Martha Wells's Blog, page 160
April 8, 2012
First off, congrats to all the Hugo nominees! There's a ...
First off, congrats to all the Hugo nominees! There's a full list here.
We went to the Antique Rose Emporium yesterday, and it was beautiful, and of course I forgot to bring my camera.
Here's a few pictures from past years:
We went to the Antique Rose Emporium yesterday, and it was beautiful, and of course I forgot to bring my camera.
Here's a few pictures from past years:
April 5, 2012
I had a lousy day yesterday, which resulted in ulcer-like...
I had a lousy day yesterday, which resulted in ulcer-like feelings in the stomach. I hope they are psychosomatic ulcer-like feelings. I had an ulcer once before and it wasn't fun. But at least nobody I know was hurt by the tornadoes in the DFW area earlier this week, so that's a big plus in the good column.
links:
Fantasy Cafe has posts from Women in SF/F all this month.
The first episode of Felicia Day's new web series, The Flog. Felicia tries blacksmithing, like her character in Skyrim. This was really funny, and I'm looking forward to the other episodes.
This is an older article that I think N.K. Jemisin linked to this on Twitter: (I bookmark a lot of stuff confident that I'll remember where I found it. Not so much.) Step into my film school! The importance of casting in breaking open movie stereotypes
Diana Pharaoh Francis How I Got My Agent and she has a couple of follow-up posts after this, on questions to ask prospective agents.
Aliette de Bodard linked to this on Twitter: The Mail simply threw Samantha Brick to the wolves: Clearly Brick's piece was absurd – but what's disgusting is the Mail's history of using and abusing female writers in this way
In 2009, Laura Scott was interviewed by the paper about her decision to not have children which, she wrote, stemmed from a lack of desire for biological children. The article was changed into a ghostwritten first person piece intimating childless adults hate parents and was full of factual inaccuracies. In the piece, Scott's friend Marie calls her "selfish" for not having children. "I do not have a friend called Marie," Scott wrote on her blog.
links:
Fantasy Cafe has posts from Women in SF/F all this month.
The first episode of Felicia Day's new web series, The Flog. Felicia tries blacksmithing, like her character in Skyrim. This was really funny, and I'm looking forward to the other episodes.
This is an older article that I think N.K. Jemisin linked to this on Twitter: (I bookmark a lot of stuff confident that I'll remember where I found it. Not so much.) Step into my film school! The importance of casting in breaking open movie stereotypes
Diana Pharaoh Francis How I Got My Agent and she has a couple of follow-up posts after this, on questions to ask prospective agents.
Aliette de Bodard linked to this on Twitter: The Mail simply threw Samantha Brick to the wolves: Clearly Brick's piece was absurd – but what's disgusting is the Mail's history of using and abusing female writers in this way
In 2009, Laura Scott was interviewed by the paper about her decision to not have children which, she wrote, stemmed from a lack of desire for biological children. The article was changed into a ghostwritten first person piece intimating childless adults hate parents and was full of factual inaccuracies. In the piece, Scott's friend Marie calls her "selfish" for not having children. "I do not have a friend called Marie," Scott wrote on her blog.
April 3, 2012
Book Recs
For locals, there was a car accident downtown, and a car crashed into the front wall of Casa Rodriguez. No one was hurt, but the impact was right on a table where three cops and two fire marshals were sitting.
At ArmadilloCon a couple of years ago, I was eating breakfast with a group of people at La Madeleine and a car jumped the curb and hit the side wall of the restaurant. It was very loud.
If you missed it yesterday, there's a new music video from The Guild: Now I'm the One That's Cool. This was awesome.
Some books coming out/recently out: (all these links have the first chapters to read as a sample)
Kat Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis. The first book and the sequel have just come out in the US. These are Regencies with magic, about a young girl who has to save her family from Ruin. I've got the first one and can't wait to read them.
Book I already enjoyed: Above World by Jenn Reese. This is a MG book, and SF adventure with a great heroine.
Lynn Flewelling has a new book out in May: Casket of Souls in the Nightrunner series.
At ArmadilloCon a couple of years ago, I was eating breakfast with a group of people at La Madeleine and a car jumped the curb and hit the side wall of the restaurant. It was very loud.
If you missed it yesterday, there's a new music video from The Guild: Now I'm the One That's Cool. This was awesome.
Some books coming out/recently out: (all these links have the first chapters to read as a sample)
Kat Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis. The first book and the sequel have just come out in the US. These are Regencies with magic, about a young girl who has to save her family from Ruin. I've got the first one and can't wait to read them.
Book I already enjoyed: Above World by Jenn Reese. This is a MG book, and SF adventure with a great heroine.
Lynn Flewelling has a new book out in May: Casket of Souls in the Nightrunner series.
April 2, 2012
Just a couple of links:There's a new music video from The...
Just a couple of links:
There's a new music video from The Guild: Now I'm the One That's Cool you're the asshat jock that beat me up in school, now I'm the one that's cool
Fantasy Cafe is doing a month of posts from Women in SF/F.
There's a new music video from The Guild: Now I'm the One That's Cool you're the asshat jock that beat me up in school, now I'm the one that's cool
Fantasy Cafe is doing a month of posts from Women in SF/F.
April 1, 2012
Sherwood Forest Faire, the Last Weekend
Spent all day yesterday at Sherwood Forest Faire with friends, and we had a fabulous time. We listened to Circa Paleo (they played Irish, Middle Eastern, and Led Zeppelin songs) and David Arkenstone, I ate pasties and hummus and drank a lot of ginger chai.
Here's some photos:
[image error]
This was an awesome blue fairy with fangs. This picture doesn't really get across how beautiful she was in person.
The very decadent Circa Paleo hookah and coffee and tea bar. There's another part with rugs and couches to sit on.
This was like a giant mobile. The wind caught the sails of the model ships and turned the whole thing.
Here's some photos:
[image error]
This was an awesome blue fairy with fangs. This picture doesn't really get across how beautiful she was in person.
The very decadent Circa Paleo hookah and coffee and tea bar. There's another part with rugs and couches to sit on.
This was like a giant mobile. The wind caught the sails of the model ships and turned the whole thing.
March 30, 2012
Games and Art
John O'Neill at the Black Gate Blog has an article on M.A.R (Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman) Barker, a writer and game designer who created Empire of the Petal Throne:
Wholly unique, Tékumel was a science fantasy setting inspired by Indian, Middle Eastern, Egyptian and Meso-American mythology, a world colonized by humans and alien species some 60,000 years in the future. Perhaps most intriguing, Tékumel was largely free of Tolkien's influence as it was well established long before the publication of The Lords of the Rings — the only major RPG setting of the 20th Century that could make that claim.
I still have vivid memories of drooling over the copies of Empire of the Petal Throne at the tiny little bookstore we went to when I was a kid, even when I first saw it and had no idea what an RPG was. I didn't have anyone to play it with, so there was no point in trying to buy it. (My experiments in trying to turn the Clue boardgame into a form of Solitaire notwithstanding, there is nothing more depressing than being a kid with a great game and no one to play it with.)
***
The list of artists for Spectrum 19 is online, and it includes the cover artist for The Cloud Roads, Matt Stewart, the cover artist for The Serpent Sea, Steve Argyle, and Todd Lockwood from Tales of the Emerald Serpent.
Wholly unique, Tékumel was a science fantasy setting inspired by Indian, Middle Eastern, Egyptian and Meso-American mythology, a world colonized by humans and alien species some 60,000 years in the future. Perhaps most intriguing, Tékumel was largely free of Tolkien's influence as it was well established long before the publication of The Lords of the Rings — the only major RPG setting of the 20th Century that could make that claim.
I still have vivid memories of drooling over the copies of Empire of the Petal Throne at the tiny little bookstore we went to when I was a kid, even when I first saw it and had no idea what an RPG was. I didn't have anyone to play it with, so there was no point in trying to buy it. (My experiments in trying to turn the Clue boardgame into a form of Solitaire notwithstanding, there is nothing more depressing than being a kid with a great game and no one to play it with.)
***
The list of artists for Spectrum 19 is online, and it includes the cover artist for The Cloud Roads, Matt Stewart, the cover artist for The Serpent Sea, Steve Argyle, and Todd Lockwood from Tales of the Emerald Serpent.
March 29, 2012
Story Snippet
We had some great rain yesterday afternoon and last night, and looks like more today. It's such a relief. I made it to the grocery store this morning, since we were pretty much out of food. I also got vinegar since I need to do a vinegar and baking soda drain volcano on the kitchen sink.
I have new people on my friends' lists in various places, so thought I'd mention again the Three Worlds Compendium on my web site. It's got the short stories set in the same world as The Cloud Roads and The Serpent Sea, information about the world for fun and as a resource for fanfic writers, and a link to some great fan art, which I'm hoping to have more of.
***
The kickstarter for the Tales of the Emerald Serpent Shared World Anthology is really starting to take off. You can buy in at $5.00 for an ebook copy of the anthology, but some of the more expensive buy-ins have cool rewards. Like for $140.00 you get all the previous rewards listed, plus Juliet McKenna will make you a cross-stitch smart phone cover with an image from the anthology's art.
Also, the big reward at $350.00 is all the previous awards listed, plus you receive a physical copy of one of the book's nine short stories, personally signed to you by the author AND the original artwork for that short story. This is a first come, first serve basis, so please check updates to see what authors have already been pledged.
My story is still up for grabs. It's about two characters, Jelith and Kryranen, who are archeologists/pot hunters in the lower levels of the city. Here's a short bit from the beginning of the story:
Snippet of Revenants by Martha Wells
They made an odd pair for a number of reasons, but one was that she was tall for a Jai-ruk and he was short for a Kin. They were dissimilar on all counts, except for their interest in the past, and in strange myths, and mysteries, and how the world had looked before they set foot on it. They talked of things no one else cared about. Rather than an odd pair, everyone thought they were just odd.
"This is a job that will pay us well," Kryranen said. "Up in the Golden Jaguar District." She added unnecessarily, "Where people like the Vash live."
"You're supposed to be keeping the notes," Jelith pointed out. Most inhabitants of Taux assumed Jai-ruk were too brutish for scholarly pursuits, but Kryranen's handwriting was better than his. Her hands were large but her fingers were slender and dexterous; his notes looked like the scratchings of a child next to her elegant script.
She leaned forward to look at the book and her grimace suggested she agreed. "I'll recopy it later." Exasperated, she said, "You just don't like working for money. It's too bad we can't eat history."
"You would eat history if you could," Jelith felt he had to say. It was true.
She folded her arms and gave him the long-suffering look.
He sighed. "What is this job?"
"They want us to lay a ghost."
Jelith stared. "Are you out of your mind?"
I have new people on my friends' lists in various places, so thought I'd mention again the Three Worlds Compendium on my web site. It's got the short stories set in the same world as The Cloud Roads and The Serpent Sea, information about the world for fun and as a resource for fanfic writers, and a link to some great fan art, which I'm hoping to have more of.
***
The kickstarter for the Tales of the Emerald Serpent Shared World Anthology is really starting to take off. You can buy in at $5.00 for an ebook copy of the anthology, but some of the more expensive buy-ins have cool rewards. Like for $140.00 you get all the previous rewards listed, plus Juliet McKenna will make you a cross-stitch smart phone cover with an image from the anthology's art.
Also, the big reward at $350.00 is all the previous awards listed, plus you receive a physical copy of one of the book's nine short stories, personally signed to you by the author AND the original artwork for that short story. This is a first come, first serve basis, so please check updates to see what authors have already been pledged.
My story is still up for grabs. It's about two characters, Jelith and Kryranen, who are archeologists/pot hunters in the lower levels of the city. Here's a short bit from the beginning of the story:
Snippet of Revenants by Martha Wells
They made an odd pair for a number of reasons, but one was that she was tall for a Jai-ruk and he was short for a Kin. They were dissimilar on all counts, except for their interest in the past, and in strange myths, and mysteries, and how the world had looked before they set foot on it. They talked of things no one else cared about. Rather than an odd pair, everyone thought they were just odd.
"This is a job that will pay us well," Kryranen said. "Up in the Golden Jaguar District." She added unnecessarily, "Where people like the Vash live."
"You're supposed to be keeping the notes," Jelith pointed out. Most inhabitants of Taux assumed Jai-ruk were too brutish for scholarly pursuits, but Kryranen's handwriting was better than his. Her hands were large but her fingers were slender and dexterous; his notes looked like the scratchings of a child next to her elegant script.
She leaned forward to look at the book and her grimace suggested she agreed. "I'll recopy it later." Exasperated, she said, "You just don't like working for money. It's too bad we can't eat history."
"You would eat history if you could," Jelith felt he had to say. It was true.
She folded her arms and gave him the long-suffering look.
He sighed. "What is this job?"
"They want us to lay a ghost."
Jelith stared. "Are you out of your mind?"
March 28, 2012
This is the first day this week where I haven't woken up ...
This is the first day this week where I haven't woken up with a headache that hung around all day. I'm hoping it means the pollen apocalypse is over, or at least on a downswing. And hopefully we'll get some more rain. We're already way ahead of where we were last year (at this time last year, we were already a few months into the drought, though the fires hadn't started yet.)
The good part is that our garden looks great. The tomatoes and shallots are starting to grow, though the squash is still just sitting there thinking about growing. I may have a lot of carrots. I had never planted them before and I didn't think they had much of a chance, as I don't have a lot of luck with seeds usually. But apparently our garden bed is going to be Carrotopia.
Links:
There are still book giveaway drawings for The Serpent Sea on GoodReads and LibraryThing. And if you already have the book and enjoyed it, remember reviews (on Amazon, B&N, GoodReads, LibraryThing, wherever) really do help, and books need help to survive.
Terrible Minds 25 Lies Writers Tell and Start to Believe
5. "I Can Only Write When The Muse Allows!"
To the working writer, that means, "I can only pay my mortgage when the Muse allows."
Writer Beware: Alert: Raider Publishing International / Purehaven Press
N.J. Jemisin: There's No Such Thing as a Good Stereotype
The strong female character (SFC) is a stereotype. It's gone beyond just a trope at this point. It's ubiquitous; we see this character appear in films, in books, in video games — and because it's a stereotype, we've started to "see" it in real life.
Jezebel: I See White People: Hunger Games and a Brief History of Cultural Whitewashing
The good part is that our garden looks great. The tomatoes and shallots are starting to grow, though the squash is still just sitting there thinking about growing. I may have a lot of carrots. I had never planted them before and I didn't think they had much of a chance, as I don't have a lot of luck with seeds usually. But apparently our garden bed is going to be Carrotopia.
Links:
There are still book giveaway drawings for The Serpent Sea on GoodReads and LibraryThing. And if you already have the book and enjoyed it, remember reviews (on Amazon, B&N, GoodReads, LibraryThing, wherever) really do help, and books need help to survive.
Terrible Minds 25 Lies Writers Tell and Start to Believe
5. "I Can Only Write When The Muse Allows!"
To the working writer, that means, "I can only pay my mortgage when the Muse allows."
Writer Beware: Alert: Raider Publishing International / Purehaven Press
N.J. Jemisin: There's No Such Thing as a Good Stereotype
The strong female character (SFC) is a stereotype. It's gone beyond just a trope at this point. It's ubiquitous; we see this character appear in films, in books, in video games — and because it's a stereotype, we've started to "see" it in real life.
Jezebel: I See White People: Hunger Games and a Brief History of Cultural Whitewashing
March 27, 2012
I love spring, but I wish for less pollen. That's about ...
I love spring, but I wish for less pollen. That's about all I've got today.
***
Katharine Kimbriel reviewed The Cloud Roads
Juliet E. McKenna has released A Few Further Tales of Einarinn
Texas events for Austin people: Lucy A. Snyder is signing her urban fantasy trilogy: Spellbent, Shotgun Sorceress, Switchblade Goddess at the Hastings in San Angelo, TX at 7pm on April 4th and the Arboretum Barnes&Noble in Austin, TX at 2pm on April 7th.
***
Katharine Kimbriel reviewed The Cloud Roads
Juliet E. McKenna has released A Few Further Tales of Einarinn
Texas events for Austin people: Lucy A. Snyder is signing her urban fantasy trilogy: Spellbent, Shotgun Sorceress, Switchblade Goddess at the Hastings in San Angelo, TX at 7pm on April 4th and the Arboretum Barnes&Noble in Austin, TX at 2pm on April 7th.
March 26, 2012
AggieCon and Sundry
I had a great time at AggieCon this weekend. Friends came in to stay with us, and I did fun panels with Katy Stauber (who has a new SF novel, Spin the Sky, coming out soon), Seanan McGuire (who just had new novel Discount Armadgeddon come out), Jody Lynn Nye (who has a new book Myth-Fortunes, coming out soon that's illustrated by Phil Foglio, Todd McCaffrey, and Lou Antonelli. We had great Mexican food, Middle Eastern/Greek food, and topped it off with a birthday dinner for a friend on Sunday night.
I bought a Doctor Who t-shirt, the one with the Van Gogh exploding Tardis image. (Speaking of DW, the BBC put up a trailer for the new season this morning.)
Also got to see the poster for the event that the Cushing Library Special Collections is doing next year in March. They have George R.R. Martin's papers and they're going to be doing an exhibit for his work similar to the one they did last year for the Science Fiction/Fantasy collection in general (my photos of the previous exhibit are in this post here.) This is very cool, as Martin has been an AggieCon guest in the past (he was guest of honor for AggieCon 17 in 1986, when I was con chairman.)
***
Anthology kickstarter: I have a story in this kickstarter for a fantasy anthology, along with Lynn Flewelling, Harry Connolly, Juliet McKenna, Robert Mancebo, and Julie Czerneda. The way kickstarter works, if the goal doesn't get met, the editor doesn't get the money and the book doesn't get produced. The minimum buy-in is $5.00, which gets you an ebook version of the book if the goal is met. (If the goal isn't met, you don't pay and nobody gets anything.)
I bought a Doctor Who t-shirt, the one with the Van Gogh exploding Tardis image. (Speaking of DW, the BBC put up a trailer for the new season this morning.)
Also got to see the poster for the event that the Cushing Library Special Collections is doing next year in March. They have George R.R. Martin's papers and they're going to be doing an exhibit for his work similar to the one they did last year for the Science Fiction/Fantasy collection in general (my photos of the previous exhibit are in this post here.) This is very cool, as Martin has been an AggieCon guest in the past (he was guest of honor for AggieCon 17 in 1986, when I was con chairman.)
***
Anthology kickstarter: I have a story in this kickstarter for a fantasy anthology, along with Lynn Flewelling, Harry Connolly, Juliet McKenna, Robert Mancebo, and Julie Czerneda. The way kickstarter works, if the goal doesn't get met, the editor doesn't get the money and the book doesn't get produced. The minimum buy-in is $5.00, which gets you an ebook version of the book if the goal is met. (If the goal isn't met, you don't pay and nobody gets anything.)
