Martha Wells's Blog, page 177

I had anxiety issues last night and ended up getting up a...

I had anxiety issues last night and ended up getting up at 1:00 am and not going back to bed until after 4:00. Did you know after a certain point HGTV puts up a card that says "Sweet Dreams" and then signs off to infomercials? I didn't know that. Fortunately Food Network holds on a little longer. TCM seems to be on all night, but I didn't want to see the movie they had on.

So I think I'm going to be kind of tired today and probably not making much sense. And I need to figure out something to do about my hair before WorldCon. Shaving it off is starting to seem like a good option.

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The Serpent Sea is now listed on Night Shade's catalog. The link has the back cover description of the book and the cover without titles. (It'll be available this January.)

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celli asked What's your favorite Lord King Bad book? Something that breaks all the rules of what you normally like in a book and makes you adore it anyway.

I can't really think of many, because I don't really have a lot of rules about what I like in a book, except that I like it. One thing I do usually prefer is that the narrator be at least likable enough that I can stand to have them in my head for the length of the book. The books that come to mind that I still liked even though I didn't care for the main narrator is the Oscar Wilde mystery series by Gyles Brandreth. I love Oscar, but the books are mostly written from the viewpoint of Robert Sherard, and he doesn't come off well. He's a little creepy, especially in the first book.


mahoni asked What are some of your favorite untold bits of background or story from any of your books -- details about characters/places/background info/etc that didn't make into a book, or parts of story that ultimately didn't have a place in the overall story, but not for lack of love?

That's a tough one. There were several scenes that I wrote for Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary that I liked a lot, but ended up taking out when I changed the plot for the beginning a bit and they didn't fit anymore.

The biggest one is probably the first third of the prequel to The Wizard Hunters, about Giliead and Ilias, that I stopped writing because the publisher didn't want to see it. Some of it ended up in the stories that Black Gate published, but some didn't.

There's also the beginning of a novel that had Moon as the main character, that was one of the ones I started and dropped before finally starting The Cloud Roads. I think there was almost 20,000 words of that one. (The plot of The Cloud Roads was basically the backstory for that novel, and I decided I liked it better.) I have about five or six novels from that period that all died in the 10,000 to 20,000 word range, and there are parts of them I really like. Some bits got revised and used later, but a lot didn't.


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I updated the Publishing Information Sites for Beginning Authors on my site with this link: Promoting Your Work at Conventions
Science fiction and fantasy conventions ("cons") are a great place for authors of fantasy and science fiction to promote their work among genre readers. Most cons are "fan" conventions which attendees, including program participants, generally attend primarily to participate in the convention experience. This fan convention culture is unlike higher-profile for-profit media shows where nearly all program participants are there to sell or promote themselves or their work and where attendees are primarily audience members.

I'm feel like I'm very busy, but not getting much done, a...

I'm feel like I'm very busy, but not getting much done, and worrying a lot about stuff like the drought, lack of money, the world, etc.

Is there anything in particular anybody would like me to write a post about? Writing, publishing, my books, other people's books, etc.



My friend Katie Cowden found this and sent it to me, and I share it, for it is awesome.

Link:

Cynthia Leitich Smith: G. Neri on On the Trail to Ghetto Cowboy & Signed Book Giveaway This novel is based on a real neighborhood.

The article showed a neighborhood in the worst part of North Philadelphia—an inner city rife with gang violence. But this wasn't your ordinary low-income neighborhood.

It had black cowboys.

ArmadilloCon

Very worried about the rioting in London and surrounding areas and hope everybody I know over there is okay.

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Today is the day Troyce is doing a presentation at the Kwianis club on our Nasa VIP Tour. He isn't a Kwiani, but someone in the Astronomy club invited him to do the presentation.


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I now have my schedule for ArmadilloCon, August 26-28, in Austin. Yes, that is the weekend after I get back from WorldCon, and I will be stunned from tiredness, but ArmadilloCon is my favorite convention.


Friday

Building a Fictional Society from the Ground Up
Fri 8:00 PM-9:00 PM Trinity
Paolo Bacigalupi, Elizabeth Bear*, Alexis Gynn Latner, Ari Marmell, Jessica Reisman, M. Wells

Saturday

Reading
Sat 11:00 AM-11:30 AM Pecos

Autographing
Sat Noon-1:00 PM Dealers' Room
Neal Barrett, E. Bear, Ma. Finn, Nancy Jane Moore, Carrie Richerson, M. Wells

Writing a Strong Female Protagonist
Sat 2:00 PM-3:00 PM San Antonio
Aaron Allston, Emma Bull, Amanda Downum*, Julie Kenner, Tess Mallory, M. Wells

Learning from Others' Mistakes: Writing Errors to Avoid
Sat 4:00 PM-5:00 PM Trinity
Robert Bennett, Madeleine Dimond, Julie Kenner*, William Browning Spencer, M. Wells

Sunday

Book Covers: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Sun 11:00 AM-Noon San Antonio
Lou Anders*, P. Bacigalupi, Brad Foster, R. Kelley, Rick Klaw, M. Wells


My WorldCon schedule is here.

Drought, over 100 degrees, day 423, yadda, yadda, yadda. ...

Drought, over 100 degrees, day 423, yadda, yadda, yadda. Last night for supper I made avocado tacos with green chile cheese sauce and sour cream. They were very yummy, and I highly recommend them.

book rec: I finished The Unexpected Miss Bennet by Patrice Sarath and highly recommend it, too.

You can still comment to win a copy of Courtney Schafer's The Whitefire Crossing on my post here, on favorite SF/F worlds and cultures

Another book giveaway: Infidel by Kameron Hurley ARC Giveaway Today (8/8) on Twitter


Black Gate blog: The Nightmare Men: "The Diehard" by Josh Reynolds a post on Shiela Crerar, Psychic Investigator written in 1920 by Ella Scrymsour.
Unlike her masculine counterparts in the occult detective business, Crerar is a two-fisted phantom fighter, wading into supernatural situations with little more than guts, brains and a distinct lack of fear bolstered by harsh economic necessity. Not for her the remote recordings of Dr. Hesselius or the psychical solutions of John Silence. Instead she pounced willy-nilly on lycanthropes and luminescent manifestations, sinking her teeth into matters both mundane and malevolent with equal determination.

This morning, I sort of straightened up my office by brea...

This morning, I sort of straightened up my office by breaking down a lot of cardboard boxes for the recycling, and putting away some receipts and papers. I still have a ways to go.

Bad news: there's a good chance they're going to start water rationing here soon.

Very good news: There will be an Audible.com edition of The Cloud Roads! The reader will be Chris Kipiniak. I don't know yet when it'll be available, but I'll post here as soon as I find out.

New post by me on the Night Bazaar: Martha Wells: Favorite SF/F Worlds and Cultures If you comment with one or more of your favorite SF/F world or culture, you'll be entered in a drawing to win a copy of Courtney Schafer's new adventure fantasy The Whitefire Crossing.

Criminal Element: History Down Under: Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher by Victoria Janssen
I think I've read all these books and love them. They're set in 1920s Australia.

What I'm reading: The Unexpected Miss Bennet by Patrice Sarath. (The UK version is already out here.) This is the story of Mary Bennet, from Pride and Prejudice. She was the most awkward, socially inept, and bookish of the sisters, and I always found her a very sympathetic character because of that. In The Unexpected Miss Bennet we get to see her grow up, think for herself, and break out of that shell. I'm really enjoying this book, and I think Jane Austen fans will love it.

I got good news yesterday: The Cloud Roads first royalty ...

I got good news yesterday: The Cloud Roads first royalty statement came, and it earned out its advance. That's a huge relief! It hasn't happened to me very often. :)

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Yesterday the car radio said the high temperature felt like 112 in the shade, and 120 in direct sunlight. I looked at Weather Underground this morning and one of the nearby towns had "not reporting" listed for its weather status, and I thought, well, they're probably all dead over there. I've been putting water out for squirrels and birds, and feel very lucky to have an inside to go back to.

I'm enjoying the new season of Eureka a lot, and the new Project Runway and True Blood, and waiting impatiently for more Doctor Who and Sherlock. Apparently we have to wait until next year for more Psych.


links:

Zoe-trope: You Can Stuff Your Mary-Sue Where the Sun Don't Shine
Maybe it's because the reviewers in question, the reviewers who keep saying 'Mary-Sue' as if it was all that needed to be said, don't want to have to explain the reasons why a particular character didn't work for them. Maybe it's because their reasons for finding these female characters just too obnoxious, unrealistic, stupid, passive, badass or talented are just as contradictory and badly defined as the term itself. Maybe it's because the reason they don't like the female characters isn't that they're just too...anything. Except just too...female.

Tamora Pierce: I am one majorly unhappy camper on the new network TV shows this fall, especially Playboy Club

Cultivating Invisibility; Just Some Thoughts

I was invisible at the grocery store again today (I should have remembered only to use a checkout stand with a woman or an older man clerk. Women in their mid to late 40s sometimes start vanishing from the sight of the rest of the population; it's a thing.) but it made me remember when I was a kid and cultivated deliberate invisibility.

(I know there's YA novel in that but I'm pretty sure it's already been written. And there was that episode of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, where I always thought the Invisible Girl did a crap job of taking advantage of it.)

My way of being invisible was to not react to things people said or did to me, since not reacting made me a less attractive target. It was something I did pretty much all the way through junior high and high school. I came in for a lot of emotional abuse at home, so in some ways dealing with it at school was easier. It made me very pragmatic about getting what I wanted, in a kid-like way. I knew I had to endure being screamed at to get access to books, cats, the TV set, etc.

At this point it's hard to remember if it really happened that much at school, or if it happened so much at home that it just seemed like it was happening all the time, everywhere else. In any event, kid-me decided being invisible was safer.

Though one of the big stand-out bad moments of high school was when I happened to walk up to the counter to check on the availability of a book when one of the school librarians was angry and wanted somebody to take it out on. I can tell, after years of hindsight, she felt terrible about it later. But at the time I chalked it up to one more person who couldn't be trusted. I blamed myself for expecting my experience in the library to be different or better; just because the books were friendly didn't mean the people would be. To this day, I know in my non-visual memory that I had a lot of good moments with that librarian before the incident, and a lot of good experiences in that library. But that is the only clear memory I have of her: being yelled at for asking for a book. (Maybe after that was when she became invisible to me.)

As an adult I can see this was all not nearly as normal as it felt at the time and was probably really not a good thing. (Though it is good practice for not reacting to online trolls, and leaves them with the impression that they actually may be invisible to you.) It has given me a lot of things to write about, trust issues, family issues, issues of betrayal by authority figures, and so on.

Nowadays I still feel invisible in certain circumstances and it's a reminder that invisibility is not so fun and not to be cultivated. When I'm trying to get help in a store and a clerk looks through me to the man standing in line behind me. When people who are friendly to you at first suddenly can't see you when they realize you aren't as cool as they first supposed. At my last day job, where I wasn't invisible so much as inaudible. In my career over the past few years. But it was strange to remember back to the time when invisibility was a preferred state for me.

Okay, back to work.

This morning I need to go to the library and then the gro...

This morning I need to go to the library and then the grocery store. Oh the giddy round of an author's life! Then I'm going to come back and write a bunch more.

ETA: Oh, meant to say, I have a post coming up this Sunday on The Night Bazaar, on favorite SF/F worlds and cultures, and I'm having trouble narrowing it down to just a few.


The full WorldCon schedule is now online. My schedule is here.


tingler linked me to this on Inhabitat: Vegetated Floating Island In The Sky Goes Missing From UK Music Festival
Two things occur to me: 1) I want it and 2) I hope it doesn't kill anybody when it falls down.

Here's the web site of the artist doing the cover of The Serpent Sea: Steve Argyle

kateelliott links to the second round of Clarkesworld Magazine Part Two of its Epic Fantasy Roundtable
"If you've not grown up being told you shouldn't be who you are"

Rec Me Some Books

Many things:

I made a new icon, from Tiger Bright Studios lovely new cover for the ebook release of Wheel of the Infinite.

I forgot to mention yesterday, the cover of The Serpent Sea (January 2012, Night Shade Books) is going to have Jade on it this time.


Book Recs: We haven't done a book rec post in a while, so if you have a chance, post a comment with a rec of an SF/F or mystery novel you're reading now, or recently read, that you enjoyed, that you think other people would enjoy.


links:


DC Women Kicking Ass: An Interview with the Batgirl of the SDCC panels

Jay Lake: [cancer] The things people say

FutureBook: I publish, therefore I am invisible

Classic photo of kickass women: Women firefighters douse flames during the Pearl Harbor attack

SF Signal: Galen Dara's Appreciation of Two Diverse Artists: Jo Chen and Joyce Farmer

The Serpent Sea Release Date

Got some good news! The Serpent Sea, the sequel to The Cloud Roads, will be out this coming January. I've seen a draft of the cover, too, so hopefully I'll be able to post the final version soon.

It'll be a trade paperback and an eBook, like The Cloud Roads, and I'll post when it's up for preorder.

I really should clean the house today, but I think that probably won't happen. I'm going to just work on the third book, and try not to think about the drought.