…and the value of writer support groups

Long ago, when the Internet was young and an overabundance of email was never a problem, I returned home from a vacation to find over twenty messages in my inbox. This was unheard of! And I knew at once that something was up.

What had happened was that the young and upcoming science fiction writer, Wil McCarthy, had decided to pull together a group of other writers who were still early in their careers, for the purpose of mutual support and information exchange. The queue of emails reflected an enthusiastic response from the invited writers. The last email in the queue was from Wil, saying something like “Well, we haven’t heard from Linda, so I guess she’s not interested.” To which I replied instantaneously with “Yes, I am interested! I just haven’t been home!”

Hooking up with this little group of writers was one of the best things that ever happened to me, as a writer. Yes, I learned an incredible amount, but just having friends who understood, who I could turn to when things went wrong in the business—that was invaluable, especially to me, living in isolation from other writers out here in the middle of the Pacific. I’m sure it’s the same for many who live in small towns. Finding people who share your passion can make all the difference, and I encourage all writers, especially if you’re just starting out, to find your team, your support group. You won’t regret it.

In my group we often served as beta readers for one another (although I don’t think the term “beta reader” had actually been invented yet). So I had the opportunity to read Wil’s novel Bloom in manuscript. I honestly don’t remember what I said about it, but in the acknowledgements, Wil thanks me and Kathleen Ann Goonan “for not pulling punches.” Hmm….

At any rate, Bloom was published in 1998 to terrific reviews, and it was a New York Times “Notable Book.” Its premise is that a runaway nanotechnology has destroyed all life as we know it on Earth and has made the inner solar system uninhabitable, leaving people to survive in small pockets among the asteroid belt and the moons of Jupiter.

Perhaps inspired by a need to stroll down memory lane, I pulled Bloom off my shelf a few days ago and started reading. I finished it last night, and I have to say, I’m more impressed than ever by this book. If you’re into hard science fiction, I encourage you to grab a sample and give Bloom a try.

I’m glad I can say “grab a sample.” I did not know this before I sat down to write this post, but it looks like Bloom was re-published as an ebook only a little over a week ago. Here’s the Amazon link. Enjoy!

As an addendum, I should add that after many years our group finally drifted apart, as most of us moved on to other ventures, but I still think fondly of everyone involved.

Kate Elliott has a terrific post up on the value of word-of-mouth publicity to a struggling writer. As an example of a book worth talking about, she uses Martha Well’s The Cloud Roads, which I read (and loved) only because Kate recommended it. Clear proof that word of mouth does work!

Kate concludes with:

One of the great things about the new world of social media is how easy it now is to talk about books with other book lovers. So don’t be shy: Talk up the books you love.

But go read the whole post–and check out The Cloud Roads!

The title of this post pretty much says it: my short fiction collection is now at Book View Café. There’s also a sample story up, “Spectral Expectations,” which is the first piece of fiction I ever sold.

Both EPUB and MOBI versions are available at a cost of $3.95.

Included stories:
Spectral Expectations (Analog 1987)
Career Decision (Analog 1988)
In the Tide (Analog 1989)
Small Victories (Analog 1993)
Liberator (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1993)
Old Mother (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1995)
The Bird Catcher’s Children (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1997)
Hooks, Nets, and Time (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1997)
The Flood (More Amazing Stories 1998)
Goddesses (Sci-Fi.com 2000)

Lord of the Two Lands (fantasy)
by Judith Tarr
December 6, 2011 $4.99
ISBN: 978 1 61138 134 4
LCCN: 93-24635
Copyright: 1993, 2011

Description: In 336 B.C., Egypt lies under the yoke of Persia. But from the north a spirit of fire moves across the world. His name is Alexander, and he is the destined conqueror of the Persian Empire–and the king foretold of Egypt. Meriamon, daughter of the last Pharaoh, journeys out of Egypt to find him and bring him home. From the battlefield of Issus to the siege of Tyre, from the founding of Alexandria to the divine revelations of Siwah, Meriamon both leads and follows her divine charge, who becomes her friend and her chosen king.

Find it at Book View Café.

Judith Tarr is the author of numerous novels and short stories, including ALAMUT and THE DAGGER AND THE CROSS from Book View Cafe. LORD OF THE TWO LANDS was nominated for the World Fantasy Award.

Toby Neal is a friend of mine and a fellow Maui writer who has just published her first novel.

Blood Orchids is a police procedural set in sleepy Hilo town on the Big Island and featuring the intrepid cop, Lei Texeira. It’s the first in a series of four novels, with the next books scheduled to appear in 2012.

Blood Orchids is also a first for me–it’s the first book not my own which I helped produce. I did both the ebook creation and the interior layout for the print book as part of services offered through my company Mythic Island Press LLC.

Here’s the back cover description of Blood Orchids. The ebook is only $2.99 right now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Check it out!

Hawaii is palm trees, black sand and blue water—but for policewoman Lei Texeira, there’s a dark side to paradise.

Despite her obsession with the case and fear that she’s being stalked, Lei finds herself falling in love for the first time. Steaming volcanoes, black sand beaches and shrouded fern forests are the backdrop to Lei’s quest for answers—and the stalker is closer than she can imagine, as threads of the past tangle in her future.
Lei is determined to find the killer—but he knows where to find her first.

Science Fiction Satire

Tritcheon Hash by Sue Lange
Copyright © 2011

Tritcheon Hash is a test pilot in the year 3011. She’s got it all: brains, guts, and a fast jet. But can she survive a mission to planet Earth?

“Against a vivid sci-fi backdrop, Lange brings a light touch to heavy material, with a fast-paced, funny story to boot.” – Kirkus

“Funny, perceptive and hard-hitting by turns – welcome to a new and witty voice in sf satire.” -John Grant, co-editor, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy

BVC is giving away 5 free copies of the book. Send an email to media.relations@bookviewcafe.com for a chance to win the book.

Confession: The only reason I grabbed a Kindle sample of this book was because it was written by a Maui author–not someone I know, but there aren’t all that many of us, and I’d like to be familiar with who’s out there.

Small Island, falls, I think, in the thriller genre. It features a former army officer working as a bartender on Maui’s westside, who reluctantly gets drawn into a personal investigation of illicit goings-on on the island. I started this book feeling pretty skeptical, since one of the prominent characters was described as a former porn star, but the author handled that aspect quite well, and I’m pleased to report this turned out to be an impressively good book.

This isn’t my genre. I really don’t know how Small Island compares to other PI/thrillers, but I enjoyed it. It explores a seedier side of Maui than the one I live in, but the descriptions mostly rang true to me. I thought the writing was smooth and effective and the character portrayals had just the right depth.

So if a book set in modern Maui appeals to you, do give Anthony Pignataro’s Small Island a try.

Rating books from one to five stars is useful for developing a quick consensus on how good a book is, and every author loves to get four and five star ratings. But as a reader I find star ratings problematical. I can greatly admire a book without loving it. I can be utterly intrigued by a book while feeling ambivalent about it. Should I give such a book three stars? Four? Five?

Bio of a Space Tyrant, Volume 1, Refugee by Piers Anthony is the present example. Someone, somewhere–on twitter or G+ or facebook–mentioned this book and, wanting to read some older science fiction, I picked it up. The copyright date is 1983.

I’ve never read anything like this before. The story takes place on and around the moons of Jupiter. Science and technology are often carefully and clearly explained in a style that feels dated and yet works very well. Bio is a first person tale, told from the point of view of a fifteen-year-old refugee fleeing political oppression, and has clear parallels to real-world stories of refugees fleeing Cuba or Haiti.**

At its core, Bio is a brutal, horrific tale, made readable because of the detached, analytical tone of the young narrator as he comes to terms with the worst of human nature and struggles to retain a belief in the best of human nature. There is an obsession with rape and male violence throughout, with every bit of it discussed and analyzed, and none of it remotely titillating. Despite all this, the book is not nihilistic. It’s very much concerned with love, loyalty, human relationships, and doing what you have to do to survive.

Still, with a book like this I can’t say, “Go read it! You’ll love it!” because it’s not that kind of book. But I can say that I was fascinated by this story almost from page one and that I knew I’d be blogging on it long before I finished. Oh, and I’ll be starting in on volume 2 very soon.

So if you’re up for something powerful and different and, yes, grim, go read it–and let me know what you think.

** This paragraph was written before I had quite finished reading the novel. In a postscript within the book, Piers Anthony confirms this was the case.

My assignment: find five books similar to my own middle-grade science fiction novel Skye Object 3270a.

Why? Book View Café is going to be doing a Library Thing Early Reader promotion when the book launches at BVC.

I never guessed how hard this simple assignment would be.

I wanted to find books that were recent, popular, science fiction, set in space, with similar-aged protagonists. Here’s the list I finally came up with, which includes books from the ’90s and books not set in space and, I’m sure, some significantly older protagonists:

The Prometheus Project: Trapped – Douglas E. Richards
Quarter Share – Nathan Lowell
Jumper – Steven Gould
Alien Secrets – Annette Curtis Klause
Singing the Dogstar Blues – Alison Goodman

I know there are more books of the type I’m looking for being published among the indies, but I wanted titles a goodly number of readers might recognize. It’s kind of disturbing though, just how rare this sort of book seems to be.

UPDATE: Right after I posted this, @SPrineas on twitter suggested Catherine Jinks’ Living Hell which is definitely space-based; @cbmawn suggested Scott Westerfeld’s Succession; and @jennreese suggested PJ Haarsma Softwire series. So there are books out there, leaving the question: Why are they so hard to find?

Last fall I wrote enthusiastically about Kate Elliott’s Cold Magic. I’ve just finished Cold Fire, the second book in the trilogy. Consider this post my emphatic thumbs-up!

Cold Magic was set in glacial Europe. In complete contrast, Cold Fire takes place mostly in the Caribbean, in a world that is like Earth, but is not Earth in many critical ways. I loved both the setting, centered around the tropical city of “Expedition,” and the wonderfully detailed culture of that city. I loved the way the lead characters adapted and bloomed in this new world.

As in Cold Magic there are all sorts of adventures to be had along the way, not least of which is the evolving relationship within our protagonist’s forced marriage.

And the ending? I need to drop back in time and borrow from a unrelated third party for the appropriate response:

BANG-A-RANG!

Oh, and I hear you can order a signed copy of Cold Fire from Powell’s Books.