Martha Wells's Blog, page 43

Quick post

Wanted to link you all to this fan art from Network Effect (it's not out until May, she got an ARC) by Faith Erin Hicks https://twitter.com/FaithErinHicks/status/1212549372619018241 It's only spoilery in that in shows a new character.

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Couple of links

* My year in books on GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2019/3386681


* Sandstone's It Came From the Backlist: https://www.patreon.com/posts/23685315
This is open to non-patrons, and is a treasure trove of Sandstone's reviews of SF/F, probably 99% women and/or POC writers, from the 1960s through 2016.

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Couple of Things

L'Atalante, the French publisher for The Murderbot Diaries, has posted a book trailer for the series: https://twitter.com/Latalante/status/1211695216723451909 I think this is my first book trailer!


I posted a few photos from the Community Art Project at WorldCon Dublin, and their awesome knitted Raksura Colony Tree: https://twitter.com/marthawells1/status/1211652533141352448

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tripoli has posted John M. Ford's poem "Winter Solstice, ...

tripoli has posted John M. Ford's poem "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station" and if you've never read it, you're in for a treat. https://tripoli.dreamwidth.org/484955.html

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Updating

So I finished a short story I'd been working on for three years, so there's that. I don't know if I like it or not.

Despite the usual anxiety etc, I've gotten a lot done for Christmas. Almost all the gifts bought, menu for Xmas day planned, decorations up. I need to clean the house again tomorrow, then make sure the guest room is clean for the friend who is staying with us next week.

On Xmas eve we usually go out to a sushi place we really like, and on Xmas day I cook a giant fancy meal, so I'm gearing up for that. We're having paprika roasted leg of lamb, with gravy and mint sauce, carrots potatoes and butternut squash in a curry, cold pickled cucumbers, collard greens with bacon and shallots and garlic, stuffed mushrooms, and popovers. Plus a Yule Log cake from a bakery, and a pumpkin pie and chocolate pie my husband will make. It sounds like a lot but we have eight people coming for dinner and we like leftovers.

I finished watching Watchmen, which was excellent, and am about four episodes into the new season of The Expanse. I'm really enjoying it. The story is moving a lot faster now that they're past the first couple of books, and we're getting into the giant-alien-ruins-space mysteries-on-other-planets part. And it's so much better without commercials. And Avasarala is even more awesome.

I'm reading Relative Fortunes, a period mystery set in post-WWI New York by Marlowe Benn, and Rosewater Redemption, the final book in the Rosewater trilogy set in near future Nigeria, by Tade Thompson.


I posted some holiday light photos here: https://twitter.com/marthawells1/status/1207289847951564800

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Link

This is a fabulous article about Wendy Pini and Elfquest, about working through pain, creativity and obsession and connection through art:


https://boingboing.net/2018/07/25/the-weird-of-wendy-pini.html

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Saturday

Yesterday we took a break went out to a family-owned winery about an hour's drive outside of town. We just found out about it a few months ago, only because a friend is now working at it. There's a winery in town, only a few minutes from us, but its activities feel kind of hoity-toity. This place is the opposite of hoity-toity.

It has a large casual outdoor seating area under some trees, they have an outdoor stage for music, and people can bring kids, dogs, and picnic lunches. (The people at the table behind us set up an entire birthday party with balloons and cake and everything.) The only thing you can't bring is alcohol, but they sell their wine by the bottle and the glass, and have wine tastings inside the building. Nobody from the winery checks to see if people are actually buying wine or anything else, so you could go out there and not spend any money if you didn't want to.

Yesterday was their Winter Solstice event, and they also had a thing where you could buy $1 tickets to get cookies, make your own smores, a little train ride thing, or a hay ride. And they had a 1000 luminaries around that they lit up after dark.

I posted some photos here: https://twitter.com/marthawells1/status/1205941509641637896

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Sneak peek at Network Effect for Worldbuilders

So, there's a lot going on in the world right now, but if you want to take a quick break and hear a little bit of Network Effect the Murderbot novel, you can watch me reading a four minute segment from the first chapter here:

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

I did this for Worldbuilders which is raising money right now for Heifer International. You can donate here https://fundraise.worldbuilders.org/campaign/worldbuilders-2019/c243606

For each $10.00 you donate, your name goes into the drawing for bunches of prizes, lots of which are SF/F books, ARCs etc.

Network Effect will be out on May 5, in hardcover and ebook and audiobook.

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Quote

Writer Kelly Robson is on Twitter saying smart, important things:

Start the thread here: https://twitter.com/kellyoyo/status/1205128378652606464

quote Similarly for art. Art makes life worth living, for godssake. Is it commercially viable to be a musician or actor? NOPE. Is it commercially viable to write short stories? NOPE. But is is worth it? OH GOD YES. It's especially worthwhile for the people whose lives it enriches.

I write stories because they're so important to me, and have been, honestly, all my life. I've read short stories since forever. They've always mattered to me. I hope they always will. Because if I get to the "it's not commercially viable" point, just shoot me. I'm dead inside.

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Updating

Holiday prep: I've still have most of the serious cleaning to do. In December, I tend to do a lot of the "once or twice a year" cleaning (like the siding), and so far, it's going slowly. On reflection, maybe doing this stuff in December is not the best idea I ever had.

I still have two presents left to buy, plus stocking stuffers. I got the leg of lamb for Christmas Day dinner, a friend is taking care of the Yule Log/buche de Noel cake, and I don't need to worry about getting the rest of the stuff until the 23rd. I have a present I need to get in the mail today or tomorrow.

Back/head injury recovery: I managed to make three aerobics classes last week, and one so far this week. I'm doing pretty well so far. :knock on wood:



Writing Stuff: I have two things coming up relatively soon:

* January 29 will be the premiere of Machina, a serial box production, by Fran Wilde, Malka Older, and Curtis C. Chen, with a guest chapter by me, is up for preorder https://www.serialbox.com/serials/machina

* Also in January "Obsolescence," in a new collection called Take Us To A Better Place: Stories. It's free and you can sign up here to get notified when it's available: https://rwjf.ws/339feal

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