Martha Wells's Blog, page 128
September 10, 2013
Links
* Jim Hines has a post with some links for the Diversity in SF tag on Twitter.
* Diversity in YA: Someone Like Me by Cindy Pon
links about me:
* There's an interview with me about Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge on The Force.net
* And there was awesome cosplay of Leia from the cover at DragonCon!
* And you can read the first fifty pages of the book here.
* Diversity in YA: Someone Like Me by Cindy Pon
links about me:
* There's an interview with me about Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge on The Force.net
* And there was awesome cosplay of Leia from the cover at DragonCon!
* And you can read the first fifty pages of the book here.
September 9, 2013
Monday
We got some rain over the weekend but not as much as the rest of the town. We lost a young oak tree to drought while we were away at WorldCon and I'm really hoping we don't lose any more. The house really needs the shade.
I finished the rough draft of a short story, the one for A Knight in the Silk Purse anthology, the sequel to the Tales of the Emerald Serpent anthology and I'm going to revise it today, because I thought of a some cooler things to do with it. This is another Kryranen and Jelith story.
There's some new people here, so if you're interested, you can check out my bibliography here on my web site. There are some free short stories and novel excerpts on the site, too.
* If you missed it, I did a post on Saturday with a link to a review and a short interview about the Raksura books on the Bajan Rosa Book Blog, plus a couple of book recs.
* There's another interview with me about Razor's Edge, the Star Wars book on Fiction State of Mind.
* Kate Elliott's The Secret Journal of Beatrice Hassi Barahal is out, with illustrations by awesome Hugo-nominated artist Julie Dillon
I finished the rough draft of a short story, the one for A Knight in the Silk Purse anthology, the sequel to the Tales of the Emerald Serpent anthology and I'm going to revise it today, because I thought of a some cooler things to do with it. This is another Kryranen and Jelith story.
There's some new people here, so if you're interested, you can check out my bibliography here on my web site. There are some free short stories and novel excerpts on the site, too.
* If you missed it, I did a post on Saturday with a link to a review and a short interview about the Raksura books on the Bajan Rosa Book Blog, plus a couple of book recs.
* There's another interview with me about Razor's Edge, the Star Wars book on Fiction State of Mind.
* Kate Elliott's The Secret Journal of Beatrice Hassi Barahal is out, with illustrations by awesome Hugo-nominated artist Julie Dillon
September 7, 2013
Saturday Stuff
I've been rushing so much to get stuff done it's hard to slow down even when most of the stuff is actually done. I have a short story to finish this weekend that's due soon, and then I have another short story, another Raksura novella, and a non-fiction article that all need to get started.
* Book rec: The Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond
Seventeen-year-old Kyra lives in a transformed Washington, D.C., home to the embassies of divine pantheons and the mysterious Society of the Sun. But when rebellious Kyra encounters two trickster gods on her way back from school, one offering a threat and the other a warning, it turns out her life isn’t what it seems.
* GoodReads Giveaway: Elementari Rising by Nancy E. Hightower
In Gaelastad, where the trees never die, eighteen-year-old Jonathan is haunted by dreams of a little girl: the last of the Terakhein. Fleeing from enemies across treacherous lands, Jonathan must survive and find the girl. Fortunately, help comes in the form of Bryn, a terrible fire spirit, and Morgan, the most beautiful—and deadly—of water spirits. But are they strong enough to give him the time he needs to find the missing girl and stop the tide of destruction?
* There's a review of The Siren Depths and a short interview with me on the Bajan Rosa Book Blog.
* Book rec: The Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond
Seventeen-year-old Kyra lives in a transformed Washington, D.C., home to the embassies of divine pantheons and the mysterious Society of the Sun. But when rebellious Kyra encounters two trickster gods on her way back from school, one offering a threat and the other a warning, it turns out her life isn’t what it seems.
* GoodReads Giveaway: Elementari Rising by Nancy E. Hightower
In Gaelastad, where the trees never die, eighteen-year-old Jonathan is haunted by dreams of a little girl: the last of the Terakhein. Fleeing from enemies across treacherous lands, Jonathan must survive and find the girl. Fortunately, help comes in the form of Bryn, a terrible fire spirit, and Morgan, the most beautiful—and deadly—of water spirits. But are they strong enough to give him the time he needs to find the missing girl and stop the tide of destruction?
* There's a review of The Siren Depths and a short interview with me on the Bajan Rosa Book Blog.
September 5, 2013
Things Coming Out Soon and links
Things coming out soon:
Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge will be out on on Tuesday, September 24, and there's a fifty page preview here on the publisher's site, in the "look inside" function.
The audiobook version of The Element of Fire will be out September 16 from Tantor Audio, narrated by Derek Perkins. The DRM-free ebook is already available from Nook, Kobo, and all the Amazons.
***
Links:
* There is a special triple giveaway to celebrate Allegiance by Beth Bernobich the third River of Souls book.
River of Souls is about one young woman's journey to independence. It's also about fate and free will and three kingdoms on the brink of war.
* There's a free preview of Janelle Monae's new album here.
Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge will be out on on Tuesday, September 24, and there's a fifty page preview here on the publisher's site, in the "look inside" function. The audiobook version of The Element of Fire will be out September 16 from Tantor Audio, narrated by Derek Perkins. The DRM-free ebook is already available from Nook, Kobo, and all the Amazons.***
Links:
* There is a special triple giveaway to celebrate Allegiance by Beth Bernobich the third River of Souls book.
River of Souls is about one young woman's journey to independence. It's also about fate and free will and three kingdoms on the brink of war.
* There's a free preview of Janelle Monae's new album here.
September 4, 2013
Last Set of Photos for WorldCon
I'm also posting these on my tumblr where you can click and see bigger versions.
These are of the Menger hotel, built in 1859.
These are more of the Riverwalk. I wanted to get the Fig trees growing out of one of the buildings, but those didn't turn out.
This is the seating area for the theater, with the stage on the other side of the river.
These are of the Menger hotel, built in 1859.
These are more of the Riverwalk. I wanted to get the Fig trees growing out of one of the buildings, but those didn't turn out.
This is the seating area for the theater, with the stage on the other side of the river.
Actual WorldCon Report
Food: San Antonio is big on saving its old historic buildings and reusing them so the downtown and the Riverwalk area is this gorgeous mix of old and new architecture, and it flows together really well. A lot of the places occupying the Riverwalk level are now restaurants and we had some awesome food there.
There were fish tacos at the Iron Cactus, a birthday dinner Sunday night at Zaca (which is an Italian restaurant that is both beautiful and delicious), a dinner with friends at Mortons, and Boudros which is tucked away (or wedged away) in a small space on the Riverwalk between two other places and does local and sustainable food. Everything we had there was wonderful but for desert there I had a tortilla fan, which was a tortilla fried and covered with cinnamon, and served with cream and fruit. It sounds like it would be too sweet, but it wasn't, it was perfect.
We also ate at Fogo de Chao, which is a Brazilian all-you-can-eat place that was very good (we missed the sign for it and found it by the smell -- it smells a little like someone is cooking beef on a teppanyaki) with a cold salad and vegetable bar, side dishes of potatoes, fried plantains, polenta, etc, and then when you signal you're ready they run at you with skewers of all kinds of meat. And we had caipirinhas which are a popular Brazilian drink because they are DELICIOUS.
The con: All my panels went really well, and were great to do. My reading went really well too. I had the most people I think I've ever had at a reading, at least 40 or 45 people, maybe more. I had an hour slot, so I read a long section from the Raksura novella, then took questions, then did a bit from Emilie and the Hollow World. There was a lot of programming I wanted to see but didn't get a chance. There was an astronaut and I missed her, and a NASA engineer and I missed her, and a Weta (Peter Jackson's special effects company from New Zealand) panel and I missed it, etc.
The only panel I was really worried about the topic was the "What Happened to Happy Endings?" panel, where as Jessica Reisman pointed out, there has never been a time when all the endings to stories were happy, and it's sure not like all the endings now are sad. But the moderator started the panel by saying that the title was clearly a nostalgic question that was invoking a past that had never actually occurred, so we basically just talked about what makes an ending happy or sad or triumphant or satisfying or tragic etc and it turned out really well.
The parties: The Booksworn eat-a-bug-for-a-book party went great as usual. The suite was a bit small so once the party started it was completely packed. I stayed by the book table and got people to eat bugs and gave away free books and only occasionally caught a glimpse of the other hosts. By about 10:30 I was getting dizzy and quite a few of the books were gone, so I left to go back to our hotel and collapse.
The Drinks with Authors party also went great, and it was in a much bigger room at Ernie's Pub at the Crockett Hotel up near the Alamo, and the noise level was extreme. People would come up and talk to us and we would be like, "We can't hear you, but you seem nice." After a while we were really tired and I thought if I took a nap on the floor people would freak out and think I was dead, so we staggered back to the hotel, had drinks at the bar, and then collapsed.
We also went to the Random House party which was up in the bar on top of the Tower of the Americas, which is very tall, and rotates. (It was built for the 1968 Hemisfair.) While we were waiting for the elevator, men and women in full firefighter gear kept coming out of a door to the stairwell, and the manager told us they train by running up and down the stairs. The party had free drinks and appetizers (satay, fried shrimp, ahi tuna nachos, and spinach feta pockets, which if that sounds like a good dinner, it was) and we stayed until it got very packed, then went back to the hotel, had drinks in the bar, and collapsed. (There was a lot of drinking followed by collapsing at this con.)
Stuff: I didn't buy much at all, just a con t-shirt and a sweatshirt. There was a lot of books, jewelry, and t-shirts in the dealer's room, and free books were being given away throughout the con in registration.
On Monday when the con was winding down, we went over to La Villita which is a historic restored Spanish-German village across from the Hemisfair Park, which now has shops for a lot of local artists.
Here's a few pictures of Hemisfair Park and the Tower of the Americas.
There were fish tacos at the Iron Cactus, a birthday dinner Sunday night at Zaca (which is an Italian restaurant that is both beautiful and delicious), a dinner with friends at Mortons, and Boudros which is tucked away (or wedged away) in a small space on the Riverwalk between two other places and does local and sustainable food. Everything we had there was wonderful but for desert there I had a tortilla fan, which was a tortilla fried and covered with cinnamon, and served with cream and fruit. It sounds like it would be too sweet, but it wasn't, it was perfect.
We also ate at Fogo de Chao, which is a Brazilian all-you-can-eat place that was very good (we missed the sign for it and found it by the smell -- it smells a little like someone is cooking beef on a teppanyaki) with a cold salad and vegetable bar, side dishes of potatoes, fried plantains, polenta, etc, and then when you signal you're ready they run at you with skewers of all kinds of meat. And we had caipirinhas which are a popular Brazilian drink because they are DELICIOUS.
The con: All my panels went really well, and were great to do. My reading went really well too. I had the most people I think I've ever had at a reading, at least 40 or 45 people, maybe more. I had an hour slot, so I read a long section from the Raksura novella, then took questions, then did a bit from Emilie and the Hollow World. There was a lot of programming I wanted to see but didn't get a chance. There was an astronaut and I missed her, and a NASA engineer and I missed her, and a Weta (Peter Jackson's special effects company from New Zealand) panel and I missed it, etc.
The only panel I was really worried about the topic was the "What Happened to Happy Endings?" panel, where as Jessica Reisman pointed out, there has never been a time when all the endings to stories were happy, and it's sure not like all the endings now are sad. But the moderator started the panel by saying that the title was clearly a nostalgic question that was invoking a past that had never actually occurred, so we basically just talked about what makes an ending happy or sad or triumphant or satisfying or tragic etc and it turned out really well.
The parties: The Booksworn eat-a-bug-for-a-book party went great as usual. The suite was a bit small so once the party started it was completely packed. I stayed by the book table and got people to eat bugs and gave away free books and only occasionally caught a glimpse of the other hosts. By about 10:30 I was getting dizzy and quite a few of the books were gone, so I left to go back to our hotel and collapse.
The Drinks with Authors party also went great, and it was in a much bigger room at Ernie's Pub at the Crockett Hotel up near the Alamo, and the noise level was extreme. People would come up and talk to us and we would be like, "We can't hear you, but you seem nice." After a while we were really tired and I thought if I took a nap on the floor people would freak out and think I was dead, so we staggered back to the hotel, had drinks at the bar, and then collapsed.
We also went to the Random House party which was up in the bar on top of the Tower of the Americas, which is very tall, and rotates. (It was built for the 1968 Hemisfair.) While we were waiting for the elevator, men and women in full firefighter gear kept coming out of a door to the stairwell, and the manager told us they train by running up and down the stairs. The party had free drinks and appetizers (satay, fried shrimp, ahi tuna nachos, and spinach feta pockets, which if that sounds like a good dinner, it was) and we stayed until it got very packed, then went back to the hotel, had drinks in the bar, and collapsed. (There was a lot of drinking followed by collapsing at this con.)
Stuff: I didn't buy much at all, just a con t-shirt and a sweatshirt. There was a lot of books, jewelry, and t-shirts in the dealer's room, and free books were being given away throughout the con in registration.
On Monday when the con was winding down, we went over to La Villita which is a historic restored Spanish-German village across from the Hemisfair Park, which now has shops for a lot of local artists.
Here's a few pictures of Hemisfair Park and the Tower of the Americas.
And More San Antonio Photos
I'm also posting these on my tumblr where you can click and see bigger versions.
These are some views of La Villita which is a historic restored Spanish-German village near the Riverwalk area.
These are some views of La Villita which is a historic restored Spanish-German village near the Riverwalk area.
More WorldCon Photos
I'm also posting these on my tumblr where you can click and see bigger versions.
This is from Farscape but it was running around over by the Doctor Who exhibit.
Some views of the dealer's room.
A science demonstration in the exhibit hall with a Tesla Coil.
This is a display of old fanzines from Texas fan groups, including two I co-edited when I was in college.
These are old program books from years of Texas SF cons, including the one I was chairman of, AggieCon 17 in 1986.
This is from Farscape but it was running around over by the Doctor Who exhibit.
Some views of the dealer's room.
A science demonstration in the exhibit hall with a Tesla Coil.
This is a display of old fanzines from Texas fan groups, including two I co-edited when I was in college.
These are old program books from years of Texas SF cons, including the one I was chairman of, AggieCon 17 in 1986.
September 1, 2013
San Antonio WorldCon Sunday
It's my birthday, and this is my birthday present. It's carved out of wood, handmade by a friend who is selling them in the dealer's room today. And this one was my special present!
This is the audience at the panel on Writing Combat with Elizabeth Moon, Elizabeth Bear, me, Jean Johnson, and Lois McMaster Bujold. (We told everyone who didn't want their picture took to duck.)
And this is more of the Riverwalk:
San Antonio WorldCon
This is some of us at the Drinks With Authors party last night. We were so exhausted, and the party was packed with people and a huge success. (At one point they asked everybody to tweet that it sucked because it was already so crowded.)
