I’m just back from ComicCon Honolulu, where I gave a talk on World Building. One of the questions posed at the end of the session was this:

How do you, a woman, feel that you can understand what it’s like to be a man, well enough to write from a man’s point of view?

I’m sure this question has come up many times among readers and writers. Here’s an expanded version of my answer:

It’s my job as a fiction writer to get inside the headspace of all sorts of characters. Writing other people is a job skill. If you feel you’re not empathetic enough to get inside the heads of characters not based on you, you’re not going to make a very good writer.

Beyond that, I think a question like this implies some flawed assumptions. First, that there is some universal trait, or complex of traits, that defines all men, and that this trait is more important than culture, age, sexual orientation, or anything else. Second, that only the fact of being a man gives you access to this knowledge. And third, that as a man you would automatically gain an empathetic ability to understand all other men well enough to write from their points of view no matter how different from you they might be—but presumably you will not be able to write successfully from the point of view of a woman!

That’s tremendously limiting, and I don’t think it’s true.

We are all human beings. We all share many aspects of existence, and those we don’t share, we can learn.

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There are only two more weeks until the Saga Press edition of The Red is released. These last days before a book drops are a nerve-wracking time, at least for me, facing that big question: how will sales go? Really hoping that all this effort will prove worthwhile!

The Red will release simultaneously in hardcover, mass-market paperback, ebook, and audio book editions. Just a few days ago I received a copy of both the finished paperback and the hardcover, and they are gorgeous books. The team at Saga Press has done a terrific job.

In the meantime, more reviews are posting. Here are two from the past week:

Over at SFF World, Rob H. Bedford says:

Nagata manages to bring many familiar elements together (and few SF frameworks are as familiar or popular as Military SF) into something that manages to echo great stories that preceded it while still engaging in a powerfully refreshing fashion. In The Red, Nagata manages one of the most seamless, enjoyable, and enthralling meldings in SF of that familiar and “new spin.” […] Highly Recommended.

Read Rob’s full review here.

At the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, Rich Rosell says:

Nagata’s modern-day-or-not-far-from-it creations seem both plausible and fantastic. That air of plausibility is essential for a genre-straddler like this; there is a believably organic texture to the various hardware, software, and weapons. The meshing of humans with technology–leading, inevitably, to dangerous co-dependence–is seamlessly presented. And man oh man, it is exciting.

Read the full review here.

If you’d like to read the opening pages of The Red, you’ll find them online here.

I hope you’ll consider preordering a copy in your favorite format.

Also consider signing up for my “Occasional Newsletter”, for a reminder when each book in The Red Trilogy releases. Book 2, The Trials, will publish in August, and Book 3, Going Dark, is scheduled for November.

Thank you!

Back in February, I posted the news here that two of my stories had been selected for Baen Book’s first annual The Year’s Best Military SF & Space Opera, edited by David Afsharirad.

This year’s best anthology was released yesterday, and includes contributions by Brad R. Torgersen, Michael Z. Williamson, Charlie Jane Anders, Seth Dickinson, William Ledbetter, Eric Leif Davin, David D. Levine, Stephen Gaskell, Michael Barretta, Derek Kunsken, Holly Black, Robert R. Chase, and Matthew Johnson.

My stories are “Codename: Delphi” originally published at Lightspeed Magazine and “Light and Shadow” originally published in the War Stories anthology. Both stories are set in the story world of The Red, and “Codename: Delphi” features some of the same characters.

VOTE!
Here’s an interesting twist that makes this anthology unusual. Baen Books would like their readers to vote on the included stories and select their favorite. There is a cash prize and a plaque for the winning author, but mostly it just sounds like a lot of fun. Click here to get to the voting site. For security reasons you’ll have to sign up for a Baen ebooks account, but there’s no cost on that and Baen will not share your information. Voting closes August 31, and the award will be presented at DragonCon.

So last night, just shy of 0200, I sent the “final” manuscript of Going Dark to my editor, Joe Monti, at Saga Press. I put “final” in quotes, because I’ll get one more pass at the manuscript after the copyedit, and another chance to tweak things when the page proofs arrive. But for practical purposes, I’m done with The Red Trilogy.

It’s been a three-year project, and now that it’s winding down, I’m starting to realize how much I’m going to miss these characters and this story world. For all the frustration, and the struggle to get the story down, I’ve really loved writing these novels. For all the self-doubt, and regardless how it turns out, I’m glad I took the shot.

Winding Back the Scruffy

Last month when I was on Oahu I had my daughter, Dallas Nagata White, shoot some new author photos for me. Dallas is a professional photographer who’s done a lot of work in the fashion industry. She’s good both in front of a camera and behind a camera. For this shoot, she acted as stylist, makeup artist, photographer, and Photoshop/Lightroom magician, and we had a lot of fun.

True confession: I don’t actually wear makeup very often because
(1) I am lazy
(2) It’s boring to put on
(3) Things get awkward when you’re running five miles and sweating under the foundation
(4) My eyes freak out with most eye makeup, although not with the eye makeup Dallas used that day, so I’ll need to follow up on that.

But since these photos will serve as my “official” photos for the next year or two, I made an effort to look a bit more polished than I usually do — and I love the way the pictures turned out. (more…)

READ IT ONLINE

Operation Arcana, an anthology of military fantasy stories edited by John Joseph Adams, is out today in both print and ebook editions.

The anthology includes stories by T.C. McCarthy, Genevieve Valentine, Myke Cole, Elizabeth Moon, and many more, including me.

My story is called “The Way Home” and it’s available to read online at Lightspeed Magazine. There’s also an audio version available at that same link, if you prefer to listen.

In addition, Robyn Lupo did a short interview with me, to get some background on “The Way Home.” Read the interview here.

This story is a favorite of mine. I hope you enjoy it.

Updated on February 8, 2021 to show current book cover

I think of my novel, Limit of Vision, originally published in 2001, as the book-no-one-has-heard-of. Certainly, it occupies a weird place in my mental landscape, in large part because it was written in the great, oxygen-deprived emotional void that followed the publication of Vast.

I can’t talk about Limit of Vision without talking about Vast. Vast was a special book to me. It took everything I had to give as a writer. It was edgy, nontraditional science fiction, something I knew at the time would appeal mostly to the hard core of the genre. It was the book I was born to write — that’s how I felt, and I’m not going to argue the point now. But Vast, of course, was a market failure and very quickly out of print.

The experience left me with a sense of futility, but I forged on anyway and wrote Limit of Vision, a near-future biotech thriller that takes place primarily in the Mekong Delta. The novel sold to Tor for a much larger advance than I’d ever had before. Even so, in the wake of the failure of Vast to find a larger audience, I was not brimming with confidence.
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David Afsharirad is the editor of The Year’s Best Military SF & Space Opera, published by Baen Books. This is the first of an annual edition, and I’m very pleased and proud to report that two of my 2014 stories will be included:

* “Codename: Delphi” originally published at Lightspeed Magazine

and

* “Light and Shadow” originally published in the War Stories anthology.

Both stories are set in the story world of The Red, and “Codename: Delphi” features some of the same characters.

Publication date for the ebook is May 16, 2015, with the print book following on June 2, 2015.

In one of those strange confluences, today I find myself with three contracts to read and a short interview to answer. Not a bad situation to be in!

And a couple of days ago I stumbled across the seeds of what might be my next novel. It’s much too early to know, but I am very intrigued.

Also, I have a short story coming out in March, so if you haven’t already signed up for my newsletter, please do so. It’s the best way to keep in touch. The next issue I have planned will go out to announce the release of the story, titled “The Way Home.” Find the sign up form over there –> in the right sidebar.

More soon…

After several weeks of intense revision, Book 3 of The Red Trilogy has gone off to Joe Monti, my editor at Saga Press. I am eagerly awaiting his opinion.

This was a difficult book to write, but I like the way it’s come together, and look forward to the improvements that will happen as I get more editorial feedback.

How long did it take to write? This question might be of interest only to other writers, but for me, when I’m in the midst of a first draft it can feel like the draft is taking forever, with very little progress. Then again, for me, progress is usually made in fits and starts, with seemingly useless days of incredible effort, followed by a day of fantastic word flow.

At any rate, looking back at my notes, I did some initial brainstorming on this story in early April, and then again in May. I tried writing the opening a couple of times, discarded most of this effort, and began again on May 12. That day I managed 1300 words. Then I didn’t write anything else until after I returned from the Nebula Awards. So let’s say around eight months to a really solid draft. For comparison, The Red took around five months, and The Trials took seven. You’d think these books would get easier to write, not harder…but at least it’s “done”–for the moment anyway!