Martha Wells's Blog, page 47

Read for Pixels

The Pixel Project is raising funds to fight violence against women and needs donations to make their goal this year:

https://thepixelproject.rallyup.com/read4pixels2019

The Pixel Project’s “Read For Pixels” 2019 (Fall Edition) campaign features live readings+Q&A Google Hangout sessions with 14 award-winning bestselling writers in support of the cause to end violence against women. Participating authors include A.M. Dellamonica, Anna Smith Spark, Bradley P. Beaulieu, Christopher Golden, Daryl Gregory, Hillary Monahan, James A. Moore, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Marshall Ryan Maresca, Nicholas Eames, Nicky Drayden, R.F. Kuang, Sarah Langan, and Stephen Graham Jones.

These awesome authors have donated exclusive goodies to this special “Read For Pixels” RallyUp fundraiser to encourage fans and book lovers to give generously to keep our anti-Violence Against Women work alive. Additional goodies come courtesy of Adrian Tchaikovsky (with Macmillan Books UK), Alma Alexander, Charles de Lint, David D. Levine, Jen Williams, Juliet E. McKenna, Laura Anne Gilman, Leanna Renee Hieber, Richard K. Morgan, and Tananarive Due.

The perks for different donation levels include books and critiques of WIPs or of query and submission packages.

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Business of Writing 101

Apparently this is coming up again because of an article by someone who made some horrendously ill-informed decisions.


1) Selling a novel to a publisher does not make you their employee. You are what the IRS calls self-employed. The publisher does not pay you a salary, or pay for your insurance or other benefits. Because you are not their employee.

2) The publisher who bought the right to publish your novel does not take taxes out of your advance or royalties. You, being self-employed, need to pay the taxes on your advance and royalties via the IRS's self-employment tax form. You really need to do that.

3) You need an agent, unless you yourself are already an agent. Inexperienced writers have done catastrophic things to their careers because they signed contracts without agents. A random lawyer someone in your family knows is not the same thing as a literary agent, which is an extremely specialized job. An agent will also help protect your rights and find more ways to make you money from your work and will also be a person who can answer all your questions about publishing.

4) Your publisher, being a business, will expect you to know these things, and to be an actual grown-up adult. Your publisher is your business partner, not your mom. Your publisher will not find a mentor for you. (Because you are not their employee, you are self-employed.) You need to research publishing and find out how it works yourself. All this information and much more about being a writer is available online, and you can ask other writers on, say, Twitter, where there are even now a ton of people who like answering these kinds of questions and explaining all about how publishing works.

5) If you're desperate you can ask me! I'm right here!

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Network Effect

If you missed it yesterday, here's the cover for Network Effect the Murderbot novel! The gorgeous art is by Jaime Jones, who did the other covers, and the design is by Christine Foltzer. (Click for a bigger version)

Some frequent questions:

It will be out on May 5, 2020, from Tor.com Publishing, and right now you can preorder in hardcover or ebook.

No, it is not an omnibus of the first four novellas, it is a new novel filled with new words in all new combinations. It took me 18 months to write it, which is funny because it's my 18th novel.

Recorded Books will be producing the audio book and hopefully Kevin R. Free will be performing it again. I'll post when I know that for sure.

There's a very short excerpt here: https://io9.gizmodo.com/weve-got-the-exclusive-cover-reveal-and-opening-lines-o-1838069621 at the big cover reveal. I'll put a longer one up on my web site soon but I'm not feeling well right now and I'm behind on everything.

(I've had an ear infection for about a week and I just found out my doctor retired over the summer so I had a lot of trouble trying to find another one and couldn't and then finally discovered there was a walk-in family medicine clinic attached to the hospital about two miles from my house and it's been a whole big ball of stress but now I finally have medicine and my head doesn't feel like it's about to fall off anymore.)


Preorder links:

Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Amazon US and all other Amazons, Murder by the Book, Bakka Phoenix Books, Mysterious Galaxy, Chapters Indigo, BooksaMillion and from a local independent bookseller through Indiebound.

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Cover Reveal for Network Effect

IO9 has the cover reveal and a short opening excerpt from Network Effect, the Murderbot novel:

https://io9.gizmodo.com/weve-got-the-exclusive-cover-reveal-and-opening-lines-o-1838069621

It will be out on May 5, 2020!

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Link

On tor.com: What it Means to Win a Hugo as a Blind Person by Elsa Sjunneson-Henry
So when I became the first blind person to win a Hugo Award, it defied the image of The Reader. Of the Writer. Of the devout Teller and Consumer of Stories.

I reveled in the printed word as a child. But I fought tooth and nail to access it. My single eye skitters across a printed page. My nose drifted a few centimeters above the book, my eye focused on the printed word, close enough to read. I never hid underneath a sheet with a flashlight, but I would huddle next to my bedside lamp, sometimes burning my hair against a hot lightbulb to catch the rest of the words on a page.

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Next Week at TAMU

Cushing Memorial Library and Archives is excited to announce that author Rebecca Roanhorse will be the next speaker in its Halbert W. Hall Speaker Series on Science Fiction and Fantasy. Roanhorse, a Nebula and Hugo Award-winning speculative fiction writer will present “Diverse Voices in Speculative Short Fiction.”

Roanhorse’s presentation will be on Sept. 19 at 5:30 p.m. in Rudder Forum and will be followed by a book signing.


https://tamu.libcal.com/event/5765541

This is at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX.

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Tuesday New Books

(If you've been following my book rec and new book listing posts for a while, you may have noticed this already, but while most book lists emphasize books by popular straight white men, this one emphasizes everybody else. I include books by straight white men, but in about the same percentage that other book lists include everybody else. I also try to highlight books that are less well known.)

(I only link to one retail outlet in the book's listing, but most books are available at multiple outlets, like Kobo, iBooks, international Amazons, Barnes & Noble, etc. The short stories are usually on free online magazines.)


* short story No Other Life by Isabel Cañas


* Rule of Capture by Christopher Brown
Defeated in a devastating war with China and ravaged by climate change, America is on the brink of a bloody civil war. Seizing power after a controversial election, the ruling regime has begun cracking down on dissidents fighting the nation’s slide toward dictatorship. For Donny Kimoe, chaos is good for business. He’s a lawyer who makes his living defending enemies of the state. His newest client, young filmmaker Xelina Rocafuerte, witnessed the murder of an opposition leader and is now accused of terrorism. To save her from the only sentence worse than death, Donny has to extract justice from a system that has abandoned the rule of law. That means breaking the rules—and risking the same fate as his clients.


* Descendant of the Crane by Joan He
Tyrants cut out hearts. Rulers sacrifice their own. Princess Hesina of Yan has always been eager to shirk the responsibilities of the crown, but when her beloved father is murdered, she's thrust into power, suddenly the queen of an unstable kingdom. Determined to find her father's killer, Hesina does something desperate: she enlists the aid of a soothsayer—a treasonous act, punishable by death… because in Yan, magic was outlawed centuries ago. Using the information illicitly provided by the sooth, and uncertain if she can trust even her family, Hesina turns to Akira—a brilliant investigator who's also a convicted criminal with secrets of his own. With the future of her kingdom at stake, can Hesina find justice for her father? Or will the cost be too high?


* Preorder Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed
Nick Prasad and Joanna “Johnny” Chambers have been friends since childhood. She’s rich, white, and a genius; he’s poor, brown, and secretly in love with her. But when Johnny invents a clean reactor that could eliminate fossil fuels and change the world, she awakens the primal, evil Ancient ones set on subjugating humanity. From the oldest library in the world to the ruins of Nineveh, hunted at every turn, they need to trust each other completely to survive...


* Short Story For What Dignity Remains by Michelle Muenzler


* Mapping Winter by Marta Randall
Kieve Rider, sworn to Cadoc’s service, detests both the man she serves and the oath that binds her to his evils. Yet by that same oath it falls upon her to act as lynchpin in Cadoc’s naming of a new heir. Embroiled in the complexities of character, corruption and political intrigue, Kieve struggles to trust anyone, not least herself.
First published as The Sword of Winter in 1983, Mapping Winter has been extensively revised to fit the author’s originally intended vision.


* Sword and Pen by Rachel Caine
The corrupt leadership of the Great Library has fallen. But with the Archivist plotting his return to power, and the Library under siege from outside empires and kingdoms, its future is uncertain. Jess Brightwell and his friends must come together as never before, to forge a new future for the Great Library...or see everything it stood for crumble.


* Preorder The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
Every great city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She's got six. But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs in the halls of power, threatening to destroy the city and her six newborn avatars unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.


* Now in paperback Echo in Onyx by Sharon Shinn
A Murder and a Masquerade -- Brianna loves her new job as maid to Lady Marguerite. Like many high nobles, Marguerite is attended by echoes, silent creatures who look exactly like her and move in perfect synchronicity. News soon comes that Marguerite has been invited to the royal city as a potential bride for the crown prince. Brianna is delighted to accompany Marguerite to the city-and perhaps get a chance to continue her own flirtation with Nico, one of the king's inquisitors.Then, disaster strikes on the road when they come under attack. The brutal assault forces Marguerite and Brianna to concoct a desperate plan. Their subterfuge just might work-but only if Brianna can keep Nico from learning the truth. And only if Marguerite can give up her own secret, doomed romance.And all that's at stake-is the future of the kingdom.


* Loss of Signal by S.B. Divya
Toby Benson has a chance to make history. The first mind to circle the moon without a body in tow. It's a golden opportunity, perhaps the only chance for a 19-year-old whose body failed him to become immortal. But as he reaches the dark side of the moon and loses signal from Earth, the cold of space threatens to overwhelm him, in S.B. Divya's engrossing Tor.com Original short story, Loss of Signal.


* A Jewel Bright Sea by Claire O'Dell
It was her talent for tracking magic that got Anna Zhdanov sent to catch a thief. A scholar's daughter sold as a bond servant, she has no desire to recover the Emperor's jewel for herself. But a chance to earn her freedom has driven her to the untamed Andelizien province, awash with warm breezes, lapping waves, and more danger than she could possibly guess.


* The Mythic Dream edited by Dominick Parisien and Navah Wolfe
Madeleine L’Engle once said, “When we lose our myths we lose our place in the universe.” The Mythic Dream gathers together eighteen stories that reclaim the myths that shaped our collective past, and use them to explore our present and future. From Hades and Persephone to Kali, from Loki to Inanna, this anthology explores retellings of myths across cultures and civilizations.
Featuring award-winning and critically acclaimed writers such as Seanan McGuire, Naomi Novik, Rebecca Roanhorse, JY Yang, Alyssa Wong, Indrapramit Das, Carlos Hernandez, Sarah Gailey, Ann Leckie, John Chu, Urusla Vernon, Carmen Maria Machado, Stephen Graham Jones, Arkady Martine, Amal El-Mohtar, Jeffrey Ford, and more, The Mythic Dream is sure to become a new classic.


* Preorder The Deep by Rivers Solomon
The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award–nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’s rap group clipping.


* Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
“Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!” —Charles Stross
The Emperor needs necromancers. The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman. Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense. Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy.


* Preorder Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden
Earth is a distant memory. Habitable extrasolar planets are still out of reach. For generations, humanity has been clinging to survival by establishing colonies within enormous vacuum-breathing space beasts and mining their resources to the point of depletion.
Rash, dreamy, and unconventional, Seske Kaleigh should be preparing for her future role as clan leader, but her people have just culled their latest beast, and she’s eager to find the cause of the violent tremors plaguing their new home. Defying social barriers, Seske teams up with her best friend, a beast worker, and ventures into restricted areas for answers to end the mounting fear and rumors. Instead, they discover grim truths about the price of life in the void.


* Preorder Gamechanger by L.X. Beckett
Rubi Whiting is a member of the Bounceback Generation. The first to be raised free of the troubles of the late twenty-first century. Now she works as a public defender to help troubled individuals with anti-social behavior. That’s how she met Luciano Pox.
Luce is a firebrand and has made a name for himself as a naysayer. But there’s more to him than being a lightning rod for controversy. Rubi has to find out why the governments of the world want to bring Luce into custody, and why Luce is hell bent on stopping the recovery of the planet.


* Preorder Of Wars and Memories and Starlight by Aliette de Bodard
Short story collection

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Ireland Trip Last Two Days

Thursday

This was the day I woke up with some sinus issues and feeling a bit like I might have a low fever, but after breakfast it seemed to completely go away. It isn't unusual to get sick at WorldCon, but I'd also been in a lot of small mold-covered stone stairwells with about 30 other people at a time, so I could have got it anywhere.

We had an appointment to see the Book of Kells at 9:00, I think. We took a cab to Trinity College and ended up going in the back way, which looks like a normal university, so didn't get to see the beautiful part until after we got to the library. Another tour group had gone in at 8:30 but they let us go ahead in early because there was plenty of room.

https://www.tcd.ie/visitors/book-of-kells/

First you go through a room with an introduction to the book, with information about it and large images from it up on the walls. We actually weren't sure what to do, so we just followed the guide from the other tour group when he took them on through.
The next room you go into is small, and the book is divided into two parts, both open under a heavy glass plate in a stainless steel counter. So you can lean on the counter and get your face close to the glass without smudging up the surface. The counter is also extended on one side, with the book in one end, presumably so people who are studying the book could set notebooks or laptops next to it.

The crowd was evenly divided between people who blew past it not realizing that was it and people who laser-focused in on it. We had plenty of time to look at it, leaning on the counter and exchanging places with the other people there so you could get a good look from all angles. The designs on the pages that were open were so complex I couldn't get a good image of them in my brain. I remember the colors and the curves, but not in any more detail. And you can't take photos.

After that we went on into the Long Room, which you can take pictures of, but they look like we were standing in front of a matt painting because the room is so unreal. Also, it was cloudy outside the light coming in was not great.

Then after we went up and down the room, we went on out to the gift shop and then went over to the Buttery (just like in Dorothy Sayers!) to get some tea and coffee.

A friend had recommended the National Archeology Museum https://www.museum.ie/Archaeology, so we headed there next, stopping to shop at a few places on the way. This turned out to be an incredible museum, and free, so we checked our bags, spent a couple of hours there and had lunch in the cafe. I wish we had gone there before we went to Tara, because it provided a lot of context.

Then we walked around to St Patrick's Cathedral https://www.stpatrickscathedral.ie/. We didn't have time to take a formal tour, so just got tickets and walked around inside. I thought they were playing recorded music, but it turned out there was actually a performance going on way up in front, so that was extremely cool.

Then we walked around to Christchurch, https://christchurchcathedral.ie/. St. Patrick's Cathedral was beautiful, but Christchurch was something else. Maybe because the structure is less airy and feels heavier and older, I don't know. It was an odd combination of forbiddingly impressive and welcoming at the same time. We didn't get a formal tour, but you can walk around all over it and also go down into the vaults where they have some exhibits, and just wander around. The also have one of the "homeless Jesus" statues outside, which is the first time I'd seen one in person. (This is the statue that people have occasionally called the police on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeless_Jesus).
It was fairly late in the afternoon by that point, so we found a train station and went back to the hotel to rest for a couple of hours, then came back to Temple Bar and found a great restaurant. Then we wandered back to the hotel to collapse.


Friday

This was our last day. Our friend had booked a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher, but we had figured we'd be too tired by this point and we were right.

(Our friend woke up with a worse version of my cold, but went on the tour anyway. The cliffs were awesome but they kind of got dumped at a mall in Galway for the rest, and it was not that exciting. Also she didn't like this tour company nearly as much as the Irish Day Tours one we did.)

My cold was a bit worse today so we went to a pharmacy to get some medicine, and then just did the Hop On/Hop Off city tour. We stopped at a cafe for tea and scones, and did the self-guided tour of Dublin Castle, and walked around a little in the Temple Bar area, and that was it.

We went back and just ate at the hotel, and made plans to get to the airport. Our flight was leaving at 6:30 so we had to get there super early. This was basically a 24 hour trip home. (I wrote about it a little in my second Dublin WorldCon post. https://marthawells.dreamwidth.org/483886.html)

And that's it!

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Upcoming

Upcoming Publications:


* October 1, 2019 Nebula Awards Showcase 2019 "All Systems Red" reprint, Parvus Press.


* November 19, 2019 The Cloud Roads Book 1 of the Books of the Raksura Night Shade Books, reprint in mass market paperback.


* May 5, 2020 Network Effect: A Murderbot Novel Tor.com, hardcover.



Upcoming Events:


* October 4-5, 2019.
Martha will be a guest at the Brown County Library ComicCon at Central Library in Green Bay, WI.


* October 18-20, 2019.
Martha will be a guest of honor at Capclave in Rockville, MD.

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Ireland Trip, Day 7

Wednesday

Newgrange! When we were first talking about WorldCon this year, this was one of the first places we talked about going.

https://www.newgrange.com/

Newgrange is a Stone Age (Neolithic) monument in the Boyne Valley, County Meath, it is the jewel in the crown of Ireland's Ancient East. Newgrange was constructed about 5,200 years ago (3,200 B.C.) which makes it older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza. Newgrange is a large circular mound 85 meters (93 yards) in diameter and 13.5 meters (15 yards) high with a 19 meter (21 yard) stone passageway and chambers inside. The mound is ringed by 97 large kerbstones, some of which are engraved with symbols called megalithic art.

Newgrange was built by a farming community that prospered on the rich lands of the Boyne Valley. Knowth and Dowth are similar mounds that together with Newgrange have been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Archaeologists classified Newgrange as a passage tomb, however Newgrange is now recognised to be much more than a passage tomb. Ancient Temple is a more fitting classification, a place of astrological, spiritual, religious and ceremonial importance, much as present day cathedrals are places of prestige and worship where dignitaries may be laid to rest.

This time we took a private tour, because none of the other tour combinations had exactly what we wanted to see. It turned out great, our guide Michael picked us up in his car at our hotel at 7:30 and we drove out to Newgrange, which is not very far from Dublin. The visitor's center was closed for renovation so the tickets to the site were free, so we got there right before it opened and stood in line, and managed to get on the second bus to the site.

It's out in the country, surrounded by hills, trees, and open fields, but there are private houses along the road to the tomb, so they have you go along a walkway through a forest and across the river, then you get on a little shuttle bus that takes you up to the site. (There's a second passage tomb in the park, but while it's larger than Newgrange it's not intact, so we opted to just see Newgrange.) Once there you wait at a little building for your on-site guide, who takes you up to wait in front of the tomb entrance and tells you about the site. Then when the previous tour comes out, you get to go in.
It's very small in there, though the ceiling is high, so it didn't feel as claustrophobic as it actually was. There are parts of the entrance passage it's difficult to fit through and you have to do it without touching anything. The Solstice demonstration they do is cool, but not much like the real thing. But seeing the tomb and going inside was absolutely worth the whole trip.

On the way out, we stopped at a little sheep farm/weaving shop selling crafts from local artists, which was really nice.

After that we drove to the Hill of Tara. http://hilloftara.org/history-and-information/
The Hill of Tara, located near the River Boyne, is an archaeological complex that runs between Navan and Dunshaughlin in County Meath, Leinster, Ireland. It contains a number of ancient monuments, and, according to tradition, was the seat of Árd Rí na hÉireann, or the High King of Ireland. Recent scholarship claims that despite the rich narratives derived from mythologies, Tara was not so much a true seat of kingship, but a sacral site associated with kingship rituals.

The day had started out bright and sunny but it was rainy and windy by the time we made the short drive over to Tara. It's hard to see from the place where you park. There's a little souvenir shop, a cafe, a bookstore, and a public restroom down at the foot, and all you can really see from there past the fence is the rise of the hill and the old church that was put on the side of the hill. The parking lot was full and there were a couple of busses there, but the site is so huge the people are like a drop in a bucket.

We climbed up in the rain (I had imagined us tramping around in the hills in the rain on this trip so this was perfect) and we went up through the section that is probably a ceremonial avenue up to the top. While we were going around looking at the various points on the top (the view is incredible) we ran into one of the private bus tours. They were clearly having a religious experience or ritual around one of the stones. (The one that was found at the very top but was moved lower down at some point.) Michael knew their guide, who looked very uncomfortable with what was going on. They finally finished and moved on, and we took our photos of the stone. Then we went to the next part and there they were, holding hands in a big circle, and making their guide participate. So that happened.

Then we finished up and went down to the cafe and the two shops. It was very crowded but Michael had made reservations for us and we had lunch at a table in the window looking out over the countryside. And the food was so good, the people who live around there come up to eat there too.

After going to the bookshop and getting some books and other things (it was run by the author who wrote some of the guidebooks on Tara), we took off toward Trim Castle. http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/midlands-eastcoast/trimcastle/

Trim Castle, the largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland, was constructed over a thirty-year period by Hugh de Lacy and his son Walter. Hugh de Lacy was granted the Liberty of Meath by King Henry II in 1172 in an attempt to curb the expansionist policies of Richard de Clare, (Strongbow). Construction of the massive three storied Keep, the central stronghold of the castle, was begun c. 1176 on the site of an earlier wooden fortress. This massive twenty-sided tower, which is cruciform in shape, was protected by a ditch, curtain wall and moat.

Trim was probably the best castle we saw, with the best tour showing how it had been built and added on to over time. We got there in time to join a larger tour that was about to start. And I don't know about that description because it is a hell of a lot taller than three stories. Yes, I had to climb it in the rain.

Most of the inside is open so you can see the levels and how it was built, but there is a canopy over the top to shelter it, so it wasn't too bad until we went out on the roof. Then we had to climb down the whole way at once in one of the narrow spiral tower staircases, with a rope instead of a railing. I burnt out my left thigh muscle and my husband slipped once and fell against the wall, but didn't get hurt. I was further in front and didn't see it. I just heard him fall and a bunch of people saying "Oh no!"
So we managed to get down to the ground again, then ran across the moat and the road to get some postcards and a booklet, then headed back to Dublin. We had a great time and enjoyed hanging out with Michael.

Tomorrow, the Book of Kells, a museum, and two medieval cathedrals.

ETA: Photos here! https://twitter.com/i/status/1169226023399043077

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