Greatshell writes Mad Skills with, well, mad skills

I raced through Mad Skills like a madwoman. What a fun ride through the looking glass. Young Madeleine Grant goes from average teenager struggling to fit in, to vegetable to government experiment with "mad skills" in a very short period of time. Who can be more vulnerable than someone who is trapped in a body with a damaged brain, who is unable to process her surroundings and voice her needs? Scientists use experimental technology to literally hardwire Maddy's brain. But now that she's part tech and the creators are monitoring their tech, what's next? What's real? How can you tell with someone feeding ideas into your head?

Maddy has her faculties back and then some. The speed at which she analyzes a situation and uses raw materials at hand to build a solution makes MacGyver look like an idiot.

Maddy goes back to school after her operation. News crews show up to see the spectacle. After having her Dad drop her around the corner, she gets to work.

As soon as he was out of sight, she walked to a nearby convenience store and browsed the automotive shelves. Making chemical connections in her head, she bought various items and took them behind the store, where she fashioned a peculiar device out of plastic bottles and volatile compounds. It looked like a toy spaceship. The warhead was a can of degreaser with a steel penetrator made from a lug bolt. It took a few minutes to assemble everything, then she had to hurry with it down the street -- she didn't want to be late for school.

A few blocks over, she found what she was looking for: a clear view of the local TV news affiliate. Estimating trajectory, she angled the device just right and lit it off. It went shoosh! and streaked upward, arcing high over the town common. A second later, there was a crash and a puff of flame -- the station's big satellite dish was on fire. People came out, yelling and screaming, and in minutes the news trucks started showing up.

Maddy passed them going the other way. The front of the school was clear of media people. She slipped onto campus unnoticed, grateful that she hadn't missed the bell.

But her functioning brain has come with a price. Not least of which is her freedom. Still in the balance is her sanity. What's with that talking raccoon, anyway? The more she learns of the project and it's goals, the more the carpet is pulled out from under her. She has no one left to trust.

Greatshell's pacing is excellent. And he manages to introduce boy to girl without things getting all mushy and complicated. Maddy has complications in abundance. And what do you do when you find out you're a lab rat and there are lots of other lab rats like you? What do you do when people you've trusted aren't who you thought they were? Read Mad Skills to find out what Maddy does. You won't be disappointed.

It was a real treat to chat with Walter about Mad Skills, his Xombie books and writing.

AW: You wrote a very convincing female protagonist. And I'm sure those in your Xombie novels are equally well-rendered. Maybe I should ask your wife this next question. Do you seek female input or are you really that good?

WG: My wife says, "He's strongly in touch with his feminine side." Which is funny, since I look like a Mack truck. But any little boy who loves books more than sports can't help but feel a certain kinship with girls, who tend to be the most ferocious early readers and writers. And I was raised by a single woman, so that probably helped.

AW: Okay, what's a Xombie?

WG: A Xombie is a person who has been infected by Maenad Cytosis, the disease called Agent X, which attacks the X chromosome and turns women into unstoppable killing (or rather, infecting) machines.

AW: How do they spread it?

WG: By suffocating their victims--either by strangling, or by literally sucking the breath from their lungs. Agent X doesn't work in the presence of oxygen molecules. The O2 has to first be evacuated from the victim's body.

It's a real "kiss of death". My idea was to create a situation where women were the aggressors, and no man was safe. They call it Sadie Hawkins' Massacre.

AW: Who do you credit with nurturing your unique sense of humor?

WG: My sense of humor probably comes from being a bit of a class clown all through school. I liked being a ham, and also loved reading my stories in class.

AW: Have you ever had your sense of humor get you in trouble?

WG: A few times, yeah. I remember once I was being disciplined in front of my 2nd grade class, and I made goofy faces behind the teacher's back--the class cracked up. But then I got caught, and got slapped with a ruler. The good old days...

AW: Mad Skills is a far cry from your usual satirical horror. You seem to be diversifying. What else can we look forward to?

WG: I have a bunch of different books in various stages of development. A Godzilla-like satire about a man who grows to giant size, called Enormity [original title still listed on website is The Leaf Blower]. A steampunk type story about girl flyers at the dawn of aviation. Also a horror novel about a voodoo-type cult on an island (Catalina Island, actually), called Terminal Island.

AW: What genres do you read?

WG: Everything! Lately, a lot of nonfiction. I just read a bio of William Golding, which made me buy his sea trilogy To the Ends of the Earth. But I grew up on all the science fiction greats, as well as Stephen King.

AW: Where did the idea for Mad Skills come from?

WG: Mad Skills was my attempt to do a psycho-thriller in the vein of The Stepford Wives or Coma. That kind of paranoia thriller that was so popular in the '70s. I also am a fan of Dickey's book Deliverance, and always wanted to do that kind of suspense. My agent suggested I work on something in the urban fantasy genre, and Mad Skills was what I came up with. Actually, once I had the rough idea for the novel, it sort of wrote itself. That doesn't happen often, so it was nice.

AW: In Mad Skills, did you ever get tangled up in your layers? How did you keep track of it all?

WG: I just took a lot of notes on scraps of paper--I have a very cluttered type of organization...but it seems to work.

AW: Will there be a sequel?

WG: I'm in the middle of writing a sequel right now, which I think is going to be great. I'm incredibly excited about it, but I can't give anything away because it's too early in the process...but it'll be good.

AW: Woo Hoo! Make sure I get an ARC. :)

WG: Actually I had an earlier idea for the sequel, which would have been kind of an international spy thriller type thing. But this new idea is much better. And of course you'll get the first ARC!

AW: Do you do conventions?

WG: I've just started. I went to Thrillerfest last year, and I've been to Comic Con a few times, and intend to go again. It's fun, but I'm still too obscure a writer to really be able to greet the fans. Hopefully that will change.

I love meeting people and talking about my work--it's a rare treat for me.

AW: Did you have one big break that got you going? Many authors have a dumb luck story about how they found an agent.

WG: I sold my first novel, Xombies, back in 2004. That was an incredible experience: I had been working the night shift at a submarine plant, and the idea occurred to me that people could escape a zombie-type epidemic aboard a nuclear sub.

So I talked to my wife about it, and she agreed that I should take the time to write it. I quit my job, and a year later I had a book called Dead Sea.

I sent it to several agents, and one of them agreed to rep me. He sent it to an editor at Berkley, and they immediately bought it.

AW: That's awesome!

WG: Then I sold nothing for the next five years! But I wrote the whole time, and suddenly out of nowhere, Berkley contacted me again about doing a Xombies series--three books plus Mad Skills.

Echo review from Clare

ECHO
by Jack McDevitt
Penguin Group (Ace)
Reviewed by Clare Deming

In Jack McDevitt's Echo, readers are introduced while fans are re-introduced to the characters of Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath in their fifth adventure together. As a dealer in antiquities, Alex Benedict often comes across mysterious objects, peculiar clients, and dangerous foes. His business, Rainbow Enterprises, hooks sellers and buyers up to a mutual advantage, taking a cut of the profits.

When Alex discovers an online listing for a stone tablet engraved with runes in an unfamiliar, possibly extraterrestrial, language, he decides to investigate. The former owner, Alex learns, was Somerset "Sunset" Tuttle, an eccentric archaeologist and anthropologist, whose life's goal was to search out intelligent extraterrestrial life. When humans had initially colonized star systems across our arm of the galaxy eight thousand years ago, many colonies lost contact with the rest of civilization, suffered disease or catastrophe, and are now the subject of all modern day archaeological studies.

Only one intelligent life form, the telepathic Ashiyyur (Mutes), had been discovered. Tuttle had risked his professional reputation on his obsessive search for other intelligent aliens, and was remembered by most in his field as a single-minded kook. His ultimate failure brought him ridicule as he continued to lecture on the importance of his search up until his premature death. If this mysterious tablet had been evidence of an alien civilization, why would Somerset Tuttle have kept this knowledge a secret?

When Alex's assistant, Chase Kolpath, arrives at Tuttle's former residence to retrieve the tablet someone else has beaten them to it. Through further sleuth-work, they track down the culprit -- Doug Bannister, a young man with no apparent connection to Tuttle. After Alex and Chase corner Doug, Doug's wife reveals that he took it as a favor for his aunt, Rachel Bannister.

Oddly, Doug claims Rachel subsequently decided she no longer desired the artifact and had him drop it in the river. The river search is as fruitless as all their previous leads seem to be. Then Chase learns Rachel Bannister and Tuttle were romantically involved. The more they learn about Rachel and World's End Tours, where Rachel quit her interstellar piloting job, the more the mysteries deepen. And Rachel refuses to assist them.

Did the tablet hold an alien secret so terrible that even Tuttle would not reveal it? Before Chase and Alex can continue their investigation, an attempt is made on their lives, convincing Alex that the tablet's secrets are too important to ignore. He and Chase retrace the path of Tuttle's explorations and Rachel's last tour, which puts their business, their friendship, their lives, and even humanity's role in the cosmos in jeopardy.

I had no trouble jumping into this story, even never having read any Alex Benedict novels. Each book in the series encompasses a single mystery and problem to solve, so reading the previous volumes is not critical to the understanding of each subsequent one. The third book, Seeker (2005), won a Nebula award. McDevitt reveals most of the important aspects of this future world without interrupting his brisk pacing.

Echo is told from the point-of-view of Chase Kolpath, which follows the traditional structure of a detective novel, so that when Alex solves Tuttle and Rachel's terrible secret, the reader is kept guessing until Chase catches up with him. The personality differences between Alex and Chase in terms of their goals and ambitions also added to the tension in the novel.

The only subject I felt needed more attention was the Mutes, though I gather their discovery is the subject of the first Alex Benedict novel.

As the stakes continuously escalated, I found myself reading until I had finished the final one hundred pages in one late-night sitting. That rush of story-reading glee makes me thirst for more, and I plan on looking for the earlier volumes sometime soon.

The Evolutionary Void, speculative writing and reading, and ET

Busy, busy, busy! So busy that my two emails had more than 3K emails in the inboxes alone. And that doesn't even include the work email. Obviously, it's time to get off some mailing lists. I've had press releases and news tips piling up for Science Fiction and Other ODDysseys as well. I have preserved the best for you.

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If you're a writer, you know how important it is to find the right market for your blood, sweat and tears manuscript. That's where Duotrope comes in. It's an incredibly searchable database. You can set all your search parameters from pay scale to genre to word limits and more. Please slide on over and visit this impressive resource site and see what you can do to help. Without donations, some features may have to be subscription only. Read more on their donations page. Thanks goes to Julie Andrews (writer, not singer) for this heads-up.

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Also from Julie:

Applications are being accepted for the 2011 Clarion workshop in San Diego.

Clarion is an intensive writing boot camp for writers of fantasy and science fiction stories. Last year's writers in residence included John Scalzi, Elizabeth Bear and Kij Johnson. Eighteen promising students are selected each year. The workshop lasts six weeks, June 26 - August 6, 2011, and students and teachers stay on the UCSD campus.

Application period: December 1 - March 1.

Applicants must submit two short stories with their application.

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My review of Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton just posted over on Mostly Fiction. This is THE BEST series I've read for years. I love the Commonwealth universe and still miss it several months later. I interviewed him here after reviewing the second book in the series, The Temporal Void.

Here is an interview he did with MacMillan Books a couple of months ago.

And part two of the same interview:

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Kay Holt of Crossed Genres magazine shares the following:

#1 – Crossed Genres just released "A Festival of Skeletons" by Rachel Astruc. It's a darkly fantastic comedy that still makes me chuckle, even though I've read it several times now. Sure, I'm the editor, but if you like sass and suspense, I think you'll enjoy reading "A Festival of Skeletons".

#2 – Speaking of Crossed Genres, the magazine is currently accepting submissions for the sci-fi and fantasy TRAGEDY issue. The two new editors, Natania Barron and Jaym Gates, are excellent ladies and very Broad-friendly.

#3 – The Science in My Fiction blog is also seeking short story submissions. All stories must be inspired by actual science (please include links to relevant articles).

#4 – if you haven't discovered the Geek Mom blog yet, mosey on over. It's a cool place to be a geek and a gal.

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Latest UFO Sightings is one-stop reading for all that's new on the ET front.

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I have lots more reviews coming soon to SFOO, thanks to my great review team. I still review a few myself. Some books are just to yummy to pass up.

Night of the Living Trekkies

Night of the Living Trekkies

Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall

2010 Quirk Books

Trekkies and geeks and zombies, oh my!

Jim Pike, an emotionally wounded war hero, has only one mission in life - to not be responsible for anyone. That way he can't let anyone down or let anyone die because he wasn't there to keep them safe. His job at the Botany Bay Hotel and Conference Center in Houston is well below his abilities and potential, but he likes it that way.

Strange things always happen at sci-fi conventions. It's part of their charm. But an attacking mime? And a beheading by bat'leth? In Night of the Living Trekkies, a zombie epidemic breaks out in the Botany Bay just as it is filling up for GulfCon.

Authors Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall kept my attention throughout with unexpected twists and turns to an otherwise standard "attack of the undead" book. It reads like a spoof of a 70s horror movie and is clearly intended for a young adult audience.

Jim, his sister and a handful of unaffected congoers are quickly outnumbered and on the run. They all look to Jim to get them out alive. Our reluctant hero has to get his geek on if they have any hope at all of not becoming undead.

GulfCon being a strictly Star Trek convention, Star Trek references and trivia abound. This is a fun, quick read - especially if you appreciate, as I do, both Star Trek and zombies.

Leave a comment to enter a random drawing for your own copy of Night of the Living Trekkies. If you also tell me the name of the talkative, blue crew member on Star Trek Next Gen, I'll throw in the poster. Winner will be announced on November 30th.

Clare Deming reviews Close Encounters of the Urban Kind

Clare and I go way back at OWWW. That's Other World's Writer's Workshop. If you haven't checked them out, you should. In addition to a great SF/F critique group, the site overflows with wonderful writing resources. They also offer classes. Go explore after reading Clare's review.

Clare L. Deming lives in New Jersey where she spends her nights working as an emergency veterinarian. During the day she writes science fiction and fantasy, while trying to keep five cats off the keyboard. Her writing has appeared in A Fly in Amber e-zine and medical publications. Clare is a member of the Other Worlds Writers Workshop and the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County. Other interests that fill her days include fencing, flying and snowboarding.

Close Encounters of the Urban Kind

Ed. Jennifer Brozek

Apex Publishing, 2009

In Close Encounters of the Urban Kind, editor Jennifer Brozek has put together a collection of short stories in which urban legends are explained by alien encounters. The level of explanation varies, as do the types of aliens involved. Many of the urban legends used as inspiration for the tales are well-known, others are local phenomena, while some are new legends created by the authors. I thought it interesting that alien explanations for urban legends are not more common after reading Close Encounters of the Urban Kind.

A short note from the author follows each of the twenty stories explaining the urban legend within. I found this useful for those legends with which I was not familiar. As Jennifer Brozek states in the foreword, the aliens' motivations and the reasons behind their actions are unknown to us in the early stories. Later in the collection, we are offered more explanation and greater interaction between the humans and those other beings. At the end of the volume, there are biographies for all the authors. I have highlighted some of my favorite stories below:

"Lollo" by Martin Livings

While many people apparently have a fear of clowns, I had thought I was immune. In this first story, Jenny, the babysitter, has an easy time until Domenic, one of her young charges, asks her to cover a black and white clown doll with a blanket so that he can go to sleep. After the terrifying events that ensue, I will never look at clowns the same way.

"Headlights" by Jennifer Pelland

In this story, Jennifer Pelland relates the misfortunes of three high school students in search of alcohol and entertainment on a dark New England night. The "bad boy" of the group drives with the headlights off, waiting for another car to flash its lights at them. This echoes the urban legend of a gang initiation ritual in which the prospective member shoots the first person to flash their lights in such a way. Things do not go as planned, and I found the ending gratifyingly unpredictable and creepy.

"Frames of Reference" by Nathan Crowder

Do you remember the alien autopsy that was on television some years ago? This story relates the legend of snuff films to the treatment of aliens in movies and television. Greg is hired to examine an unusual film, but discovers that the truth is out there, and they're not happy about it.

"Two Out, Wendigo" by Rosemary Jones

This was a nice change of pace and setting, using the midwestern wendigo to explain the Chicago Cubs' failure to win the World Series. The story is set in the first half of the twentieth century and follows a nurse, Josephina, whose father had taught her how to recognize a wendigo before he died. When she finds that one has entered the hospital where she works, she flees as her dad had instructed her. Yet, she knows this is no solution, and she must find a way to contain the monster.

"Roadkill" by Rick Silva

Rick Silva's offering opens with a man counting road kill and trying to identify each species as he drives down an empty road. Distracted by thoughts of a recent fight with his girlfriend, he accidentally runs over a box and stops to see what he hit. What he finds is disturbingly alien and mimics an urban legend in which small children hiding in a pile of autumn leaves are run over by a swerving car.

"Mastihooba" by Joshua Palmatier

This tale combines the New York state legend of Masty Huba, a bogeyman based on a real drifter, with an unfriendly version of E.T. who is trying to find its way home. When Devon's son goes missing, he searches for him in the sewer pipes where he had encountered Mastihooba as a boy. The descriptions are colorful and all the details come together for a satisfying conclusion.

"Dead Letter Drop" by Pete Kempshall

In another change of setting, "Dead Letter Drop" takes place in post-war Berlin. We follow a starving girl through her daily struggle for food and safety. She encounters a blind old man who asks her to deliver a letter for him, with a possible reward of food. The result of her trip is not what you would expect, and the urban legend behind the resolution of the tale is disturbing, yet intriguing.

Before beginning this book, I was concerned that an anthology with such a specific theme might grow predictable and redundant. I knew that an extraterrestrial explanation would underlie whatever strange or frightening myth began each story. Yet, I enjoyed how each author took the overall theme and twisted it in their own unique way. Each successive story retained my interest, and I found myself eager to discover those urban legends that were new to me. I would recommend this collection particularly to readers that love tales of aliens among us, unexplained disappearances, or those ghost stories told around the campfire when we were children.

New reviewer, Deirdre M. Murphy and a two-for review

Science Fiction and Other ODDysseys welcomes yet another reviewer! Meet Deirdre M. Murphy, another Broad Universe member with big ideas and big, bad skills.

As a writer, musician and artist, Deirdre has spent most of her life squeezing her creative pursuits into whatever nooks and crannies of “spare time” she can create. When she was a kid, she wanted to learn everything and read all the science fiction and fantasy ever written. As an adult, she realizes that’s not a realistic goal, but she believes in dreaming big.

This year, in addition to pursuing traditional publication, Deirdre has been involved in creating Torn World, an online science fantasy shared world. She blogs at www.wylddandelyon.livejournal.com. Deirdre’s work can be found online and in print, including stories in Crossed Genres magazine, in The Best of Friday Flash, Volume One, and upcoming in the Magicking in Traffic anthology.

Deirdre lives in a Victorian house overlooking rose and herb gardens. She has three cats, an ever-changing number of tropical fish and dabbles in taming feral kittens.

Her debut review is a two-for.

The Aphorisms of Kherishdar by M. C. A. Hogarth

tsekil [ tseh KEEL ], (adjective) -- sick; refers only to soul-sicknesses

"Our lord is sick," the noble said, and added, "Speak."

"How did it begin?" I asked, my eyes focused politely on the House marking on her stole. She was our lord's sister, the quick wit and sharp edge to her brother's gentleness.

"He has been out too often," she said. "Surveying all that must be done in the district and conferring with others whose districts are unsettled. His mind is disordered... he broods." She sighed. "You are one of his favorites, Calligrapher. Heal his spirit."


In America we are all given words to live by. Most of those words are cold and stark, outlining duty as narrow and comfortless, imagination as wasteful, and beauty as frivolous. Artists are seen as empty-headed dreamers, destined to starve in a basement or attic, somewhere out of the way.

In this beautifully illustrated book, M. C. A. Hogarth shows us a people who look to their artists for wisdom; where these guiding words are rendered as works of art, to be hung in a place of honor in their homes where they can inspire its occupants and visitors to live more beautiful and harmonious lives. Don't get me wrong, duty is important to Hogarth's people--but it is not seen as a grim way to avoid fire and brimstone in the next life.

This is the tale of a Calligrapher of this alien race, told as a series of very short stories. In each, someone has embarked on aquest for wisdom--not a stereotypical once-in-a-lifetime journey into the wilderness, but an everyday quest to a public servant living in the heart of the city. Each time, the Calligrapher is challenged to not only know what to write to inspire the client to make their world a better place, but to do so in beauty. The Calligrapher is expected to perceive his or her client's needs and place in society clearly. The Calligrapher's success as an artist and public servant depends not merely on the beauty of the penned lines of ink, but on how they affect the client and the client's society. Each challenge is new, and introduces us to a new word in their language. People come to the Calligrapher for themselves or their employers, at the behest of their parents, or even to reconnect with their own people after working too long with Terrans.

You can read this lyrical book all at once, and immerse yourself in a complex and clearly-imagined alien society. Or you can choose to read each story separately, savoring them one at a time. This book is a gentle, enchanting read with beautiful illustrations, also by the author. For me, reading these Aphorisms was a pleasant change of pace from the action-packed fantasy I usually read.

Readers may wonder as I did, "If my city had a Calligrapher, what beauty and wisdom would he pen for me?"


The Admonishments of Kherishdar by M. C. A. Hogarth

I should have known I'd be caught. I'd never heard of anyone getting away with a lie this big. But even as the Guardians took me from my shop, I nursed a fierce satisfaction. She'd been an uppity Noble and I'd gotten her stripped and chained up in a public square. They'd take me to our Regal, now, and I'd get a sharp talking-to, but it was all worth it.

But then the Guardians marched me out of our district.

"Where are we going?" I asked. None of them answered.


In the Aphorisms of Kerishdar, we see the actions of a public servant, a scribe, whose job is to memorialize the Ai-Nadar's cultural ideals, and to do so in a way that helps and inspires the readers of his work to live up to those ideals.

But Hogarth's aliens are not perfect any more than humans are. And when they fail, there is a different public servant who is called in, one whose job it is to correct the situation.

Now, some of the things that the public servant who embodies Shame does would appear to be appropriate punishments by our standards, but punishment is not his goal. There are elements of teaching, of redemption, or rebalancing, of realignment. Some of the actions taken seem to me cruel and unusual, but these stories are not set in our world, and I'm certain some of our punishments would seem cruel and unusual (as well as impractical) to them.

It's more obvious in this book than the prior one that these stories were written about aliens, not humans. The fact that many of their values are quite different than our own is brought out in ways that were sometimes not comfortable to my sensibilities.

With my background in Anthropology, I'm not certain that the Ai-Nadari are that far from human. There are some very different real cultures on this planet, after all. But the Ai-Nadari are certainly very different from western and especially American culture, and reading each encounter gives the reader a chance to look back at our world from a different perspective, if the reader is so inclined.

Each encounter shows the servant of Shame correcting a different Ai-Nadari crime/sin/mistake (Hogarth makes it clear that their categories are not quite the same as ours). Likewise, some of the things they feel need correction surprised me.

Each story further unveils a complex and unique alien civilization, and I thoroughly enjoyed every one.


Visit author/artist M. C. A. Hogarth at http://stardancer.org.

SFOO welcomes staff blogger, D. E. Helbling

Science Fiction and Other ODDysseys will be three years old next month! Being a toddler, it needs lots of attention, so it doesn't get into mischief. So, I've asked for reinforcements. Starting later this week, D. E. Helbling will bring you science fiction news with a sense of humor and style very similar to my own. I'm so excited to have him on board, bringing fresh content and energy.

D. E. Helbling is a writer and engineer living in the Pacific Northwest. His own fiction has appeared in legacy e-zines such as Quanta and Nocturnal Ooze and more recently with Under the Moon. His technical interests include virtual world A.I., 3D digital art and paranormal research. When he is not blogging for SFOO or working on his own creations, he can be found loitering around the d. e. helbling blog, swapping critiques with fellow writers, playing a lively retro game of Q2:LOX or banging out a melancholy tune on his Yamaha P-90.

As it happens, the first story that I actually got paid for was to Nanobison, an ezine that D. E. Helbling ran for a while.

And that's not all! Ugh! I sound like an infomercial! I have reviewers, too. What I want to know is who leaked it to the publishers? Already I have five shiny new books, mostly ARCs, that I didn't even request. Books seem to be falling out of the sky. And the best thing? They're not books on history, cooking and the Tao of Noodling (which has nothing whatsoever to do with pasta, btw)! They're actually science fiction and fantasy titles from ACE/ROC and DAW!

I'm taking the rest of the year off from reading books for review, and relying on my wonderful reviewers. I will introduce my reviewers properly next week. Please cross your fingers for me that all this help will mean I actually get my own fiction pumping out the door.

Speaking of which, if anyone knows a good paying market for a YA urban fantasy, let me know. I have a story that everyone likes, but just isn't quite right for the mainstream sci-fi market. It begins with a true Pacific Northwest tragedy in the 40s and gets quickly fantastical. Think swimming dragon, Native American legend and physical transformations.

UFOs behind the perception filter, SFOO growing

The National Press Club held a news conference Monday on eyewitness accounts of UFO activity around nuclear missile sites.

My husband sent me a NPC link, which had no links to the conference, so I googled for it. This was the next day, and I found nothing. How weird is that? Admittedly, I was busy and didn't persist for long, but it should have been at the top of the heap. I'm not one for conspiracy theories and I don't spend a lot of time thinking about UFOs or the possibility of intelligent life out there among the stars. Or hovering over our planet. And I'm a sci-fi writer!

Why did the press conference get buried? Why don't we think about UFOs more?

I have a theory. First of all, if all the eye witness testimony is false, if there really are no ETs, well, wouldn't we look stupid for being taken in by another hoax? We hate being duped. On the other hand, if they're real, what then? What can we possibly do about it? What defense could we possibly have that could compete with an intelligent species that has achieved space travel and is able to observe us for so long without interference? If they're hostile, it's just all over. It's just too scary. We don't like feeling vulnerable. It's like the perception filter on Dr. Who. Our eyes slide away. We can't see the evidence in front of us. We don't want to.

If they're not hostile, well, we can try to find them and communicate with them. But who represents our world? What do we say? As Robert Hastings pointed out in the conference, they may not want to interfere. Maybe they have something akin to the prime directive. Maybe we're just being observed by scientists as interesting specimens for study.

The former USAF officers and other professionals delivering testimony in the news conference believe that these extraterrestrials, or perhaps people from another dimension, may be sending us a warning to steer clear of nuclear weapons. That other dimension theory is interesting. What about from another time? Could it be humans from our future in which we have to flee our planet after destroying it with nukes?

SFGate has a lot of links, including a video of the press conference. I highly recommend watching it. You can also check out UFO Digest's report.

In the advances in science column, imagine paralyzed limbs able to move again because of light! Check out Light stimulation could restore movement to paralyzed limbs over at Gizmag. And NASA is working on a new launch system.

My review of Android Karenina is now available at Mostly Fiction.

I wrote a flash memoir (using my way-back machine) for our local YWCA's Changing Hurt to Hope program and will be reading it on one to three Fridays in October. Writing that piece was hard, but healing. It's only three pages, but it felt like thirty. My hope is that it will help someone else still struggling in the cycle of abuse. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Science Fiction and Other ODDysseys is climbing in ranking all the time. I'm currently interviewing staff bloggers to help me keep the content going. One feature I will be introducing is small press and self-published sf book reviews. We're talking slush pile here. But if I have reviewers wading through the slush, they're bound to find a gem or two. I would also like to have Indie and feature film reviews. Since both hold their screenings and premieres in NY, LA and generally where I'm not, having staff bloggers in those cities can make those reviews happen.

In addition, I'm seeking a SF news blogger who can devote more time to bringing you the best and most current sf news. If any of my readers are interested in helping out or know someone who might be interested, shoot me an email. I can only pay in free books, passes to advanced screenings and exposure. Staff members will have their pic and profile in the blog's right-hand column or possibly on an About Us page.

Building momentum - keeping the sf train rolling

Well, I finally revamped the blog a bit. If you scroll down - way down - on the right, you'll see my new blog roll of sf authors. What's really handy is it includes the title of their latest entry. Hey, I'm using it to see what they're up to. You can, too. I tried to add more, but Blogger no longer wanted to play. I'll try again another day. Meantime, there's about 25 excellent author blogs to choose from and 11 other science fiction blogs higher up. Don't forget that all the author interviews (nearly 40 of them!) are listed by name in alphabetical order as well. Still can't find what you're lookin' for? There's a Google search box on my page, too.

I noticed that my 42 Blips button is missing from my blog directory buttons. I googled 42 Blips. When I clicked on their site I got this message: Thank you for your interest, but the website you are trying to visit is no longer being supported. Hmmmm. Poof. Gone. Lock, stock and barrel. Just like that. Anybody know why? Wish I could offer the scoop on this, but I can only speculate. And I had climbed to 33 in their ranking. Oh, well. It was nice while it lasted. At least I finished near the top of another list. :) While deleting the code I realized there was yet another button missing. The blog directory "um yeah" vanished without a trace.

I'm almost caught up on book reviews. I was IMing with a friend on facebook earlier and I lamented the fact, yet again, that there are so many older books that I don't have time to read. I read the latest books to deliver timely reviews. I have an embarassing number of classic science fiction novels sitting on my shelves that I have yet to read. I'm thinking I should devote a few months a year to reading oldies, but goodies. I'm not going to review them. Those reviews would be superfluous. But I could review sci-fi TV and movies those months while I'm indulging myself and filling in those embarassing gaps.

Right now I'm devouring Peter F. Hamilton's The Evolutionary Void.

And when do I find time to write? Yeah. About that. It's pretty much been relegated to a couple days a week. On the plus side, I have a contract writing job and can quit chasing freelance work, which will give me more time for my own writing. How appropriate that as school is back in session, I have to return to a more structured schedule. You know how they say if you need something done, give it to a busy person? I seem to get more accomplished when I'm busy and have to budget my time carefully.

I'm wrestling with what I think will be one of my better stories, but it has been nothing but trouble to get just right. I'm back to rewriting again and putting back some things that I too hastily deleted. And I'm going to throw in some dangerous fauna. If I can't whip this thing into shape and send it off by the end of this year I'm going to scream. It's resisting my attempts at shaping it into a short story when it really only wants to be a novel. Why can't I have both? First the short, then the novel. I can do this!

I must get poor Horace (Awesome Lavratt sequel) through his next hurdle as well. He really is too fun to torture.

And in my inbox this morning is the panelist questionnaire from Conjecture programming. Conjecture is a little con that can in San Diego. This year's GOH is Rob Sawyer. My friend and fellow Broad (Broad Universe), Trisha J. Wooldridge made GOH for


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Mary Robinette Kowal - sf/f writer and puppeteer

I just finished Mary Robinette Kowal's new novel, Shades of Milk and Honey. It was like stepping into a Jane Austen novel in an alternate Regency England. One in which among the other parlour arts a woman learns like playing the pianoforte or needlework, she also learns "glamour", a magic that enhances the beauty of existing surroundings or creates a tableau all its own from the "ether" to delight guests.

The protagonist, Jane, has exceptional talent in glamour while her sister has the looks. I kept hoping that the glamour would somehow save the world – such have been the novels I'm accustomed to reading. But I realize that in Jane's world, one's station in society and prospects all depend on looks and talent. Not being endowed with good looks, her glamour is everything. And it does save the day and possibly a life on more than one occasion.

Romance isn't my usual genre, but Mary Robinette Kowal has captured that world of Jane Austen and beautifully embellished it with a fantasy element. Her prose is lyrical and smooth. I can see how Mary's other talents have heightened her ability to convey the emotion of her characters, as you'll read in the interview.

Since this interview was conducted, my friend, Gareth Powell (see interview herein), announced the anthology table of contents he's featured in. And there again, was Mary Robinette Kowal, listed at the top with her story, "Birthright" http://www.ricknovy.com/2010/08/2020-visions-author-1-mary-robinette-kowal/. The anthology is 2020 Visions.

Read more about Mary on her Web site where you can also hear her read an excerpt from Shades of Milk and Honey.

AW: Why do you like to write science fiction and fantasy?

MRK: For me, science fiction and fantasy hold the same appeal that puppetry does. They are both the theater of the possible. I'm not limited by gravity or physics or anything else. They also allow me to rotate the familiar view of humanity to see different angles. I think viewing things from the side, as it were, lets me see things more clearly sometimes.

We get used to seeing things one way and science fiction and fantasy, and puppetry for that matter, move past that.

AW: Did you go to Readercon?

MRK: I did! It is on my list of "don't miss" conventions.

AW: Can you give us some personal highlights?

MRK: I have to admit that the weekend was dominated for me by the fact that I got my first hardcover copy of my novel, Shades of Milk and Honey, on Thursday night. The rest of the weekend passed in a wee bit of a hazy glow from that.

I also got to meet Samuel R. Delany when I moderated a panel we were both on called Drop Out, Write On. There were five panelists, Samuel R. Delany, Barry Longyear, Elaine Isaak and Nalo Hopkinson and we are all college dropouts, with varying reasons for leaving. It was really inspiring to realize that non-traditional routes work too.

The funniest moment on the panel, for me, was when an audience member had asked if we thought that the non-traditional route worked better than the traditional one. I demurred, pointing out that Campbell winner David Anthony Durham was in the audience and that he had a degree in English and a Masters in Creative Writing. From there we realized that there were three Campbell winners on the panel so from that sample, three out of four Campbell winners are college dropouts.

Of course, there was another panel on advanced degrees later that also had Campbell winners on it, so that sample isn't proof of anything but it was still a funny moment.

AW: Which conventions are your favorites and why?

MRK: Readercon, World Fantasy and the Nebula Award weekend because there's a focus on fiction and a high percentage of conversations that really get into the nuts and bolts of the genre. Or the spells and wands, depending on your genre.

AW: How has your voice acting and puppetry affected your prose? And vice verse?

MRK: In puppetry there's an emphasis on specificity. Because a puppet generally has no facial expression, which means that every movement it makes carries the meaning. When I write, I find myself using the same sort of language of movement. For instance, in puppetry we say, "Focus indicates thought." In other words, what your puppet is looking at is what it is thinking about.

This is also true for characters on the page. The thing that I have a character notice is what she is thinking about. Added to that is the fact that in fiction I can only show my reader one thing at a time and must rely on them to build a picture based on that. So the order in which I show things also has an impact. I'm essentially manipulating the focus of the character and the reader simultaneously. So, as with puppetry there's little ability for facial expression and every movement, thought and action becomes important.

I'm not sure how writing affects the puppetry to be honest. Largely I suspect that it's because there's 20 years of puppetry experience, which rather outweighs the five or so years of writing.

AW: Why shouldn't all authors read their own works for audio books?

MRK: A lot of writers aren't comfortable with the spoken word. It's a very different skill set than writing. Now, I think that it's a skill most people can be taught but it's not something that comes naturally to everyone. Nothing can kill a beautiful piece of prose faster than a flat, affect-less reading. Where most authors fall down, in my opinion, is that they worry about the words they are reading rather than the story they are telling. Written language developed to record spoken language.

So when someone is reading for audio books, they approach the text the same way one approaches a script, with an eye to using the sound of the voice to enhance what is on the page. Not every author has the tools, or the interest in developing the tools, to do this.

AW: You have tips on your site for reading aloud, don't you?

MRK: I do. http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/category/reading-aloud

AW: As soon as I saw what your novel was about, I had to have it. Even more so after reading the title of your "Evil Robot Monkey". I'm reading Android Karenina now. Why are so many people attracted to Regency England with its uncomfortable clothes, strict conventions and lack of indoor plumbing and electricity?

MRK: You could ask that question about any pre-industrial historic period or fantasy world. The Regency clothing for women are actually much like wearing a nightgown and are significantly more comfortable than anything preceding it in Europe or the Victorian era which followed. The social restrictions were also much looser and the Victorian era was a reaction to the moral looseness of the Regency.

My own personal reason for setting a novel there were twofold. When I wrote it in 2006, no one else was playing with the period in fantasy. I also found the intimate nature of Miss Austen's novels very appealing and wondered why there weren't any fantasy novels that focused on the story of just one family without an Epic Quest.

AW: Do you have a Shades of Milk and Honey book tour scheduled?

MRK: I do. The list of dates is in the sidebar on my website. I'll be in NC, NYC, SF, Atlanta, and Portland. People can RSVP to events via my author page on Goodreads.

AW: So you're concentrating on the coasts, then. Are you living on both coasts now?

MRK: It feels that way! But no, we moved back to Portland, OR, in September of 2009. I'd like to visit other cities. My publicist and I are talking about a train tour through the south and southwest.

AW: Do you use first readers or critique groups?

MRK: Yes, I use both. They serve different functions for me. Critique groups focus on writer ticks while first readers give me more information about the reader experience. I also will sometimes post rough drafts in a password protected area of my website and invite comment there. I find that very valuable because I get a greater cross-section of feedback.

AW: I read somewhere on your Web site a mention of Iceland. Did you liver there for a while?

MRK: I was a puppeteer on a show called Lazytown, which was filmed in Iceland. I lived there for part of 2004 and all of 2006. That's actually where I wrote Shades of Milk and Honey.

AW: What was living there like?

MRK: It is the most unearthly, beautiful place I have ever lived. I would move back there in a heartbeat if we could figure out how to afford it. Reykjavik has all the benefits of a European capital while being as accessible as a small town. It is clean and sophisticated and at the same time completely in touch with the land. As soon as you leave the city it's like stepping into a saga or Middle Earth.

AW: What about the language barrier?

MRK: Everyone in Iceland is multi-lingual. In school they learn Icelandic, English and a third language. I did make an attempt at learning Icelandic while there, but it's studio Icelandic. I could speak on the set and understand what was happening, but if you asked me to go buy oatmeal, I was sunk. It's an insanely difficult language.

AW: What are you writing (or rewriting) now?

MRK: I'm finishing a novella that will appear in the Cascadiopolis anthology from Audible.com and also the revisions for Glamour in Glass, the sequel to Shades of Milk and Honey.

AW: Any ballpark pub date on the sequel?

MRK: I think Spring 2011, but nothing firmer than that.


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Science fiction and fantasy TV - old and new

After nearly a week of the creeping crud (AKA summer cold), I'm starting to return to the land of the living. And I couldn't even catch up on my reading! My head hurt too bad. I hate that. So I watched some science fiction. Would you believe I saw Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the movie) for the first time? It was great. I love Donald Sutherland. Next time I have that much TV viewing time on my hands, I'm going to watch the series. I AM a Browncoat after all. Joss Whedon rocks.

And the new season of Being Human started Saturday. That was a plus! It's on BBC America and it's must-see TV. And then last week, we had the lovely crossover between Warehouse 13 and Eureka.

Here's a clip from a ComicCon panel with the Warehouse 13 cast.


Allison Scagliotti's character, Claudia Donovan, on Warehouse 13 reminds me of Percy Montana from Starhunter. Any Starhunter diehards out there? I keep looking for Tanya Allen. What happened to her? What did we do before Google? I just looked her up. Apparently, she was on Silent Hill. I would have known this if I'd watched it on Sunday when it came on. And she's in a movie called Magic due out some time this year.

Here's a great look at Percy.



I just begged for a review copy of The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton. The literary mash-ups with vampires, werewolves and robots have been fun, but now I need some meat.

I'm revamping my blog lists. So far, I've eliminated "author buddies" (sorry guys). My buddies who write science fiction and have updated blogs will reappear in the new SF Author Blogs list which will happen later this week. My blog seems to be growing out of its bounds. I might even add another page for submission guidelines and author resources. How many people scroll to the bottom of this monstrosity?

Brian Gilmore over at Ranker loves lists as much as I do. Today, he sent me this one: Top 8 Geekiest Things Ever Sent Into Space .



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Far flung tales - Eight Against Reality

I've decided to do a bit of book reviewing here in addition to Mostly Fiction. First up is a collection edited by Dario Ciriello, Eight Against Reality (Panverse Publishing 2010). I ripped right through this little collection not just because of its size. The complex characters in the majority of the stories face life and death situations with courage and fortitude and their reactions are felt on a visceral level.

Eight Against Reality is a collection of stories set on far flung worlds – either in an imagined future, an imagined past or on a distant planet. In spite of their alien environs, these character-driven stories are very human. Many of these dark tales are down-right disturbing. I do recommend this collection be read, but not at bedtime.

In "The Eminence's Match" by Juliette Wade, we meet the leader of a clan on a distant world who has a very human affliction: obsessive compulsive disorder. He's on a quest for the perfect man-servant, one he can bend to his will, who will not let anything be out of place – ever. Unless he finds the perfect servant, the halls of his palace will be soaked in blood. Almost as disturbing as the Eminence's cruelty is the new candidate's desire to please, and indeed love, this tyrant. The inner dialog and the fixations are portrayed most credibly.

Extreme sports enthusiasts will enjoy Genevieve Williams' "Kip, Running", in which a girl traverses the cityscape of future Seattle virtually invisibly clinging to trains, maglevs, airships, bubblevators (way cool!) and more. They even have flying squirrel-like wings on their camouflaged suits. It's an illegal sport, which raises the adrenalin even further. Kip hopes winning will get the attention of someone she worships from afar. But does Lily even notice?

"The Lonely Heart" by Aliette de Bodard is set in China with mystical beings and terrible curses. What's worse than the local pimp, an infinitely dangerous person who knows where you live, knowing that one of his girls has sought refuge under your roof? The emotions in this piece soar. The author plucks on the strings of pity, empathy, terror, betrayal, forgiveness, determination, loyalty and resignation. It's a symphony of the soul.

"The Flying Squids of Zondor: The Movie Script" by Doug Sharp is something like Monty Python meets Ed Wood. Sex-crazed tyrants are ensnared by a giant alien squid's love potion gas. Really. 'Nough said.

"Spoiling Veena" by Keyan Bowes looks at what might happen when all genetic traits can be programmed and reprogrammed. Letting your daughter change her sex at age twelve isn't nearly the same as letting her dye her hair or get a piercing. And a lot more expensive.

Dogs have become mutant monsters in "Man's Best Enemy", a post-apocalyptic tale by Janice Hardy. The human struggles to fit in, to prove one's skills and to contribute to society are the themes woven into a terrifying fight for survival.

"Love, Blood and Octli" by T.L. Morganfield is by far the most disturbing of all, and yet, the most compelling. Set in ancient Aztec times, this is a story of a girl who is befriended by a god and becomes a priestess. Her brother follows his own avarice and the darkest of the gods. Readers get a glimpse into what might have motivated that ancient race to follow such blood-thirsty gods and live in such fear. Is this what happens when humans become playthings of the gods?

What if you could visit your other selves in other realities? Would dipping into those strange worlds become addicting? Where might it lead if you taught your other selves how to surf realities, too? Find out in "Dancing by Numbers" by Dario Ciriello. Who is the real Lyra? Will she lose herself to these others?


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Pirated again!

My blog feed has been hijacked to another blog without my permission. And then they linked to their reposting of my interview with an author after my corresponding book review at Mostly Fiction. The nerve! And I wasn't the only victim. I knew at least four of the others and alerted them. The bogus blog lists affected blogs as "contributors"! Trying to find the host was not easy. A fellow victim thinks he's sent the copyright infringement complaint to the right host, but I think they just have the domain name.

I sent the pirate a message via their comment form as that was the only method offered. I received an email with one word: removed. I'll be checking back there after this post. They knew exactly what they were doing.

On a brighter note, I'm cleared for work after back surgery. Now I just need some.

I received another shiny new review copy yesterday. It's Eoin Colfer's continuation of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "Trilogy", And Another Thing. It's coming out in paperback at the end of this month. We'll see. I've heard bad things, but I'm keeping an open mind. Douglas Adams is a majorly tough act to follow. But, hey, Paul Rogers is no substitute for Freddie Mercury, but I still like to hear him sing with Queen. It's different - but not bad.

For those who like Brit wit at least as much as I do, the IT Crowd returned to IFC. It's my new favorite sit-com.

My buddy, Aidan, launched his new game, Ninja Zombie Pirate Robot at PrairieCon in Manitoba. Catchy name, huh? It will have an online game in addition to the card game soon.

If you're just tuning in and looking for a good book to read (besides Awesome Lavratt, of course), see my book reviews at Mostly Fiction. My favorite reads so far this year are:
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
www.WATCH by Robert J. Sawyer
Soulless by Gail Carriger
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett
Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith
Are You There? And Other Stories by Jack Skillingstead


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Steve Hockensmith - crossing genres and mashing it up

Steve Hockensmith spoke at the Redwood Writers conference I presented at in October. I was impressed by a lot of things he had to say in his keynote speech. I subsequently received an offer of Dawn of the Dreadfuls from the publisher. I didn't even look at the author's name. Dawn of the Dreadfuls sounded like great fun. Discovering that it was written by Steve was a bonus.

I'm also thinkin' Quirk (the publisher) knows just my kind of funny.

Steve's other books have been more western/slash mystery, but they all have one thing in common: his unstoppable wit. Anyone who can be so consistently, and seemingly effortlessly funny, is aces with me.

Read more about Steve on his blog/website and you simply MUST watch the book trailer. Where do I sign up for these? It's fabulous! My review of Dawn of the Dreadfuls is available at Mostly Fiction.

AW: How did you arrive at the idea of melding zombies with a Jane Austen classic?

SH: The person who deserves all the credit is Jason Rekulak, an editor at Quirk Books in Philadelphia. He was the one who had the brainstorm: “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we took a public domain classic and threw monsters into it?” I’m just glad he decided to start with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and not War and Peace and Sasquatch or something. The Austen/zombies combo really was a stroke of genius. I’m lucky that Seth Grahame-Smith did such a good job with the first book, too, because if that hadn’t been a worldwide phenomenon, Jason wouldn’t have wanted a prequel...and I would’ve missed out on the gig!

AW: How many books have you written so far and in what genres?

SH: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls is my fifth published novel. The previous four are all in my “Holmes on the Range” mystery series. They’re whodunnits about a couple of 1890s cowboys who set out to solve mysteries using the methods of their hero, Sherlock Holmes. I’ve got one more horror/comedy coming up (which I’m not allowed to say more about, at the moment) as well as another “Holmes on the Range” novel, then I’m not sure what the future holds. Hopefully, more of everything: I’d love to try my hand at every genre under the sun!

AW: What's your favorite genre to write in? To read?

SH: I had more fun doing Dawn of the Dreadfuls than anything else I’ve ever written, which was a surprise. I thought I’d feel a lot of pressure, and I wasn’t a huge horror fan before, yet that book was a blast. Maybe I just needed a change of pace, since I’d done four “Holmes on the Range” books in a row. I grew up loving science fiction, yet I never got the hang of it as a writer. I’d really like to give that another shot, one of these days. As for my reading, I’m all over the map. I dabble in mystery, SF, fantasy, and “literary” fiction while mixing in a lot of non-fiction, as well. I say “dabble” because I’m a very slow reader -- I probably only get through 14 or 15 books a year. So while I haven’t read deeply in any particular field, I have read broadly...which I hope counts for something.

AW: Can you share with my readers about your wall of inspiration and achievement?

SH: Well, looking up from my computer monitor, the first thing I see are the reference materials for my latest Work In Progress. But right above all that is a shelf containing every bit of fiction I’ve published professionally: not just my novels, but the magazines and anthologies I’ve appeared in, as well. Whenever I feel like a phony, I can just look up there and see physical proof that I’ve accomplished something. Just to the left of all that are reminders of the things that inspired me as a kid (a Raiders of the Lost Ark poster, a DC Comics calendar), while to the right is an advertisement for an early ’90s exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art called “High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture.” That reminds me what I’m trying to produce -- pop entertainment with (hopefully) something interesting or offbeat mixed in. On the wall directly behind me, meanwhile, are all my award nomination certificates. So if I’m feeling really low, I can just spin around and say, “Hey...I was a finalist for the Edgar Award, dammit!”

AW: I really enjoyed your keynote at the Redwood Writers Conference. Have you always been a good public speaker, or did you have to work at it?

SH: Thanks! I enjoy doing speeches and workshops, but I’m always terrified beforehand. It comes pretty naturally to me once I’m up there, though. I know I have my weaknesses as a public speaker, but the trick I’ve learned is not to care. As long as you’re comfortable at the microphone and project an aura of friendliness and fun, folks will cut you a lot of slack.

AW: How important is it for an author to make public appearances? How has it helped your career?

SH: Good question...and one that’s hard to answer. Are public appearances vital? No. Can they help? Yes. I’ve attended a lot of mystery conventions over the years, and doing panels at those kinds of events has helped me connect with many, many readers. Enough to make me a bestseller, though? Not by a long shot. And my experience with bookstore signings has been extremely spotty. Sometimes the place is packed, sometimes I end up chatting with the store staff until it becomes obvious no one’s going to show up. But even when it’s the latter, that can be helpful, in some small way. At least you end up with signed copies on the shelves, and the people who work there know you...and maybe even feel sorry for you! It can’t hurt -- which is, I guess, my bottom line when it comes to public appearances.

AW: Awesome book trailer! How much involvement did you have with that process? Has it measurably boosted sales?

SH: Thank you! It is pretty cool, isn’t it? My involvement was limited to getting an e-mail telling me the publisher was having a trailer made. Oh, and then linking to the trailer from my site once it was on YouTube. That’s it! It’s hard to say if it’s boosted sales, but I know it made a splash when it was first showed up on the Internet, and that counts for something.

AW: In which order do you recommend reading the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies series?

SH: The nice thing about Dawn of the Dreadfuls is you can read it either before or after Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Either you know the characters and the set-up already, so the prequel fills in interesting back story and answers questions you might have had, or you don’t know anything about the premise at all, in which case you can watch the story unfold from the very beginning. Hopefully, it works either way.

AW: What are you writing now?

SH: Funny you should ask! I just e-mailed my editor the second draft of my next “Holmes on the Range” novel. It’s called World’s Greatest Sleuth! and it should be out in early 2011. After that, it’s on to the top secret horror project, which will carry me through to the end of the year. So my plate is full, as they say. Heaping, even. That can be a little stressful, at times, but I infinitely prefer it to the alternative!



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