I’ve added this lovely review from Eric Brown of The Guardian (UK) to the Redemption in Indigo page.
I’ve also got some excellent news to share. Ron Eckel of Cooke International has sold German rights to The Best of All Possible Worlds to publishers Heyne Verlag on behalf of The Cooke Agency.
I forgot to blog (but remembered to tweet) about my time on the Hugo-nominated Coode Street Podcast about two episodes ago:
In the second of two podcasts recorded at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Gary and I are joined by Ellen Klages, Karen Lord, and Nalo Hopkinson for a discussion on writing, cover art and many other things.
Click here for a download link, or subscribe to the Coode Street Podcast on iTunes.
And speaking of Hugo nominations, here’s the full list from Locus Magazine, filled with excellent names and titles. Congratulations to all the nominees! I’m very happy to announce that I’ve been nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Unfortunately I won’t be at Worldcon in Chicago when the winners are announced, but I will be in Toronto later in the year for the World Fantasy Convention.
Before I went to ICFA, I recorded this interview with the BBC World Service which aired yesterday and today. You can hear it repeated over the weekend, but if you’re sufficiently comfortable with a podcast or audio-online, go here:
Sarfraz talks to Caribbean writer Karen Lord about the inspiration for Redemption in Indigo.
I knew I forgot to mention something in my update. Last month, the podcast ‘The Writer and the Critic’ reviewed Redemption in Indigo (and also Zoo City by Lauren Beukes. Excellent stuff, go listen here). I was moved to comment at length and by email, and they continued the dialogue by quoting from my email in their next podcast (listen here; it’s early in the podcast). It was a thought-provoking discussion on writing in, near and outside of your own culture. In the original podcast review there are also some interesting points on what makes a heroine feminist, whether antagonists are necessary, and (one of my favourite topics) genre definitions and boundaries.
I don’t have comments enabled here because I’m too busy/lazy to moderate, but if you’re at all moved to express an opinion, please shout me on twitter (@Karen_Lord) or facebook. I’d love to hear from you.
I’m seizing this moment, a brief lull between projects, to pull together various bits of news that I’ve been mentioning quickly on facebook and twitter. First of all, I don’t think I posted about the lovely cover for the UK edition of Redemption in Indigo:
Publication date is 1 March, which is two weeks from now!
Next, I wanted to talk about the extremely weird and wonderful Shared Worlds 2012 critter map. Hover, click, explore. It’s filled with little descriptions and entries on various fantastical beasties written by the likes of Tobias Buckell, Neil Gaiman, N.K. Jemisin, Lavie Tidhar, the incomparable Ann and Jeff VanderMeer and many more . I greedily snagged two entries, but if you read them you’ll see why. If you like what you read, take the time to donate to the Shared Worlds SF/F teen writing camp.
Finally, I’m attending a number of conventions this year. I’m confirmed to be at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando USA from 21-15 March, the Bocas Lit Fest in Trinidad from 26-29 April, the Bim Lit Fest in Barbados from 16 -20 May, and the World Fantasy Convention in Toronto Canada from 1-4 November.
That’s it for now. I’ll update soonish as more happens!
I got back home Monday evening, and have spent the past two days in a jumble of post-travel errands, research consultancy catch-up and tech wrangling (new backup drive, new software, new iPad). I tweeted the news of the award results and put a link on Facebook, but I delayed doing a blog post because I simply had too many things to say and not enough time and energy to say them.
Now I seize the opportunity to tell you in longhand, in more than 140 characters or the brief paragraphs of FaceBook, that the World Fantasy Convention was fantastic, so much so that my plans to schedule nap time were scuttled, and the dwindling duration of my actual sleep time became a mild joke. Sleeping was re-scheduled for … um … this week (and will that happen? Looks unlikely). I met several truly amazing people, in no small part due to the excellent mentorship of Ellen Klages, who encouraged me to attend the Convention in the first place. People on my twitter list came to life – human, marvellous, intelligent, enthusiastic life. There were some I knew but hadn’t seen since ICFA. Some I’d only met by phone or email, notably my agent and my editors: Sally Harding of the Cooke Agency, Betsy Mitchell of Del Rey, and Jo Fletcher of Jo Fletcher Books. Some I’d never met before, only heard of. Some I’d never even heard of. All were brilliant.
Brilliant is the word. I had conversations that will be several months food for a ruminating brain. Two were recorded: an interview/podcast with Charles Tan and a Locus podcast with Nalo Hopkinson and Karen Burnham. I’ll let you know when the links go up. They capture the atmosphere well: relaxed, amiable, filled with laughter and deep thought.
There are too many tales to tell, so I leave you with this incomplete list:
On that note, I look forward to Toronto WFC 2012!
It’s a real thrill to see my picture up at the Quercus blog. Now I can finally reveal that Jo Fletcher Books will be publishing Redemption in Indigo in the UK in March 2012! I’m pleased and proud to have two forthcoming books on their list (eventually three, God willing). Jo Fletcher Books will hold a formal launch at FantasyCon in Brighton on 1 October. They are already active on Twitter (and giving away books too, so go follow them!)
Locus Online has posted the World Fantasy nominees and the Lifetime Achievement winners. Thanks to Jeff VanderMeer, the first person to point me to the Locus post, and congrats to him as well for the nomination of his collection The Third Bear. Jeff’s feeling particularly happy right now, as well he should, because he called most of the Best Novel ballot in advance:
Best Novel
- Zoo City, Lauren Beukes (Jacana South Africa; Angry Robot)
- The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
- The Silent Land, Graham Joyce (Gollancz; Doubleday)
- Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada; Roc; Harper Voyager UK)
- Redemption In Indigo, Karen Lord (Small Beer)
- Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)
Congrats to all the nominees! It’s amazing to see Redemption in Indigo in such excellent company!
… was awarded to Redemption in Indigo at MythCon 42 last night.
This is such an honour, and not only for the Inklings connection. The Collymore is for unpublished manuscripts, the Crawford is for new writers, but at the Mythopoeic Awards my work was considered alongside the work of career authors in the genre, authors of experience and note.
Thank you Mythopoeic Society!
The audiobook of Redemption in Indigo is now available from Recorded Books!
I am absolutely terrible at listening to audiobooks. My mind wanders and I lose the thread of the plot, and of course hitting rewind is never as simple and quick as flipping back a few pages. So I hope that someone who loves audiobooks and has listened to a great many of them will listen to and review this version of Redemption in Indigo. I am particularly excited to see that the narrator is Robin Miles, whose work includes novels by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Austin Clarke and Edwidge Danticat.
Redemption in Indigo is written as if narrated by a storyteller. With such a talented and experienced narrator handling the audiobook, I think it’ll be very enjoyable.
