Martha Wells's Blog, page 30
February 17, 2021
February 5, 2021
February 1, 2021
January 26, 2021
January 3, 2021
Year in Review
Ugh, the year in review. A lot of terrible shit happened.
It's a thing that many people tend to remember bad things more vividly than good things, which is why one bad experience can destroy an otherwise good time. And I am personally terrible at remembering good things.
So good things only. Got to go to Boskone for the first time and got to hang out and catch up with some old friends, and go to a couple of gorgeous museums. Got to go to PopCon in San Antonio and hang out with some friends. Got to be a guest on the JoCo Cruise and had the absolute time of our lives. That ended right before the first lockdown.
Got to talk to a lot of cool fun people in zoom interviews and podcasts, like Hank and John Green with Life's Library, and the Doubleclicks, and did zoom panels for a few conventions.
Network Effect came out during a pandemic and not only didn't tank, but made the New York Times Bestseller List.
The combined French edition of The Murderbot Diaries, translated by Mathilde Montier, won the Prix Bob Morane for best Foreign Novel and the Prix Julia Verlanger, and the Spanish edition of All Systems Red, translated by Carla Bataller Estruch, won the Ignotus Award (the Spanish Hugo) for Short Story.
Network Effect is on the nomination list for the r/fantasy Stabby Award.
The election happened and I was almost sick from relief that the fascist racist con man didn't win again.
A couple of other good things happened that I can't mention yet until they're officially announced.
Writing
The less said the better? I usually manage well over 100,000 words in a year. This year, I have about 38,000 words on a new fantasy novel, and felt lucky to have managed that. I wasn't able to do any writing for about the first six months of the year and it felt horrible. I've never gone that long without writing. If The Untamed hadn't come along and jolted my brain back into motion, I'd probably still be paralyzed.
Published in 2020 in order, from oldest to newest:
* I did a chapter for Machina: Chapter 7 "This Facility has Gone 0 Days Without a Gray Goo Incident." The rest of the serial is by Fran Wilde, Malka Older, and Curtis C. Chen. https://www.serialbox.com/serials/machina
* A mass market reprint of The Serpent Sea was released by Night Shade Books.
* I had a short story "Obsolescence" in Take Us to A Better Place, published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It's a free anthology and you can still get a copy here: https://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2019/11/take-us-to-a-better-place-stories-coming-january-2020.html
* Mass market paperback reprint of The Siren Depths, Night Shade Books.
* Network Effect A Murderbot Novel, from Tor.com, in hardcover, audio narrated by Kevin R. Free, and ebook.
* "Home: habitat, range, niche, territory," A Murderbot Diaries story. Tor.com
* "The Salt Witch" in Uncanny Magazine #37. https://uncannymagazine.com/article/the-salt-witch/ (there's also an audio version)
* "Bespin Escape" From a Certain Point of View: Forty Stories Celebrating Forty Years of The Empire Strikes Back anthology fundraiser for First Book.
For award eligibility, everything is eligible except the two Raksura reprint books. The Murderbot Diaries is also eligible for the Best Series Hugo Award now.
Upcoming in 2021 so far
* February - The special illustrated edition of The Murderbot Diaries, with art by Tommy Arnold, published by Subterranean Press.
* March 30 - the trade paperback edition of Network Effect https://bookshop.org/books/network-effect-a-murderbot-novel/9781250229854
* April 27 - Fugitive Telemetry a Murderbot Diaries novella, prequel to Network Effect, set on Preservation Station. Preorder https://bookshop.org/books/fugitive-telemetry/9781250765376
comments
It's a thing that many people tend to remember bad things more vividly than good things, which is why one bad experience can destroy an otherwise good time. And I am personally terrible at remembering good things.
So good things only. Got to go to Boskone for the first time and got to hang out and catch up with some old friends, and go to a couple of gorgeous museums. Got to go to PopCon in San Antonio and hang out with some friends. Got to be a guest on the JoCo Cruise and had the absolute time of our lives. That ended right before the first lockdown.
Got to talk to a lot of cool fun people in zoom interviews and podcasts, like Hank and John Green with Life's Library, and the Doubleclicks, and did zoom panels for a few conventions.
Network Effect came out during a pandemic and not only didn't tank, but made the New York Times Bestseller List.
The combined French edition of The Murderbot Diaries, translated by Mathilde Montier, won the Prix Bob Morane for best Foreign Novel and the Prix Julia Verlanger, and the Spanish edition of All Systems Red, translated by Carla Bataller Estruch, won the Ignotus Award (the Spanish Hugo) for Short Story.
Network Effect is on the nomination list for the r/fantasy Stabby Award.
The election happened and I was almost sick from relief that the fascist racist con man didn't win again.
A couple of other good things happened that I can't mention yet until they're officially announced.
Writing
The less said the better? I usually manage well over 100,000 words in a year. This year, I have about 38,000 words on a new fantasy novel, and felt lucky to have managed that. I wasn't able to do any writing for about the first six months of the year and it felt horrible. I've never gone that long without writing. If The Untamed hadn't come along and jolted my brain back into motion, I'd probably still be paralyzed.
Published in 2020 in order, from oldest to newest:
* I did a chapter for Machina: Chapter 7 "This Facility has Gone 0 Days Without a Gray Goo Incident." The rest of the serial is by Fran Wilde, Malka Older, and Curtis C. Chen. https://www.serialbox.com/serials/machina
* A mass market reprint of The Serpent Sea was released by Night Shade Books.
* I had a short story "Obsolescence" in Take Us to A Better Place, published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It's a free anthology and you can still get a copy here: https://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2019/11/take-us-to-a-better-place-stories-coming-january-2020.html
* Mass market paperback reprint of The Siren Depths, Night Shade Books.
* Network Effect A Murderbot Novel, from Tor.com, in hardcover, audio narrated by Kevin R. Free, and ebook.
* "Home: habitat, range, niche, territory," A Murderbot Diaries story. Tor.com
* "The Salt Witch" in Uncanny Magazine #37. https://uncannymagazine.com/article/the-salt-witch/ (there's also an audio version)
* "Bespin Escape" From a Certain Point of View: Forty Stories Celebrating Forty Years of The Empire Strikes Back anthology fundraiser for First Book.
For award eligibility, everything is eligible except the two Raksura reprint books. The Murderbot Diaries is also eligible for the Best Series Hugo Award now.
Upcoming in 2021 so far
* February - The special illustrated edition of The Murderbot Diaries, with art by Tommy Arnold, published by Subterranean Press.
* March 30 - the trade paperback edition of Network Effect https://bookshop.org/books/network-effect-a-murderbot-novel/9781250229854
* April 27 - Fugitive Telemetry a Murderbot Diaries novella, prequel to Network Effect, set on Preservation Station. Preorder https://bookshop.org/books/fugitive-telemetry/9781250765376
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December 28, 2020
Sale Today Only
There's a big sale on the ebook of Network Effect today 12/28 only. It's 2.99US on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, and Amazon.
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December 26, 2020
Xmas
Normally we have about 6-8 people for Xmas, but due to plague this year we had four total, the same two friends who came over for Thanksgiving, who have been quarantining from home too.
Xmas dinner was paprika roast leg of lamb, green beans with bacon, garlic, shallots, carrot salad with a cumin-garlic-cayenne dressing, mint sauce, gravy, and popovers. Made two batches of popovers so we have some leftover for breakfast. (picture from https://twitter.com/marthawells1/status/1342584722782883841) And we also have a chocolate Buche de Noel.
Also for snacking we had fancy sausage, cheeses, garlic toasts, and a cocoa fig spread (from HEB) that was delicious. I'd never had it before. It was kind of like mole, not really sweet, the cocoa more part of the savory flavors. Really good stuff.
My present haul was very nice (photo from Twitter: https://twitter.com/marthawells1/status/1342491918287196161) A flute, t-shirt, and Chenqing's tassel from The Untamed, a Doctor Who graphic novel A Tale of Two Time Lords, an SF/F anthology edited by Dhonielle Clayton, ear pods, and handmade soap, plus some tea and candy.
We watched Wonder Woman 84 which we enjoyed, a couple of episodes of The Mandolorian (and reflected on how the all-woman strike team in the finale would have been such a revelation 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, and now it seems pretty normal), and a couple of the Xmas light shows from BritBox. "Manor Lights" where you're touring three estate houses and grounds which are turned into public Xmas parks with fancy light shows was awesome. One had a Greek mythology theme where the lights were like walking into an animated movie, one had turned the house into an Alice in Wonderland Christmas plus had elaborate light show walks through its woods, one had a Christmas train to Santa's workshop, etc. Five stars, would watch again. The other one was "Radiance by Rail" which was too much train engineers drinking tea, not enough Xmas lights. One star.
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Xmas dinner was paprika roast leg of lamb, green beans with bacon, garlic, shallots, carrot salad with a cumin-garlic-cayenne dressing, mint sauce, gravy, and popovers. Made two batches of popovers so we have some leftover for breakfast. (picture from https://twitter.com/marthawells1/status/1342584722782883841) And we also have a chocolate Buche de Noel.
Also for snacking we had fancy sausage, cheeses, garlic toasts, and a cocoa fig spread (from HEB) that was delicious. I'd never had it before. It was kind of like mole, not really sweet, the cocoa more part of the savory flavors. Really good stuff.
My present haul was very nice (photo from Twitter: https://twitter.com/marthawells1/status/1342491918287196161) A flute, t-shirt, and Chenqing's tassel from The Untamed, a Doctor Who graphic novel A Tale of Two Time Lords, an SF/F anthology edited by Dhonielle Clayton, ear pods, and handmade soap, plus some tea and candy.
We watched Wonder Woman 84 which we enjoyed, a couple of episodes of The Mandolorian (and reflected on how the all-woman strike team in the finale would have been such a revelation 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, and now it seems pretty normal), and a couple of the Xmas light shows from BritBox. "Manor Lights" where you're touring three estate houses and grounds which are turned into public Xmas parks with fancy light shows was awesome. One had a Greek mythology theme where the lights were like walking into an animated movie, one had turned the house into an Alice in Wonderland Christmas plus had elaborate light show walks through its woods, one had a Christmas train to Santa's workshop, etc. Five stars, would watch again. The other one was "Radiance by Rail" which was too much train engineers drinking tea, not enough Xmas lights. One star.
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December 21, 2020
Link
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thelostglove
has posted Winter Solstice, Camelot Station by John M. Ford: https://thelostglove.dreamwidth.org/486337.html#cutid1This is my only favorite Xmas poem.
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December 16, 2020
Review for The Salt Witch
Great review for the December half of Uncanny Magazine #37 (https://uncannymagazine.com/issues/uncanny-magazine-issue-thirty-seven/) on https://quicksipreviews.blogspot.com/2020/12/quick-sips-uncanny-37-december-stuff.html
On The Salt Witch:
“The Salt Witch” by Martha Wells (5787 words)
No Spoilers: Juana is a witch flying a boat south to the Caribbean who finds that she can’t seem to escape the pull of a certain island. One that’s been hit hard by wave after wave of storm. One with ghosts littering the beaches, moving through the streets. All caught in the gravity of a castle that is also a hotel, the Queen, where a corrupting presence has made the island a kind of hell. As a witch, Juana aims to set things right so she can get back on her way. A bunch of ghosts should be no real thing for her. Except that something about the island is familiar, and as she explores it, pushes deeper into it, she walks into a series of traps that test her resolve and her endurance, her memories and her vulnerabilities. It’s a story that looks at place, at mistakes, and at recovering from them, in a charming and pleasantly bouncy fashion.
The review itself is longer, but here's a non-spoilery bit: Using the afterlife not to just stay in one place, a spider in the middle of a toxic web. But to be able to leave, to explore, to do the things that maybe you should have done while alive. To move on, and through that heal and to allow others to heal. It’s a really fun story for all it’s about a bunch of dead people, and I just love the way it comes together, the way that Juana just refuses to be broken about what happens, or rather refuses to stay broken about it.
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On The Salt Witch:
“The Salt Witch” by Martha Wells (5787 words)
No Spoilers: Juana is a witch flying a boat south to the Caribbean who finds that she can’t seem to escape the pull of a certain island. One that’s been hit hard by wave after wave of storm. One with ghosts littering the beaches, moving through the streets. All caught in the gravity of a castle that is also a hotel, the Queen, where a corrupting presence has made the island a kind of hell. As a witch, Juana aims to set things right so she can get back on her way. A bunch of ghosts should be no real thing for her. Except that something about the island is familiar, and as she explores it, pushes deeper into it, she walks into a series of traps that test her resolve and her endurance, her memories and her vulnerabilities. It’s a story that looks at place, at mistakes, and at recovering from them, in a charming and pleasantly bouncy fashion.
The review itself is longer, but here's a non-spoilery bit: Using the afterlife not to just stay in one place, a spider in the middle of a toxic web. But to be able to leave, to explore, to do the things that maybe you should have done while alive. To move on, and through that heal and to allow others to heal. It’s a really fun story for all it’s about a bunch of dead people, and I just love the way it comes together, the way that Juana just refuses to be broken about what happens, or rather refuses to stay broken about it.
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December 10, 2020
Review for The Salt Witch
The Salt Witch got a great review on Tor.com! https://www.tor.com/2020/12/10/must-read-speculative-short-fiction-november-2020/#more-624967
"The Salt Witch" by Martha Wells
https://uncannymagazine.com/article/the-salt-witch/
"Juana thought this was bullshit." Such a simple opening line, but it's my favorite of all the stories I read this month. And it launches a truly tremendous story about a witch on a flying sailboat who encounters a barrier island full of ghosts. It has all of Martha Wells' typical charm, dry humor, and layers of emotion. If you've read her before, you’re sure to love this one as well, and if you’re new, "The Salt Witch" is a perfect introduction.
Uncanny (November/December 2020, Issue 37)
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"The Salt Witch" by Martha Wells
https://uncannymagazine.com/article/the-salt-witch/
"Juana thought this was bullshit." Such a simple opening line, but it's my favorite of all the stories I read this month. And it launches a truly tremendous story about a witch on a flying sailboat who encounters a barrier island full of ghosts. It has all of Martha Wells' typical charm, dry humor, and layers of emotion. If you've read her before, you’re sure to love this one as well, and if you’re new, "The Salt Witch" is a perfect introduction.
Uncanny (November/December 2020, Issue 37)
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