Mark your calendars. Just got word from the folks at PodCastle. The audio version of “Bright Waters” is set for release on April 7th! You’ll be able to get it then. Remember: Everything on PodCastle is free.
Again, this is my story about a fearsome Dutch trapper, a spunky Irish woman stolen as a girl in an Abenaki raid, and a small Iroquois tattoo…
Just go to the PodCastle site. Enjoy!
You may nominate works for the 2009 Hugo award if you either:
If you liked “From the Clay of His Heart” and want to nominate it in the novelette category, all you need to do is go here and fill out this form before Saturday, February 28, 2009. You can nominate up to 5 stories in each category.
If you want to read it, you can do so online if you have an IGMS vol 8 subscription ($2.50). If you don’t plan on subscribing to that issue, post a comment, and I’ll make sure you get a copy.
Here are nomination numbers for last year’s awards. What this shows is that 40 nominations puts a novel on the final ballot. 17 nominations put a short story there.
Best Novel (382 nominating ballots cast):
65 – Brasyl by Ian McDonald
58 – The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
58 – Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer
41 – The Last Colony by John Scalzi
40 – Halting State by Charles Stross
Best Novella (220 nominating ballots cast):
52 – “Memorare” by Gene Wolfe
50 – “Recovering Apollo 8” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
49 – “All Seated on the Ground” by Connie Willis
39 – “The Fountain of Age” by Nancy Kress
34 – “Stars Seen Through Stone” by Lucius Shepard
Best Novelette (243 nominating ballots cast):
69 – “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” by Ted Chiang
45 – “Dark Integers” by Greg Egan
24 – “Finisterra” by David Moles
22 – “The Cambist and Lord Iron” Daniel Abraham
Best Short Story (270 nominating ballots cast):
46 – “Tideline” by Elizabeth Bear
29 – “Last Contact” by Stephen Baster
28 – “Distant Replay” by Mike Resnick
25 – “A Small Room in Koboldtown” by Michael Swanwick
17 – “Who’s Afraid of Wolf 359?” by Ken MacLeod
Life, The Universe, & Everything is an awesome writer’s and science fiction & fantasy conference. This year’s will run Thursday, Feb 13th through Saturday, Feb 14th and is going to be packed. There will be presentations and panels with Orson Scott Card, Brandon Sanderson, LE Modesitt, Jessica Day George, Lisa Mangum, Larry Correia, and dozens of others.
For those who missed my presentations at LDStorymakers last year, this is your chance to see them.
VIVID & CLEAR (Friday at 7:00 PM)
Despite the often repeated 11th commandment for writers—show, don’t tell—writers NEVER show. They can’t. It’s all tell, tell, tell. The trick is to tell in a way that helps your readers imagine with such vividness and clarity that your story triggers an emotional response. In this hour we’ll explore a number of simple but powerful prose techniques that help you do just that.
STORY TURNS (Saturday at 9:00 AM)
Story turns–cliffhangers, rugpulls, plot twists, reversals, surprises, revelations (and more)–are a core part of an exciting plot, pacing control, and making a reader want to turn the page. In this workshop we’ll explore the main types of story turns and how they work so you can use them in your writing.
I’ll also be participating in the RULES FOR WRITING MAGIC panel (Friday at 5:00 PM).
For more details about all the wonderful panels and guests, go here: http://ltue.net/Schedule
I’ve recently received a number of emails from people asking if there is an audio version of Servant of a Dark God in the works and how can they get it. At this point, the audio rights have not yet sold. But that doesn’t mean those of you who would like audio have no recourse. The best thing to do is to make a request to Audible. It’s quite easy. Here’s what they say on their Contact Us page:
Content Requests: If you’re interested in a particular author or title, please let us know about it by sending an email to:content-requests@audible.com.
Fat head alert.
Not to be missed – the most useful speech on writing you will ever hear! Keynote speaker John D. Brown will present ‘Three things you MUST know to write killer stories.’ John Brown is a prize-winning short story writer and novelist. His epic fantasy novel, “Servant of a Dark God” will be released in North America in September 2009.
“Most useful” is nice. Let’s hope I can live up to that one. 🙂 I’m looking forward to this event. A lot of other great authors will be there as well as editors from Deseret Book, Covenant, and Cedar Fort. If you’re a regional writer, you won’t want to miss this. Full information here on the American Fork Arts Council council for writers.
I just mailed my galley edits off to Stacy. My baby is now out on her own. And whether she sinks, swims, or squishes is largely out of my control. I’m excited and anxious. Here we come September 15th!!
I’m wishing I could do one last story edit. But I suppose that’s just par for the course. I’d be doing story edits until the fulness of times. I’ll just have to take what I have and will learn from this one as it plays with audiences and roll it into the next. I’m going to be very interested to see how this plays.
I also just saw the map. It’s very nice. Love the style. I’ll see if I can’t post it here.
And I got an estimated publication date–September 15th. I found out there are two dates, actually. A shipping or release date when the books start leaving the warehouses. And then the date (publication date) when they estimate (a few weeks later) the book will be in stores. The book should be in stores on the 15th.
I expect the cover to be out soon as well. I told my agent I’d try to work in a big-bosomed blond into the series just in case. Not because she’s particularly fond of well-endowed ladies, but because she told me about another author’s book about a Hispanic woman with an initial cover that depicted this Hispanic woman as a blond with mucho clevage, toting a big sword (just to be clear, it was the blond toting the sword, not the clevage). Hey, miscommunications happen. I don’t know which publisher it was with, and to the departement’s credit, they were able to revise. Still, I thought I’d be ready.
And now back to book 2 in the series.
I know that many of you loved the Santa Muerte cover. But it was communicating the wrong thing. Alas. I love that tattoo. On another site I polled, everyone leaned towards the road and vanishing point. Then everyone I polled personally liked the initial concept for the one below. I liked the road, but the bullet holes won. Here is the final result.
