Broken Blade Launch Day!

I wrote a new book. Okay, I wrote it a year ago, and I've written two more since, but today is the day it gets shoved out of the nest and has to fly on its own. It's called Broken Blade, and its got assassins and sorcerers and swordfights and something very like zombies and all manner of cool stuff. It's also got two sequels already written. One, Bared Blade, is available for preorder at this very moment, and the other, Crossed Blades, goes off to my editor sometime in the next 72 hours. Look at the cover, isn't it shiny?



I really don't have a lot more to say about the book at this point in time. Once it's printed and bound and all of those things, a book more or less has to speak for itself and I'm going to let it, though you can hear me talking about a variety of things with Anton Strout at his latest Once and Future podcast, recorded on Sunday.

The commercial stuff: You can order Broken Blade directly from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Indiebound (various independents) should you be so inclined, and preordering Bared Blade at places like Barnes and Noble or Amazon is as easy as clicking.

If you're viewing this on November 29th, and you happen to be in the Minneapolis/St Paul area, I'll be reading bits of the book at the Har Mar Barnes and Noble tonight at 7:00, as well as making a few other appearances later in the week.

Broken Blade, meet world. World, meet book.

Catch of the Day

"I began writing in order to arrive into the company of those whose company meant more to me than any other: the world of the books I’d found on shelves and begun to assemble on my own, and the people who’d written them, and the readers who cared as much as I did, if those existed."
—Jonathan Lethem

Friday Cat Blogging (the usual suspects)

If you turn the heat down, I will cut you.



The yellow face, it burns us!



Warm, yet still retaining an air of mystery. I win.



Could you baste the other side, I'm about to turn over.

RIP Anne McCaffery

I just read that Anne McCaffery has died.

I never met her, not really. I did get my Pern books autographed when she last came to Uncle Hugo's, but we probably only exchanged the usual, "How do you spell that?"

But the book I presented her to sign was dog eared, worn almost to tatters with rereading and so deeply, deeply loved.

Pern was my first fandom, before that word was really in usage, and certainly before I knew what it meant. I read the Dragonrider books over and over to the point that I had passages memorized. I wrote fan fic, drew fan art, and spent a large portion of my waking hours imagining myself as F'lar or F'nor or Robinton, the Harpermaster of Pern. I talked friends into reading the books so I could talk to them about it. One of my best friends even bought me a wine glass with a blue stem, because it was just like Robinton's. I used to put cinnamon in my coffee so I could pretend it was klah. I never did, but I desperately wanted to join those cool people in the weyr BBSs.

Anne McCaffery's world captured me in a way no others had before, and few would afterwards.

Broken Blade Book Launch Events

So, I have a new book coming out a week from Tuesday, Broken Blade. The first chapter can be found here.

It can be bought at all the usual places, of course, but if you want to get a signed copy, you might want to come to one of the events I'll be having in November and December.

1st up: Launch day reading and signing at the Barnes and Noble in Har Mar Mall in Roseville (St Paul) MN. 7:00 pm, Tuesday November 29th.

2nd: I'll be signing and chatting with whoever shows up at Uncle Hugo's science fiction book store in Minneapolis, MN. 1:00 pm Saturday December 3rd.

3rd: I'll be signing, maybe reading, and chatting with whoever shows up at Bookends on Main in Menomonie, WI. 5:00 pm Thursday December 8th.

4th: I'll be signing and chatting with whoever shows up at Dreamhaven Books in Minneapolis, MN. 2:00 pm Saturday December 10th. This will be one of the last events at the book store before they become primarily on online book seller.

Friday Cat Blogging

Move me and die hairless ape!



If you loved me, you'd pick me up and put me in your lap.



Kiss me, you fool.



Nose and toes, nose and toes.



Methinks I saw a treat come this way.



Hellooo, Beautiful.



I like you, you may refer to me as your majesty.

Writing is Hard, Barbie

Probably most of you don't remember that stink several years ago now over some talking Barbie doll that said, "Math is hard!" But, it is to that which the subject header makes a reference.

I don't always think writing is hard, but I sure did yesterday. I'm doing something lately that I don't attempt very often. I'm writing a short story.

Worse, yesterday, I met some writer friends per usual at our traditional coffee shop and, by chance, the owner had scheduled an author event. A gentleman read from his memoirs, and... well... I'm not fan of memoirs, frankly, but it was also really difficult to write my own words while desperately trying to tune out another's. Also, I'm at that point in the short story (about half way or 2/3rds way through) where I think it completely sucks.

But, today I will try again.

Because that's what it's all about. (Well, that and the hokey-pokey, of course.)

Friday Cat Blogging

I ignore you from between your knees.



From hell's heart I…Okay, from between your knees I…



I catched the sun in my paws. Now what?



I know why the whales beach themselves.
It's because they feel like I feel now.



I defy you to put clever words in this mouth.



You fill tub with treats now, yes?



Just heating the water with mah laser eyes before drinking.

Speaking of the Stars

Big, bright, and beautiful, spiral galaxy M83 lies a mere twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern tip of the very long constellation Hydra. This cosmic close-up, a mosaic based on data from the Hubble Legacy Archive, traces dark dust and young, blue star clusters along prominent spiral arms that lend M83 its nickname, The Southern Pinwheel. Typically found near the edges of the thick dust lanes, a wealth of reddish star forming regions also suggest another popular moniker for M83, The Thousand-Ruby Galaxy. Dominated by light from older stars, the bright yellowish core of M83 lies at the upper right. The core is also bright at x-ray energies that reveal a high concentration of neutron stars and black holes left from an intense burst of star formation. In fact, M83 is a member of a group of galaxies that includes active galaxy Centaurus A. The close-up field of view spans over 25,000 light-years at the estimated distance of M83

Writing Group

A very nice meeting of the Wyrdsmiths last night. There were only four of us. Doug was writing against a Monday deadline. Kelly was madly revising. Adam was in Las Vegas. Bill was in the east.

I was in a miserable mood, because my partner Patrick has just lost his part-time job, which was all the money he had coming in. And the day was gray and bleak.

But the other three -- Naomi, Sean and Lyda -- liked my story. That, plus simply chatting with them, moved my mood into happiness.

Sartre said hell is other people. I would say happiness is other people -- and nature -- and the stars.

Character on Board!

SF Signals had another Mind Meld question that they posed (and kindly asked if I would answer) "What are the advantages of character driven science fiction stories over stories that emphasize technology and sense of wonder? Can you provide some examples of stories that deliver both in a satisfying way?"

To which I (and many others) responded....

DONE!

What are the two best words in the writerly vocabulary? THE END

Woohoo! Done!

Done! Done! Done!

3 novels, 300,000 words of fiction, in a bit under 18 months.

Still done!

All three will have gone in under deadline.

Did I mention still done?

Smart Things

Jay Lake saying smart thing about not following every bit of writing advice you get, a sentiment I firmly agree with. It's too easy to lose your own writing process in the sea of advice that may or may not suit you. Then, to balance himself out, he goes on to be smart about the idea that some advice you should follow.

Dean Wesley Smith saying smart things about the inherent conflict of interest in agent as e-publisher. I know this is a touchy subject for many, but I think that Dean is right here that no matter how good your relationship is with your agent this is very shaky ground. I also suspect that sometime real soon here agents as publishers is going to result in ugly lawsuits for some.

Richard Parks saying smart things about getting hung up on language to the detriment of story, or as he puts it, "analyzing the leaves and missing the forest."

For Halloween, agent Kristin Nelson says smart things about scary bad contract clauses that every author and agent should be on lookout for.

Finally, via our mutual editor the marvelous Anne Sowards, Jim Butcher saying smart things about what it takes to make it as an author.

Friday Cat Blogging

Care to dance?



Halp, mah bed isn't big enough and I falled out!



Pardon me do you have any gray…ah, I just can't do it.



Wise cat loves the sun.



Well, I never!



I did, and I enjoyed every second of it.



Wish I could unsee that!



Gratuitous extra Meglet pic because she's having surgery today and I'm worried about her.

Dead Again

Probably most of you have already heard this, but for those who haven't: Realms of Fantasy is dead (again.)

Vampire Wars

Apparently Anne Rice's vampires feel sorry for the sparkly ones. And, frankly, who wouldn't?