Archive for the 'Author News' Category

Comicon 2008, Wild Cards etc.

Kevin Andrew Murphy July 25th, 2007

I’m off for Comicon 2008. After BayCon (smaller than usual) and Westercon (larger than last year, maybe, but if so, not by much), I expect this to be absolutely huge.

It’s also advance fanfare for the triumphant return of the Wild Cards series. The new volume, Inside Straight, will be out from Tor in 2008.Inside Straight cover Moreover, Tor will have a booth at Comicon, and those there can register for a special convention drawing. Tor will have half a dozen glossy 11 x 17 inch posters of the gorgeous Michael Komarck cover, autographed by George R.R. Martin and five other contributors (Melinda Snodgrass, John Jos. Miller, Daniel Abraham, Ian Tregillis, and Carrie Vaughn), and will be handing out the posters to the winners. Flyers and other information about the new triad will also be available at the Tor booth.

Carrie Vaughn will also be attending the con, and both of us will be answering questions about our characters (mine’s Rosa Loteria) and the stories (I’m not in Inside Straight, but the next volume, Busted Flush, is in the works, and beyond that, I can’t say much, since George has sworn us to secrecy about many crucial details, especially about Busted Flush because that will have details of the ending of Inside Straight, following as it does).

More exact news here:

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/news.html

There’s also a special new Wild Cards forum started at the Captain Comics message board, which will have assorted Wild Cards news and updates:

http://www.captaincomics.us/

Anyway, with Comicon, I’ll try to do updates from the Con, but can promise nothing except to do a large wrap-up when I get back next week. So use this topic for discussion of what’s going on for those who are there and those who are curious about it all.

“Clove Smoke” teaser trailer now up

Kevin Andrew Murphy June 18th, 2007

As announced last year here at Deep Genre, my short story, “Clove Smoke,” is being made into a film. Some filming still remains to be done, but enough has been done that a teaser-trailer is now up. Check it out:

http://www.jstarfilms.com/index.html

“Infoquake” Nominated for John W. Campbell Award!

David Louis Edelman May 31st, 2007

Holy auspicious awards, Batman! My debut novel Infoquake has been nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best Novel!

'Infoquake' Book CoverI’m very, very pleased to be in such august company. Other nominees include Charles Stross, Vernor Vinge, Karl Schroeder, Ben Bova, M. John Harrison, James Morrow, Peter Watts, Justina Robson, and Jo Walton. Which means my chances of winning are probably about as high as my chances of being picked by New Line Cinema to direct The Hobbit, but what the heck, a nomination is a big honor.

This is indeed my first nomination for any major publishing award (although Infoquake was awarded Top SF Novel of 2006 by Barnes & Noble Explorations). And I believe it’s the first Campbell Award nomination for my publisher Pyr as well.

For those who are just hearing about Infoquake for the first time and want to know more about it, check out the website. You can read the first seven chapters online there, or listen to the first four chapters on audio.

I should also mention that I’ve just signed the contract for MultiReal, the sequel to Infoquake, so it’s an especially good day over here in Edelmanville.

A tip o’ the hat to John Scalzi as well, from whose blog I learned the news about 20 minutes ago.

Signing for THE SPIRIT STONE

Katharine Kerr March 14th, 2007

I’ll be doing a signing of and a reading from my new book, THE SPIRIT STONE, the penultimate Deverry novel, at Borderlands bookstore in San Francisco on May 19th, 2007, a Saturday, at 3 pm. Borderlands is a very nifty place.

Their URL is borderlands-books.com, for more information.

First public taste of new Wild Cards stories

Kevin Andrew Murphy December 12th, 2006

It’s a lot of fun working in a shared world series, making new characters, borrowing other people’s characters, getting to see what other people do with your characters.

Laura Mixon and myself are both authors for the Wild Cards series. I’ve gotten to look at her new character, both bio and scenes (but I’ll leave her to drop hints and particulars). I’ve also been very pleased to see my own new character, Rosa Loteria, showing up for various scenes and cameos. None of which I can reveal as yet, of course, since George R.R. Martin is still editing the book–and some things have to stay a surprise for publication–but I can point out Daniel Abraham’s new character, Jonathan Hive, aka Bugsy, and point everyone over to the first public glimpse of him and several other characters in the preview of Daniel’s story “Jonathan Hive Sells Out!”

I’m really looking forward to reading the whole thing.

Quiet on the set! “Clove Smoke” in production.

Kevin Andrew Murphy November 13th, 2006

Well, last night was a first for me for a couple things, the second of which was a complete surprise: It was not only my screenwriting debut (actually story credit with script consultation, but most of the dialogue is right from my short story), but also my acting debut, a cameo with two brief lines of dialogue.

I also have the contract in hand now, so I can go ahead and broach radio (or actually blog) silence.  Last spring, I met up with Robert Mims, a new producer looking for material for a short film.  I sent him a copy of “Clove Smoke,” a short of mine that’s been well-received and even translated into Spanish.  Next thing I know, I’m looking at a screenplay adaptation by Robert’s writing partner, Justin Queen.

A thumbs up, and next thing we’re in the fast track.  Principal shooting finished yesterday at the House of Shields in San Francisco, where I’d gone both to get to see the actual production of the filming of my story, and to set myself up for a cameo as background.  Stephen Watts, the director, then surprised me by offering me the role of the bartender, since it gave me a speaking line and also offered some contrast visually since I’d known the color palette the production designer was going with and I’d dressed to match it, adding the red that the principal actors weren’t wearing for the scene.

I also got to meet the actors, Anissa and Jason, who are playing Aurora and Jimmy, a strange bit of serendipity giving them the same initials.  They were great, both in terms of acting and in looking the parts.  The second, in fact, even better than I’d pictured them, thanks to Anissa’s wardrobe (she’s also a model) and Kirsten Larsen’s skill as production designer.  Richard Cascio, the director of photography, was also getting some amazing shots, or at least from what I was getting to see literally looking over his shoulder–one shot was from the bardtender’s perspective, so I was standing right behind him so Jason could get the right line of sight to my eyes for when we later reversed the shot.

And I stepped on a light box one of the grips had left behind the bar, mistaking it for some sort of platform you’re supposed to step on.  However, one fluorescent bulb is not a disaster and it was fascinating to watch a full production up close.  The dolly shot curving around the bar was particularly amazing.

What was also amazing was the location.  The House of Shields is a hundred years old, literally, being built in 1906 and opened in 1908 (delays caused by the great quake and fire).  Edwardian lamps, the bar from the old Palace Hotel, coffered ceilings and so on.  Gorgeous. House of Shields interior

Fonts & Typography

Kevin Andrew Murphy November 2nd, 2006

I have to admit I have a big love for fonts and typography. The way the different typefaces look, they way they help to set the mood of a book before you even read a single word on the page. I’ve noticed them ever since I saw my first illustrated capital in a book of fairytales before I even could read.

Consequently interesting typefaces have always caught my eye, and while I dearly love some of the fonts that came out of the 90s revolution of computer typography, most of them looked just awkward/grungy with far too much attitude and far too little readability.

So I set about making a few fonts of my own, or rather I should say, digitizing, cleaning up and generally twiddling with typefaces from old books that weren’t available from any of the modern font foundries. I put them out on one of my websites, and apart from a guy in Italy who loved one of the fonts until it crashed his computer (very complex fonts will do that), I didn’t hear anything more until last year when I was contacted by Bonnier Publications A/S of Denmark, who wanted to use my WitchHunt font for their history magazine. Of course, they also wanted a few extra Danish characters (and Swedish ones as well, for the Swedish edition), along with open type format and a few other whistles and bells.

WitchHunt font sampleUnfortunately, I’d packed up my fontography programs a few years and two computers before. Fortunately, however, I knew Dave Nalle who runs Fontcraft, about the top historic typeface company out there, and he not only agreed to make the extra characters for Bonnier, but asked me to join Fontcraft as one of their designers. So now WitchHunt is available from Fontcraft, in its newly prettified and gussied up form (thanks, Dave), as part of the Halloween 2006 promotion. Even better, it’s soon to be followed by some of my other typefaces and ornaments.

Currently rockin’ the William Morris vibe here. It’s very fun to have both fiction and typefaces of yours being out there.

A Brief Interruption for Book Tour

Kate Elliott October 16th, 2006

I am on a short book tour, west coast only, with fantasy writer Melanie Rawn. As all writers know, book signings can be wonderful or horrible - that is, depending if people show up enthusiastic about your books, or if no one shows up.

I can’t be the only writer who has frequently been asked by customers at book signings “Where are the cookbooks?” because they think I am a staff member.
If you live in California, Phoenix AZ, Albuquerque or Santa Fe NM, or Austin TX, please check the link to see if there is an event close to you, and come say hello! I have macademia nuts with me, free to interested parties. And books, of course.

http://kateandmelanie.typepad.com/tour_date/

Usually we do a reading and then answer questions. Borderlands Books in San Francisco, a terrifically well run establishment, has a routine they use: the author reads a short excerpt, then one of the bookstore staff (in our case the inestimable Jude) asks a few questions to break the ice, so that the people in the audience who might otherwise feel reluctant to ask the first question but who do have questions to ask get over that awkward transition.

And speaking of Borderlands and the book business, here is a good article about the success of niche bookstores in these days of the chain behemoths:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061009/ap_en_bu/genre_bookstores

And as a later update:

Alternative Reality Web Zine is conducting an online and ongoing interview with me this week, and you can reach the forum here .

Cover Art

Carol Berg September 23rd, 2006

Just got the first jpg for the Flesh and Spirit (Roc, May 2007) cover - very nice. The artist is Luis Royo. Of course the fellow on the cover isn’t quite the way I imagine Valen. You have to see him slightly older, a bit more world-battered, a lot more good looking, and having a definite spark of mischief in his eye, despite all the troubles he encounters. Flesh and Spirit cover art

WorldCon/LAConIV retrospective

Kevin Andrew Murphy August 30th, 2006

WorldCon 2006 (I forget the proper number)/LAConIV (in Anaheim) is now wrapped and the last of the stragglers have I think now left.  I left my sunglasses in the green room at the Hilton.

In attendance from Deep Genre were myself, Sherwood Smith, David Edelman, Kate Elliot and Madeleine Robins.  Except Sherwood, we ended up meeting at Madeleine’s reading on Sunday and hit Starbucks for coffee afterwards.

As David E. mentioned back during my Comicon post, too many con reports read like exercises in name dropping (which that post avoided), so I’ll try to avoid that here too, except to say that it was fun to put faces to people I’d before only known as names.  For example, David Keck, who I’d before only known as a sometime poster here on the blog, was suddenly there to talk to in person and everything at the Wild Cards reception and then on Sunday, we got to talk more after sharing a panel.

Rather than go for the gossip columnist approach, which is tacky when you’re one of the ones going to the parties and dinners, I’ll simply describe it as a novelist: There were swanky parties and simple parties, both on and off site.  There were fabulous dinners worthy of hobbit salivation and there were dinners that made me feel like I was stuck in a not terribly original comedy sketch.  (How many times can the Hilton’s kitchen’s screw up a burger?)  Terribly famous people were revealed as nice folks you hang out with in the bar.

In short, it was a con.  Panels went well from what I saw, and I saw a lot of it because I was on a lot of panels.  Apart from the usual scheduling snafus, bad mics, a spilled water pitcher and occasional overenthusiasm, things appeared to go to plan.  Name tags were ready and waiting on every panel.  Room temperatures were perfect, water was ready.  A few authors brought enough books to use for a gamemaster’s screen, but given the trouble with psuedonyms and publishing logjams, I’ll look less askance at that than I might.  Ideally you should pimp only one book at a time, but publishing doesn’t always cooperate.

The Dealers Room floor was pretty amazing even for a WorldCon, and with panels and parties, I did not manage to see all of it, but I did see a lot.  The Masquerade was also nice, with the standout being costumes for “Dancing with the Intergalactic Stars.”  I don’t know if they won, but I expect they did, since I did the same as many and left for the parties after the last entrant but before the judging.

What else should be said of the parties?  Well, I have to admit I really liked the Wild Cards reception, not because it was swanky (though that was still incredibly cool), but because it let everyone have fun and talk in a nice relaxed atmosphere and let me meet folk I haven’t seen for years or have only talked to on the phone.  Other parties?  Well, of the author’s parties, some you pretty much needed a shoehorn to get people in the door.

The fan and bid parties were vastly entertaining as well, and not as insanely crowded.  Kansas City had a “ribs tasting” which ended up being a case of too much sauce and not enough ribs, since I got to the part in time to see a table covered with bowls of various barbecue sauces.  However, that meant that the next day at their fan table, they were selling the excess bottles of barbecue sauce for $2 each.  So I grabbed four so I can do my own ribs tasting at home.

I missed the Hugo awards, but was told they went well with Connie Willis doing a great job as presenter.  The buzz about the Hugo slate was also good, with the phrase I heard more than once being “remarkably sane,” meaning that the nominees and the winners were all there as a matter of popular choice of good art, as opposed to something being pumped by media frenzy rather than quality.

Small disappointment in that WorldCon did not apparently have any swag bags of books or even cloth souvenir totes.  Maybe for sale at the T-shirt booth, but no “Welcome to the con, this if for you” like you get at World Horror, World Fantasy or some past WorldCons (including LAConIII).  However, it’s not mandatory, and my bag from WorldHorror is still sitting on my floor (though emptied of books).

And that was WorldCon, or at least what I’m conscious enought talk about after driving back last night.

« Prev - Next »