You guys are posting some great questions, and I'll definitely get to all of them.


supurnuva had also asked: 2. Is it difficult for you put your characters through bad events or write them doing bad things? Especially if you don't intend for them to have a happy ending later?

Yes, it is. I think if you don't care about your characters it's much harder to get your reader to care about them. If I'm going to kill somebody off, I usually have to psych myself up to it early in the book, so I don't wimp out at the last minute. And yes, it is harder if I know things aren't going to work out in the end.


grammarwoman asked: How did you get involved in writing books in the Stargate universe? Were you a fan first, or did that come after?

I was a fan first. I've been a media fan since around 1983, when The Empire Strikes Back came out and I got my first Star Wars fanzine. I loved the Stargate movie, but didn't get to see any SG-1 until the second season or so, when we were dying of summer TV doldrums and ended up getting Showtime just so we could watch it. Friday night was our big TV night for a while, when SG-1 and Farscape were both on. From seeing the previews, I was really looking forward to Stargate: Atlantis and watched the first season as it aired. After the first season was over, I happened to be talking to rachelcaine (who wrote the SG-1 novel Sacrifice Moon) about SG-1, Firefly, SGA, and our mutual love of other TV shows and she suggested I contact the publisher about doing a novel. I decided to do an SGA book rather than SG-1, since I'd fallen in love with the characters so recently.

I wouldn't be interested in doing a novel for a show I wasn't a huge fan of. Life is too short, and opportunities to write novels are too limited, to write about something I didn't love.

Still taking writing questions here.

Links:

jimhines with a Followup to his April Rape Post & Shadesong's Blogathon

and a direct link to shadesong's Blogathon Fundraiser for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center.

Short version of my week:

Hurricane = sucked. Batman = AWESOME.

ETA: webpetals on the red carpet at the Stargate: Continuum premiere! With photos of all the cast!

Gateworld is reporting that Don S. Davis, who played General Hammond on Stargate, passed away. The Gateworld entry has information about making donations in his memory to the American Heart Association.

Sorry to spam, but a friend just sent this to me. It's a trade ad for the SG-1 and SGA novels in The Ingram Advance magazine:

( Stargate Novels ad )

Correction: Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary will be out in the beginning of February 2006, not December and January and whenever else I said before. I'll correct this on the web site as soon as I get a chance. It's the first novel in the series with an original story; Rising, the novelization of the first episode, is out in December. It's by Sally Malcolm and will have a teaser section from Reliquary at the end.

Also, SG fans should check out our own juliefortune's SG-1 novel from the same publisher: Sacrifice Moon.

Not a correction, but more info: The Stargate: SG-1 story I have in Stargate Magazine will be in issue #8, which should be available in January. (It's #6 out now and they're bimonthly.)

I just got the word that my SG-1 story "Archeology 101" will be in issue #8 of Stargate Magazine.

Other stuff I have coming out soon:


The Gate of Gods in November.

The paperback mass market edition of The Ships of Air in November.

Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary in December/January.

I have an essay in Mapping the World of Harry Potter, another BenBella pop culture book. My essay is "Neville Longbottom: the Hero With a Thousand Faces."

The Farscape pop culture book is already out: Farscape Forever. My essay is "Don't Make Me Tongue You" about Crighton and D'Argo.

I also have two fantasy short stories, one in an upcoming issue of Black Gate and another in the Tor anthology Elemental, which might be out in December or April, depending on when it gets scheduled.

I think that's it. I'll post more specific links when things come out or go up for preorder.

The Publishers Weekly review for The Gate of Gods:

At the start of the final volume in Wells's imaginative and complex Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy (after 2004's The Ships of Air), her resourceful and witty heroine, Tremaine Valiarde, and a ragtag band of followers have the magic of the Viller spheres to help resist the almost invincible invading Gardier. Unfortunately, too many pieces of the puzzle remain missing for them to effectively defend what's left of the country of Ile-Rien, let alone liberate the rest of it. When the sphere-entrapped sorcerer Arisilde sends them a spell that eventually leads to "a train station for world-gates," Tremaine and her cohorts may have finally found a way to drive the Gardier out of Ile-Rien. New readers are advised to start with the first in the series, The Wizard Hunters (2003), as an acquaintance with numerous characters and previous action is essential.

Imaginative and complex, yay! Resourceful and witty, yay!

Also, and this feels very surreal to me, I got some more confirmation this morning that I'll have a Stargate: SG1 short story in an upcoming issue of Stargate Magazine to launch my Stargate Atlantis book Reliquary. We don't know why they want to launch a Stargate Atlantis book with a Stargate: SG1 short story, but hey, it's promoting the book, which is a concept that's sort of foreign to my experience, so I'm looking forward to it.


ETA: I didn't realize this was up for preorder yet, but I've also got an essay in the BenBella Harry Potter Smart Pop book: Mapping the World of Harry Potter. I've got an essay on the character of Neville Longbottom. It's coming out this January.