One of this week’s offerings from the Geek and Sundry YouTube channel is a music video for a song called “Gamer Girl, Country Boy” by Felicia Day and Jason Charles Miller.
Watching the video, in addition to being amused, I found myself thinking that this would probably become a theme for the GEEKOMANCY readers who ship Ree and Eastwood (of which I know there are more than one).
I’ve uploaded video of my first public reading of Geekomancy, from the WisCon Feminist Science Fiction Convention. Check it out for a taste of the fun, the feel, the ridiculousness of Geekomancy!
Today, I got the first blurb for Geekomancy! And it’s a doozy, if I do say so myself.
“If Buffy hooked up with Doctor Who while on board the Serenity, this book would be their lovechild. In other words, GEEKOMANCY is full of epic win.”– Marie Lu, author of the Legend trilogy
This weekend I had the absolute pleasure of attending WisCon, a feminist science fiction convention in Madison, WI. Last year was my first WisCon, and I knew very early into the con that I’d be coming back. WisCon has a strong academic thread as well as a clear social justice orientation, in addition to being a SF/F writing convention. Plus, Madison is a great city, the hotel is in the middle of a great cluster of restaurants downtown, and I have local friends to visit.
This year I had even more fun than the first time. I’ve been to a number of conventions over the years, and it always takes me a few hours to rev up, but once I get going, I’m in full extrovert geek mode, happy to meet new people and wax geeky.
I had the chance to participate in programming this year, thanks to the quick work of the convention committee and the generosity of the Exotic Worlds group: Bradley P. Beaulieu, Holly McDowell, Derek Silver, and LaShawn M. Wanak. I read from chapter two of Geekomancy, and was very happy that the time I spent on preparation paid off.
Since I’ve been performing nearly my whole life, between choir, dance, and various RPGs (tabletop and LARP), I do my best to make sure that my public readings are performances, with notable value added. If I just read what is written, I wouldn’t be adding anything new. But since I have that experience, and love a crowd, I try to use those skills and inclinations as a benefit. Word on the street is that there are far fewer book tours these days in U.S. publishing, where only a small handful of authors for each publisher are supported with funds for in-person tours across the country. By developing my reading performance skills now, I can try to make a reputation as an entertaining reader…and if that leads to
The reading went very well, I think, since I was happy with it and I got good feedback over the weekend from folks that were there.
This was also my first convention after selling Geekomancy and sequel, so it was all fresh and new to be a bona fide author, with a novel coming very very soon. I had a great time talking about Geekomancy but tried not to toot my horn too often or too loudly. No one wants to listen to the writer that turns every conversation into an extended commercial for their books. I love the conversations that pipe up at conventions, from craft to life, tips to tales of publishing mishaps small and large. Conventions are where I go to bask in the awesome of the SF/F community, who are some of my favorite people in the world.
Even as I was leaving, I started yearning for the next WisCon. Each convention has its own flavor, its own feel, and it can change from year to year (especially conventions that change locations each year, like the World Fantasy Convention). But WisCon was and will likely remain one of my absolute favorites.
I’ve got a guest post up at the Qwillery, where I talk about my personal soundtrack for Geekomancy and more broadly, my relationship to music for writing.
http://qwillery.blogspot.com/2012/05/guest-blog-by-michael-r-underwood.html
My friend Cassie Alexander’s debut novel, a kick-ass urban fantasy titled Nightshifted, is out in stores now!
The awesome cover:
And the scoop on the novel:
Welcome to the secret wing of County Hospital—where vampires get transfusions, werewolves have silver allergies, and one nurse is in way over her head…
Nursing school prepared Edie Spence for a lot of things. Burn victims? No problem. Severed limbs? Piece of cake. Vampires? No way in hell. But as the newest nurse on Y4, the secret ward hidden in the bowels of County Hospital, Edie has her hands full with every paranormal patient you can imagine—from vamps and were-things to zombies and beyond…
NIGHTSHIFTED
Edie’s just trying to learn the ropes so she can get through her latest shift unscathed. But when a vampire servant turns to dust under her watch, all hell breaks loose. Now she’s haunted by the man’s dying words—Save Anna—and before she knows it, she’s on a mission to rescue some poor girl from the undead. Which involves crashing a vampire den, falling for a zombie, and fighting for her soul.
Grey’s Anatomy was never like this…
Cassie’s website is here:
http://cassiealexander.com/books/nightshifted/
I cannot express how happy I am for Cassie, and how impressed I was when I started reading Nightshifted. Cassie is also a RN in California, so all of the medical talk comes from expertise…except the stuff about treating dragons. It is fiction, after all.
Copy edits have arrived, which means that in addition to trying to get words down on the new novel, I’m going through the copy-edited manuscript of Geekomancy and approving the changes I like, STETing the ones I don’t, and making tweaks as needed, so that the novel is as most-amazingly-awesome-tastic as possible when it goes to the production team to be turned into an eBook.
For those not in the publishing biz, STET is used when a writer or editor wants to indicate “leave it the way it was”. Adam noted ‘STET phase’ or ‘STET neologism’ several times throughout to tell the copyeditor to not change my whacky language.
I’ve used the STET-hammer a number of times myself, but the most fun in copy edits so far has been pulling out my DVD of The Empire Strikes Back to fact-check the number of antenae on an Imperial Probe Droid from the beginning on Hoth (2).
I wanted to bring more attention to the Crits for Water part of the Charity: Water effort, which helps provide safe, drinkable water to impovrished communities around the world.
I raffled off a query critique last week, and this week, I’m offering a critique of the first 10K and a query letter for a SF/F manuscript. This one is being auctioned, so I’m hoping we can bring a bit more money in for the charity.
If you’ve got a writer friend looking to take their manuscript up to the next level, please consider pointing them at this auction or another one from Crits for Water.
Thanks!
Since my official contract is in and signed, I was able to finish up my paperwork and am an official active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America! SFWA is the host/executor of the Nebula Award, and as a professional guild, it offers a great number of resources for writers. Recent efforts by SFWA leaders like John Scalzi and Mary Robinette Kowal have, in my opinion, done a great job of showing how important the organization is and what it can do for SF/F writers.
Joining SFWA has also been a professional ambition of mine for quite some time now, so it’s a great step along my Writer’s Journey.
Today, Simon & Schuster has put out an official announcement for the relaunch of Pocket Star, the imprint which is publishing Geekomancy.
The official announcement:
POCKET STAR RELAUNCHED AS DEDICATED EBOOK IMPRINT
NEW YORK, May 7, 2012 – Louise Burke, Executive Vice President and Publisher, announced today that Pocket Books, America’s first paperback publisher, has re-launched its Pocket Star line as an eBook-only imprint. As it did in print, Pocket Star will continue to feature bestselling and debut authors in popular genres including women’s fiction, romance, thrillers, urban fantasy, and mystery.
Louise Burke said, “Similar to how mass market has served as a platform to develop future hardcover authors, it is our mission to use Pocket Star’s new digital-only format to establish new voices in the marketplace. An eBook imprint is flexible, cost-effective, cutting-edge and makes sense in today’s marketplace. Under the Pocket Star banner we will publish original works including full-length novels and novellas from some of our most popular authors.”
Pocket Star will follow the model of the successful eBook publication of WARLORD WANTS FOREVER, a novella by #1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole that has now sold almost 60,000 copies. The imprint is launching with titles from its Spring and Summer lists, featuring authors V.C. Andrews, Nathan Dodge, Cindy Gerard, Laura Griffin, Sabrina Jeffries, Carrie Lofty, and Michael R. Underwood, among others. All Pocket Star eBooks will have the full support of Pocket Books’ creative and innovative publishing resources. Reflecting a fluid marketplace, titles initially published under Pocket Star may transition from eBook to print format.
Lauren McKenna, Executive Editor, has been named Editorial Director of Pocket Star and will oversee all content. “Lauren has been instrumental in helping shape our vision for Pocket Star.” added Ms. Burke, “She will be vital to the further development of this new imprint.”
To access the Pocket Star eBook Sampler, please click here or paste this URL into your browser: http://www.simonandschuster.com/admin_assets/7080_PocketStar_eSAMPLER_1_.pdf
Pocket Books will remain home to mass market authors published in both print and electronic formats.
Read more here (and download a free sampler with content from each of the launch titles, including Geekomancy): http://pages.simonandschuster.com/pocketstar/geekomancy