Counting Heads

Counting Heads Audiobook

2009-07-09T14:16:00.002-08:00

Counting Heads has just been released as an audiobook by Recorded Books. Looks like it's available as a download (for $28) from Audible.com, through Amazon. This is my first audiobook, and I'm pretty excited about it.

Back from Vacation

2009-07-09T13:54:00.003-08:00

I've just returned from a couple of weeks in a remote corner of Alaska. That is, in the Wrangell--St. Elias National Park and Preserve, where my family owns land in an inholder subdivision. The photo above is of my friend Rusty who accompanied me during his first visit to Alaska. He's standing in front of the Kennicott Glacier near McCarthy, which is about 10 miles from the subdivision. The old Kennecott Copper Mine can barely be seen in the background on the right.

We're going to build a cabin on our lot, and one of this summer's chores in preparation was to clean up a mess the bears made of stuff they pulled out of our storage shed. Here's a bear-mauled plastic bottle of Clairol hair conditioner. The bears found it irresistible.

New flash fiction story

2009-06-12T12:15:00.003-08:00

"Timed Release," my latest story, is in this week's issue of Nature (June 11, 2009). It's a flash fiction piece and concerns a "bachelor aid" technology I am waiting for someone to invent. I thought maybe if I got my idea into one of the world's premier science journals, maybe an enterprising chemist would see it and be inspired to work on it. I believe it would be a boon to civilization and could make some drug company a ton of money.

Dueling Interviews

2009-03-07T17:04:00.002-09:00

Two new interviews came out yesterday, one in the Alaskan writers blog, 49 Writers, and the other in the SF blog io9. This sure has been my time for interviews.

The photo above is a shot of my recent reading at Barnes & Noble in Fairbanks.

MOS Book Launch this Saturday

2009-01-29T13:52:00.002-09:00

If you're in the Fairbanks, Alaska area this Saturday afternoon, stop by Gulliver's Books on College Rd. and help me launch my second novel, Mind Over Ship. It's a science fictional romp through a scary future, and it's the sequel to my first novel, Counting Heads. I'll be there from 2:00 to 4:00 pm, and I'd love to meet all of you sf readers in Interior Alaska.

And another interview

2009-01-29T13:41:00.002-09:00

This one is in our local newspaper, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, purveyor of all the news from the mines since 1906, I think. And it's true that I worked there in the early 1980s. There were relatively few quality jobs in town in those days, especially for a young man with no skills but art. The N-M was responsible for turning my fine art into commercial art, which has provided me a steady paycheck ever since (until I quit all graphics work two years ago to devote all my time to writing).

The article and my grinning mug appeared on the front page of the newspaper. That blows me away.

If I could correct one thing, though, the term I was referring to is "fix-up." As in: He fixed up his award-winning novella into a full-length novel. I fixed-up "We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy" into Counting Heads.

Another Interview

2009-01-23T11:16:00.002-09:00

I was pleased to see that Mind Over Ship was designated a Sci Fi Essential book. Here's my interview.

Intervju med David Marusek

2009-01-22T11:06:00.003-09:00

Mind Over Ship is the featured Book of the Month at the premier SF bookshops in Sweden. It's all in Swedish, though, except for an interview I did with them just last week.

MIND OVER SHIP released today

2009-01-20T12:09:00.002-09:00

I am pleased to announce that my second novel, Mind Over Ship, has been released today. Hope you like it.

Broken Barrier

2009-01-11T18:31:00.002-09:00

My daughter reports via Blackberry that Getting to Know You is in the Terminal 4 bookstore at JFK. I've broken the airport bookstore barrier!

Mark your calendar

2009-01-02T14:49:00.002-09:00

Here are some dates of note:

January 20, 2009**********Mind Over Ship is released
Sat. January 31************Book launch at Gullivers
Sat. February 7************Marusek reading at Barnes & Noble

Jan. 20--Mind Over Ship goes on sale on Inauguration Day--a doubly auspicious day, a veritable two-fer.

Jan. 31--For those of you who plan to be in Fairbanks during the dead of winter, the last Saturday of January and the first of February are of special note to you. On January 31, from 2:00–4:00 pm, I'll be having a book launch at Gulliver's Books. Come on out. I'd love to see who you are.

Feb. 7--the following Saturday I'll be at the Fairbanks Barnes & Noble for a short reading at 6 pm. I'm not sure what I'll read. Maybe something from the new novel, or maybe something still in progress. I have some short stories in the mill and one of those might be fun.

Cold Snap of '08

2009-01-01T10:46:00.003-09:00

Day 6 of the Cold Snap of the winter of '08. I am counting from last Saturday, Dec. 27, when it hit 30 below and I did my weekly grocery shopping a day early. I am cabin-bound until the temperature rises above minus 20. I have enough supplies to dig in for a week, except for water. With 3 jugs (X 6 gal) I only have enough water to go 5 or 6 days, even rationed. I hope it warms up enough in the next couple of days so I can fire up the old pickup (17 years old) and set a course through the doughy ice fog to the water station. The next time I make it to Fred Meyers to shop, I'm going to buy a new water jug (giving a water run a 24-gallon payload) in order to lengthen my maximum mission duration here in cabin central.

I used to drive in any temperature, but I destroyed the engines/electronics of two vehicles in 40-below weather, and now I won't drive anywhere when it's colder than minus 20, except in emergency. This is a practical threshold, any colder and my pickup door doesn't latch, and I'd have to drive with the door open.

This cold snap is being compared to the one in 1989 when we had like two solid weeks at 40 below. I well remember that bit of weather. It got down to 55 below where we lived near the slough, and it was driving at 50 below that killed my old Saab. The thing I remember the most about the Cold Snap of '89 (I know how much this makes me sound like an old-timer) was running out of heating oil halfway through the spell and being told by my heating oil supplier that they had a 2-week waiting list for deliveries. I couldn't believe it, a company I'd purchased all my heating oil from for about 6 years told me I'd have to wait, or pay them an exorbitant "rush" charge.

I have already put in my order for an oil delivery here. It's a different company, of course, but I still have to wait a week. At least I planned for it this time. I can go through 200 gallons from Jan 1 through Feb 28, the so-called dead of winter up here. This cabin is a leaky tent, and I used to happily burn oil back when it cost $1 per gallon. But my first 100 gallons this winter cost $425, and it's long burned up. The price of the coming delivery will be $222. Much better, but low prices won't last.

I never thought I'd live in this cabin for this long, and it is so small (16' x 24') that I have never seriously considered putting in a woodstove. A woodstove would claim major floorspace. But this fall I helped a friend cut and haul a couple of cords of firewood off my property. I have 4 acres here, and there is a LOT of deadfalls. In fact, I figure it would take me 3 or 4 years to use up all the dead wood on my lot. With heating oil at $4.25 a gallon, here I am sitting on a renewable resource large enough to heat my home (with a little healthy elbow grease) for free. So, come March that'll be my home improvement project--an EPA-approved woodstove I can bask next to.

Now Twittering

2008-12-30T11:34:00.002-09:00

I'm trying out the Twittering even though I don't have a smart phone. Look at the Twitter sidebar to the right.

Paperback release

2008-12-30T11:10:00.003-09:00

The del Rey paperback edition of my story collection, Getting to Know You, is officially released today! It's a handsome little book. Great for reading on trains and planes. It even comes in a Kindle version. This is my first outing with del Rey, an imprint of Random House, and I'm curious what kind of job they do selling it. Let me know in the comments if you see this book on shelves and where (indy or chain book store, airport, grocery/convenience store, and so on). I like the cover art even though it's not especially sci-fi-ish. Perhaps they are angling for a broader readership? Lots of cool jacket blurbing.

Open auction--Pet Cameo

2008-12-11T12:31:00.004-09:00

It has belatedly occurred to me to inform y'all that I have a Pet Cameo auction still going on for one more day. It's over at the Help Vera site on LiveJournal.

Welcome to the HelpVera fundraiser and charity auction. We are trying to help Vera Nazarian, a speculative writer, publisher, and all-around wonderful person to save her house from foreclosure.

Vera's a friend and colleague of mine who has fallen on some rough times and apparently some good friends of hers took it upon themselves to do an online auction fundraiser. Hundreds of people have participated, and the target goal of $11,000 has been met and exceeded.

That's very cool and I'm very pleased for Vera. But let's not forget that many of the auctions are still going on! including mine! SF treasures are being sold right now for a good cause. If you're interested in some eclectic SF-themed goods and services, you've got only a day or two to place bids.

The things being offered and bid upon are mind-blowing. I was expecting a lot of books in this auction, but custom poems, cookies, custom jewelery, tarot readings, handbooks, pet cameos, copyediting... it goes on and on.

My own lot is the pet cameo, and it has only a day or so to go. It closes on Sat. Dec. 13 at 11:47 am, one week from its timestamp. I am selling one pet cameo in an upcoming story or novel. Here's how I described it for the auction:

You can immortalize your pet in a literary work!

For awhile now I've been offering pet cameos at auction for local non-profits. My novel, Mind Over Ship (Tor, Jan. 20 2009) includes two dogs who each fetched over $100 for the Fairbanks Symphony Association auction. The auction winner sends me a photo and a little bio sketch of their pet, and I'll fit the pet by name and description into an upcoming story or novel. In the past some of these animals have taken part at critical plot points!

For Vera's auction I'll donate one pet cameo. Can be pretty much any kind of animal. If it lives with you I should be able to fit it in. (Alternatively, I can do a cameo of your favorite boat, car, country estate, etc. No living people please).

A story I'm currently working on has a pivotal role played by a dog, and it's available for bidding. Other animals may have to wait a story or book or two to fit in. If a story or novel goes unpublished, I'll include your pet in the next until it is published. Minimum bid is $35.00.

As of today, Thurs, the high bid is $70, which frankly is a steal. If you're interested in casting your pet into literary history, you can make a bid until Saturday, Dec. 13 at 11:47 am, 2008. Sorry I didn't alert you sooner. I need an assistant around here.

Here's how you make a bid. Just go here.

I don't know if they make you join LJ or not in order to bid, but if you have any difficulty contact the auction manager Josh Guppiecat.

All pets are immortal, but sometimes it's nice to make it official.

Getting to Know You--Again!

2008-11-25T12:25:00.002-09:00

In the windup to the release of Mind Over Ship, and the subsidiary afterlife of Counting Heads, I have been all too forgetful of my other child, the collection of stories Getting To Know You, which comes out from del Rey on December 30. Others have not, including the preeminent SF writer, reviewer, and encyclopedia editor, John Clute. He published a review of GTKY in yesterday's Sci-Fi Weekly that blows me away. He actually makes me sound like someone who knows what he's doing (when the fact is I have to read reviews to discover that). Anyway, it's humbling. Check it out.

Counting Heads in Romania

2008-11-24T16:17:00.003-09:00

I am excited to see this come out, the Romanian edition of my first novel. I can't speak a word of Romanian, but I'm confident that this is a good translation because the translators, Cristina and Stefan Guidoveanu, sent me lists of questions to clarify terms and ideas. I usually inform foreign publishers that I'm available for such inquiries, but the Guidoveanus are the first to take me up on it.

Second Starred Review for MOS

2008-11-05T09:42:00.003-09:00

The current issue of Publisher's Weekly has a starred review for Mind Over Ship. (If you go there to read it, scroll halfway down the page to the SF/Fantasy/Horror section.) Since my first published stories, I have tried to take the moderating attitude of not getting too excited over good reviews or too bummed over bad ones. This review is very good, but what pleases me most in it is the mention of my--ahem--moments of "perfect prose." Hell yes! I labor long polishing those sentences and paragraphs. It's probably the most fun part of the process for me.

The review also makes this observation: "While newcomers might wish for a short prologue or a glossary, those omissions don't significantly detract." It's a relief to hear this from a reviewer, but I'm still anxious to provide some kind of synopsis of Counting Heads here and elsewhere (see the previous posting to this blog). So, if you've read CH and would like to take a stab at writing a summary, please do so. Email it to me. Don't make me write one myself, please, because my head is so full of early drafts, revisions, deleted scenes, alternate scenes, and abandoned threads and characters, that I have a hard time remembering how the final book came out. No joke.

Can you assist?

2008-10-23T19:24:00.002-08:00

In January 2009, when Mind Over Ship is released, more than three years will have passed since the release of Counting Heads. That's a long time to go between two installments of a series, and I expect that even careful readers of CH might need a refresher in order to better enjoy the sequel. I didn't provide a thumbnail recap of CH in MOS, but now I'm thinking I need one. Problem is, I just don't seem to be able to write one. I always have the hardest time doing synopses of my own work. I'm just hopeless at it, really. So, I am making an appeal to anyone who wants to write one for me. If you'd like to give it a shot, try to limit it to about 500 to 1000 words, and don't worry about spoilers. It'll be recommended for people who have already read CH, so spoilers won't matter. Cover all the important characters and events. Email it to me as an attached text file, I'll put the best couple of them up here and on my web site with your attribution.

COUNTING HEADS to be an audiobook

2008-10-21T10:43:00.004-08:00

Recorded Books will be coming out with a slew of SF titles in the next two years, and I'm pleased to announce that Counting Heads will be one of them. As this is my first audiobook, I'm thrilled.

First Review

2008-10-08T19:08:00.003-08:00

And a good one it is. The current issue of Kirkus has a starred review of my upcoming novel. Unfortunately, it's behind a subscription wall, so most of you probably won't be able to read it. Which is probably for the better because it contains spoilers. So don't read it. Anyway, January 20, 2009, is a doubly auspicious date; not only will my book be released on that day, but a new president of the United States will be inaugurated. It's still unknown who that will be, but one thing we know for sure, it won't be Bush.

A visit to NORAD

2008-08-18T08:59:00.005-08:00

On the Thursday of the Denvention con, I went on a day trip to the old NORAD command facility in Cheyenne Mountain with about 20 other SF writers. In the official photo above we are standing in front of the iconic entry tunnel. The trip was the inspiration of author Jeff Carlson, who was interested in the site as a setting for scenes in an upcoming novel.

Jeff has the names of those in the photo here as well as a link to a larger version. And here's a story about the visit by Annalee Newitz in the SF ezine Io9. Another visitor, author John Joseph Adams, has another story about the trip for SCI FI.com. Lucky me no havta write anything.

MOS cover art

2008-08-16T17:28:00.001-08:00

I attended the Tor Rollout Panel at Devention last week and got my first glance at the cover art for my second novel, Mind Over Ship. I am very pleased, and I think it's my best cover yet. It's from noted British illustrator Paul Youll, and it depicts the space station, Trailing Earth, and an Oship under construction. It gives an impression of the vast scale of the space yards. It's a beaut!

Launch Pad

2008-08-02T09:27:00.003-08:00

This week I'm attending Launch Pad, an amazing workshop for science fiction writers and others involved in bringing astronomy to the public. It's the brainchild of astronomer and SF writer Mike Brotherton and is funded by NASA. Through lectures and labs, we are getting a refresher course in Astronomy (or in my case, my first formal class).

I won't go into greater detail because at least one of the attendees, Mary Robinette Kowal, is doing a great job blogging the experience. In her photo above, the discerning reader can see my shoulders and balding head behind author Nancy Kress and next to David Levine. Jerry Oltien, who is an author and one of our instructors is in the green Hawaiian-print shirt. We are busy exploring Kirchhoff's second law (A low-density gas excited to emit light will do so at specific wavelengths and thus produce an emission spectrum) and comparing our laboratory observations with a spectrometry chart.

Tonight we go to the Wyoming Infrared Observatory to check out the big telescope there.

Next week I continue on to Denver (along with most of the workshop attendees) for Worldcon.

MOS release date

2008-05-31T13:51:00.002-08:00

Tor sent me the copyedited manuscript of Mind Over Ship, and I've spent the last two weeks working on it. It's my last chance to fix problems and do a bit of polishing.

I received word from Tor that MOS will be released January 20, 2009, less than nine months from now.