all the Amazons, and iTunes, in ebook and paperback.

Mystery Guide Part II

See Mystery Guide Part I

One note: So if you have a concern about content - level of violence, etc - you should probably check with someone who has seen the show in question recently. Some of these I haven't seen for a while and my memory is not so great. These reviews are just my opinion, YMMV, etc.

Martha's Guide to TV Mysteries Part II


Nero Wolfe - the A&E version with Timothy Hutton - this is one of my favorite shows. Like the books, it's set in New York in multiple time periods, some 40s, 50s, 60s, and is beautifully filmed. It comes as close as possible to the feel of the books and occasionally does odd things with TV (there are two episodes that start with the same card game and then branch into different stories, for ex.) Nice people do get killed despite Archie and Wolfe's best efforts. (Including one client who is a young kid. That's in "The Golden Spiders.")


Ellery Queen - the version with Jim Hutton, Timothy Hutton's father - This is set in 1940s New York, and since it's a period piece, for an older series it doesn't feel dated. The books were all written by different people, but Hutton (the Jim version) plays the absentminded writerly genius version of Ellery (in some of the books he comes off as a playboy jerk). There was only one season but all the episodes are fun, and there are some that deal with early TV, radio shows, and comic book writing. These are also closer to true cozies, with as little violence as possible and I don't remember any women in jep. Jim Hutton is also very tall and it's interesting to watch him act around it.


The Bletchley Circle - Four women who worked as code-breakers and intelligence analysts at Bletchley Park in WWII try to go on with normal life afterward, when they're forbidden by law to tell anyone what they did, and have to pretend they were secretaries. They get involved with solving murders, and it's really cool. A problem with this show is that to come up with mystery plots for genius mathematicians to solve, you kind of have to be one, and the writer isn't. And there are women in jep bits. I still liked it, though.


Whitechapel - This show frustrates the hell out of me because it could be great but it has some fatal flaws. It's based on the idea that murders are happening in modern day that echo murder cases from Victorian-era Whitechapel. One of the fatal flaws is a huge lack of diversity, especially in the first season. (Apparently there's a season 3 and 4 but they aren't available over here.) I like being able to guess what the Victorian-era case is before they reveal it (and make people yell "WHY DO YOU KNOW THESE THINGS?") and they did one of my favorite cases (young maid leaves house to get something from nearby tavern needed for family dinner, returns to find everyone in the house murdered). But it has a lot of dumb moments. (One episode deals with the film "London After Midnight" and fails to mention that anyone with an intact copy would have to fight off film preservationists armed with money.)


Inspector Morse, Inspector Lewis, Endeavour -
Three different series with overlapping characters, all taking place in Oxford. Inspector Morse ran from 1987 to 2000 with some gaps, then Inspector Lewis (Lewis was Morse's Sergeant) ran for seven seasons plus the pilot and is doing another season, then Endeavour is in it's second season (Endeavour is Morse as a young detective in the 60s) and is showing on PBS now. I don't remember the Morse series that well as I saw it when it first aired on PBS years ago and haven't rewatched it. But I just love Lewis, though Endeavour is a close second. Oxford is filmed beautifully, and Lewis and his sergeant Hathaway (who originally intended to become a priest) indulge in a lot of old guy vs. young guy snark. All three series have a lot of stories dealing with smart people taking on smart/rich people who think they are too smart/rich to be caught. Lewis has the bonus of Rebecca Front (from The Thick of It) as Chief Superintendent Jean Innocent. None of the three series is cozy, though the worst violence is generally off camera. (The pilot episode for Lewis wasn't on NetFlix but was included in the DVD set for the first season.)


Midsomer Murders - It's been on a long time, but yeah. Some of the stories are okay to good, others will leave you staring at what lousy cops these guys are. (There's one episode where they let people wander up to the dead body and gawk at it.) Don't watch it after you watch Inspector Lewis because you'll just want to go watch more Inspector Lewis. (We joked that it's a pain there isn't as many episodes of Lewis as Midsomer Murders, but it probably takes a lot of talented people some time to make an Inspector Lewis episode and a couple of guys in a clown car can toss off a Midsomer Murders in two days, tops.) And there's the racism in the production.


Pie in the Sky - is about a DI (played by Richard Griffiths from Harry Potter) trying to retire so he can cook at his restaurant, but who is forced to come back as a consultant. He works with DS Sophia Cambridge, played by Bella Enahoro, who is awesome. This is a fun one, combining food and mysteries, though some of the cases they deal with are kind of depressing. I haven't seen the last season yet, though I've got the whole thing on DVD.


Next time, I'll try to do at least The Last Detective, Vera, Ripper Street, Rosemary and Thyme, and Touching Evil

Con News and Mystery Guide

ArmadilloCon is coming up on the 25-27 in Austin (Guests: Ian McDonald, Ted Chiang, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, Mario Acevedo), and it's going to be my last convention for this year. Mainly because I just can't afford the money for travel and hotels any more this year, and also because I just need the rest. It's been a hard year already, basically.

I'm going to start doing an erratic and occasional guide to TV mysteries I watch, because I've wanted to do this for a while. Most of these are available (or were available) on Netflix or www.acorn.tv


Martha's Guide to TV Mysteries Part I

Defining my terms:

snuff porn - showing murders in such loving detail you want to report the producers to the police.

women in jep - spending what feels like hours, or maybe days, watching women being stalked by the killer or held prisoner instead of watching people solve mysteries. For example, The Fall with Gillian Anderson is highly rated but the first ten minutes were such an egregious example of woman in jep I turned it off.

I try to avoid things with animal harm. To the point where if a potential murder victim has a pet animal I'll preemptively turn off the show. Some things may slip by me if it's quick and not drawn out (see snuff porn).


Miss. Fisher's Mysteries - This is set in the 20s, in Australia, a woman whose family inherited money and a title after WWI returns to Australia and ends up becoming a private detective. It's a good series, and very well acted, but it's from a long-running book series by Kerry Greenwood, and the tv version is whitewashed. In the book series, the main love interest is Lin Chung, who Phryne meets in Ruddy Gore and is her lover for the rest of the series, though he isn't in every book. (Their relationship isn't exclusive. Lin has to marry to please his family and Phryne has other lovers.) In the books, Jack Robinson is an older married man, and he and Phryne are only friends. So I watch it, but this pisses me off, and the books are better.

Copper - This one is centered around an Irish police officer and friends in 1860s New York, and it doesn't sugarcoat the violence and brutality and racism of the time period. In the first episode, Ato Essandoh, who plays a doctor, John Freeman, one of the main characters, is moving out of town because members of his wife's family were lynched in front of their house in a race riot. Characterization develops slowly but dramatically, terrible things happen to main characters, main characters do terrible things to other main characters (including murdering each other), people you think are good are gradually revealed to be something else entirely (usually murderers), trauma doesn't magically go away at the end of the episode. It's good, but we're talking a more realistic Game of Thrones level violence here, people. After a murder spree in the first episode of the second season, I had to stop watching because my nerves couldn't take it.

Wire in the Blood - is from about 2002-2008 and set during that time, in the UK, where Dr. Tony Hill is a criminal psychologist who helps DI Carol Jordan (for the first 3 seasons, then it's DI Alex Fielding) catch a wide variety of bizarre serial killers. It's pretty grim throughout, but with only a few exceptions it focuses on the detectives trying to find the killers, and doesn't spend much time in snuff porn or women in jeopardy storylines. (I think there's one real women in jep episode in a later season, but that's all I remember.) Also, the actress who plays Carol Jordan is awesome. It isn't a perfect series but I liked this one a lot, and it specializes in genuinely scary scenarios and character drama that works with the mystery plot. I would watch it again if Netflix ever puts it up again.

Waking the Dead - this is a modern-day one about a special forensics cold case team. Who yell at each other a lot, especially in the first season, and make some seriously odd decisions. It was okay and does get better later, but I didn't find the stories that gripping, though the acting was very good.

Miss Marple - there's old Miss Marple and new Miss Marple, with three different actresses playing Miss Marple, and it's all good. My favorite is probably the first three seasons of new Miss Marple (or Agatha Christie's Marple as it's called), played by Geraldine McEwan. McEwan plays a Miss Marple who is funny and fluffy and utterly without mercy. There's a line in one of the books where Miss Marple says something like "I'm going to enjoy knowing that he's going to hang," and McEwan is playing that Miss Marple.

Poirot - Poirot is awesome, new and old, played by David Suchet. I especially love the moments where we see that for all his affectations, Poirot is an implacable force.

Luther - One of my favorites. John Luther is played by Idris Elba, which is probably all I need to say. It's set in modern day London, violent and grim, especially the first season, but it has one of the most terrifying/awesome female serial killers as a recurring character. It doesn't use her very effectively in the second season, but she comes back for an episode in the third that is probably my all time favorite. Luther himself is also less tortured in the third season, where he's recovered from what happened in the first, and is using his abilities a lot more effectively, I thought.

News and Links

There will definitely be an audiobook version of Stories of the Raksura Vol I by Audible.com, though we haven't heard yet if they'll cast Christopher Kipiniak, who did the other books in the series. The publisher asked for him and I'm really hoping they cast him.

A review of Strange Chemistry Books, including the Emilie books: Claire Rousseau

I'm in this Mind Meld: On re-reading older books

Catherine Lundoff on LGBT Science Fiction and Fantasy in the 1990s

Kickstarter: An Alphabet of Embers
An anthology of unclassifiables – lyrical, surreal, magical, experimental pieces that straddle the border between poetry and prose

ConvergenceCon Report

About Convergence: it's in Bloomington, MN, and is basically a huge volunteer-run SF/F con, with author panels, an art show, dealer's room, big gaming area, some media guests (this year they had Marina Sirtis) and costumes, costumes, costumes. There were over 6000 attendees and most of them were wearing costumes. It was awesome.

The hotel also had a large interior court with a pool, surrounded by two levels of "pool cabana" rooms with balconies. This was where the consuite and parties were. Individual groups could reserve the cabana rooms and have events or evening parties there, and it was also awesome. There were rooms for Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, an Arkham Asylum, various games, etc. It reminded me a bit of MediaWest, when the hotel would let people decorate their hotel room doors and the hallways. The court area itself was a gathering area and used for things like a bat'leth tournament.

So my trip to Convergence started out Wednesday when I drove to Houston and ended up helping friends change a tire when their SUV hit a concrete block that had fallen into the street. Then I got up at 4:30 to drive to the airport for a 7:30 flight. Fortunately the flight was on time, because I had the Skiffy and Fanty Panel at 2:00, with Michael R. Underwood, Carrie Patel, David Annandale, Shaun Duke, Paul Weimer.

(The Skiffy and Fanty Show is a great podcast that's nominated for a Hugo this year. They recorded the panel and also Paul and Shaun interviewed me later in the con. I'll post when both those are available.)

Then at 2:00 I had a reading (I read from the first Raksura novella in the collection that's coming out September 2, "The Falling World") way up in the Oscar Wilde Memorial Dorian Grey lounge on the 22nd floor.

Then I went out to dinner with Kelly and Laura McCullough to the French restaurant in the Sheraton, which was the hotel next door, and ate excellent food. Then I went back to my room and collapsed, because I'd been up since 4:30 in the morning.

Saturday I didn't have any programming until late, so I went to the dealer's room and art show and the artist's alley room (where the actual artists sell their work and do commissions), and went to Kelly's reading and a panel. Then Catherine Lundoff and I went out to dinner (same restaurant) and had excellent food again. Then I came back for my 7:00 panel with Kameron Hurley, Kelly McCullough, Sean M. Murphy, and Doug Hulick on magic and whether it needs to be explained or not, why some people like it explained and others don't, etc. One conclusion was basically that you make the leap of faith to suspend your disbelief that Thundercats actually exist, then just keep it internally consistent.
Then I did a signing with Dave Annandale, and then I went back to my room and collapsed again because I was really tired. (This was a theme throughout the weekend.)

Saturday there was a panel on fairy tales with Dana Baird, Christine Norris, Emma Bull, and Roy T Cook that was also a lot of fun, and then I just wondered around the con again for a while. That evening Lee Harris took us out for a big dinner for Angry Robot books authors, and I had a fabulous time. We got back to the con about 11:00, and I again collapsed.

Sunday I did the interview with Paul and Shaun for Skiffy and Fanty, and then sat at the Angry Robot books table for a while and signed copies of Emilie and the Sky World and Emilie and the Hollow World, then did the panel on Women in Genre Not Talking About Women in Genre, with Damarra Atkins, Lynne M. Thomas, Danielle Indovino, Naomi Kritzer. That was a huge amount of fun, and we ended up talking about first experiences in fandom, fanfic and how much fun it is, and fannish things we got into as kids, including those odd memories where you watched something as a kid and conflated it with another show, or your memory of it is much longer than the real show was, and other things like that. It was a great last panel for the con for me.

After that, I'd skipped lunch for some reason, so I was really starting to physically crash. I went and had late lunch/early dinner, and then came back as the con was getting ready to shut down at 5:00. I went to my room and basically collapsed, and watched Acorn.tv on my iPad until it was time to go to sleep. I got up around 6:30 the next morning, made it to the airport, and made it to Houston, then made the two hour drive home, when I also collapsed.

Some photos (I didn't get photos of individual costumes, because the crowd would move so quickly, and the variety and imagination of them was just overwhelming.)

Convergence

I'm at Convergence in MN this weekend, and having a great time. It's a huge con (above 6000 people) with tons of wonderful costumes, and I'm getting to hang out with a lot of great people. I'm also on my iPad and it's kind of painful for me to type on it too long, so I'm behind on answering comments and questions and all other online stuff. I should be able to catch up next week. Hope everyone is having a good weekend too!