Epiphany 2.0

Stuff you should read while you wait

October 12th, 2011 • 21 Comments • Pimping, silliness

Dear US Readers:

I’m sorry. For whatever reason, the UK/Commonwealth version of The Kingdom of Gods released a good 3 weeks ahead of the US release date. So now you’ve had to endure the British-accent-inflected “Nyaa nyaa”s of your across-the-pond brothers and sisters. You’ve had to duck and dodge like Grant Hill in the playoffs to avoid spoilers. You’ve… had to… ::deep sigh:: …wait.

This was not my decision, although it works well for me by building buzz ahead of the US launch. But I’m not gloating or anything! So please, stop yelling at me. I’m sorry!

~~To distract you~~ In the meantime, I’ve noted below a few really good books I’ve read lately ~~whose authors you should go pester instead~~ that you can enjoy or anticipate instead. They’ll help the time pass ~~while I escape to Patagonia~~ while you wait.

Crucible of Gold, the latest in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire saga. Some of you already know how much I love these books. In this latest installment — which I was privileged to read in an earlier form; see, being a published author gets you something besides sleep deprivation and early gray hair! — Temeraire and Laurence get called back into service from their lonely exile in Australia. They journey to South America, where they encounter the ancient empires of the Americas — and where Napoleon is up to some very new tricks. This one’s unbelievable fun.

…But it’s not out ’til March 2012. See? Other people have to wait, too! It’s not just you. There, there. ::pet pet::

Here’s one that’s out already!

The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells. This one was a surprise; although Ms. Wells has been here for years (don’t call it a comeback), this is my first time hearing about one of her books. I have to admit I wasn’t wowed by the premise: a guy who doesn’t fit in looks for somewhere to call home. I should really know better than to judge a book by reductionism; after all, by that logic, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is just a small-town girl trying to make it in the big city. Anyway The Cloud Roads has riveting characterization, a tense and fast-paced plot, and some of the most original, exotic worldbuilding I’ve ever seen. I’d like to visit the Three Worlds — except they’re utterly deadly and I’d probably get eaten within the first five minutes. So think of The Cloud Roads as a story about a guy (who’s a humanoid dragon) who doesn’t fit in (because he looks like a cannibalistic humanoid dragon) looking (through an amazing, gorgeous, fascinating world) for somewhere (and fellow dragon-people among whom) to call home (which he then has to save from a rampaging horde of the cannibal dragon people).

Book 2 of this series isn’t out yet — I’m hoping to score an advance copy from the author, but in the meantime I’ve got to wait. So see? I’m waiting too. I understand. Does that make it better?

Cold Magic, by Kate Elliott. I’ve raved about this one here before, but the second book just came out! No waiting! And trust me, you want to read these books. They’re also some of the most original, gonzo worldbuilding I’ve ever seen — Ice Age Europe with gaslight technology and Victorian culture by way of the ancient Malian Empire, menaced by Celtic faerie myths. (No, really. It’s a beautiful, magnificent thing. Kate talks about how she came up with it here.) And swashbuckling Phoenician maidens! And hot romance! And ice vs fire magic! STUFF!! BLOWING!! UP!!!

(OK, I suck at marketing. But there really is stuff blowing up.)

So look! Go look at these. They’re very pretty books, aren’t they? Lovely cover art. Shiiiiny. Watch while I wave them in front of you. Just keep looking at them.

::steps back::

Go on, keep looking. Pick them up. Thumb through; they all have sample chapters online. I’ll be –

::steps back, from a distance::

– right here. Aren’t they great books? Keep reading.

::runs away fast::

The Neverending Interview

October 9th, 2011 • 28 Comments • Interview

Ask me anything!

I do a lot of interviews. A lot. Of interviews. And those are just the ones from this year, which are online in text or audio form — I don’t reprint the ones in print magazines, or the ones in my own books (there’s an interview in the back of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and The Killing Moon). I’ve tried to keep track of most of them here or here, but frankly I know I’ve missed a few. Slippery li’l buggers.

Anyway, I’m fond of not reinventing the wheel, so I figured I’d start this post as a chance to collect in one place all the questions people would like to ask me. I’ll answer them here in the comments — but I’ll also create a new page to hold the answers, and make that page a permanent navigation link that anyone can get to. That way potential interviewers can, if they so choose, research what questions not to ask (again). Or I can just refer them here if they ask an especially common one.

Note: I’m not promising to answer every question you guys ask! I got books to write. Also, this isn’t school; there are stupid questions, or offensive ones. I reserve the right to answer with snark, or with bannination. I will also clearly mark spoilers, so feel free to ask about those, too.

Aaaaand, shoot!

Early look at the Dreamblood covers

October 2nd, 2011 • 9 Comments • Dreamblood, Pimping

Orbit published its Spring/Summer 2012 catalog recently. I’ve got the physical copy, which contains a gorgeous two-page glossy spread advertising the book to retailers, but Orbit decided to also publish the covers on its website for all to enjoy. (Which is fortunate, as I no longer own a scanner!) So go look at The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun, and marvel at their dark glory! (They’re next to The Kingdom of Gods because that’s when I imagine the mass market paperback will come out.)

I love these covers — but note that they’re not final, and the final version could end up looking very different. Enjoy them while they last!

ETA: D’oh! Added the link.

Sample Chapter 3 of KoG

September 30th, 2011 • 6 Comments • KingofGs

Posted a little early, because I’m going to be busy tomorrow and won’t have time to update. In which chapter 2′s cliffhanger is resolved… sort of…

Oh, and note the change to the website’s main page header! Preorder pages have been confirmed at all the usual retail suspects (except Borders, unsurprisingly). So preorder at will, preorder at will, preorder at will.

Party planning

September 28th, 2011 • 17 Comments • Appearances, KingofGs, silliness

I’m having a party at World Fantasy this year, because The Kingdom of Gods launches that very weekend. Got a suite already reserved, planning a theme — a slumber/pajama party, since that’s something Sieh would love — and ordering party favors. I’m going to have badge ribbons, among other things, so that people who come to the party can add it to their con badges. (If you’ll be at WFC, come! And bring your jammies!)

So what should go on the badge ribbons? (Or other marketing swag I might do?)

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ETA: ARGH. The poll isn’t working. Sorry folks; this is my first time using this plugin, and obviously it doesn’t work. Maybe I did something wrong. Just give your choices in the comments; I’ll do the math myself!

Snippets 3: Kingdom of Gods outtakes

September 26th, 2011 • 7 Comments • KingofGs, Snippets

Previous Snippets posts can be found here.

The Kingdom of Gods was hard to write! It was the first time I’ve ever started a book without a clearly-established plan in mind — I knew where I wanted to go, but not how to get there — and under deadline pressure. So I wrote several starter versions of the book before I found the right voice and direction for it. Some of these got quite long; I probably wrote an entire novel’s worth of material in order to find the right way of telling this story. But that’s OK, because I did find the right way eventually, and that means none of these words, which helped me get there, were wasted. Still, there’s some nice bits in the trimmings.

This first scene is from an alternate version of The Kingdom of Gods that would’ve been narrated by Shahar. I thought at first that it would be best to stick to the series pattern of a female PoV character, if not protagonist (the story still would’ve been about Sieh) — but the problem with a female Arameri protagonist was that it would’ve been hard not to tread much of the same ground that I did in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Mortal politics with a side of godly shenanigans, that is — when what I really wanted to do was something drastically different. I wanted something that would not focus on the Arameri, though they’d still be important to the tale, of course. Something that would put the gods front and center, instead of those mortals caught up in the gods’ business. For that, I needed the protagonist to be a god — so although I really, really liked Shahar’s PoV, I couldn’t do enough with her. I reluctantly gave it up and started over with Sieh.

Here’s a taste of what could’ve been. An alternate take on the twins meeting Sieh, though it starts the same: with the two of them lost in the underpalace. Some of this obviously got recycled into the final version, as you might note in the sample chapters. This version would’ve been narrated by an aged Shahar to an unknown chronicler, years after the story’s events took place.

Publishers Weekly!

September 23rd, 2011 • 6 Comments • Interview, KingofGs, Pimping, Review

Forgot to mention this here, though I did on Twitter — famous fan James Davis Nicoll did an interview with me in Publishers Weekly earlier this week, to coincide with their review of The Kingdom of Gods. (Spoilers for the third sample chapter, which goes up next week!) Some excerpts from the interview, which is published in their print edition but also here at the Genreville blog:

JDN: One of the defining elements in the Inheritance Trilogy was obsessive and often destructive love. Another was a political structure notable for its brutality and authoritarian aspects. The two elements are linked in that one of the most obsessive romantics also was responsible for the political situation in the first; were you trying to make a more general point by featuring both so prominently and so inextricably intertwined?

NKJ: I’m guessing you’re leaving the identity of the obsessive romantic unmentioned because there are so many of them in the story! But honestly, I wasn’t trying to make a point about that. I don’t think that oppressive, authoritarian political systems have anything to do with love. Control is not a part of love.

With respect to the political structure, I wasn’t trying to make a point about that, either, or at least not consciously. I was trying to hold up a mirror to our own society, I suppose. After all, in the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms every child born grows up with a good education, good nutrition, a very slim chance of dying in war or poverty, and a very good chance of living to a venerable age. In real life we make the same rationalizations that the Arameri do, for far less benefit. So which world is truly brutal?

It’s good stuff; go check it out!

Where it comes from

September 22nd, 2011 • 15 Comments • WTF World?

I get asked a lot how I concocted the worldbuilding of the Inheritance Trilogy — the politics, that is, as much as the mythos. People ask me how on earth I came up with a society in which the law is whatever the hell the people in charge decide to enforce, for whomever they deem worthy of justice; in which the right to kill is not a moral question or a quest for righteousness, but merely a cherished privilege of power; in which the wanton destruction of entire peoples and landscapes is constantly obfuscated by revised history; in which a society that accepts and even applauds the suffering of an underclass constantly pats itself on the back for its enlightenment and magnificence; in which everyone, even children, must constantly fight for the right just to be treated as human beings, not pawns or chattel.

“How on earth did you imagine something like that?” people ask me. “Where do you get your ideas?”

Where, indeed.

Somebody tell me something good in the comments, please. It’s been a rough week.

Belated Happy Birthday to me!

September 20th, 2011 • 5 Comments • BrokenK, KingofGs, Natter

Folks on Twitter and FB knew this, but it occurred to me I hadn’t mentioned the b-day here on the homeblog. D’oh, Web 2.0fail.

Anyway, I partly forgot to mention it because it wasn’t a big deal. Like anyone who works in education, I generally write off the month of September for stuff like, oh, a social life, complex thought, or a full night’s sleep. So I generally celebrate my birthday in October sometime. And given that this October will see the publication of The Kingdom of Gods… well, there’s just all kinds of stuff I can do with that. More on that later.

In the meantime, though — feeling especially birthday-celebratory? Want to give me a present? I’m not especially materialistic and pretty much have what I need to get by — but I would absolutely love to go bestseller with book 3. That’s a shiny, shiny little present that I covet greatly. So any of the below would help towards that goal:

Go to your local library and request The Kingdom of Gods, next chance you get. Even in this age of budget cuts, libraries respond to requests; they’re likely to order more copies if there are enough.
Preorder! Preorder! (Or from your local indie bookstore!)
If you haven’t read The Broken Kingdoms yet, remember the mass market paperback is just now out. Perhaps you’d like to read it before book 3 comes out in a month? Perhaps you’ve got a friend who’d like to read it?
Along those lines, The Broken Kingdoms has maybe only about 1/3 as many reviews and crits out there as The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Like The Broken Kingdoms? Hate it? Tell somebody what you think, either way!
Just spread the word that The Kingdom of Gods will be out next month. Nothing builds anticipation like… er… well… anticipation. So anticipate! (Yeah, OK, see how coherent you are after a 14-hour day.)
If you know of influential book blogs and/or podcasts out there that would like a review copy of the book, send ‘em Orbit’s way. I don’t know what criteria Orbit uses for inclusion on its list of reviewers, but if a venue has a reasonable chance of putting info about the book in front of several hundred eyeballs, then I can’t imagine they’d say no.

And thanks in advance! Aww, you shouldn’t have! You’re so sweet.

Catching up with myself on gay YA

September 17th, 2011 • 5 Comments • Controversies

This has been a rough week, and it’s not over yet — just a lot of personal and day job stuff going on. But also a little bit of professional stuff, which I’ve caught only the narrowest edge of since, hey, rough week. Not much time for internets.

Still, I’ve been trying to follow the whole controversy that’s been going down the past few days regarding gay characters in YA. If you weren’t aware or haven’t been following it — here’s a good roundup — it’s basically the same kind of discussion we periodically have in SFF about the presence and treatment of characters of color, or women, or disabled folks, or whoever. Someone (two someones in this case) notices a problem and calls it out. The people who perpetuated the problem, rather than asking what went wrong and listening for possible solutions, instead react badly,* attacking the caller-outers. Hilarity, by which I mean a shitstorm of epic proportions, ensues.

I have not followed this as closely as I should, but today I just saw this fantastic interview with author Nicola Griffith, in which she relates her own experiences with agents, readers, etc., when they react to her queer characters. (Then she reads from the novel over which she fired an agent.) It’s funny, but listen closely. She’s describing how the roadblocks of this industry work. No one ever says, “I hate gay people and I’m going to try and prevent you from publishing anything that features them in a positive way.” Instead, it’s passive-aggressive questions like, “But why does she have a girlfriend?” And so on.

Go listen. And listen to the excerpt of the book. I’m going to have to check that one out myself, when I get some free time to read again.

*Because as many have pointed out, we live in a world full of bigotry but no bigots. No one wants to claim their own little slice of the Contributing to the Problem pie, even though everyone should get a little.

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The Kingdom of Gods

Order Here

Stuff you should read while you wait

The Neverending Interview

Early look at the Dreamblood covers

Sample Chapter 3 of KoG

Party planning

Snippets 3: Kingdom of Gods outtakes

Publishers Weekly!

Where it comes from

Belated Happy Birthday to me!

Catching up with myself on gay YA

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