Archive for the 'Anthologies' Category

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.

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.

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.

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.