100K

Blog Tour: New Jersey! And pre-release housekeeping.

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Newsflash! Although the official publication date of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is February 25, I found out yesterday that the release date is actually February 3rd. What this means, I think — remember, this stuff is new to me, too — is that the book will actually be available in many stores in ::ulp:: about two weeks. Which kinda blows my plan of posting a 30-day countdown clock, because I don’t actually know when people will be able to get this thing. On the other hand, screw the countdown clock; my book!! is coming!! What this means is that I’m […]

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Why I Think RaceFail Was The Bestest Thing Evar for SFF

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This post is for MLK Day. It’s also prompted by the coincidental approximate anniversary of RaceFail, which began in January of last year. (Missed the fun? Google is your friend. But here is a good place to start.) For those who want the Twitter version, RaceFail was a several-months-long conversation about race in the context of science fiction and fantasy that sprawled across the blogosphere. It involved several thousand participants and spawned several hundred essays — and it hasn’t really ended yet, just slowed down. But the initial outburst was very frank, and frequently very heated, and over the course

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Don’t Say I Never Gave Ya’ll Nothin’

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To ring in the holiday season with something a little less painful than shopping insanity and family drama, sample chapter 1 of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is now live for your viewing pleasure. Chapter 2 will be released in January, and chapter 3 at the beginning of February, all as part of the countdown to Launch Day (February 25, 2010). And if you’re in a gift-buying mood when you finish reading, may I point out that the book is already available for preorder at most booksellers? Enjoy!

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Gobbling and gabbling

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Am in the midst of making rosemary-garlic paste for a decidedly nontraditional Thanksgiving meal: me and friends who are pulling a Palin and “going rogue” from our families for the day. Potluck, but since I’m the host I’m handling the biggies: turkey and a standing rib roast, dressing, and have bought a red velvet cake from the best place in Brooklyn (warning for autoloading music). Should be relaxed and fun. To my fellow USians, hope your TG is equally nice. Shortly after Thanksgiving, there’s an event I’ll be participating in that I should’ve mentioned here before now (snuck up on

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WFC, Reviews

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Next week, like several hundred other fantasy authors, agents, editors, and the like, I’ll be in San Jose at WFC. (That’s “World Fantasy Con,” not “World Fighting Championships.” Though it would be interesting to see a bunch of fantasy writers in a cage fighting match, wouldn’t it…? I got dibs on Ursula Le Guin, man.*) WFC is a professionals’ con, as the price tag makes clear, but also because it’s got a more focused, serious attitude than most of the cons in SF/Fdom. Which is actually fine by me; I like having serious convos about the stuff I do for

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Self-promoteyness

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OK, so here’s the thing: I’ve got a reading (11:00 a.m.) and a signing (5:00 p.m.) on Saturday at Anticipation. I’m sharing the reading with 2 other writers who are better-known than me, and the signing is fairly pointless since I have, y’know, no book out yet. So I was feeling fairly mopey about both events, until I decided to have some fun. So. I have Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs)! They are beautiful and shiny and I love them. Now, most of these I’m reserving to send out to reviewers, bloggers of various renown, and bigmouths of assorted stripes, because,

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On Book Covers and Race

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I’ve been following and participating in the “Ain’t That A Shame” post over at Justine Larbalestier’s blog, in which she takes the risky (for an author) step of calling her publisher on its decision to post a white face on the cover of her forthcoming novel Liar. Whitewashing — the fannish term for when fictional characters of color are depicted as white in cover art — has long been a problem in the book publishing industry. Its root is racism, of course: the pervasive belief that people of color’s stories aren’t universal enough to play to white consumers. (Though white

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Random thought.

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In The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, human beings exploit their gods as literal slaves, using their magical abilities as weapons. In Book 2 (name undecided), human beings exploit their gods’ very flesh and blood in various ways. For example, a drug called “godsblood” has become popular in the mortal world, and it’s exactly what it sounds like — small vials of blood drawn from (willing) gods. When humans ingest this, they gain magic power. Book 3 is still in flux, but the core story is solid in my head, and it occurs to me that the gods are exploited in this

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Spock and Biraciality

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Went to see Star Trek last week. Quite liked it, despite problems like the women of the series still getting short shrift in the agency department, and much of the frenetic action having no real purpose. (Why did Young Kirk trash that beautiful car? I cannot condone random destruction of works of art, not even as characterization shorthand.) But have seen several convos on the ‘net that triggered some thoughts. Namely — whoops, spoiler-cut —

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