Martha Wells's Blog, page 58

Wired Magazine

It's starting to ship now, so I can finally announce: I have a short (very short) story in the January issue of Wired Magazine! It's part of an SF feature and the other writers are Charlie Jane Anders, Ken Liu, Nisi Shawl, Laurie Penny, Charles Yu, and Adam Rodgers. It's sort of a short Murderbot Diaries prequel.

I'm pretty stoked about it. :)

comments

Monday Question Answers

kjbooklog asked: It seems that Arbora are very curious about the outside world, but are almost never allowed to leave their court. Do they ever run away?

No, because they aren't human, and don't think/feel about it like humans would. They live in a very hostile environment, and they would find being alone outside a court terrifying and exhausting, partly because of their subliminal mental connections to the court and the queens. Living in tightly knit groups is part of their evolution and culture, even pre-Aeriat.


And now that they're trading with groundlings who make flying boats, will we start to see small groups of Raksura (Aeriat and Arbora) running around having adventures?

There were always small groups of Raksura who had adventures. The first contact with the Golden Isles was made by Solace and Sable, a queen and consort pair who led explorations for long distances around Indigo Cloud's eastern colony, which was how Stone knew to send Jade and the others there to get help. It's not uncommon, particularly in large healthy courts.



dranon asked: The probably silly one first. I love the Raksura (and will eventually figure out how to make a good costume wing), but I've never quite been able to get a feel for their size. Are the Raksura (and other races) more or less human sized, and the colony trees absolutely enormous, or are the colony trees about the size of large redwoods and the Raksura scaled to match?

Ooh, I hope you can make a costume because that would be awesome.

They're more or less human-sized, and the mountain-trees are that enormous. Think about an average big city skyscraper, but maybe three to four times as wide, and that's what the trunks are like.


The writing-related one, which I hope I haven't asked too badly. You've commented that Murderbot was rough going for you to write. Are you happy with the stories and the novel deal in spite of that? I, and many others, think the results were well worth it (and your Hugo looks very festive in the picture you posted the other day), but writing is hard enough already.

I'm actually very happy. When All Systems Red came out, I was completely not expecting my weird little robot novella would take off like this. At most I've hoping it would get some more attention and readers for the Raksura series. This has been a wild ride and I am dealing with some anxiety issues because I'm used to a certain level of attention as a writer and it's going to take some time to get used to more. But while the writing is hard, it's very rewarding in a lot of ways. I'm happy with the result, even when it's take two to three times the work to get there.


***

If you have any questions, general questions about publishing (how it works, agents, etc), or a writing advice question, or a question about my writing, or my books, or cats, or anything else I've been doing, ask in this post and I'll try to answer it.

comments

Question Answers!

bedlamsbard asked I'm on a Raksura reread (which I do at least twice a year!), and one thing I've been wondering is if queens mate with Arbora? I know we mostly get Moon's POV on consorts and Arbora (and producing mentors and warriors), but is it equally common for queens and Arbora, or is that something much rarer?

It's not common, but it would happen, if the Arbora ended up with a bloodline that needed to be combined back into the royal Aeriat bloodline. And a queen mating with a mentor would probably be more likely to produce queens or consorts than a queen mating with a regular Arbora.


nenya_kanadka asked Was there anything that struck you as different about the process of writing and/or publishing YA vs adult SFF?

I think YA is a lot bigger and produces a lot more income for publishers than people outside publishing realize. I still have people telling me confidently "kids don't read anymore" when anybody who's seen a library (or been to the ALA) knows this absolutely is not true. School and public libraries buy tons of books, and if I'm remembering right, YA and other books for younger readers tend to sell more in hardcover than ebook and audio. (Audio is much bigger than it used to be, now that you can get audiobooks on your phone or MP3 player, but it trends more for adults who can now listen to books while doing other things.) Libraries tend to buy truckloads of YA, sometimes 3-5 copies of a book per library. (Not for the whole library system, but for each individual library.)

With adult books, you can have any age range of character from babies to ancient, but in YA publishers usually want a character who's an older teenager. Also some publishers really want you to hit a particular tone: not too young (which puts the book back a few years into middle grade) and not too old (which might put it forward into adult). But you do see a lot of YA books that have crossover with middle grade and vice verse, and a lot of adult and YA crossover. (There's an attempt to categorize the last one by calling it New Adult, but it doesn't take in the number of books with older characters that are still popular in the YA market.)

I think the interesting thing about YA is a lot of it is hard to characterize, which goes back to its origin of librarians pulling adult books for readers who had aged out of the children's section. It can be any genre, literary, romance, SF/F, mystery, or combination of genre. It's very unique in commercial publishing and I think that's why there's so many attempts to categorize it very specifically, and then YA books that don't fit those specific characterizations will pop up and become bestsellers.

This is very rambly, but basically YA can be more difficult to succeed in than adult books, not because the audience is difficult, but because publishers often have very different ideas of what YA is and what YA needs to be popular.



***

If you have any questions, general questions about publishing (how it works, agents, etc), or a writing advice question, or a question about my writing, or my books, or cats, or anything else I've been doing, ask in this post and I'll try to answer it.

comments

Friday Friday Friday

It's really cold and windy but we're going to see the historic downtown holiday parade tonight. Hopefully it won't rain.

The roast beast is in the freezer ready for Christmas day but I've still got food shopping, present wrapping, and house cleaning to do next week.

And I'm looking forward to the Yuletide exchange. I don't participate except to read a bunch of the stories, but it's something I look forward to every year.

comments

Question Answer

muccamukk asked If the Fell wanted to live like Raksura, could they?

Let's see, I'll try not to be spoilery with this answer.

I think they could. There's really no biological reasons that they live the way they do, so they could settle down somewhere, if the progenitors wanted to. Moon speculates at one point that there are Fell who left their flights and were living hidden away somewhere. We don't know if there are entire flights who decided to settle somewhere isolated.

I don't think the Fell who come to the Reaches will want to live exactly like Raksura, but living in a colony tree, even without any luxuries, is going to be way more comfortable for the dakti and kethel than moving around constantly. I think they would probably evolve into a culture that was similar to the Raksura but not a copy of it.



***

If you have any questions, general questions about publishing (how it works, agents, etc), or a writing advice question, or a question about my writing, or my books, or cats, or anything else I've been doing, ask in this post and I'll try to answer it.

comments

Questions

I haven't done this in a while (according to the tag, since 2017!) so:

If you have any questions, general questions about publishing (how it works, agents, etc), or a writing advice question, or a question about my writing, or my books, or cats, or anything else I've been doing, ask in this post and I'll try to answer it.

comments

Book Recs: Tuesday

(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.)


* Where Oblivion Lives by T. Frohock
Born of daimon and angel, Diago Alvarez is a being unlike all others. The embodiment of dark and light, he has witnessed the good and the horror of this world and those beyond. In the supernatural war between angels and daimons that will determine humankind’s future, Diago has chosen Los Nefilim, the sons and daughters of angels who possess the power to harness music and light.


* A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court. Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation.


* All the Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma
The debut short story collection from acclaimed U.K. writer Priya Sharma, “All the Fabulous Beasts,” collects 16 stunning and monstrous tales of love, rebirth, nature, and sexuality. A heady mix of myth and ontology, horror and the modern macabre.


* Paper Girls, Vol 5 by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang (Artist), Matthew Wilson (Artist)
Can anyone escape fate? That’s what Mac and her fellow newspaper delivery girls must discover as they escape the year 2000 and travel to the distant future.


* The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty
Nahri’s life changed forever the moment she accidentally summoned Dara, a formidable, mysterious djinn, during one of her schemes. Whisked from her home in Cairo, she was thrust into the dazzling royal court of Daevabad—and quickly discovered she would need all her grifter instincts to survive there. Now, with Daevabad entrenched in the dark aftermath of a devastating battle, Nahri must forge a new path for herself. But even as she embraces her heritage and the power it holds, she knows she’s been trapped in a gilded cage, watched by a king who rules from the throne that once belonged to her family—and one misstep will doom her tribe.


* The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo
Quick-witted, ambitious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dancehall girl to help pay off her mother’s Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin may finally get the adventure she has been longing for. Eleven-year-old houseboy Ren is also on a mission, racing to fulfill his former master’s dying wish: that Ren find the man’s finger, lost years ago in an accident, and bury it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so, or his master’s soul will wander the earth forever. As the days tick relentlessly by, a series of unexplained deaths wracks the district, along with whispers of men who turn into tigers. Ji Lin and Ren’s increasingly dangerous paths crisscross through lush plantations, hospital storage rooms, and ghostly dreamscapes.


* The True Queen by Zen Cho
When sisters Muna and Sakti wake up on the peaceful beach of the island of Janda Baik, they can’t remember anything, except that they are bound as only sisters can be. They have been cursed by an unknown enchanter, and slowly Sakti starts to fade away. The only hope of saving her is to go to distant Britain, where the Sorceress Royal has established an academy to train women in magic.


* Finders by Melissa Scott
Desperate for a job, salvagers Cassilde Sam and Dai Winter accept help from Summerlad Ashe, their former partner and lover, who betrayed them during a war between the worlds of the Entente and the Verge. Ingenious adaptations of the technologically advanced relics of humanity’s Ancestor and Successor predecessors form the foundation of civilization, and Ashe’s theories about a particular section of the Ancestor sky palace being open for salvage leads the trio to a Gift, a legendary Ancestor healing device. Space travel and faster-than-light drives blend with world mythology as Sam, Winter, and Ashe race to stay ahead of an underground group that hunts for Gifts across the settled worlds.

comments

Holiday Hugo

The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red's Best Novella Hugo award is dressed up for the holidays: https://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/180952200352/the-murderbot-diaries-all-systems-reds-best

comments

Weekend

It's in the 40s here and it rained all day yesterday. Like, all day, maybe eighteen hours. It's been a wet fall, and of course Houston is flooded again. They should just buy submarines and turn it into an underwater city.

My joints really don't like damp cold now. I went out Christmas shopping today and my knee decided to mostly stop working in the middle of World Market.

comments

Interesting Times

So the rest of this week will be somewhat strange because I live in the college town where Bush is going to be buried. The coffin is going to be brought in by train and the whole huge university will be closed on Thursday (and this is such a big disruption that parts of it had to close yesterday) so it's a whole big deal. Bush was here once in the building I worked in when he was alive and I didn't even bother to leave my office to see him, so I'm for sure not going to participate. Some schools are closing for the day, which should just be great fun for parents who don't work at the university and are going to have to find alternate care for their kids.

I was really looking forward to the Christmas First Friday in the historic downtown (food, concerts, movies, booths, shops, etc) but it looks like it's going to pour down rain so that's a huge bummer.

I wrote a line in the Murderbot novel that pleases me immensely but won't make sense until you read it: "in case of emergency, run"

comments