In addition to the Hieroglyph anthology events I’m doing in NYC and DC this month, I’ll also be at Bakka-Phoenix Books in Toronto this Saturday, the 13th, at 3pm to launch the book locally with my pal and fellow contributor Karl Schroeder. The book actually comes out tomorrow, 9 September, so there will be plenty of copies if you’d like them signed. If you’d like to read more about the anthology, check out this BBC piece on the subject: Konstantinou…
Last year, I was nominated for a Campbell Award, for my debut novel vN. Then I declined the nomination, because I realized I wasn’t truly eligible for the award that year. Why? Because I’d already made a sale to Nature magazine. SFWA treats Nature as a Campbell-qualifying market, which means my “Campbell clock” (which I imagine looking like the glowing crystal in Logan’s Run) has been running since 2009.
This Black Friday marks the advent of SFContario 4, where I will be a panelist (among many others). Here is my schedule, for anyone who may be interested. Saturday, 11:00am, Ballroom BC: “No, I’m Hero Support.” Good sidekicks aren’t just ciphers. They have back-stories that may be as rich as the main character’s. A good sidekick does more than point, ask questions, and scream. Our panelists discuss what goes into creating a good companion or sidekick. (I’ll probably spend this…
Recently, Angry Robot announced something I’ve known about for quite a while now: I’m writing a book called Company Town, set apart from the Machine Dynasty series. It’s about an escorts’ escort named Hwa, who takes a job bodyguarding the young heir to a family-run corporate energy empire, just as that empire colonizes Hwa’s hometown: a floating city of Slocum towers built around an oil rig 500 km northeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Taking the job means quitting her gig…
“I’m just so sad,” my mom told me, when she learned Toronto Police Services Chief Bill Blair told reporters he had seen video of the mayor smoking crack cocaine. “It’s just…sad.” It is sad. It’s sad that my partner has to wonder about his mayor screaming in his face and shoving him the way he does other journalists, when the mayor bothers to show up for work — though he apparently has no issue showing up drunk at two a.m….
Seriously, why aren’t you watching Top of the Lake right now? It’s written by Jane Campion and Gerard Lee and it has Elizabeth Moss and Holly Hunter and Faramir and that guy who plays the really pretty beast from the CW version of Beauty and the Beast, on in this he has a bunch of tattoos and a real script. Top of the Lake is a Sundance Channel production, and it’s available in Canada via the Sony PlayStation Network, and…
Having loaded up on hand sanitizer and dusting powder, I am relatively ready for LoneStarCon. If you’d like to come say hello, here is where I will be: Thursday, 13:00-14:00, Autographing. (Or as I call it, “Kicking back and and testing the open container regulations while searching for open wi-fi, because I doubt anybody will want me to sign books.”) Friday, 10:00-11:00, US Animation Influenced by Japanese Animation. (In which we talk about Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I rant…
For some reason, Amazon is holding back copies of iD from its Kindle store. My paranoid, conspiracy-minded brain says they don’t like the content; what vN delivered in violence, iD delivers in sex. (Spoiler alert.) And, Amazon has a shitty record of randomly screwing with their Kindle editions. My editor, however, says it’s a production delay. Either way, it’s a bit Kafkaesque. Especially since Amazon has yet to give us any details on when my book will be released on…
Today sees the launch of my second novel, iD: The Second Machine Dynasty, from Angry Robot Books. If you’d like to get a jump on reading it, there’s a massive excerpt over here at Tor.com. I’ve also blogged quite a bit about the process of writing this book. If you’re curious, you could check out my Big Idea piece at Whatever, where I talk about how losing my passport and PR card prepared me to write iD, and an interview…
I’m pretty busy this summer. So busy, in fact, that I bought new luggage. The piece of luggage I usually travel with has only two wheels and only one functional zipper. It’s gone with me a bunch of places, but during the 12-hour Greyhound trip between San Francisco and Los Angeles after my wallet was stolen last year, I decided that if I ever made it out of this jam I would invest in something more user-friendly. Speaking of San…