link salad (client edition) – including news of a debut novel!

* I’m absolutely beyond thrilled that Nicky Drayden’s debut novel has sold to Harper Voyayer. It’s called THE PREY OF GODS. There is just something so special about discovering and then finding a home for a first novel. The news broke in this week’s PW Deals column, and Nicky has more about it on her own site too. Head on over there and learn more about the book!

* Meanwhile, about the blogosphere, Martha Wells was interviewed and discussed worldbuilding in her amazing Raksura series. “Studying how real-world cities worked at various times in history, and how cultures and religions change over time, and the kind of technologies that cities in the ancient world developed, and how different cultures interacted with each other, all helped fuel my imagination and let me create my own cultures and cities.”

* Also very excited about the card game that Evil Hat Productions is basing on the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. They’ve got a Kickstarter going right now. Today’s funding level unlocked for supporters a preview of the first chapter of the next Dresden Files novel, PEACE TALKS. Check it out.

link salad (client edition)

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. Indeed, a while since I’ve done much blogging. I keep meaning to get back to it but where does all the time go? A question for another time or this won’t get posted either.

I especially wanted to boost awareness on this post from Mary Robinette Kowal on sensitivity readers and why she pulled a project. This is an important issue and one that is being much debated. Her commentary here is definitely food for thought.

Martha Wells, creator of the awesome Raksura, gives a glimpse of memories where she almost thought the series wouldn’t happen and was considering winding down her writing career.

And Yoon Ha Lee thinks out loud about prose and metaphors and characters and all sorts of other ingredients that go into storytelling in this self-inventory. I especially like the idea of parsley writing versus cilantro writing.

link salad (client edition)

* There are only a couple more days to get StoryBundle’s Urban Fantasy bundle, which includes Elizabeth Bear’s Whiskey and Water (a Promethean Age book) and Jim Butcher’s Working for Bigfoot (three never-before-collected short cases from the Dresden Files).

* Congratulations to Mary Robinette Kowal for her nomination in the inaugural Voice Arts Awards in the category of Outstanding Audio Book Narration – Author Performance for her work on the audio book of Valour and Vanity.

* Read Saladin Ahmed’s short story about Islam and knights and allegorical poetry, Without Faith, Without Law, Without Joy.

* SF Signal interviews Martha Wells about the Raksura and her Three Worlds Universe: “I wanted to do something that was very different from my other books. I wanted a world where, as the characters traveled through it, the reader would have no idea what was over the next hill. I wanted scope to do things I hadn’t ever done before with magical cities, characters, and environments.”

* Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files: Ghoul Goblin comic series is now available in collected electronic form. It’s also available for purchase in physical form at your favorite local comics shop, Dynamite.com, and various online retailers through the Jim-Butcher.com store.

link salad (client edition)

* Martha Wells reports: “I have a short story up at Podcastle, “Thorns” read by C.S.E. Cooney. It was originally in Realms of Fantasy in 1995, and was the first short story I ever had published: http://podcastle.org/2013/09/25/podcastle-279-thorns/”

* Here’s the most recent episode of Writing Excuses via Mary Robinette Kowal. It was recorded at the “Out of Excuses Retreat,” and the questions came from the attendees.

* From Mike Shevdon, some thoughts on providing content and what it’s worth. “Far too often authors are being asked to contribute their work for no reward other than the pleasure of pleasing others. It’s insidious, and at the base of it is the implicit assumption that an author’s work has little or no value, particularly when there is so much available for free.” Read the rest at Wattpad – Reaching the Next Generation of Readers?

link salad (client edition)

Here’s a few things collected up over the holidays and in these first few days of the new year to share….

* Go to Waterloo Productions site to see the early trailer for the documentary for Lakeside, about author Jay Lake, his writing, his daughter, and his fight with cancer.

* Elizabeth Bear on The pitfalls of history: “One of the great lies of science fiction is the idea that we are writing for the future.”

* Bear also offers up some free fiction:
– The Deeps of the Sky (at io9)
– In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns (on her own site, originally published in Asimov’s, January 2012)

* Mary Robinette Kowal reports on her reading at KGB last month and provides important information on how to make entrails. Indeed, the set she made is available in the Fearful Symmetries Kickstarter (still some hours left to support this anthology and as of this posting, the entrails were still available).

* A Nicky Drayden guest blog in which she elaborates on how patience is a kind of bravery.

* Saladin Ahmed discusses world building in his essay “At Home in Fantasy’s Nerd-Built Worlds” (npr.org).