Iron Night Page Proofs
My page proofs, in all their glory!
The page proofs for Iron Night have arrived! This is pretty exciting, and a little nerve-wracking, since this is the last chance I have to catch any screw-ups before the whole book goes off to print. Let me tell you – pressure is on.
But the book looks really fantastic (admittedly right now it is a pile of pages I carry around in an old file folder, but still), and I really can’t wait to see what people think of it! I’ve gotten fantastic feedback from so many people on Generation V that I’m a little (okay, a LOT) anxious to see how readers respond to the return of Fort and Suzume. Plus there are some new characters, some bigger roles for returning characters, and a few deaths. (not telling who, but yes – I kill. *maniacal laugh*)
In other news – some great new reviews of Generation V since the last time I posted. Here’s what people are saying:
Bastard at Bastard Books wrote:
Generation V is a refreshingly unique novel that all urban fantasy enthusiast should read, and a book capable of encouraging even the most ardent critics of the genre. Very much a page turner, a story that has a lot of heart and much to offer. With an extremely fun novel full of charm, Brennan has written a winner.
Justin at Staffer’s Book Review wrote:
…it’s a vampire novel that surprised me with its originality. What begins as a typical vampire urban fantasy, ends up with a lot in common with Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London. It’s a delightful novel that would strongly recommend to lovers of urban fantasy or urban fantasy doubters (like me) looking to stick a toe in the water.
Kathy F. at Stellar Four wrote:
First of all, my thought through many parts was, “This is effed up.” And it is, wonderfully, magnificently effed up. Horrible things happen, the whole way vampires are created in this world is nightmare fuel, and we have a MC who realizes how messed up his world is but feels powerless.
I also had the pleasure of doing an interview with Matt at 52 Reviews and I really encourage people to check it out – it was definitely the most in-depth interview I’ve ever done, and the result was one of my favorites!
Here’s a sample:
52 Reviews: To take the discussion of vampiric family values a bit further, I found it interesting that Fort and his siblings fall into somewhat predictable models of abnormal psychology while their mother seems to be a completely different model all together. What can you tell us about your processes in creating the matriarch of this family of vampires?
M.L. Brennan: Primarily, I think of her as an adult crocodile. Crocodiles are a pretty interesting species — when they are born, they are around ten inches long, and are preyed on by mammals, birds, and even big fish. They eat bugs, and spend most of their time hiding and trying to avoid being eaten. But you take that little creature, and (if nothing eats it) it is going to grow into this massive, tough, absolute apex predator that has pretty much no natural predators except other crocodiles.
If you could sit crocodiles down on a therapist’s couch, and assuming a few factors, namely, a) The crocodiles didn’t eat the therapist, b) The therapist had somehow found a way to communicate with the crocodiles, and c) That the crocodiles actually had a complex interior landscape, I think that would be pretty interesting. Because here’s a creature that goes from pretty much being everything’s dinner — and not just for one or two seasons, but for a very serious number of years, and the mommy crocodile stops responding to its distress peeps after the first few weeks — and in fear of everything to this absolute boss of the river with just about nothing being a real danger to it. That’s kind of neat when you think about it. To me, it would suggest that as little as I think I would really be able to understand or empathize with a crocodile, even with a helpful translating therapist (mostly because of the reptile thing, to be honest), I think that it would be almost equally difficult for its offspring to understand or empathize with the adults of the species.
That is admittedly kind of a weird genesis for a character’s psychology, but that’s how I picture Madeline, the vampire matriarch, and it helps me write her.
Pretty neat, right?
Regarding the writing, I just delivered the manuscript of Book 3 to my editor, so I have a little time before the response to that gets back. Iron Night page proofs are due back on September 24, so after that I’ll probably be seeing about lining up some publicity, maybe scheduling a blog tour. I definitely have a slightly larger rolodex than last time, and I really can’t wait until I get my hot little hands on some ARCs, because I am so looking forward to handing a few copies off to a few bloggers who I made friends with last time around.
Oh, and by the by – if you love RPG games with a strong sci-fi storytelling base? You really need to check out this kickstarter for Ambrov X – I’ve already donated money!
The author’s cat proudly surveys the page proofs. “Yes,” she thinks. “Right here is where I will vomit tonight.”
Back from WorldCon!
That was a very busy weekend! I was lucky enough to meet a number of writers who I admire, several very lovely and kind fans of Generation V, and quite a few interesting and kind-hearted people who listened to my spiel and professed themselves very interested in checking out Generation V.
My cat gives my business card five lazy blinks of approval. Pretty heady, I know.
Now, as fast as I was handing out my cards and info, people were handing great cards and info back to me. Check out my collection!
Pretty nice, right? I know I have two of Taylor Anderson’s cards, but that’s because I ran into him twice – once at a party, and once at breakfast. What a great guy, with an absolutely fascinating skillset!
Definitely take a close look at the flier at the bottom – when I was doing my autographing session (which, actually, went very well – a combination of everyone’s love of free books, plus being seated next to the amazing Cat Rambo) I was lucky enough to get a chance to talk to Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah, and they told me about their newest project – it’s a Kickstarter for a story-driven RPG that’s set in their Sime~Gen universe! Gamers, particularly the gamer ladies, this one is definitely one to take note of. You can check it out in more detail at
Ambrov X.
I’ll talk about the con (so much fun!) and San Antonio (seriously, San Antonio, what the hell is going on with that river? it looked like Chtulhu’s bathwater!) in a bit more detail later, but for now, I’m going to tell you about something important.
A quest.
A quest that happened when I suggested to my hard sci-fi loving brother that he check out the list of WorldCon attendees to see if there was anyone that he really liked, because I’d be happy to get a book signed for him. Well, it turned out that there were quite a few of my brother’s SF heroes at the con, and we entered into some fairly intense negotiations about exactly how many books I was willing to shlep down for him. (I drew the line at bringing David Brin’s entire Uplift series. Yes, I am heartless)
So my brother managed to narrow it down to his top five picks, which he then mailed to me from San Francisco. Here’s what that stack looked like:
Right now there are books in my brother’s apartment that simply will not even look at him, so disgusted are they that they didn’t make the cut.
I packed them into my bag, and took them down. Something to keep in mind – first, I made my brother prioritize them, just in case I had only a chance to get one signed and not another. Then he took it a little further and wrote up a post-it note for each one so that I could read it to the author to explain just why this book was beloved.
Okay, so I set myself up to go – firstly, I didn’t get down to WorldCon until Friday afternoon, which means that the first thing that happened was that I completely missed Joe Haldeman and David Brin’s signings. Nuts. Now, they both had programming later in the con, but the problem there was that I’d scheduled myself pretty tightly for most of the con and I actually didn’t get to go to many panels. (‘cuz I was there to, you know, *work*) And then I couldn’t find Greg Bear anywhere on the programming, and was told that he’d had to cancel at the last minute. Whoops. But that still left Gregory Benford, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Alistair Reynolds. And Alistair Reynolds was actually on my panel, so that seemed very doable!
So, the quest began. (impressive music) I flew down to San Antonio, got to the hotel room, and packed my shoulder bag for the day. Off I went to pick up my badge – and guess who was in front of me at the programming table? DAVID BRIN! And I was all, “FUCK, I left the book back in the room!” (which is probably something that David Brin is not un-used to hearing when people meet him) But he was absolutely lovely, and had a stack of fliers for his new book on him, so he personalized one of those for my brother. And then even let me take a photo with him. Awesome!
And then I realized about forty minutes later that I’d actually had the book in my bag at the time, and I screeched obscenities at myself for about five minutes. Good times! (seriously, the moral of this might be – I kind of suck at this thing) And I really tried, but I never saw David Brin again.
Which, in all honesty, isn’t surprising. I mean, somewhere a deity was just shaking Its head, all, “Seriously, ML? I arrange it so that the very first person you bump into at WorldCon is David Brin, who is your brother’s personal SF hero because of the Uplift series, AND that he’s in a good mood, and you completely fumble the moment? Forget any favors in the future.”
Bummer.
But after that I went the solid route – autographing lines. And I learned a few things – firstly, that autographing lines are actually a good way to meet some pretty neat and nice people. Secondly – there are people who are kind of in the business of getting autographs. There were people with *carts* of books! And lists! (at one point I was at the SFWA table, and after I introduced myself to a very nice woman, she pulled out her list to see if I was on it – it turns out that I was, but only sort of. She’d actually put *Marie* Brennan on her list, because she thought we were the same. This actually turned out to be kind of a theme, so I’ve made an adjustment to my FAQ sheet.)
This is Marie Brennan. I am definitely not Marie Brennan. I love her books, but all we have in common is the fantasy genre, potato-digging forebearers, and one letter of the alphabet.
I also learned that it’s usually kind of important to get to the autographing line a little early. That way you can save some time. But on Friday I was able to get two of my brother’s books signed!
See? That’s Gregory Benford holding my brother’s book post-signature, and that’s David Brin *thinking* about my brother’s book. Or, you know, space. Or cheese.
Single-author books are a bit easier. That’s Kim Stanley Robinson, who was very nice about me fucking up the first photo and having to re-take.
Then on Saturday I went to my panel on writing horror. It was very fun, very sharply moderated, and there were some pretty cool questions from the audience. One interesting thing that came out was that all five of the authors sitting on this panel were completely obsessed with non-fiction accounts of Himalayan mountain climbers – particularly when someone loses fingers or a nose to frostbite and then keeps climbing. Make of that what you will, but to those of you who like getting writing advice? Apparently you should be reading Into Thin Air and watching some documentaries.
Anyway, it was lots of fun, and then at the end Alistair Reynolds was very lovely and signed my brother’s book!
We were getting kicked out of the room so that the next group could come in, but he even took the time to reference the post-it note!
That was basically the end to the quest. However, my brother did have one specific desire to make his nerd life complete, and that was a photo of Benson, Brin, and Bear all together. And I completely delivered.
This might look photo-shopped, but I assure you, all three of these men were standing together! It was just a very complicated room design!
WorldCon!
I am ML Brennan and I stand by this picture decision. Just as that cat likely stood by his yarn consumption.
August has been flying by, which means that in just over a week, I will be flying to San Antonio with my long-suffering spouse and will be attending my first WorldCon! *Very* exciting, let me assure you! For anyone attending who is interested, here are my confirmed activities for the weekend! (confirmed but unmentioned include eating, sleeping, and pooping. Because, really – everyone poops)
Right now there’s a lot of blank space on Friday – I have one connection to get to San Antonio, so right now I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that I arrive in time to get my badge and hit my one scheduled commitment for the day. Oh, and if I make my connection, I wanted a chance to get to walk around and actually see the booths.
Saturday has some really fun stuff scheduled, including my one panel! Please attend my panel, and if you want to pitch me some softball questions about horror, give in to the urge! I also have two autographing sessions, one of which I am delighted to say will be with several very fine writers. But thanks to the good folks at Penguin, I am the proud owner of a full box of copies of Generation V – which I will be handing out for free at those sessions! First come, first served! (also, seriously, I don’t want to have to check this box for the flight home — *please* come take a book from me!)
On Sunday I will be staffing the SFWA table for a little bit, but I’m sure by then I’ll have heard about at least fifty things I’ll want to do before I catch my flight home. Here’s the breakdown:
WorldCon Schedule
Friday 8/30
1:36pm — Flight arrives
8pm – 11pm — Private
Saturday 8/31
10am – 10:45am – Interview with Patrick Hester for The SF Signal Podcast
1pm – 1:45pm – Autographing at the SFWA table (C-13 in the Dealer’s Room) I will have free copies of Generation V with me! Nothing would make me happier than to sign one of them for you!
2pm – 3pm – Panel, How To Scare Your Reader (Moderator- Vylar Kaftan, John Hornor Jacobs, Amanda Downum, Alastair Reynolds)
4pm – 5pm – Autographing Session (with David Hartwell, Kathleen Goonan, and Cat Rambo) I will have free copies of Generation V with me! If you want a copy, please just come over and I will gladly sign one for you!
7:00 PM – (I have no idea) — Drinks With Authors (this will be held at Ernie’s, which Justin from Staffer’s Book Review *swears* is only a block away from the con hotel) There are going to be a lot of awesome writers here, so definitely put this one down on your list!
Sunday 9/1
11am – 1pm — Staffing SFWA Table (C-13 in the Dealer’s Room – come say hi!)
5:14pm – Flight departs
In other news, here’s what some reviewers are saying about Generation V!
Dawn Nikithser at Bookshelf Bombshells says:
Yeah, I am sick of vampires too. But being sick of vampires is kind of like being sick of cupcakes—when someone comes up with a delicious new flavor, you gotta eat it. You’ll devour this one whole.
Matt Gilliard at 52 Reviews says:
Taken as a whole, Generation V is a fresh take on an old saw that benefits from Brennan’s excellent world building and the authenticity of its cast. Fans of urban fantasy who are weary of the same old, same old shouldn’t miss this engaging mix of action, humor, and coming of age tale. I’ll definitely be around for round two.
Oh, and if you’ll be at WorldCon, drop a note in the comments! What are you planning to do at WorldCon? Any good suggestions for things I should add to my itinerary?
Foxes!
The Mako Mori Test
Mako Mori — kicking ass
There was a lot of discussion today over social media about the article from The Daily Dot about how a lot of people have problems with the limitations of the Bechdel test based on the fact that a film like Pacific Rim, with its incredible female character Mako Mori, fails it. Due to this, there are a lot of voices now calling for the creation of what has been dubbed “The Mako Mori Test.”
As a bit of background for anyone who didn’t read the article:
The Bechdel test is rather elegant. In this test, your movie must have:
1) Two named female characters
2) who talk to each other
3) about something other than a man.
If it doesn’t have all three items, then it fails. A shocking number of films fail this test, including Pacific Rim.
The Mako Mori Test was proposed by Twitter user @chaila, and is this:
The Mako Mori test is passed if the movie has: a) at least one female character; b) who gets her own narrative arc; c) that is not about supporting a man’s story. I think this is about as indicative of “feminism” (that is, minimally indicative, a pretty low bar) as the Bechdel test. It is a pretty basic test for the representation of women, as is the Bechdel test. It does not make a movie automatically feminist.
Now, as @chaila (as reported by The Daily Dot) has proposed the test, it seems like a useful idea to be used in conjunction with the Bechdel test. Where my concern comes in is the way I felt a lot of people were talking about this on social media, which was essentially that The Mako Mori test could be a *replacement* for the Bechdel test. And that’s where I think things get pretty problematic.
For what it’s worth, I thought Pacific Rim was hugely fun, I’ve recommended it to a lot of people, and I freaking *loved* the strong representations of POC.
*However* — I think the Bechdel test remains a valid tool. Does Pacific Rim failing the Bechdel test mean that I’m not going to watch it? No. But it raises valid points, and ones that I don’t think we should start trying to argue away with the specific creation of a new test that the movie can pass.
Why? Look at that number at the beginning of the article — 56 actors in the end credits. 3 of them women.
Was one of them an awesome woman of color who kicked ten types of ass? Absolutely. Does that offer a complete pass to the fact that 94.6% of the cast was male? Fuck no.
Here’s why — you can keep the same casting for Yancy, Stacker Pentecost, Mako Mori, and even that father-son Jaeger team. There’s your primary cast, and you don’t have to make any changes.
Why not make that duo of scientists female? Why not make a few of those politicians who cut the funding for the Jaeger project female? Why not have a few of the technicians with speaking roles female? Instead of having the pilots of Crimson Typhoon be a set of male triplets, why not a set of female triplets? Or instead of having the Russians be husband and wife, why not have them be sisters? When the scientist ends up in the smugglers den, why weren’t some of those smugglers female? Why not have the smuggler kingpin be a woman? You know that scene where Yancy is totally kicking the ass of everyone in that long line of possible co-pilots? They’re all men. Why wasn’t it a mixed-gender selection of possible co-pilots? In that entire scene of the possible co-pilots, there is only one woman in the room — Mako Mori.
When you look at Pacific Rim, you see a world of men, with only the barest sprinkling of women. Look at the crowd scenes in this movie — the only time I saw an even mix of men and women was in the public shelter (where speaking female actor #3 appears, by the way). In every other part of this movie, it’s men.
Mako Mori is a fantastic character. But by being unusual by the fact of her gender, it also perpetuates the underlying suggestion that a woman being a part of this world is unusual, that somehow she is special — not just because of her abilities as a pilot or her ambitions to avenge her family or her relationship with her adoptive father — but because she has *overcome* her gender and is now under consideration to be a pilot. It perpetuates that notion that if there are places for women, they are few and tokenish, so women need to fight as hard as they can so that they’ll be considered for those one or two spots.
This is actually a pretty decent visual representation of the female cast in Pacific Rim.
Also, I’m just going to say it — we see a grand total of two female Jaeger pilots. One is the wife of another Jaeger pilot (the Russians), and the other is the adoptive daughter of the guy who is in charge of the whole damn program. I’m just going to go out on a limb here and say that the film doesn’t seem to just be saying that the male-female pilot ratio here is insanely off-kilter, but also that it’s going to take a big fucking bag of nepotism to make this thing happen.
The Avengers is another movie that I love, and it fails the Bechdel test. But I don’t think its fail is as absolute as Pacific Rim’s. Watch the scenes on the SHIELD airship bridge and count the number of female background actors who make up the crew. Now compare that to similar “bridge” scenes in the Jaeger headquarters.
Here’s a comic movie that passes the Bechdel test — Thor. Jane Foster talks with her assistant Darcy throughout the film, and Siv has a brief chat with Freya. Instead of talking about how the Bechdel test is useless and should be thrown away, maybe we should be asking why a test with such simple requirements was failed so utterly epicly by Pacific Rim when it would’ve been so extremely easy to pass it?
So what do you think about the Bechdel test, the Mako Mori test, or about Pacific Rim in general?
**NOTE: A chunk of this post was originally posted on Facebook, in response to Abhinav Jain’s posting of the Daily Dot article.
The Heavy Lifting
So Generation V has now been out for three months! Pretty amazing, actually, when I think about it. I’ve learned quite a lot over the last three months – namely that the Amazon sales rankings make little to no sense, and seem simply designed to break my heart.
Now, what should I be expecting from a three-month-old book? Well, as always, the Internet provided an answer:
Your 3-month-old is growing bigger and becoming more aware every day. By this age, your baby should be settling into a schedule, and giving you some much-needed rest!
Your 3-month-old’s nervous system is maturing, and his stomach can accommodate more milk or formula. Those changes should allow your baby to sleep for a stretch of six or seven hours at a time, which translates into a good night’s sleep for you.
If your baby does wake up in the middle of the night, wait about 30 seconds before heading into the nursery. Sometimes, babies will cry for a few seconds and then go back to sleep. When you rush in at the first sound of fussing, your baby won’t learn how to fall back asleep on his own.
When the cries don’t stop and you do need to go into your baby’s room in the middle of the night, stick to the essentials. Feeding and changing should be done in the dark, if possible, and then it’s right back into the crib. Eventually, your baby will get the idea that nighttime is for sleeping only.
Your baby’s daytime sleep schedule should also become more routine by now. Most 3-month-old babies take a few naps of about 1 1/2 to 2 hours each day.
Thanks, WebMD! I’ll definitely keep those things in mind. Somewhere between improving its nervous system and working on not waking in the middle of the night, Generation V got reviewed again – this one is from Book Lovers, Inc. I also had a great time recently writing a guest post about naming the Generation V characters for Shadowhawk’s Shade‘s ongoing series on the topic. If you haven’t been reading these posts, I really recommend that you go over and check them out. Abhinav has gotten a really great roster of writers, and it’s very fun to see so many different perspectives.
My posting recently has gotten fairly erratic – August is a pretty busy month right now. I just finished the copy edits for Iron Night and mailed them back to Roc last night (WOO!) – it really helped clean the manuscript up, and hopefully we’ve caught all the typos and little bits of weirdness that always seem to hold on no matter how many eyes go through the manuscript. (until the first real reader, of course. THEN they pop out.)
Here’s something interesting that I learned during the copy edit – apparently “Wookiee” has two “e”’s? What the hell is up with this? Now, I actually read a not-insignificant number of Star Wars books when I was younger (for those curious – the Thrawn trilogy), and somehow this missed my notice. What is up with all those extra vowels? One “e” would’ve been sufficient!
“Chewbacca the Wookiee” by Chris Uminga – I found this at dmsw.net
That took a little under a week, but now I can fully shift back to work on the yet-unnamed Book 3 (it has a working title, but it’s pretty horrible, so I’m not going to mention it at this time… or EVER). The deadline on that one is September 1, which is getting just slightly stressful.
On top of that I’m teaching two classes this fall (that part isn’t so bad – usually I teach five) which each need a syllabus before classes start – on August 28. Usually wouldn’t be too bad, except some jackass decided to assign new books. What jackass would that be? Yeah. Me. Fuck you, me from April! Stop making more work for August Me just to try to stop plagiarism! (Meanwhile October Me is probably all, “Yeah, fuck off, August Me. I am totally not dealing with that shit.”)
Aaaaand WorldCon is the last weekend in August. Which should be awesome and all, but Jesus Christ, at this point it would be redundant to even throw up a .jpg of The Scream.
Eh, like redundancy has ever stopped me before.
So if I’m frothing at the mouth and twitching spastically in another two weeks – that’s why. Not all is gloom and doom, though. My brother wrote me an inspirational haiku! (seriously, this is an ML Brennan’s Older Brother original. If you want to use it, you MUST credit him)
Bare slate beckons man:
“Fill the page ere dusk descends.
Words don’t write themselves.”
–ML Brennan’s Older Brother
Isn’t that nice? Clearly my brother got the poetry gene in the family. (which I am actually very, very okay about)
So, what are the odds that I’ll be delivering a Book 3 manuscript on deadline? Here, I will defer to the master.
NEVER TELL ME THE ODDS.
Blog-versary!
Cute picture, right? Well that orca EATS the porpoise!
So I just got the notification that this is the one year anniversary of my blog! Whoa! Bit of a milestone, and probably one that deserves a long and thoughtful post….
…but since I’m up to my eyeballs in the Book 3 manuscript (tentatively titled, “Woods And Bears And A Few Poop Jokes Concerning The Two” — it’s a work in progress), I’ll have to be brief — a year ago, I’d just sold my book and two unwritten sequels to Roc, and my agent told me that I needed to set up a website. I had really no idea what to expect.
A year later — yes, there are things that I might complain or grumble about, but I’m always very aware that my problems now are very much first-world-writer problems. Generation V is in print. Iron Night will be published in January. I’m writing a book now with the knowledge that it goes to my editor rather than having to be shopped around in hopes of a sale.
Life is good. Very stressful, but good. I’m looking forward to seeing what things are like a year from now.
Ten Authors Who You Should Read
Sometimes you see something and you’re like, “HOW did I not know about this thing before?” I hope that this list (like whatever the hell this critter is) shows you something that you hadn’t known was out there, or hadn’t tried yet.
On Tuesday, one of my favorite bloggers, Danielle over at Coffee and Characters posted a Top Ten Tuesday slot on the topic of ten authors who deserve more recognition. This is a fun idea, because it’s not just asking the usual impossible question, which is “Who Are Your Top Ten Favorite Authors,” or, worse, “Who Are The Top Ten SF/F Authors.” I can’t imagine writing those lists without defaulting to who is huge and established in speculative fiction. I think this prompt is fun because it spurs you to think of either who you’ve just been exposed to (even if they only have one book out) or who just doesn’t get the kind of credit and monstrous fame that they deserve. So here are my picks!
1. Django Wexler – The Thousand Names is an amazing debut – I think the trend toward flintlock fantasy is a really fun one (but I’m a history nerd, so I would), but I really think that Wexler’s is the standout among the recent releases.
2. Will McIntosh – Love Minus Eighty was so wonderful and beautiful, I read it in a day. Incredible exploration of the intersection between technology and humanity, but also amazing characterization.
3. Sheri S. Tepper – Amazing, amazing ecofeminist sci-fi. Start with either Singer From The Sea, Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, or Grass. She’s written many incredible books, but I still often run into SF enthusiasts who have never even heard of her.
4. Teresa Frohock – Have you read her book Miserere: An Autumn Tale? YOU MUST READ IT NOW. It’s okay, I’ll wait.
5. Cassie Alexander – Her third Edie Spence book just came out — this is great urban fantasy about a human nurse who gets sucked into a shadowy underworld of supernaturals.
6. Nick Sagan – His Idlewild series completely blew my mind. The first book is just okay, but it’s necessary set-up for the following two, which are such a fascinating examination of character and human nature. Also, I’ve never seen a *less* idealized presentation of teenagers.
7. M. J. Scott – The trilogy starts with Shadow Kin, which I liked, but right now my very favorite is Blood Kin — fantastic romantic fantasy.
8. Margaret Killjoy – What Lies Beneath The Clock Tower is an extremely fun variation on those old Choose Your Own Adventure books. He also works on Steampunk Magazine.
9. Emma Bull – War For The Oaks was the first urban fantasy I ever read, and it has very fundamentally set the way I view the genre. It’s amazing, everyone should read it.
10. Sharon Shinn – Okay, so she’s crazy well-established, but I really love her stuff. I’m in love with her new Elemental Blessings series, and I just read an older book of hers called Jenna Starborn that was the BEST Jane Eyre remaster I’ve ever seen. She really focused on the themes, rather than just surface plating.
So that’s my list — who are some other good authors who YOU think should be getting more attention?
The State of Monday – July 15
This was my favorite cosplay at ConnectiCon – which, believe me, had some stunning and beautiful cosplay. But look at that – that’s Sherlock Holmes in a bedsheet and Irene Adler in her lingerie. It’s so wickedly clever, and I loved it.
Is great! Seriously, I had a good trip to Newport, and an amazing time at ConnectiCon!
I’ll start with Newport – it was low-key, I was able to get some solid outlining work done, and I took some good reference photos for the books. Great ambiance, pleasure to visit there again, and I had a lot of meals at the Newport Creamery.
Oh, and for anyone who has wondered what Madeline’s mansion looks like, here was what I used as a reference:
That’s Rosecliff. It’s right on one of the main roads, Ocean Drive, but with 30-odd acres, you actually don’t hear the road noise. In my opinion, it’s one of the most beautiful mansions.
I got home on Thursday, meeting up with my good friend John, who was nice enough to agree to ride shotgun on my first convention. Let me tell you – ConnectiCon was a shit-ton of fun. For one thing, this happened at the first panel we attended:
Most impressively? Those guys had not coordinated in advance! The guy who did Torvo was, hands down (hee hee) unbelievably funny.
I ended up being on three panels over the weekend – Worldbuilding 101, Crossgenre Writing, and The Ten Things You Need To Know About Writing (on that last one, I don’t know what our final tally was before we went to questions, but a few people taking notes said that we were about fifteen-ish – even without counting how often we were expanding on what the person before us had just said). Each one was so much fun – the first two I was lucky to be with Michael J. Sullivan, Leona Wisoker, and the incredible Joseph Bruchac. All so lovely. Big kudos to Michael J. Sullivan, who managed to avoid looking horrified the third time I showed up on a panel with him (seriously, he was not only wonderful, but also graciously served as defacto moderator for two of the panels – Leona Wisoker made a heroic moderator stance in the second panel when the topic completely dried up on us). Last panel included Margaret Killjoy, who was such a pleasure to meet, and who very graciously began peppering his speech with profanity to make me feel less conspicuous after I accidentally broke the curse barrier. I am reading through his thoroughly delightful choose-your-own-adventure book What Lies Beneath The Clock Tower and I’m really enjoying the writing, the goblins, and the presence of absinthe.
Very typically me, I had my camera with me at all times, yet never took a picture with my fellow panelists, or even of my fellow panelists. So instead why not enjoy this picture I took of my favorite set of Game of Thrones cosplayers? That Jon Snow is totally killing it.
I also got to meet wonderful people! Rob Durand and Rachel Sasseen were incredibly nice and cool for the whole weekend, and so much fun to hang out with! We talked, we had dinner, we played games, they introduced me to the fantastic Cam Banks, and then they even did me the *huge* solid of helping me with a very inconvenient and stress-inducing box.
Typically, after that great weekend with many a fun laugh, plus a great round of both Gloom and 7 Wonders? This is the closest thing to a photo I took of everyone – yes, that is the trunk of Rob and Rachel’s car.
Oh, and the gaming. Seriously, I had so much fun. I got to play 3-person Puerto Rico (fast, too – John and I played with a guy who apparently plays Puerto Rico in tournaments – and, yeah, I totally tied him on points, but he beat me by three coins), I learned Revolution with John and my husband (thanks Steve Jackson game instructor!), Gloom (which Cam very nicely taught me how to play), and Rob and Rachel taught me and John how to play 7 Wonders, which is so good that I’m probably going to have to buy it now.
Also amazing? The artists’ area. Stunning, stunning artwork – if I was single and I didn’t have to compromise on my choices in wall art, I would’ve come home with so much stuff to frame. But I did pick up a few small things – one whimsical print of sheep having a tea party by Anne Hoffer, and a set of the most glorious postcards by Cari Corene. Yeah, I’m not sending those postcards – I’m going to frame them.
That’s one of the ones I bought by Cari Corene – she draws foxes, people. FOXES. I am helpless before her power. So was everyone else – her booth was *never* empty.
I also was able to hand out a lot of my business cards, talked with many aspiring writers, and hopefully some more people will check out Generation V. And, in Generation V news – I’m up to 25 reviews on Amazon.com, so thanks so much to everyone who has done that! If you haven’t written a review for them yet, please do! I was very lucky to get wonderful coverage by two fantastic bloggers – shewolfreads posted a review and an interview, and Civilian Reader also posted a review and an interview. All are well worth checking out – I really enjoyed these ones!
For this week – just working hard and trying to stay cool in the monstrously hot temperatures.
The wildlife of Newport (ie, the seagull that ate my breakfast leftovers every morning and the idiot rabbit that kept hiding under my car) entreats you to buy Generation V!
The State of… not Monday
Monday’s usual blog update will not happen, since I’ll be in Newport, working on Book 3, drinking Awful Awfuls from the Newport Creamery, and avoiding soaking up the sun. (I have a big floppy hat and a stern warning from my dermatologist)
Awful big. Awful good. Seriously, best milkshakes *anywhere*.
I’ll be without internet access for the most part (yay for productivity, sad face for Twitter), so I probably won’t be updating again until after ConnectiCon. For anyone attending who would like to say hello, here’s my set schedule:
Panels:
Friday 1:30p – 2:30p: Worldbuilding in Fantasy & Scifi 101 – Panel 7
Friday 7:00p – 8:00p: Cross-genre Writing – Panel 8
Signing:
Saturday 1:00p – 2:00p: M.L. Brennan Autograph Session – Online Media Guest Hall
I’m really excited about being on these two fantastic panels – I only know that Michael J. Sullivan is on both, which will probably give him the distinction of being the first author who I publically geekspaz out on since becoming a published author myself. (authors who I publically geekspazed out on *before* getting published myself? Um… let’s not dwell on that list…)
Also, if you are going to be at ConnectiCon on Saturday? PLEASE come see me during my signing session! I’m really looking forward to meeting some of the great people who I’ve bumped into on Twitter and through blogs, and I can even promise some swag!
Emphasis on “some,” but still – check out what just arrived in the mail today:
Came out even better than I’d hoped for! Thanks, Moo.com!
My Generation V business card! They are actually very cool to hold – the perfect size for sticking in a pocket or wallet, but the cardstock is really nice and the picture actually doesn’t do justice to how well the cover photo turned out! I’m really happy about these. So if you come say hi to me at my signing, but either don’t have your copy of Generation V or don’t have the spare money to buy it that day (though my publisher is sending a whole BOX to the convention, which, let me tell you: pressure), come over and I will sign one of the cards for you! I’ll also have a few of the Ace/Roc samplers that has the first chapter of Generation V in it, and I’m happy to give those out to the first 25 people who ask me. (and, I cannot stress this enough: ask me *while I’m carrying them* on Saturday. You can probably ask me for the business card if you run into me at any point in the con, since I’ll have a bunch in my pockets)
Next time I update, then, I’ll be able to talk about Newport, hopefully I’ll have some solid work done on Book 3, plus I’ll be able to talk about my FIRST CONVENTION!
Remember – in my absence, please harass friends, loved ones, and random strangers to buy my book.
Yawning baby fox entreats you to purchase Generation V!
M. L. Brennan 