Archive for the 'Author News' Category

Comicon International 2008 — Dr. Horrible, The Dark Knight, and me

Kevin Andrew Murphy July 30th, 2008

Back from Comicon. Also back from Westercon. Thoughts….

First off…wow. Comicon was amazing. In over twenty years of attending, Comicon’s managed to outdo itself again, mostly by dint of those who came, both industry types and fans. I don’t know how many, but numbers of over 200,000 were rumored and probably underestimated.

Second thought, what’s up with the art shows at all the cons? At Comicon, I saw more winged kittens in the art show than superheroes, or for that matter, any comic book characters. Yes, I understand the cottage industry of marketing to dragon and cat fetishists, but seeing the same dracokitty art recycled from Westercon to Comicon was surreal given the difference of the rest of the convention.

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“King’s Shield”

Constance Ash June 18th, 2008

Woo.  Here I am, running around like an ijit, doing laundry and other domestic chores, filling out forms, and writing biz letters, all at once.  Honestly, feeling rather put upon and pouty, because I’d rather be doing about a dozen other things, all equally important too.

Then the stupid door buzzer goes off.  Another delivery.

BUT!  It’s the arrival of Sherwood Smith’s new novel, the sequel to Inda and The Fox — King’s Shield!   So, something really good happened already today, because it wasn’t even 2:30 p.m. yet.

The official publication date is July 1, 2008.

 

 

 

News from Deverry

Katharine Kerr May 9th, 2008

In response to some comments here and elsewhere, I thought I should tell everyone what’s happening with the series. First of all, THE SHADOW ISLE from DAW or HarperCollinsUK is out right now, hardback from DAW, trade paper from HCUK. Two different covers, and I like both of them a lot — my, what a refreshing change, huh?

Anyway, ISLE is -not- the last book in the series. It was going to be, but it grew and split like a single-celled lifeform. The last book, and for business reasons in the UK it will have to be the last book, is going to be THE SILVER MAGE, which will be out next year sometime — I have no idea when because I’ve not finished it yet. It is going to be long, most likely. The other night I made a list of the events that have to get into the book, and good grief! a lot of loose ends to be tied up!

Now that I can see the computer screen without getting an awful headache from squinting, I will put together some new material for the website, too.

Free Download of “Spirit Gate”

Kate Elliott May 9th, 2008

Tor Books is in the final development process of a new mega-site that is, in their own words

(a) science fiction and fantasy site not quite like any you’ve seen before, mixing news, commentary, original stories and art, your own comments and conversations, and more.

They’ve also been offering free downloads of titles from their backlist to anyone who registers.

This week’s title is, indeed, my novel Spirit Gate.

Seriously, if you haven’t read the book, you can go hence, register, and get the download.

It’s kind of like living in the 21st century.

Oh yeah, I’m back

Katharine Kerr May 5th, 2008

I have now had cataract surgery and can see well enough to return to various online sites. And here you all hoped you’d got rid of me! :-)

Wild Cards: American Hero & other interactive web fiction

Kevin Andrew Murphy February 2nd, 2008

Tor’s new Wild Cards website has been spiffed up and updated, with information on the mass signing in Albuquerque today with most of the Inside Straight authors. Moreover, Tor has just launched the American Hero website, the fully in-character blog and promotional website for American Hero, the superhero reality television show taking place in the Wild Cards universe and a central part of the plot of Inside Straight.

There are twenty eight characters on the show and we’ve got illustrations for all of them from the amazing Mike Miller. More, all of the authors have been writing confessionals from the standpoints of their characters. Up now for Week 1 are Joe Twitch (created and written by Walton Simons), Spasm (created and written by Daniel Abraham), Drummer Boy (created and written by S.L. Farrell), and Rosa Loteria (created and written by yours truly).

Rosa Loteria portraitGo over and take a look. Ask the characters questions. Of course, the contestants are all busy with challenges on the show, but who knows, some of them might answer. (Mine are Rosa Loteria and The Maharajah.)

This is also kind of exciting as an author since it’s a new publishing venue. I’ve seen website expansions to the content from movies, most notably the rather amazing Donnie Darko site which had some neat fiction which expanded the movie, and likewise the (now long defunct) website for the Point Pleasant tv show. But this is the first time I’ve seen extra web fiction content being done for a series of novels and anthologies, especially author created and owned.

Anyway, please take a look and see what you think, and also, let’s talk about the web as a venue for new fiction in general.

Don’t Panic

Carol Berg January 19th, 2008

So funny that David should come up with his great How to Write a Novel post just now. Exactly twelve days after launching Breath and Bone — the culmination of the most intense writing project of my life, begun with a paragraph back in May 2004 — I agree with my publisher on a new 3-book epic fantasy series, tentatively titled The Sabrian Veil. Cheers and happiness all around…and then panic sets in…

I look back at the Lighthouse books - and my other two series - and see how complex they are, and I am absolutely daunted at beginning again. It is no wonder that so many authors find themselves going back again and again to the worlds they’ve created.

But then I start twiddling with my notes, and before I know it, I’ve started and ended a war in the distant past, and filled out a sketch of the nature of magic in Sabria - because the conflict in this series derives, in part, from the nature of magic, the differences between popular belief, manipulated perception, and truth. And Real Soon Now, I’ll commit by writing the first chapter. I had to know enough of the world and characters to write the book proposal - which was very hard for an anti-outliner like me. But I’ll flesh it out only enough to write the first chapter. I write sequentially and spirally - ie. I start at the beginning and write through to the end. Each day I begin writing by revising what came before. No real drafts at all. But that’s what has worked before, and I’ve got to have that jump off the cliff faith that it will happen again.

If anyone is interested, I’ve decided to record the daily bits of this particular development cycle on my personal blog, Text Crumbs. Join me there, if you’re interested in the sordid details.

Cheers to all. Don’t Panic.
Carol

New Wild Cards website live

Kevin Andrew Murphy December 16th, 2007

I’ve been mentioning it earlier about the new book coming out, but Tor has just launched the new website for Wild Cards, www.wildcardsbooks.com

There will be more added in the coming weeks, including bio with yours truly, but the preliminary launch is focusing on Inside Straight, which is coming out next month and as with all things publishing, may have early copies in some stores now.

There’s also a newsletter to sign up for and a story from Walter Jon Williams which is sort of the proto-Wild Cards tale.

Wild Cards week: INSIDE STRAIGHT coming out, BUSTED FLUSH in the works

Kevin Andrew Murphy November 21st, 2007

Well, it’s been an exciting and fun week for Wild Cards. I just turned in revisions on my story for the second volume of the new trilogy, Busted Flush, in which my character Cameo finally has a feature (as opposed to cameo or supporting actress) role in a Wild Cards story. Have had a lot of fun working on that and getting to play with George R.R. Martin’s new character, Hoodoo Mama, and Daniel Abraham’s character, Bugsy, aka. Jonathan Hive, who not only has a strong supporting actor role in my story, but has a starring role in the first volume of the new series, Inside Straight, and got specific mention in the glowing review that just came out in Publisher’s Weekly.

But you don’t just have to take my word for it or wait for January when the volume officially comes out: Tor’s publicity department has let out advance reading copies, and two of them (signed by all nine of the Inside Straight authors, George R. R. Martin, Daniel Abraham, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Carrie Vaughn, Michael Cassutt, Caroline Spector, John Jos. Miller, Ian Tregillis, and “newcomer” S. L. Farrell) are currently being raffled off at the Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist blog, which should also have an interview with all nine authors in the next few days.

I’m also looking forward to Inside Straight because my new character, Rosa Loteria, gets her chance to shine there as well (and gets mention in a review at Fantasy Bookspot along with a larger cast of characters).

UPDATE: Another review just posted at Genre Go Round Reviews.

ICon - celebrating fantasy in a fantastic place

Carol Berg October 16th, 2007

Nothing surprised me more this year - or perhaps in my writing career - than the email I received last May, asking me to be Guest of Honor at ICon, the Israeli Science Fiction Society’s annual Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Role-playing Festival. Only three of my books have been translated into Hebrew - Transformation, Revelation, and Restoration - but they seem to have struck a chord with the Israeli audience. In 2005, Transformation won the Israeli equivalent of the Hugo at this same festival, and Restoration was a finalist this year. Evidently the books have done well there.

I didn’t take long to consider my answer. The chance to travel to a part of the world so wrought with history and consequence doesn’t come every day. I had met my publisher, Rani Graff, and the multiple award-winning translator of Transformation and Revelation, Didi Chanoch, at the Glasgow WorldCon, and when these two great guys and Naomi Wiener, the foreign guest coordinator for ICon, promised to meet me at the plane, take me touring, show me a great time at the con, and send me safely home again, I jumped. (Besides, I’ve never done a GOH gig, and I thought I ought to grab the opportunity.)

I was actually surprised that almost everyone’s first reaction was: Are you really going to go there? Some were worried for my safety. Some have problems with Israeli history or politics.

I would hate the thought of people not visiting our own country because they judged us all by our national government. And no matter what my personal views on Israeli/Palestinian history or politics, I wasn’t going to become wiser or more intelligent about the issues by not going. And I sure didn’t like the thought of refusing because I was scared I’d be blown up.

I read the US State Department site that advised American citizens to stay out of the West Bank and Gaza and avoid places where large numbers of Americans gather. As the convention is conducted mostly in Hebrew (with the exception of the Guest of Honor events and the film festival!) I doubted there would be large numbers of Americans at ICon. Naomi assured me that most of the convention guests would speak excellent English, which was really a good thing as the sum total of my Hebrew comprises shalom, toda, and mazeltov!

Truly the most nerve wracking part of the anticipation was the shoes I had to fill. Last year’s GOH was Neil Gaiman. Ouch. And before him? Tim Powers. 2004, Guy Gavriel Kay. And in 2003, the man who put ICon on the map for North American authors - Orson Scott Card. Holy moly!!!

So how was it?

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