21 Jan 2009

President Obama!

posted in: Flying, personal news, public affairs | 0

What more can I say? It was a wonderful and moving inauguration—all those people, as far as the eye could see!—and I came away from watching it with tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat, buoyed and encouraged and hopeful as I have not been for many years. I did not know until I heard it on the radio later that survivors of the Tuskegee Airmen were present to share the moment. That seemed perfect.

The president has his work cut out for him, and we have ours cut out for us as well. May God bless us all, but especially our new leaders, all of them.

I wish I were there for the party!

20 Jan 2009

Counting Down…

posted in: personal news, public affairs | 0

In about ten hours, from the time I write this, Barack Obama will be sworn in as President of the United States. I am excited by this on so many levels, I hardly know where to start. A change in the direction of America’s foreign and domestic policies, a man in the White House who thinks and reads and invites discourse and even disagreement, an African American as our highest national official, a new First Dog, and I guess even a new First Mother-in-Law. (We’ll see how that last one goes.)

In particular, I hope that the peoples of other nations—allies and adversaries alike—will see a different America reemerging, an America that is readier to work collaboratively, more respectful of other views, and less prone to confrontation. And that doesn’t mean an America that is less strong. Strength does not always come from confrontation.

Listening to NPR this morning, remembering the awesome inspiration of Martin Luther King, Jr. in his “I have a dream” speech, I began my Monday on a rising note of hope. I expect to do that in spades tomorrow (really, today), as I wake up to watch a historic transfer of the reins of power. I can’t wait.

“Laughter is the beginning of prayer.” —Reinhold Niebuhr

13 Jan 2009

The Infinity Link—soon to be a major motion ebook!

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I wrote recently that I was proofreading the computer file of my 1984 novel, The Infinity Link, for a pending ebook edition. I still am. (It’s a long book, and proofreading is a slow job.) That’s not news. What is news is how much I’m liking the book. I mean—really liking it! It’s a good book!

Cover art by David B. Mattingly

Okay, that probably sounds dumb, because on the one hand you’re not supposed to think your own book is bad, but on the other hand, it sounds braggy if you say your own book is good. But…I haven’t read through this novel in years, many years, and I was fully expecting to find it—you know, good, but not that good, and full of passages that I wished I’d done a little differently, or kept shorter, or something. But the truth is, I’m not really thinking of it as my book as I’m reading it, and I’m just really enjoying it. I expect any of you who are writers or artists know exactly what I’m talking about, and the rest of you are nodding tolerantly, thinking, there there, have a nice cup of tea, you’ll feel better.

The Infinity Link is out of print, but you can still get new copies from me, or used copies online wherever online used book dealers gather. And soon, you’ll be able to buy it as a brand new ebook!

“Sure, it’s simple, writing for kids… Just as simple as bringing them up.” —Ursula K. LeGuin

9 Jan 2009

BSG Meets The Atlantic Monthly (!)

posted in: Battlestar Galactica, quirky, science fiction, writing | 0

The Atlantic is a terrific magazine, but possibly the last place I would have looked for an article on Battlestar Galactica, the edgy TV series that’s probably done more to shake up science fiction on television since the original Star Trek. Nevertheless, in the new (Jan/Feb 2009) issue, James Parker writes in The Atlantic about BSG, just as the show locks and loads for its final stretch (hitting the cablewaves next Friday night!). In Lost in Space, Parker gives a reasonable account of the origin of the reimagined show, except that he brings L. Ron Hubbard into the account—Hubbard having said that space opera was really “the stuff of deepest prehistory, somber emanations from the memory of the species.” That dovetails, admittedly, with BSG’s premise that Earth is not the cradle of humankind, but rather the latest stop on a long journey.

Parker turns a tad snarky about the direction of the show, saying that “Battlestar Galactica is presenting all the symptoms of a an extended-run high-concept TV series in its decadent phase.” Now, he may be right—certainly I’ve wondered more than once whether the show’s writers actually know themselves where they’re going with the story. I’ve wondered that ever since I wrote the official novelization of the miniseries, and had the feeling that there was a lot they weren’t telling me about the direction of the show because they weren’t sure themselves. Fair enough. Half the time I don’t know where I’m going when I’m writing a novel. Why should it be any different for the creators of a years-long TV series?

On the other hand, maybe those writers know exactly what they’re doing, and we’re just entering the twistiest part of the world’s most gut-wrenching aerobatics show. That’s my vote, an expression of white-knuckled faith. They better know what they’re doing—it’s coming back on, and looks like it could be augering in, and I, for one, want to know how they’re going to land that baby!

“You write about the thing that sank its teeth into you and wouldn’t let go.” —Paul West

7 Jan 2009

You Can Have My New Sony Reader…

posted in: ebooks, personal news, science fiction, writing | 0

When you pry it from my cold, dead fingers. Just like Charlton Heston and his guns. People, I love my new Reader. I love the built-in light, I love the 150 or so books I have on it right now, with room for about a thousand more. I love the way you can organize them, to make titles easy to find. I love the way, with the help of a program called Calibre, I can import books in other formats and convert them for reading on the Sony, and even share them with Allysen, who is discovering that she loves reading on her new iPod Touch. I’ve actually been getting a lot more reading done since adopting my PRS-700.

I’ve named it Plato.

Most of what it’s filled with now is free ebooks, either from the general sources like Gutenberg.org, Manybooks.net, and Feedbooks.com—or from the free offerings of Tor, Baen, and other publishers. I’ve bought a couple of ebooks, including the Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge (but, ironically, his iconic and groundbreaking story about the net, “True Names,” does not seem to be available in ebook form).

I’m slowly returning the world of productive work, following the holidays. I’ve signed up my novels The Infinity Link and Seas of Ernathe for the ereads program, which already features five of my novels, so they’ll be available in electronic format before too long. (Also, The Rapture Effect and Dragon Rigger should be available very soon.) Right now I’m proofing The Infinity Link, actually reading it for the first time in many years. It was my first BIG book, published in 1984, and I’m pleased to say I’m enjoying it.

Hope you’re all having a great beginning of 2009!

“You’ll never make much money writing books like that. But the very best people will come to your funeral.” —said to Edgar Pangborn, as told by D.G. Compton

30 Dec 2008

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

posted in: Uncategorized | 0

Also, Happy Hanukah, Solstice, Kwanzaa, and any other celebrations I might have missed.

Wow, I’ve really fallen off the radar this time, haven’t I? It’s been an incredibly busy December, and we had family here for Christmas week, and basically I just haven’t been doing things like keeping up with my blog. So, apologies to all of you! But best wishes indeed for the season.

The highlight of my Christmas was having my daughter home from college (before heading off this morning for an international trip with a group from school), and my brother and his girlfriend visiting for most of a week. It was terrific all around.

The highlight in material terms (toys!) was an exceedingly generous gift from a family member of an ebook reader—a Sony Reader (PRS-700, the new one with the built-in light)—which I have been enjoying hugely and have been filling up with everything from classics to favorite SF from when I was a kid (Tom Corbett, Space Cadet!), to freebies from Tor Books and the Baen Free Library. I’ve got close to a hundred books on it now, and have barely scratched the available memory. Thanks, Chuck and Youngmee!

Another highlight was an odd counterpoint: my wife handed me another blast from my past—three Tom Swift, Jr. books that her aunt had given to her for me, including Tom Swift and his Diving Seacopter, an absolute favorite from a certain age in my youth. And, to round the story out, DARPA is actually hoping to build a craft just like it—yes, an airplane that can go underwater! Talk about science fiction (once in a while) predicting the future!

I hope you’re all having a great holiday season. I’ll leave you with this thought from Charles Lindbergh.

“By day, or on a cloudless night, a pilot may drink the wine of the gods, but it has an earthly taste; he’s a god of the earth, like one of the Grecian deities who lives on worldly mountains and descended for intercourse with men. But at night, over a stratus layer, all sense of the planet may disappear. You know that down below, beneath that heavenly blanket is the earth, factual and hard. But it’s an intellectual knowledge; it’s a knowledge tucked away in the mind; not a feeling that penetrates the body. And if at times you renounce experience and mind’s heavy logic, it seems that the world has rushed along on its orbit, leaving you alone flying above a forgotten cloud bank, somewhere in the solitude of interstellar space.” — Charles A. Lindbergh

5 Dec 2008

Nice Plug on Sci Fi Wire

posted in: personal news, science fiction, Sunborn, writing | 0

Sunborn got some nice exposure today on Sci Fi Wire, with an article/interview by John Joseph Adams. It came out rather more techie-sounding than I would have liked; but as it consists almost entirely of quotes from my own email response to his questions, I guess I’m the one to blame for that. Seems to have caused only a modest bump in traffic to my website, so maybe that’s why.

“We all know that only about 5% of our advertising works. The problem is, we don’t know which 5%.” —Some wise person in the publishing industry

27 Nov 2008

To New York, ish, Twice This Week

posted in: ebooks, personal news, science fiction | 0

This last Monday was the date of the annual SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) Editorial Reception, where SFWA hosts a big gathering for members, editors, artists, and friends, to generally schmooze and reconnect. I hadn’t been to one in years, so I decided at the last minute to go down, just for the day. I treated myself to Amtrak’s Acela for the ride down. Great train. Then I hoofed it from Penn Station to the Tor Books offices, tipping my hat to the Empire State Building on the way. (I make it sound like I know where I was going. Yeah, me and my Google map.)

In the past, the publisher’s offices were always a gathering place for writers prior to events like this, and I expected to be joining a crowd. Nope. I was the only one there, and all the Tor people were actually working. (!!) But my publicist Sam Cutler took me around to meet all the publicity people, and I waved to all the editors I knew (my own editor not being in town), then I browsed the bookshelves, plucking down books to read. While thumbing through a book, I heard a mutter from the room next door about problems with Mobipocket Creator. Having spent a good deal of time on ebook creation, I poked my head in, and thus met Pablo Defendini, maven of Tor.com, and also the guy who’s doing his level best to get Tor ebooks up and running. Great guy, great conversation, and eventually I grabbed some dinner with him and some of the other Tor.com people, as well as Irene Gallo, Tor’s art director, all good folk. Then we all went off to the SFWA thing, where I indeed reconnected with some old friends, and even ran into my agent, Richard Curtis!

Coming home on the 3 a.m. train out of Penn Station wasn’t quite as much fun (actually, waiting for the 3 a.m. train in Penn Station wasn’t as much fun), but hey. A good trip.

Today, I turned around and drove to pick up my daughter and a couple of friends from college, a ways up the river from NYC, then turned around again and brought them home. Could have been a lot worse; the poor souls on the Mass Pike westbound toward New York as I was coming back east were in for a long time on the road!

Safe travels for the holidays, everyone (if you travel, which you probably will, if you’re in the U.S.)!

27 Nov 2008

The Page 69 Test – Sunborn

posted in: blogging, personal news, science fiction, Sunborn | 0

I was asked by Marshal Zeringue, the owner of a blog called “The Page 69 Test” to write an entry for Sunborn. The inspiration for the blog comes from the “page 69 test” that you can use when you’re browsing a book in a store: open to page 69, and see if you like what you read. Some people use the “page 11 test.” Some the “first and last page” test.

If you’d like to see what I wrote, check out The Page 69 Test: Sunborn.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

22 Nov 2008

Writer, Like Dragon

posted in: personal news, Sunborn, writing | 0

Most working writers are like dragons: they know down to the nickel what’s in their hoard. Maybe not their hoard of gold on hand—because usually what they have on hand is a shortage of gold—but for sure they know when the gold is expected. They know who owes them what, and when it’s supposed to come, and (if they’re honest) how many months late it will probably actually come. It’s a survival trait. When food is scarce, you keep a watch on the supply trains.

Except this time.

Our budget has been pretty tight around here of late, and our contingency actions included borrowing some cash. (If you read the papers, you’d think that was impossible. And yet, though GM can’t get a loan, the credit card companies continue to offer no-interest balance transfers, even to people who demonstrably are unlikely to leave the debt in one place long enough for it to kick up to the higher rate.) Well, we determined to keep a trusting attitude about it all, and even decided that we needed to be more conscious about giving away a proper tithe of the money that does come in. Giving back to God, paying forward, call it what you will.

Today I opened an envelope from my agent—and what did I behold? A check. A substantial check. It seemed that, most undragonlike, I had forgotten that there was an on-publication check owed me for Sunborn! I had forgotten! (All of my other contracts have called for payment on signing and on acceptance, but this particular one was structured differently from all the others.) I had forgotten! Whoo-whoooo!

I did three things right away. I thanked God, I called my wife, and I took that sucker right to the bank.

“God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God’s adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed, by and by.” —Mark Twain

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