The World Is So Full Of A Number Of Things...

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I'm working on the final draft of my novel, going up and down the pages looking for typos and infelicities of phrasing or thought. Which is why I have been so terribly remiss in keeping this blog updated.

Mea culpa, and I'll be done soon.

Meanwhile, life goes on. So I have a more than a week's worth  of news for you. As ensue:


1. The Liars Club Oddcast

I was interviewed by a group of merry pranksters from Philadelphia's own Liars Club (that most
admirable of all writers' organizations, one that doesn't distinguish between genres and mainstream) for their podcast -- or Oddcast, as they call it.

As a rule, I cannot bring myself to listen to listen to my own interviews. But Marianne and Sean say that it came out well. Certainly, there was a great deal of fun and laughter. Because -- and here's a dark secret that no one else will tell you -- most writers are fun-loving, upbeat people. Shh!

At the end of the interview, I was challenged to present my hosts with two truths and one lie and let them guess which was the untruth. Did I fool them? There's only one way to find out.

You can find the Liars Club Oddcast main page here, which let's you choose iTunes or Stitcher or iHeart Radio as options for listening.


2. The Iron Dragon's Daughter E-Book Sale

Amazon has selected The Iron Dragon's Daughter as a Kindle Monthly Deal throughout June. The ebook will be downpriced to 1.99 at Amazon.com for the entire month,  With so many ebook sales being one-day pop-ups, this is a surprisingly generous deal.

So... much praise to Open Road Media for arranging this.


3. I Am Returning to China!

I have been invited to the Fourth China International SF Conference in Chengdu, Sechuan Province, China this coming 10th-12th of November..

I accepted, of course. I love China, I love Chengdu, and this is a very exciting time for Chinese science fiction. Also, and best of all, I'll get to see some of my Chinese friends again. So this was an extremely easy decision to make.

I'll almost certainly be blogging from Chengdu when the time comes.


4. The Photo Above 

Not everything, mirabile dictu, is about me. When I was at the Nebula Awards Weekend in Pittsburgh, I snapped the above shot. 


This requires a little context. The guest speaker for the awards banquet was astronaut Dr. Kjell Lindgrin. During the signing event, I was standing by Joe Haldeman's table, talking with his wife Gay when Kjell came up with his phone in his hand and the above picture loaded into it. While he was waiting his turn to show the picture to Joe, he explained what it was and, very quickly, I asked if I could take a snap.

What you see above you is a copy of The Forever War afloat inside the International Space Station.

Wow.


And that's all for this week. There'll be more news soon. And, knock on wood, more often.


Above: See how casually that's held. What a wondrous time in which we live!


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