My fingers are still sore from last night’s amazing AMA over on Reddit’s r/fantasy community. I had questions about publishing, pizza, Shield and Crocus, writing technique, Geek-fu, the Ree Reyes series, fencing, board games, and tango – basically, my whole life. 🙂
I had the marvelous chance to appear on the Sword & Laser podcast for one of their Google+ Hangouts! We did the interview live on Hangouts on Air, and now the video is archived on YouTube:
I’ve been a Sword & Laser listener and sometimes participant on Goodreads for a few years now, so it was very cool and somewhat surreal to be a guest on the show.
Big thanks to Veronica and Tom for having me on!
My editorial letter for The Younger Gods arrived today.
For those not familiar with the process, here’s a quick summary. When I submit a novel to my editor, they read it, think, write notes, and usually send me both a letter and in-line notes in the manuscript. The in-line notes are more zoomed-in, focusing on individual moments, while the editorial letter is an overview.
For me, the editorial letter is the real gold. It’s a 5-10 page essay from a smart, invested reader, entirely oriented toward helping me make my work better. It can be intimidating. In fact, I’ve been living kind of in fear of this editorial letter, since I knew there was a lot to be done on this project.
But as I said on Twitter: Editorial letters are like removing band-aids. The fear of how much it will heart is worse than the short sting of reality.
Taking critique, even very supportive critique like most editorial letters are, can be painful.
Here’s how I handle it:
The last week has been an awesome-nado (a tornado made of awesome?), between the release of Attack the Geek, the cover release of Shield and Crocus, and more. I’ve pulled together most of the relevant links for easy review.
General
Guest on Functional Nerds Podcast
Interview at Mark Lawrence’s Journal
Guest Post at Book Country on promoting your book before launch
Pop Quiz at the End of the Universe
Attack the Geek
Attack the Geek launches! Available in ebook and audio.
Cooking the Book feature at GeekMom
Guest Post and Interactive Launch at Bitten by Books
My Favorite Bit at Mary Robinette Kowal’s Journal
Shield and Crocus
Dear all,
If you’re a reviewer and have been curious about Shield and Crocus, but haven’t gotten a copy yet, you’re in luck! The book has just gone live on NetGalley for requests. Please spread the word far and wide!
I’m having a live launch party online today at Bitten By Books, including a giveaway for a $50 gift card.
You can find the event here, starting at Noon CDT.
And here’s the rafflecopter widget:
Back in February, my fiance and I moved across town to a new home – and since it was a short-distance move, we broke it down into a number of waves. That had the overall effect of reducing the amount of stress on any one day, but it ended up getting spread across the month, spreading out the stress. I could have managed the schedule better, especially since it was a also a busy time for my fiance at work.
The thing that made the whole process more problematic, no matter what form it takes, is my strong aversion to moving. Something about putting my whole life in boxes, in de-nesting, is really emotionally taxing for me. I moved several times as a kid (IN->TX->NY->NJ->IN) and the stress of moving seems to get an automatic critical for double emotional submission damage.
Not working on writing due to free time going to moving plus the stress of moving meant that when I did get to sit down and look through the critiques from my beta readers for The Younger Gods, it all seemed a bit too much. I got The Fear. The ‘Oh crap this book is garbage I can’t possibly fix it,’ kind of Fear that is totally baseless and is just self-doubt wearing context-specific armor and dual-wielding fatigue and not-having-written anxiousness.
After a day or two of letting The Fear get to me, I decided to just start working. I picked a couple of small changes and fixes to make, and I did them, ignoring what at the time seemed like a huge pile of ‘impossible’ work.
Surprise surprise – once I got started working, The Fear receded. This is something I’ve faced before. If I spend too long not working on something for writing, whatever I’m supposed to be doing seems more and more intimidating. In reality, the day-by-day effort of working on novels, stories, or even promotional admin keeps The Fear at bay.
Put me down as a ‘make sure to always be working on something’ kind of writer. I still sometimes need fallow periods after big pushes, but I think I’m the sort that always needs to be tending to the irons on the fire. Luckily, I have a lot of irons.
Dear all,
I’m incredibly excited to share the news that Pocket Star and I have agreed to make the final book in my current contract a Ree Reyes novel, continuing the imprint-bestselling series.
Set shortly after Attack the Geek, Ree Reyes #3 will be…
Last month, I had the honor of being a guest interviewer over at the excellent Speculate! The Podcast for Writers, Readers, and Fans, talking with Gregory A. Wilson, author of The Third Sign and the forthcoming Icarus.
Greg is normally a host on the show, but he and Brad have done a two-part series where they, the hosts, take a turn in the interviewee seat. It was a great time, and I’m really happy to have been able to help shed some light on Greg’s project Icarus, which is being made into a graphic novel with comics artist Matt Slay.
Greg and I had talked a bit before about Icarus, and I’m really pleased to see him bringing his vision for the story to life in graphic novel form.
You can listen to the interview here:
And here’s a link to the Kickstarter! It’s reached its initial goal, and now looking at very cool stretch goals.
W00t! It’s that time again, folks – It’s Angry Robot Open Door time!
“But Mike, what are you talking about? I am conveniently unaware of the Angry Robot Open Door periods for informative purposes.”
Angry Robot, being constantly on the lookout for fresh blood and new approaches to the genre, periodically open our doors to unagented submissions, allowing writers to submit directly to the publisher for consideration. We’ve acquired a number of books this way, and some of those have gone on to be our stronger sellers.
Updated:
Bonus: If Angry Robot acquires your book, you and I will get to work together!