Martha Wells's Blog, page 84

Links I've been meaning to post

* Worldbuilding with Martha Wells: http://www.kaykenyon.com/2016/09/07/worldbuilding-with-martha-wells/

* A read-along of The Cloud Roads on Over the Effing Rainbow: http://overtheeffingrainbow.co.uk/2016/09/sff-read-alongs-cloud-roads-part-1/

* Roqoo Depot Interview with me at WorldCon: https://roqoodepot.com/2016/08/28/midamericon-ii-interview-with-martha-wells/

* Panel recording from WorldCon: Changing the Medium: https://roqoodepot.com/2016/08/28/midamericon-ii-changing-the-medium-panel/ (featured authors Martha Wells and William C. Dietz as well as guests Gary Kloster, Christopher Kastensmidt and moderator Monica Valentinelli)

* Another panel recording from WorldCon: Queer Star Wars: https://roqoodepot.com/2016/08/27/midamericon-ii-queer-star-wars-panel/ (moderated by Matt Jacobson and features Martha Wells (the author of Star Wars: Razor’s Edge), Vivian Trask, Dr. Amy H. Sturgis and Dr. Mary A. Turzillo)

* Another interview at SciFiFantasyNetwork: http://www.scififantasynetwork.com/martha-wells-interview-writers-fantasy/

The Pixel Project: Read for Pixels

On Saturday, September 17, 2016, at 7:30 CST I'll be doing and online reading and an interview as part of The Pixel Project's Read for Pixels Fall Edition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1EyARkzeKQ to help raise funds to fight violence against women.


They also have an Indiegogo with great book prizes going on now.

The Pixel Project is a virtual, volunteer-led global 501(c)3 nonprofit organisation whose mission is to raise awareness, funds and volunteer power for the cause to end violence against women (VAW) using the power of the internet, social media, and pop culture/the arts.

Our flagship campaign is the Celebrity Male Role Model Pixel Reveal campaign which aims to turbo-charge global awareness about VAW while raising US$1 million for the cause by getting a global audience to collectively unveil a million-pixel mystery collage of Celebrity Male Role Models by donating US$1 per pixel. Our ongoing campaigns also include Read For Pixels, Music For Pixels, 16 For 16, 30 For 30, Survivor Stories, the Twitter Tag Team and more.

We are also a ‘first step’ organisation – offering people who are first-time supporters opportunities to help the cause in ways that make the most of their talents and professional skills. Our team of volunteers is scattered across 6 continents, 12 timezones and over 15 cities worldwide, proving that there are no cultural or social barriers when it comes to VAW.

Links and Recs

Links

* Readers of the Lost ARC: Courtney Schafer Explores the 1980s

* On that Rabid Puppies thing and my Hugo Award-winning novella Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

* Hao Jingfang wins Hugo Award with dark story of social inequality and injustice in Beijing


Recs

* Short story: My Grandmother's Bones by S.L Huang

* Breath of Earth by Beth Cato
In an alternate 1906, the United States and Japan have forged a powerful confederation— the Unified Pacific—in an attempt to dominate the world. Their first target is a vulnerable China. In San Francisco, headstrong secretary Ingrid Carmichael is assisting a group of powerful geomancer wardens who have no idea of the depth of her own talent—or that she is the only woman to possess such skills.

* Musketeer Space by Tansy Rayner Roberts
Dana D'Artagnan longs for a life of adventure as a Musketeer pilot in the Royal Fleet on Paris Satellite. When her dream crashes and burns, she gains a friendship she never expected, with three of the city's most infamous sword-fighting scoundrels: the Musketeers known as Athos, Porthos and Aramis.

* Starfang: Claw of the Clan by Joyce Chng
After recovering from her harrowing ordeal, Captain Francesca Min Yue is on the hunt once more. Keen on revenge for the death of her beloved crew and pack-mate, she is not going to roll over and play dead. However, Yeung Leung, long-time enemy and leader of the Amber Eyes, still eludes the captain's claws. Will Francesca be able to win back the honor of her clan? Or will she be dragged into a strange - and dangerous - alliance with the raptor-like shishini? Honor, integrity and courage are all tested in this sequel to Starfang: Rise of the Clan.

News of Upcoming Stuff

The description of The Harbors of the Sun is up but there still isn't a preorder option for it.

It's the sequel to The Edge of Worlds and the final book in the series.

A former friend has betrayed the Raksura and their groundling companions, and now the survivors must race across the Three Worlds to rescue their kidnapped family members. When Moon and Stone are sent ahead to scout, they quickly encounter an unexpected and potentially deadly ally, and decide to disobey the queens and continue the search alone. Following in a wind-ship, Jade and Malachite make an unlikely alliance of their own, until word reaches them that the Fell are massing for an attack on the Reaches, and that forces of the powerful Empire of Kish are turning against the Raksura and their groundling comrades.

But there may be no time to stage a rescue, as the kidnapped Raksura discover that their captors are heading toward a mysterious destination with a stolen magical artifact that will cause more devastation for the Reaches than anything the lethal Fell can imagine. To stop them, the Raksura will have to take the ultimate risk and follow them into forbidden territory.

* The Edge of Worlds is also up for preorder in paperback. It's already available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.


* Also there's more new fan art on the Compendium: http://www.marthawells.com/compendium/#art a drawing of Frost, by Katriona Seallach on DeviantArt

* On Saturday, September 17, 2016, at 7:30 CST I'll be doing and online reading and an interview as part of The Pixel Project's Read for Pixels Fall Edition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1EyARkzeKQ

* On Wednesday, October 19, 2016, at 4:30 I'll be doing a talk on worldbuilding and a Q&A session as part of the Hal Hall Lecture Series sponsored by Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, at TAMU.

New fan art

I've posted new fan art to the Books of the Raksura Compendium on my web site: http://www.marthawells.com/compendium/#art

It's "When Moon first encounters Stone in The Cloud Roads" by Samantha Majumder. Samantha says: One of my favorite 'scenes' was when Moon encounters Stone for the first time and gets chased around a floating island a bit before he flies down to cling to the underside of the island and escapes. I enjoyed that part so much I painted what I thought the scene might look like with acrylic and watercolor and would like to show you as well. I attached a scan of the fan art to this email. I aimed to reflect how threatening Stone appeared to Moon as he was chased. Also, the cover art of your book influenced the yellow tinted sky.

Thanks to Samantha!

If anyone wants me to link to or post their Raksura art on the compendium, just let me know.

WorldCon

I got back from WorldCon yesterday, and I am dead tired. I don't know that I'll get much done today.

The convention was really big and I enjoyed a lot of it. Especially the writers workshop session I did, and the Queer Star Wars panel on Friday, and my reading. Also really enjoyed the Build a World game show on Friday night. The time and room got moved, so we lost some of our audience, but it was still a lot of fun, and I got to direct some audience members in an interpretive dance to explain the world we created. And the last panel I did, the Urban Fantasy in Transition panel was great.

The exhibit hall was really well done this year, and was full of displays and programming. There was even a big craft area with supplies and classes that were taught there. There was a fake river partitioning off the dealers room, with a twenty foot tall glittery volcano, and when the room closed, the volcano "erupted" and the river turned into lava. (Plastic lava) It was really cool. And we went to some of the bid parties Friday night and swore allegiance to China and San Juan. Also Ireland, I think, but I didn't get a ribbon there.

And the Hugo Award results, and the speeches, were fabulous.

The Verge: http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/21/12571854/hugo-awards-takeaways-the-fifth-season-nk-jemisin-binti

And from the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/21/hugo-awards-winners-nk-jemisin-sad-rabid-puppies

I'm so happy and so relieved the Hugo voters came together to drive off the rabid puppies again. By the organization's charter, it takes two years to change the award rules, and the new rules that were proposed at last year's WorldCon were voted in by the membership this year, so that should be the last time for slate voting by this gang of racist and misogynist assholes.

But it's still incredibly sad to look at the nomination stats, and see the novels and stories and best related work non-fiction that was driven off the list by this bunch of fuckwads. The list of nominees bumped by the puppies slate is at the end of the stats PDF: http://www.thehugoawards.org/content/pdf/2016HugoStatistics.pdf (Two of the short story nominees would have been "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" by Alyssa Wong and "Wooden Feathers" by Ursula Vernon.)

Quickie Post

I'm on my way back from WorldCon but just saw the hardcover of The Edge of Worlds is on sale on Amazon for 15.49 https://www.amazon.com/Edge-Worlds-Martha-Wells/dp/1597808431/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471826391&sr=8-1&keywords=Martha+wells

Pre-WorldCon New Books Post

* Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jones
Margerit Sovitre did not expect to inherit the Baron Saveze’s fortunes—and even less his bodyguard. The formidable Barbara, of unknown parentage and tied to the barony for secretive reasons, is a feared duelist, capable of defending her charges with efficient, deadly force.Equally perplexing is that while she is now a highly eligible heiress, Margerit did not also inherit the Saveze title, and the new baron eyes the fortunes he lost with open envy. Barbara, bitter that her servitude is to continue, may be the only force that stands between Margerit and the new Baron’s greed—and the ever deeper layers of intrigue that surround the ill-health of Alpennia’s prince and the divine power from rituals known only as The Mysteries of the Saints. At first Margerit protests the need for Barbara’s services, but soon she cannot imagine sending Barbara away—for reasons of state and reasons of the heart.


* Dragon Sisters by Joyce Chng
Enter a world of fantasy and magic and recipes set in Qing China. What happens when Xiao Xiao, a daughter of an Imperial Courtesan, finds a magical green pearl in the hands of her adoptive little sister? When she meets Ming Zhu, a dragon princess, daughter of the Dragon King, a friendship is formed. But will Princess Ming Zhu ever return back to her watery kingdom?


* An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows
When Saffron Coulter stumbles through a hole in reality, she finds herself trapped in Kena, a magical realm on the brink of civil war. There, her fate becomes intertwined with that of three very different women: Zech, the fast-thinking acolyte of a cunning, powerful exile; Viya, the spoiled, runaway consort of the empire-building ruler, Vex Leoden; and Gwen, an Earth-born worldwalker whose greatest regret is putting Leoden on the throne. But Leoden has allies, too, chief among them the Vex'Mara Kadeja, a dangerous ex-priestess who shares his dreams of conquest.

I got to read this early, and I said, "I very much enjoyed this. The main character falls out of our world into a life-changing adventure, with compelling characters and a fascinating world. I can't wait to read the next book."


* New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales From the Caribbean edited by Karen Lord


* Kojiki by Keith Yatsuhashi
Every civilization has its myths. Only one is true. When eighteen year old Keiko Yamada’s father dies unexpectedly, he leaves behind a one way ticket to Japan, an unintelligible death poem about powerful Japanese spirits and their gigantic, beast-like Guardians, and the cryptic words: “Go to Japan in my place. Find the Gate. My camera will show you the way.”


* Short story, Tor.com: Her Scales Shine Like Music by Rajnar Vajra

WorldCon, Storybundle, etc

First, our historical fantasy storybundle ends in two days, so last call for a great collection of books.

***

WorldCon schedule

Thursday

Workshop 1:00 to 3:00

Reading 6:30 pm 2202 (Readings) (Kansas City Convention Center)
(I'm going to read from The Harbors of the Sun)


Friday

Queer Star Wars 11:00 to 12:00 3501H (Kansas City Convention Center)
In a galaxy far, far away Juhani, a lesbian character, appeared in 2004 in Knights of the Old Republic. It wasn't until 2013 that we saw a same-sex kiss and numerous bisexual characters appear. Other than that however Star Wars has been decidedly backwards about coming forwards. With JJ Abrams saying there will be at least one gay character in the upcoming movies, and many fans hoping for that to be Poe, we take a look at why it has taken so long to happen and how we expect the public to react, not only in the US and Europe but also China and Russia.
Dr. Amy H. Sturgis, Martha Wells, Dr. Mary A. Turzillo Ph.D., Vivian Trask, Matt Jacobson

Changing the Medium 2:00 to 3:00 2206 (Kansas City Convention Center)
A look at what is involved when adapting a property from its original medium to another. How does a movie become a game or a book turn into a television show? What artistic licenses must be taken and how do you remain true to the spirit of the original?
Monica Valentinelli, Gary Kloster, Christopher Kastensmidt, Martha Wells, William Dietz

Autographing 5:00 to 6:00 Autographing Space (Kansas City Convention Center)

The Build a World Game Show 9:00 to 10:00 2503A (Kansas City Convention Center)
The Build-a-World Game Show is a live action worldbuilding game designed and run by Monica Valentinelli. Two teams of panelists compete to build a fantastic world in under an hour for fun and prizes. The Build-a-World Game Show incorporates audience participation, takes place in three rounds, and results in a fan-voted winner!
Monica Valentinelli, Catherine Lundoff, David McDonald, Tex Thompson, Martha Wells


Saturday

Kaffeeklatsch 10:00 am 2211 (KKs) (Kansas City Convention Center)

How Much Do You Worry About Your Own Cannon? 4:00 to 5:00 2503A (Kansas City Convention Center)
It seems sometimes that readers are more concerned about maintaining a series' internal consistency than the author is. Authors, you know why things have been changed. When writing a series, how important is it to you to maintain full consistency in what is canon for the story and how do you decide to throw something out for the importance of the narrative?
Mike Resnik, Don Sakers, Diana Rowland, Mike Shepherd Moscoe, Martha Wells


Sunday

Urban Fantasy in Transition 1:00 to 2:00 2207 (Kansas City Convention Center)
Urban fantasy has a long history within fantasy literature, but it's certainly gained new prominence recently. The panels examines how this definition has changed over time, what influences have helped to shape urban fantasy, and it's origins and potential evolution as a literary genre.
Lee Harris, Arthur Chu, Katherine Wynter, Martha Wells

The Story of Yesterday

So yesterday I was supposed to have one of those routine, screening, drive a camera through your insides tests. I spent Wednesday, on no solid food, just chicken broth, jello, tea and juice. Drinking the prep liquid that night was not as bad as I thought it would be (it tasted like Hawaiian Punch that had gone bad in some strange chemical way). The only hitch (we thought) was that I had to get up at 4:00 am to take the second dose. I spent the night in the guest room so I wouldn't wake up Troyce, then I screwed up when setting my alarm and almost slept through it. Troyce woke up anyway, realized there weren't any lights on, and woke me up. So the whole morning we were congratulating ourselves on not messing up the whole thing at the last moment and having to reschedule.

We got to the doctor's office at 8:30 am where they are running people in and out like clockwork and everything's going great, and I got a very nice nurse to get my IV line started so they could give me the sedation. Except I'm dehydrated, and my veins hide really, really well. So she tries, and the anesthesiologist tries, and we end up trying in both hands, both arms, one foot, and the right side of my neck. (That last one is not fun, I don't recommend it.)

My veins are triumphant! No one can catch them. Nurse and anesthesiologist feel horrible (and they really did, no one wants to be on either end of this process) and we have to stop, so the doctor decides to send me to the hospital where they can do a central line. (Troyce asked me where they would stick the central line and I said probably in my eye.)

But the first opening isn't until 1:00, so we have to go home for an hour and then get to the hospital at 11:00. (The good thing is, both these places are less than 10 minutes from our house because we live in a small town. The bad thing is I haven't had food since Tuesday and no water since 4:45 Thursday morning.) It takes about another hour to check in at the hospital, but the doctor had allowed for that in her schedule, and eventually I get an outpatient room.

The first nurse glares at me and asked if I normally have a problem with IVs. (I have a feeling that most people who get referred to the hospital for this are just perceived as being difficult. I am not difficult, I let them stick three needles in my neck and they're the ones who had to give up.) I told her I hadn't had an IV in thirty years so I didn't know, and when I get blood tests it is difficult but they always manage. First nurse leaves and then a second nurse comes in and says the first one went on lunch break. (This is a relief.) This nurse listens to the problem and says it would be better to avoid a central line, so first let's let Wesley try, so she gets Wesley.

Wesley turns out to be an actual blood wizard. He asks me what exactly the other people said was going wrong, leaves and comes back with a double handful of equipment, then, while laughing and chatting with us, uses a different technique and gets a vein on the back of my wrist on the first try. This is a HUGE RELIEF.

The rest of it was anticlimactic. Got wheeled in, got the sedation, woke up and hour later ready to go home. I remember the doctor coming in and talking to me, and explaining a picture of my insides, but it's very dreamlike. I think I'm very good at faking being coherent when I'm actually still mostly unconscious. But I have to do the test again for ten years, so it's a win. I'm hoping the insurance still covers everything like it's supposed to. The hospital didn't try to beat any money out of us when we were checking in, so I'm cautiously hopeful. We'll know when we get a bill, I guess.