Martha Wells's Blog, page 134
May 22, 2013
The storms that were coming down through Dallas got here ...
The storms that were coming down through Dallas got here last night. We had huge thunder and lightning and pounding rain, but no hail, at least at our house.
It's doing great things for our garden. On Monday I realized I didn't have a vegetable for a side dish for dinner (over-fried chicken) and went out in the garden and found a squash ready to go. We've already had tons of lettuce and some green tomatoes (which are great fried, sauteed, or baked in pies), and it looks like the okra will be ready soon.
I updated my web site a bit, added the link to the interview with me by Liz Bourke on Tor.com, plus added a separate page listing the the reprint ebooks I have out for $2.99 so they're easier to find.
Also reposted some of the fan art I've gotten for the Books of the Raksura on tumblr.
It's doing great things for our garden. On Monday I realized I didn't have a vegetable for a side dish for dinner (over-fried chicken) and went out in the garden and found a squash ready to go. We've already had tons of lettuce and some green tomatoes (which are great fried, sauteed, or baked in pies), and it looks like the okra will be ready soon.
I updated my web site a bit, added the link to the interview with me by Liz Bourke on Tor.com, plus added a separate page listing the the reprint ebooks I have out for $2.99 so they're easier to find.
Also reposted some of the fan art I've gotten for the Books of the Raksura on tumblr.
May 21, 2013
It's been horrible watching the news in Oklahoma. I know...
It's been horrible watching the news in Oklahoma. I know a lot of people there from the SF/F community, and felt very lucky when they all checked in on Facebook to say they were all right.
To help, you can donate to the Red Cross web site or text REDCROSS to 90999. The Animal Resource Center of Oklahoma City has a link to a donation page for animal relief. And you can donate to Pet Food Pantry.
If anyone knows any other places to donate, please post in the comments.
***
Here's a couple of tumblr posts I did in the past couple of days:
* Kite Surfing in Galveston
* What Jack did while we were gone
* Eartha Kitt as Catwoman drawn by ileliberte
* A hand-embroidered Poseidon's Beard by Krakatoakatie
To help, you can donate to the Red Cross web site or text REDCROSS to 90999. The Animal Resource Center of Oklahoma City has a link to a donation page for animal relief. And you can donate to Pet Food Pantry.
If anyone knows any other places to donate, please post in the comments.
***
Here's a couple of tumblr posts I did in the past couple of days:
* Kite Surfing in Galveston
* What Jack did while we were gone
* Eartha Kitt as Catwoman drawn by ileliberte
* A hand-embroidered Poseidon's Beard by Krakatoakatie
May 19, 2013
I just got back from a short trip to Galveston Island. I...
I just got back from a short trip to Galveston Island. It's only a three hour drive from here (depending on traffic) so it's a good place to go when you just desperately need to de-stress for a couple of days. The ocean was still a little too cold for swimming, at least for me, but we walked along the beach, had some drinks, and some really good food.
One thing we did was take an early tour of the Bishop's Palace, and instead of a guide just got to walk around it with an audio-tour phone. It was really neat, just being able to walk around it wherever you wanted. I noticed this time that though the interior ceilings, especially on the first floor, are probably twenty to twenty-five feet high, the rooms are around normal size, so it feels cozy. I guess if you have three foot thick stone walls, there really isn't a lot of space for huge ballrooms. The stone walls came in handy during the 1900 storm, where it got some broken windows and had water in the basement while other houses were being washed away and one of the four-story brick buildings in the Strand had its top floor implode. Thousands of people were killed in Galveston in the 1900 storm, and the Bishop's Palace saved a large number of people in the surrounding neighborhood. During hurricane Ike, it also had a few windows broken and water in the basement.
***
* There's giveaway drawing going on all this month for five copies of Emilie and the Hollow World at the YA Books Central Blog
* There's also a Giveaway at GoodReads for five copies of The Siren Depths.
One thing we did was take an early tour of the Bishop's Palace, and instead of a guide just got to walk around it with an audio-tour phone. It was really neat, just being able to walk around it wherever you wanted. I noticed this time that though the interior ceilings, especially on the first floor, are probably twenty to twenty-five feet high, the rooms are around normal size, so it feels cozy. I guess if you have three foot thick stone walls, there really isn't a lot of space for huge ballrooms. The stone walls came in handy during the 1900 storm, where it got some broken windows and had water in the basement while other houses were being washed away and one of the four-story brick buildings in the Strand had its top floor implode. Thousands of people were killed in Galveston in the 1900 storm, and the Bishop's Palace saved a large number of people in the surrounding neighborhood. During hurricane Ike, it also had a few windows broken and water in the basement.
***
* There's giveaway drawing going on all this month for five copies of Emilie and the Hollow World at the YA Books Central Blog
* There's also a Giveaway at GoodReads for five copies of The Siren Depths.
May 14, 2013
News of Me
* The Kirkus Reviews guide to BEA is free online, and has the starred review for my book Emilie and the Hollow World in it.
* My Star Wars novel Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge has been moved up again and will now be out on October 1.
* Next few appearances:
June 21-23, 2013. ApolloCon, in Houston, Texas.
July 26, 2013. I'll will be signing Emilie and the Hollow World at Murder by the Book, in Houston, Texas, with Joy Preble (The Sweet Dead Life), Mary Lindsey (Ashes on the Waves), and P.J. Hoover (Solstice).
August 29-September 2, 2013. LoneStarCon 3, the World Science Fiction Convention, in San Antonio, Texas.
* ETA: there's a short interview here with me by Liz Bourke on Tor.com
* and I am on this video! Somewhere toward the middle. This is the thank-you from Worldbuilders Fundraiser for Heifer International to all the donors and participants this year:
* My Star Wars novel Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge has been moved up again and will now be out on October 1.
* Next few appearances:
June 21-23, 2013. ApolloCon, in Houston, Texas.
July 26, 2013. I'll will be signing Emilie and the Hollow World at Murder by the Book, in Houston, Texas, with Joy Preble (The Sweet Dead Life), Mary Lindsey (Ashes on the Waves), and P.J. Hoover (Solstice).
August 29-September 2, 2013. LoneStarCon 3, the World Science Fiction Convention, in San Antonio, Texas.
* ETA: there's a short interview here with me by Liz Bourke on Tor.com
* and I am on this video! Somewhere toward the middle. This is the thank-you from Worldbuilders Fundraiser for Heifer International to all the donors and participants this year:
May 13, 2013
Links:* NY Times: Alice E. Kober, 43; Lost to History No ...
Links:
* NY Times: Alice E. Kober, 43; Lost to History No More
Like so many canonical narratives of achievement, this story has a quiet backstage figure behind the towering public one. And here, too, as in other such stories (recall Rosalind Franklin, whose work, long unacknowledged, informed the mapping of the structure of DNA by Francis Crick and James Watson), that figure is a woman.
* Black Gate: Nalo Hopkinson's Brown Girl in the Ring reviewed by Matthew David Surridge
The novel deserves the acclaim it got. On one level, it’s a strong adventure story with a fast-moving plot. But the book’s also notable for its language — specifically the dialogue, largely written in a Caribbean English. And for the story's use of both science fiction and fantastic elements; as it works through a powerful family tragedy, played out in a dark future through the invocation of spirits and gods, it convincingly evokes the mythic.
* Cora Buhlert: The Latest on the Women in SFF Debate (I think you can still fill out the form for your top ten favorite SF/F books by women.)
* Free story: Martyr's Gem by C.S.E. Cooney
* Author Lilith Saintcrow had a series of stories plagiarized by a user on Daily Kos.
* Atlas Obscura: Robertson's Fantastic Phantasmagoria
* NY Times: Alice E. Kober, 43; Lost to History No More
Like so many canonical narratives of achievement, this story has a quiet backstage figure behind the towering public one. And here, too, as in other such stories (recall Rosalind Franklin, whose work, long unacknowledged, informed the mapping of the structure of DNA by Francis Crick and James Watson), that figure is a woman.
* Black Gate: Nalo Hopkinson's Brown Girl in the Ring reviewed by Matthew David Surridge
The novel deserves the acclaim it got. On one level, it’s a strong adventure story with a fast-moving plot. But the book’s also notable for its language — specifically the dialogue, largely written in a Caribbean English. And for the story's use of both science fiction and fantastic elements; as it works through a powerful family tragedy, played out in a dark future through the invocation of spirits and gods, it convincingly evokes the mythic.
* Cora Buhlert: The Latest on the Women in SFF Debate (I think you can still fill out the form for your top ten favorite SF/F books by women.)
* Free story: Martyr's Gem by C.S.E. Cooney
* Author Lilith Saintcrow had a series of stories plagiarized by a user on Daily Kos.
* Atlas Obscura: Robertson's Fantastic Phantasmagoria
May 11, 2013
Okay, after everything else that's happened, I just had a...
Okay, after everything else that's happened, I just had a small car accident. I was driving along a street where there's parking on both sides, and someone backed out into me. No one hurt, my car is still driveable, but jeeze louise.
May 8, 2013
Links and Book Recs
Black Gate: Sword and Soul Revisited, the small press that publishes fantasy and sword and sorcery set either in historical Africa or secondary worlds with African influences.
Gwenda Bond: Talking it Out on getting stuck, and unstuck, in your writing.
More book recs:
* Cold Steel by Kate Elliott is coming out in late June. This is the third book in the trilogy with Cold Magic and Cold Fire.
* Fall of Night by Rachel Caine, the next book in her Morganville Vampire series.
* Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong a YA graphic novel by Prudence Shen and illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks.
You wouldn’t expect Nate and Charlie to be friends. Charlie’s the laid-back captain of the basketball team, and Nate is the neurotic, scheming president of the robotics club. But they are friends, however unlikely—until Nate declares war on the cheerleaders. At stake is funding that will either cover a robotics competition or new cheerleading uniforms—but not both.
It's only going to get worse: after both parties are stripped of their funding on grounds of abominable misbehavior, Nate enrolls the club's robot in a battlebot competition in a desperate bid for prize money. Bad sportsmanship? Sure. Chainsaws? Why not. Running away from home on Thanksgiving to illicitly enter a televised robot death match? Of course!
* Zenn Scarlett by Christian Schoon.
Zenn Scarlett is a bright, determined, occasionally a-little-too-smart-for-her-own-good 17-year-old girl training hard to become an exoveterinarian. That means she’s specializing in the treatment of exotic alien life forms, mostly large and generally dangerous. Her novice year of training at the Ciscan Cloister Exovet Clinic on Mars will find her working with alien patients from whalehounds the size of a hay barn to a baby Kiran Sunkiller, a colossal floating creature that will grow up to carry a whole sky-city on its back.
Gwenda Bond: Talking it Out on getting stuck, and unstuck, in your writing.
More book recs:
* Cold Steel by Kate Elliott is coming out in late June. This is the third book in the trilogy with Cold Magic and Cold Fire.
* Fall of Night by Rachel Caine, the next book in her Morganville Vampire series.
* Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong a YA graphic novel by Prudence Shen and illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks.
You wouldn’t expect Nate and Charlie to be friends. Charlie’s the laid-back captain of the basketball team, and Nate is the neurotic, scheming president of the robotics club. But they are friends, however unlikely—until Nate declares war on the cheerleaders. At stake is funding that will either cover a robotics competition or new cheerleading uniforms—but not both.
It's only going to get worse: after both parties are stripped of their funding on grounds of abominable misbehavior, Nate enrolls the club's robot in a battlebot competition in a desperate bid for prize money. Bad sportsmanship? Sure. Chainsaws? Why not. Running away from home on Thanksgiving to illicitly enter a televised robot death match? Of course!
* Zenn Scarlett by Christian Schoon.
Zenn Scarlett is a bright, determined, occasionally a-little-too-smart-for-her-own-good 17-year-old girl training hard to become an exoveterinarian. That means she’s specializing in the treatment of exotic alien life forms, mostly large and generally dangerous. Her novice year of training at the Ciscan Cloister Exovet Clinic on Mars will find her working with alien patients from whalehounds the size of a hay barn to a baby Kiran Sunkiller, a colossal floating creature that will grow up to carry a whole sky-city on its back.
May 6, 2013
Weekend
I was at the DFW Writers Conference this weekend, which went really well. It's different from an SF/F con in that it's all about development for writers, with classes and panels on various aspects of writing and publishing by writers, editors, and agents, plus attendees can sign up for short pitch sessions with agents and editors. I taught two classes, one on worldbuilding and one on dialog basics. About the only problem was in getting there and then getting away from it, because the highway leading to the convention center and hotel was a massive construction site from which all signage and exits had been carefully removed. It was about a four hour drive to get back, so I was pretty beat when I got home last night.
I haven't seen Doctor Who or Iron Man 3 yet, so I'll probably be scarce online to avoid spoilers until I can do both those things.
* If there are new friended people here from the conference, the Links to Information Sites for Beginning Writers section on my web site is here.
* There's a giveaway drawing of Emilie and the Hollow World at YA Books Central. You can enter to win all through May and it's open to international entries.
Reviews
* Adventures Fantastic reviewed Emilie and the Hollow World.
* YA author Craig Laurance Gidney reviewed The Serpent Sea.
Book Recs
* You can preorder the paperback of Queen's Hunt by Beth Bernobich, which will be out in June.
* And The Golden City by J. Kathleen Cheney which comes out in November.
I haven't seen Doctor Who or Iron Man 3 yet, so I'll probably be scarce online to avoid spoilers until I can do both those things.
* If there are new friended people here from the conference, the Links to Information Sites for Beginning Writers section on my web site is here.
* There's a giveaway drawing of Emilie and the Hollow World at YA Books Central. You can enter to win all through May and it's open to international entries.
Reviews
* Adventures Fantastic reviewed Emilie and the Hollow World.
* YA author Craig Laurance Gidney reviewed The Serpent Sea.
Book Recs
* You can preorder the paperback of Queen's Hunt by Beth Bernobich, which will be out in June.
* And The Golden City by J. Kathleen Cheney which comes out in November.
May 1, 2013
So the work on the house to repair the plumbing disaster ...
So the work on the house to repair the plumbing disaster is finally finished. :knock on wood: That's one source of stress gone. Now I can concentrate on the other sources of stress. But at least last night I was able to get some real sleep. I still had an anxiety dream, but I did sleep past 4:00 am.
TV Rec:
The Bletchley Circle has been airing on Sunday night on PBS, and it's awesome. There are only three episodes, about a group of women who were counter-intelligence code-breakers in WWII, solving a serial killer mystery after the war. They had to sign the official secrets act, and can't tell anyone what they did, and have to say they just did clerical work.
Book rec:
The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu
When out-of-shape IT technician Roen woke up and started hearing voices in his head, he naturally assumed he was losing it.
He wasn't.
He now has a passenger in his brain – an ancient alien life-form called Tao, whose race crash-landed on Earth before the first fish crawled out of the oceans.
Links:
* This is going around on Tumblr and I thought it was enormously cool: Concept art for Janelle Monáe’s The ArchAndroid by Chad Weatherford
* The Nation: My So-Called 'Post-Feminist' Life in Arts and Letters
It's career suicide, colleagues tell me, to speak out against the literary establishment; they'll smear you. But never mind. I'm too old and too invisible to said establishment to care.
* Sarah Rees Brennan: On writers getting paid to write
I think it is interesting that they *are* both guys, and they both got a lot of good press for saying: my work is worth something. Because when a woman says that, people argue with her.
* 20 of the world's most beautiful World Heritage Sites
* Bill Crider reviews Emilie and the Hollow World
Wells is excellent, as always, at world-building, and the societies that Emilie and the others encounter are interesting and believable. There's plenty of intrigue, danger, and action, too, and Emilie proves herself more than capable of dealing with just about any emergency. If you read YA fiction, this one is great fun and should be on your list.
TV Rec:
The Bletchley Circle has been airing on Sunday night on PBS, and it's awesome. There are only three episodes, about a group of women who were counter-intelligence code-breakers in WWII, solving a serial killer mystery after the war. They had to sign the official secrets act, and can't tell anyone what they did, and have to say they just did clerical work.
Book rec:
The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu
When out-of-shape IT technician Roen woke up and started hearing voices in his head, he naturally assumed he was losing it.
He wasn't.
He now has a passenger in his brain – an ancient alien life-form called Tao, whose race crash-landed on Earth before the first fish crawled out of the oceans.
Links:
* This is going around on Tumblr and I thought it was enormously cool: Concept art for Janelle Monáe’s The ArchAndroid by Chad Weatherford
* The Nation: My So-Called 'Post-Feminist' Life in Arts and Letters
It's career suicide, colleagues tell me, to speak out against the literary establishment; they'll smear you. But never mind. I'm too old and too invisible to said establishment to care.
* Sarah Rees Brennan: On writers getting paid to write
I think it is interesting that they *are* both guys, and they both got a lot of good press for saying: my work is worth something. Because when a woman says that, people argue with her.
* 20 of the world's most beautiful World Heritage Sites
* Bill Crider reviews Emilie and the Hollow World
Wells is excellent, as always, at world-building, and the societies that Emilie and the others encounter are interesting and believable. There's plenty of intrigue, danger, and action, too, and Emilie proves herself more than capable of dealing with just about any emergency. If you read YA fiction, this one is great fun and should be on your list.
April 28, 2013
State of Me
Thanks to everyone for the great comments on the cover. I don't know that I'll be able to answer them individually. I'm still not feeling great due to my stress levels being through the roof for the past couple of months, basically. I'm also having a lot of allergy symptoms due to the weather and the long period where the wall/ceiling in the living room/hall/bathroom was cut open, which combined with the stress gives me asthma-like symptoms, so that's not fun. I have lost a little weight, due to having some meals that were basically toast, cereal, and benadryl. (It's a great diet except for the rickets.) So I haven't been very present online, or anywhere else, really.
The last of the plumbing disaster is almost dealt with. I finished the painting last week, except for one little bit of ceiling. Tomorrow we're having the ruined living room and dining room carpet replaced. At the moment most of the living room/dining room is crammed into my office, so I can only admire my printer and filing cabinet from a distance. Hopefully by Tuesday we'll be able to start putting everything back.
To new people who have friended me, hi! It's not normally this depressing here. I mirror this journal on Dreamwidth and Tumblr (I post a lot of random photos and art on Tumblr also) and if you want to buy any of my books or check out sample chapters, short stories, etc, there's a list with links on my web site here. My first four out-of-print fantasy novels are in ebook $2.99 (The Element of Fire, City of Bones, Wheel of the Infinite, and The Death of the Necromancer) and purchasing them helps pay for the above-mentioned plumbing repairs.
Other things that are going on:
* RisingShadow.net reviewed Emilie and the Hollow World.
* The Other Half of the Sky anthology (with my Raksura story) is out in ebook and trade paperback.
* I'm going to be teaching two classes at the DFW Writers Conference in Hurst next weekend. (Other appearances are listed here.)
* The Guys Lit Wire Book Fair for Ballou Senior High School Library has been going on for the past couple of weeks.
The school started out with only a handful of library books for over 1500 students, and the book drives over the past few years has started to get it up to a more reasonable number, but there's still a big book deficit and zero school budget money for books. Buying books for kids you don't know is restful and fun and somewhat addictive, so if you have spare money, you should definitely try it out. There's lots of YA and SF/F and non-fiction on the list, and a lot of sale or used books that are under $10.00.
If you want to participate, go to the wish list at Powell's, pick out the books you want to buy for the library, and ship them to:
Melissa Jackson, LIBRARIAN
Ballou Senior High School
3401 Fourth Street SE
Washington DC 20032
(202) 645-3400
Be sure you get the name and title in there, as it's a big school and you want to make sure the books go to the librarian. Also, during the buying process, a screen will show up asking you to check a box for each book so it will be marked as bought on the wish list.
If you can't afford a book, you can help enormously by passing on the link http://guyslitwire.blogspot.com/2013/04/its-time-for-annual-spring-book-fair.html on LJ, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.
The last of the plumbing disaster is almost dealt with. I finished the painting last week, except for one little bit of ceiling. Tomorrow we're having the ruined living room and dining room carpet replaced. At the moment most of the living room/dining room is crammed into my office, so I can only admire my printer and filing cabinet from a distance. Hopefully by Tuesday we'll be able to start putting everything back.
To new people who have friended me, hi! It's not normally this depressing here. I mirror this journal on Dreamwidth and Tumblr (I post a lot of random photos and art on Tumblr also) and if you want to buy any of my books or check out sample chapters, short stories, etc, there's a list with links on my web site here. My first four out-of-print fantasy novels are in ebook $2.99 (The Element of Fire, City of Bones, Wheel of the Infinite, and The Death of the Necromancer) and purchasing them helps pay for the above-mentioned plumbing repairs.
Other things that are going on:
* RisingShadow.net reviewed Emilie and the Hollow World.
* The Other Half of the Sky anthology (with my Raksura story) is out in ebook and trade paperback.
* I'm going to be teaching two classes at the DFW Writers Conference in Hurst next weekend. (Other appearances are listed here.)
* The Guys Lit Wire Book Fair for Ballou Senior High School Library has been going on for the past couple of weeks.
The school started out with only a handful of library books for over 1500 students, and the book drives over the past few years has started to get it up to a more reasonable number, but there's still a big book deficit and zero school budget money for books. Buying books for kids you don't know is restful and fun and somewhat addictive, so if you have spare money, you should definitely try it out. There's lots of YA and SF/F and non-fiction on the list, and a lot of sale or used books that are under $10.00.
If you want to participate, go to the wish list at Powell's, pick out the books you want to buy for the library, and ship them to:
Melissa Jackson, LIBRARIAN
Ballou Senior High School
3401 Fourth Street SE
Washington DC 20032
(202) 645-3400
Be sure you get the name and title in there, as it's a big school and you want to make sure the books go to the librarian. Also, during the buying process, a screen will show up asking you to check a box for each book so it will be marked as bought on the wish list.
If you can't afford a book, you can help enormously by passing on the link http://guyslitwire.blogspot.com/2013/04/its-time-for-annual-spring-book-fair.html on LJ, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.
