I had a great time guesting on a podcast called “Sofanauts” hosted by Tony C. Smith.  The other guest was Richard Morgan, and I’m going to go off and buy his book Altered Carbon today.  Richard impressed me quite a bit.  I got tongue tied a few times not knowing much about the state of publishing or the publishers in England, but I was able to talk a little clearer on other topics.  I love listening to Sofanauts and to Starship Sofa, both Tony’s podcasts.  Partly it’s because he’s got a great accent (what can I say?) and also because he’s so natural in the podcast.  I like to listen – it’s like listening to a friend even though I’ve never met him.

Funny thing is that when you listen  to yourself you never sound quite as clever as you think you were.

Anyway, we talk about writing, I announce bit of news, we discuss writing for games, series, Ray Bradbury, Tim Winton, golden age authors, writing by hand, and maybe ten or twenty other topics.

P.S.  – There is a donation button on the Starship Sofa site.

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

This seems to be the moment for robot research for me.  At least that’s the topic I picked for this month’s version of my column over at Futurismic, Today’s Tomorrows.  Since I don’t like to let my column over there get to be longer than about 1,000 words, I couldn’t include everything.  So for the column I picked non-humanoid bots.  That left out this one pretty cool robot I wanted to share here – the skiing robot.  Here’s a Singularity Hub article on the skiing robot.  I can just imagine seeing this go by me on the slopes.  And then I imagine being on Candid Camera.  Anybody remember that show? I mean, that’s the poleaxed  look I’d have on my face if a robot flew by me down a snowy hill.

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

I’m not really surprised so many people are skeptical about science.  After all, what do often hear?  Food A or Food B causes cancer.  The glaciers are melting faster than we thought possible.  Species (your favorite) is now endangered.  Drug A which was supposed to be good for you just caused organ B to fail.  So sorry.  Not that bad news should cause disbelief, but sometimes I understand why people would rather ignore it.

So this is a good week.  Why?

• Well, there’s apparently enough water on the moon to let us base there more easily than we’d thought.  I’m a geek girl, and the idea of a moon base while I’m still young enough to appreciate it (if not to go) is a great thing.
• We are finding extrasolar planets so fast my head is spinning.  As of this moment, we’re up to 403.  I just got my copy of National Geographic and there’s an article about that in there (I haven’t read it yet).

So, hey, let’s appreciate the small good things.  Or in the case of extrasolar planets, the big good things.

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

I really appreciate the community out here – there were many post and retweets and the like to celebrate the Wings of Creation release yesterday.  It makes a writer (at least this writer) feel surrounded by family even when she’s off at work and wearing her other, more mundane hats.

Congrats to Sara A. Mueller for winning the full set of the series-so-far in hardback .  Drop by her lovely blog, Clockwork Curiosity. By the way – Sara may be a writer to watch.  I haven’t seen her work or read it, but we’ve been at some of the same conventions, and I’ve heard her talk about her work in a  way that makes me want to read it!  Thanks to every one else who entered the contests, too, and I wish everyone could have won.

So now this writer is going to go go play in the sunshine, garden, and think about robots.

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

Pardon the happy little post in advance.  It’s a gray day here is Seattle – with a touch of pink sunrise still in the window – but I’m hoping for a good one.

A lot of writing is work.  By the time a book comes out,  I’m two books or more past it, and living in some other world.  But today, I’m going to enjoy the release of Wings of Creation.  I’m sending copies to the Times and to two book winners (from Goodreads) and drawing a winner for all three books in a hardcover set (That’s The Silver Ship and the Sea, Reading the Wind, and Wings of Creation).  I’m bringing a copy to one of my mentors as a thank you.  I’m preparing for a reading on Friday the University Bookstore in Seattle (with Louise Marley and Jack Skillingstead).

Of all the series, I’m happiest with this one so far.  The art is beautiful: Stephan Martiniere captured the feeling of the fliers, a tortured people with an outward beauty the hides their tortured souls. The other covers are also beautiful, but this one has feeling.

If you’d like a taste, drop by The Academy of New World Historians for some free fiction set in this world. The Academy was designed by the talented Jeremy Tolbert.

Reply here today by 8:00 PM (Nov 10th) if you want a chance to win the hardcover set.

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

At World Fantasy, they give you a ton of books.  I had brought one with me (Ken Scholes’ Canticle) which I finished there.  I also bought a new book, Ekaterina Sedia’s “The Alchemy of Stone.” Besides an art book (and art) by John Picacio, and a collection by my friend Tobias Buckell, that’s all I bought (Oh, and some jewelry by Willow).  I just finished The Alchemy of Stone.

I found it beautifully written, and slightly disturbing in the way that excellent fiction or poetry should be disturbing.  The city in the book is haunting and always a bit distant, as if it is seen through the a gauze, an every city of  magic caught in a time of wrenching change.  Characters include alchemists, gargoyles, men of science, and most importantly, the woman Mattie, a being created of gear and wood and whalebone with a heart that must be wound.

This was not a fast read for me; it took a week.  It falls in the category of books I can put down when I need to do something else, but which I look forward to returning to.  The feel and the tone are pure fantasy, and I had to let go of a need to understand everything in order to enjoy the book.  I did end up very happy with it, and I recommend it highly.  Note that it is often referred to as steampunk, and I suppose that at its core it is steampunk.  But to call it that would be to put it into a bottle, and it feels broader and bigger.

The cover, by the way, is haunting.

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

This was my second World Fantasy, and it has definitely become my favorite convention.  I waited a few days to let the experience sink in a bit.  A few observations:

The awards are administered differently than the Hugos.  It’s partly a voted choice, but mostly a long slog through almost everything “Fantasy” written all year.  The result is that the awards often end up going to works based more on merit and uniqueness than on commercial success or having a wide readership.   Kudos to the judges, who clearly did a lot of work.

I am loosely associated with Patrick Swenson’s Fairwood Press as the secretary of his Board of Directors (which means I take minutes once a year, not that I’m directly involved with the books).  I worked the table for him a few times at this convention.  That was a lesson.  Over half the dealers were booksellers, and my guess is half of the booksellers are “small” presses of various sizes.  They work.  Behind a table is a great place to be (I saw a lot of people I would have otherwise missed and collected and traded out many hugs and greetings), but those sales come hard.  They came one or two or three books an hour in that venue.  The small presses are pretty agile, and they’re all doing well with the Internet and social media, which is more than I can say for some New York publishers (although, finally, almost everyone gets it).  Anyway – lots of action and experimentation, but in the end, the sales are book by book by book.  By the way – why is a small press a “press” and a New York outfit a “publisher?”

Jay Lake did a great job as Toastmaster.  I’ve only seen him do that for small conventions before, and I must say he scaled well.

Pretty much everyone is there.  This time, I ponied up for the next two on the spot.  This is a good party not to miss.  It has replaced Worldcon at the top of my affections for conventions.  There is time to get into long conversations, the programming is great, and it’s less of a “how many panels can you get on” game.  The mass signing is run very well.

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

I’m pleased to announce that Samuel Montgomery-Blinn is the latest winner in the book giveaway.  He chose The Silver Ship and the Sea.

There are two more drawings left – one this Friday and one on the 10th which is the release date for the hardcover of Wings of Creation.  The release date drawing will be for all three books in a hardcover set (and the hardcovers of books one and two are getting rare, so this is an opportunity).

To enter:

Comment on this post on this website (www.brenda-cooper.com)

Go to www.thefiveworlds.com and send an email via the “contact us” form there

DM me at @brendacooper via Twitter

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

A box of books arrived for me last night.  I threw it in the back of my car, thinking it held copies of Reading the Wind (which I am also expecting, but which I’ve seen), and it turned out to be the Wings of Creation hardbacks.  The book design is very beautiful; the cover and the colors and all of that even prettier than the other two books. 

There’s a moment when you first hold a finished book and it feels like a just-birthed child.

It’s one of the moments when writing is worth it.

Now, don’t run out to the store yet, the release date is November 10th,  but it will be pretty on the shelves.   I have a reading on the 13th of November (Friday the 13th!) at the Seattle University Book Store with Jack Skillingstead and Louise Marley, and there will be copies available there.  You can even pre-reserve one from the University Bookstore if you want. I also have a reading at the Wayward Coffee House the next Saturday, and I will bring one giveaway copy to that (but there will not be books for sale there).  The Wayward is one of the best coffee houses in Seattle – funky, friendly, and full of science fictional references.

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

I finished Canticle at the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose, sitting in my twelfth-story room while morning light washed the night out of the sky.   This is book two of  The Psalms of Isaak, which is planned to be five books (the first book is Lamentation).

This series is an engaging for me as the George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire.”  The books are a little shorter and are coming out more regularly, and so I feel like there’s a chance of an epic fantasy series that will begin well and end both well and on schedule.  That’s my hope for this after being disappointed waiting for the next Song of Ice and Fire book and after the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series was interrupted (I am grateful the talented Brandon Sanderson is finishing them, but I haven’t read his book yet).  Yes, I am a fan of big fat fantasy, especially the broad and deep epic variety that has a theme and a story and interesting people on all sides of its conflicts.

I want to be careful of spoilers for either book, but the Named Lands are rich with both history and promise, and the novel is told through the eyes of many and varied protagonists, and the plot left the paths I thought it was walking often enough to please me immensely.

If you haven’t started the series, a taste is available in the story “A Weeping Czar Beholds the Fallen Moon” up on Tor.com.  To read more about Ken and his work, go by www.kenscholes.com.

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

I leave tomorrow for the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose.  I’ll be participating in a group reading on Friday night (in the Crystal room at 9:00 PM – Fairmont San Jose) for the exciting new web-based magazine called “Daybreak,” published by Jetse DeVries.  Jetse is also bringing out the Shine Anthology.  Shine and Daybreak are both created around the idea that fascinating stories that contain hope can be written.  I’m really pleased to have had a story included since when I’m wearing my futurist hat I often talk to audiences about how important it is to have a positive image of a better future.  That helps us create one.  Of course, it’s easier to write a tense, adventuresome story in a world that’s darker than ours, so I’m expecting these to be pretty darned good stories.  It seems like you have to work a little harder as a writer to be fascinating when the work is about a  better world instead of a worse one.   As an editor, Jetse also paid attention to getting stories set all over  the world, which will be an added treat.

Since it’s Halloween weekend, I’m going to bring  two copies of “Zombie Raccoons and Killer Bunnies” to give away at my regular reading on Sunday.  This is a great anthology edited by Kerrie Hughes and Martin Greenburg, and the cover has been getting press as excellent or just plain bad.  At the very least, it certainly has been getting attention.

I will also have a few Advanced Review Copies of “Wings of Creation,” which comes out November 10th (and which I’m very excited about).

Also, if you want to hear about Wings of Creation or Killer Bunnies (or actually, about a frog), drop by Seattle Geekly’s author spotlight for a half-hour podcast interview with me on a range of topics.   Recording that podcast was the most fun I’ve had in a busy few weeks.

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

Yesterday, I listened to the Sofanauts podcast #30 while I was pulling out spent daises and mushed iris leaves and planting crocus and narcissus. The conversation is an hour and  half long argument where everybody is right.

The moderator was Tony C. Smith of Starship Sofa, guests lined up as Jeff Vandermeer and Jeremy Tolbert on one side (the soaked in internet technoratti) and Sheila Williams and Brian Bieniowski (from the venerable largely print Dell Magazine property Asimov’s Science Fiction).  The episode was birthed because Jeff and Jeremy declared the print magazines nearly dead, and Sheila, who’s magazine is doing-very-well-thank-you agreed to defend her printed child on the air.  Now, I won’t repeat the conversation since I’m hopeful readers will  go listen to the episode.  You’ll hear a lot of news about the industry presented in an interesting format, and both sides are often correct even when they disagree.

Now, I’ve been around the tech industry longer than I want to admit to, and today I’m the Chief Information Officer (chief computer and phone geek) for a medium-sized city.  So I have a little cred here.  The argument is essentially a microcosm of the larger one going on about the publishing industry.  It reminds me – tone and general content – of exactly the moments when technology giants came to crossroads and either died or re-birthed themselves.  Think of Asimov’s (or if you prefer, the whole New York print publishing industry) as the mainframe makers like IBM and Data General when the personal PC and small servers came along.  IBM – one of the best players in the field – nearly died then.  They didn’t, but they had to reinvent themselves.  The internet almost passed Microsoft by.  If Bill Gates wasn’t the kind of executive who stops and thinks about the long term from time to time, Microsoft might be a ghost today.  For Asimov’s – or for that matter Harper Collins – to survive, they will need to become flexible.  I’m seeing the risky experiments like Tor.com as rays of hope as the industry tries to slide along the surface tension of the argument about the value of content coupled with the social move to social media, which requires a different marketing approach than the old-school publishing industry is accustomed to.

The survivors in publishing will be the nimble, smart ones.  In ten years, we’ll be working with a combination of newer companies (watch new imprints like Pyr and new magazines like Fantasy and Clarkesworld) that live in the internet soup today and the familiar names we grew up with who got real about getting flexible but didn’t give up their heritage completely either.  In other words, we’ll have the start-ups that survive (and most won’t, but they run on prayers, volunteers, shoestrings , and donation buttons and taken together these are not yet a business model) and the big publishers that survive (I’d suggest making skunkworks, staying up with technology and working to at least be a voice at the table as the terms of new media are decided, and cutting costs where possible.  Mostly, getting faster and more flexible).

The next five years are going to be an interesting ride.

Blog admission of the day:  I know most of these players.  I’m sometimes lucky enough for my stories to appear in Asimov’s and Jeremy does my academy website, which promotes my current printed book series.  But that just made the conversation that much more interesting.

Blog recommendation of the day:  While you’re over at Starship Sofa grabbing the Sofanauts podcast, drop by the sofa itself and get a few fiction podcasts.

Did you listen to the podcast, and what did you think?

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

First, Seattle Geekly does a great podcast.  As I’m sure you can guess, they talk about all things Seattle that would interest the slightly more – well, geekly (gaming, conventions, science fiction and fantasy, anime, steampunk, other local events).  I listen in when I get time.  Even better, I visited them last week and we recorded a podcast about my newest two books (Reading the Wind out in mass market now, and Wings of Creation out in hardback November 10th).  If you want hardback copies of the first two, plus an advance uncorrected review copy of Wings of Creation, drop by their site and enter.  While you’re at it, grab a copy of their podcast. and come back on October 27th for the podcast we recorded together last weekend.  And if you want a second chance to win books, after you enter the Seattle Geekly contest, drop by http://www.thefiveworlds.com and send a note from there using the contact us section with a comment on the site (anything!), and you’ll be entered into another contest.  So….lots of free books floating around to celebrate the upcoming release of Wings of Creation.

My monthly column – Today’s Tomorrows – is up at futurismic. This month, I did a short survey of a few of the interesting things on the space front.  For example, do you know where Spaceport America is?  And what is the Rocket Racing League?

Last, I blogged earlier about attending FiRe – a great conference on using technology to make the world better.  Drop by the SNS Blog “A Bright Fire” for a few posts about that – one written by me and the brilliant team I was lucky enough to work with.  Also available – the tweetstream for the conference is at #fireglobal.

And just so it’s not all about me, writer friend Pati Nagle pointed out a great post about building the cover design for Jeff Vandermeer’s Booklife.

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

What’s with the goggles anyway?

I just finished Boneshaker last night.   Cherie Priest did a lovely job of characterization, and fully brought  Briar Wilkes Blue and Ezekial Blue to life on the page.  What she did to Seattle was fairly terrible, but interesting in an alternate fantasy historical fashion.   And she answered my question:  she gave us excellent reasons for goggles and weird guns and many of the other oddities about Steampunk. 

Well worth a read.  Even if, like me, you don’t much like zombies.  You can always  just close your eyes through those parts.

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

We may have a new in place to be seen in Seattle.  At the least, we have a new must-see conference, FiRe Global.  Put together by Mark Anderson, FiRe Global has a clear mission:  use technology to help save the world.

Mark has impressive strengths.  For one, he thinks well.  For years he has produced the successful  SNS technology newsletter, and he has racked up a number of “firsts” in prediction, including predicting the current recession.  He is also very good at putting the right people together.  This showed at the FiRe Global West Coast conference, where he collected an impressive group of researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, policy makers, science fiction writers, media personalities, educators, and heroes.  The mix included Michael Dell (CEO of Dell computers), multiple NPR correspondents, the head of Washington State Department of Commerce (Rogers Weed), Nobelist Lee Hartwell, author Greg Bear, futurist Glen Hiemstra, and more.

I feel lucky to have been on the Advisory Board and to host a team on stage.

I won’t be able to share the whole day.  It would fill a book.  The conference started at 7:00 AM and went until 9:00 PM without very much breathing time at all. I’ll do my best to capture the highlights.  The opening message was that now is a time to act, that for all intents and purposes our ability to solve problems in America is broken, and yet that we have better tools than ever before.   We need to use them.

To repeat – FiRe Global West Coast was all about using technology to save the world.

That means understanding the problem.  We were told how challenged the oceans are, and reminded that the beautiful sound we saw out the window behind us in dying.  We were reminded that American children are educated about the same way they were educated when we were children, in s pit of the new tools, that textbooks in some Washington State schools are eighteen (18!) years old and some urban schools don’t have enough computers to put together a single decent lab.  We were reminded that the dialogue of the American people with our elected officials is often a long line of two to three minute speeches that accomplish little and that permits can take years to acquire, thus shutting out startup companies from whole businesses.

There are solutions and possibilities.  We learned about a grant that will allow the University of Washington to put miles of fiber-optic cables on the bottom of the ocean to better understand the vastly unexplored sea and power real-time data. We heard about experiments that uncovered unknown super-learner children at schools who were unknown until the school moved to one technology device per child.  We were given ideas about entrepreneurial zones and about frameworks for government / citizen interaction.  We saw a number of new companies with great ideas in health care, green technology, and communications.

Of course, just to mix it up, there was some typical technology.  An interview with Michael Dell (Dell Computers), and another one with Rob Glaser (Real Networks).

It was an exhilarating, interesting day.  I took home story ideas, futurist ideas, and even new ways to think about my city job in technology.  The real proof of the effectiveness of FiRe Global will be the new ideas and synergies that come from the event.  I’m betting there will be some.

Related articles, blogs, and wikis:

Xconomy:  Top 10 Highlights from FiRe Global: Michael Dell, Lee Hartwell, Irwin Jacobs, and More
Briar Dudley’s blog at the Seattle Times: FiRE: Dell still not a netbook fan, especially with Windows 7
Moconews:  Michael Dell Says Phone Coming In 2010; May Use Platforms Beyond Android

Wiki from the CTO Challenge:  Mygov.wetpaint.com

The twitter hashtag is #FireGlobal.

I will blog elsewhere later about the CTO Challenge I hosted (Led by Chetan Sharma).

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

I really do love Gaiman’s work.  I also love his voice.  I tend to get his work in audio, largely because he reads it himself.  This is not something I recommend for most authors, but in this case, there’s magic in the way he nuances his work.  The Graveyard Book feels like it’s designed for ten-year-old boys, but it was quite fun for this middle-age woman.  It was one of those audio experiences that was good enough you do some extra weeding to listen to more of, or you sit in the car and let it cool down before you put it away, or you walk the dog a few extra turns around the block.  So me AND the dog loved this book!  A two for one recommendation.

This is, by the way, the perfect time of year for this book.

Oh — and speaking of spooky – I just discovered that I can buy this book from Amazon Fresh and have it delivered same day with my groceries, at least in the Seattle area.  The modern equivalent of the book display by the cash register?

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

This post is partly for me so I can keep my dates in order.  Well, not really.  But it sure feels like a way-too-busy fall in the near future.  It’s all good, but I might just collapse come December or so and hide.

FiRE Global Conference:  October 15th  Wherein I wear all three hats, and am surrounded by people brighter and more accomplished than me, and try to soak up some of the raw capability that will be lying about on the floor and wafting through the halls.  Really – I’m looking forward to it.  Should be energizing.

World Fantasy:  October 29th – November 1st  Last year’s World Fantasy was a lot of fun.  I am really looking forward to it.  Much meeting of great people and hopefully opportunities to get into writerly trouble.

READING THE WIND released in hardcover November 10th!  Ignore the version of the cover art on Amazon – it’s lighter and brighter than that, and the most beautiful cover so far for a book in the series.  I am excited about this.  I really like this book, and hope to keep writing in this series.

Reading at the Wayward Coffeehouse in Seattle (CHANGED!) – November 21st  Hey – if you’re local, come on down!  This should be fun.

Orycon November 28th and 29th Yeah, it’s Thanksgiving weekend.  This is not so good.  I haven’t forgiven the concom yet, even though I understand their reasons.  But Orycon is one of my favorite SF cons in the Northwest.  One of my favorite writers, Patricia Briggs, will be GOH, and one of my favorite Editors, Lou Anders, is Editor GOH.  So there you have it.

Rustycon January 15th – 17th  A very nice small con, local, I can drive.

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

 
Earlier this year, I attended the FiRE conference in San Diego.  It felt like half an almost-typical technology conference (yes, there was a cloud computing session), half a “making the world a better place with technology” and in total, was the best three days I’ve ever spent on either topic.  Largely, the value was in the people there.  Mark Anderson has assembled a cast of smart people with the resources and desire to do interesting and good things.

Well, the FiRE Conference has birthed a child — FiRE Global, designed to capitalize on the idea of using technology (and other tools) to make the world a better place.

I’m speaking there, playing science fiction writer host for a group of excellent regional CTO types who are all highly capable people.  We have already been cooking up information for our CTO Challenge, which is:

“How do we promote intelligent discourse and decision-making on regional and national civic issues, given the deterioration of newspapers and other media and the polarization of politics? Can technology assist in the promotion of rational discussion?”

I highly recommend that you consider dropping your existing plans and heading over to join us.  Everything on the agenda looks good, and if it’s as good as FiRE in San Diego was, it will be fast-paced, busy, and brilliant.

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

This is a nice recommendation to make for two reasons.  The book is good, and a long time ago in a writing workshop a long time away, Devon Monk and I spent two weeks in the same writing workshop,  up at three in the morning,  finishing downright daunting writing assignments while dreaming of having our own books published by major New York publishing houses.  And of course, we both do now.  How cool is that?

I’m not at all surprised that Devon’s books are downright good either.  She’s been publishing short work for a long time and her short work is excellent.

My candy-read books are urban fantasy; it’s the place I go to dump stress since I’m not a television watcher.  Devon has dreamed up a different enough version of our world that I’m intrigued, given me strong but tortured characters, and kept up a nearly unrelenting pace.  I picked it up when it first came out since I enjoyed the first one so much, started it, and was interrupted.  I had been irritated with the interruption, but the book was perfect for October at the beach.  This was a great sit by the fire with a cup of coffee and read book.

This is the second book in her series.  The first one was Magic to the Bone, this is Magic in the Blood, and the third book is Magic in the Shadows, available next month.

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.

Spent the weekend at the beach WITH NO INTERNET and so I’ll have three books to recommend.  It was quite lovely.  I’ll try for one a day.

I don’t why Greg Bear doesn’t get more attention for his thrillers.  In my opinion, they have the pacing and skill of a Michael Creighton  or a James Rollins, and they get Greg’s deft hand with science as a bonus.

Greg has been one of my favorite SF writers for years.  I have enjoyed his work from Moving Mars through Songs of Earth and Power and EON.  Mariposa (a Quantico novel) is more thriller than classic sf novel, but I found  the science believable and the near-future world in the novel chilling and plausible.  Mark your calendars since Mariposa is available November 10th.

Be warned:  I had trouble putting it down for silly little things like sleep.

Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.