Martha Wells's Blog, page 146

Sample Chapter of Emilie and the Hollow World

This post has a bunch of links to free reading, plus a playlist.

From me:

I've posted the first chapter of Emilie and the Hollow World at my web site as a teaser. It'll be out in April 2013, and is up for preorder for the trade paperback and the ebook. (The ebook will be available DRM-free at the publisher's ebook site, The Robot Trading Company, but it's not up for preorder there yet.)

From other people:

* Killing Time by Dave Gross. This is the first chapter of a free story that precedes Queen of Thorns, his new Pathfinder book. Another will go up each Wednesday for the next three weeks.

* Jane Rocks! Nathan Long has posted a playlist about Jane Carver, from his book Swords of Waar. Jane is a hell-raising, redheaded biker chick from Coral Gables, Florida, had found a new life and love on Waar, a savage planet of fearsome creatures and swashbuckling warriors. Until the planet’s high priests sent her back to Earth against her will.

* Alex Bledsoe has a free fantasy short story up at Apex Magazine Sprig.

And you should also check out the other great stories on Apex.

Book Giveaway Winners!

Sorry it took me so long to draw the winners -- I ended up having a busy morning that shaded into a busy day, plus relief over the election made for a slow start.

Thanks to everyone who donated!

The winners are:

ducened from Dreamwidth, Becky Regan (email entry), and ileliberte , Jena Klees, otterb

You need to send your mailing address and if you want the signature on the book personalized to you or someone else to msw at charisat dot com

And congrats!

Cat entertainment: for some reason within the past week the house has had a wasp problem, (I suspect there's a nest inside the chimney.) so we and the cats have been killing wasps. All our other animals have always been afraid of the flyswatter. (Even though we don't beat them with it, from the way they act, you'd think we did.) I think it's the loud noise it makes when you hit a fly or whatever with it. Jack is the only one who isn't afraid of it. When I'm using it, he tries to get as close as possible like he really enjoys watching me kill wasps with it.

Voting and Things

I early-voted two weeks ago, so now I can just sit here and try to work.

You can check and confirm your polling place here, with just your street address and zip code.

Things:

* You can Donate any amount to a hurricane Sandy relief organization for a chance to win a signed early copy of The Siren Depths. Not many people have entered, so your chances are great!

* The cover for my next book, Emilie and the Hollow World has been posted!

* Night Shade Books has put the Kindle US version of The Cloud Roads on sale for $1.99. (Down from normal price of $7.99)

Other Things:

* Carole Nelson Douglas' Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler novel Irene at Large is now on Kindle under the title "A Soul of Steel" and has an extra story and a reader's guide included. Her Irene Adler books came out several years ago and I loved every single one. Very glad to see them being re-released on Kindle.

* Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks was featured on IO9!

Emilie and the Hollow World Cover Reveal

The publisher Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry has posted the cover for Emilie and the Hollow World

and here it is!



It will be out in April 2013. The description and preorder links are on my web site here. I'm waiting for the publisher to okay it before I put up the first chapter as a teaser.

Other things:

* If you missed this on Sunday donate to the Sandy relief organization of your choice for a chance to win an autographed early copy of The Siren Depths.

* Night Shade Books has put the Kindle US version of The Cloud Roads on sale for $1.99. (Down from normal price of $7.99)

Donation for a Chance to Win Early Copy of The Siren Depths

When I get my author's copies of a new book, I try to do cute photos of the book with my cats. Cats were not cooperative this morning:





I also usually do a drawing for signed copies, but in light of hurricane Sandy, I wanted to do something a little different.

To enter the drawing for an autographed trade paperback copy of The Siren Depths, the third Books of the Raksura novel:

1) Make a donation to an organization for hurricane Sandy relief, such as the Red Cross, or any of the organizations listed at the bottom of this post by TimeOut New York, or here on this post by Forgotten New York, or one of the organizations doing relief for Sandy's damage in the Caribbean, like Global Giving. The Huffington Post also lists a bunch of organizations you can donate to, including some international ones.

2) The donation can be any amount, though a minimum of $5.00 would be nice. (This is on the honor system, but I will ask the winners to send me the e-receipt for their donation, with the address you want the book sent to, how you want it personalized, etc.)

3) To enter, make a comment on this post with the name of the organization you donated to. It would be good if you listed the amount, but if you really don't want to you don't have to.

4) On Wednesday morning I'll draw a minimum of five winners (more if we have a lot of entries) randomly and announce them.

5) Please spread the word!

ETA 6) If LJ or Dreamwidth won't let you post here, email me through my web site and I'll put your entry in the drawing.


The things you must remember:

* these are my author's copies so they arrived early. I don't know when the book will start showing up in stores, but I bet it will probably be around mid to late November.

* the original release date for the book was December 4, so the ebooks will not be available until that date. This is something that is decided by the publisher, just like the price of the book, the availability, the cover, etc.

***

If you can't donate, you can enter the GoodReads giveaway, or you can enter both this giveaway and the GoodReads giveaway.

Night Shade Books has put the Kindle US version of The Cloud Roads on sale for $1.99. (Down from normal price of $7.99)

Several Things

We have a heavy mist this morning, like a gothic novel is happening in the neighborhood. I hope it comes back tomorrow, when we're going to the Renfair with friends. Also finally got a good night's sleep last night. The bottle of hard cider probably helped.

Cheap Book thing:

Night Shade Books has put the Kindle US version of The Cloud Roads on sale for $1.99. (Down from normal price of $7.99) Probably a promo for The Siren Depths, which will be out next month. (You can read the first two chapters on my web site here.)

Hurricane links:

* How to help in New York City after Hurricane Sandy A list of organizations to donate to is at the bottom of the post.

* The donation page for the Red Cross.

* My agent, Jennifer Jackson, is doing a charity auction for hurricane Sandy relief: You can bid on a critique of a partial manuscript.

* Solar Water Disinfection I keep a collection of empty plastic soda bottles as part of our hurricane kit.

* Writer Marie Brennan has an autographed book sale to benefit disaster relief.


Fun things:

* Kickstarter for The 2013 John Picacio Calendar This would make a great Christmas gift.

Whoa, just noticed the Kindle US version of The Cloud Roa...

Whoa, just noticed the Kindle US version of The Cloud Roads is on sale for $1.99. (Down from normal price of $7.99) Probably a promo for The Siren Depths, which will be out next month.

A few things: * The GoodReads giveaway for The Siren Dep...

A few things:

* The GoodReads giveaway for The Siren Depths, the third Books of the Raksura novel, is now open. (You can also read the first two chapters and see the preorder links on my web site here.)

* Dave Gross has posted the first four chapters of the new Pathfinder novel, Hail to the Queen.

* My agent, Jennifer Jackson, is doing a charity auction for hurricane Sandy relief: You can bid on a critique of a partial manuscript.
There is much to be thankful for. My power’s been restored. The enormous old pine that fell in my yard didn’t hit my house. My family came through the storm safely. I’ve now heard from all my co-workers at DMLA and they are all safe as well. I also want to take a moment to thank and appreciate all those who are out there getting more power, supplies, and help to those in need. There were certainly people who extended a helping hand to me, and they were a treat.

In support of those people, I’m going to auction a critique of a partial manuscript of a novel. A partial manuscript will consist of up to 50 pages in standard manuscript format (approximately 12,500 words). In order to maximize benefit for the bidder, I’m going to limit this to the kinds of projects I represent, which includes both adult and YA fiction (not MG). (See my guidelines for more information.)

Happy Halloween!

When we were in Galveston one year during October, we took a special tour of the Ashton Villa. After the 1900 hurricane (which killed probably around 8000 people) they raised the grade of the island and built the seawall. The story always was that the short wrought iron fence in front of the Ashton was actually eight feet tall, with most of it being buried when they raised the street level, and that there was a basement to the house that had been completely filled in. (This made sense at the time, because the Moody Mansion and the Bishop's Palace on that street both have large stone basement areas. The Bishop's Palace's basement (which is built like a bomb shelter) was restored after hurricane Ike, but the Moody Mansion's basement was damaged and still weeping water a year later.) No one was sure what was in the Ashton's basement, but everyone assumed it was a kitchen.

Most of the stories surrounding the Ashton Villa were about Miss Bettie, who lived there with her sisters and nieces and nephews, was very rich, and did whatever the hell she wanted. There's also a story that during the 1900 storm, she stood out on the balcony with a pole and a rope and tried to rescue people who were floating by in the storm surge. (I don't know if it's true, but there are a lot of stories about people being rescued this way. There's one about the convent near the house during the hurricane, where the nuns took the nun who was the best swimmer, tied a rope around her and when they saw a body in the water, threw her out toward it. She would swim to it, grab on, and they would pull her back in.)

Then hurricane Ike happened in 2008 and the Ashton Villa was flooded. While restoring the first floor, they found a rock tomb under the house. We saw the opening in the floor while we were there, but never did hear anything else about it. The historical society doesn't have much money after Ike and they don't do tours of the house anymore. But it sure did put a different light on why the family might have let them fill in the basement after 1900.

They told us some ghost stories about the Ashton, but I had never heard any stories about it before that Halloween, and the house never did feel spooky or haunted to me. It felt like an old, well-cared-for house, even with the dark gaping hole down to the basement tomb in the dining room. This was while being there in the dark, with only a few people, with the lights mostly turned off and a security system's motion detector that kept going off for no apparent reason.

But the tour guide we had that time had actually been in Galveston during Ike. He told us that right after it, after a day of trying to triage the damage on the historic houses, he found his apartment was full of mud, so he and another guide stayed the night in the Menard House, the oldest existing house on the island, which had come through the hurricane in good shape and really is supposed to be haunted. The guide said he laid there trying to sleep, watching the pendant lights sway to the left, pause, sway to the right, pause, then stop in the middle, then start again. He said that after a while he just didn't want to see what else was going to happen, and he was so exhausted, he told the house to please leave him alone and got up and took a valium.

***

links:

Bounty Sinks Off NC Coast This is why they didn't try to move the Elissa out of Galveston before hurricane Ike. They're still dealing with the repercussions of it (the sails were rolled up and secured to the spars, but the wind still shredded them, and the hull was damaged and now has to be repaired) but it's still intact and nobody died.

Geek Tyrant: Creepy Halloween Photos from 100 Years Ago

Book rec:

Mirage by Jenn Reese. This is the sequel to her MG SF novel Above World.

On Kirkus: The Book Smugglers 10 Recommended Halloween Reads

Halloween Decorations 2012

We had a Halloween party last night and as usual went pretty big on the decorations. We had the fog machine set up outside but didn't go as big on the lighting and sound effects as we usually do, since the trick-or-treaters won't be here till Wednesday.

The food was a beef and leek pie, King Ranch Chicken, a corn-bean-avocado salad, deviled eggs, a chicken casserole, a root vegetable casserole, chips, hummus, homemade bread, plus beer, and a homemade apple-pomegranate soda.












This was a "red room" with red bulbs in the light fixture.