An update on the update and the progress of the progress

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Just occurred to me I’ve been really quiet here, aside from yelling at old men yelling at clouds. Yikes! Sorry ’bout that. I haven’t been quiet anywhere else, of course; it’s just that it’s usually easier for me to microblog on Facebook or Twitter than to macroblog here. Still, some things work better when discussed at length. So, I’ve been getting lots of questions lately about The Fifth Season, and I have a marketing blurb for you, which my editor and I recently hashed out: THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS. AGAIN. Three terrible things happen in a single […]

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Pretty much the only comment I’ll make here on the current SFWA shenanigans

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Because dozens more people* are talking about and archiving it already. Nothing but admiration for folks who have the patience and blood pressure left to spend on this, but I can’t headdesk anymore. I need my head, and my desk, to write. Doing this pre-coffee, BTW, and hepped up on cold medicine, so brace yourself. But here’s the thing: I am all about the First Amendment**. Most writers are. And if this current brave blow in defense of artistic expression had been actually about artistic expression, I might’ve been in their corner. If they’d gone to bat like this, poured

Pretty much the only comment I’ll make here on the current SFWA shenanigans KEEP READING

Fave Reads of 2013

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Yikes! This went up days ago and I forgot to link it here. Bad author! No biscuit. In my defense, though, I’m up to my neck in trying to finish a revision of The Fifth Season, so all the little things are kind of falling by the wayside. Like — oh. Happy new year. :) Anyhow, my favorite stuff of 2013 is up over at The Book Smugglers, if you’re still looking for a way to burn those holiday gift cards and whatnot. Enjoy!

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Concern trolling and “gratuitous diversity”

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I really wasn’t planning to engage with this semicoherent muddle by Felicity Savage over at Amazing Stories. Half my Twitter feed has been laughing at this article for days — it’s usually amusing when people who don’t understand a thing attempt to critique it — but I don’t find it funny, just sadly exemplary of the kind of cluelessness that abounds within this genre, and Anglophone society as a whole. But it got pointed out to me that Steve Davidson, the AS editor, has jumped into the discussion to try and clarify the muddle. It hasn’t helped much, but I

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Contemplation, at the end of a season

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It’s the end of awards season in SFFdom. The Killing Moon was published in May of 2012, and I meant to address this in May of 2013, after it had been on the market for a year — but when the book got nominated for a Nebula, a Locus, and the World Fantasy Award, I decided to wait and see if it won any of them. Alas, it did not. (The Shadowed Sun won a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice, tho’!) That said, the old aphorism that it’s an honor just to be nominated is very much truth for me, and

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Reading along with Mark

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I’ve been enjoying the hell out of my own books lately, thanks to Mark of Mark Reads/Watches/Does Stuff. I mentioned before that he’s been doing a read of the Inheritance Trilogy lately, and I’ve been following along. He’s at the penultimate chapter of the first book now, and… well, hell, just watch him: For bonus points, count the number of times he says, “FUCK!” or “THIS BOOK!” Let me tell you guys: it’s an unbelievable thrill for me as an author to watch someone react to my work like this. A good chunk of writing is trying to manipulate your

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New York Comic Con

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After taking last year off, I’m heading back to NYCC this year — though only for a day (Saturday), since I generally find comic cons overwhelming and exhausting. But I’m making a nice packed day of it! First off, I’ll be doing a signing at 1 pm at the Orbit/Hachette booth. I’m told there will be copies of The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun available! Second off, at 2:45 I’ll be on a panel sponsored by The Mary Sue on underrepresented groups in geek media. Lastly at 6:30, I’ll be on Geeks of Color ASSEMBLE!, on specifically PoC in

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How Long ’til Black Future Month?

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In celebration of Janelle Monae’s new album, which I’ve bought but haven’t listened to yet since I’m holding it as a carrot/reward for meeting certain writing goals over the next few weeks… here’s an essay that I wrote for Jonathan Wright’s ADVENTURE ROCKETSHIP! Let’s All Go To The Science Fiction Disco anthology. If you haven’t done so yet, check out both! Note: this is the not-fully-proofed not-final draft of the essay. How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? The Toxins of Speculative Fiction, and the Antidote that is Janelle Monae

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Cover for THE FIFTH SEASON

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Wah! I’ve been so busy at work I didn’t have time to post this here. But fortunately The Mary Sue is on the case. Here (and there) is the cover for the previously-Untitled Magic Seismology Project: I haven’t talked much about this book because busy. But I absolutely love this cover. The Fifth Season is set in a world which has suffered frequent, repeated Extinction Level Events for millions of years, and all life (and magic) in this world has adapted to it. Hundreds of years might pass between these events — easy, plentiful years in which great cities rise,

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Stuff! Going! On!

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Hokay! Belatedly realized I’ve been quieter than usual here, aside from occasional long philosophical screeds about SFF politics and global domination stuff. That’s because I’ve been phenomenally busy, and frankly when I’m busy it’s much easier to Tweet about stuff than take the time to do a blog post. But since it’s been so long since I’ve talked about Just Stuff here, I figured it was time to do an update. First, I’ve finished the UMSP! My writing group, editor, and agent are now chewing on it, and I’m in Deep Thoughts mode, letting the heat of writing the first

Stuff! Going! On! KEEP READING

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