Martha Wells's Blog, page 32

Roxanne Conrad (who wrote as Rachel Caine) passed away to...

Roxanne Conrad (who wrote as Rachel Caine) passed away today.


Announcement from the family https://preview.mailerlite.com/x6r7e1


Her wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Caine She was a longtime fan as well, and also wrote under the names Roxanne Longstreet and Julie Fortune.

And she was my friend.

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Stress

I early-voted a couple of weeks ago (for Biden/Harris, and for democrats all down the ballot on the local races) on the first day of early voting, so I don't have anything to do on Tuesday besides slowly lose my mind.

All my stress is going into my gastrointestinal system, so it's been really unpleasant. It would be nice to have an emotion other than fear and rage, I've forgotten what that's like.

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Upcoming for November

So now I can finally announce this: Subterranean Press is doing an illustrated edition of the first four novellas in The Murderbot Diaries plus the short story "home: habitat, range, niche, territory"

https://twitter.com/SubPress/status/1321790930266054656

On Monday, November 2 at 8am EST, we'll begin taking preorders for our edition of The Murderbot Diaries by marthawells1, with a full-color dust jacket and black-and-white interior illustrations by Tommy Arnold! SET YOUR CLOCKS!

This is their website though it's not listed there yet: https://subterraneanpress.com/

Tommy Arnold is the illustrator who did the lovely Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth covers. I worked with him to describe Murderbot and the other characters.


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I have a story! ("The Salt Witch") in the November issue of Uncanny Magazine! It will be available in the ebook version on the 11/3 release day and on the web site on 12/1. It's fantasy, not related to any previous books, stories, etc.

https://uncannymagazine.com/


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I have another story! ("Bespin Escape") in the charity Star Wars anthology The Empire Strikes Back: From a Certain Point of View. This is up for preorder now and will be out on November 10.

https://bookshop.org/books/from-a-certain-point-of-view-the-empire-strikes-back-star-wars-9780593215401/9780593157749



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Couple of Things

* Network Effect is on the GoodReads Best Science Fiction novels of the year list: https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-science-fiction-books-2020 So many good books on this list


* An article by K. Eason: https://www.tor.com/2020/10/26/the-monstrous-machines-of-corporate-capitalism/ The Monstrous Machines of Corporate Capitalism

has a neat analysis of Murderbot:

And what about that humanity? Wells’ future gives us a lot more variety: queer, trans, straight, and genders found only in particular colonies; single or married monogamously or, more commonly, married with multiple partners; friends, parents, second-mothers, siblings, daughters, uncles. Murderbot treats this human diversity as unremarkable, bordering on unimportant (it never remarks on its own physical features, and because it thinks sex is gross, never comments on anyone else’s attractiveness). What does surprise it are how socioeconomic alternatives to capitalism affect the humans who live in them.

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BEHOLD:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDMSH......

BEHOLD:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDMSHgQY5rM&feature=youtu.be

This lovely artist did a hand-drawn Murderbot music video!!!!

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Two Things

Two things:

Hey, I'm on the Smart Bitches Trashy Books podcast! https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2020/10/podcast-426-your-transcript-is-ready/ (There's also a transcript)


My husband found this for me on tumblr: https://jalapenohoneybadger.tumblr.com/post/630992700091645952/the-inner-thoughts-of-lan-wangji-as-murderbot The inner thoughts of Lan Wangji as Murderbot Quotes. There's a post for each book. :)

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New Scientists 11 of the best sci-fi books that transport you to another world

So I have to come out of my rage and sadness blanket fort to link to this:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2255452-11-of-the-best-sci-fi-books-that-transport-you-to-another-world/

Bad news: while exploring an alien planet, you are attacked by a monster.

Good news: you are rescued by the expedition’s cyborg security agent, a mandatory part of the service package you buy if you want to do something idiotic, like explore an alien planet.

Bad news: your CSA has a secret name for itself: “Murderbot”.

Martha Wells’s novella All Systems Red offers the sort of exploration of human decency no regular ethics class would ever dare to teach. Having hacked its governor module, Murderbot can kill. It just chooses not to. Much like the rest of us, then. And its patience is sorely tried in this deceptively frothy tale of skullduggery, explosions, betrayal, sabotage, more explosions and, yes, murder.

Comparisons to John Sladek’s Tik-Tok and Douglas Adams’s Marvin (the paranoid android) were inevitable, quick to arrive and well-earned. Be in no doubt, though: Murderbot is its own unique kind of grumpy, overly sensitive killing machine; consequently All Systems Red won Wells the Hugo, Nebula, Alex and Locus awards.

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C'monfluence 2020

Virtual convention C'monfluence is this weekend, October 2-4.

https://confluence-sff.org/cmonfluence-2020/

I'm the Guest of Honor, and other guests include: Aliette de Bodard, P. Djeli Clark, Mary Soon Lee, Michelle Sagara West, Sarah Pinsker, Catherine Lundoff, Kelly Robson, Tochi Onyebuchi, Wenmimareba Klobah Collins, Bo Balder, Tamora Pierce, Julie Czerneda, Christina Sng, Andy Duncan, Heather Rose Jones, and many more!



A few things you need to know:

The virtual con will be held primarily through Zoom and Discord.
Registration for the Zoom events will be required.
Pre-registration is available. SIGN UP NOW to be the FIRST to be notified when Zoom registration opens. Please visit the REGISTRATION page.
Some of our panels will be lottery style. If the number of registrants exceeds the attendee limit for this event, a lottery will be used to determine attendance. Lottery winners will be selected a few days before C’monfluence begins. Selected registrants will receive a notification with the event link within 24 hours before the start of the conference.
This event is FREE to attend! There is no charge to attend this virtual event, but if you’re able to send a donation to help, we have a donation link available on the REGISTRATION page.


The schedule for Friday is here: https://confluence-sff.org/schedule-friday/
Saturday: https://confluence-sff.org/schedule-saturday/
and Sunday: https://confluence-sff.org/schedule-sunday/

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C'monfluence Convention

I'm the guest of honor at C'monfluence, the online version of the annual SF/F convention Confluence in Pittsburgh, PA, coming up on October 2,3, and 4.

https://confluence-sff.org/cmonfluence-2020/cmonfluence-guests/

Guests include: Aliette de Bodard, P. Djeli Clark, Mary Soon Lee, Michelle Sagara West, Sarah Pinsker, Catherine Lundoff, Kelly Robson, Tochi Onyebuchi, Wenmimareba Klobah Collins, Bo Balder, Tamora Pierce, and many more!

C’monfluence is FREE to attend, but we are accepting donations to defray the virtual convention’s expenses and underwrite the return of the physical Confluence conference in 2021 https://confluence-sff.org/cmonfluence-registration-2/

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I had a hurricane anxiety dream last night, where I was w...

I had a hurricane anxiety dream last night, where I was working on the top floor of the university library but it was on an island (Shetland, not Galveston) and I was watching the hurricane come in and destroy houses on smaller islands off the coast. There was also a lot of standard anxiety stuff like forgetting things (I needed to walk home in the hurricane and kept forgetting my jacket) and bizarre elevators that I keep missing and stairs that are convoluted and impossible to climb, etc.

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