is the name of a short story of mine that will appear in an upcoming Baen anthology. I can't give you more info yet, because I don't believe Baen has announced the book yet, but I'll tell you more when I can.
Yes, I'm being a tease.
Waking up in the single digits is never a good thing for me. Doing it on a Sunday is doubly bad. Doing it on a Sunday at a convention--well, suffice to say that little could make me do this. What made me arise early today was Publisher Toni treating the Baen authors and artists at DragonCon to a brunch at Pitty Pat's Porch, a nearby well-established Southern restaurant. I went not for the food, though it was good basic brunch fare, but for Toni and the crew.
After brunch and a bit of rest, I joined a number of the same folks at the Baen Traveling Road Show. I talked about Onward, Drake!, the audience was good,
Today was chock full of con stuff. After a quite reasonable amount of sleep, I headed to the convention center for a presentation by my friend and exceptional artist, John Picacio. As always, I enjoyed seeing both his old and his new work. I've been fortunate enough to have John do the covers to two of my books, and I've loved both works.
After a quick and reasonably tasty lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant, I dived into a three-hour writers workshop, where I was one of three pro writers critiquing the works of three newer writers. The sessions went well, and the event ended early enough that I could make it to Publisher Toni's Baen Traveling Roadshow presentation.
Dinner was a treat from Publisher Toni for a group of Baen authors. We ate salads and (mostly) steaks at Clinkerdagger, a local institution.
In the latter part of the evening, I hung with friends new and old in the hotel bar.
After now having caught up on non-PT work, I intend to sleep a great deal.
My convention work day began with my presenting the Baen Traveling Roadshow, a fun sneak peek at upcoming Baen books. What makes this event special is that we get to see not only the covers of the books, but the original art behind those covers. I've led this event for some years now at Balticon, and it's always fun. As usual, we nearly filled a big room, everyone in attendance seemed interested and attentive, and we gave away quite a few free books.
We then dashed out for lunch at at nearby Noodles & Company. A small frozen yogurt from a neighboring shop topped off the meal.
After a work break, I joined a memorial event for Peggy Rae Sapienza, a friend and fan whom I quite miss. (I wrote about her death back in March, when I learned of it.) As you would expect, the mood in the room was at best bittersweet as a large crowd of people told stories about how Peggy Rae had touched them. I went second and discussed my first two interactions with Peggy Rae, the same two I covered in that earlier blog post. Peggy Rae was a good woman who performed an amazing amount of work for SF fandom, and everyone I know who knew her will miss her.
In the small break available to me, I strolled through the dealers' room, said hi to some friends, and then found the location of my next panel.
This one, "It's for a Good Cause," focused on how writers can user their work to help charities. I talked about the giveaway program I created with Children No More, my fourth novel, and I also discussed some of the charitable work that PT does. I enjoyed learning about the ways the other panelists used their fiction to help causes of interest to them.
My final panel of the day--and of the con, because I'll be leaving in the morning--was about "How To Keep Writing After the Workshop." The question the con posed the panelists was how one could stay in contact with fellow workshop attendees and also keep writing after a workshop. We focused on the writing part, with all of us agreeing that the only secret was that there was no secret: you sit in a chair and do the work, or you don't. The audience remained interested as the conversation wandered, so all went well.
Dinner was a good but not remarkable meal at Azumi, a well-reviewed local Japanese restaurant. The fish was fresh and tasty, but the omakase menu did not feature any outstanding dishes, and it did unfortunately contain a few disappointing elements. Though I enjoyed the meal overall, I feel no need to eat there again.
And now, to sleep.
When you buy an ebook from most outlets, including Amazon, the leader, you don't really own that ebook. That pisses me off.
The thing is, even though you may think you're buying an ebook, you're not. You're licensing it. The "seller" has the right to freeze your access to the book by freezing your account, and Amazon has even in the past wiped purchased books from a Kindle account. I know the license makes clear you are licensing, not purchasing, but that's just bullshit. When I buy bits, I want to own them. I want to be able to store them anywhere I want, use them on any device I want, and generally treat them like any other bits I own.
More to the point, I want to treat the bits like any other product I buy. If I want to loan a CD or a book to a friend, I can. I can store those items where I want. Etc.
I must note here that not all outlets behave this way. If you buy an ebook from Baen, my publisher, you not only own it, you get it in multiple formats and can do whatever you want with it.
I understand the piracy concerns of the outlets, but I just don't think they're worth worrying about. If someone wants to steal my ebooks, nothing I can do will stop them.
I want to own the products I buy, even if those products are digital. Until I can, this aspect of ebooks will continue to piss me off.
I apologize up front for the spambot-like headline, but this news is exciting enough that I didn't want anyone to miss it. As of a couple of days ago, you can now buy all of the fine ebooks from Baen, my publisher, not only on Baen's own wonderful baenebooks.com store but also via Amazon's Kindle Store.
As you'd expect, when you now see a book of mine on Amazon, you'll see it in Kindle editions as well. Here's a not-very-well-done (sorry about that) screen shot of No Going Back on Amazon.
No, I'm not pleading here for you to buy copies of No Going Back, though I certainly would like it if everyone in America did.
Instead, I'm talking about a particular paperback edition of Robert A. Heinlein's The Man Who Sold the Moon, which you can find online here and here and no doubt in other places, as well as in some bookstores. Baen Books, which owns the rights to this particular Heinlein title, has about 2,000 of these in stock, so we need to find 2,000 people to buy them. Until we do, Baen won't reprint the book.
I need Baen to reprint this book.
When it does, Publisher Toni will do the same things she's been doing with other Heinlein titles that have needed new editions: commission a new Bob Eggleton cover for it, and have one of her authors write an all-new afterword for it.
That writer will, she assures me, be me.
My name would then be on a cover with Robert A. Heinlein.
How cool is that?
I am so excited at the prospect that I am now hand-selling this book everywhere I go. It's a marvelous volume, and its Harriman stories were incredibly influential on me when I was a boy. You need this book.
My name with Heinlein's on a book cover. Damn.
Today is a big online day for me.
First, over at Baen's Web site, Publisher Toni is hosting a contest to see which of two book trailers people prefer. The cool part for me is that both trailers are for No Going Back! To help influence the types of trailers people produce for books, all you have to do is go there, watch both, and then vote for the one you prefer. After you vote, email Baen--instructions are on that page--and they'll enter you in a drawing to win a signed hardcover first edition of No Going Back plus five free Baen ebooks. So, you can have a good time watching two nifty trailers, and you might win cool stuff in the bargain.
Next, if you check out my home page, where you can also watch those trailers, you'll notice that we've completely redesigned the site. By "we," of course, I mean that I provided input and designer Jennie Faries did all the hard work. The new site is easier to use and more up-to-date, plus it provides information not previously available: easy links to my upcoming appearances, and the first complete list of my published short fiction. Thanks, Jennie!
If the art at the top of each page--including this one--looks familiar, that's because it's a sample from the background of the cover of Jump Gate Twist, my omnibus collection of the first two Jon & Lobo novels and a bunch of other neat material. John Picacio, friend and artist extraordinaire, who did both that cover and the amazing cover to No Going Back, was gracious enough to give us permission to use the art on the site. Thanks, John!
Finally, you may also notice that every page of the site gives you easy access, via the familiar icons, to the blog, the RSS feed for the blog, Facebook, and Twitter. Yes, I'm not only on Facebook, I'm also now on Twitter. I haven't really started using either yet, but give me time; I will.
Oh, yeah: A week from today, No Going Back hits the bookstores! I'm psyched to see it.
Baen Books, my SF publisher, distributes a couple of email newsletters a month. (You can sign up for them on the Baen home page.) The July 1 issue features a link to a Q&A interview with me. Tony Daniel, a Baen editor and also a fiction writer, provided a great set of questions, and I spent a fair amount of time answering them. Some of the answers provide information I don't believe I've ever shared in public before.
I hope you enjoy it!
Morning once again arrived far too early for my taste today, but it has a way of doing that. One of these days, I'm going on a "vacation" trip that is actually a vacation; maybe this year's beach trip will fit the bill.
After scraping the drool off my chin and showering, I headed out to do the 90-minute Baen News panel. It was, as always, big fun. We showed dozens of covers, talked about upcoming books, eARCs, DRM (= bad; Baen has no truck with it), my big announcement (leaking out at the con and soon to come here, as soon as I catch a breath), and so on. We also gave out a fairly hefty box full of goodies. All in all, a good time. My thanks to Publisher Toni for the slides and the great giveaways. My thanks also to the loyal Baen fans for turning out in good numbers (50 or more folks attended) to hear about upcoming books.
Lunch was at a local pizza-and-gelato lunch; our group partook of both house specialities. From there, I headed back to my room to work.
Random con activities, work, a bit of a rest, and dinner filled the remainder of the day, with dinner being a particular stand-out: a wide selection of lovely tapas dishes from the always reliable Pazo. Though the restaurant's menu has changed for the worse--fewer different tapas choices, more big plates--each dish we sampled was delicious, and I still heartily recommend it.
With the show behind me, I must now focus more intensely on various writing obligations, notably finishing up my story for The Wild Side and getting that book off to Publisher Toni. Fun stuff!
My con work began today with a panel on the business side of writing. The audience was small but very interested and very attentive, and overall I thought it went reasonably well. My particular focus was on basics, such as setting aside half of all your earnings for taxes, a practice that could have saved a lot of writers I know a great deal of pain.
After a nice Cuban sandwich lunch and some work, I joined my second panel of the day, a discussion of future inventions. Though the multi-hundred-person audience stayed and seemed engaged, I felt we jumped the rails and descended into chaos. Still, if the audience is happy, I should be happy.
I then found a quiet, private place and chatted for about half an hour with Steve Hickman, who will be doing the cover art for Overthrowing Heaven, the Jon and Lobo book I'm writing now. I haven't finished the book yet, and I don't show unfinished work to anyone, so as we did with Slanted Jack last year at this time, Steve and I went through part of the new book by phone. Steve found the scene he wants to use for the cover; I think it's going to be a great one. It'll definitely surprise folks--but it will be true to the novel and, I think, sell books, the most important function of the cover. I can't wait to see it.
After more work, we headed to the Hugos. I enjoyed the ceremony, though I always fantasize about being a nominee one day and so often find it somewhat bittersweet. I was very sorry to see Barry Malzberg's fine work, Breakfast in the Ruins, not win. In my opinion, and with no intent to disrespect the other fine nominees, I think Breakfast deserved the award.
After some time at the Baen party, both fun and compulsory attendance for all Baen authors, I headed back to work, which I'm doing now. I'd be a lot happier if I was further along in this book, but I'll get there.
After work, some time on the treadmill, a shower, and more work, I headed to the convention center for my first panel. I was moderating a discussion on writers' workshops. Everyone on the panel had solid credentials for being there, the audience of 50 or so folks stayed engaged, and it went about as well as these things do. I repeatedly made what I consider the key point: do all the workshopping you want, but write. Doing the work is the most important thing.
Later in the day, I attended the Baen preview show and talked about my upcoming books for the large and enthusiastic audience. I signed a few books afterward and generally enjoyed the preview.
I also had a good time at the masquerade, which I've been attending as a fan since my first Worldcon in 1978. Quite a few of the 31 costumes were entertaining, and several were also beautiful.
Before I forget: some folks at Baen's Bar let me know about a nice review of One Jump Ahead at io9. Check it out if you're interested.
I hadn't gone to a single con party prior to tonight, so I decided to sacrifice some sleep and attend a few this evening. In the course of doing so I was lucky enough to experience the funniest (well, at least to me) moment of the day.
Jennie and I were standing at the entrance to the SFWA suite, part of a group of people waiting for a break in the incoming tide so we could leave. Jennie was wearing a pair of jeans, a low-cut teal top that revealed a considerable amount of cleavage, and a blue fabric duster. Her con name badge was turned the wrong way, so you couldn't read her name. She was talking to someone, and I was standing behind her, minding my own business and working on staying calm while waiting in a crowd.
A man walked by, stopped, stared at Jennie for a moment, and then leaned close to me and whispered, "Is she a movie star? Would you turn her badge around? Who is she?"
Now, a sensible person would simply give her name. Instead, I stared at him in silence as I considered a multitude of options, including:
* "Yes, she's Meg Ryan. It's her first appearance since the hair dye and the augmentation."
* "Yes, but she works in porn."
* "No, she's the editor of Playboy scouting for bunnies."
Instead, I chose this option. I leaned a bit closer, then whispered, "She's..." dramatic pause, "Jennie." I leaned back as if that explained it all.
The man stared in wide-mouthed surprise and darted into the party.
I'm a bad person.
As I write this, FedEx is carrying my edited galley pages of Slanted Jack to the typesetter. The galleys are standard letter-size paper on which the typesetter has printed the book as it will actually appear. The galleys represent the first time I get to see the book as a reader will. (The advance reading copy (ARC) has yet to receive my or the copyeditor's corrections and so may look like a final book but very much is not.) When you work on galleys, you find all sorts of little details that slipped by previous passes--or, at least, I do. I spend hours and hours poring over the book, and I make on the order of a hundred changes in the process. Other writers may well be better at handling those edits earlier, but I greatly value this pass.
Once the typesetter receives the galleys, she will turn them quickly and send the resulting final version of the book to the printer. All of this is SOP for novels.
What isn't standard is the fact that the book was due to the printer today.
I received the galleys a little over a month ago. I had the usual two weeks to turn them around and send them back. For various reasons mostly having to do with too much being on my plate, I did not meet the deadline. I hate that I failed to do so, but I did.
What made the edits possible were the efforts and flexibility of several people in the Baen production process:
* Toni Weisskopf, the Publisher, who said it was okay to try to get a day or two out of the printer
* Danielle Turner, the Managing Editor, who actually got me that time
* Joy Freeman, who agreed to incorporate my changes in a rush
I didn't even have to rush the package to FedEx; Jennie was nice enough to do that for me.
I thank all of these folks for buying me the time to make Slanted Jack a little bit better book. I greatly appreciate it.
WARNING: Some Baen- and self-pimpage ahead.
Baen Books operates a cool ebook program, Webscriptions. With Webscriptions, you can buy online copies of books--and those copies have no digital rights management crap that restricts what you do with them. None. Nada. Baen Books trusts you, and so do I. So, come summer, you'll be able to buy Slanted Jack as part of a Webscriptions package.
If you can't wait, however, you can actually buy Slanted Jack now--or, more precisely, you can buy an eARC of the book. An eARC, or electronic Advance Reading Copy, is the book exactly as the author submitted it to Baen. A typical final hardback book includes the results of an editing pass, a copyediting job, the author checking the copyedited manuscript, typesetting, and the author checking the nearly final typeset book. You basically never see the book the author submitted.
With Baen's eARC program, however, you can. If you want to see the original Slanted Jack version exactly as I wrote it, you can buy it here--and read it months ahead of your friends.
Did I mention this book is almost 20% longer than One Jump Ahead? We're talking a lot more value for the money, because I didn't pad--I never pad; the story needed the space.
Of course, then you might want to see the final, polished result, so you can order the hardback when it appears. The folks at Baen--and I--certainly hope you'll buy both.
Hey, I never said the program wasn't out to make a buck.
Now, about this no-DRM business: doesn't it mean you could pass the book around to all your friends and thus deprive Baen and me of revenue? Yup. You could. It's easy; just email the file to them. You can rip us off. We just don't think you will. We're back to that trust thing: we trust you to behave responsibly.
All other considerations aside, I'm psyched that the book is now available for purchase. I've lived with Slanted Jack in my head for a very long time, so it's nice that others will get to join me (in the book, not in my head; that would be messy for all of us). If you choose to buy it, I hope you enjoy it.
Now, back to the third Jon & Lobo book, Overthrowing Heaven. The more I work on the outline, the cooler the story gets. I can't wait to start writing it. Excellent.
After some morning work in my room, I headed to BEA, where I grabbed a hot dog and prowled the floor. I love looking at books, so it was a pleasant time. 
At 12:45, however, I had to set up for the one--yes, one--SF panel of the show. As you can see if you expand the picture, even the one SF panel had to focus on whether SF was getting into the mainstream. 
I helped hand out Baen tote bags, each of which contained, among other things, an inflatable Baen rocket, like the one Toni is holding, and a copy of my book. I autographed many books for very nice people. Toni and David Weber were on the panel, and they represented Baen well. 
Afterward, I was able to get Toni, sales liaison whiz, Corinda Crawford, and Senior Editor To Be (on Heinlein's centennial, 7/7/07), Jim Minz, to pose for this photo.
Later that afternoon, Baen hosted a party for booksellers in the Simon & Schuster suite. I met many nice people, quite a few of whom tried to persuade me to go to LibertyCon. 
I was particularly glad to meet John Ringo, one of Baen's top authors and someone who was kind enough to blurb my book, and Miriam Sloan; they also agreed to pose for me. I enjoyed getting to know them a bit.
Dinner found the Baen group at Osteria Del Circo, where we enjoyed a lovely meal.
And now I must write--a familiar refrain.
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