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.
A few cool things happened over this last week, so I’ve assembled them here for public consumption:
KristinD at Bitten By Books gave Attack the Geek 4/5 stars
Mick Happy Reviews gave Geekomancy 4/5 stars
The Shoot the WISB team (myself included) discussed the original 1954 Godzilla
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…
The release week whirlwind continues! I’ll try to round up some of the greatest hits here for folk that haven’t been glued to their Twitter streams (you know, sane and normal people living their lives and not obsessing over their first book release, natch.)
Geekomancy now has several reviews across the eTailersphere, including this one from Publishing Iconoclast, Evil Wylie:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R34154ARB58LFY/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B007SNRRP8&nodeID=133140011&store=digital-text
For any readers out there — the more reviews the book the has, the easier it is for readers to know if they’re likely to enjoy the book. So if you’ve read Geekomancy and feel like reviewing it on BN.com, Amazon, iBooks, Google, Goodreads, etc., I would be very appreciative.
I also had the chance to guest blog at the journal of Mary Robinette Kowal, talking about My Favorite Bit in Geekomancy:
http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/my-favorite-bit-mike-underwood-talks-about-geekomancy/
The Reading Room has an exclusive on sampling the third chapter of Geekomancy. This means you can now read three chapters of Geeky Goodness to see if the book is going to be up your alley.
http://www.thereadingroom.com/geekomancy/bp/5746247
The novel has been hanging out in some pretty sweet positions on the sales rankings, which I hope will continue to help with exposure.
And, speaking of exposure, here’s a special ‘Mike’s Vicarious San Diego Comic-Con Awesome’ glimpse of Geekomancy at the convention. I may not be there, by my book is!:
In order to keep the great excitement around Geekomancy rolling, I’m rolling out a fun Twitter meme called #Geekomancy101.
Step one will be figuring out our stats and class levels.
The first thing you do in almost any RPG is figure out the character’s stats. Ree Reyes, my lead in Geekomancy, has stat blocks and class levels she assigns to herself and her friends. I’m inviting people to make up their own stat blocks and classes for themselves — life-like accuracy takes a back-seat to hilarity.
These stats are done ala Dungeons & Dragons, so 3 is human minimum, 18 is human maximum, and 10-11 are average.
Example:
In the book, Ree stats herself:
Strength 10 Dexterity 14 Stamina 12 Will 17 IQ 16 Charisma 15 — Geek 7 / Barista 3 / Screenwriter 2 / Gamer Girl 2.
and her friend, Sandra Wilson:
Strength 15 Dexterity 13 Stamina 13 Will 12 IQ 17 Charisma 13 — Geek 3 / Scholar 3 / Dancer 1 / Teacher 1 / Waitress 1 / Chef 1 / Professional 1
In this vein, I’d stat myself like this:
Strength 11 Dexterity 15 Stamina 12 Will 15 IQ 16 Charisma 14 – Geek 6 / Scholar 3 / Bookseller 3 / Fencer 2 / Novelist 1
Join in the fun and use #geekomancy101 so I can keep track!
The day has finally come! The Pre-orders have delivered, digital Ninja Santa eBook Couriers depositing the novel in people’s eReaders overnight.
Pocket Star has also created a very sharp-looking page featuring Geekomancy and the limited-time price of $1.99: http://pages.simonandschuster.com/pocketstar/featured
In other news: I have a guest post up at All Things Urban Fantasy, along with a giveaway of the eBook (I will also sign a picture of the cover — the closest thing to a ‘signed eBook’ that seems to be available right now):
http://allthingsuf.com/2012/07/mike-underwood-on-the-genre-heritage-of-geekomacy.html
My friend and marvelous Historical YA Paranormal Romance author Leanna Hieber has given me a lovely blurb on Goodreads:
Geeks rejoice! This is your new favorite book. A frakking clever, funny, engaging novel that toes a surprisingly perfect line between meta and unabashedly delightful storytelling. There is a reference for everyone and even the unwashed masses of non-geeks can enjoy it and hopefully learn a thing or two about being awesome.” – Leanna Renee Hieber, award winning, nationally bestselling author
I am also interviewed on WFIU for the show Artworks, in an episode on comics and comic culture here — but a recording will be available if you can’t listen at 7pm on the 10th (just 10 minutes from this post!).
http://indianapublicmedia.org/artworks/12-26/
And as of this post, GEEKOMANCY is #2,137 in the Paid Kindle store, and #44 in both of these categories:
Thank you everyone, for making this launch day a huge success!
Geekomancy makes a guest appearance on the fabulous Sword & Laser video show, during the Calendar segment of episode 7.
Linkage! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHW8kzc1dmg&feature=g-all-u
If you don’t want to watch the whole episode (you should watch it anyway), you can see the novel at 15:45.
And now back to the happy author dance.
Anton Strout, gentleman and scholar and host of the Once & Future Podcast, has posted his latest episode, where he and I talk about Geekomancy, our shared love of GenCon, why he and Patrick Rothfuss should fight like Pokemon in the writing arena, and much more.
http://blog.antonstrout.com/2012/07/05/of-podcast-ep-38–michael-r-underwood.aspx
It was a blast talking with Anton, and I learned a lot about how to arrange my thoughts when doing author interviews on the phone and how that’s different than in person or via email.
Enjoy!
I have two pieces of business to share, and they are both awesome.
Tor.com, the website and blog for genre fiction powerhouse Tor Books, has posted Chapter Two of Geekomancy to help spread the word:
http://www.tor.com/stories/2012/07/geekomancy-excerpt
And secondly, this Tuesday I got a box from Simon & Schuster containing an awesome surprise:
Actual dead-tree copies of Geekomancy! These are simple tape-bound copies, and are even more basic than normal paper ARCs, but it’s a book! A real, paper book with my cover and my name on it and my novel inside on pages I can turn and smell and that I can hug and hold up like a power-up in Zelda!
I’m a little excited, as you might be able to tell.
This means I can give a copy to my parents, keep one on hand to refer to while writing Celebromancy, and still have a few left to do other cool things with (I got 10 copies). My editor has another 30 or so, which he’s taking to San Diego Comic-Con to try to pass out to appropriate VIPs to help get more exposure.
Dear Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton, Team Unicorn, Team Sword & Laser, and anyone from Mutant Enemy — Please visit the Simon & Schuster booth at SDCC and talk to Adam. He has something fun for you. 🙂
My friend, screenwriter and Hollywood insider Megan Christopher interviewed me about Geekomancy for her blog. While you’re there, you should check out her delightful web series “Quest for Comic-Con.”
http://meganchristopher.net/the-power-of-nostalgia-interview-with-the-author-of-geekomancy/