For the curious reader of science fiction (scifi) and fantasy
Yes, a new interview has gone live. This is a really good one! The crew at Sci-Fi Saturday Night were all deep into The Reefs of Time, and had some interesting observations and questions. I had a lot of fun recording this. One of the guys, Cameron, told me later that first his brother and then his father looked over his shoulder to see what he was reading. Their reaction? “I’ve read that series! You mean there’s another book out? Great!” So I know I’ve picked up a few new readers!
Alert readers will already have noticed the speech button that now appears on every page of this website and blog. Try clicking it! (Not the picture on the left. The little button way on the left.) I’ve installed this at the suggestion of a blog reader who asked me ages ago why I didn’t enable readaloud for sight-impaired fans. Now I’ve done it! (I set out to do it when I first got the suggestion, but some technical glitch or other stalled the process at the time.)
I think it works pretty well, especially for a free plugin. All I can offer right now is a male voice reading in American English, but I hope that will meet the needs of most of you. Let me know what you think in the comments!
A print* interview–and I really should have mentioned this one sooner. This is Uncaged Magazine, February issue, and they have a fairly long profile of me, and a number of other writers, as well. (One or two of them SF, and some other genres as well.) I’m about 3/4 of the way along the scroll bar, but take a look at the rest while you’re there. There’s a centerfold, so to speak, of a gallery of the authors’ animal friends–including, of course, the Carver critters.
*By “print,” you understand that I mean words you read. On a screen. That kind of print.
The Literary Titan book review panel has spoken, and what they’ve said is, give a gold medal to The Reefs of Time! Here’s my gold medal. Here’s what they say:
“Our literary awards are given to books and authors that have astounded and amazed us with unique writing styles, vivid worlds, complex characters, and original ideas…
The Gold Award is bestowed on books that we found to be perfect in their delivery of original content, meticulous development of unique characters in an organic and striking setting, innovative plot that supports a fresh theme, and elegant prose that transforms words into beautifully written books.”
Am I going to argue with that?
I took a shower today with water heated by the sun! What a feeling! Our solar heating panels went up on the garage roof last week, and our aging 40-gallon hot water tanks were removed, and replaced by a humongous 119-gallon lifetime stainless steel tank that feeds both apartments in our two-family house. Primary heat is the sun. Secondary heat is an electric heater in the tank. Our expectation is that about 75% of our water heating requirements will come from the sun, annually. More in the summer and less in the winter, obviously. But even in the winter, plenty of heat comes from the sun. The excellent work was done by New England Solar Hot Water.
Remember, back in December, I told you about the trench I was digging? That was for this.
Speaking of home heating efficiency, our ductless AC/heating system was finished a few weeks ago by New England Ductless, and now (in moderate weather) we’re heating more efficiently with electric heat pumps. We’re still figuring out the best way to control them (which we do using our smartphones), or rather to balance them with the legacy steam heat in the colder weather. These condenser units are kind of dominant on the outside of the house, so I guess my home project for this summer will be to build some kind of privacy fence around them.
This was all made possible in part by a two-town group discount, various tax credits and rebates for renewable energy installations, and a 0% interest loan program run by a state agency (MassSave) and funded by utilities. All that brought the net cost down considerably. The hot water installation should pay for itself in 4-5 years.
My guest spot went live today on Edward Willett’s podcast series, The Worldshapers! Ed is a writer of over sixty books, and his podcast series has included a slew of great science fiction and fantasy authors talking about their writing process. He has just launched a Kickstarter campaign to publish an anthology of stories by authors who were guests on The Worldshapers podcast in its first year. Take a look! Give them some love!
Meanwhile, you can listen right here to the interview, or go to the podcast site.
Alert reader Laura _ sent me this copy of The Reefs of Time that she bought from Barnes and Noble online. Anything look wrong to you?
As you can see from this shot, I am holding just the cover open. The first page inside the cover is Prologue Two. Missing are all the front-matter pages, including title page and copyright, dedication, “Previously in The Chaos Chronicles” synopses, and Prologue One. Yikes! How many other people got defective books like this, and didn’t trouble to get in touch with me to let me know?
The book, as far as I have been able to determine so far, was printed by Ingram, a usually solidly reliable producer of books. I’ve asked for an investigation, but I don’t expect to have an answer anytime soon.
If you, or anybody you know, received a defective book, please let me know! Thanks!
Oh, and ditto if you get a copy of Sunborn with the cover type skewed to the side (which happened to me).
I told you recently about a new print edition for Sunborn. Now I’ve got an audiobook you just have to have! This fourth volume of The Chaos Chronicles is billowing into the stores, with narration by the incomparable Stefan Rudnicki.
Right now you can get it here:
Apple | Nook | GooglePlay | Kobo | Scribd | eStories
It’ll be in lots more stores soon, including Audible and Amazon. Also Overdrive, so you’ll be able to ask your public library to order it. (Not yet. But they can order the first three books.)
For completists, here’s a list of all my books currently in audio format.
Listen to SAMPLE
My Asus laptop has died, this time the true death, I think. Two years ago (seems like yesterday), it died in a similar fashion, just going poof, bye when my back was turned. That time it was the motherboard, and I suspect the same is true this time. That time it expired on the last day of the warranty, and Asus (after considerable prodding) did the right thing and fixed it. This time it’s three years old. And I just two weeks ago got the latest Windows update to work on it. This is so depressing. A computer should last longer than this! They’re just like the replicants from Bladerunner, with a built-in expiration date.
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain…”
This weekend, Boston’s long-running Boskone science fiction convention, will be running in the Westin Hotel on the waterfront—same location as Arisia, a month ago. Where Arisia was somewhat media oriented, Boskone is more focused on the literary end of science fiction. It also usually boasts one of the best art shows among SF cons.
I’ll be there Friday evening, Saturday, and for a little while on Sunday. If you see me, stop and say hello! I’ll also be selling autographed books during the Boskone Book Party, Saturday evening. Come buy some books! (Or just say hello.)
Here’s a link to my schedule.