2014 – The Year of World Domination

This year is going to be big.

I’ve got conventions, publications, new projects, and high ambitions. If I pull off 2014 right, I might just have taken over the world. Or at least, it’ll feel like I’ve done so.

Here’s a summary of what’s coming up for me in 2014, including 2 novels, a novella, a graphic novel, and at least one short story. Whew. I’m already tired just thinking about what’s in store.

 

Publications:

ATTACK THE GEEK – (Ree Reyes #2.5) coming April 7th.

A side quest novella in the bestselling Geekomancy urban fantasy series—when D&D style adventures go from the tabletop to real life, look out!

Ree Reyes, urban fantasy heroine of Geekomancy, is working her regular barista/drink-slinger shift at Grognard’s when it all goes wrong. Everything.

It was a blast to write, and is accessible to anyone who has read either GEEKOMANCY or CELEBROMANCY. Those who’ve read both will, of course, get the most out of it.

You can pre-order ATTACK THE GEEK for KindleNook, and iTunes.

 

SHIELD AND CROCUS – An epic fantasy, coming August (tentative pubdate).

A bit about SHIELD:

Renegade hero First Sentinel has been fighting for fifty years. Over the years, he has failed his loved ones, buried his friends, and watched his city turned into a playground for a group of cruel oligarchs. This city, built inside the skeleton of a long-dead titan, is wracked by magical storms that warp its streets, towers and inhabitants.

After decades of failure, First Sentinel and his team finally have a chance to overthrow the oligarchs…but it means making a bargain with his oldest enemy, a gangster who has bought, schemed, and betrayed her way to the top.

If they survive the bargain, his team will have the momentum and resources they need for a full-scale revolution. But can First Sentinel tip the balance of power before the oligarchs hunt him down and crush his rebellion for good?

This novel had its birth at the 2007 Clarion West workshop as a short story, and grew into my first publishable novel. It’s the project that helped me learn how to revise, how the agent/publisher submission process works, and more. I’m incredibly thrilled that it found its home with David Pomerico at 47North.

 

UNNAMED SHIELD AND CROCUS GRAPHIC NOVEL – A companion story to SHIELD AND CROCUS

One of the coolest parts about the deal for SHIELD AND CROCUS is that Jet City Comics, the sister-imprint to 47North, is going to be producing a graphic novel in the SHIELD AND CROCUS universe. This will not be a direct adaptation of the novel, but will be instead a separate, complimentary tale, making the SHIELD AND CROCUS universe a for-realz Transmedia property. I’ve been working with the Jet City Comics folks, and I’m really excited for what might come of this effort. It’ll be my first time seeing someone else work in a world I created, and the first time I’ve done any work in the graphic novel/comics/sequential art world. We’re hoping to release at least the first part of this story in 2014, but much is still in the air. More on this soon.

 

THE YOUNGER GODS – An urban fantasy, coming late 2014 (assuming all goes well).

My other novel this year (how weird does that sound? I mean, weird for me. Not for super-stars like Seanan McGuire or Chuck Wendig, but for me, two novels in a year is crazypants).

Jacob Greene was raised by a loving, tight-knit family of demon-worshipers. He wanted for nothing, and was so trusted by his family that they sent him out into the world for their monthly supply run (food, medicine, pig fetuses, etc.)

A year ago, his family tricked him into believing that when his outsider girlfriend said “Be my date to the senior prom,” she meant “and at the end of the night, I’ll become your demonic patron’s bride.” Seeing the betrayal in her eyes as his father carried out the ritual sacrifice, Jacob broke faith with the family and fled.

Now Jacob is trying to make his way in a very foreign world, attending St. John’s University in NYC. He’s looking for a purpose in life, a way to understand people, and to put his twisted upbringing behind him.

But when he sees a report of a brutal murder, Jacob recognizes the killing from family lore and identifies the killer as his older sister.

Alone in a city of strangers, Jacob must reach out to make allies and stop his sister before she can complete the rituals. If she succeeds, the seals maintained by the Greene’s demonic patrons will fall, releasing the Younger Gods, embryonic divinities that sleep deep beneath the sea.

THE YOUNGER GODS is in revisions right now, and if all goes well, it will be coming out at the end of the year. I’m currently contracted for one more book in the same universe, which will be even more made of explosions and crazy sorcerer family drama.

 

UNNAMED TIANXIA STORY

Last fall, my good friend Jack Norris ran a successful Kickstarter for his RPG Tianxia, using the new FATE Core system. Since it hit a huge stretch goal, I’ll be submitting a short story to a fiction anthology set in the world of Tianxia. Since I helped Jack alpha-test a far earlier version of this game, I’m very excited to be coming home to a familiar kung-fu-tastic world.

 

Appearances:

This year, I’m planning to attend a flobidy-jillion conventions:

 

Legendary ConFusion (Detroit, MI) Jan 17-19

FOGcon (San Francisco, CA) Mar 7-9

Balticon (Baltimore, MD) May 23-26

Book Expo America (New York, NY) May 28-31

American Library Association (Las Vegas, NV) June 26-July 1

Convergence (Bloomington, MN) July 3-7

ReaderCon (Burlington, MA) July 10-13

LonCon (London, UK) August 14-18

DragonCon (Atlanta, GA) Aug 29-Sep 1

Baltimore Book Festival (Baltimore, MD) Sep 26-28

World Fantasy Convention (Washington, DC) Nov 6-9

BoucherCon (Long Beach, CA) Nov 13-15

 

And there may yet be more.

 

Writing Tasks:

This year, I have to revise SHIELD AND CROCUS and take it through production, revise THE YOUNGER GODS and send it through production, do page proofs on ATTACK THE GEEK, and I have to write at least two new things:

The Tianxia short story

THE YOUNGER GODS #2

I hope to write even more. Thanks to an amazing experience taking Mary Robinette Kowal’s Writing on the Fast Track class last fall, I have a renewed interest and process for writing short fiction. I have at least one piece to re-write, one piece to revise, and I want to keep the two stories that are on submission now on submission until they sell.

 

Life tasks:

I still have a day job, which the above might not readily indicate. I’m very happy working at Angry Robot Books, and it occupies most of my day each weekday. All that writing stuff above? I squeeze it into lunch breaks, evenings, and weekends (spoiler: it’s hard). Between Angry Robot, Strange Chemistry, and Exhibit A, got amazing novels and exciting promotions coming in 2014, so you’ll be hearing a lot about that this year.

Assisting Sarah Pinsker, I’m co-hosting the Dangerous Voices Variety Hour, a new SF/F readings series at the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. We’re holding events quarterly, with the next one coming February 1st, featuring Myke Cole and another writer, TBD.

My fiance and I are also planning our wedding (coming to Indiana or California in Fall 2015!), which I hear can sometimes be a bit of work.

 

And all of this is just stuff I already know about! Who knows what else 2014 will have in store?

5 thoughts on “2014 – The Year of World Domination

  1. Three things make a comment:

    1.) Wow – looks like your 2014 is shaping up to be as awesome (and busy) as your 2013 was. Possibly even better! (That 2015 will be fantastic goes without saying. Congratulations, and enjoy the heck out of the wedding planning!)

    2.) Attack the Geek pre-ordered, and will be read in time for…

    3.) CONvergence! Nice to see this on your schedule again this year!

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