5 Aug 2014

Upcoming Appearances!

posted in: appearances, cons, personal news, writing workshops | 0

I haven’t posted about this in a while. I’ll be showing my face in public in two very different events in the next couple of weeks.

This coming weekend, August 7-10, I’ll be conducting several workshop sessions in science fiction writing at the Cape Cod Writers Conference, in Hyannis, MA. It’s not too late to sign up! (At least, I don’t think so.) This one is for the general public, and last I heard, there was still room in my workshop, which is just part of a much larger conference. So if you’re in the area, and you’re interested, check into it right away!

After that, I’ll be in London for Loncon, the annual World Science Fiction Convention! This will be the first worldcon I’ve attended in a number of years, and I’m looking forward to it. Cool fact: My wife Allysen went through Air BnB and got us a place to stay on a boat on the Thames! How can you beat that? I was late in registering, and apparently too late in asking to be put on the program—because they didn’t schedule me for anything, not even an autograph session. Ah well, that may make it a more relaxing trip, after all. 

If you’re at Loncon, keep an eye out and say hello if you see me!

EDIT: I’m signing at 3 pm Friday. Please stop by!

25 Jul 2014

Dog Days Sale at Book View Café!

posted in: Book View Cafe, ebooks, specials | 0


There are a slew of books on sale for half price at BookView Café, in our Dog Days of July sale! Fantasy, science fiction, romance, and more by a bunch of different BVC authors. Includes a couple of mine. From now until July 28!
Check it out.  BVC has really well formatted ebooks, most of them previously published by the big houses, all of them DRM-free, and just generally good stuff. If you have any problems, just contact Customer Support. (You’ll probably get me.)
Dog Day Sale ad
25 Jul 2014

(Re)Introducing…Down the Stream of Stars!

posted in: ebooks, my books, personal news | 0

The second book of the Starstream, Down the Stream of Stars, is back! (Updated) Live at Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iTunes, and Smashwords as I write this. Soon to be at Book View Café.

Here’s what the blurb writer (that would be me) had to say about it:

A great interstellar migration has begun, down the grand, ethereal highway known as the starstream—from the remnant of the Betelgeuse supernova to the center of the Milky Way. Who could have predicted the wonders of the starstream, or the perils it would unleash—including the Throgs, shadowy beings of n-space that seem to understand only death and destruction? But life goes on, dangers or no, and colonists pour down the starstream seeking new worlds. Aboard starship Charity are many such colonists, including one Claudi Melnik, a child of uncommon talents—and an AI named Jeaves, with purposes of his own. When the unthinkable occurs, Claudi must face alone the challenge of the Throgs. And no one, not even Jeaves, could have predicted the final confrontation—or imagined where unexpected allies would be found.

Triumphant sequel to the bestselling From a Changeling Star, Down the Stream of Stars is a daring journey across the gulf between human and alien, to the heart of consciousness itself.

Named one of the best science fiction novels of the year by Science Fiction Chronicle. DRM-free ebook edition. Original print publication by Bantam Spectra.

“Carver’s ingenuity is everywhere apparent.” —Locus

“I enjoyed it immensely. Carver provides another wild ride through a deranged cosmos. His imagination is matched only by his compassion. Marvelous effort!” —Jack McDevitt, author of Seeker and Chindi.

Kindle | Nook | Kobo | Smashwords | iTunes | Book View Cafe

By the way, you can read this as a standalone novel, but my recommendation is to read From a Changeling Star first, and then start this one the second you finish. You know, so as not to lose momentum. Low introductory price will not last!

And also by way, it provides some interesting background for The Reefs of Time, which I am still writing!

9 Jul 2014

From a Changeling Star . . . Is Back!

posted in: ebooks, my books, personal news, science fiction, specials | 0

If for some odd reason you’d been monitoring my author page at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Apple these last couple of weeks, you would have seen nine of my books disappear from the listings. No, it’s not the battle between Amazon and Hachette. It’s that I’ve recovered the rights to these books (amicably) from the previous publisher, and I’m preparing my own ebook editions. (Probably paper editions, too, for the ones I have those rights to. But that’s further down the road.)

Well, the first one is making its reappearance. From a Changeling Star is live at the Kindle store, in progress at the Nook store, and set for “pre-order” at the Apple and Kobo stores (where it will release on July 22, same day as at Book View Café). The sequel, Down the Stream of Stars, is not far behind.

Edit: It’s now also available at Nook, iTunes, Kobo, and Book View Cafe!

Beneath the roiling surface of Betelgeuse, scientists anxiously await the one man essential to the success of Starmuse, the greatest engineering project in human history. But on Kantano’s World, Willard Ruskin battles invisible agents for control of his life, his physical form, and even his memories. Drawn into a conflict from which not even death will free him, Ruskin must find a way to reach Betelgeuse before his enemies sabotage Starmuse—and humanity’s future among the stars. A harrowing journey from inside the human cell… to the mind of a dying star.

A stunning blend of hard science fiction with moving characterization, both human and otherwise. Introduces the robot Jeaves, familiar to readers of The Chaos Chronicles. From the Nebula-nominated author of Eternity’s End.

Original print publication by Bantam Spectra. A Locus bestseller.

These other books will be back, in due course: 
Panglor
Star Rigger’s Way
Dragons in the Stars*
Dragon Rigger* 
Seas of Ernathe
The Infinity Link
The Rapture Effect
*These two are still available in the boxed set, Dragon Space. Which is still on sale at the price-buster price of $1.99! Until midnight tonight, July 9, EDT! Go find it! 
2 Jul 2014

BookBub Strikes Again: Dragon Space!

posted in: BookBub, ebooks, my books, specials | 0

I’m doing it again! What a wild and crazy guy! Starting today, I have another BookBub promotion running, this time for Dragon Space: A Star Rigger Omnibus — for the low, low price of $1.99 for two complete novels in one volume! Zounds!

In case you came in late, or have forgotten, Dragon Space is a boxed set of Dragons in the Stars and Dragon Rigger, two of my favorite books of the star rigger universe. If you don’t already have them, why not invest two thin dollar bills, or maybe two gold Sacajawea dollar coins, on the ebook value of the month? (Do you want your penny change?  Sure thing. Or I can just put it in the Have One/Take One cup.)

For the ebook bargain hunter, BookBub is the best thing since unsliced, fresh-baked bread. It’s free to sign up. And you’ll hear about some great deals.
28 Jun 2014

Postum, Fauxstum, Faux Fauxstum, and Nearstum

posted in: beverages, personal news, quirky | 0
Postum

While we’re on the subject of beverages…

Years ago, I developed a fondness for Postum, a caffeine-free grain beverage that made a pretty good faux coffee for late-night drinking, especially while writing on cold winter nights. I didn’t buy huge amounts, maybe a few jars a year. Apparently that wasn’t enough to satisfy Kraft Foods, because they discontinued it—to my great discontent.

Fauxstum

Rather grumpily, I set about looking for alternatives. At Whole Foods, you can buy something called Kaffree Roma, which doesn’t exactly taste like Postum, and sure doesn’t taste like coffee. But Roma isn’t bad, and it grew on me. In time I decided it was a pretty good faux Postum, and so I renamed it Fauxstum (foh-stum).

One day I went to Whole Foods to buy another jar of Fauxstum. They didn’t have any. All they had was a theoretically similar grain beverage called Cafix. To my taste, it wasn’t as good as Fauxstum, but it was good enough to get by with on a cold night. So there I sat, on a cold December night, burning the midnight oil and drinking Faux Fauxstum.

Faux Fauxstum

Well, in due course it turned out that Postum had become available again through a small company that had acquired the rights to the name, the label, and the recipe. Unfortunately, they only sold it through online stores like Vermont Country Store, where it costs an arm and a leg, with shipping. I guess I didn’t want it as badly as I wanted Vernors ginger ale, so I held off on paying $20 for a jar of the stuff. However, in the fullness of time, I received a couple of jars as a gift from my loving wife, who doesn’t wince as I do at paying $20 for a jar of something. I rejoiced. Postum is back!

Nearstum

Except… honestly, it’s not, exactly. The new makers clearly tried really hard, and I give them lots of credit. But it seems to me that they haven’t gotten the recipe quite right (maybe the secret of the original died with its maker?), and the new Postum has a taste highly reminiscent of the old Postum. But although it comes close, it doesn’t quite hit the mark. And thus is born… Nearstum.

Well, I have a cupboard full of the various ‘stums now, and when winter circles round again, I’ll get back to it. But meanwhile? It’s Vernors time, baby!

26 Jun 2014

Vernors in Massachusetts!

posted in: beverages, quirky | 0

There is a God, and he loves us. If you doubt that, consider this: It’s now possible to buy Vernors Ginger Ale in the Boston area!

Vernors is my favorite summer beverage, if you don’t count craft beer. Aged in oak, it tastes like no other ginger ale. It’s got a great gingery fizz that smacks you in the nose, with undercurrents of vanilla. I grew up with it in Ohio, and didn’t realize how good I had it until I lived where you couldn’t buy it. For years now, I have either dragged a supply back with me from Ohio if we were out there visiting family, or I have paid an exorbitant amount to buy a summer supply online.*

But thanks to the opening of the first Wegmans supermarket in not-too-far-away Newton, I no longer have to do that. Because Wegmans, bless them, has brought Vernors to Boston. What a great supermarket!

God is good. Truly.

*If you live where Vernors is unavailable, check out the Vernors Store.

It’s not five cents a bottle anymore!

25 Jun 2014

Godzilla Saves the World—Again!

posted in: Godzilla, performances, theater and movies | 0

Speaking of culturally significant shows, Julia and I went to see Godzilla a few nights ago. I cannot claim to be an unbiased reviewer, because I have a long-standing affection for the beast and his signature GRONNNNNNGGGK-K-K! In fact, I can see a couple of Godzilla toys on the shelf from where I sit at my computer right now. But I’m highly sensitive to bad versions of Godzilla, of which the version starring Matthew Broderick was one. (It wasn’t a bad monster movie; it just wasn’t Godzilla.)

Anyway, the new one is pretty good! ‘Zilla comes to the rescue when human attempts to stop some other nasty monsters fail. Although, I have to say, we both felt that Godzilla got shorted a little on screen time in comparison to the MUTOs (the Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Objects), which were ugly, massive buglike things. Also, I have to admit that Godzilla’s motivation in the story was pretty vague. But let’s not get all scientific. Of course you can detonate a large fusion warhead just offshore and not flatten San Francisco! It’s a Godzilla movie!

I must confess to some disappointment in the Godzilla roar, though. This interesting video shows the two sound guys who produced it talk about the three-year job of getting it right. And I have to say… close, but uh-uh. The original, produced by a resin-coated leather glove being dragged down the strings of a bass, and then slowed down, was better, in my opinion.

Here you can see how ‘Zilla has evolved over the years, both in body and sound. I thought they got the sound best in the mid ’60s and ’70s.

http://www.blastr.com/2014-4-28/new-godzilla-featurette-explores-roar

24 Jun 2014

Cirque du Soleil — A Wild Ride

posted in: performances, personal news | 0

I’d never been to Cirque du Soleil before. Now I have. Wow.

This year they’re doing a show called Amaluna, which from the press looked pretty fantastical. Our niece Lauren was visiting from California, and we decided it was time to go. What an amazing amalgam of showmanship, acrobatics, gymnastics, dance and flexibility, music and drum, fantasy and story, balance, strength, and a touch of humor. The cast is 70% female and the band 100%, which marks a major shift for Cirque.

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/amaluna/default.aspx

Eye candy, too. I told Allysen if I were a woman, it would be enough to turn me gay. There’s a sort of story to it, loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest. See it if you get a chance!

You can read a couple of good reviews at Huffington Post and The New York Daily News.

Here are Lexi and Julia in front of the big tent, as the crowd was leaving.

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