From Kid vs. Squid copies

For my non-writer friends, ARC stands for advanced reading copy. They're typically produced in a small print run well in advance of a book's release and are usually paperbound, without dust jackets, and don't include the text in its final form. Just yesterday, in fact, I was responding to the proofreader's queries. ARCs get sent to reviewers, librarians, and bookstores in hopes of generating interest and more orders.

They also often get sent to authors so we can go SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

This past weekend brought the privilege of a visit by the estimable Tim Pratt, aka tim_pratt, who came to march down beaches and eat pizza and burgers and large breakfasts and drink barley-hops and watch superhero cartoons and Spencer Tracy movies, among other things. By happenstance, my lovely friend Bobzilla had brought his brood to San Diego for a weekend visit, and he managed to get away for a Saturday night sit-down at an Irish bar overrun with karaokers, which was a great opportunity to see two strong representatives of different friend-o-spheres meet one another. A very lovely weekend.

There's a Thanksgiving ham in the fridge and I believe I deserve some credit for not having yet eated it.

I've got a flash piece up at PodCastle, Change, read by the estimable Dave Thompson. Dave does a very fine reading, and with the improvements his voice and inflections lend the story, I prefer this audio production to the original text version. It's a very short story, with a fairly simple idea: People can get used to anything. Sometimes this is a good thing, and sometimes, not so much.

I have not one but two eye doctor appointments today. One will be akin to harsh interrogation, in which they'll look to see if diabetes is eating my eyes. The other will be a more common test to determine if I still know the alphabet, and it will probably result in new glasses, as I've been wearing my current pair for something like six years and I ain't gettin' any younger. I don't even know what hep glasses are anymore. Are the square plastic frames still cool?

I don't know why I think I have the right to grump about what other people post on their LJ's, especially when all I post any more is writing stuff.

I wiped down all the kitchen counters yesterday, including beneath and behind the microwave. There was a lot of red onionskin down there. That wasn't writing-related.

Last night at the coffee joint there were some super-duper old farts planning some kind of musical event, and they were going on and on about these dusty old songs from their youth, and of course the music they were talking about was stuff from my high school days. And, yeah, okay, I still really do like Dire Straits (the Brothers in Arms tour was one of my first concert experiences), and "Save a Prayer" really is a good Duran Duran song ...

And, actually, I was at the coffee joint to write, so the preceding was technically writing-related.

Anyway, what I actually came here to say is that Kid Vs. Squid has an Amazon listing and a release date now: May 11, 2010.

Here's the product description:

The citizens of Atlantis are stuck selling cotton candy on the boardwalk, and only our hero can help

Thatcher Hill is bored stiff of his summer job dusting the fake mermaids and shrunken heads at his uncle’s seaside Museum of Curiosities. But when a mysterious girl steals an artifact from the museum, Thatcher’s summer becomes an adventure that takes him from the top of the ferris wheel to the depths of the sea. Following the thief, he learns that she is a princess of the lost Atlantis. Her people have been cursed by an evil witch to drift at sea all winter and wash up on shore each summer to an even more terrible fate—working the midway games and food stands on the boardwalk. Can Thatcher help save them before he, too, succumbs to the witch’s curse?

With sharp, witty writing that reads like a middle-grade Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Greg van Eekhout’s first book for young readers is a wild ride packed with as many laughs as it has thrills.

OMG I HAVE THE MOST AWESOME PUBLISHING NEWS BUT I CAN'T TELL YOU!!

(Actually, that's not true. I don't currently have awesome publishing news, and if I did, I would tell you. I just always wanted to type one of those awesome-but-can't-tell-you posts.)

(Actually, thinking about it, maybe I have posted one of those kinds of posts in the past, but being the internet exhibitionist blabby mouth I am, it would have been uncharacteristic of me, and I sometimes blot out my own uncharacteristic behavior.)

(Actually, that's not true. I agonize over my own uncharacteristic behavior just as much as I agonize over my characteristic behavior. I agonize a lot. I'm like a poet.)

Anyway.

I may not have awesome publishing news, but I do have some nice publishing news: My story, Carnival Park, is now up at PodCastle. It originally appeared as part of "Tales From the City of Seams," a sequence of flash stories in Polyphony 4.

Now's a great time to buy books (such as the acclaimed Polyphony series of anthologies, among other things) from Wheatland Press. A relative of publisher Deborah Layne (and an indie bookseller in her own right) lost her house in a fire, and Deborah is donating $10 from every Wheatland book sold this month to help her out. A good cause, and you can get some good books out of it. Details here.

Remember when I used to talk about my life a lot here? Well, I still live. It's been a busy October. Saw an NBA game outdoors in the middle of the Mojave Desert, went to a Moby show, and have several more fun and social events coming up in the next couple of weeks. I've also been writing and waiting for awesome publishing news.

ETA: Forgot to mention another bit of nice news: The Greek newspaper Εννέα recently published "Far As You Can Go," my story about a boy and a broken robot being adventurous and brave and poignantly broken. You can buy it in its original form from Tropism Press and help the publishers get through some challenging economic circumstances.

Hey, if you're in or around Columbus, Ohio this Sunday, do consider coming on down to the Lennox Town Barnes and Noble for a signing event featuring Paolo Bacigalupi, Tobias Buckell, C.C. Finlay, Sandra McDonald, and me. It's sure to be a hoot. I will be dressed in a chain mail valkyrie bikini, if that's enticement.

Meet science fiction authors as they discuss and sign their recent works. Tobias Buckell, Paolo Bacigalupi, C.C. Finlay, Sandra McDonald and Greg van Eekhout will be here!
Sunday September 13, 2009 12:00 PM

Lennox Town
1739 Olentangy River Road, Columbus, OH 43212, 614-298-9516

(That last thing about me and the chain mail bikini is a total lie, by the way. Charlie's going to be wearing it.)

Okay, so, I've told just a very few people about this and have been annoying with the oblique hints, but now the contracts are done and I can speak with my customary devotion to internet blabiosity.

There's the weird beach middle-grade book I've been talking about for sometime. I've displayed some pictures of it:

Flotsam Novel Progress

And I am vibrational with joy and excitement to announce that I sold it to Margaret Miller at Bloomsbury Children's USA. The title was originally Flotsam, but some other guy wrote a children's book with the same title and won some kind of award for it, which I might have known had I spent five seconds on Google before falling in love with my title. After help from a great many funny and generous folk, we went with Kid vs. Squid, suggested by my friend, colleague, and confidante, sarah_prineas.

It's loosely based off this piece of flash fiction I did years ago, and it's about a kid who's spending his summer vacation in a weird Central California beach town where the survivors of Atlantis wash up every summer. There's a very large squid in it, among other things.

Kid vs. Squid is part of a two-book deal (handled with expertise and grace by my awesome agent, Caitlin Blasdell). The second book is to-be-determined, but I've got a pretty good idea what it's going to be. Last I heard, the first book is scheduled for spring of next year.

So, yeah, I'm looking forward to next year. In the mean time, there's that second contracted book to work on, plus another fantasy novel for "grown-ups," and then whatever else a guy's gotta do to make a living.

This is another case in which I'm grateful to a great many people for their support, advice, commiseration, and good humor during the hammering-together of this book. I foresee a long acknowledgments page, but for now, thank you, thank you, thank you.

I think I forgot to mention this here, but Mur Lafferty interviewed me for her I Should Be Writing podcast: Listen to more of my blabbing.

I hope to do some semblance of a proper con report, but basically, Comic-Con was a pretty typical mix of "OMG THAT'S SO COOL" and "OMG GET ME OUT OF HERE BEFORE I KILL!"

I met a lot of really cool people. Even though books of the non-comic variety can seem dwarfed by all the other stuff going on, publishers had a much greater presence here than most or all other cons I ever go to.

The panel I was on was moderated by Lev Grossman, Time Magazine book critic, and he posted a little write-up online. Apparently I lobbed a Harry Potter comment that made fur fly, which confuses me, as I saw no furries in the audience, thank you, tip your waitress, try the squirrel.

The write-up here.

Today it's back to work. Doing a bit of polish (with the coarse-grade sandpaper) on the first fifty pages of a new project, and then back to a revision with a deadline that's rushing towards me like a scary fast death monster.

From Last

Here's my Comic-Con schedule in case you wanna come up and say hello or maybe get a book autographed. I don't know if Del Rey Spectra will have any copies of my book on hand to give away, but Mysterious Galaxy, our very fine science fiction bookstore here in San Diego, will have them for sale.

Thursday, July 23
Room 3
3:30-4:30

Evolution of Fantasy— Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, Twilight—the great mega-selling series of recent years have all ended. What will the next one look like? Or is it already here? How is fantasy evolving? Panelists Jacqueline Carey (Naamah’s Kiss), Lynn Flewelling (Shadows Return), Patrick Rothfuss (The Name Of The Wind), Thomas Sniegoski (The Fallen), Greg Van Eekhout (Norse Code), and Cindy Pon (Silver Phoenix : Beyond the Kingdom of Xia) answer questions posed by moderator Lev Grossman (The Magicians).
Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy | Writers & Writing

Immediately following, Mysterious Galaxy will be hosting an autograph session for the panel participants in the Comic-Con Autograph Area.

I'll also be swinging by the Mysterious Galaxy booth (#1119) from time to time, as well as the Del Rey Spectra booth.

Other than that, look for me crumpled down on the floor in the fetal position as I experience complete physical and emotional collapse in response to the crowds.

I also might just hop on the bus and go home. Don't look for me there. I'll be barricaded.

Adventures in SciFi Publishing is giving away free copies of Norse Code. It's a contest! It doesn't take much to enter! You could be a winner! You wanna be a winner, don'tcha, punk? Well, don'tcha?

It's good to have options for places to buy books, and now there's a new one: The Tor.com Store. They're "publisher agnostic," meaning they're not only selling their own Tor books there, but stuff from other publishers, including mine. Full disclosure: My book is a featured title at the store (at least it was today), but I'd think it was an interesting idea and worth pointing out regardless. New ideas, new business models.

***

A reader reacts to Norse Code from a Christian perspective.

***

Heading out for Arizona tomorrow, because I miss it so much that I have to go back. No, of course that's not true! I'm going to a workshop in Flagstaff, and I've got some business in Phoenix to take care of first, by which I mean Four Peaks Brewery and Carlsbad Tavern. I used to get the nachos at Carlsbad on Friday nights after Kenpo class. And, yes, I actually do miss those nachos.

Did you have a good weekend? I hope so. I had a good weekend, perhaps the highlight of which was the simple but tasty shrimp sandwich Lisa and I shared at the tiny little fish market/café in La Jolla whose name I can't remember now. And there was clam chowder as well, with those puffy little oyster crackers and hot sauce. And then a long walk around La Jolla, and seals. They want to get rid of the seals because the seals are occupying a strip of sand that's supposed to be set aside for children. If you saw all the tourists with their children enjoying the sight of the seals, you might wonder why anyone would want to get rid of this tourist and civic attraction in favor of another tiny patch of beach. There is no shortage of beach in San Diego. I say let the children swim with the seals. In fact, let the children be raised by seals. I have no real stake in any of this, but I enjoy sights worthy of gawking.

Here's a picture of the view from the sekrit park in Bird Rock. I post it in lieu of the pictures I did not take this weekend. I love that, from the end of nondescript street near the Starbucks, I can look out and, if it weren't for the curvature of the planet and atmosphere and myopia and a touch of astigmatism, I could see all the way to Japan.

From San Diego - 2009

In other news, I have no idea how Norse Code is selling. This is normal.

In still other yet related news, Norse Code was reviewed by Adrienne Martini in the June issue of Locus. It's a very nice review, I think. A few money quotes:

"Norse Code is a flat-out enjoyable adventure cloaked in a brief lesson on Norse mythology."

"Words tumble on the page with a lyric joy that is Pratchett-like in some passages."

And this one particular pleases me, because I was at times a little stressed about it when it would have been too late to save myself:

"And then there’s Mist, a female character who spends almost zero time talking about boys, romance or love. Instead, she can hold her own in a fight if forced while keeping her focus on the main goals of her quest. It’s refreshing that almost all of Mist’s scenes with other women would pass the Bechdel test, in that when two women are talking,they talk about something other than a man."

Not that there's not a little romance in Norse Code, and Mist and her sister do spend a little bit of time talking about boys, but I didn't want to leave the impression that, with the world literally crumbling to pieces around them, my female characters' main concerns were the men in their lives.

Finally, you know that thing people sometimes do on their blogs when they say they have a Big Sekrit and they can't tell you? Well, I'm not going to do that. Except that I do, and I can't, but I will, as soon as I can.

I'm a jerk.

They've got this little widget thing on the Random House website that will let you read the first 32 pages of Norse Code, sort of. You get the front matter (that's blurbs and copyright page and acknowledgments), the prologue (which is different than the first chapter posted at Tor.com, and just as different from the second and third chapters posted at Suvudu), and then the first pages of several chapters.

I just wish the widget had blinking lights and beeped. Like a tricorder. That would have been really neat.

There's this taco stand in LA at Sepulveda and Washington Place: Tito's. It's always been there. It always will be there. You stand in line on the sidewalk, banter with other sidewalk standers if that is your thing, order your order (which in my case is a beef and bean burrito with cheese, big bag of chips, medium cup of salsa), eat the goods while watching Pink Floyd's The Wall with your friends, and then possibly hallucinate a little bit.

That's one kind of Tito's experience.

Here's a flash piece at Escape Pod about a different kind of Tito's experience: Taco

Courtesy of good Mr. Jon Hansen, all the way over in Georgia, capitol of Sid and Marty Krofft and where the peaches are supposedly all that.

If anyone else happens to grab a pic, please do send 'em along. I love this sort of thing.

From Final Norse Code cover

Oh, hey, I can't remember if ever mentioned it, but I sold this book last year? And it's out and stuff today? If I recall, it's called Norse Code, and in addition to the valkyrie in the leather pants on the cover (who actually only wears jeans in the book, plus a sensible coat, cuz it's Fimbulwinter, which means it's quite brisk out), there're gods and wolves and a Malamute and an eight-legged horse and farmers from Iowa. It's a hoot, lemme just say that.

You can find some preview chapters online: chapter 1 at Tor.com, chapter 2 at Suvudu, and chapter 3 at Suvudu.

And over at John Scalzi's blog, I've got a Big Idea column up. How'd that happen? Because I put a grenade down Scalzi's pants and threatened to pull the pin. "Get your hand out of my pants," John said. "Wait, no, don't! Wait ... Oh, fine, you can have a Big Idea column."

And that's how you make things happen in this business. You be a freakin' professional, people.

Thanks for all the kind words posted in the comments yesterday and dozens and dozens of previous days. As it says on the acks page, I appreciate all the "awesome folks who have kept me company by leaving thousands of funny and lovely comments on my silly blog."

That means you.

From Final Norse Code cover

HYPE ALERT HYPE ALERT HYPE ALERT

Um. Hi. I've got a new short story up at Tor.com: Last Son of Tomorrow. It's about this guy? With superpowers? And he's got, like, enemies and problems and stuff? And sometimes he fights? And if I'd taken another crack at it, I'd have given him a dog, because I think a guy like him needs a dog with superpowers. But not a monkey. No Beppo the Supermonkey for him.

Am I still talking? Oh, dear.

If you hate reading, there's also an audio link to me reading the story to you just like it was story time.

There's also an illustration Seriously, I love the illustration. It's by Ross MacDonald. Not the crime writer. The artist. The illustration is like a filled-out Mon-El by Curt Swan. It's awesome.

END HYPE ALERT END HYPE ALERT

Please forgive the repetitiveness of this post, but I noticed that Norse Code's Publishers Weekly review is starting to propagate to online booksellers, so I figured it'd be okay for me to post it in its entirety. I also heard word today that my publisher has copies of my book in stock, which means it is now an actual physical artifact rather than just a big ball of hopes and dreams and anxieties and fears in my head. I look forward to getting my box of books and bathing in them.

Should I talk about something non-hypey? Kung fu? I can talk about kung fu. After two months of sick decrepitude, I finally made it back to class last week. Good staff sparring class, just me and an upper-level guy I like to work with, and it felt awesome to move and bash sticks. This week I've managed two classes, an empty-hand forms class in which I got recquainted with twisting-grabbing fist sweeping-tripping fist (apparently not so reacquainted that I could remember the name of the form) and a staff forms class. Learned a few new moves and pulperized many imaginary bad guys.

So lemme tell you this: If you're an imaginary bad guy, you DO NOT WANT TO MESS WITH ME.

Okay. Well. Here's the hype:

NORSE CODE [Amazon - Powells - Barnes and Noble - Borders - Mysterious Galaxy]

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Short story author van Eekhout makes a successful leap to long fiction with this thrilling urban fantasy. As human civilizations crumble, Valkyries prepare for Ragnarok by using DNA testing to select perfect warriors for their army of the dead. Resurrected NorseCODE operative Mist loses faith in the project after a tragic accident, and she goes AWOL. After Mist encounters the near-forgotten god Hermod as he investigates portents of doom along the California coastline, the two journey into the afterlife of Helheim, where they make some unexpected allies. With deities scheming and ancient prophecies coming true, can a reluctant Valkyrie and a world-weary god prevent the apocalypse? While a few aspects of the conclusion don't quite hang together, the compelling prose and epic blend of mythological and modern elements make it clear that van Eekhout is an author to watch. (June)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

 

An overall shiny review of Norse Code [Amazon - Powells - Barnes and Noble - Borders - Mysterious Galaxy] in Publishers Weekly:

Norse Code Greg van Eekhout. Bantam Spectra, $7.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-553-59213-9

Short story author van Eekhout makes a successful leap to long fiction with this thrilling urban fantasy. [Plot summary redacted to avoid stealing PW's intellectual property, but the reviewer does make the book sound quite exciting.] While a few aspects of the conclusion don't quite hang together, the compelling prose and epic blend of mythological and modern elements make it clear that van Eekhout is an author to watch. (June)

Heyee, I've got a new story in Other Earths, an alternate history anthology edited by Nick Gevers and Jay Lake. "The Holy City and Em's Reptile Farm" is about Em, a young girl whose family runs a fading roadside tourist attraction along Vía 66, a pilgrimage route that's been bypassed by the new interstate highway. To save the family business, she travels to the Holy City, a desert oasis of neon lights, glitzy entertainment, buffet lines and slot machines, and finds herself embroiled in a conflict involving the Knights Templar, the Hawaiian diaspora, Atomic Golgoltha, and thieves after the holiest of holy relics.

Here's the table of contents:

"This Peaceable Land, or, The Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beacher Stowe" by Robert Charles Wilson

"The Goat Variations" by Jeff VanderMeer

"The Unblinking Eye" by Stephen Baxter

"Csilla's Story" by Theodora Goss

"Winterborn" by Liz Williams

"Donovan Sent Us" by Gene Wolfe

"The Holy City and Em's Reptile Farm" by Greg van Eekhout

"The Receivers" by Alastair Reynolds

"A Family History" by Paul Park

"Dog-Earred Paperback of My Life" by Lucius Shepard

"Nine Alternate Alternate Histories" by Benjamin Rosenbaum