Environmental cues can condition the brain to easily engage in a specific task. People accustomed to working in an office can walk in the office door and be in “work mode,” because that’s what they do there.

For me, it’s a similar effect upon walking into the gym. My brain knows what’s up and even if I go in reluctantly, the environment quickly puts me into “workout mode” and things generally go well.

The same theory should hold for writing: show up at the same place everyday, sit down to the keyboard, and the brain should switch into “writing mode.” If only!

Personally, I usually have a very hard time settling into writing mode, and it can take me hours to immerse into the story. Maybe this is because I use my laptop for many things other than writing, i.e. webwork, social media, updating my books at the various vendors, etc. So the environmental cue — the presence of my laptop — is not specific to writing. There is always the possibility that I could or should be doing something other than working on my next book or story — and all of those things are easier to do than writing, and therefore tempting. As a rule, my mind starts off jumpy. I’m thinking of other tasks and am very distractible.

So lately I’ve tried a new tactic. I’ve adopted a particular song as a kind of ironic theme to the novel I’m currently working on. When I sit down for a writing session, I plug into my iPod, start the song, and start working. I replay the same song three or four or more times — as many as it takes to get me into the flow of the work at hand — and I don’t play it at any other time because for now at least, the purpose of this song is to cue my brain that it’s time to work on this particular book.

And it helps. It really does. I’m squandering a lot less time at the start of a writing session than in the past.

If you want to try this technique, a couple thoughts on making it work:

First, I started doing this during the brainstorming phase of the book, in sessions of nonstop, noncritical, stream-of-consciousness writing. So from the beginning I was actually writing as the music played, not contemplating writing.

Second — make sure you really like the song!

Ebook On Sale
Now $3.99

…and anyone else curious about my work.

My story “Nahiku West” just came out in Analog magazine. It’s set in the same story world as my novel The Bohr Maker, and features the early life of a minor character from that book. If you enjoyed “Nahiku West,” you might enjoy The Bohr Maker too. To encourage you to give it a try, I’ve put the ebook on sale.

Here’s the teaser:

Nanotechnology saturates the world. It makes possible glittering orbital cities. But strict laws regulate its use, and death follows for those caught in violation. The threat of death means little though, to a man already condemned to die. Nikko–post human, genetically engineered to survive in space, and desperate to escape his fate–steals a forbidden nanomachine. But the theft goes awry and the nanomachine escapes into the wild, igniting a desperate race to contain it before the definition of “human” changes for all time.

For a limited time, The Bohr Maker is just $3.99. Find it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, and worldwide at Book View Café.

* * * Sale ends August 15 * * *

When I was in traditional publishing, my books were essentially available only in the USA. I had only one UK edition — Vast — and while a few titles were translated into other languages, distribution of the American editions was extremely limited.

In these days of ebooks and indie publishing, all that’s changed. While Barnes & Noble only sells in the United States, Amazon offers the books in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. That’s a decent list of countries, and Amazon will still sell you a book if you don’t live in one of them — but a hefty charge will be attached to your purchase, and if your e-reader doesn’t handle files in mobi format, too bad.

Of course there’s a great alternative for anyone, anywhere: Book View Café — offering ebooks worldwide with no extra charges, in both epub and mobi formats.

BVC is a great site, with a good selection of genre books, but compared to the big sites out there, traffic is limited.

So I’ve just begun to offer my books through another international retailer, Kobo Books. If you’re a reader in the USA, you might never have heard of Kobo. I think they have a small presence here, but they’re well known around the world.

Until recently, the only way for a small publisher like myself to get into Kobo Books was to publish through a third party, Smashwords, which would then push the books out to Kobo. But I’ve never liked the way Smashwords handles books, so I held back — and last month Kobo finally opened their door to indie publishers like myself, and I uploaded a test book.

That book is Memory, and it’s now live on the site, available in epub format. Other books will soon be going up as well.

Do I recommend Kobo Books to other indie publishers? It’s too soon to say. Do read the contract terms carefully (you always do, don’t you?), know what you’re signing, and good luck!

Analog’s October issue is now available, and it includes my story “Nahiku West.” This one is pretty special to me, not just because I like the story, but because it’s the first short fiction that I wrote since “Goddesses,” which was published in 2000!

“Nahiku West” is set in the same story world as my Nanotech Succession novels. It takes place in the years before The Bohr Maker and features the early life of a character from that book, Zeke Choy. If you get a chance to read it, please let me know what you think.

The issue you want to look for is the one pictured at right. The illustration is for the issue’s cover story, “The Liars,” by Juliette Wade. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet.

Analog has a print edition, which is presumably out in bookstores now. I don’t know for sure though, because there aren’t any bookstores around here anymore. However, you can definitely buy an ebook-version. A single issue or a subscription can be purchased from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Check this page for other ebook vendors.

Last week I was in Laramie, Wyoming for the 2012 Launchpad Astronomy Workshop. I heard about the workshop from Vonda N. McIntyre and Deborah Ross, who both attended in earlier years and were very enthusiastic about their experiences. It’s described as a semester of astronomy crammed into a week. Sounds like fun, right? I applied in the spring almost as soon as the application period opened, though I didn’t really expect to get in.

Launchpad is a workshop designed by Mike Brotherton and Jim Verley to educate writers, film makers, game developers, etc. in real astronomical science and space technology, in the hope that what they learn will be reflected in their work, and will in turn help to educate the general public. Naturally, the bigger a writer’s audience, the bigger the outreach effort. I assumed other writers, with larger readerships, would be ahead of me in the selection process, but to my surprise I was offered a slot, and I eagerly accepted.

It turned out to be a great week of fascinating lectures by Mike Brotherton, Geoffrey Landis, and Christian Ready, enhanced by group dinners, and two field trips. This year’s workshop was funded by the National Science Foundation. Funding for next year is uncertain, but hopefully it will come through. If it does, and if you’re a writer/film maker/game designer with an interest in astronomy (and if you don’t mind living in a college dorm for a week, at elevation of 7000-feet!) then you should apply.

Here are a few photos:

Here’s the lecture hall where we spent many hours (and where we were very well fed by the Launchpad staff — thank you, Nicole!)

It’s been a long time since I was in college. During the lectures I learned of a new way of taking notes–photographing the power point slides!

The University of Wyoming has a beautiful campus, with lots of native plantings that were thriving in midsummer.

There is even a menacing T-rex on campus!

A view of Laramie’s old-style downtown. Laramie itself is a terrific little town, with a vital downtown, full of good restaurants.

We went on two field trips. One was an evening expedition to WIRO, the Wyoming Infrared Observatory, and the other was to Vedauwoo, a forest service area with amazing rock formations. From left to right in the photo above are Jodi Lynn-Nye, myself, Matthew Rotundo (in back), our fearless leader Mike Brotherton, and guest lecturer, Christian Ready.

And here we are all together for our group photo.
Row 1 (kneeling): Geoffrey Landis, Christian Ready, Mike Brotherton, Jim Verley.
Row 2: Doug Farren, Mary Turzillo, Nova Ren Suma, Farah Mendlesohn, Ellen Datlow
Row 3: Jodi Lynn Nye, Christi Yant, Tiffany Trent, Robin Wasserman, myself, Sandra McDonald.
Row 4: Robin Christian Peters, Matthew Rotundo, Merrie Haskell, Matthew Kressel, Jake Kerr, Michael Kurland
Photo courtesy of Ellen Datlow

If you’re going to DragonCon you can sign up for a mini-version of Launchpad.

And don’t forget to check out Mike Brotherton’s science fiction novels: Spider Star and Star Dragon.