Remember I mentioned that our panels at the Adelaide Writers’ Week were being televised? Well here is the first of mine where I discuss Redemption in Indigo with Dr Amy Matthews:
ABC Big Ideas Karen Lord: Redemption in Indigo
(Correction – Oxford was after teaching physics, not before.)
We also have a mini review of The Best of All Possible Worlds from Eric Brown at the Guardian (UK).
Finally, I now have a Wikipedia page thanks to participants in the Global Women Wikipedia Write-in!
Still busy, but I’ve updated the About page Interviews section with another Australian radio interview and a really cool discussion on the BBC. I’ve also updated the reviews on The Best of All Possible Worlds with this fabulous review from Nalo Hopkinson.
The blog pages for ‘About‘ and ‘The Best of All Possible Worlds‘ have been updated. There is an interview (more on that soon), three new reviews from the Wall Street Journal, the Telegraph and the Seattle Times respectively, and an extra in the form of a Spanish translation of the previously-linked short story ‘Astronomy Lesson’.
About planes, the Tiptree, the Kitschies, music, movies, and a nightclub.
On Tuesday 26 February, I departed for Adelaide. I was travelling light, cabin baggage only. Access to free wifi varied quite a bit, and I spent most of the first two legs of the journey sleeping and reading. When I did have wifi, I was most often in email-discussion with my colleagues on the Tiptree jury as we reached the final phase of selection. Congratulations to Caitlin R. Kiernan (The Drowning Girl) and Kiini Ibura Salaam (Ancient Ancient) for their well-deserved win! Congrats also to the authors who made the honour list: Elizabeth Bear, Roz Kaveney, M.J. Locke, Kim Stanley Robinson, Karin Tidbeck, Ankaret Wells, and Lesley Wheeler. You can check out all the works at http://tiptree.org.
When I landed in Dubai, I checked my twitter and discovered a surge in mentions. Redemption in Indigo had won The Golden Tentacle (Best Debut) at the Kitschies. Thank you so much to the Kitschies judges! May I take this opportunity to draw to your attention the Kitschies playlist. This was my contribution:
Between Dubai and Adelaide I was mostly awake, so I caught up on some movies. Beasts of the Southern Wild was the first I saw. I loved it as a filmwatcher and a storyteller, and I did cry even though I’d been warned about ‘the scene that will make you cry’. I also watched two tai chi movies, a bit silly in plot but great in fight choreography.
On arrival in Adelaide late on Thursday 28 February, I smugly sauntered past baggage claim with my carry-on and handbag and was greeted by Adelaide Writers’ Week volunteer Sophie Byrne. I expected to come across as a shambling, incoherent, jetlagged wreck, but she was kind, reassuring and restful. She took me to my hotel and gently suggested that I do a quick unpack, enjoy a shower and change, and then think about heading back out with her to the Barrio. Which I did!
The Barrio was delightfully surreal. I never managed to see it in the daytime, but to my blurred and bleary vision it was an accretion of found objects, an assemblage of post-apocalyptic salvage. There I found Sean Williams, the delightful human being who got me hooked on Tim Tams in San Diego, increased the dosage to a full box in Toronto, and thus gradually lured me to Australia. After all too brief a time, the jetlag, as expected, came down upon me like a mighty hammer, so off I went for my first proper sleep since Monday night.
Next, Day One of the Writers’ Week!
First the reminder. My last book giveaway continues at this post. Go comment to enter!
Apologies for not giving some of these links sooner. I’ve been busy and now I’m both busy and fighting a cold/fever. There are new guest posts, and interview, and a mini review:
Next week I’m travelling to the Adelaide Writers’ Week in Australia. I will post a selected itinerary over the next few days. Unfortunately, I will be travelling at the time that the Kitschies are being awarded, and I have no guarantee of wifi in airports or on planes. Expect intermittent twitter and blog-silence next week and the week after.
I was too busy to post about it, but yes, on 12 February the US edition (Del Rey) of The Best of All Possible Worlds was released. The audiobook was also released on that day by Audible.com. Today, the Spanish edition is out from RBA Literatura Fantástica. I have updated my sidebar links accordingly, so go browse!
I have also updated my page for The Best of All Possible Worlds. It now contains links to additional excerpts and an exclusive short story, my guest post at The Huffington Post, and three more reviews and a mention.
Go have a look; there’s plenty to read!
Congratulations to Kim, the winner of last week’s giveaway, who is looking forward to Swords of Good Men by Icelandic author Snorri Kristjansson. Kim did not provide a website, twitter, Facebook, tumblr or anything, so Kim please get in touch via comment or twitter or something so I can get your details to have the books sent to you.
On a related note, Adam B Shaeffer, you have won some books and you have not replied to my twitter DM! Please get in touch! I need your mailing address.
Selecting a winner got a little complicated last week. I had two commenters on Goodreads, where this blog has a feed. I completely forgot that people can comment there as well. I did factor them into the random.org draw, but for this final giveaway please comment on merumsal.wordpress.com if you wish to enter.
And yes, this is the fifth and final Thursday Giveaway. The winner will get The Best of All Possible Worlds (hardback)
plus another Jo Fletcher Books title:
The Snowmelt River, by Frank P. Ryan (paperback).
On the summit of the fabled mountain Slievenamon in Ireland there is a doorway to an ancient land of terrible power. The gate of Feimhin has lain closed for centuries, the secret of its opening long lost.
But now four orphans drawn together by Fate must pass through the portal to face their destinies. What they find beyond is the enchanted but war-ravaged world of Tír, a strange land peopled by beings of magic. Here death waits at every corner and they must learn to fight if they are to survive.
And they’d better learn quickly, because their enemy, the Tyrant of the Wastelands, is growing in power.
To enter the competition, comment on this post and tell me … hmm … let’s make it interesting.
I’ve been too busy to update, but there are a lot of things out there. Comment and tell me the title of any short story, interview or guest post of mine that you’ve seen (or will see!) over the past few weeks and up to next week Wednesday. So far there are at least five; there will be more by next week. And no, SF Crossing the Gulf doesn’t count.
If you wish, add your twitter name, tumblr or blog url. I’ll randomly choose a winner from the comments next Wednesday night (around 8pm GMT-4), and announce the name in a post that same night. The books will be sent directly from Jo Fletcher Books in London, so if you win I will need your address to pass on to them.
Congratulations to the winners of the last giveaway, Andrea H and Adam B. Shaeffer! Andrea got in touch with me, but I haven’t heard from Adam yet, so if you’re reading this Adam, please check your twitter DMs.
This week’s giveaway is The Best of All Possible Worlds (hardback)
plus another Jo Fletcher title:
A Book of Horrors, by Stephen Jones (editor) and Les Edwards (illustrator) (paperback, signed by both editor and illustrator).
Many of us grew up on The Pan Book of Horror Stories and its later incarnations. For the first time in a decade or more, there’s a successor: A Book of Horrors features brand-new, never-before-published stories by the international Grand Master of horror Stephen King, John Ajvide Linqvist, author of the cult hit Let the Right One In, award-winning playwright Robert Shearman, Sunday Times bestseller Michael Marshall Smith and many others.
One word of warning: be sure to read this collection with the lights on!
To enter the competition, comment on this post. This time, I want you to tell me which Jo Fletcher Books or Quercus authors you have read (or are planning to read) who are neither American nor British. No, I don’t count. Tell me the author’s nationality as well, please!
If you wish, add your twitter name, tumblr or blog url. Next Wednesday night (around 8pm GMT-4), I’ll randomly choose a winner from the comments. I’ll announce the name in my new Thursday Giveaway post. The books will be sent directly from Jo Fletcher Books in London, so if you win I will need your address to pass on to them.
I’ve been trying to keep up, but a lot has been happening. First, we have my interview at the Literatura Fantástica blog in Spanish and in English. There’s also the first fifty pages of the Spanish translation available for download, and the publication date for the Spanish edition is 14 February … next week!
More good news – The Best of All Possible Worlds made the Editors’ Picks for February in Science Fiction and Fantasy at Amazon, and was chosen as best book of the month by RT Book Reviews.
And don’t forget to enter to win copies of The Best of All Possible Worlds and Redemption in Indigo. Details are here.
I have updated the pages for Redemption in Indigo (Kitschies nomination), The Best of All Possible Worlds (excerpt, interview, review and news), and About (nomination and interviews).
There’s an interview from last year, recorded during the Bocas Lit Fest. I can barely remember what I said, but I do recall I had a fantastic time. Go listen to it now at The Spaces Between the Words.
BookPage has a review of The Best of All Possible Worlds and an interview I did with Gavin Grant of Small Beer Press (thanks Gavin!).
