To the authors who encouraged and inspired me to write my first book. A version of this appears in...
A version of this appears in the acknowledgements section of my book, Super-Borg Dies, but there was so much more I wanted to say about each author that made little sense to put into an acknowledgements section, so I’m expanding on it more here.
I want to thank all the authors who took the time to pass on advice, answer my many questions, or just be really cool.
William Hertling and I worked together at HP. He was the first person I knew to write a book and self publish it. You should check out his first book Avagardo Corp (the first book in the Singularity Series). He then continued to write and publish several books (Kill Process is the first book in the Kill Chain series). Will answered all of my questions and was super helpful. He’s the one who first got me interested in self-publishing.
Eliot Peper is a prolific writer. Since 2014 he has published two trilogies and three standalone novels. Bandwidth is the first book in the Analog series and a great place to start, but I think my two favorite books are Cumulus and Neon Fever Dream. Eliot is an amazing individual who has shared so much over the years. He’s jumped on calls to answer my questions and is really the one who solidified for me my self-publishing path. Eliot is very active online and on his blog (be sure to sign up for his newsletter). Someday I hope to meet him IRL.
Nick Harkaway is the kind of writer I know I could never be, but I hold up as an unattainable example that keeps me striving to be better. Nick loves to write, and he loves words, and that joy comes through in his writing. He is a pleasure to read. After picking up his first book, Gone-Away World I fell in love with the mad and brilliant story telling. I then found him online (he was and is fairly active on Twitter) and proceeded to digitally stalk him for years - which he endured with grace. Then when we moved to London, not only did he have lunch with me but was kind enough to invite Jen and I to the book launch party for Angelmaker. Jen and I have a select few authors which we both love and read, and we have different favorites, but if you were to make a Venn diagram of the authors and books we both love, Nick and Angelmaker would be the center of that diagram. I also highly recommend Tigerman and if you’re up for a Gordian knot of a read, Gnomon.
While in London I came across Tom Pollock and The City’s Son (the first book in the Skyscraper Throne series). He also endured my digital stalking and after I moved back to the US I continued to order his books from the UK. When he found out that I had ordered his book from Goldsboros in London to have it shipped to the states (it wasn’t available in the states yet) he went down and signed my copy with a special message.
When I woked at IMDb we would bring a boat to San Diego Comic-Con and do celebrity interviews for several days. We would also have these really lavish parties for our sponsors and any celebrities we could get to show up. I always ended up on the bottow deck of the boat trying to escape the noise and crowds. This is where I eneded up talking to Andy Weir (The Martian), who hung out with me and talked about board games and described the economics of the Moon’s society for his yet to be released next book, Artemis. The amount of work that Andy puts into the back story of his books, but never actually make it into the book is astounding. It taught me that so much of writing isn’t actually about writing.
Do you know that Zombie Rom-Com movie, Warm Bodies? Did you know it was based on a book by Isaac Marion? And did you know that there’s a whole series of books? Well I did, and I was a huge fan. Isaac is a Seattle local and often attends Emerald City ComicCon. One year my daughter and I went and got my book signed by him and he was really cool. As we walked away my daughter (whos seen me interact with celebrities before) said, “Wow, I’ve never seen you fan boy out before.” Celebrities don’t make me geek out, but authors do. Isaac and the Warm Bodies series have had a difficult journey and watching him persevere as a writer has been encouraging.
Lastly, I love getting to meet authors. All authors I’ve met are gratious and appreciative of getting to meet their fans, but not all continue to engage with thier readers online, and I don’t expect them to. But that’s why I find it extra encouraging when authors do. Ramez Naam (the Nexus Trilogy), Wesley Chu (The Lives of Tao series), and Ben Aaronovitch (the Rivers of London series) not only were kind, and took the time to talk to me at events, but they have continued to stay engaged online, which is just real cool. Oh yeah, and they’re all amazing authors.
