The kind folks at Book Country asked me to do an interview, talking about life in the year-and-change since I signed my first book deal for Geekomancy, which was discovered right in their back yard.

It was a fun interview, talking about path to publication, life since the deal, and participating in Book Country.

Links to both parts below:

http://bookcountry.com/Industry/Article.aspx?articleId=139719

http://bookcountry.com/Industry/Article.aspx?articleId=139766

Here is part two (of many) in my blog series discussing novels read this year. Books marked AR, SC, and ExA are books from my day job at Angry Robot, Strange Chemistry, and Exhibit A, respectively.

Playing Tyler (SC) – by T. L. Costa

The thing that struck me right away about Playing Tyler was the voice. Tyler MacCandless has ADHD, and the narration shows it, loud and clear. The narration is more choppy in places where Tyler is stressed or un-medicated, and becomes smoother when he is in control, at peace. The plot focuses around Tyler’s work testing a new flight simulator, which he thinks will be his ticket into flight school and out of his dead-end life. But the’re a whole lot more going on than a fancy beta test. One of my favorite parts about this novel was the romance between two l337 gamers who are outcasts in their own world but connect through their shared love of gaming.

The Age Atomic (AR) – by Adam Christopher

This is Angry Robot’s third novel with Adam Christopher, and his first sequel. Following closely after the end of Empire State, The Age Atomic brings in the world of 50s Atomic SF with references so diverse that I’m sure I missed many of them – taking Christopher’s incarnation of the trope in the novel as the furniture that narrative innovations of the 50s first created. The Age Atomic is my favorite of Christopher’s works so far – especially due to the characterization throughout.

The Warded Man – by Peter V. Brett

I’d heard about Brett’s Demon Cycle for some time, but only after the turn of the year did I get to reading it. For those not familiar with the series, The Warded Man introduces a world where humanity is on the edge of annihilation. A once-great society has fallen into a dark age thanks to the corelings – powerful demons that emerge every night and can only be turned back by specific wards. Nearly all settlements are cut off from one another, with only special Messengers to foster communication and trade.

The structure of this first novel in the series follows three children whose lives were changed by demon attacks, but also sets down the groundwork for a much larger story. I thought the action was strong, and the worldbuilding fascinating. Brett has created in The Demon Cycle what D&D players would call a ‘Points of Light’ setting (http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/drdd/20070829a) where only a chosen few brave the dangers of the wild in search of a greater purpose.

I really enjoyed The Warded Man, though I haven’t yet finished book two, The Desert Spear.

The Daedalus Incident – by Michael Martinez

I had the fortune of reading The Daedalus Incident for a blurb, since both Mr. Martinez and I are represented by the fabulous Sara Megibow.

Here’s what I said for my blurb:

“The Daedalus Incident is Master & Commander by way of Spelljammer smashed into a effortlessly believable 22nd century Martian mining project. Tremendous fun.”

The novel weaves together two stories – that of a tall ship traveling through the planetary system by navigating the Aether (here’s your Master & Commander meets Spelljammer) and mysterious events that threaten a mining project on mars. I found both leads to be well-drawn and compelling, and the novel’s climax is really cool.

Due to the current uncertainty around Night Shade Books, this novel’s release is uncertain, but I hope that many more readers will get to enjoy The Daedalus Incident, and soon.

A Natural History of Dragons – by Marie Brennan

Marie and I go way back. She was one of the members of a critique group that adopted me when I was a wee baby writer in undergrad. She and others helped show me the ropes and introduced me around at parties at my first writing and academic conferences. I’ve been following her work since she published Doppelganger and Warrior & Witch with Warner Aspect, and I was all of the excited to get to read A Natural History of Dragons, which applies her Anthropology and Archaeology knowledge to a fantasy world reminiscent in some ways of 18th Century Europe. The novel combines a travelogue/memoir style with the pulp adventure of a King Solomon’s Mines or Indiana Jones, as Isabella grows up enchanted by dragon of all sorts. The bulk of the novel describes her first big adventure, investigating the dragons of Vystrana with her husband.

Probably the best part for me is the advantages Brennan gains and exploits from the POV. The novel is told in he form of a memoir written by Isbabella in the autumn of her life, looking back and describing her youthful misadventures with the wit and charm of a grande dame who has been there, done that.

Since starting my job at Angry Robot, I’ve had the delightful opportunity to read more, both for work, and for my own pleasure, since far less of my life is spent driving places. I love audiobooks, but in order for an audiobook to play at the speed I read, it has to lose all of the nuance of the performance, which I find unacceptable.

Thusfar, I’ve finished 18 novels in 2013. Some I’d started in late 2012, so my reading rate isn’t quite as impressive as that # might indicate. Some of the books I’ve read I can’t talk about yet, because they were for AR/SC/ExA acquisitions, and the contracts are still in the works. But as those clear, I’ll add them to my review/reflection queue.

Perhaps the happiest part is that even with all this reading, I’ve also written about 50K words of my own prose so far in 2013.

Here’s Part One of my 2013 reading list (Books marked AR, SC, or ExA were read for work, coming from Angry Robot, Strange Chemistry, and Exhibit A, respectively):

Embedded (AR) – This was my first Dan Abnett book. Abnett has an incredible momentum to his prose, it sweeps you up and carries you along. His fluency and density of technojargon is reminiscent of Neuromancer, if a bit less hard to penetrate. I really enjoyed the central conceit of the book -where a journalist is beamed into the mind of a private security force soldier in a ‘don’t call it a war’ conflict on a colony planet, then has to step up after a head wound that incapacitates his host’s conscious mind. We have a new book coming from Dan late this year called Monstercide, and I’m totally jazzed for that one having read Embedded.

Emilie & the Hollow World (SC) – This book by Martha Wells takes the trope of the Hollow Earth and re-approaches it through the eyes of a teenage girl trying to escape a constricting life to make her own way in the world. She stows away on a ship, not knowing that the ship was going to travel through the aether currents of the ocean to emerge inside the center of the earth! This has both a classic Jules Verne-y feel and the freshness of a YA perspective. Definitely recommended for younger teen readers and fans of less-dark Steampunk-ish things.

Changes – Book twelve of Jim Butcher’s hugely popular Dresden Files series is aptly named. Almost everything about Harry Dresden’s status quo is upset in this novel, which was, honestly, a tremendously bold narrative choice. It seems like there’s a temptation in a long-running successful series to just keep the status quo, adding new adventures but not rocking the boat. Well, in Changes, butcher blows holes in the boat, sinks it, dredges the river to get the boat back and then blows it up. I give Butcher props for taking the bold steps he did, but I really felt the hand of the author in this novel – there were several big things that I felt happened more because the author wanted them to than because they would happen due to the logic already established in the world. But a fantastic ride, and the end battle sequence was amazing.

Fortress Frontier – This is the second book in Myke Cole’s Shadow Ops series, following 2012’s Control Point. Control Point was one of my favorite 2012 reads, and I found Fortress Frontier to be even stronger, in concept and execution. Colonel Alan Bookbinder is an army logistician who’s never seen combat. Until he manifests as a latent (magic user) and gets whisked away to run logistics for an embattled fortress in the magical realm. Things start bad and then get worse for poor Alan, but with some help, he rises to the occasion. Along the way, Cole deepens the world he set up in Control Point and builds toward even cooler things yet to come.

‘Salem’s Lot – I didn’t read much Stephen King growing up. I read Gunslinger and The Drawing of the Three on Semester At Sea back in 2003, but that was really it. Since my girlfriend Meg is such a huge King fan, I took her up on her offer to have my King reading curated. She gave me Carrie first, which I thought was magnificent. ‘Salem’s Lot was much harder for me to get through, partially because I picked it up and put it down so frequently (I was traveling during the time I was reading, and I was also spending a lot of time writing). The way that King develops the town so thoroughly in the novel before the Bad Shit (TM) starts to fly is truly amazing. King has what I find to be a truly enviable skill at character sketches – he can use 500 or so words and paint a clear picture of nearly anyone – giving you their passions, their weaknesses, and their perspectives on the world. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more King. I think The Stand will be next.

Zenn Scarlett (SC) – This debut novel by Christian Schoon is one of my favorite Strange Chemistry books yet. Schoon tacks away from the standard formulae of many teen novels and focuses entirely on the journey of the titular Zenn in her studies as an exovetereranian on a Mars cut off from Earth. The character is well-developed and compelling, and Schoon’s creatures are marvelous and strange. Zenn Scarlett has the Sensawunda I associate with my favorite classic Science Fiction tales, making it a real treat.

What have you read this year that stood out? Please share your reading list below.

A while back, Google announced a contest for spots in a Google Glass test program called Glass Explorers.

I entered with this message:

#ifihadglass I would use it to help refine my historical martial arts scholarship, connect with readers of my novels, and grow closer with friends from around the world.

I included these three pictures:

Today, I got this message:

“Hi Mike, thanks for applying! We’d like to invite you to join our #glassexplorers program. We’ll be sending you a private message with more details in the coming weeks — keep an eye on our stream at Project Glass.”

Woah.

Here’s some media coverage of the contest.

http://techland.time.com/2013/03/27/google-picks-8000-winners-of-glass-contest/#comments

It’d cost $1500 for the unit, and it’d probably be a goodly bit of work – since I imagine it’s basically a buy-in beta test. But there’d also be a ton of upsides, in terms of ‘Cool thing! Let me do everything with it!’, blogging/writing about the technology and the effects it has on my daily, work, and social life, and, to be honest, “Science Fiction author tests formerly Science Fictional technology as it becomes real” makes a pretty good story.

It’s not locked in until I get the details, so I may not end up doing the program, but it’s very cool to have the possibility to help bring Science Fiction into reality.

Hey all,

I wanted to send some love towards a friend and colleague who is Kickstarting the third and final novel in his awesome epic fantasy series, The Lays of Anuskaya.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2119763779/the-flames-of-shadam-khoreh

I met Bradley P. Beaulieu back when he was prepping for the launch of his first novel, The Winds of Khalakovo and I was repping for Night Shade Books (via Diamond). We’ve met and hung out at conventions since, and I’ve found Brad to be thoughtful, generous, and warm.

Brad published The Winds of Khalakovo and The Straits of Galahesh with Night Shade Books, but has bought back rights on the third book and is putting it out himself. I’ve really enjoyed the series, and I’m definitely looking forward to reading the conclusion.

There are a number of reward levels, including limited edition hardcovers, as well as levels which will come with all three novels at once. Please consider dropping by and considering getting in on The Lays of Anuskaya awesomeness.

Today completes my two-part appearance on the marvelous Roundtable Podcast with Episode 53. If you missed it, you can catch my ’20 Minutes With’ episode here.

Here are some notable links to elements/ideas that I mentioned during the episode, as well as the website of the creageous author, Linton Bowers, who shared his idea and let us put it through the Danger Room of workshopping.

For me, I think the most fun of this story was digging into the thematic implications of the setting and the lead’s powers, and the thread that followed to a version of the story that was heavy on the satirical but also lead to the possibility of the lead’s internal conflict closely mirroring the external conflict.

I’m very excited to see what Linton does with the story, and extremely grateful to the folks of the Roundtable Podcast for having me on their fine show.

Here are some links to projects/properties I mentioned in the show:

Ken Hite’s axes of design: http://www.rpglibrary.org/utils/wild_talents_axes/

Women in Refrigerators: http://lby3.com/wir/ — I mistakenly recalled this as being titled ‘Girlfriends in Refrigerators’, directly referencing the infamous example of Alexandra DeWitt being brutally killed to strike at her boyfriend, Green Lantern Kyle Rayner.

The cartoon show where the lead creates nanomachine constructs is Generator Rex.

Linton’s website, sharing his process and thoughts on his writing journey: http://lintonbowers.com/

Last month, I had the great honor of recording with Dave Robison and Brion Humphrey of the Roundtable Podcast. The first of two episodes from that recording is now up here:

http://www.roundtablepodcast.com/2013/03/20-minutes-with-michael-r-underwood/

The first episode is more interview-y, talking process, my journey to publication, and cool stuff like plotting novels like they’re RPG games, martial arts, and more. The folks at the Roundtable Podcast are energetic, earnest, and all-around great gents.

Please go and take a listen, and make sure to investigate their great backlog of episodes with luminaries from across the SF/F world.

Since my partner is signing for the apartment today, I should probably let everyone know that I’m going to be moving.

Meg, my partner-in-awesomeness, has taken a great position that will require her to live in Maryland. And since my Angry Robotic overlords are gracious, I will get to continue my position and work remotely.

That means that your favorite Geekomancer is going to be re-locating to Baltimore, MD!

But Mike, didn’t you just move to NYC? You might ask. It’s true. We moved to NYC in October, but the job Meg was applying for has a very long processing period, so there was no way for us to know when an offer might come through. But come it has!

I’ve had an incredible time in NYC, since this is the beating heart of the English-language publishing industry, and home to incredible food of all types – especially pizza, my One True Food.

This means that my March is going to be more than a little chaotic, but the end result will be great. I’ll still be visiting NYC once or twice a month for work, so I’ll be able to carry forward some of those connections made over the last few months, and Meg and I will be making trips back into the city to keep enjoying the many amazing features of the Big Apple.

I spent three years working remotely as a field sales rep, so I’m well used to that model – it’s all about discipline, and while I’ll lose out on the office cameraderie, I’ll be totally in control of my working space, which means I can read manuscripts from a treadmill, take sanity breaks to practice my longsword forms, and awesome things like that.

SFWA has posted the nominees for the 2012 Nebula awards (and associated awards)

http://www.sfwa.org/2013/02/2012-nebula-awards-nominees-announced/

This was my first year nominating, and it’s great to see the amazing work of friends and colleagues recognized by my professional guild.

Break out the Conga Rats!