Martha Wells's Blog, page 137
March 18, 2013
Lots of Links
I'm hoping to have the ceiling holes fixed today, at least the initial dry wall, which should stop the rain of dust and dead bugs.
If you missed my plumbing disaster, some of the photos are here: http://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/44548024765/more-plumbing-photos (that's actually not all the holes) and the story is mostly here and here.
(Insurance is thankfully going to cover part of it, but we still have to pay a big chunk, so if you know anybody who might be interested in cheap ($2.99 US) DRM-free reprint ebooks of The Element of Fire, The Death of the Necromancer, City of Bones, Wheel of the Infinite on Kindle, Nook, or Kobo. (It does help to buy and rec the other books too, but with the reprints I get paid monthly by the retailers. With the others, if the book has earned out, it might be six months to a year to never before I get paid.))
Book rec:
* Tor.com: An excerpt of A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar
* Kickstarter: Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction From the Margins of History
Most written chronicles of history, and most speculative stories, put rulers, conquerors, and invaders front and center. People with less power, money, or status—enslaved people, indigenous people, people of color, queer people, laborers, women, people with disabilities, the very young and very old, and religious minorities, among others—are relegated to the margins. Today, mainstream history continues to perpetuate one-sided versions of the past while mistelling or erasing the stories of the rest of the world.
* Black Gate: The Land The Ravens Found and Naomi Mitchison
Me:
* A new review of Emilie and the Hollow World which will be out on April 2.
Links:
* Salon.com My Amazon bestseller made me nothing
This past summer, my novel, “Broken Piano for President,” shot to the top of the best-seller lists for a week. After Jack Daniel’s sent me a ridiculously polite cease and desist letter, the story went viral and was featured in places like Forbes, Time magazine and NPR’s Weekend Edition. The New Yorker wrote one whole, entire, punctuated-and-everything sentence about me! My book was the No. 6 bestselling title in America for a while, right behind all the different “50 Shades of Grey” and “Gone Girl.” It was selling more copies than “Hunger Games” and “Bossypants.” So, I can sort of see why people thought I was going to start wearing monogrammed silk pajamas and smoking a pipe.
But the truth is, there’s a reason most well-known writers still teach English. There’s a reason most authors drive dented cars. There’s a reason most writers have bad teeth. It’s not because we’ve chosen a life of poverty. It’s that poverty has chosen our profession.
Even when there’s money in writing, there’s not much money.
* Daily Fig: Five Ingredients for a Spectacular Writing Group by Alaya Dawn Johnson
* Black Gate: My Characters Don’t Give a Damn by Violette Malan, on the uses of profanity in fantasy.
* Lee Moyer: R E S P E C T Artist Lee Moyer on sexism in fantasy art:
If you draw a man you make a picture, but if you draw a woman you make a statement.
This is a cultural thing and it is probably fading away as we speak, but for now it still seems to be true. Which is why a picture of Conan can be accepted at face value as what the character looks like and what he wears, but a picture of a scantily dressed woman is seen not as a depiction of a character, but as a statement about women.
* Cracked.com 5 Moments That Prove Mr. Rogers was the Greatest American
* Washington Post: Food stamps put Rhode Island town on monthly boom-and-bust cycle
If you missed my plumbing disaster, some of the photos are here: http://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/44548024765/more-plumbing-photos (that's actually not all the holes) and the story is mostly here and here.
(Insurance is thankfully going to cover part of it, but we still have to pay a big chunk, so if you know anybody who might be interested in cheap ($2.99 US) DRM-free reprint ebooks of The Element of Fire, The Death of the Necromancer, City of Bones, Wheel of the Infinite on Kindle, Nook, or Kobo. (It does help to buy and rec the other books too, but with the reprints I get paid monthly by the retailers. With the others, if the book has earned out, it might be six months to a year to never before I get paid.))
Book rec:
* Tor.com: An excerpt of A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar
* Kickstarter: Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction From the Margins of History
Most written chronicles of history, and most speculative stories, put rulers, conquerors, and invaders front and center. People with less power, money, or status—enslaved people, indigenous people, people of color, queer people, laborers, women, people with disabilities, the very young and very old, and religious minorities, among others—are relegated to the margins. Today, mainstream history continues to perpetuate one-sided versions of the past while mistelling or erasing the stories of the rest of the world.
* Black Gate: The Land The Ravens Found and Naomi Mitchison
Me:
* A new review of Emilie and the Hollow World which will be out on April 2.
Links:
* Salon.com My Amazon bestseller made me nothing
This past summer, my novel, “Broken Piano for President,” shot to the top of the best-seller lists for a week. After Jack Daniel’s sent me a ridiculously polite cease and desist letter, the story went viral and was featured in places like Forbes, Time magazine and NPR’s Weekend Edition. The New Yorker wrote one whole, entire, punctuated-and-everything sentence about me! My book was the No. 6 bestselling title in America for a while, right behind all the different “50 Shades of Grey” and “Gone Girl.” It was selling more copies than “Hunger Games” and “Bossypants.” So, I can sort of see why people thought I was going to start wearing monogrammed silk pajamas and smoking a pipe.
But the truth is, there’s a reason most well-known writers still teach English. There’s a reason most authors drive dented cars. There’s a reason most writers have bad teeth. It’s not because we’ve chosen a life of poverty. It’s that poverty has chosen our profession.
Even when there’s money in writing, there’s not much money.
* Daily Fig: Five Ingredients for a Spectacular Writing Group by Alaya Dawn Johnson
* Black Gate: My Characters Don’t Give a Damn by Violette Malan, on the uses of profanity in fantasy.
* Lee Moyer: R E S P E C T Artist Lee Moyer on sexism in fantasy art:
If you draw a man you make a picture, but if you draw a woman you make a statement.
This is a cultural thing and it is probably fading away as we speak, but for now it still seems to be true. Which is why a picture of Conan can be accepted at face value as what the character looks like and what he wears, but a picture of a scantily dressed woman is seen not as a depiction of a character, but as a statement about women.
* Cracked.com 5 Moments That Prove Mr. Rogers was the Greatest American
* Washington Post: Food stamps put Rhode Island town on monthly boom-and-bust cycle
March 14, 2013
I did a post on Black Gate: http://www.blackgate.com/2013...
I did a post on Black Gate: http://www.blackgate.com/2013/03/13/how-well-does-the-cloud-roads-fit-as-sword-and-sorcery/ on The Cloud Roads as sword and sorcery, and a bit about defining genre too narrowly. My favorite bit:
One of the other elements that doesn’t fit is that in sword and sorcery, a male protagonist often ends up rescuing a princess (or sorceress, or queen or some other woman who needs rescuing) and she is in effect the prize for his success. One of the things Moon discovers when he meets the Raksura is that his position in their culture, determined by their biology, makes him the prize in that scenario.
And I also have guest posts at:
* Angels of Retribution:
* Eating Authors: Martha Wells This is a post about one of my favorite restaurants.
I saw Oz and was meh about it. It was beautifully filmed, and had some good moments, but I really disliked the characterization of the female characters (it made me really want to see a movie version of Wicked, and I didn't like the mention of Thomas Edison as a hero. If Edison had been there, he would have electrocuted the Munchkins and stolen all their stuff. But if Tesla had been there, with even a tenth of the Tinkers' resources and help, he would have built them a robot army on hovercraft and been leading them in the Iron Man suit. That's how it happens in my head, anyway.
But I loved the new trailer for The Great Gatsby
One of the other elements that doesn’t fit is that in sword and sorcery, a male protagonist often ends up rescuing a princess (or sorceress, or queen or some other woman who needs rescuing) and she is in effect the prize for his success. One of the things Moon discovers when he meets the Raksura is that his position in their culture, determined by their biology, makes him the prize in that scenario.
And I also have guest posts at:
* Angels of Retribution:
* Eating Authors: Martha Wells This is a post about one of my favorite restaurants.
I saw Oz and was meh about it. It was beautifully filmed, and had some good moments, but I really disliked the characterization of the female characters (it made me really want to see a movie version of Wicked, and I didn't like the mention of Thomas Edison as a hero. If Edison had been there, he would have electrocuted the Munchkins and stolen all their stuff. But if Tesla had been there, with even a tenth of the Tinkers' resources and help, he would have built them a robot army on hovercraft and been leading them in the Iron Man suit. That's how it happens in my head, anyway.
But I loved the new trailer for The Great Gatsby
March 13, 2013
I have a post on Black Gate: http://www.blackgate.com/201...
I have a post on Black Gate: http://www.blackgate.com/2013/03/13/how-well-does-the-cloud-roads-fit-as-sword-and-sorcery/ on The Cloud Roads as sword and sorcery, and a bit about defining genre too narrowly.
March 12, 2013
I still have holes in my walls and ceiling, but I'm hopin...
I still have holes in my walls and ceiling, but I'm hoping the contractor will have a chance to get to us in the next couple of weeks. It's going to take a few visits to get all the taping and mudding and texturing done, but after the first one, the holes will at least be closed up. I am looking forward to this, because they leak dust and smell funny.
Just wanted to mention that there has been a ton of questions and discussion of the Books of the Raksura in this post here.
* There is a review of The Death of the Necromancer here at Roqoo Depot.
* Style Reader did an outfit for Emilie of Emilie and the Hollow World! That's pretty awesome.
Here's a book release post for Mirage by Jenn Reese and Poison by Bridget Zinn Bridget died from cancer in May 2011 at the age of 33, before getting to see her debut book published.
Fun thing: Doctor Who: An Alternative History of 11 American Doctors
Just wanted to mention that there has been a ton of questions and discussion of the Books of the Raksura in this post here.
* There is a review of The Death of the Necromancer here at Roqoo Depot.
* Style Reader did an outfit for Emilie of Emilie and the Hollow World! That's pretty awesome.
Here's a book release post for Mirage by Jenn Reese and Poison by Bridget Zinn Bridget died from cancer in May 2011 at the age of 33, before getting to see her debut book published.
Fun thing: Doctor Who: An Alternative History of 11 American Doctors
March 11, 2013
Awake, sort of. Not really.I am all over the place today:...
Awake, sort of. Not really.
I am all over the place today:
* Angels of Retribution:
* Eating Authors: Martha Wells This is a post about one of my favorite restaurants.
***
More Links:
* Kickstarter for a new Judith Tarr novel: Forgotten Suns A real old-fashioned space opera. Rip-roaring adventure. Abandoned planet; ancient mystery. Space pirates. Sentient starships.
* New SF by Linda Nagata: The Red: First Light Lieutenant James Shelley commands a high-tech squad of soldiers in a rural district within the African Sahel. They hunt insurgents each night on a harrowing patrol, guided by three simple goals: protect civilians, kill the enemy, and stay alive—because in a for-profit war manufactured by the defense industry there can be no cause worth dying for. To keep his soldiers safe, Shelley uses every high-tech asset available to him—but his best weapon is a flawless sense of imminent danger...as if God is with him, whispering warnings in his ear.
* What Makes a Fantasy Epic? by John R. Fultz
Epic Fantasy has even become its own genre, even though fans (and writers) often disagree just what constitutes an "epic fantasy."
* Black Gate: Caitlin R. Kiernan and Kiini Ibura Salaam, Joint Recipients of the 2012 Tiptree Award by Emily Mah
The James Tiptree, Jr. Award is "annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender."
* Lady Business: Coverage of Women on SF/F Blogs (2012) This project is about the visibility of women in science fiction and fantasy reviews and whether the gender of the reviewer impacts that visibility.
* Alex Bledsoe: Help Needed: Reward Offered I'm putting together the release trailer for Wisp of a Thing, completely different from the pre-release trailer you can see here. It’ll have all-new music, and all-new video. And it's basically done. Except for one thing.
I am all over the place today:
* Angels of Retribution:
* Eating Authors: Martha Wells This is a post about one of my favorite restaurants.
***
More Links:
* Kickstarter for a new Judith Tarr novel: Forgotten Suns A real old-fashioned space opera. Rip-roaring adventure. Abandoned planet; ancient mystery. Space pirates. Sentient starships.
* New SF by Linda Nagata: The Red: First Light Lieutenant James Shelley commands a high-tech squad of soldiers in a rural district within the African Sahel. They hunt insurgents each night on a harrowing patrol, guided by three simple goals: protect civilians, kill the enemy, and stay alive—because in a for-profit war manufactured by the defense industry there can be no cause worth dying for. To keep his soldiers safe, Shelley uses every high-tech asset available to him—but his best weapon is a flawless sense of imminent danger...as if God is with him, whispering warnings in his ear.
* What Makes a Fantasy Epic? by John R. Fultz
Epic Fantasy has even become its own genre, even though fans (and writers) often disagree just what constitutes an "epic fantasy."
* Black Gate: Caitlin R. Kiernan and Kiini Ibura Salaam, Joint Recipients of the 2012 Tiptree Award by Emily Mah
The James Tiptree, Jr. Award is "annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender."
* Lady Business: Coverage of Women on SF/F Blogs (2012) This project is about the visibility of women in science fiction and fantasy reviews and whether the gender of the reviewer impacts that visibility.
* Alex Bledsoe: Help Needed: Reward Offered I'm putting together the release trailer for Wisp of a Thing, completely different from the pre-release trailer you can see here. It’ll have all-new music, and all-new video. And it's basically done. Except for one thing.
March 7, 2013
Nominations for the Hugo Awards are closing on March 10. ...
Nominations for the Hugo Awards are closing on March 10.
The first stage, nomination, is open to anyone who has a Supporting or Attending membership in the previous, current, or following year's Worldcon as of January 31. For LoneStarCon 3, this means members of Chicon 7 (the 2012 Worldcon), LoneStarCon 3 itself, and Loncon 3 (the 2014 Worldcon). During this stage, members can nominate any eligible work or person. The nominating period for 2013 is now under way and will close on March 10, 2013.
The Serpent Sea and The Siren Depths are both eligible.
Also if you're going to the San Antonio WorldCon, you might want to make your hotel reservation before the two main hotels get full.
Book Rec:
No Return by Zachary Jernigan. I read this book and gave it a blurb:
"No Return is a rich, diverse, inventive fantasy, in a style that reminds me in some ways of Tanith Lee's Tales of the Flat Earth books. Zachary Jernigan has created a stunningly original world and I can't wait to see where he takes it next."
Links:
This is What a Scientist Looks Like Tumblr
The first stage, nomination, is open to anyone who has a Supporting or Attending membership in the previous, current, or following year's Worldcon as of January 31. For LoneStarCon 3, this means members of Chicon 7 (the 2012 Worldcon), LoneStarCon 3 itself, and Loncon 3 (the 2014 Worldcon). During this stage, members can nominate any eligible work or person. The nominating period for 2013 is now under way and will close on March 10, 2013.
The Serpent Sea and The Siren Depths are both eligible.
Also if you're going to the San Antonio WorldCon, you might want to make your hotel reservation before the two main hotels get full.
Book Rec:
No Return by Zachary Jernigan. I read this book and gave it a blurb:
"No Return is a rich, diverse, inventive fantasy, in a style that reminds me in some ways of Tanith Lee's Tales of the Flat Earth books. Zachary Jernigan has created a stunningly original world and I can't wait to see where he takes it next."
Links:
This is What a Scientist Looks Like Tumblr
March 6, 2013
C.S.E. Cooney said something very nice about The Serpent ...
C.S.E. Cooney said something very nice about The Serpent Sea:
Martha Wells makes great monsters. And great everything else too. Plot, pacing, character arc and empathy, subterranean battles, leviathans, love scenes. Everything at once muscular and delicate. Subtleties. Sensitivities. I want to breathe the air of her worlds - and fly with the Raksura there.
I really needed to read that this morning. I've got a bad headache, either sinus from the rapid cold-warm fronts that have been coming through, or from the dust from the open ceiling, or both. I see a lot of vacuuming and mopping in my immediate future.
Book rec:
A Turn of Light by Julie E. Czerneda
A young woman trapped between two worlds must risk everything to save both in Czerneda’s charming character-driven fantasy of rich magic, multilayered characters, and dangerous choices. Jenn Nalynn longs to travel far beyond the remote village of Marrowdell to find adventure and true love. Unfortunately Jenn is “turn-born,” born in the narrow Verge where the mortal world and a magical realm overlap, and bound to the land by her birth; any attempt to leave Marrowdell will release the Verge’s wild magic, bringing chaos and death to both worlds. As Jenn’s 19th birthday approaches, along with the eclipse called the Great Turn, Jenn is drawn toward the dangerous Verge and torn between the two men she loves: an exiled prince and a disgraced dragon-turned-human sent by forces across the Verge to guard her. Science fiction author Czerneda (the Stratification series) will charm fantasy readers with multidimensional characters, a vivid setting, and powerful themes of hope and renewal. Publishers Weekly
Link:
NYT: What Not to Ask a Transgender Friend This is helpful info for friends who want to be supportive but have no idea how.
Martha Wells makes great monsters. And great everything else too. Plot, pacing, character arc and empathy, subterranean battles, leviathans, love scenes. Everything at once muscular and delicate. Subtleties. Sensitivities. I want to breathe the air of her worlds - and fly with the Raksura there.
I really needed to read that this morning. I've got a bad headache, either sinus from the rapid cold-warm fronts that have been coming through, or from the dust from the open ceiling, or both. I see a lot of vacuuming and mopping in my immediate future.
Book rec:
A Turn of Light by Julie E. Czerneda
A young woman trapped between two worlds must risk everything to save both in Czerneda’s charming character-driven fantasy of rich magic, multilayered characters, and dangerous choices. Jenn Nalynn longs to travel far beyond the remote village of Marrowdell to find adventure and true love. Unfortunately Jenn is “turn-born,” born in the narrow Verge where the mortal world and a magical realm overlap, and bound to the land by her birth; any attempt to leave Marrowdell will release the Verge’s wild magic, bringing chaos and death to both worlds. As Jenn’s 19th birthday approaches, along with the eclipse called the Great Turn, Jenn is drawn toward the dangerous Verge and torn between the two men she loves: an exiled prince and a disgraced dragon-turned-human sent by forces across the Verge to guard her. Science fiction author Czerneda (the Stratification series) will charm fantasy readers with multidimensional characters, a vivid setting, and powerful themes of hope and renewal. Publishers Weekly
Link:
NYT: What Not to Ask a Transgender Friend This is helpful info for friends who want to be supportive but have no idea how.
March 5, 2013
The plumbers finished, and we're just waiting on the cont...
The plumbers finished, and we're just waiting on the contractor to schedule us to start putting the walls and ceiling together again. I spent most of the afternoon cleaning up dust that didn't get picked up by the dust sheets or the shop vac, but there's a lot more to go. (The electric saw and the drill they had to use created a lot of dust.) Insurance is thankfully going to cover a lot of it, but we still have to pay around $3000, so if you know anybody who might be interested in cheap ($2.99 US) DRM-free reprint ebooks of The Element of Fire, The Death of the Necromancer, City of Bones, Wheel of the Infinite on Kindle, Nook, or Kobo. (It does help to buy and rec the other books too, but with the reprints I get paid monthly by the retailers. With the others, if the book has earned out, it might be six months to a year before I get paid.)
Links:
* Kate Elliott: What Is Your Consensual Sex & Love Doing In My Epic Fantasy? (Spiritwalker Monday 16)
when you contend that realistic worldbuilding requires the inclusion of certain specific inequalities in order to count as realistic, you’re simultaneously asserting that such inequalities are inherent to reality
* Terrible Minds: Writers And Misinformation, Or: "How Did You Publish?"
This entire writing-and-publishing thing is shot through with pulsing black veins of misinformation. That’s not good for anybody, writer or publisher.
Book Rec:
I loved these fantasy regency MG novels by Stephanie Burgis. The second one Renegade Magic is now out in paperback. I thought they were just as readable and fun for adults as for kids.
Links:
* Kate Elliott: What Is Your Consensual Sex & Love Doing In My Epic Fantasy? (Spiritwalker Monday 16)
when you contend that realistic worldbuilding requires the inclusion of certain specific inequalities in order to count as realistic, you’re simultaneously asserting that such inequalities are inherent to reality
* Terrible Minds: Writers And Misinformation, Or: "How Did You Publish?"
This entire writing-and-publishing thing is shot through with pulsing black veins of misinformation. That’s not good for anybody, writer or publisher.
Book Rec:
I loved these fantasy regency MG novels by Stephanie Burgis. The second one Renegade Magic is now out in paperback. I thought they were just as readable and fun for adults as for kids.
March 4, 2013
Martha's Plumbing Adventure Part 4
Well, the plumbers are back and should finish sometime later today. They finished opening up a path through the ceiling all across the living room wall, and have got the pipe in. The Insurance adjuster came, and the bad news is all the repairs will probably cost around $8000 - good news is that they will cover about $5000 of it, so this is a huge relief.
http://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/44548024765/more-plumbing-photos
http://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/44548024765/more-plumbing-photos
March 3, 2013
Books for Sunday
Trying to get writing done today plus laundry while we have water, in case anything more goes wrong tomorrow. Also not looking forward to tomorrow, which will be stressful. Insurance guy is coming, plus they're tearing up the rest of that side of the ceiling. If the insurance company will cover it, I will be a lot less stressed out.
The toilet in the must-not-use bathroom made a water rushing noise this morning, but water did not gush from anywhere else in the house. :crossing fingers: :knock on wood:
Books!
* Good Man Friday by Barbara Hambly is out. This is the latest in her Benjamin January historical mystery series. The books are set in 1830s New Orleans, and Benjamin is a black surgeon/musician who with his friends fights crime by solving mysteries. Basically, I love this whole series. I haven't started this one yet but it involves traveling to Washington, DC, to find a missing person.
* The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson is new YA SF, and there's an excerpt at NPR Books and a Q and A with the author.
* You can enter this 17 Author Book Giveaway.
* There is a new issue of Indian SF with free short stories.
The toilet in the must-not-use bathroom made a water rushing noise this morning, but water did not gush from anywhere else in the house. :crossing fingers: :knock on wood:
Books!
* Good Man Friday by Barbara Hambly is out. This is the latest in her Benjamin January historical mystery series. The books are set in 1830s New Orleans, and Benjamin is a black surgeon/musician who with his friends fights crime by solving mysteries. Basically, I love this whole series. I haven't started this one yet but it involves traveling to Washington, DC, to find a missing person.
* The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson is new YA SF, and there's an excerpt at NPR Books and a Q and A with the author.
* You can enter this 17 Author Book Giveaway.
* There is a new issue of Indian SF with free short stories.
