Martha Wells's Blog, page 143
December 22, 2012
Sinus Headache City
We're having another warm front come through before the next cold front, so my sinuses are not happy. It's the abrupt weather changes that causes the pressure and headaches. I did get to the grocery store this morning and got the rest of everything that I need (I hope), plus some stuff that we don't need but we'll eat anyway (chocolate cream puffs).
Today I need to clean up the front yard again (the wind storm we had the other day pretty much undid almost everything I did earlier) and I'll try to avoid the fire ants this time.
I want to thank everybody who's left reviews so far at Amazon and B&N and other online retailers (or GoodReads or LibraryThing) for The Cloud Roads, The Serpent Sea, and The Siren Depths! It really does help a huge amount, (especially on Amazon, where number of reviews controls how the book is recommended in their system), and it's the only advertisement the books are going to get. So thank you so much! I really appreciate it.
And if you're new here, all the free short stories on my web site are listed here. And the Raksura fan art and extras are here.
And there's some really excellent discussion still going on in this post here about Raksuran gender and sexual politics, and their court politics and interactions.
And The Serpent Sea made it into the semi-finals of the Ranting Dragon cover battle!
Today I need to clean up the front yard again (the wind storm we had the other day pretty much undid almost everything I did earlier) and I'll try to avoid the fire ants this time.
I want to thank everybody who's left reviews so far at Amazon and B&N and other online retailers (or GoodReads or LibraryThing) for The Cloud Roads, The Serpent Sea, and The Siren Depths! It really does help a huge amount, (especially on Amazon, where number of reviews controls how the book is recommended in their system), and it's the only advertisement the books are going to get. So thank you so much! I really appreciate it.
And if you're new here, all the free short stories on my web site are listed here. And the Raksura fan art and extras are here.
And there's some really excellent discussion still going on in this post here about Raksuran gender and sexual politics, and their court politics and interactions.
And The Serpent Sea made it into the semi-finals of the Ranting Dragon cover battle!
December 21, 2012
Halfway Out of The Dark
Happy Winter Solstice, everyone
Also, happy Successful Story Upload to everyone doing the Yuletide Fanfiction Challenge!
Today I need to catch up on the writing I didn't get done yesterday while I was cleaning the house. Our first friend who's staying for Christmas is coming in tomorrow.
I want Rice Krispie treats. The good kind that they have at Disney, that are bigger than your head.
* Writer Teresa Frohock is doing a Gender Bending Challenge
Last week, a group of us were talking about whether readers make automatic assumptions about the contents of a novel when they see a woman's name on the cover. Part of this has to do with the Guardian article that talked about women taking male pseudonyms in order to trick male readers into reading their novels. The other part has to do with my own experience using my real (read: female) name when publishing Miserere and some of the assumptions that were made about Miserere's themes.
I question whether readers can really tell if a book is written by a man or a woman based on the prose alone.
* I love everything Richard Curtis does, so here are some vids for musical interludes this Friday: From Love Actually Hugh Grant Dancing in Downing Street and The Wedding Scene
and a deleted scene from Pirate Radio: Push Three Buttons for the Meaning of Life
Also, happy Successful Story Upload to everyone doing the Yuletide Fanfiction Challenge!
Today I need to catch up on the writing I didn't get done yesterday while I was cleaning the house. Our first friend who's staying for Christmas is coming in tomorrow.
I want Rice Krispie treats. The good kind that they have at Disney, that are bigger than your head.
* Writer Teresa Frohock is doing a Gender Bending Challenge
Last week, a group of us were talking about whether readers make automatic assumptions about the contents of a novel when they see a woman's name on the cover. Part of this has to do with the Guardian article that talked about women taking male pseudonyms in order to trick male readers into reading their novels. The other part has to do with my own experience using my real (read: female) name when publishing Miserere and some of the assumptions that were made about Miserere's themes.
I question whether readers can really tell if a book is written by a man or a woman based on the prose alone.
* I love everything Richard Curtis does, so here are some vids for musical interludes this Friday: From Love Actually Hugh Grant Dancing in Downing Street and The Wedding Scene
and a deleted scene from Pirate Radio: Push Three Buttons for the Meaning of Life
December 20, 2012
Okay, house is mostly clean. I have to use the carpet sh...
Okay, house is mostly clean. I have to use the carpet shampooer on our horrible living room carpet, and do a few other things, but that's it. I need to do a bit more wrapping, then that's it. I need to go to the grocery store and buy all the things. We're having five people for dinner, and I'm making ham, ham gravy, garlic-braised green beans, sweet baked beans, stuffing, and buttermilk cornbread. Yes, it is a carb- and bacon-heavy menu.
Jack has started to do a thing where he jumps from the kitchen counter onto my shoulders. Occasionally he bites me in the ear at this point. I'm starting to get used to it.
The Serpent Sea is in a cover battle quarter final with King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence, but I think I'm losing.
Oh, and there is still Raksura discussion going on in this post here.
Jack has started to do a thing where he jumps from the kitchen counter onto my shoulders. Occasionally he bites me in the ear at this point. I'm starting to get used to it.
The Serpent Sea is in a cover battle quarter final with King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence, but I think I'm losing.
Oh, and there is still Raksura discussion going on in this post here.
December 19, 2012
I saw a photo on the French word a day journal of a Chris...
I saw a photo on the French word a day journal of a Christmas decoration that makes it look like Santa is clinging to a balcony railing. It reminded me of a few years ago when I was driving in Houston, and waiting at a light beside a set of two story apartments with little gardens in front and elaborate wrought iron balconies and railings. For some reason, someone had made a dummy of a person, in pants, flannel shirt, a cap on the head, and it was fixed so it looked like it was hanging off the balcony by its hands. (No, I have no idea why.) It was startling at first, but sitting at the light, I was pretty close and could see it was fake. But while I was sitting there, a police car pulled up, both the cops got out and started toward it, got about halfway to it, then sort of both at once threw their hands in the air and started laughing, and went back to the car.
I got bitten by fire ants the other day while I was raking leaves out of the front flower bed, and they keep waking me up in the middle of the night. Hopefully that won't last much longer. It's the first time I've been bitten in a while, because they were almost wiped out here for a while, (they were using a fungus to kill the colonies) but they've come back after the drought.
Today will be cleaning house and writing, pretty much.
***
* There's a bunch of questions and question answers here about the Raksura books and more when I get a chance to answer the latest ones.
* The Doctor Who Christmas Special Prequel with Madame Vastra and Jenny investigating strange cases in Victorian London.
* I'm trying to get my tumblr restarted here. I did have it just posting the RSS feed from my Live Journal, but tumblr deleted that feature, so it’s way behind.
I got bitten by fire ants the other day while I was raking leaves out of the front flower bed, and they keep waking me up in the middle of the night. Hopefully that won't last much longer. It's the first time I've been bitten in a while, because they were almost wiped out here for a while, (they were using a fungus to kill the colonies) but they've come back after the drought.
Today will be cleaning house and writing, pretty much.
***
* There's a bunch of questions and question answers here about the Raksura books and more when I get a chance to answer the latest ones.
* The Doctor Who Christmas Special Prequel with Madame Vastra and Jenny investigating strange cases in Victorian London.
* I'm trying to get my tumblr restarted here. I did have it just posting the RSS feed from my Live Journal, but tumblr deleted that feature, so it’s way behind.
December 16, 2012
Consent Meme, and Links
beth_bernobich
has a post here: Consent is Sexy More than once, I've come across the complaint that the need to ask for consent isn't sexy. I disagree, and in my current story-in-progress, I wrote a scene that is all about consent:I loved her scene, and thought I'd post one too. This is from The Cloud Roads:
Jade has wanted Moon for a long time by this point in the book, and they've just fought a Fell ruler, and Moon has confessed about his past to her, and he's in a very vulnerable state. Even though the Raksura aren't human, and their reactions and behavior aren't the same as ours, I still felt she would take a moment to make sure Moon knew what he was doing:
He looked up to see Jade watching him with a frown. She said, "You're still shaking."
"I can't get warm." The ice was inside his skin, in his thoughts. He supposed if Jade was going to kill him, she would have done it by now. If he was going to be alive in the morning, he needed to be able to fly. "I'll go downstairs." He started to push to his feet.
Jade caught his arm and pulled him back down beside her. He twitched in a half-hearted attempt to escape, but she wrapped a strong arm around his waist, pulling him back against her chest.
"No, just stay," she said, but her voice was gentle. He was so cold and tense that his body felt brittle, and her hands, even through his damp clothes, were pure heat. Then he realized the cloud of warmth enfolding him was from her half-furled wings, that she had just shifted out of her Arbora form. "No, if anybody sees -- "
"Everyone's asleep," she said into his ear. She waited patiently until he subsided, then gave him a reassuring squeeze. Moon gave in, sinking back against her.
She held him close, and ran her palm over his arms, his chest, soothing his shivers away. Her scales caught against his groundling skin, and the effect was hypnotic. Then she nuzzled his ear, soft and warm, and her teeth grazed the back of his neck. The gentle bite sent a shock right down his spine. Moon made a noise embarrassingly close to a squeak.
Jade pulled back, startled. "Sorry."
After everything that had happened tonight, he hadn't thought he could feel anything. Suddenly he could feel everything, everywhere. Something had broken free inside him. He said, "No, don't...don't stop."
She gripped his shoulders and turned him around to face her, moving him as if he didn't weigh anything. He had never been more vulnerable. He was in groundling form, and she could keep him from shifting. It should have been frightening, but it just made him want to wrap himself around her and bite her neck. "Moon, do you know what you're saying?"
"Yes. What?" His senses had been stifled by the cold but her scent was suddenly overwhelming. He tried to lean in toward her.
Jade held him back, her frills twitching in frustration. She tried again, "Why now?"
It took an effort, but he made himself articulate his racing thoughts. "Because you know everything, and you still want me."
Jade growled, in a deep tone he hadn't heard before. She pushed him down, flattening him to the pallet.
Before this, Moon had always had to hold back, to be careful. It wasn't just that most groundlings were weaker and more fragile than he was. He had always been afraid that something would happen at a vulnerable moment, that if he let himself relax completely, he might just shift. This time he didn't hold back at all, and it felt so right it left him dazed.
ETA: And N.K. Jemisin continues the meme on her blog here and J. Kathleen Cheney here and Lane Robins here.
***
Links:
* Publication Process: Edit Letters and Stuff J. Kathleen Cheney talks about the editorial process that her book went through on the way to publication.
* Another post from Beth Bernobich on suppressing women's writing: My answer was that our biggest obstacles are silence and obscurity. Women's works get ignored all the time. Our work is seen as less valuable. Less important. Invisible. It might not be conscious, but it happens. A lot.
***
The Siren Depths is finally available at Kobo. It's available at a bunch of other places, too, and the list of links is here on the book page on my web site. (The ebook is cheapest and DRM-free at Baen.)
December 14, 2012
Friday
Yay, Friday. I'm behind on everything, especially getting ready for the holidays. Partly it's because I've been doing some necessary house stuff when I'm not writing, like painting bathroom trim and a couple of doors, caulking the outside downstairs windows (the house was built in the late 60s and has been showing its age probably since the early 70s), and stuff like that. We had a minor issue with the garbage disposal clogging up but finding the directions to reset it plus using the plunger got it working again.
So I'm behind on answering comments and sending cards and presents, and right now we have an unornamented Christmas tree and one string of white lights in the living room. But the lights do look really good, they're actually my favorite part of this season.
I've got some books in the pool of prizes for the Worldbuilders Heifer International Fundraiser. They're pictured on that link and are 1) one of the hardcovers of Wheel of the Infinite with the beautiful Donato Giancola cover (shown above), a set of the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy (The Wizard Hunters, The Ships of Air, and The Gate of Gods), and a set of The Cloud Roads and The Serpent Sea. They're all autographed.
Worldbuilders raises tons of money in the SF/F community for Heifer International each year. You donate to be entered into the contest for hundreds of randomly drawn prizes of signed books and other cool stuff, or you can bid on individual cool items or things like manuscript or query package critiques. The main post telling how to donate is here, and the goal for this year is $500,000.
So I'm behind on answering comments and sending cards and presents, and right now we have an unornamented Christmas tree and one string of white lights in the living room. But the lights do look really good, they're actually my favorite part of this season.
I've got some books in the pool of prizes for the Worldbuilders Heifer International Fundraiser. They're pictured on that link and are 1) one of the hardcovers of Wheel of the Infinite with the beautiful Donato Giancola cover (shown above), a set of the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy (The Wizard Hunters, The Ships of Air, and The Gate of Gods), and a set of The Cloud Roads and The Serpent Sea. They're all autographed.
Worldbuilders raises tons of money in the SF/F community for Heifer International each year. You donate to be entered into the contest for hundreds of randomly drawn prizes of signed books and other cool stuff, or you can bid on individual cool items or things like manuscript or query package critiques. The main post telling how to donate is here, and the goal for this year is $500,000.
December 12, 2012
New City of Bones Cover
First off, I have a new cover for the ebook edition of City of Bones by Jenn of Tiger Bright Studios:
I love it! City of Bones was my second novel (from Tor Books, in 1995) and the first one where it actually had a good cover, a neat desert city landscape by artist Richard Bober. (The original is here) For the reprint ebook cover, we basically decided to do something different, and I really love how it turned out.
I've uploaded it to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo, but who knows how long it will take for them to update. It's available at all those sites and the outside-the-US Amazons for $2.99, and it's supposed to be DRM-free, but that's also dependent on those sites actually acknowledging me telling them the book is supposed to be DRM-free. First chapter sample, links, etc are at my web site.
links:
* I also did a mind meld on SF Signal, on suggestions for holiday wish lists
* Last night an LJ friend linked to Kittens in Christmas Trees. I hope I don't end up having a picture to submit.
I love it! City of Bones was my second novel (from Tor Books, in 1995) and the first one where it actually had a good cover, a neat desert city landscape by artist Richard Bober. (The original is here) For the reprint ebook cover, we basically decided to do something different, and I really love how it turned out.
I've uploaded it to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo, but who knows how long it will take for them to update. It's available at all those sites and the outside-the-US Amazons for $2.99, and it's supposed to be DRM-free, but that's also dependent on those sites actually acknowledging me telling them the book is supposed to be DRM-free. First chapter sample, links, etc are at my web site.
links:
* I also did a mind meld on SF Signal, on suggestions for holiday wish lists
* Last night an LJ friend linked to Kittens in Christmas Trees. I hope I don't end up having a picture to submit.
December 11, 2012
Links, Links, Links
It got down to 26 last night, reminding me how I hate cold weather. Also, we put up a Christmas tree (just the tree, nothing on it yet) and Jack has not destroyed it yet.
* I'm answering general Raksura questions in this post here and have had some good ones.
* I did a Smugglivus guest post at the Book Smugglers here, where I talked about books and other things I liked this past year, and what I'm looking forward to next year.
* There's a great long review of The Siren Depths here on Rising Shadow.net
* The Serpent Sea made it to the next round of The Ranting Dragon's cover battle.
* One of the books I'm looking forward to reading just came out today: Howard Andrew Jones' Bones of the Old Ones. This is the second book in the Dabir and Asim series, fantasy adventure/mysteries set in 8th century Arabia.
* The TCM Remembers short for 2012, if you want a little cry this morning.
* I'm answering general Raksura questions in this post here and have had some good ones.
* I did a Smugglivus guest post at the Book Smugglers here, where I talked about books and other things I liked this past year, and what I'm looking forward to next year.
* There's a great long review of The Siren Depths here on Rising Shadow.net
* The Serpent Sea made it to the next round of The Ranting Dragon's cover battle.
* One of the books I'm looking forward to reading just came out today: Howard Andrew Jones' Bones of the Old Ones. This is the second book in the Dabir and Asim series, fantasy adventure/mysteries set in 8th century Arabia.
* The TCM Remembers short for 2012, if you want a little cry this morning.
December 10, 2012
Questions
Hey, does anybody have any questions about The Siren Depths or the Books of the Raksura in general? You can comment with them on this post.
I'm a bit behind on comments but hoping to make it up later today. Between trying to keep to my writing schedule, plus getting ready for the holidays stuff, I'm a little behind on everything. (I think everybody this time of year is a little behind on everything. If you aren't, we all hate and envy you.)
And I wanted to mention again, my art sites for holiday gifts post, where you can look for gifts from small/tiny businesses run by artists and craftspeople.
I'm a bit behind on comments but hoping to make it up later today. Between trying to keep to my writing schedule, plus getting ready for the holidays stuff, I'm a little behind on everything. (I think everybody this time of year is a little behind on everything. If you aren't, we all hate and envy you.)
And I wanted to mention again, my art sites for holiday gifts post, where you can look for gifts from small/tiny businesses run by artists and craftspeople.
December 8, 2012
Book Signing Day
Went out last night to local Mexican restaurant and had one small on-the-rocks margarita, was immediately tipsy and then fell asleep. The excitement!
eBooks: Finally, Barnes and Noble has the Nookbook of The Siren Depths available.
Book Signing Day: I'm doing a signing at Murder by the Book in Houston today from 3:00 - 4:00 pm for their local authors day. A lot of authors will be signing throughout the day, and if you're out of town, you can use that link to order books and get them personally signed, and the store will ship them to you.
Womanly Pursuits: Someone on Twitter pointed out this comment to me, on a Jezebel article about women authors using male pseudonyms:
One of my favourite fantasy writers is Martha Wells. She just puts so many incredibly clever spins on familiar tropes, and really has a knack for snappy dialogue and animated characters. I was chatting with one of my husband's new employees a while back who is also a big reader, and when I recommended Death of a Necromancer, he was like, "Oh, I heard of it, but it's a woman's book, right?" After some pressing and some backpedaling on his part, he said he tended to assume books written BY women were always FOR women and thus about things women were interested, though he couldn't really clarify as to what "things" we were supposed to be interested in. He also didn't really have an answer when I asked him if books written by men were then always FOR men.
One of many things women are interested in = serial murder for necromantic purposes.
Review: There was a nice review of The Other Half of the Sky, the anthology I have a story in, which is coming out in a few months. Mimesis is an adventure story about Jade from the Books of the Raksura.
eBooks: Finally, Barnes and Noble has the Nookbook of The Siren Depths available.
Book Signing Day: I'm doing a signing at Murder by the Book in Houston today from 3:00 - 4:00 pm for their local authors day. A lot of authors will be signing throughout the day, and if you're out of town, you can use that link to order books and get them personally signed, and the store will ship them to you.
Womanly Pursuits: Someone on Twitter pointed out this comment to me, on a Jezebel article about women authors using male pseudonyms:
One of my favourite fantasy writers is Martha Wells. She just puts so many incredibly clever spins on familiar tropes, and really has a knack for snappy dialogue and animated characters. I was chatting with one of my husband's new employees a while back who is also a big reader, and when I recommended Death of a Necromancer, he was like, "Oh, I heard of it, but it's a woman's book, right?" After some pressing and some backpedaling on his part, he said he tended to assume books written BY women were always FOR women and thus about things women were interested, though he couldn't really clarify as to what "things" we were supposed to be interested in. He also didn't really have an answer when I asked him if books written by men were then always FOR men.
One of many things women are interested in = serial murder for necromantic purposes.
Review: There was a nice review of The Other Half of the Sky, the anthology I have a story in, which is coming out in a few months. Mimesis is an adventure story about Jade from the Books of the Raksura.
