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A First Look at my ConQuesT 2013 Schedule

No Comments » Written on May 8th, 2013 by
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Later this month, mere days after I return from San Jose, CA and this year’s Nebula Awards conference, I’ll be winging off to Kansas City, MO for some barbecue, a visit with my publisher, and the convention mortals call ConQuesT (and no, I have no idea why they use medial and final majuscules, just accept it).

Friday, May 24th:
3:00 – 4:00 p.m. – (Salon C) – Publishing Challenges/Changes [MOD]

5:00 – 6:00 p.m. – (Imperial) – Liars’ Panel

Saturday, May 25th:
11:00 – 12:00 p.m. – (Embassy ) – Theme’d for Your Pleasure Podcast

1:00 – 3:00 p.m. – (Salon C) – Hadley Rille Books Showcase

Sunday, May 26th:
10:00 – 11:00 a.m. – (Monarch) – Linguistics in Sci-Fi [MOD]

11:00 – 11:30 a.m. – (Regency) – Reading/Q&A/Autographs [MOD]

As of right now, I’m not sure what some of these titles mean (I must have known once upon a time, right? I signed up for them, didn’t I?), nor who my co-panelists are. But there’s time yet to get it all worked out. When we do, I’ll post an update here.

And now for some pimping, shared universe style

No Comments » Written on April 14th, 2013 by
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As you know (and I’m talking to you, Bob), last year my story “Coca Xocolātl” appeared in the shared universe anthology ReDeus: Divine Tales. I had a lot of fun writing that story, so when the editors decided to do a second volume of future tales set after The Return, I promptly got in line.

That new book is entitled ReDeus: Beyond Borders, and it comes out next month. In the meantime, the fine folks at Crazy8 Press have invited the book’s contributors to yammer a bit, and yours truly is up first.

So now you can follow this link over to their site and read what I have to tell you about the continuing saga of Matlal Alejandro Garcia y Fuentes, professor emeritus and representative of the Aztec God Huehuecoyotl. But I warn you, as soon as you do, you’re going to want to buy the book!

2013 Hugo Awards Announced

No Comments » Written on March 30th, 2013 by
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The word went out at four different conventions, but as I was at none of them I had to find out about it via the internet. In case you haven’t heard yet, here are the particulars of primary interest to authors:

Best Novel
2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
Blackout, Mira Grant (Orbit)
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas, John Scalzi (Tor)
Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed (DAW)

Best Novella
After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, Nancy Kress (Tachyon Publications)
The Emperor’s Soul, Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)
On a Red Station, Drifting, Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)
San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats, Mira Grant (Orbit)
“The Stars Do Not Lie”, Jay Lake (Asimov’s, Oct-Nov 2012)

Best Novelette
“The Boy Who Cast No Shadow”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Postscripts: Unfit For Eden, PS Publications)
“Fade To White”, Catherynne M. Valente ( Clarkesworld, August 2012)
“The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi”, Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity, Solaris)
“In Sea-Salt Tears”, Seanan McGuire (Self-published)
“Rat-Catcher”, Seanan McGuire ( A Fantasy Medley 2, Subterranean)

Best Short Story
“Immersion”, Aliette de Bodard ( Clarkesworld, June 2012)
“Mantis Wives”, Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld, August 2012)
“Mono no Aware”, Ken Liu (The Future is Japanese, VIZ Media LLC)

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
Zen Cho
Max Gladstone
Mur Lafferty
Stina Leicht
Chuck Wendig

Congratulations to all nominees!

I’ll be sitting in the audience in San Antonio waiting to see who walks away with a shiny rocket!

BUFFALITO CONTINGENCY eBook is now available!

No Comments » Written on March 29th, 2013 by
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Buffalito Contingency

I am very pleased to be able to report that at long last the electronic version of the second volume in the Adventures of the Amazing Conroy, also known as the novel Buffalito Contingency, has gone live.

Those among you who do your reading on any of the various Kindle type devices can acquire the mobi version of the novel by clicking this link to Amazon. And if you read your ebooks on any of the dozens of other devices that are ePub friendly, you can download that format by following this link to Barnes & Noble. In both cases, the cost is only three bucks.

One other point to make: while the print versions of this book were published by Hadley Rille Books, the electronic versions come to you via Paper Golem LLC. And as such, if you’ve already purchased a paper copy, you can get free copy of the ebook by following the directions at the Paper Golem website.

Thanks, and happy reading!

BUFFALITO CONTINGENCY – Coming soon to ebook!

No Comments » Written on March 23rd, 2013 by
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Buffalito Contingency

Last week, a few hours before I headed off to the glory that was Lunacon, my proof reader came through with the marked copy of my second novel, Buffalito Contingency. Let us all pause a moment and give thanks to the quick eye and keen mind that is Elektra Hammond. Anyway, as a result, I am now hard at work going through her recommended changes so that I can render the thing in ePub and mobi formats for your electronic enjoyment.

It’s been a couple years since I’ve read the book, and scenes that I’d completely forgotten about are leaping out at me and making me smile.

Given that it will surely be several days (if not a week or more) before the ebook version becomes available, here’s a snippet from near the end of Chapter Six: No Home Like Space to whet your appetite:

          “Did you just board, sweetling?” said the Wolly. “I don’t think I’ve seen you here before. And I know I’ve only seen one of your kind ever. By the way, my name’s Theodarast.”
          “I’ve met many of his kind,” said one of the Ersommerey. “One time, I was stuck in a lift room with five of them. They were very standoffish, but that could have just been because of the situation. No one likes being stranded in a box that could fall and kill you just for stepping out to get a quick tipple or snack.”
          “I was buried alive with nine of them while on a desert excursion,” said the other Ersommerey. “They didn’t care for sand at all. Do you? Oh, I’m sorry, I’m Mil and this is my husband Kel. We’re on our way to Sekestri.”
          “No you’re not,” said the Ninst. “This vessel doesn’t go to Sekestri. Where are you going, newcomer?”
         With a nod to the Wolly I said, “My name is Conroy and I boarded earlier today. I’m not sure what my final destination is to be. Mostly I just needed to leave Leftril. I’m working my passage as an entertainer. My first show is this evening. I hope you’ll all attend.”
          “What kind of entertainment?” asked Mil. “The last time we were on a cruise, they had a fellow who was his own father, and set some of the guests on fire, and then ate them.”
          “Never happened,” said the Ninst. “Kel, can’t you make her stop?”
          “Rara is right, dear. That never happened. That fellow was his own grandfather, and he didn’t actually eat the guests, he just promised they’d be on the menu the next day.”
          “I was with you both on your last cruise,” insisted the Ninst. “That never happened.”
          “You were asleep,” said Kel.
          “Fast asleep,” said Mil. “Snored so loud everyone on our corridor thought the ship had been hulled by stray debris.”
          “Don’t mind them,” said Theodarast, patting my arm with a hand that was nearly as large a small pony. “They’re like this every meal. I find it anchors me to listen to them, and prepares me for whatever wonders and miracles may await. But do tell us what sorts of entertainment we can expect from you. And when and where.”

And there you have it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work.

Theoretical Lunacon 2013 Schedule

3 comments Written on March 14th, 2013 by
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If you’re attending Lunacon this weekend (i.e., tomorrow) you may already be aware that programming has not yet gone out to the participants. This will doubtless make for all sorts of “fun” at the convention.

That’s the bad news. The good news is word has gotten out that individual participants can go online to the same database questionnaire they filled out to become panelists, and find their schedules waiting for them.

Assuming that the schedule there is correct, here’s what I think I’m doing at the con this weekend:

Friday, March 15th:
20:00 – 21:00 | Grand Ballroom ? |Meet the Pros
 This wasn’t actually on my schedule, but I’m going to assume there will be such an event, and that I’ll show up for it.

Saturday, March 16th
10:00 – 10:30 | Bartell | Reading
 Start your Saturday off by listening to me read from my Nebula Award nominated novella “Barry’s Tale.”

11:00 – 12:00 | Oak | So You Want To Create & Sell an Ebook (M)
 Neil Clarke and I talk about the tools, techniques, and best practices involved in creating and distributing ebooks. WARNING: It’s extremely likely this panel has been canceled and/or removed from my schedule.

1:00 – 2:00 | Poplar | Less Sh*tty Second Drafts (M)
 Russ Colchamiro, Laura Anne Gilman, Michael A. Ventrella, C.E. Lawrence and I will discuss how authors figure out what’s not working in a manuscript and what might be likely to fix it.

2:00 – 3:00 | Poplar | Finding a Needle in the Slushpile (M)
 Despite the somewhat unspecific title, this panel is actually supposed to be about finding the gold amidst the dross of self-published fiction. It’s a thankless task and I will have April Grey, Neal Levin, Mike McPhail, and Andrew Porter grumbling along with me.

Sunday, March 17th
10:00 – 11:00 | Westchester Assembly | Autographing
 Please bring me something to sign as I hang out with Tim Rodriguez and James Daniel Ross.

11:00 – 12:00 | Poplar | Generic Alien Language Panel (M)
 Walter Stutzman, Ariel Cinii, and I will start with the basic question of how to represent alien language in fiction and jump off from there on related issues in language, linguistics, and philology.

12:00 – 1:00 | Birch | Hugo Worthy Fiction
 Lisa Padol, Byron P. Connell, Alex Shvartsman and I blow smoke about what we think will make the final ballot (assuming it hasn’t been announced by this time).

My shoulder-riding plushie, Barry, has once again been given no programming. First the college of cardinals slight him, and now this. Nonetheless, he will be in attendance in his role as the convention’s unofficial, eponymous, Nebula nominee. Mind you, he doesn’t know what any of those words mean.

Hypnosis in Klingon?

No Comments » Written on March 13th, 2013 by
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Last night I was working on some notes for what will eventually be the “Pre-Talk” that goes up on my website, Hypnosis4Writers. Some of those ideas were still bouncing around in my head this morning as I was driving to work, but it must have gotten jumbled with some other musings I was having on the forthcoming How to Speak Klingon: Essential Phrases for the Intergalactic Traveler from Chronicle Books.

The end result had me motoring along through morning traffic talking to myself about hypnosis, in Klingon!

It was mostly the standard things I’d say before doing an induction, things likewhat hypnosis is and what it isn’t. How you can view the process as building a bridge between the conscious mind and the unconscious mind, how hypnosis is not sleep, and how you can’t be made to reveal your darkest secrets under hypnosis (unless of course you want to).

The word for hypnotize is vong, and a hypnotist (one who hypnotizes) is vongwI’.

yab is the word for mind and vul means to be unconscious. In Klingon, stative verbs (that is, verbs which describe a state of being) can in most cases follow a noun to modify it, much like an adjective would in English. Thus yab vul would be understood as the unconscious mind. Klingon also has the suffix -Ha’ which in many cases compares to the English prefix un-, so the conscious mind would be yab vulHa’.

vongwI’ jIH. yablIj ‘oDmeH qavong. yIjot. peghmeylIj Da’angbe’.
I am a hyphotist. In order to mediate with your unconscious mind, I will hypnotize you. Be calm. You will not reveal your secrets.

Because vul isn’t a word I tend to use much (in fact, the only time I can recall having spoken it outloud was when it cropped up one day in my year of posting daily Klingon podcasts (see DaHjaj Hol) so it took me a while to even recall that the language had such a word. Prior to that I was trying out phrases like vemtaHbogh yab and QongtaHbogh yab which would be the waking mind and the sleeping mind, respectively. I like those well enough, but it’s nice to have the word for unconscious handy too. Variety and all that.

Anyway, that’s all the time I have to share these Hypno/Klingon musings with you at the moment, but I thought you might be interested. I mainly wanted to post this so I had a record and reference, in case I forget all about it. I have the suspicion that I might be doing some sort of panel or presentation about all of this next January when I’m one of the GoHs at Illogicon. And who knows, maybe Mary Robinette will work up a puppet show to accompany the whole thing? Now that would be awesome (Dunqu’)

Hugo Nomination Deadline! What are you waiting for?

No Comments » Written on March 9th, 2013 by
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There’s a bit over 24 hours left before the window closes for submitting nominations for this year’s Hugo (and Campbell) Awards.

Depending on how cynical you are, you can see this reminder as one of two things.

It could be a selfless public service announcement exhorting you to participate in the process, because seriously, while the number of Worldcon members who vote has increased significantly in the last few years (due in no small part I suspect to the success of the electronic packet of free books that is worth several times the cost of a membership), far fewer people bother to involve themselves in the nomination process. This is your chance to help shape what we will all look back on as the Hugo-winners, so please take the time to let your voice be heard.

Barry

Oh, wait, I said this post could be two things, didn’t I? Well, the other thing would be yet another shameless reminder that my novella, “Barry’s Tale” is eligible for nomination. You may have heard of it, it’s already been nominated for the Nebula Award. And, as you know, Bob, the infinite worlds hypothesis assures us that there exists (or will exist) a future in which my novella wins both awards and I get to walk around insufferably with a big lucite bookend and a shiny metal rocket. All the while Barry (that’s him in the photo) rides triumphantly on my shoulder, chortling like a very satisfied plushie. But to guide us toward that one shining future amidst all the myriad realities, I would need your nominational help.

Yeah… I’m going to officially say I’m posting this because of the first reason. Really. Of course, that infinite worlds things also means there’s a place where the second reason holds sway. But that’s not this reality, right?