Martha Wells

Another short story posted to the web site

2009-07-14T12:44:41Z

Just posted The Potter's Daughter to my web site.

It's an Ile-Rien story, set before The Element of Fire, featuring Kade. It was a story I donated to Elemental: the Tsunami Relief Anthology, edited by Steve Savile and Alethea Kontis.

Thanks very much to everyone who put something in the tip jar for The Forest Boy. I still feel very awkward having the tip jar, but having a little money coming in right now feels very good.

marthawells @ 2009-07-12T10:55:00

2009-07-12T16:11:38Z

Link from toliver: The National Geographic Green Guide for Everyday Living. There are buying guides to practically everything, telling you the best buys, easy simple improvements to make, what to look for and what to avoid in cleaning products, detergents, etc, like avoiding anything with dyes and fragrances.

We're getting ready to start using an outdoor clothesline to reduce use of the dryer. The only thing I'm worried about is bird droppings. We have a small water lily pond and a lot of bird feeders and bird baths, so our yard is Grand Central Station for birds.

I would get a rainwater collection system, but THERE'S NO RAIN. The heat index has been up to 105 and there was still a heat advisory at 9:40 last night. At the moment I deeply resent every household appliance that generates heat. That's the best thing about the new low-energy light bulbs, they not only put out more light with less energy, they put out very little heat. When it's 105 outside, this is a big deal.

marthawells @ 2009-07-11T08:10:00

2009-07-11T13:18:02Z

Another novel you can download: A Matter of Oaths by Helen S. Wright. It's at www.arkessian.com. It was published in the UK by Methuen in 1988, and in the USA by Warner Questar in 1990, and has been out of print for a while.

***

I'd like to thank everyone who has donated for the The Forest Boy so far, that's been awesome of you.

I'm going to post another story, The Potter's Daughter, on Tuesday, July 14th. It's an Ile-Rien story, set before The Element of Fire, featuring Kade. It was a story I donated to Elemental: the Tsunami Relief Anthology, edited by Steve Savile and Alethea Kontis. It was reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy #7 from Tachyon Publications, and this will be the first time it'll be available online.

New Short Story

2009-07-10T14:28:19Z

I've posted a new fantasy short story to my web site here: The Forest Boy It's never been published anywhere before.

And this is a new thing I'm feeling awkward about, but I put a Paypal tip jar at the bottom of the page. Because it would be nice to have a little money coming in, which I could squander on our huge utility bills.

If this works out, I may try to do some more direct-to-the-site stories, though you may have noticed I'm not a prolific short story writer.

marthawells @ 2009-07-09T09:12:00

2009-07-09T14:14:34Z

Posted this on Facebook yesterday but I thought you guys would like it too:

Job Centre advertises for £50,000-a-year witch to live in Wookey Hole

The advert for the job at Wookey Hole specifies that the successful applicant 'must be able to cackle' and 'must not be allergic to cats'.

I think I've found my new career.

marthawells @ 2009-07-08T15:04:00

2009-07-08T20:10:47Z

I think I might be trying to get sick; either that, or the heat is slowly killing me. I had a lot of trouble in aerobics class today, and wasn't able to do things I just did last week and Monday.

In order to make up for the delicious bacon cornmeal spoonbread I made yesterday, we're having a more healthy dinner tonight. Seared tuna and sauteed spinach and bread. A small amount of bread. Not the whole baguette.

Link:

United Breaks Guitars: the story and the You Tube Video.

Top Chef Masters is on tonight, yay!

marthawells @ 2009-07-07T12:27:00

2009-07-07T17:35:57Z

The FACT auction benefit writer Aaron Allston will be July 19th: Aaron Allston Fundraiser and Auction
Austin, TX -- A fundraiser and auction to benefit the Aaron Allston Donation Fund will be held on Sunday, July 19, from 1-5 p.m. at Arbor A in San Gabriel Park, 445 E. Morrow, Georgetown, TX. The Aaron Allston Donation Fund is a medical fund established by his friends to help Mr. Allston, an internationally known science fiction writer and author of several Star Wars novels, with large medical expenses recently incurred as a result of emergency bypass surgery. Mr. Allston is a long-time resident of Central Texas.

I sent some autographed books in for it but I can't remember which ones.

***

Some good news for Galveston:

Delegates vote to keep all Shriners' hospitals open: Separately, the delegates voted 756-482 to reopen the Shriners Hospital for Children-Galveston. The burn hospital has been closed since Hurricane Ike hit in September.

Wetlands Rescue: The money for West Galveston Bay will be used to rebuild 328 acres of marshes with dredged sand...
The intertidal wetlands are critical because they act as nature’s speed bumps against wind and waves. They also serve as a productive nursery for a variety of sea life, including white and brown shrimp, blue crab and red drum.

marthawells @ 2009-07-01T08:06:00

2009-07-01T13:13:07Z

Couple of interviews with Joe Lansdale, who is awesome:

Interviewed by Rick Klaw, in the San Antonio Current:
Joe R. Lansdale, previously best known as a pivotal figure in the blood and guts infused '80s splatterpunk movement, reinvented his literary persona when he introduced crime fiction's most unusual duo in 1990's Savage Season. Over the course of seven books, good ol' boy Hap Collins, a 40-something white liberal, and Vietnam veteran Leonard Pine — black, conservative, gay — encounter all sorts of bizarre nasties, violent trouble, and humorous situations throughout Lansdale’s East Texas homeland. Racial tensions and societal intolerance color all of their adventures.

And in the Austin Chronicle

marthawells @ 2009-06-26T07:08:00

2009-06-26T12:19:23Z

It looks like the missing person in Lansing was found safe, so that's some good news for once. ETA: link to newspaper story.

Tehran Bureau is a good source for news on what's happening in Iran. And it could use some donations to keep going. From The Daily Dish: The website is called Tehran Bureau, but it is not housed in the Iranian capital. It’s edited from [Kelly Golnoush] Niknejad's parents' living room in Newton. "Everybody thinks this is some kind of extensive bureau, but it’s just me," Niknejad said yesterday as she sat alone at a small round table, tapping on one of two Apple PowerBooks.

In writing news, DearAuthor has an interesting Daily Links Roundup: Publishing is a low paying job with entry level positions paying just above minimum wage (and a barely liveable wage in New York City). The question that the New Yorker posed was whether low paying positions are affecting literature. I think the answer most people were giving is "Yes".

And James Enge has an interesting article on the Black Gate Blog: The Truthiness of Legends.

marthawells @ 2009-06-25T09:24:00

2009-06-25T14:29:53Z

For people in or near Lansing, Michigan: there's a missing person. She may not have taken her medication properly and may be disoriented. There's more info in this newspaper article.

If you know anyone in Lansing, please pass this info on to them.

ETA: LJ group for info find_teresa

***

In other news, I'm having tendinitis/hand pain problems again, augh. And it was 109 in a town near here yesterday.

marthawells @ 2009-06-24T08:41:00

2009-06-24T13:46:17Z

link: The Lie That is Bookscan Today I had a project rejected by a publisher. It's the author's third book and the prior two books had been well received and have sold well. But according to this publisher, "the Bookscan sales of his two titles have been modest in comparison to the great praise and attention his work has received, and in this economy that’s a very difficult obstacle for us to overcome with our accounts and booksellers."

There's only one problem with this argument: The Bookscan numbers are wrong.

According to the royalty statements I've received, the author's first book has net sales of just under 14,000 copies. According to this editor, Bookscan shows sales just over 7,200 copies. That's nearly a 100% difference!

There's some interesting debate in the comments.

marthawells @ 2009-06-23T07:45:00

2009-06-23T12:52:15Z

New speculative fiction magazine: Icarus from Lethe Press. Icarus is the first magazine devoted to gay-themed speculative fiction and writing - from fantasy to horror to science fiction, and all the weird tales that fall between the cracks.

If it doesn't rain here soon, I think we're all going to die. This is like the fifth or sixth day it's been in the 99-100 range. If this is June, I hate to think what August is going to be like.

marthawells @ 2009-06-22T13:28:00

2009-06-22T18:36:28Z

Couple of quotes from Rex Stout:

Nero Wolfe: "Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth."

Archie, after watching a police interrogation where they slapped the suspect for hours: "They say it works sometimes, but even if it does, how could you depend on anything you got that way? Not to mention that after you did it a few times any decent garbage can would be ashamed to have you found in it."

Both from The Red Box, published in 1936

marthawells @ 2009-06-21T16:28:00

2009-06-21T21:29:57Z

New interview with me posted at the A Wicked Convergence of Circumstances blog.

marthawells @ 2009-06-21T11:05:00

2009-06-21T16:15:17Z

ApolloCon Schedule for June 27.

Note I'll only be there on Saturday; we need to save money and can't afford the hotel this year.

Readings:
Sat 10:00AM - 11:00AM BR 2 = Rm #218
Rosemary Clement-Moore, Martha Wells

Writing 101
Sat 12:00PM - 1:00PM Seattle II
Bill Crider, Joe McKinney, Julie Kenner, K.M. Tolan, Martha Wells
Is your mind whirling with questions like "where do ideas come from?"
or "when can I quit my day job?" then this panel is for you. Pros and
emerging pros give the skinny on the art and business of writing.

Does Fantasy Have to be Epic?
Sat 1:00PM - 2:00PM Seattle II
Martha Wells (M), A. Lee Martinez, Gail Dayton, Lillian Stewart Carl
When writing fantasy, does it have to be a multi-book save-the-world
epic? Can fantasy, including sword & sorcery, have a smaller scope and
still be satisfying to the reader? Is there still a place for the
stand-alone book?

It Wasn't Always a Cliché
Sat 3:00PM - 4:00PM Seattle II
Martha Wells, Erika Frensley, Rhonda Eudaly, Kathy Thornton, Jayme Lynn Blaschke
Another book about an alien robot running amok and destroying
humanity? They may be old hat now, but robots, aliens, and magical
swords had to get their start somewhere. Our panelists discuss the
earliest use of the tropes of Spec Fic.

Autographs:
Sat 5:00PM - 6:00PM Autograph Table
Kimberly Frost, Martha Wells, Patrice Sarath

marthawells @ 2009-06-19T17:14:00

2009-06-19T22:17:31Z

The Chesley Award Nominees are posted. I especially loved the entries for Unpublished Color and Unpublished Monochrome.

marthawells @ 2009-06-19T07:26:00

2009-06-19T12:29:25Z

Judith Tarr (dancinghorse) is having a sale on writing mentoring: I've cleared the backlog of mss., I'm practicing revision avoidance (two in a row--that's just cruel), and I need to pay the utility bills, so I've decided to have a sale. What I do as a Writing Mentor is described fairly generally here. I do R&D and Mad Plotting as well as the usual editing and proofreading. The hourly rate for 2009 is $40; I'm offering $10 off four hours of mentoring, for a total of $150.

And today is Juneteenth!

marthawells @ 2009-06-18T07:29:00

2009-06-18T12:39:32Z

Amazon Kindle Editions are now available for The Element of Fire and City of Bones. And they are very cheap! Like $3.96 and $5.95 cheap.

My other books (the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy and my two Stargate Atlantis books) that are available on Kindle are listed here.

For new people who have friended me recently (Hi!) my web site is here, and it has a list of all my books and short stories, free stuff that's available, and sample chapters, etc.

marthawells @ 2009-06-17T07:59:00

2009-06-17T13:12:44Z

ApolloCon in Houston is the weekend after this one, but unfortunately I'll only be able to be there on Saturday. When it came down to it, we just couldn't afford the two nights in the hotel, so I'll just be daytripping in for Saturday programming.

In the department of Die, Sears, Die: Yesterday was not good. After waiting a week for someone from Sears to come out and fix the garage door, we found out that Sears had gone through all the motions of making the service appointment but not actually made it, which was somehow our fault because of course Sears can't take responsibility for any mistakes its employees make that screw over its customers, that would be crazy. So another company is coming out to look at it today, and from what it sounds like after discussing the problem with a rational person, we'll probably need to replace the whole opener (it's 13 years old and gears keep breaking) which we can't afford.

Die, Weather, Die: It's really hot, already. We hit 100 yesterday.

marthawells @ 2009-06-16T13:49:00

2009-06-16T18:53:11Z

For mystery fans, from Bill Crider's blog: Attica Locke: a Childhood Moment Inspires a Novel. The book is Black Water Rising.

marthawells @ 2009-06-16T07:53:00

2009-06-16T13:17:00Z

A link from arcaedia: Allison Kent on reader entitlement: There's No Crying in Reading Apologize? You’re kidding, right? We’re not running bases here. We’re not throwing balls at 92 mph and hoping to hit 98. We don’t bide our time in the minor league, waiting to be called up to the show. From our very first sale, we hit the shelves with the big leaguers, and rushing through books isn’t doing anyone any favors.

Here’s the deal. Baseball players play baseball FOR A LIVING. A huge percentage of authors write PART TIME. That means most of their days are taken up with earning a living wage at a job that provides benefits. Writing time is limited to evenings and weekends, and are authors supposed to forget they have families? Are they supposed to closet themselves away while their spouses take the kids to Little League and soccer and dance recitals? Seriously, would a reader expect that of an author?

DearAuthor has a Weekly Tech Roundup for ebooks.

***

You should probably realize that you will not be winning the Next Food Network Star competition if you

a) used your dish presentation to talk about your girlfriend to the point where Bobby Flay shouted "Stop! TMI!"
b) explained to the editor of Good Housekeeping Magazine that you have to cook differently for women because they can't eat the same food as men, while she and the judges stare at you with thinly-veiled contempt.
c) already seen Bob Tuschman's "Shut the fuck up" face, and it's only episode 2.
d) made Giada De Laurentiis lunge forward over the judge's table like she could barely supress the urge to strangle you.

They usually get nice people for this, and there's usually a lack of contestant-on-contestant drama, but man, Brett and Teddy are jerks. The episode did try to gloss over it, but I was glad they showed Jamika talking about how patronizing Brett and Teddy were being to Melissa, who was doing considerably better than both of them. Even the whiniest contestants on Top Chef never tried to suggest that helping someone plate = making their dish for them.

I was worried about Katie, but after Brett's little performance during the judging, she would have had to do meth on camera to get sent home before him.

Very glad jerk Brett is gone. Will be interesting to see how quickly jerk Teddy gets nudged toward the door next week. If Eddie can come back from his "Women are from Venus, literally" speech, it'll be amazing.

marthawells @ 2009-06-15T14:56:00

2009-06-15T19:59:32Z

Link: The Daily Dish at The Atlantic is providing links and posts about events in Iran, for those who aren't on Twitter. (Warning, there's some graphic photos of injured protesters)

marthawells @ 2009-06-14T19:20:00

2009-06-15T00:23:25Z

rachelcaine got a best present ever, version Michael Shanks from Heidi!

And linking to my best present ever, version Joe Flanigan because I like looking at it. :)

marthawells @ 2009-06-11T16:12:00

2009-06-11T21:19:56Z

There's now an auction community to benefit writer Catherynne M. Valente, adoptingcat. This economy has been difficult for everyone, but it's been especially difficult for those in creative lines of work. As you may know, Catherynne M. Valente's (yuki_onna) fiance, justbeast was laid off six months ago. While they have both been working diligently since then, Cat on her writing and D trying to pick up freelance work, the cold hard fact is right now it's not enough.

The profile page tells how you can help. It combines shopping with helping someone, the two best things ever!

Book rec: I just read lisamantchev's YA novel Eyes Like Stars and enjoyed it a lot. It's a fairytale but modern fantasy, set in a magical theater, with a great female protagonist who does not wear black leather and does not fight demons. It was an excellent read.

marthawells @ 2009-06-10T08:04:00

2009-06-10T13:19:30Z

links:

Juneteenth is coming up. From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond.

Speaking of Galveston, they've added new webcams so you can stare longingly at the beach from different angles.

I added a section for agent blogs to the link list on my web site.

Bookends has an article on self-publishing.