The manuscript is inconsistent, it’s full of notes, it’s in desperate need of research, and a couple of sections are just blocked out (“They struggle for the gun” “Intimate, poignant sex scene here”), but all the essentials are in place — beginning, middle, end — so I am officially declaring this to be a FIRST DRAFT.

While I like to call this novel a “near-future thriller,” it is science fiction, making it the first SF novel I’ve written since Memory — though I hasten to add it’s nothing at all like Memory.

It’s easily the roughest first draft I’ve ever done. In the old days, I would polish every paragraph, every chapter, before going on to the next. With the Puzzle Lands books I wrote much faster, but still stopped to polish and revise along the way. With this book, while I did a little backfill and a bit of revision, it was mostly a straight shot from beginning to end — partly out of fear that if I stopped and thought about it too much I would let the internal-critic take over, become discouraged, and quit. I tried to make “trust the process” my mantra, though whether it worked or not, only time will tell.

For those writers out there who might be interested in the timeline, I started brainstorming the story on June 5. Actual writing commenced on June 9, with a session that produced 1300 words. I worked on it fairly consistently over the summer, aiming for a thousand words a day. Sometimes I succeeded, sometimes I did nothing, sometimes I did more. At any rate, by September 2 I’d accumulated 69,000 words…which means that over the next 13 days I added 18,000 words for a first draft total of 87,000. For a lot of writers, this is no big deal. For me — I am a slow writer — this is an astonishing pace, especially given that on some of those thirteen days nothing was written because I didn’t have a clear idea of what was going to happen next. (Do other writers always know what happens next? So many of them seem to.) After revisions, I’m hoping the final word count will be no more than 95,000.

Here’s an ironic “fun fact”: this novel was inspired by a character who came to life in a short story I wrote last spring. I sent that story off to a major market at the end of May, and since then I’ve written the entire first draft and have still not gotten a decision on the story. Of course, now that I’ve said this in public, I’m sure the rejection will turn up on Monday. C’est la vie. ***

And here’s an embarrassing “fun fact”: this is the second first draft I’ve finished this year. The other is a fantasy novel unrelated to anything else I’ve done. The rule is supposed to be “finish one project before starting another,” but…yeah. I’ll get back to the fantasy novel real-soon-now — like after I get a solid second draft of the SF novel, because it’s the one that has a firm grip on my enthusiasm, and in my opinion, enthusiasm is a very good thing.

[A] kick ass big idea, hard SF novel…Yes, I’m raving. But I seriously love this book.
-–Tobias Buckell

Devil Said Bang is the fourth and most recent installment of Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim series. (Sandman Slim, Kill The Dead, Aloha From Hell.) I freely admit to being a fan-girl. I picked up the first book by chance last March, quickly grabbed the second, revised my principles on ebook pricing to read the third, and pre-ordered the fourth and most recent — the first time I’ve pre-ordered anything.

The books are violent and profane, but they’re also loaded with clever dialogue and compelling characters. The stories are told by “Stark” aka Sandman Slim, a young magician (actual magic, not illusion) who was betrayed by his circle of “friends” and whisked off to Hell. When he manages to escape his fate, revenge is on the menu.

Stark describes himself as “a shitstorm magnet” and this is not an exaggeration. His adventures ramp up in scope through the first three books, but Devil Said Bang brings things back to a more human scale. I think it’s the best book since the first one, but I might just re-read them all to be sure.

This is the sort of series that makes me wonder why I like what I like — lately I’ve glanced at other, much praised, books and moved on — but that’s a subject for another blog post.

If you’ve read Sandman Slim I’d love to hear what you thought. If you haven’t, grab a sample of the first book and give it a try. I’m not the only one raving.

I’m re-posting this at the top of the blog today, for “Sample Sunday.” One of my much-neglected Puzzle Land books! Find newer posts below.

Beyel the poet was experiencing a rare appreciation for the divine as he retrieved the bowl of coins he’d just earned with his new monologue. If the army thugs had shown up even a minute sooner, he’d have gotten only a pittance. Then again, if they’d waited one minute more the last holdouts might have pitched in . . . but never mind! The idiotic Koráyos character he’d debuted tonight had earned him a lovely wage. God damn the army, and God bless the poor fool who’d dropped the bundle of Koráyos clothing into the back of the wrong wagon.

Beyel was so pleased he even dared to think his luck might be turning, at last.

Follow this link for more information on Hepen the Watcher.

I am so upset.

Stan Schmidt has been the editor at Analog Science Fiction & Fact for thirty-four years. He was the first editor to ever buy my work, and in fact the first three stories I sold went to Analog.

Last year, when I got back into short story writing after a very long hiatus, Stan was my first choice for “Nahiku West”–and to my delight he bought the story (which just saw publication this month in Analog’s “October” issue). So I think it’s fair to say that Stan Schmidt started my career twice.

He will be missed, but I hope he gets to enjoy more time writing his own fiction.

Here’s the article at Locus Online.

SF Signal is a website devoted to covering the science fiction and fantasy field, with articles, book reviews, and other contributions from people across the genre.

Each week features a piece called “Mind Meld” in which several writers, editors, fans, or others active in the field are asked to respond to a question. No one gets to see the other answers until publication day.

Today was my first time participating in Mind Meld.

The question:

Q: As a reader and as a writer, how do you feel about the practice of revising books after they have been published (or at least have reached the ARC stage)? How much revision goes into your writing process? (How clean are your drafts)?

Find everyone’s answer here at SF Signal.

* Amazon now sells ebooks directly in India, but the terms to the writer/publisher are much better if you buy from Book View Café

* I offer print-on-demand versions of eight books. The other day a reader was surprised to discover on receipt that these are not “mass market” paperbacks, not the small “pocket books” that used to be so common. Instead, they are the larger “trade” paperbacks, 5.5 x 8.5 inches–basically the size of a hardcover. Just wanted to clarify that for anyone wondering at the cost.

* Kobo took over fifteen days to publish the first ebook I uploaded to their store. (Uploaded July 20; published August 5.) The second book, uploaded a few days ago, was published within an hour or two. The third book, uploaded yesterday, has still not published. I realize it’s a new system. Hopefully, consistency will come with time.

Update: The Bohr Maker went live on Kobo sometime overnight, and is available for purchase as of August 23.

And here is something of an explanation, and an antidote, to yesterday’s ugly. David Brin writes on “Obama on the importance of Curiosity,” an essay in which he discusses the politics of our time:

If you like being part of a civilization that celebrates science and intellect and progress… while willingly negotiating in openness and improving through the reciprocal criticism of faults… then you are behooved to lift your head, this season, and note the implications in politics.

A reassuring read! Also see his response to comments, here on G+

My fantasy novel Hepen the Watcher is about the violent take-down of a misogynistic society. It’s a humorous book in parts, with what I hope are lively and likable characters. But other sections are grim, as any such book must be.

From time to time, I’ve wondered if I went too far in my depiction of the society, one that is deliberately engineered from On High to despise women and treat them as mindless yet dangerous chattel, its customs strictly enforced despite the better feelings of many men.

But there is no instance of oppression in Hepen the Watcher that hasn’t actually existed in the world with the hearty approval of authoritarian figures. Indeed, most of the goings-on in the book still exist somewhere in the world, while here in the USA it seems that every few days yet another politician — always of the Republican party — steps forward, eager to create more and more laws aimed at regulating women’s sexuality and reproduction. This, from a party with an Orwellian knack for hiding behind words like “liberty” and “freedom,” and crying out against excessive government.

Yesterday, Sunday, both twitter and facebook seemed oddly quiet until midafternoon, when word of Missouri’s Republican Congressional Representative Todd Akin hit. His asinine and ignorant comments on the biology of rape ignited a storm of utterly justified outrage. I’m sure by now you’ve heard what he had to say. If not, you’ll find Mr. Akin’s comments quoted in this essay by Ilyse Hogue at The Nation: The Danger of Laughing at Todd Akin. As Ms. Hogue makes clear, the enemy is not just this one individual who has somehow persuaded the people of Missouri — my father’s home state — to put him in a position of power. The enemy is widespread:

In the multidimensional chess that shapes public opinion, the game is less about individual elections and more about a sustained effort to mainstream radical ideas. In the case of denying women control over their lives, there’s evidence that the bad guys may be winning the long-game.

There is no justification for compromising women’s freedom, equality, and self-determination. Yield no ground. Don’t let the bad guys win.