Am just getting back from the annual Altered Fluid writing retreat — it was awesome — but boy are my arms tired. And my brain, and my immune system, and so on. I need some recovery time, so in the meantime shall give you a bit of annotated linkspam.
First and foremost, I want to point you at a philanthropic effort that needs more attention. Last year, the sturm und drang of RaceFail produced a number of beautiful results, once of which was the Con or Bust fund, intended to get more fans of color to attend SF conventions, ideally Wiscon, which wants them. (Wiscon’s just cool like that.) Buuuut, since Wiscon’s in the middle of the country, it ain’t cheap to go there, so the fund needs more money. I have an auction going there for a signed copy of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and it’s currently at an impressive (well, to me) bid. Let’s see if we can get it higher! BTW, lots of other authors are offering signed stuff, and also other cool things like rumballs! There are rumballs, ya’ll. Go bid now.
Also, I’ve been enjoying my month as featured author over in the Barnes and Noble forums (join us! Or if you’d rather, feel free to join the 100K Open Thread). To pair with that, forum admin Paul Goat Allen has also posted a review/interview of 100K on the B&N blog. It’s based on a short interview with me that’s a bit buried within the forums, so I’m going to point to it here if people would like to read my complete answers. Paul sees some connections between me and Octavia Butler that I don’t, but there’s room for interesting discussion here. He also compares 100K to Ursula LeGuin! Which is a better match than Butler, IMO, and also holycrap! LeGuin! I feel all shiny.
Also, another shiny thing I saw recently on Orbit’s site: Lauren Panepinto, the Art Director there (who designed the 100K cover and has just shown me the prelim of book 2, and its AWESOMENESS CANNOT BE DESCRIBED), shows in two minutes how she creates a book cover — in this case book 3 of Gail Carringer’s hilarious Victorian supernaturals series, Blameless. Strangely absorbing.
Also! Also! Also! Book 2 of the Matthew Swift series — The Midnight Mayor — is out! People who’ve heard me rave about book 1 of this series, A Madness of Angels, know how much I’ve been anticipating this book. I’m only about a third of the way into it — been rationing it; also, retreat — but thus far it’s just as good as the original. So go buy it!
BTW, if you’re wondering, I did 7500 words at the retreat. Not as many as I’d hoped — I went in with admittedly ambitious goals of doing twice that much — but still pretty substantial for 4 days’ work. And book 3 is at 92,000 words thus far.
Some day, if I ever become a better-known writer, I will put up for auction the copy of my book that I signed for William Sanders and that he returned to me after the Transcriptase site went up.
Very belated, sorry — catching up on comments today. You don’t have to wait to be a better-known writer. He’s so known — notorious — for that affair that it would still probably be worth something. And oh, the irony of using it for a fan fund to benefit underrepresented folks, including Arabs! Take that, Amanda Palmer.
What is *up* with that woman lately? I was never a fan, but now I’m actively anti-Palmer.