Shield and Crocus cover reveal!

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

At long last, the cover to Shield and Crocus has been revealed on Tor.com!

Go over there and bask in the awesomeness, okay? I’ll wait here.

Back?

Super-cool, right? I was totally awed. Like, open jaw ‘Whaaa?’ awed. It think that Stephan Martinière is one of the best fantasy/science fiction artists working today (and might be the single best landscape painter among them), so the fact that he brought one of my worlds to life, and with a painting of that caliber, is still kind of mind-blowing for me, almost a month after I saw the first rough sketches.

While you’re basking in the cover’s awesomeness, you might as well go and pre-order Shield and Crocus in your preferred format 😉

Paperback
Ebook
Audiobook

Attack the Geek at Bitten By Books

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

Dear all,

The amazing team at Bitten By Books is hosting me for an interactive event to support Attack the Geek on Thursday 4/10 at Noon CDT.

You can RSVP here — if you’re planning on attending, I highly recommend RSVPing, since it gives you a much better chance at winning the $50 gift card I’m providing as a giveaway prize.

Five Things I Learned Writing Attack the Geek

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

Dear all,

Penmonkey Family Crest

Today, the gracious Lord Penmonkey himself (Chuck Wendig) had me over to his blog to talk about the five things I learned writing Attack the Geek.

Linkitude!

SF Squeecast

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

Earlier this month, I had the sublime fortune of being a guest on the Hugo-Award-Winning SF Squeecast, joining Seanan McGuire, Paul Cornell, Lynne Thomas, and Michael Damian Thomas.

http://sfsqueecast.com/2014/03/episode-34-ha-ha-ha-bang/

We talked about expectations, how expectations influence the way we experience content, how we squee, and how publishers/creators set expectations about their work.

Then, at the end, they ask me their standard questions, which are comedic and serious by turn.

It was a fantastic time, and I’m very grateful to the SF Squeecast team for having me on.

Seeking Recommendations: Books like The Blacklist

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

Watching The Blacklist yesterday, I was reminded of how much I like the show, and how it hits me right in a crime fiction sweet spot.

To that end, I asked Twitter and Facebook for recommendations of crime novels that would give me the same kinds of cool as NBC’s The Blacklist.

Some recommendations so far:

Ghostman by Roger Hobbs
The Travis McGee series by John D McDonald

Any other recs? I’m reading up on the crime genre to strengthen my fu for Exhibit A, and because it’s fun.

Help me, internet! Add to my already-gigantic To-Be-Read pile! 🙂

15 Writers Meme

Aside

The Rules: list 15 writers/poets who’ve influenced you and will always stick with you. Don’t overthink. List the 15 influences in 15 minutes.

I’m going to skip authors who I met and befriended before knowing their work for this one (namely Marie Brennan, Darja Malcolm-Clarke, Alyc Helms, etc.)

These are roughly in chronological order of my encountering the author’s work.

Madeline L’Engle
Ursula K. LeGuin
Gary Paulsen
Margaret Weis
Tracey Hickman
Mark Rein*Hagen
Phil Bruccato
George R. R. Martin
Joseph Campbell
Chuang Tzu (probably not a real person)
Octavia Butler
China Mieville
Warren Ellis
Judith Butler
Scott Lynch

Geekomancy and Celebromancy on BoingBoing

Posted on March 20, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

Today I woke to the delightful news that Geekomancy and Celebromancy got recommendation shout-outs from Ramez Naam on Gweek, a BoingBoing podcast.

From Russia With Doubt (Gweek podcast 138)

*pinches self* Yep, that happened.

Huge thanks to Mez, who is a friend, a wickedly smart guy, and an excellent author. His debut science fiction novel Nexus just got nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, you know. If you haven’t checked it out, definitely go do so.

Mind Meld – Epic Geek Debates

Aside

Over at SF Signal, I took part in a Mind Meld about Epic Geek Debates, which is a topic so perfect for me I had a lot of difficulty narrowing my experiences down to just one debate to talk about.

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2014/03/mind-meld-epic-geek-debates-rants/

With shout-outs to my Skiffy & Fanty colleagues, and especially Kommandant Shaun Duke.

Contact page and mailing list

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Michael R. Underwood

Dear all,

I’ve been doing site admin over the last few weeks to prepare for a busy year of releases and promotional activity.

To that end, I’ve created a distinct contact page, and I’ve created a mailing list.

The list will be low-volume, and will mostly include announcements re: new releases and public appearances. If you’re interested in the Ree Reyes series and/or my other upcoming works, please sign up and be guaranteed to catch any major news in all things Michael R. Underwood.

I’ve included the signup widget below:

I’m using MailChimp, which I assume means that you can expect to see this little friend delivering news to your email box. (No poo, though. I’m going to be very strict about that part).