UPDATE: Novels with Fictional Art — Why I Don't Count Words

It’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 world of manual typewriters to the digital world of laptops and precise word counts.

With my nerves tingling (that’s an understatement) at the prospect of my novel’s imminent release, I’ve pinned up this advance review in my study. It’s written by Jesse Hudson on the excellent review website, Speculiction.

Speculiction concludes with the fabulous statement:

Sleeping Embers of an Ordinary Mind is certainly one of 2015’s tip-top releases in science fiction. A literary text that dabbles in historical, mimetic, and near-future scenarios, it presents windows into the lives of three different women, highlighting the recognition they do or don’t receive for their work, as well as the personal and societal contexts which motivate them to creativity and study. Delicately outspoken, Charnock does not bang a feminist gavel, but instead lets the events and settings of her characters’ lives do the talking, and in the process gives the reader unpretentious material to ponder over. A mellifluously challenging book—like its exquisite title, Sleeping Embers of an Ordinary Mind is one to look for.

Read the full review