Starting this week, I’m going to be sending simple, text-only emails to people who are subscribed to my newsletter but who haven’t opened an issue in a very long time. I’ll simply be asking you if you want to remain as a subscriber.

Here’s why:
While I understand that some of those who never open the newsletter are simply not interested, I suspect that many are just not seeing the newsletters at all, probably because they’re ending up in a spam or a promotions folder. This is a problem, not just for a single recipient, but for all recipients. When copies of my newsletter emails get auto-classified by gmail as promotions, gmail is ever more likely to hide other recipients’ newsletters in the promotions folder, so that fewer and fewer people will actually receive it in their inboxes. I suspect the same process occurs with other email systems.

I don’t want to send newsletters to you if you’re not interested in my work (or if you’re just not into newsletters). So if my mail service tells me it’s been a long time since you opened a newsletter, I’m going to ask you to let me know if you want to continue to subscribe. If you do, awesome! If not…hey, you can always visit me here on the blog, on Twitter, or on Facebook (though keep in mind that the latter two are no guarantee that you’ll ever see my posts).

I’ll be sending out the text email in small batches.

If you think you might be one of the non-openers, you can help me by checking your promotions folder (gmail) or your spam folder. My last newsletter went out on October 17, with the subject line “Announcing: SILVER – Inverted Frontier #2”. If you find the newsletter and want to remain a subscriber, please OPEN IT, MOVE IT TO YOUR INBOX, AND WHITELIST ME in whatever way your email system allows.

If you no longer want to be a subscriber, simply click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.

Among the non-openers, there are many names I recognize as long-time readers. I know you’re long-time readers because you’ve told me so! I want to stay in contact with all of you who have been, and continue to be, interested in my work, so I’m hoping the text email will have a better chance of getting through to people’s inboxes. If I send you a text email and I still don’t hear from you, I’ll sadly assume we have a broken connection. I’ll unsubscribe you on my end, but of course you can always sign up again later.

Thanks for your help! And thank you for subscribing! 🙂

And if this post nudges you to look for my elusive newsletter, please let me know in the comments. (I like to know what works! :))

Just a quick post to let you know that Kobo preorders of Silver (Inverted Frontier #2) are now available!

HERE’S THE KOBO LINK.

Silver is also available for preorder at:

☆ Amazon†

☆ Apple Books

☆ Barnes & Noble

A print edition is on the way! The layout work is done. I’m just waiting to review proof copies.

For more information on Silver or to read the opening chapters, click here.

Introducing

Silver

Inverted Frontier #2

Click to see a larger image with all the beautiful details…

Here’s the cover copy:

A Lost Ship — A New World
Urban is no longer master of the fearsome starship Dragon. Driven out by the hostile, godlike entity, Lezuri, he has taken refuge aboard the most distant vessel in his outrider fleet.

Though Lezuri remains formidable, he is a broken god, commanding only a fragment of the knowledge that once was his. He is desperate to return home to the ring-shaped artificial world he created at the height of his power, where he can recover the memory of forgotten technologies.

Urban is desperate to stop him. He races to reach the ring-shaped world first, only to find himself stranded in a remote desert, imperiled by a strange flood of glowing silver that rises in the night like fog—a lethal fog that randomly rewrites the austere, Earthlike landscape. He has only a little time to decipher the mystery of the silver and to master its secrets. Lezuri is coming—and Urban must level up before he can hope to vanquish the broken god.

Many of you already own a copy of The Red: First Light. But if you’re new to my work or just haven’t picked it up yet – and you live in the United Kingdom or Australia – the ebook is on sale.

(I wish I could discount The Red for all of you, but I control pricing only in the United Kingdom and Australia.)

If you live in those places, The Red is just £1.99 (UK) or $1.99 (AU), but the sale will last only a few days, so get it now.

The Red: First Light is near-future military science fiction. It was a finalist for both the Nebula and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards, and was a Publishers Weekly Best Book. Even if you don’t generally read military SF, I hope you’ll give it a look. You might like it!

We all have different definitions of what science fiction is and what we expect from the genre. Reading is a very personal pastime. Tastes vary widely, and as a writer, I recognize that not everyone is going to like my work.

For me, science fiction is about exploring new ideas and trying to take them in new directions, with adventures along the way. Writers in this genre have always been influenced by the work of others, and have built off that work. But exploring new paths is part of the genre too.

This idea of newness, of novelty, of exploring fresh settings and situations is to me, what science fiction is about. Of course, not all readers feel that way. They have expectations. Over the last six months since Edges was published, it’s garnered a few scathing reviews when it didn’t meet those expectations. Specifically, it didn’t include most of the expected tropes of space opera. Fair enough!

Edges is not about galactic empires, trade networks, fast-paced interstellar wars, planetary rebellions, or humanlike aliens. And it definitely does not include faster-than-light travel. That last idea — no FTL — is kind of the point of the series. The galaxy is big. Really, really big. That’s why the last Nanotech Succession novel is titled Vast.

On the front page of my website I have a quote from long-time reader Larry Clough. It’s a flattering quote, but honestly, I posted it there as a warning, so potential new readers know what they’re getting into.

“Linda Nagata presents a unique world-view. Every one of her books that I have read has been alien and disturbing. I love and identify with the characters, but the situations they inhabit stretch the mind. This is as true of Linda Nagata’s fantasy as her science fiction. Her work is really, really different. And that’s a good thing.”

I am so grateful for readers who can enjoy my weird end of the field, along with all their other favorite forms of science fiction! And thank you for taking the time to recommend my books to others, and for posting your positive reader reviews. Together, you keep me going, and you give me a reason to write the next book. Cheers! 🍻🚀

With some tips on revising a novel
September was an incredibly busy month, entirely focused on finishing the revisions to Silver. I addressed almost all of the comments made by my freelance editor, Judith Tarr, which I think has helped significantly to clarify the story. I rejected a few suggestions for various reasons.

For those of you who are writers, you don’t have to follow every bit of advice your editor gives you. It’s your story. You know what you’re trying to achieve, and it’s your name that goes on the work. So weigh the advice, but if it doesn’t feel right to you, move on. (And don’t argue with your editor about it. 🙂 )

Silver is a fairly complex story. There’s a lot of world-building, along with unusual concepts. It’s not a book you can pick up and understand, without having read Edges first. That said, “complex” should not also mean “confusing” or “redundant.” Part of the revision process involves working toward that goal.

So after finishing the suggested revisions, I began a “read through” aimed at looking at the story as a whole. Starting from page one, I read the entire novel out loud to myself, going through it as quickly as I could while still making corrections. The idea behind a quick read is that I’m more likely to perceive the inconsistencies, while reading aloud lets me hear awkward wording and repeated words. And yes, I found a number of inconsistencies and awkward passages, so that exercise was definitely worth it. I’ll read it at least one more time before calling it “final.”

Several times, when pondering how to deal with an awkward passage, I found the best solution was to shorten it — simply cut back on the explanation. Sometimes, less is more — or anyway, it’s less confusing. 😉

Other than my freelance editor, no one has read Silver. Judy described the novel as “an immersive and absorbing read,” which was wonderful to hear, but doubt is always near the surface for most writers. I needed more feedback. So I recruited three “proofreaders” and sent the manuscript off to them on October 2. I’m anxiously awaiting their thoughts. I don’t see myself doing major revisions at this point — the story is what it is — but if there are tweaks that will further improve the storytelling, I’d like to undertake them. Presuming the feedback is mostly positive, I want to try to publish Silver before the end of November. Wish me luck!

Oh, and sign up for my newsletter if you haven’t already. The signup form is over there in the right-hand column. You’ll receive an email asking you to confirm your subscription. (You won’t be subscribed until you confirm.) If you don’t receive that email, check your spam/promotion folder — and whitelist me!

My September 5 newsletter included a book giveaway. I put up three sets of the paperback edition of the Red trilogy, one set each to three lucky winners. To participate, newsletter subscribers only needed to email me at a special address, indicating their interest.

(I had to limit participants to USA addresses only, because of the cost of international postage.)

The giveaway is over now.
Fifty-one people participated. I used Google’s random number generator to pick the winners. Congratulations, John, Lori, and Paul!

If you’re subscribed to my newsletter but didn’t receive it, please check your spam and/or your promotions folder, and white list my email address.

If you’re not yet subscribed, I hope you’ll sign up. You can use the form in the righthand column of this blog. You’ll receive an email asking you to confirm your subscription. Once you confirm, you’ll be signed up.

The next newsletter goes out on September 26.

Whoops. I see it’s been nearly a month since I posted here, but that’s because I’ve been working hard…

Here’s a quick update on Silver:
I received the editorial letter on it at the start of the month, and I just finished my first pass through the edits. Only the hard stuff is left! 🙂 🤔🚀

September 5 Newsletter
My latest newsletter went out last Thursday. If you haven’t subscribed to it yet, please do! Use that form over there in the righthand column of this blog.

Here’s one of the items included in the newsletter:

A Ring-Shaped World

I’ll speak cautiously to avoid any significant spoiler, but towards the end of Edges there is mention of a ring-shaped world, planetary in scale. A few of my longtime readers have already made the connection. This world is the same world featured in my novel Memory.

When I wrote Memory, I thought of it as being apart from the Nanotech books – a separate story world. But as I worked on the new Inverted Frontier series, I realized these two story worlds could overlap in a very interesting way.

Silver is a direct sequel to Edges, but it also works as a sequel to Memory. You don’t need to read Memory to enjoy Silver, but if you like the idea of exploring in this evolving story world, you can drop by my website to learn more about this earlier novel.

I sent out a newsletter this morning — the first on my new “every three weeks” schedule.

Every bit of advice I’ve read on maintaining a successful newsletter says to stick to a regular schedule, so I’m going to give in and try listening to the experts for a change. (We’ll see how long I keep this up!) 😉

If you’re subscribed to my newsletter, but you didn’t receive it, please check your spam and/or promotions folder, and be sure to whitelist me. If you can’t find it there, please signup again. It’s easy!

And if you’re not already subscribed, please sign up! Use the form in the righthand column of this blog, or click here for the main signup page on my website.

In response to my last progress report, Tasha, over at Goodreads, asked “Does this mean that the series concludes with Silver?”

Maybe? Though I hope not!

Silver gives a proper conclusion to the initial story arc of what might still become a longer series. From the beginning I planned to do two books in the Inverted Frontier series, and then switch to something else. If book sales are enough to support a third or even fourth book in the series, I’d like to come back to it in a year or two — and I do have a few notes on where to go next.

If you’re waiting for the whole series to be out before reading Edges…well, don’t! Because the length of the series is still to be determined. Right now I see it as open-ended. How long it goes on is up to the collective-you. 😉