[books] Green
Green, by Jay Lake; Tor Books; June, 2009; cover art by Dan Dos Santos
Posted: 9:58 am Thu November 06 2008 | Comments(1) |
[writing] Alliteration failure
Important safety tip: sometimes it’s just not a good idea to say what comes into your head. From this early morning’s work on Tourbillon:
Her approval thrilled Boaz, sending an unexpected crackle through his crystals.
Don’t you just love it when something sends a crackle through your crystals?
Posted: 5:40 am Wed October 29 2008 | Comments(1) |
[writing] Tourbillon progris riport, day 45
Today’s wordage: 3,600
Today’s writing time: 2 hours
Total wordage: 175,000
Total writing time: 97 hours, 30 minutes
WIP: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 6:22 pm Tue October 28 2008 | Comments(0) |
[books] Help from the literati
Can anyone recommend particularly good (ideally, annotated) editions of Moby Dick and Leaves of Grass? I am feeling a powerful urge to return to the classics.
(No, I don’t know why either. I suspect the influence of Terry Pratchett.)
Posted: 7:06 pm Sun October 12 2008 | Comments(2) |
[books] METAtropolis pre-order announced
I am pleased to announce that the audio-anthology METAtropolis is currently available for pre-order. Original fiction by Elizabeth Bear, Tobias Buckell, John Scalzi, Karl Schroeder and me. This means the list of readers is also out, a very start-studded cast indeed. Here’s the ToC:
1. “In the Forests of the Night” by Jay Lake, read by Michael Hogan (Col. Tigh on Battlestar Galactica)
2. “Stochasti-city” by Tobias Buckell, read by Scott Brick (2008 Audie Award winner, for Dune)
3. “The Red in the Sky is Our Blood” by Elizabeth Bear, read by Kandyse McClure ( Anastasia “Dee” Dualla on BSG)
4. “Utere Nihil Non Extra Quiritationem Suis” by John Scalzi, read by Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Felix Gaeta on BSG)
5. “To Hie From Far Cilenia” by Karl Schroeder, read by Stefan Rudnicki (reader of the Ender’s Game series)
Pretty damned squee, hey?
The anthology will be released on October 21st. If you pre-order now through Audible, they will give you my story as a teaser.
Posted: 3:48 pm Tue October 07 2008 | Comments(0) |
[books] Alembical now available for pre-order
Alembical, an anthology of four novellas from Paper Golem press, is now available for pre-order. This book has some very fine work from Bruce Taylor, jimvanpelt, Ray Vukcevich and myself — in my case, the alternate history novella “America, Such as She Is” about a World War II which ended rather differently. I think it’s one of my very best stories to come into print this year.
So what are you waiting for? Go pre-order a copy!
Posted: 6:07 pm Sun September 28 2008 | Comments(0) |
[books] The Gone-Away World
So, a bit of a review of Nick Harkaway’s book, The Gone-Away World [ Powell's | Amazon
I know not everyone liked the structure of this. fjm for example said that the book she wanted to read was 300 pages shorter. I take her meaning — much of this plot arc is backstory — but I was fine with that. It’s voicy writing, and I’m a sucker for well-executed voice. The world-building wobbles between rubber science and theatre of the absurd, in a bravely unselfconscious way. But this novel is driven by character, and by the language of character. Most of all, it’s a beautiful, horrible journey.
I don’t know if Harkaway is destined to be a science fiction writer. He’s publishing with Knopf, he has a literary pedigree to match Joe Hill’s, and whatever his auctorial ambitions are, they happen to be entirely his business. But he’s at least dropped into our clubhouse for a spell, and done something which struck me as a refreshing and fascinating without committing the too-common literary sin of gross disrespect for genre’s sources and traditions. I liked the book so much that I recommended it for a Nebula, and will almost certainly do the same when Hugo season rolls around.
Posted: 5:48 pm Tue September 09 2008 | Comments(0) |
[books] The Gone-Away World
I’m currently reading an ARC of Nick Harkaway’s The Gone-Away World (Knopf, September, 2008). It’s a hell of a book, I have to say.
It’s about what you would have gotten if Booth Tarkington and James Joyce had sobered up and collaborated on some post-apocalyptic cyberpunk.
Full report later when I’m done, but I strongly suggest you go pre-order this sucker from your local bookseller, or Amazon.com, because I think we have a winner here.
Posted: 6:19 pm Wed August 27 2008 | Comments(1) |
[books] Mainspring fan art … sort of
Kameron Hurley digs up some Mainspring fan art.
I blame arcaedia for drawing this to my attention. And it’s a damned good thing I don’t have an eBay account.
Posted: 12:59 pm Wed August 27 2008 | Comments(1) |
[books|writing] Working on Tourbillion
Finished the initial draft of the Tourbillion outline on this morning’s flight. It was an interesting experience. casacorona and I had discussed the book at WorldCon. I’ve known for quite a while I was going to write it, and had some basic plot and character stuff rolling around in my head. She and I were able to crystallize the structure and direction of the book pretty well.
In the days since, I’ve been walking around thinking, well, I need to get on this outline. I want to start drafting sometime in September, probably after I get back from San Francisco on the 14th. Which means I need the outline written, revised, reviewed and approved. Which means I need to write. So, well, I need to get on this outline.
Yesterday when I found myself cat waxing instead of working on it, I jumped in. Rather like stepping off a high board, as it always is. I have experienced a little bit of post-cancer anxiety about my ability to tackle this, but my experiences writing “In the Forests of the Night” back in July restored my confidence. Principle is fine, practicality lurked in the blinking cursor.
And then the damned thing pretty much wrote itself. Fred was ready to go, primed and waiting for me to hit the keyboard. As I said to casacorona, much of what this book needs to be is implied or mandated by the action and themse of the previous books. Yet I’ve also set myself some pretty problem, philosophically and plot-wise. Gonna be a lot of work to make it go the way it needs to be to satisfy my reader. And this is an initial draft of the outline. It hasn’t even gone to first readers yet. But I look at it and I am pleased.
One thing I know about myself (and casacorona does, too) is that my outlines are always full of handwavium. I know writers who drill down to an immense level of detail, writing 50, 75 even 100 manuscript pages of outline for a book which will be 600 manuscript pages in final form.
Not me. If I were going to do that, I’d just be writing the damned book.
At the same time, handwavium has its dangers. There needs to be enough direction and specificity for Tor to know what they’re buying into. I need enough thematic and character coherence to not jump the shark halfway through the process. But the virtues of handwavium are correspondingly manifold. It gives me room to run, to explore the story, to be surprised.
All in all, I think I’m where I need to be for today. And I’m quite pleased about this outline draft. It will go to first readers this afternoon, and sit in the drawer for at least a week or so, though I’d like to get the revised outline out to casacorona and arcaedia by Labor Day weekend.
In the meantime, I’ll tackle a short fiction project or two, and let my brain air out a bit more before I dive into full draft mode. Longtime readers of this blog know what I’m like in full draft mode. It will be interesting to see how much my experiences of this year have modified Fred’s behavior.
At any rate, I’ve stepped onto the slide. Book is being committed as of yesterday, and I feel good about it. Watch this space for more details.
Posted: 10:20 am Mon August 18 2008 | Comments(0) |
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