I can’t resist a countdown.

The Trials is book 2 of the Red Trilogy and its publication date is only ONE WEEK away.

You can order it from your local bookstore, or preorder online. Here are links to some US retailers:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Powell’s Books
Mysterious Galaxy
Tattered Cover

The Trials will be available in multiple formats: hard cover, paperback, ebook, and audio book.

Here’s the back cover copy:

Lieutenant James Shelley and his squad of US Army soldiers were on a quest for justice when they carried out the unauthorized mission known as First Light. They returned home to America to face a court-martial, determined to expose the corruption in the chain of command that compelled their actions. But in a country still reeling from the nuclear terrorism of Coma Day, the courtroom is just one battlefield of many.

A new cycle of violence ignites when rumors of the elusive, rogue AI known as the Red go publicand Shelley is, once again, pulled into the fray. Challenged by his enemies, driven by ideals, Shelley feels compelled to act. But are the harrowing choices he makes really his own, or are they made for him, by the Red? And with millions of lives at stake in a game of nuclear cat-and-mouse, does the answer even matter?

Another link round up, but these are more personal:

Over at SF Signal, I chat with Paul Weimer about the Red Trilogy, artificial intelligence, and my weird writing career:

LN: The problem with the term “artificial intelligence” is that it means different things in different contexts, and to different people. In science fiction the standard trope is a complex computer program that becomes self-aware and begins to act like a human, and thereby becomes a pain in the ass—which isn’t a very useful transformation, from a practical perspective.

If you missed it, I’ve also got another recent interview up at SFRevu. Ernest Lilley asks some insightful questions.

Linda: I tend not to use the term “soft science fiction” because the meaning seems to change depending on circumstance. In my own mind, I see science fiction as a continuum between hard science fiction and space fantasy. At the harder end of the spectrum, technology in a story is more or less plausible and attempts are made not to violate basic laws of nature. Some say hard SF is focused on the technology, but for me, that’s not the defining characteristic. My stories aren’t about the technology. They’re about the characters and how their lives are affected by that technology.

And Kristine Kathryn Rusch has a blog post just up explaining what inspired her to put together a Storybundle themed around women in science fiction.

Suffice it to say that it became apparent to me that from the young writer/reader point of view, women didn’t write science fiction, because by the year 2000, most of the sf by women had gone out of print and was almost impossible to find.

I’ve been reading a lot of interesting posts and articles, so I thought I’d share a few of them here.

Can we reverse the aging process by putting young blood into older people?
“A series of experiments has produced incredible results by giving young blood to old mice. Now the findings are being tested on humans. Ian Sample meets the scientists whose research could transform our lives.”
This is a very long read, it’s rather disturbing in more ways than one, but it’s fascinating too. Find it at The Guardian/Science.

I’m Too Old for This
A mostly cheerful and realistic reflection on the liberating aspects of middle age and beyond experienced by many women, including yours truly. The ability to “shrug off annoyances that once would have knocked me off my perch” is a huge plus. “I’m too old for this” has been one of my mantras for a while, and I’m not sixty yet! Find it at the New York Times.
h/t Morgan J. Locke (@MorganJLocke)

The tree of life gets a makeover
When I went to school, the five “kingdoms” of life were animals, plants, fungi, protista, and monera — but things are changing. This is a fascinating article discussing the effect of genetic analysis on the classification of living things. Find it at Science News.
h/t David Brin (@DavidBrin)

Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together is a fanzine that includes reviews of science fiction, fantasy, crime, and horror fiction, plus film and video game reviews. They also run some special features, with the most recent being the “6 Books” interview. Writers are asked six questions about the books they’re reading, will read, or wrote.

So far the series has included James Cambias, Django Wexler, and me.

So check it out! It’s a great way to find new books. I know, because I read the interviews and immediately downloaded a sample of Cambias’s new novel Corsair. Looks intriguing!

Here’s a link to all three interviews. Let me know what you think.

Storybundles are themed collections of ebooks, sold together at discount, and available only for a very short period of time. They’ve been popular with readers, but this is the first time I’ve had a chance to participate in one. The newest bundle — Women in Science Fiction — was put together by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

Why do a bundle of women science fiction writers? Here’s what Kris had to say:

I received a huge shock late last year when some younger writers told me that women didn’t write science fiction. “Present company excepted,” they said to me.

“But…but…what about…” and I listed wonderful writer after wonderful writer, whom these young writers had never heard of. I did some research and realized that even though women have written sf since the beginning of sf (in fact, you could argue that a woman started the genre. Hats off to you and your Frankenstein monster, Mary Shelley!), women and their fiction never received the press that their male counterparts did. That’s why those young writers had no idea women have always written science fiction.

So I decided to do a bunch of projects to rectify the publicity problem, including this StoryBundle.

So here we are!

Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, I’m excited!

The Trials is book 2 of the Red Trilogy and its publication date is only two weeks away.

You can order it from your local bookstore, or preorder online. Here are links to some US retailers:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Powell’s Books
Mysterious Galaxy
Tattered Cover

The Trials will be available in multiple formats: hard cover, paperback, ebook, and audio book.

Here’s the back cover copy:

Lieutenant James Shelley and his squad of US Army soldiers were on a quest for justice when they carried out the unauthorized mission known as First Light. They returned home to America to face a court-martial, determined to expose the corruption in the chain of command that compelled their actions. But in a country still reeling from the nuclear terrorism of Coma Day, the courtroom is just one battlefield of many.

A new cycle of violence ignites when rumors of the elusive, rogue AI known as the Red go publicand Shelley is, once again, pulled into the fray. Challenged by his enemies, driven by ideals, Shelley feels compelled to act. But are the harrowing choices he makes really his own, or are they made for him, by the Red? And with millions of lives at stake in a game of nuclear cat-and-mouse, does the answer even matter?

Here’s a round up of some recent reviews of The Red, along with an interview. Links will take you to the full review.

“The Red: First Light is a gripping exploration of the human and technological aspects of next-generation warfare. What sets the story apart is its ability to address the human level of what it is like for soldiers to live with the next generation of battlefield technology and to place it within an action-driven story…”
— August Cole, co-author of Ghost Fleet

“…one of the best pieces of near future Mil-SF ever written. What’s so good about it? The action rocks and the characters are engaging as hell. But this isn’t just adventure fiction, it’s Mil-SF and very well done, straight out of DARPA’s dreambook, not somebody’s fantasy.” — Ernest Lilley, SFRevu

“If ever you hear someone say women can’t write military science fiction, please do me a favor and smack them over the head with this book […] Seriously, it doesn’t get more edge-of-your-seat than this near-future thriller, which seamlessly blends advanced technology and military action with political drama.”
— The BiblioSanctum

And find Ernest Lilley’s interview of me at SFRevu.

I’m planning to attend this year’s World Science Fiction convention, aka Sasquan, in Spokane, Washington. If you’re going to be there too, do say hello! All my official activities are on Thursday or Friday. Here’s my schedule:

THURSDAY

Panel: Self-publishing — How To Do It
11:00 – 11:45, Conference Theater 110 (CC)
Once your book is written, what next? Successful self-published authors explain how to go from manuscript to completed book, or ebook. (This panel discusses the sources, processes and procedures. Marketing and promotion are covered in a separate panel.)
Panelists: Stu Segal (M), Doug Farren, Nick Mamatas, Linda Nagata, H.M. Jones

Panel: From Starship Troopers to Honor Harrington and Beyond: The Past, Present, and Future of Military SF
13:00 – 13:45, Bays 111A (CC)
Military SF has had its heyday. Is the topic done? Where do we go from here?
Panelists: Greg Bear, William Dietz, Linda Nagata, Toni Weisskopf

Kaffe Klatche
14:00 – 14:45, 202A-KK1 (CC)
Join a panelist and up to 9 other fans for a small discussion. Coffee and snacks available for sale on the 2nd floor.
(I’ve never done a “Kaffe Klatche” before. Come talk to me!)

Autographing
With Paolo Bacigalupi, Ellen Datlow, Molly Gloss, Frog Jones, and Louise Marley
16:00 – 16:45, Exhibit Hall B (CC)

FRIDAY

Panel: Self-publishing — When to do it, When to Publish Traditionally
11:00 – 11:45, 401C (CC)
A discussion of the whys and whens of self-publishing versus traditional publishing. Timing, royalties, promotion and more. Panel will consist of successful self-published authors, self-published authors who have been picked up by major publishers, and publishing industry professionals.
Panelists: Stephen Segal (M), Taiyo Fujii, H.M. Jones, Linda Nagata

Reading
Friday 15:30 – 16:00, 301 (CC)
(Come to my reading! And by the way, what should I read?)

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

The hermit is coming down from the mountain!

This Friday, July 24, from 6:30pm to 7:30pm, I’ll be giving a presentation at Comic Con Honolulu on the subject of “World Building and Sci-Fi Writing.”

If you’re attending the con, please show up and keep me company!

For the benefit of those who will attend, I want to list the books I hope to mention during my talk.

Fiction by me, Linda Nagata
• The Red — a near-future military thriller.
• “Nightside on Callisto” — a science fiction short story. Read it online at Lightspeed Magazine.

Fiction by Kate Elliott:
• Crown Of Stars series
• Cold Magic series

Fiction by Peter Singer and August Cole
• Ghost Fleet

Fiction by Martha Wells
• The Cloud Roads