“Snakes” – Horror novella, available print or Ebook from Damnation Books. Complete with a Holiday Promo code for 25% off your entire order! Here’s the Damnation Books Promo Code: 191W1WM6D6CY
And, some anthologies including stories and essays by yours truly.
I’ll be doing a number of panels at MileHiCon, as well as reading.
Friday 3:00 pm – Shifting P.O.V.
Saturday 10:00 am – Superhero Movies, Assemble!
Saturday 11:00 am – The ABCs of Podcasting
Saturday 12:00 pm – Podcasting Workshop/Q & A
Saturday 11:00 pm – Campfire Chillers – I plan on reading my story “Legs”, forthcoming in the Nocturnal Emissions anthology from Library of Horror Press.
At some point, I’ll be at the Autograph Table, but I don’t yet have that information. Mile Hi Con is a great place to meet authors thick on the ground. I had a great time last year.
The schedule for World Fantasy has not yet been released, but I’ll be posting about that as soon as I can.
I was heartbroken when news of the Japanese tsunami came across the U.S. airwaves, even more so when news of the radioactive catastrophe began to leak. I still have many friends in Japan and cherish my memories from when I lived there. So when I heard about an anthology where all proceeds go to tsunami, I knew I had to submit some work there.
Healing Wavesfrom Sky Warrior Books contains an experimental essay, “A Haiku Pilgrimage”, and some poetry of mine. It also contains a piece from my friend and fellow SF author, Jay Lake. So please go to the link below and get your e-book. It’s only $3.99, and it’s for a good cause.
I just breathed an enormous sigh of completion as I finished the final edit/copyedit of Rogues and sent it off to the publisher. That was a bigger job than I anticipated, especially when some conversations with the cover artist sparked a frenzy of re-mythologizing.
I’m delighted to have Alan M. Clark on board as the cover artist for Rogues. He did the original cover for Heart of the Ronin, so if you know that one, you’re familiar with his work. I’m really excited to see the final product.
Now it’s time to get back to creating NEW stuff (ahem, finishing a first draft of Sword of the Ronin), not to mention a few other seeeekrit projects.
So I just returned from a ten-day trip through the Rockies, northern plains, and Black Hills. Some might call it leaf mold, others, refilling the well, others, story fodder, but it was indeed an awesome trip.
2709 miles from start to finish. I do have stories to tell involving empty fuel tanks, wild life, breathtaking mountain scenery, thunderstorms, Indians, and fellow campers. If you ask, I shall regale you.
Now it’s time to get back to the creative business. More podcast episodes, finish up Sword of the Ronin, and a couple of other double-secret probation projects.
I’ve only been talking about this for a year, but I’ve finally launched my next audio fiction podcast. Now available on iTunes! It will soon be available also on Podiobooks.com, and I’ll make an announcement when that happens as well. if you want to subscribe via RSS feed, go to the podcast’s website.
Rogues of the Black Fury is a military fantasy novel best described as “U.S. Navy SEALS vs. Al-Qaeda in a Renaissance-like fantasy setting.” My agent calls this book “Pure Swash.” So if you’re looking for action, muskets, high-seas adventure, you should give this one a try.
And best of all, Rogues of the Black Fury will be coming out later this year from E-Reads, to be available in both e-book and trade paperback.
I don’t have a publication date yet, but rest assured that I’ll keep everyone updated on its progress.
This weekend, July 22-24, is the 4th Annual installment of the Omaha Science Fiction Education Society’s convention, OSFEST, and I’ll be hanging out down there all weekend. You’ll also find me in the Dealer Room at the Author Table at various times, where I’ll have books to sell.
Here’s what on my agenda.
Has Urban Fantasy become a serious sub-genre? – Panel, 6 p.m. Friday
Reading – 12 noon, Saturday
Harlan Ellison: The bad boy of SF literature? – Panel, 3 p.m. Friday
Redshirts: How to kill your characters – Panel, 6 p.m. Saturday
Ultimate Starship Challenge – 11 p.m., Saturday
Writer’s Tech – 11 a.m., Sunday
So come down to OSFEST and enjoy a weekend of genre literature and discussion, not to mention the occasional “character.” If you see me, say hi!
I’m stoked to announce that my horror novella “Snakes” launches tomorrow, June 1, from Damnation Books. The publisher is running a special. Order it quickly enough and you might even get your copy for free! The pricing starts at $0.00 and increases by 25 cents for each purchase until it reaches the full cover price. So now’s the time to get your e-book copy.
“Write a more compelling first line and I’ll read your article!” was one Facebook comment on my post about first lines. Point well taken. Could I have spruced up my first couple of lines? Certainly. Do I intend every blog post to be a fine crafted work of art and a juggernaut of intellectual persuasion? Nope. Ain’t got time. I’m too busy trying to write fiction.
Nevertheless, readers did have things to say about this list. But first, here are the answers for my previous post on first lines.
Gee, I’m so surprised. I’m still here. According to a well-fueled media wave, the Biblical Rapture was supposed to happen at 6:00 p.m. yesterday, May 21.
Jesus was supposed to come back and spirit away a few million of the most faithful and thus signal the beginning of Armageddon, which was to culminate in Doomsday on Oct. 21 this year.
Hmm.
Well, I’m still here, so I guess that means I’m not one of the “faithful.” That’s a big “duh,” I suppose. We’ll all have a lot more fun with those people gone. You suppose there’s going to be a wave of missing persons reports? Somehow, I think not.
I picked up (semi-) random assortment of novels from my TO BE READ pile today in a little exercise of curiosity.
A truism for writing fiction nowadays is that the writer must grab the reader’s attention from the beginning. If the reader (or acquisitions editor) isn’t hooked by the end of the first page, she’s likely to put the book down.
So what I’ve compiled a few first lines that handful of my novels to be read. These range from new authors to old hands and heavy-hitters. So tell me which of these you find the most compelling and why. A list of their books and authors is below. Can you match them up?
Answers will come in a later post. Feel free to leave your comments!
“No! I don’t want the mangosteen.” Anderson Lake leans forward, pointing.
The first thing I can remember in this life is my father driving his white ox, Endurance, to the sky burial platforms.
Veldt to scrub fields to farms to these first tumbling houses that rise from the earth.
Call me Dodd.
I’d been waiting for the vampire for years when he walked in the bar.
The great revelations of my adult life began with the shouts of a lost soul in my neighborhood breakfast joint.
Manfred’s on the road again, making strangers rich.
Dammit, he was nearly out of gas.
“Here they come!”
Novels and Authors
It Came from Del Rio – Steven Graham Jones Perdido Street Station – China Mieville Green – Jay Lake Night of Demons – Tony Richards A Dark Matter – Peter Straub Dead in Dixie – Charlaine Harris Fires of Freedom – Jerry Pournelle The Windup Girl – Paolo Bacigalupi Accelerando – Charles Stross
