Launch Week! Bustle Best Books Review and Guest Posts

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It’s been a hectic week with the full release of Sleeping Embers of an Ordinary Mind, and I know some of you have followed events in my little book bubble via Twitter and Facebook. Thanks so much for chiming in with comments and replies—very exciting to get feedback!

I thought I’d summarize the media coverage so far. I’ve been busy writing original copy for several websites, which I’ve really enjoyed doing. So, here goes:

BUSTLE

This is a big surprise: I’m totally chuffed that Sleeping Embers of an Ordinary Mind is reviewed by Bustle, and included in Melissa Ragsdale’s 13 of December 2015’s Best Books to Go With Your Holiday Cheer. This is a US website with, I believe, 10 million monthly visitors. Crikey O’Reilly! According to the website, Bustle is written “for and by women who are moving forward as fast as you are.” Melissa has compiled a lovely list of books, some in translation, and I’m adding them all to my reading pile. Read more

UPDATE: Novels with Fictional Art — Why I Don’t Count Words — Speculiction Review

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Screen Shot 2015-11-25 at 11.39.43It’s one week to the official release day for Sleeping Embers of an Ordinary Mind, and I’d like to thank Tor.com for inviting me to talk about novels with fictitious works of art at the heart of their plots. This is part of Tor.com’s popular ‘5 Novels About’ series. Take a look at my book selection here!

Despite all the distractions of my book release, I’ve taken part in November’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I’ve written an article on Medium: NaNoWriMo: Why I Don’t Count Words, in which I lament our transition from the analogue Screen Shot 2015-11-25 at 11.55.01world of manual typewriters to the digital world of laptops and precise word counts. Read more

A Conversation With Speculative Fiction Author E.J. Swift

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ejswift_author photo_bw smallI met E.J. Swift last summer when we shared a panel at LonCon 3, with David Hebblethwaite and Adam Roberts, discussing writers who cross the boundary between mainstream fiction and science fiction. Since then, I’ve finished my second novel, Sleeping Embers Of An Ordinary Mind, and E.J. has completed her trilogy The Osiris Project. Not only that…E.J.’s short story “The Spiders of Stockholm” has been long-listed for The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Competition.

We felt it was time for a catch-up chat—about past writing and future plans. Read more

Author Charlie N. Holmberg: My Long Journey to Publication

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Charlie N. Holmberg

Welcome to Charlie N. Holmberg, the most tenacious of writers, who never gave up hope of seeing her work in print. I’m delighted to host Charlie in the week that her novel The Paper Magician is published.

Everyone knows it—the road to publication is a long and bumpy one, with few bus stops along the way. Mine wasn’t much different; it took me seven years before I reached any landmarks! But the advice that’s passed around the most is also the best: stick with it. Or, in the words of Jason Nesmith, “Never give up, never surrender!”

I’ve been writing since age thirteen, but I didn’t take it seriously until I started my undergrad at Brigham Young University. I was nineteen when I finished my first, way-too-long, truly awful RPG-style epic-fantasy novel. That burned up in a wild dumpster fire and was never heard from again.

I started a second book, one that I thought had a more original premise and interesting characters. Another epic fantasy. At this time Read more

J Lincoln Fenn: 6 Worst Ways to Get Your Novel Published

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J Lincoln Fenn

J Lincoln Fenn

J Lincoln Fenn won the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award in 2013 for her horror novel POE. I’m extremely chuffed to host Fenn today! With her wealth of experience she offers top tips to writers who are battling to land their first book deal. I especially like No.6. Read on!

Not many writers are happy, Emily Dickenson-like, to write copiously without anyone ever reading a word. And with the occasional writer breaking through to near rock star status, writing the right book could be like winning the lottery. So how do you achieve that kind of literary success?

I have no idea.

What I do know, from years of knocking my head uselessly against brick walls trying to get published, is what not to do. Here’re some pointers. Read more

Guest Post: Laurel Saville on Her Writing Process

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As part of the Writing Process Blog Tour, which I took part in recently, I’m delighted to host Laurel Saville who talks here today about her own approach to writing. So here goes:

What am I working on?

I am currently writing a novel set in the Adirondack mountains of Upstate NY, near where I used to live and spent plenty of hours hiking. Like Henry and Rachel, it involves the clashes of family, class and culture, but this book is contemporary, not historical. It also explores some of the different ways people have of relating to our natural world, and involves a commune and a kidnapped child.

How does my work differ from others of its genre? Read more

A Conversation With Epic Fantasy Author Mark T Barnes

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Australian author Mark T Barnes has recently released The Obsidian Heart, second in his Echoes of Empire Trilogy, and I’m delighted to introduce you to this breakthrough author in epic fantasy. He has just arrived back in Sydney after speaking at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton. Mark and I are both published by 47North and in our little chat, here, we compare notes on world-building, opening scenes and short versus long form fiction.
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Catch Up: 10 Blogposts Since Release Of A Calculated Life

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It’s four weeks since 47North released a new edition of A Calculated Life and I thought I’d mark the occasion by doing a round-up of all the recent guest posts and reviews I’ve written. It’s been manic, but a great deal of fun. I really appreciate the massive amount of support I’ve received from other 47North authors and the good wishes from readers. Those all-important reviews are coming in and it’s pretty encouraging so far. Read more

A Conversation with SF Author Neve Maslakovic

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Neve Maslakovic switched from being a research engineer to being a fiction writer. Both professions are creative endeavours, she says, but in science fiction you don’t have to stick to the Rules of the Universe. The ink is now drying on the manuscript of her third novel. In this conversation, we explore are similar backgrounds, discuss our different paths to finding a publisher, and find we share a love of writing dialogue. Read more

Guest Post: Kate Maruyama on The Time Traveler’s Wife

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Kate Maruyama and I are ‘book-twinned’ because 47North released our novels on the same day, yesterday. I’m an avid reader of her blog Annotation Nation, which invites authors to explain how they’ve honed their craft by examining other writers’ works. So I asked Kate to write a guest post about one novel that helped her to write Harrowgate.

Kate Maruyama

Kate Maruyama

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