Martha Wells's Blog, page 52

Finished

I just finished a draft of The Murderbot Diaries: Network Effect. This is the first time I think I almost cried at finishing a novel, not because it was sad, but because I am so fucking relieved to be done. It took about 18 months, with breaks for working on Magic: the Gathering's Dominaria story and some other things, which is about 7-8 months longer than a novel usually takes me to write.

Murderbot's ability to take in information from multiple sources simultaneously make the plotting and fight scenes more difficult and less intuitive for me. And also dealing with the character's anxiety and depression and general emotional rawness is sort of simultaneously liberating and exhausting. Also, comedy is hard, folks.

It still needs all the usual revision etc, and I just sent it in to my agent and editor yesterday afternoon, but. It is actually a novel now and not just a collection of disconnected words.

It's about 111,000 words (which is about normal novel size, just a bit shorter than The Cloud Roads for reference) and it will be out in hardcover May 2020 from Tor.com.

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I'd also like to thank everybody for the advice and reassurance on my post about anxiety and cats who hate each other on sight. We're going to try the cage idea, so they have a chance to get use to each other without being able to try to kill each other.

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Nebula Award Winners

So Artificial Condition did not win, but I love the novella that did win (it's one of the ones I nominated for the Hugo).

Congrats to all the winners! I was extremely proud to be a nominee in this group.

Full ballot: https://www.tor.com/2019/05/19/announcing-the-2018-nebula-awards-winners/



Novel

The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)


Novella

The Tea Master and the Detective, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean)


Novelette

The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander (Tor.com Publishing)


Short Story

“The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington”, Phenderson Djèlí Clark (Fireside 2/18)


Game Writing

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Charlie Brooker (House of Tomorrow & Netflix)


The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation


Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Screenplay by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman)


The Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt; Macmillan)


Kate Wilhelm Solstice Awards were presented to Neil Clarke and Nisi Shawl.

The 35th Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master honor was presented to William Gibson.

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My Anxiety Closet

As some of you know, I have problems with anxiety and it's been really bad lately. This book has been a bear to write and even now that I'm past the difficult bits and am finishing up, my brain refuses to believe it's possible to relax. I've also been worrying about the situation with our new cat, who is in a hate/hate relationship with are two other cats, who don't like each other much even at the best of times. We have to keep Max separated from the others, but sometimes he gets out and then they run wildly around the house screaming. (To humans, Max is like a Ragdoll in a tabby coat and would never think of biting or scratching. To our cats, he is a monster.)

This morning I actually had the dream where I had taken two classes at the university and forgotten to go to them for the last few weeks, and it was finals, and I was trying to figure out if it was too late to drop them.

So that's happening.

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Quickie Post

I have a story (originally published on my Patreon) on Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, and it has lovely art by Simon Walpole

http://www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com/?p=2743

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Locus Award Ballot!

Artificial Condition and Rogue Protocol are on the Locus Award ballot in the Best Novellas category!

https://locusmag.com/2019/05/2019-locus-awards-finalists/

Congrats to all the other finalists!

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Question, Rec, State of Me

There was a question I answered on GoodReads about All Systems Red where part of what I said was:

It was originally intended to be a short story (with a sad ending) but while I was working on it I realized it needed to be a little longer to really tell the story. And I decided I wanted to give it a hopeful ending.

In a comment, Marti Dolata asked: Out of curiosity, would you share with us your original sad ending?

The sad ending was going to be that Murderbot died to protect Mensah and the others. But as I was writing I realized I didn't want to do that to the character, and it was a better story if the character lived.


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In Dreaming Bound by J. Kathleen Cheney just came out this week. It's the sequel to Dreaming Death, and the books are fantasy-mysteries in a complex secondary world society, where some people have telepathy and other powers. It's set in a city-state with three different distinct cultures (with different customs, different levels of technology, different everything), about two characters who, through psychic connections, dreams, and an ability to psychically draw images from dead bodies, end up helping the constabulary solve murders, while navigating their own complicated places in their cultural hierarchies.

If you like murder mysteries, fantasy, cultures in conflict and cultures figuring out how to get along, you should check out these books. Also, if you like The Steerswoman books by Rosemary Kirstein, it has the same feel. I really enjoyed the first one and I'm getting ready to read the second soon.

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I'm finishing up the ending of Network Effect and my stress has hit maximum levels. Yesterday I was trying to write and would think of a line and forget it before I could finish the sentence. I'm better today, but augh.

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Comicpalooza Schedule

Here's my schedule for Comicpalooza in Houston, which is coming up way too quickly.
https://www.comicpalooza.com/ May 10-12, 2019



Friday

2 - 3 Writing Robots and AI

5 - 6 signing at the Murder By the Book Booth in dealers room/artist's alley (it's usually between the celebrity signing area and artist's alley)

6:30 - 7:30 The Business of Writing


Saturday

1 - 2 signing at the Murder By the Book Booth in dealers room/artist's alley

3 - 4 "Worldbuilding Tips and Tricks: How to Create Believable Worlds"

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The Story of the Cat

So, this past Friday I found a stray cat in our backyard, incompetently trying to catch birds in our bird feeder area. I thought it was the large adult cat that comes into our yard occasionally so went out there to chase it away. But when it came out of the cover of the plants, I saw it was much smaller and younger, probably under a year old. I called it and it stopped and actually wanted to come to me. When it came close, I realized it was a young cat, still very kittenish, and basically a skeleton with fur.

I brought it some food and it snatched the first bite and ran away to eat it. Then sort of gradually calmed down and realized it could have the whole bowl. We weren't sure what to do, but after a little while it was crying to come in the house, so we ended up bringing it in and sequestering it in the guest bathroom. (We have two inside-only cats so introducing it into the household was going to be a process.) And naturally it was Friday night and the vet didn't open until Monday so we had to wait to get its health checked out.

This cat was clearly a house cat who had been dumped. He had been fixed, he was immediately cuddly and sweet, and he even purred loudly when he realized he was inside a house. I took him to the vet on Monday then found out they were out of Feline leukemia tests and wouldn't have them until Tuesday. Also we found a cat bite on his hip, so there was a chance he might have it and it got really nerve-racking. But I took him in on Tuesday, and he didn't have it, so now we have a new cat.

And here's a photo: https://twitter.com/marthawells1/status/1119577302986366976

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Links and Update

Here's some links:

* Subtle Forms of Racism to Avoid in SFF by Blackfemgeekery
This is a transcript of a talk given at EasterCon in the UK on April 20, 2019.


And here's some lovel fan art for the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy by Worldsentwined:

https://worldsentwined.tumblr.com/post/183577418649/the-wizard-hunters-watercolor-and-colored-pencil

https://worldsentwined.tumblr.com/post/183577293859/isle-of-storms-watercolor-and-colored-pencil

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I'm closing in on the end of Network Effect, about mid to 3/4 of the way through the climax, and deep in decision fatigue and stress.

That's about all I've got right now.

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This made my morning

They can't stop us now: https://twitter.com/StarWarshipper/status/1118287780130328576 (video with music)

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