Martha Wells

I had to go out early this morning and get a blood test, which was less fraught than usual because the tech was able to get my blood on the first try. Apparently I have shy veins that can sink down into my arm out of reach of the needle whenever they want, and sometimes it takes three or four tries on either arm and the little baby needle to get enough.

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Writing income poll results: 79 people took the poll, and 29 got it right: My writing income for 2011 was Between $5000 and $10,000. This is up from 2010, where my income was below $5000.00 Between $5000 and $10,000 has actually been pretty normal for me since about 2005 or so, so it's nice to see that it's at that point again after last year's dip.

I'm working on the last chapter of the third Raksura book, trying to give it a good wrap-up without getting into "They went out to lunch and felt better" territory. That's what I call it when a book or a story goes past its actual end point, where the story is over and there's nothing left to tell, but you're still there, basically just hanging out with the characters. Trying to find a balance between closure for the reader and they went out to lunch and felt better can be tricky sometimes.

(This comes from Mystery Science Theater 3000, from their much-less-sad rewrite of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald song, which ends with "They got back to port and everyone was okay, they went out to lunch and felt better.")

I won't get much done today, because we're about to go out and see Red Tails. This morning I went out early to the farmer's market, because the grass-fed beef ranch was there and they were having a 25% off sale. So there is now stir-fry and stew and chili and short ribs in the future.

There are a couple of big conventions this weekend and I am jealous of everyone who is at one.

And yay, there was a great review of The Serpent Sea on RisingShadow.net

This is a book giveaway post by Benjamin Tate/Joshua Palmatier! Win a free book:

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I’d like to thank Martha Wells for inviting me to the blog to do a giveaway! That’s right, a giveaway! So what am I giving away? Well, like Martha, I’m a writer and my latest book Leaves of Flame has just hit the shelves. This is the second book in what is loosely being called my Well series, started with Well of Sorrows. I’d like to get the word spread about the series, especially since I’m so excited about the new release. So why not give away a copy of the new book? All of you have to do is comment to this post to be entered. I’ll select one winner at random. I’d suggest you ask a question about me, the books, writing, whatever, but that’s not required. A simple comment will do as an entry. But I’m more than willing to swing back every now and then and answer whatever questions you have.

If you aren’t familiar with me or my series, here’s a quick introduction and the cover copy of the new book, along with the cool cover art of both the first and the second book.

My name is actually Joshua Palmatier and I have a trilogy out from DAW under that name called the Throne of Amenkor series. I also edit anthologies with Patricia Bray under that name. The first anthology is called After Hours: Tales from the Ur-bar and in March the second anthology will be out, called The Modern Fae’s Guide to Surviving Humanity. But the new series is being released under the pseudonym Benjamin Tate. I live in upstate New York, teaching mathematics at SUNY College at Oneonta as a day job and writing fantasy novels in my spare time. I also teach spinning classes at the local gym, and collect crackle glass and Star Wars LEGOs. I’ve begun delving into Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean LEGOs. You can find out more about my books at www.joshuapalmatier.com or www.benjamintate.com, or follow me on Facebook or Twitter (bentateauthor).

The new novel, Leaves of Flame picks up the story of Colin Harten and the series starts with my attempt to combine the story of “settling the west” with a fantasy setting. I have my main characters head out into the plains of the unexplored continent in covered wagons. That was the “big idea” that drove me to sit down into the chair and begin writing. Here’s the cover copy for the second novel:

One hundred years have passed since Colin Harten—transformed to something more than human by the magic of the Lifeblood contained in the Well of Sorrows—used his new powers to broker a peace agreement between the humans, dwarren, and Alvritshai races of Wrath Suvane. Since then all three races have greatly expanded their empires. And Colin has continuously sought ways to defeat the dark spirits known as the sukrael—and the Wraiths they have created to act for them in the physical world. Yet Colin has not been able to prevent the dark spirits from reawakening more and more Wells, thus extending their power across the lands.

Having mastered three of the five magics of Wrath Suvane, Colin has gifted each race with a magical Tree to protect them from incursions of the dark forces. He has also realized that unless a certain number of Wells are left open, their magic can never be stabilized, and the land will be torn apart by this uncontrolled force.

But now the enemy has located the one Well that is key to controlling the entire network, and if Colin can’t find a means to stop them from claiming and activating this Well, it could mean the end of all three races. . . .

I made a lot of writing progress yesterday. I actually made so much progress, I felt good about the progress I had made, which is pretty unusual for me. I just got back from running errands and am about to start working again, so keep your fingers crossed for me today.

Few links:

* I did a guest post over at Joshua Palmatier's LJ here in general about themes of isolation and trust and "fitting in" in The Cloud Roads and The Serpent Sea

* Anyone can vote in the Tor.com 2011 Readers’ Choice Awards From now until 11:59 PM Friday, January 20th, we’re encouraging Tor.com readers (and SFF fans in general) to vote for their favorites in the following four categories.

Best Novel
Best Short Fiction
Best Comic
Best Book Cover

* I meant to post this earlier and got slidetracked: A whole lot of shiny (video and a contest!) This is the premiere of the animated trailer for Lisa Mantchev's fantasy novel So Silver Bright!

ETA: Oh, just found this! A review of The Serpent Sea by the Booksmugglers Blog

Had a bad night, spent some time lying awake with a bout of anxiety and depression. Hopefully I can get moving and get some good work done today. I'm currently working on the climax for third Raksura book. Lots of logistical issues to figure out.


I am in a SF Signal Mindmeld with lots of other neat people: MIND MELD: Genre Resolutions for 2012

Over at Sarah Prineas' blog, you can enter to win a copy of Jenn Reese's new SF middlegrade book Above World (You can see a description on Jenn's site here). Start your kids out right as SF/F fans. And while you're at it, check out Sarah Prineas' fantasy Winterling.

And there's a review of The Serpent Sea over at ReadtheDamnBook.

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More on The Serpent Sea availability: It's now on Nook and also on iTunes.

Yes, there is an audiobook of The Serpent Sea, narrated by the awesome Christopher Kipiniak: it's on Audible.com and Amazon.com as well as iTunes.

So I can have it all in one spot, all the other places to get ebooks are:
Baen Webscription
The other NookBooks
Lulu.com
Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon.fr, Kindle Spain, Kindle Italy.
Kobo
Sony Reader Store

Chuck Wendig: Terrible Minds: 25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing 1. Stop Running Away

Malinda Lo: A Year of Thinking About Diversity I wanted to make “diversity” on this site mean something that was just plain awesome. I wanted to position these books as stories you’d want to dive into because they were about a great character, or had a fascinating premise, or were written beautifully. I wanted the books to be celebrated on their own merits. A year later, my concept of diversity in middle grade and young adult books has been challenged and reshaped in many ways.

Book rec: new fantasy Leaves of Flame by Benjamin Tate is out now. This is the sequel to Well of Sorrows

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Someone asked for another snippet from the third Books of the Raksura, so I thought, what the hell. This book is not under contract or sold, so I have no idea when/if it will be published.

This is from the first chapter, and is not very spoilery at all. (If you've already read The Serpent Sea, it's not spoilery at all.)

( Raksura snippet )

Evan Ramspott asked I have a question - how many people do you have review your work before you're satisfied it is ready for submission? Follow-up would be how many revisions do you usually go through? Thanks!

It depends. Usually there's at least three or four, and my agent also reads it and gives it comments. Number of revisions is a harder question, because I usually don't write a draft straight through, I revise it constantly as I'm going along. I'll probably do at least one or two revisions after it's complete but before it's submitted, depending on what comments I get, how much time I have, and so on. And there's usually at least one or two revisions after it's been bought by a publisher.


David Zampa asked You have a LOT of named characters in the Raksura books. I love how it never feels crowded, with each having his or her individual place. What goes into character creation? I'm especially curious whether you profile each one. Also whether you create all of them before you begin writing, or add more as a need for them arises.

Thank you! The main ones I come up with before I start, but all the others are generally created as the need arises. I don't do a lot of outlining in advance, so I'm not sure what characters I'm going to need/what kind of people they're going to be/how they're going to react to the protagonist until I develop the world and the plot a lot more. I have to know quite a bit about the world, their particular place in it, to decide what their personality is going to be like.

I don't do character profiles very often, I just take a few notes about each one.

I think I have one more set to answer after this one.

mkellis asked: Leading question, but: are you going to put up a thread for Serpent Sea discussions (including spoilers)?

I don't think I will, mostly because having it on my LJ would mean I'd be sent the comments and be responsible for moderating (if it needed moderation) and I really don't have the time. But if someone else wants to do it, let me know where it is and I'll advertise it here.

Also: about 1/3 of the way in, and so very, very good. I'm reveling in the sensawunda of the settings.

Thank you!

puddleshark asked: How do you keep track of what's going on in action scenes? Do you just have a very good visual memory, or do you have to have notes'n'plans'n'stuff?

Usually my action scenes aren't complicated enough to need plans. Because I stick to a tight personal POV, the character in the action scene only sees the portion of the scene they are interacting with. That character may have a vague idea what the others are doing, but she's mostly going to be focused on her part of the action, her goal, staying alive, etc. The fragments that she sees of the rest of the scene may make the whole thing seem a lot more complicated to plan than it actually was.

If you have multiple viewpoints in an action scene, which I hardly ever do, that would probably need a plan.


Okay, off to the recycling center, the post office, and the grocery store. Then I need to take another whack at this chapter.

One more reminder: I'll be doing a book signing for The Serpent Sea and The Cloud Roads at Murder by the Book, in Houston, Texas, on Saturday January 7 at 4:30, along with authors Kimberly Frost and Jaye Wells. Use this link to order signed copies online.

I feel kind of sick this morning. I really hope I'm not, because a) I don't have time and b) can't afford it.

Questions from this post.

I'm going to do about two a day, in the order I got them:

princejvstin asked Is the ending of Serpent Sea intended to be a close to Moon's story as currently written? Do you have plans, desires or ideas for further stories involving Moon (or perhaps a completely different set of characters or even species) in The Three Worlds?

The book I'm currently working on now is about Moon, Jade, and the others, and takes place a few months after The Serpent Sea ends. At this point, I don't know if that will be the last book about them. I would like to do other books set in the Three Worlds, about the Raksura and/or about different characters, (like the crew of the Wind Ship Escarpment from this story), and I have a couple of books set in other worlds semi-started, but I have no idea yet what I'm going to work on next.

Eric Francis asked In today's market do you have a feel for whether short or long fiction is a better way to establish one's self? In other words, should I keep writing and trying to sell short stories, or should I focus solely on a novel?

I think it would depend on what your skill and inclination is. Some people are short story writers and never do novels or only do one once in a blue moon. Some people are novel writers and don't do short stories, except very occasionally. Some people can do both at will. If you write good short stories and they get published by pro magazines, get award nominations, etc, that will certainly establish you in the genre, but you probably won't get or be known by as many readers as a good novel would attract.

Writing the thing that excites your creativity the most, whether it's a short story or novel, is pretty much always the best way to go.

And there is a slew of exciting things this morning:

The Cloud Roads is a Salt Lake County Library Reader's Choice Book Salt Lake County Library patrons can vote on it or the other reader's choice books and enter to win a drawing for a gift card.

Three signed copies of The Cloud Roads are also prizes in the Worldbuilders fundraiser by Patrick Rothfuss Donate $10.00 to Heifer International and you'll be entered to win one of hundreds of prizes.

Paul Weimer of SF Signal has a review of The Serpent Sea yay, four stars! (beware of spoilers)

Keith West at Adventures Fantastic has a review of The Serpent Sea (not very spoilery at all)

Kate Elliott says nice things about me The Serpent Sea, Martha Wells, & talking up the books you love
If, in this age of social media, you ever wonder if talking about a book online, in person, over the phone, or anywhere, really — whether writing a review on your blog or up on goodreads or LibraryThing or Amazon — makes a difference: It does.

Visibility matters.

Visibility particularly matters for writers who don’t often fall into the territory of bestsellerdom or persistent critical or award acclaim. It’s hard to buy a book if one doesn’t know it exists.

This is very true. Sometimes people ask what they can do to help their favorite writers, and the answer is talk about their books, online or offline, in whatever venue you are comfortable with. All the advertising money (and unless the book is a bestseller there is zero advertising money) doesn't matter if people aren't talking about the book. Whether you buy your books or check them out at the library, this is a power that readers have now.