Spent a lot of time from Thursday through Sunday online with the Mars Society meeting. As I’ve noted before, this is not a science fiction convention; it is a dead-serious society of people dedicated to putting a real settlement on Mars. The only relationship to science fiction is that the Mars Society aims to turn it into reality. (For a modern science fiction view, read Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang.) Due to COVID-19, the planned in-person meeting in California had to be scrapped but, making a virtue of necessity, the meeting went Zoom and I think we ended up with over 10,000 people registered from countries all across the world. Makes me think we should stick with that format. Speakers ran the gamut from venture capital to NASA administrators to hard core scientists and covered everything from where we might find life on Mars to the details of nuclear electric propulsion and nuclear power in space (that one left me with me with my head in my hands), to what a Martian city might look like. I had to grin when one speaker commented that, due to COVID-19, they were working remotely, so she was driving the Mars rover from her kitchen table. I would say that qualifies as working remotely! Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla) spoke and then took questions for close to 50 minutes overall. I thought he framed the objective very succinctly: our aim should be, not just to go to Mars, but to put a settlement there that would thrive even if ships from Earth stopped coming. His company is now developing a vehicle called “Starship” that could be used for these missions. You can find his talk on YouTube and it is worth having a listen as he has demonstrated a pretty good track record for doing things that “conventional wisdom” says are impossible. Can we do this? The answer I took from the presentations is: probably. It was pointed out that there are some yes/no questions that exist. For example, can humans have children and will they grow up successfully in 1/3 of Earth gravity? If the answer turns out to be “No,” then a permanent settlement may be a mirage. Still, we are not going to know the answers without going there. The orbits of Earth and Mars create an opportunity for flight every 26 months; taking that into account, Musk figured a key launch opportunity for a first heavy-lift ship would be in 4 years. So, let’s get there, see what we find and answer the questions!.
Weekend Maunder 9 October 2020
The cover art for Complicated: The Interstellar Life and Times of Saoirse Kenneally has arrived! It is gorgeous (okay, I’m biased) and a very nice incorporation of some key themes from the story. it makes me even more eager to get the book finished. Still tracking for late fall to early winter. You can see the cover on the home page at www.afictionado.com and on Facebook @ColinAlexanderAuthor.
Speaking of cover art, one point I have heard made at a couple of panels and I agree with completely: do not skimp on the cover. Obviously, if you have a book being published by a traditional publisher, this is not the writer’s issue; the publisher handles it. If, however, you are indie and self-publishing, it is important to find a good artist who will do your book justice. People do react to the cover when they are making decisions about whether to buy a book. I do, both online and browsing in a bookstore. The style of cover art has also changed over the years. So, have it done right. I do not think this is the place for DIY.
On the reading side, I saw Hannah Abigail Clarke featured in the SFWA blog last month so I decided to pick up their debut book, The Scapegracers. A note up front, this is a YA book and has a number of familiar themes such as not fitting in in high school, not having friends, and a complex (and sometimes painful) family background. The story takes these themes in different directions than usual, however. The main character is Sideways Pike, a fabulous name even if the derivation is clear (and is explained if you miss it). Yes, she is the angry, socially awkward outsider but, in her case, being gay and a witch have something to do with it. After a magic demonstration at a party she normally wouldn’t be invited to, she gets in with the cool kids, who turn out to have a lot in common with her, including a talent for magic. The danger is supplied by parties who are out to rid the world of witches (including ones in high school). The book spends a lot of time developing the characters and does not take the plot through to completion and I think this is because this is intended to be the first book in a series. Enough of the plot is shown that you can come to a logical pause (if not an end) at the conclusion of the book. The characters were well-developed, especially Sideways, and the construction of the magical world was good. Some of the angst became a bit repetitive, especially in the second half of the book and I would have liked to see more of the plot development but, yes, I am probably going to get the next one. Overall this is a fun, quick read – this from someone who generally doesn’t read YA.
Mid-week Maunder 30 September 2020
I was late to the idea of audiobooks. I grew up reading books and the idea of listening to them instead didn’t click for me. If nothing else, I can read a whole lot faster than someone can narrate. So, when I started to write, the idea of producing an audiobook never crossed my mind. That lasted until a discussion at Boskone this year when I was told that I was being an idiot – actually the author was far more polite in the way she said it; I wrote it the way it probably should have been said. It was made very clear that I needed to change with the times. I had published Starman’s Saga just a few months before and I went through ACX to have an audiobook produced. That has been well-received, so I decided it was time to do an audiobook for Accidental Warrior. That is now in production and the new book, when it comes out, will have an audiobook version, too. Old dogs can learn new tricks. At least, this one is trying.
On the reading side of things, this one is a fun departure from the usual science fiction and fantasy book. Zombies & Calculus by Colin Adams. I’m not kidding; that is the title. In a way, I suppose you could say this is really hard science fiction; it is – literally – full of equations. The story is of how a professor along with his family, and some students and other faculty at small school in New England survive a zombie apocalypse – through differential equations! Yup, there are differential equations for how fast (dZ/dt) the zombie population grows (you could take the equations and apply them to COVID-19 if you were so inclined), for how to out-maneuver zombies, and even for modeling how humans and zombies could end up in an oscillating equilibrium. If you like math (don’t hate me here), it’s a hoot. There are some downsides, of course. The plot is pretty standard zombie apocalypse. The characters are two-dimensional at best. It’s really a math book that was eaten by a zombie. It is fun, though, to see the math applied to zombies and at only 228 pages, including appendices, it doesn’t take that long to go through it. I recommend it for the general sf reader, with the caveat that I think you should have one course in calculus under your belt.
Weekend Maunder 19 September 2020
Book reviews, I mean official editorial ones. Important to have when you are launching a book so the book will be noticed, especially if you are indie and self-published, but that is exactly where they can be hard to get. So, a notice came the other day from Barnes and Noble about a new partnership they have with BookTrib, a service that can, among other things, provide a book review. So, I went and looked. They offer paid book reviews; i.e., the author pays a fee and they will review the book. They also offer other services of a promotional nature, fee-for-service, of course. These are usually red flags, an indicator that you will pay out money and not get much of value for it. I checked SFWA’s Writer Beware and nothing came up on search. That’s a good thing but always remember the saying: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. There are pay-for-review services that are completely legit. Kirkus Reviews, for example. NetGalley also is a pay service to have your book in it. Both are well-known and well regarded and it is well-known that you have no guarantee of a positive review. I have placed books with both for reviews and will again. Where does BookTrib fall? Right now, I can’t find enough information to know – positive or negative – so I’m going to keep an open mind and keep looking around. If you’ve had experience with them, I would like to hear it.
On the pleasure reading side, bought John Scalzi’s “The Last Emperox.” This is the third and supposedly final book of the Collapsing Empire series. I enjoyed it. A lot. Scalzi has come up with one of the most original concepts for interstellar travel – the Flow – a physical property of the universe that is in the process of going away. The series concerns the actions of an interstellar civilization that depends on the existence of this to connect worlds and stations that cannot survive in isolation. It’s a great adventure plot – hey, the end of civilization is a pretty existential issue – and his world-building is excellent. There are some points I didn’t like as much. His characters have attitude and tend to be snarky, which is fine, except that they sound too much like each other. Even Kiva, a main character whose signature is dropping an f-bomb in almost every sentence, sounds (if you remove the f-bombs) like a lot of the others. It tends to leave the characters a bit flat. That said, this is a plot-driven book and is a fast, enjoyable read. I said “supposedly final book” above because that is the claim. There would be room for another one and I would read it if he writes it.
Weekend Maunder 5 September 2020
It seems the week is gone in the blink of an eye, and that’s without going to an office anymore. A lot of it is the thousand and one details of self-publishing and indie work, all of which has to be done if you are planning to have anyone beyond family and close friends read what you write. I don’t claim to be a master of the business side of this – ’cause I’m not – but I try to keep learning with each book and with each mistake. Remedial marketing is the current project. Like it or not, marketing is part of the business of writing and, if you are not with a traditional publisher, it is as much a part of the job as writing the book in the first place. That means understanding what works in advertising and learning how to do it. All of which is part of being ready for when “Complicated” comes out this fall/winter.
I did find time to read “A Song For A New Day” by Sarah Pinsker. Picked it up in a bookstore and thought it would be interesting and I was not disappointed. First, a word about the setting. The author has built a world in which a viral plague has led the government to pass laws against congregating, large crowds (including concerts) are forbidden, and many people self-isolate as much as possible. No, this is not today’s news – the book was published a year before COVID-19 hit! The crystal ball isn’t perfect, of course, and many differences between the way people act in the world of the book and the way they are actually acting in the real world stand out, but it is overall a fascinating experience to read it with COVID-19 going on around us. The story follows Luce Cannon – best name ever invented for a singer, guitarist and songwriter – and Rosemary Laws, a talent scout, as they look to bring rock back to the people. Pinsker is a musician and it shows in the wonderful detail around the bands and the music. The setting and the story work really well. The characters with their strong points and their flaws are terrific. You know this when you hesitate to start a chapter because you know there has to be a big reveal/break-up/blow up coming and you’re sufficiently invested in the characters that you wish it didn’t have to happen. A few things don’t work so well. The Luce POV chapters are first-person narrative while the Rosemary ones are third-person restricted. I found the shift a bit jarring in some places. I also wish we saw more of Luce’s story. Rosemary gets most of the growth arc. These are minor and don’t spoil the enjoyment of the book. If you like rock and near-future, slightly dystopian sf (which could almost be on CNN now) you should read this. Highly recommended.
Weekend Maunder 28 August 2020
This has turned into more of a weekend maunder as we are long past mid-week. I did want to finish, though, with the Wayward Children series and not wait until next week. “Come Tumbling Down” by Seanan McGuire is the fifth and last (so far) of the Wayward Children books. It is another excellent one. This book finishes the story of Jack and Jill, the twin sisters who played the key roles in the first book and were the focus of the second book in the series. Like all the books of the series, this one is short and tightly written. The story opens with the sudden, unexpected return of Jack to the school in a bad state and with an awful problem. The story follows Jack and her friends in their efforts to right the wrongs that have been done. The characters are all familiar from the other books but the story is dominated by Jack, both in time on stage and by force of personality. She is a complex and realistic character. In a way, it feels like this is the completion of Jack’s character arc. When we meet her in the first book she is in that in-between teen stage; we see her more as a child in the second book, but here, although the same age as in book 1, she is grown up and handling decisions fraught with danger and risk. The story is fairly dark with many sad aspects; this is not a happily ever after fairy tale. It is, however, a compelling read and I highly recommend it.
So, do we call this type of book YA fiction? I don’t know because I’m not certain I know what YA is. Yes, the principal characters are teens. Yes, the books are relatively short. Yes, they deal with issues of fitting in, or not fitting in as the case may be. They would certainly be accessible to an audience in that age group, although I have seen multiple definitions that go as young as 12 and as old as 21. I enjoyed the books and I’m, well, a multiple of the upper end of that range. Maybe, if you’ve seen your own children through that age range you also qualify. I guess I’ll take good story-writing and leave it at that.
Mid-week Maunder 19 August 2020
I want to mention again the Mars Society meeting that will be October 15th – 18th. Okay, this is not science fiction. This meeting is focused on the science and engineering necessary to get us to the red planet – and to plant a colony there. Speakers are from JPL, from NASA, from overseas, and a number of them are involved with current Mars missions. If the science fiction you read has ever made you wish that we could go out into space (and it has done that for me from the day I started reading it), then think about attending. We can go to Mars for real and we should. And then we can go further. Check out www.marssociety.org.
I went on a Seanan McGuire run a while ago (obviously). The fourth book in the Wayward Children series is “In An Absent Dream.” This is the story of Lundy, who appears (briefly but importantly) as a secondary character in the first book. This is truly a tragedy, in that it follows the old Greek design of a character blessed with talent and promise who, as a consequence of their internal flaws, loses everything important to them. It is, in fact, a rather sad story. That said, the story is beautifully told. As with all the books in this series, it is short but the character of Lundy is very well-described with all her good and not-so-good attributes. I really felt for her at the end. This book could be a complete standalone; it does not depend on any of the others (it is a “prequel” to the first book).
Mid-week Maunder 13 August 2020
The upcoming new book will be titled Complicated: The Interstellar Life and Times of Saoirse Kenneally and I’m aiming to have it out at the end of this year or beginning of the next. There’s a lot of frantic work between now and then and editing and proofing is only part of it. A book needs a cover, for example, so cover art has to be obtained. But to use the available digital tools to have a POD paperback, the artist has to know the thickness of the book’s spine and that depends on the final page count of the formatted pdf and that can’t be determined until we reach “pencils down” on any changes that might affect the page count. Sometimes, life can feel like a Gantt chart … Anyway, it is on the way and more on this in the fall.
“Beneath The Sugar Sky” is the third book in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series. This one, I’m afraid, is not on my favorite list. The story focuses on different characters than the first two (not all of them different, but the leads are different) and I did not feel invested in them. The story lacked the real sense of danger that was present in the first two; it felt more like a bedtime story for a young child. This is an adventure in a Nonsense world and while the writing is very inventive, the world did not feel substantial. Finally, the plot device involved in success of the kids’ quest did not work for me.
On the non-fiction side, Dilip Hiro’s “The Longest August” is an history of the conflict between India and Pakistan from the end of the British Raj up to 2014. The succession of confrontations, mis-judgements, outright wars, near nuclear war, terrorist incidents, assassinations, and coups involving these nations is a roller-coaster of events that I doubt any writer of fiction could produce – and this is real history. The book is written in an objective and dispassionate manner that presents the events in an accessible manner. I found this an excellent read and overview of this important history, especially for one who has not studied this area.
Mid-week Maunder 5 August 2020
Been reading my way through Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series. I don’t usually go for series, but to my mind, that’s a set of books with a small number of continuing characters who have a different adventure (or mystery) in each book but the characters don’t change (or grow) that much from book to book. McGuire’s books are starting to feel like each is a part of a much larger story. (Either that, or I simply like them and am finding reasons to be positive.) Anyway, “Down Among The Sticks And Bones” is the second. It is actually a prequel in that it gives the story of Jacqueline and Jillian (Jack and Jill) before what happens in the first book. Jack is my favorite character in the books (so far), so I was looking forward to this one and I think it is excellent. All of the principal characters feel real; they have virtues and flaws; they have their quirks and their motivations flow organically from who they are. These points are conveyed well, despite the brevity of the book. The plot carries a sense of impending doom which is handled well despite the fact that, as a prequel, we know a lot about how things turn out. I wondered for a while whether it would be better to read this book first, but I don’t think so. The first one is fun without knowing all the detail.
I think these books are a good illustration of the fact that you don’t need a ton of backstory or character soul-searching to create individualistic, three-dimensional characters. As in real life, the good guys can’t be all good and the bad guys can’t be all bad (okay, there have been some real world characters with no redeeming traits whatsoever, but that’s a, thankfully, rare event). This is particularly something to think about when penning the secondary characters in a story. If we want the reader to believe in the story as a whole, the way the secondary characters participate is very important. They can’t be cardboard.
Mid-week Maunder 29 July 2020
Sequels, prequels and series. A lot of books have them, or are part of them (for series), and I’ve been getting that question, mostly for Accidental Warrior. So, have I thought about what happens to Hal and Bel after the end of the book? Well, yes. Have I decided to write a story about it? Not yet. An issue in my mind is that a big part of Accidental Warrior is Hal’s growing up. I think that has to be true for any book where a character changes and grows a lot. All that growing up is past tense for any sequel. Of course, there can be another development arc, one that goes off in another direction. It would be great if these sorts of things burst out fully formed, rather like Athena from the head of Zeus in Greek mythology, but that doesn’t happen. At least not for me. So, it’s churning around and we’ll see what develops. What I can say is that I’m only going to do it if I think it will be a really good story. Right now, as I’ve mentioned from time to time, I’m in the middle of a new one and so everything else has to wait. Prequels are a different matter. When it focuses on a particular character, as opposed to an earlier time in an epic story, the unavoidable problem is that we already know what happens to that character because we’ve read the main story. That’s not to say the prequel can’t be a lot of fun, or provide insight into how a character develops, but we have seen the ending.