I’m starting to buckle down to work again, but interested parties might like to know that Jim Hines is giving away a copy of A Star Shall Fall (and also one of Tanya Huff’s The Enchantment Emporium). Details at the link; you have until the 20th to enter.
The reading went swimmingly. Quite a good number of people in attendance, and the stories went over well. For the curious, my final choices were:
1) “The Wives of Paris” — even if nobody had voted for it, I might have read this one, just because I’ve been looking forward to doing so for ages. As it also got a goodly number of votes in the poll, my desire had some justification to back it up.
2) “A Heretic by Degrees” — lots of votes for the various Driftwood options. I didn’t get the new story revised, so opted for this one instead. Especially because Borderlands readings are about the only opportunity I get to read longer stories; usually time constraints prohibit it.
3) a selection from A Star Shall Fall — if you’ve read the book, I did the two scenes where Irrith goes hunting in what Ktistes claims is a bad patch but isn’t really, and finds the, er, special room. (Circumlocuting so as to avoid spoilers.)
Now, back to the revision mines.
Went to bed early last night, slept gloriously, woke feeling more like a human being. Which is good, because I’ve got a book that needs revising.
To entertain you while I do that: Alyx Dellamonica’s got an interview with me posted on her blog, wherein I ramble on about a whole bunch of things, including the grade-school evolution of me as a writer, and the perfectly legal tax scam I’ve got going. 🙂
Also, a review of A Star Shall Fall, from a place entertainingly named “Elitist Book Reviews.” Their opinion? “This is how Alternate Historical Fantasy should be done.” Awww, yay! And they hadn’t read the first two books of the series — in fact, they didn’t know it was a series when they started reading — so I now have a clear data point in favor of having pulled off what I was trying to do, namely, making the book work acceptably as a stand-alone.
Now I’m off to print the miniscript of this thing. Ta!
More collated linky, and then maybe next week I’ll get around to posting about Ada Lovelace and her wings.
Another guest-blog: me at Tiffany Trent’s LJ, talking about researching in order to get things wrong.
More “And Blow Them at the Moon”: the giveaway is ended (Scott will be picking a winner soon), but if you’d like to listen to the story, the podcast version is now available. I enjoyed this recording immensely — like, meant to just check it out, but ended up listening to the whole thing — because Scott arranged for a British reader, who does a marvelous job with the accents. He even does a Cornish accent for the knockers! Or something I presume is a Cornish accent, anyway! (I have no idea what they sound like. Which is Reason #17 why he’s a better reader for the story than I am.)
Further reviews of A Star Shall Fall: Mark Yon at SFF World, which he sums up as “An ambitious tale and a pleasing triumph. Wonderful.” His comments make me very happy. Watch out for borderline spoilers near the end of the review, though. Locus also had a very good review, though it isn’t online, but this bit is pretty quotable:
There’s a sly brilliance to Brennan’s ongoing tales where the city of London moves through history . . . A Star Shall Fall has room enough for intellect and emotion, great issues as well as an array of individuals and personalities: self-mocking wit, bluntness, and ardor among others. As fear of the Dragon mounts, humans and fae come together in powerful scenes that both reflect and find ways to transcend the gap between beings with such very different experiences of Life and Time.
Finally, another public appearance for me: I’ll be down in SoCal on October 23rd for the SCIBA Author Feast and Trade Show (yes, it’s really called that). SCIBA is an independent booksellers’ association, so this is an industry event rather than a fan one, but if any of you will be there, be sure to say hi!
Er, that’s only four things. Uh. Here, have cats in an IKEA store.
I hope that one of these days I will regenerate enough brain to post about a bunch of things piling up in my head: Ada Lovelace, Babbage’s childhood attempt to summon the devil, the manga I’ve been reading lately, etc. But that day is not today — not if I want to also get my writing done at a reasonable hour — so let’s just get on to the reminders and such.
First, something unrelated to A Star Shall Fall: if you missed it over the holiday weekend, I’m the most recent guest on Jim Hines’ “First Book Friday” series, talking about Doppelganger.
Second, tchernabyelo, you’re the winner of the birthday giveaway! Since you clearly don’t need to be introduced to the Lymond Chronicles, you can have your pick of either Fire and Hemlock, or Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin, or (if you already know and/or have both of those books) something else entirely, which we can discuss in e-mail. Drop me a line at marie [dot] brennan [at] gmail [dot] com with your mailing address and your preference.
Third, kinderjedi is the winner of the Sirens discussion giveaway. Same instructions as above, except that your prize is a signed copy of A Star Shall Fall.
Fourth, if you envy kinderjedi their win, you have a until the end of the day Wednesday (where I think “end of the day” is defined in a vaguely East Coast U.S. fashion) to leave a comment on the BCS forum thread for “And Blow Them at the Moon,” after which I will pick one commenter to receive a signed copy of the book.
And fifth, if you’re curious about the book itself, Kelly at Fantasy Literature recently reviewed it, so you can see what she has to say.
Oh! Sixth! (Which makes this TOTALLY a post, even if the five six things individually are not all that substantial.) I will be doing a reading and signing at Borderlands Books on September 25th. That’s in San Francisco, for those who are anything like local, and it starts at 3 p.m. I hope to see some of you there!
Okay, this is just about the perfect thing for me to come across on the launch day for A Star Shall Fall.
Courtesy of Jay Lake, it’s a history of science rendered in the form of a map like the London Underground: the colored lines represent different branches of science, scientists are stops along the lines, certain scientists are “transfer points” between multiple fields, there’s even zones to divide the history by century. It’s a wonderfully creative way to represent the idea; heck, now I want to see bus transfers or equivalent added on, to show where a given person was particularly influenced by someone else. You could probably make a number of tweaks to the thing, but the concept as a whole is just awesome.
Happy Bookday to me, Happy Bookday to me . . . .
Actually, Happy Bookday to all of you, if the release of A Star Shall Fall was something you were looking forward to. As of today, it ought to be on the shelves of discerning bookstores everywhere (in the U.S. and Canada, anyway).
Now seems a dandy time to link once more to my essay on the merits of buying a book from a bookstore, rather than from an online seller. If you have a choice of which way to go, choose the physical store; it will help keep me in business as a writer, just a bit more than an online sale would. (E-books are a whole different game, of course.)
Or, if you’d like to try and get a signed copy direct from me instead, you have two ways to do it (both of ’em with fairly good odds). First, you can participate in the discussion threads on the community: the fifth and final thread is up today, asking about the city of London, and previous threads are here, here, here, and here. I didn’t realize there would be a fifth question today, so I’m extending the deadline on this giveaway a little bit, to the end of the day on Friday; any comment left on one of those threads before then will make you eligible to win a copy of the book.
Second, you can read “And Blow Them at the Moon” (an Onyx Court short story over at Beneath Ceaseless Skies) and join in the discussion for that in their forums. For this giveaway, you have until the next issue goes live at the end of Wednesday next week.
If you’re looking for other goodies, like my London photos or the soundtrack for the novel, all of that is on my site.
Aaaaand I think that’s it, at least for now. If anybody needs me, I’ll be here in the corner, alternately bouncing and chewing my fingernails off . . . .
<bounce> I’ve been looking forward to this.
“And Blow Them at the Moon” has gone live at Beneath Ceaseless Skies. This is an Onyx Court story (though not the one I sold yesterday), and I am very pleased with how it’s turned out. It also constitutes the last pre-publication goodie for A Star Shall Fall, which comes out (eek) next Tuesday; Magrat, the main character from this story, will be showing up in the novel, too.
And, because chances to win a signed copy of the book are just FALLING OUT OF THE TREES, YO, the editor at BCS has conspired with me to give one away over there: all you have to do is leave a comment on the story thread in their forums. (You’ll need to be a registered forum user, so we can contact the winner.) That runs two weeks, i.e. until the next issue goes live. Together with Laura Anne Gilman’s virtual birthday party and the Onyx Court discussion threads on the Sirens community, you have three, count ’em three chances to get your hands on a copy. And don’t forget, there’s the secret history charity auction, going until Saturday! Bidding stands at twenty dollars, and every bit of it goes to help flood relief efforts in Pakistan.
(I promise actual content will return to this LJ pretty soon. But I’ve got a friend’s wedding this weekend, and the book release next week, so at the moment spare time to write interesting posts is in short supply. If you want reading material from me, have a story.)
If you want, not just a signed copy of A Star Shall Fall, but a whole stack of other books, go wish Laura Anne Gilman a happy birthday. That’s right, she’s celebrating by giving other people presents, in proper hobbit style.
Plus you can comment on the Sirens LJ for a book giveaway, as I mentioned yesterday, and there will be a third opportunity cropping up before long. It’s books, books, everywhere you look!
If you’ve looked at the Onyx Court charity auction, you’ve seen my note about how I may end up writing a short story from the historical prompt the winner chooses. That was, in fact, the outcome of the original auction, for the Haitian earthquake relief; in writing a summary for the winner, I thought of a way to frame it as a short story. So I wrote it, and I sent it out, and now Beneath Ceaseless Skies has bought it! The story is “Two Pretenders,” and I count it as Onyx Court continuity, though it’s a bit different in period and tone from the rest of the series. The winner got to read it a while ago, long before the rest of you, so if you want a backstage pass like that (and the pleasure of knowing you were a part of the process), head over there and put your bid in.
Along with that, the last round of book discussion is up over on , asking about urban fantasy in a historical context. Previous questions about mortal and faerie love, pov and non-linear time, and the interrelationship of the Onyx Hall with London are still open.
And y’know, yesterday I got this big honkin’ box of author copies of A Star Shall Fall, which need to go to good homes. So I’m thinking I might select a random commenter from the discussion posts to receive a copy. Add your two cents’ worth on one of those four posts (or more, if you feel so inspired), and you might be the lucky winner!
Ten days until A Star Shall Fall hits shelves. The last pre-publication goodie will come in a few days, but I have something else for you: another Onyx Court secret history auction. The community is raising funds for relief after the flooding over there, so I’m offering “authorial fanfic” of the Onyx Court series; you pick the historical person or event, and I tell you what the faeries had to do with it.
(Confidential to CEPetit: if you want an actual story about that thing you mentioned over e-mail, now’s the time. <g>)
The auction runs until next Saturday. Unlike previous comms, the offers and bids are entirely conducted as comments to a single post, so I’m currently on page 12; follow the link above to find my offer.
If it goes for the “Buy It Now” price, I may follow up with a second offer. We’ll have to see.
Marissa Lingen on A Star Shall Fall.
I’ve already admitted to her in private, and don’t mind repeating here, how relieved her review made me. Why? Because she’s a scientist, and I’ve been biting my fingernails over how the way I handle science in this book will be received. I’ve got at least two major factors complicating it, one being that I’m actively trying to grapple with the issue of how magic and science interrelate (or don’t), and the other being that I’m doing it in the context of eighteenth-century science, which is fascinatingly wacky all on its own. And right now I’m trying to deal with the nineteenth-century ramifications of the ideas I set up in Star, which means it’s a relief to know it’s worked for at least one reader of that sort.
I knew I was setting myself up for this challenge. Back when I decided Midnight Never Come would be the first in a series, and that the books would take place in different centuries, I knew I had a chance to do something you don’t often see in faerie fiction: not to show fae as totally stuck in the past, nor as completely modernized, but going through the process of change. Science & technology is a big part of that, though not the only one, so I knew I’d have to deal with these questions, and that it wouldn’t be easy . . . just as Ashes taught me why you don’t see more English Civil War-era fiction out there (because it’s bloody COMPLICATED, is why), I know why more authors don’t try to mash these ideas together.
On the other hand, if I succeed, I’ll have done something that hasn’t been done in a thousand other novels. And that’s worth a few headaches, I suppose.
You have until 11:59 EST to send in your drink recipe for the A Star Shall Fall launch party, and possibly win a signed copy of Deeds of Men.
I’m looking forward to tasting these . . . .
There is now a proper schedule for Sirens, with times and rooms and everything; look at the bottom of that page for details.
Fortunately, the setup of the schedule — which has blocks for panel etc. programming that are separate from the blocks for other kinds of stuff — means my GoH obligations won’t cause me to miss anything I wanted to do. But sadly, the workshop I volunteered to run is directly opposite a panel about YA that I really wanted to go to. Woe is me!
Oh well; I’ll just have to corner the panelists at other times during the weekend.
Launch party drink contest ends on Sunday. Get your recipes in while the getting is good!
Twenty days and counting; the last piece of the excerpt has gone up. (Beginning is here.)
Over on the LJ, the discussion of Midnight and Ashes continues with a new question, regarding time and point of view in the novels. The first question, about the connection between the mortal and faerie worlds, is still open; you don’t need to be a con attendee or even an LJ user to jump in.
And speaking of things you don’t have to be a con attendee to do, there are four days left to submit a recipe for the drink contest. There’s been some by e-mail already, and I’m looking forward to trying these things out!
You have until tomorrow to put your name in for one of three advance copies of A Star Shall Fall up for grabs on GoodReads, and until the 15th to submit a non-alcoholic drink recipe for the launch party (with a signed copy of Deeds of Men as the prize). Time’s running out!
Edited to add: Remember, you don’t have to be coming to Sirens to enter the drink contest; it’s open to everybody. (The costume contest, for obvious reasons, requires that you be there.)
Today has not started off terribly well, but it’s at least partially ameliorated by the fact that I got author copies for A Star Shall Fall! They are so very shiny. (Okay, they’re actually not shiny at all; the cover is matte, not glossy. But you know what I mean.)
In celebration of this, and of the A Star Shall Fall contest, and of the discussion for Midnight Never Come and In Ashes Lie, I’m giving away some more copies on GoodReads — three this time, actually. Plus you still have one day to put your name in for a copy of In Ashes Lie. So it’s Yay Book Day here at Swan Tower, and you’re all invited!
For those who don’t check LJ over the weekend, I posted the soundtrack for A Star Shall Fall, along with a partial mix on iTunes.
Also, don’t forget the drink contest for the launch party at Sirens in October. You don’t have to be a conference attendee to submit a recipe; that prize is open to anybody, and the prize is a signed copy of Deeds of Men.
For those interested in the interrelation of music and books, today’s countdown-to-book-release goodie for A Star Shall Fall is the soundtrack.
Usual caveat: if you stare at those new track titles long enough, you may be able to guess some of what’s going to happen in the plot (though I do make an effort to avoid outright spoilers).
You should be able to hear samples from some of the tracks in the iTunes store. Enjoy!
It occurs to me A Star Shall Fall isn’t the only book I could do a giveaway for. If you don’t already have a copy of In Ashes Lie (or want one that’s signed), you can now try to get one over on GoodReads. (That one goes until August 7th; you have until this Friday to put your name in for the offered copy of Star.)
