Jeffrey A. Carver

15 Jan 2022

Helicon Award 2022!

Happy New Year! I learned today I am a recipient of this year’s Helicon Award—specifically, the Frank Herbert Lifetime Achievement Award! I am excited!

The Helicon Awards are new to me, but I have learned that they are announced each year by the Helicon Society, “a collective of SF/F authors and other creators who subscribe to the Superversive approach to creating SF/F media and look to promote good quality sci-fi/fantasy…” It is something of an under-the-radar group, with no official public structure; the judges and membership are anonymous. Okay, I know one of them, Richard Paolinelli, a founding member. But the others are unknown to me. Whoever they are, I am immensely gratified that they have found my work worthy of a lifetime achievement award! Thank you.

Here are the past winners of Helicon’s Frank Herbert Lifetime Achievement Award:

2019 – Jack McDevitt
2020 – Anne McCaffrey
2021 – David Weber
2022 – moi

I am delighted to join their ranks.

See the recipients in other categories here. Congratulations to all of them!

25 Dec 2021

Merry Christmas, 2021!

posted in: animal friends, holiday greetings | 1

Wishing all of you the happiest of Christmases! It’s been quite a year, hasn’t it? Time for some quiet contemplation and good cheer, whether you celebrate the birth of Jesus as we do, or simply a good time to gather with people you love. Wishing blessings on all of you! Here’s our simple hearth for this year. Make me feel warm just to sit in front of it.

By the way, thanks to all who have asked: Captain Jack is doing great, following the surgery on his jaw. He looks a little funny, but his energy and personality are back full strength!

7 Dec 2021

Live Interview on Lurking for Legends—8 p.m. EDT, Today

posted in: interviews | 0

I’ll be going live in a little while in a video interview with David M. Kelly and Richard H. Stephens, as part of their show, Lurking for Legends. What will we be talking about? I don’t know! But I’ll bet it has something to do with writing, and possibly lurking, and maybe even legends. Come join us—it’ll be fun!

https://www.facebook.com/RichardHughStephens/videos/441961747498329/

Update: You can watch the completed interview at that link. It’ll be on YouTube, also, but I don’t have that link just yet. (Because it doesn’t exist yet.)

Seriously, come on in. You don’t have anywhere else to be, do you?

24 Nov 2021

A Haiku for Difficult Times

posted in: creativity, haiku, writing | 1

When the leader of a small group I am in suggested that we each write a haiku about our relationship with creativity, I had to look up what the pattern is for a haiku. (I am not a poet.) I stared for a while at the screen, muttering. Because, frankly, my relationship with creativity has been highly contentious of late, a lot of circling and snarling. Here’s what I settled on:

I chip at granite
Hoping to spark ideas
Ow ow ow—what’s this?

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

23 Nov 2021

Autographed Books for the Holidays?

posted in: Bookshop, my books, my Etsy shop, sales, specials, The Chaos Chronicles, The Reefs of Time | 0

Everyone loves autographed books! Especially sets of books. I know just where to start: The Star Rigger Bookstore…

…where you can buy complete, autographed sets of the entire Chaos Chronicles (to date) in evocative Starstream Publications trade paperback editions… or the first four books in first-edition Tor hardcovers. Or signed hardcover sets of The Reefs of Time and Crucible of Time. Or autographed copies of Eternity’s End, in the shiny new trade paperback, or the first-edition Tor hardcover. And much, much more. All (most?) at amazing, mark-down prices. (Truly amazing—that they are marked down, I mean.)

Don’t see what you want? Shoot me an email. There’s a good chance I’ve got it and just haven’t listed it yet.

In case you’re wondering, StarRiggerBooks is me, using Etsy as a platform. So you’ll get the same personal service, satisfaction almost guaranteed, by using the Etsy order form. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t know how to give impersonal service. I am my only underpaid employee. And I defy you to find a marketing algorithm anywhere in this store. Go ahead and look! Seriously. Look.

To all you USians traveling for Thanksgiving, travel safely and enjoy your holiday, I hope with family and treasured friends.

11 Nov 2021

Shipworld Outpost Nano-Retreat

posted in: Mothership, writing retreats | 0

I have been seriously in need of a writing retreat for a while. Unfortunately, it’s too late in the season to go off camping in the Mothership. For one thing, the campgrounds are all closed for the year; for another, I’ve drained and winterized the plumbing on board, so as not to get frozen pipes when the temperature drops. But does that mean I can’t use the ship at all? NO! Just the other day, I realized I could drive to scenic nearby locations, park, walk around to clear my head, and then retreat to the back of ship to write. I’ve got good lighting, heat if I need it, a decent place to sit, a small table, and a nice sound system. (The navigation of MP3 files on my thumb drive is primitive, though. I can view the list of tracks on the TV screen, sort of, and use arcane combinations of button presses in an effort to choose what to listen to.)

Anyway. The first time out, I went to Minuteman National Park in Lexington. I called that a mini-retreat, because it got me out of my neighborhood. On my way home, wouldn’t you know, the infernal Check Engine came on, so now I’ve got to get that sorted out. But in the meantime, I figured, what’s wrong with retreating to the ship right in my driveway? Nothing. And so, I hereby designate this as a nano-retreat.

The results may not be spectacular, but I’ve done more writing in three of these little sessions than I have in the three weeks preceding, sitting in my office surrounded by distractions. Whatever works.

Also, the house kitchen is nearby. Hoo-ahh!

2 Nov 2021

Shapers of Worlds, Vol. 2!

posted in: recommendations, science fiction | 0

The Shapers of Worlds anthologies, edited by Edward Willett, are collections of science fiction and fantasy short stories written by authors who have been guests on Ed’s excellent podcast. The lineup of authors on these books is impressive. And the second volume has just been published: in ebook, paperback, and hardcover! I’ve added it to my own to-read list. (Yes, I have a story in it, a reprint of one of my favorites. But I don’t need to reread that one. I want to read the others. But by all means, read them all.)

Please check it out at your favorite bookstore! Tell ’em I sent you.

21 Oct 2021

Audiobook Featured Deal: Sunborn!

posted in: audiobooks, specials, Sunborn | 1

I’m not sure launching an audiobook special on the same day the new Dune movie releases is the best timing, but there you have it. In a great deal from Chirpbooks, Sunborn in audiobook is just $1.99 for a limited time! (Normally it’s $14.99 at Chirp, which is already way less than the price at Audible.) Grab it while you can! It’s a book I’m especially proud of, with a wonderful narration by Stefan Rudnicki.

Neptune Crossing is also deeply discounted. The rest of the Chaos series is supposed to be marked down, but I haven’t seen the prices drop yet, so check back. I may need to shake a few branches.

Edit: They came through for me! All the volumes of The Chaos Chronicles are marked way down. There will never be a more economical way to stock up on the whole series!

16 Oct 2021

From the Galactic Archives: Science Fiction on “The Connection”

posted in: archives, From the Galactic Archives, interviews, radio | 0

Over the last mumblety years, I’ve done a number of interviews in various media, or written essays for other publications or blogs. I always link to them, but mostly I’ve not gotten around to putting them on my own site (after a decent interval), as I’ve meant to do. Well, it’s never too late. I start with one of my favorites.

On November 21, 1997, I was a guest along with author Joe Haldeman on a remarkable public radio series called The Connection, hosted by Christopher Lydon on Boston’s WBUR public radio station. The Connection was a highly respected show on public affairs and the arts. It wasn’t the kind of show where you normally expected any mention of SF literature. But this time it was, and the discussion was lively, with lots of input from callers. I had a great time. I recently found a tape recording of the show, and have digitized it for the modern age. (Edit: I realized the tape reproduction was a little fast, so I have adjusted the recording to what seems to me to be the correct pitch and tempo.)

I hope the producers don’t mind my doing this, since technically I don’t own the copyright. But it’s been over twenty years, so I hope it’s all right. For the record, I’ve stored this recording on my own website, and I’m offering you a chance to plug into my headphone jack. Please don’t distribute this, but if you’ve got a little time and you want to hear our chat with an influential radio personality, just lean over and plug your headphones in right here…

Here’s a picture of Joe and me together at a book signing, a few years later. (Photo by Gay Haldeman)

11 Oct 2021

Captain Jack’s Doing Great So Far

posted in: animal friends | 2

You’d never know this dog just had major surgery that left him without half of his lower jaw! His energy and desire to do stuff has come roaring back. He doesn’t like his Hat of Healing—who would?—but other than that, he’s raring to go; and by the way, folks, haven’t you noticed that it’s dinner time, already? Yesterday he pawed at the refrigerator door, which is an all-new way for him to ask for food. Today, on his walk, he took a stab at his old favorite game of jumping around and trying to grab his leash. (The hat blocked him, fortunately; he’s not supposed to roughhouse or tug on things for six weeks.) He’s on soft food for a few weeks, and then he can go back to eating whatever he wants.

Unless you look very closely, you don’t even see that half his lower jaw is missing—except for the telltale tongue hanging out on one side. That’s probably going to be part of his new persona going forward.

This is all great, but we anxiously await the biopsy results, which will give us more information on whether the surgery got all the cancer. That will guide us on what, if any, follow-up treatment is needed. Hopefully none, as he follows in the paw prints of Moonlight, his late cat friend—who at a very senior age, smacked down a gloomy diagnosis and wrested a couple more good years of life for herself.

Here, he takes a well-earned rest…

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Author Archives: Jeffrey A. Carver