Suvi

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The Muse

“No Muse-poet grows conscious of the Muse except by experience of a woman in whom the Goddess is to some degree resident; just as no Apollonian poet can perform his proper function unless he lives under a monarchy or a quasi-monarchy. A Muse-poet falls in love, absolutely, and his true love is for him the embodiment of the Muse…

But the real, perpetually obsessed Muse-poet distinguishes between the Goddess as manifest in the supreme power, glory, wisdom, and love of woman, and the individual woman whom the Goddess may make her instrument…

The Goddess abides; and perhaps he will again have knowledge of her through his experience of another woman…”

–Robert Frost

I was not functionally cognizant of Suvi’s place in my heart and mind when I started out writing what would become the universe of Alexandria Station. I had written Greater Than The Gods Intended as an introduction to Doyle Iwakuma, with the plan to write the exact same story from Doyle’s Point of View in a science fiction story, to complement the fantasy side.

Instead, I started working on what would become The Science Officer, with Javier and his little AI starship-babe, who would become something of a long-term sidekick. About midway through that story, I realized that I needed to build out more of Suvi, in order to cover the details of the second half of Science Officer. So I put that on hold and wrote The Librarian in order to bridge the two worlds together.

And I had a universe.

An earlier review by a voracious reader who loves my stuff pointed out that Suvi was really my Muse. And I went “huh?” But Fabulous Publisher Babe ™ looked at me and said “Duh. Of course,” so I had to take the both serious.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Suvi inhabited an interesting and possibly unique position in my fiction. In order to place her in time and place, I had to create the depths of that universe. For me, world-building is the best part of writing. People, places, dates, smells.

And Suvi has been there. But she never gets jaded, because she’s not organic. She won’t die of old age. Damocles is not hanging over her head, as he does the rest of us. She gets to be the pixie Librarian who occasionally regrets not being human, because many of the people she has fallen in love with over the millennia were men. And because people like Javier made sure that she was human, when the rest of the AI’s, the Immortals, were all too stuffy and full of themselves. (That’s why they all go crazy eventually. They develop a God-complex and decide that humans should either worship them, or be destroyed by them. Yucky people.)

But Suvi is just a breath of fresh air. I always look forward to writing a Suvi story, because she has this silly way of looking at the world, kinda screwball and fun. Sarcastic, but without that sharp edge that Javier gets from time to time. Just having fun being herself, a total free spirit uninhibited by convention and able to follow her how dreams.

Later, when she does become a goddess, of sorts, that helps her be a personable deity.

As part of finishing up Queen Of The Pirates, I realized that I needed to write another Suvi story, to explore part of the founding of Aquitaine. I had already known that the four civilized founding planets in Doyle’s time (Ballard, Pohang, Saxon, and Zanzibar), where members of the Republic of Aquitaine, but small-time, peripheral players who get left somewhat behind when technology and civilization sweep the galaxy and bring everyone back to the space age again. Think of them as dowdy aunts.

I was listening to a friend play her violin one day. Someone asked her some technical questions about how one played, and specifically how you knew it was right when there were no frets (he’s a guitar player).

She explained that when the instrument was singing to her, she knew everything was correct. (And it’s almost always right, with her playing.)

It was something Suvi would have said.

And it inspired an entire arc of history and legend, because one of my current characters (Arnulf, the King Of The Pirates) was about to ask Jessica Keller about the Founding Legends of Aquitaine.

The main character, Henri Baudin, is a bard, in the classical sense of the word. (Don’t tell Dean. He hates reading stories with bards. Heh.) Henri has to travel to Ballard as part of his quest, and while he is there, he meets Suvi to ask her a question. That question, and the answer, fundamentally lead to the Founding of Aquitaine. But they do so in such a way that Suvi, while important as a stepping stone, is no longer central to the arc of human history. (At least for now. There are stories to be told “After Jessica Keller’s Time” that Suvi might be implicated in.)

The future is Suvi’s story, in a strange way. Even when I plan to write some “near-distant-future” stories (before Suvi will be born: Sunday, March 19, 7426 CE), that take place in the millennia before Suvi comes to be. She inspires them. She binds them together. She is their goddess, their Muse, just as she is mine.

All of these men and women who I write about will be seen through the reflection of her bright, cheery smile. “How would Suvi see this situation?” is a question I have asked myself more than once along the way. Whether it is the mutant tuna of Ballard or the culture-war fanatics of the Fribourg Empire. Javier Aritza, or Doyle Iwakuma, or Jessica Keller, or Henri Baudin, or Ayumu Ulfsson, or others along the way.

They are all inspired by this cute little electronic pixie named for the Finnish word for  “Summer.” And so am I…

Goodreads giveaways

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So, starting shortly, my publisher plans on doing several Goodreads giveaways of my first novel, Auberon. At least, that’s what she tells me. It’s due out May 5, so this will be your opportunity to read it before anyone else. (The giveaway is for paperbacks, not electronic books. So some of you might get early copies, before everything is finalized.)

For those of you keeping score at home, this novel (and the two behind it: Queen Of The Pirates and Last Of The Immortals) takes place in the Alexandria Station universe, but well after the time of Javier Aritza or Doyle Iwakuma. A little more than 1100 years after Doyle, to be exact. (And yes, I will put up my timeline on this website when Auberon, the first of the Jessica Keller novels, comes out.)

My plan is to have the whole trilogy out this year. I am on track for that, and I plan on several other pieces that will be published as we go. Last year was very productive for me, but I’m only now getting everything caught up and published.

Assuming that the New Yorker doesn’t suddenly buy it before then, the sequel to Myrmidons, entitled Moonshot, will come out in mid-May. Hive returns for more adventures.

Then my second novel, Imposters, (the first one written last year, before Auberon, but second published,)  will come out in June. And finally, another Suvi piece, The Story Road, which I’m hoping will launch as ebook, paper, and audio at roughly the same time. (Matt W’s on board, which is good. A happy Matt is a wonderful thing.)

Jessica Keller has been a fun character for me to adventure with. She’s hard, and tough, and smart, while at the same time being vulnerable and closed. Eventually, I’m planning a second trilogy (titles and stories already plotted out in the notes, lacking only copious spare time to complete), but first I need to go back and write down some of the Javier stories people have been clamoring for, as well as more Henri Baudin and Doyle Iwakuma. And maybe some more Rick Pine, depending on how people react to everything.

I’ve said it before. I have not been able to find the sorts of science fiction I wanted to read, so I had to write my own. What does that mean? It means that, right now, Distopian Young Adult is all the rage. Several movie trilogies over the last few years back that up. Wonderful, but not my cup of tea. Before that, it was Urban Fantasy Mystery, with hot-babe magical private detective wizards hunting strange creatures in hard-boiled back alleys while wearing mid-riff baring tops. Again, not my book.

The joy of writing today is that I can write the kinds of stories I want to read, about the characters I find interesting. For me, that means snarky know-it-all Javier Aritza, or Doyle the Salvager. Right now, it is Jessica, a young naval commander trying to out-think one of the best tacticians and strategists the bad guys have. While not making him the bad guy. He’s not. He’s just on the other side of the war. He’s generally a nice guy.

I also think in series, as those of you who have wandered through my back catalog might have noticed. Any one story is interesting, but it’s how characters grow and change over time, instead of just over the course of one story, that fascinates me. I have often wished I could split myself into several iterations at once. One to go to the day job and keep a roof overhead. One to write about this character. One for her. One for him. Etc.

It’s kinda awesome that people actually buy my books and read them. Hell, people even buy my poetry from the bad old days. I’m planning to do this for as long as I am physically and mentally capable. If I could live forever, I’d be there, writing more stories as we went. Even if I didn’t have this outlet, I’d still be there, furiously writing stuff.

I just wish I had more hours in the day.

But there will be more Javier stories soon. And more Jessica. And more Henri. And more Alicia. And more Hive. And more Jesilyria. And more Brak. Hopefully, you’ll join me on the adventure of a lifetime.

Free books giveaway and stuff

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Good News!!!

Audible has given me promo codes to use for free audio book downloads of The Science Officer, The Mind Field, and The Librarian. At the same time, I also have promo codes from iTunes for e-book copies of all three that I can also use for a giveaway.

After consulting with my publisher, the plan is to give away five sets of codes, and let people pick which they would like. Translation: five people will get all three titles, your choice as to which format you prefer when you win.

Because I’m trying to build my newsletter list, I’m going to make you sign up for it to be eligible. (No, the usual things apply: quarterly newsletters only, the list is private, not to be sold later, might be used for more giveaways in the future, etc.) Everyone who signs up for the newsletter after this blog posts will be enrolled in the contest.

And, to make it easier on me, please send me a contact message indicating that you signed up because of this note and if you prefer audio book or iTunes e-book. If you are already signed up for the newsletter, just send the contact message and I’ll add you to the scientifically-chosen hat I pick winners from. There will only be five winners total, so whatever combination is picked will be sent out, and I will notify winners privately via email.

It is my understanding that the audio-book codes do not expire, but the iTunes ones will go stale after four weeks, so winners will need to use them fairly quickly, or I would say they make good birthday presents (who wants to wait for Christmas, anyway?) (If you really want to use them later, include that in the message and I’ll make sure I actually read your letter before generating iTunes codes.)

And this would be a good time for you, my lovely readers, to speak up. I’ll have more codes in the future for other things, so I can do more interesting giveaways for readers. I might swap promo codes for reviews on various sites. (Just so you know, the number of reviews, by themselves, are a key driver of my visibility on the online stores. Actual rating is a second value, but hopefully I’m writing things you like and would like to see more of, and that’s why you are here and engaged with me.)

Other online book stores besides the big one in Seattle are trying to compete, so they are aggressive in courting authors. I’m happy to pass freebie-things along, but have no idea who wants or needs what. Or what might make readers more likely to be happy and involved. Remember, readers like you are why I’m here. I was just another person stuffing stories into a trunk before the new world of publishing happened.

What would be that thing I might do that would make you do the total-happy-dance?

I am currently planning to publish several more short stories, novellas, and  novels this year (Auberon on May 5, Imposters in late June, more later in the year), so there will be more free swag. And there will be book giveaways on Goodreads coming in April for Auberon, as well, for those people who follow me over there. (hint hint. It is more of a reader-driven site than writer driven, but you can also ask me questions over there and I try to listen to what people say.)

Which brings me to the next bit of news.  Since Auberon is coming out on May 5 (five weeks from now), Awesome Publishing Babe(tm) is going to have a small Release Party for it and for me on Saturday, May 9th. The plan is to have it at the Cupcake Royale on Capital Hill, here in Seattle. People close enough to call this “in the neighborhood” are invited to join us. There will be cupcakes and ice cream and who knows what else.  More info to follow, once she nails it all down and tells me.

I would love to see everyone and meet anyone else who happens to be in the range of my voice. I will also remind everyone again between now and then, on the newsletter scheduled for May 1, and a few social media sites I frequent. Feel free to pass along the news.

Hope all that news helps. I have been a little quiet on the publishing front lately, but that’s because I have a half-dozen or so things that are going to drop before July, plus more fun before WorldCon in August and Orycon in November. (If you’re going to be at either, I look forward to seeing/meeting you there.)

cheers,

b

 

Why Auberon

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I spent last year writing in a variety of genre, partly as an experiment, partly because I had (have!) so many ideas floating around in my head and wanted to get as many of them done as I could. Towards the end of the year, I had an experience with a group of professional writers where many of them came across as looking down their snooty noses at me because they were novelists and I was merely a writer.

To prove a point, I decided that it was time for me to write a novel. At the same time, my sweetie suggested that from a marketing and career standpoint, novels sell better long-term and make the author more money overall.

Mind you, that’s not my normal wheel-house for story-telling. For me, the novella is a wonderful place. 20k-30k words is long enough to build a world, introduce characters, and romp around, without needing to have a number of complex threads that must be pulled together and balanced. I had already written several novellas at that point, including one that is technically a novel by length, but not by style.

So it was time for me to write a novel. What to write?

As any writer will tell you, the question is not “where do you get your ideas?” but rather “how do you make them stop long enough to write something?” (And that’s a whole different discussion we might have later, over beer.)

I was at an event with my sweetie, down in Portland, OR, at a book signing organized by Powell’s Books. It was huge, and there were a lot of big hitters there signing, as well as mid-listers. My job at these sorts of things is “supportive spouse.” Running errands, hauling heavy bags for Phyl, whatever. I had a lot of time to kill looking at the racks.

My great complaint these days is finding the kind of book I want to read. Traditional (Manhattan Island) Publishing is deep into a number of sub-genres of SF that bore me to tears. And I hate to count all the times I’ve run into writers who say, “I had to write the book I wanted to read.” But there is truth there. In two hours and several thousand titles, nothing jumped out at me enough to buy. I had a half dozen maybes, but nothing I wanted: big space opera SF that was a-political and not a media tie-in (that is, written in the world of some television series, or movie, or table-top board game, to name the three big ones these days.)

I already had Javier and Doyle, and the beginnings of the whole universe that would become Alexandria Station. (Mind you, this was when I had just finished The Librarian for Beyond The Mirror, Volume 3, and The Science Officer, before The Mind Field.)

To let you in on how my brain processes: When I go to bed, lights off, snugged in, engulfed in darkness, I tend to pull out some story idea that has been rolling around in my head and let it turn to gumbo as I fall asleep, pushing the story farther or deeper or whateverer. I had had the core of Science Officer for years before I ever wrote it. There are a number of other pieces that will eventually get pulled out, cleaned up, and used at some point.

Occasionally, a story idea will hit me so hard that I have no recourse but to get up, fire up the machine, and start writing. I was laying there, right at the edge of sleep, when I heard a voice speak. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was Jessica Keller, the main character, telling me the keyword, the archstone that would pull it all together. All she said was “Auberon.” I had thought she said Oberon, from Shakespeare, but when I did some digging the next day, she corrected me to the older spelling.

At that point, it was just a matter of making notes as fast as I could type. I had the entirety of the first novel in my head. As I started teasing apart threads, I realized that there were at least six novels in the core axis of Jessica’s story, done as two separate trilogies. (And yes, I had the titles to all of them before I finished writing Auberon. At this point, I’m nearly done with the second one in the first trilogy, Queen Of The Pirates.)

Jessica is Jessica because I had an amazingly strong person upon which to base her, once I realized who my inspiration was. About half of my major characters in my books are pastiches of real world people, because you can take the parts you like and frame them. Such with Jessica Keller. (And no, I will not tell you who she was based on. I might tell HER one of these years. Maybe.)

I don’t have a political, or gender, or ethnicity axe to grind in my story telling. I have such a wide variety of peoples because I do get tired of Euro-male heroes, but mostly because I have a specific view of what the universe will look like that far in the future. (For comparison-sake, Auberon takes place starting in the year 13,439 C.E.) I’m probably wrong, but I want a rich galaxy, with every color, creed, and a variety of languages, beyond the seven basics I think we will end up with, based on the effect that technology will have to freeze things in place.

So I had Jessica. The first novel clocks in at a shade under 60,000 words. I just watched my sweetie finish the CreateSpace file last night and send it off. That means I will have a physical proof in my hands in a couple of weeks. At that point, I’m planning some giveaways, like through goodreads, or a few others (TBD, please let me know if you have preferences or ideas. This is for my readers, not me.)  Auberon will come out on 5 May. Another novel will come out after that, and then Queen Of The Pirates is due at the end of summer.

The Shipwrecked Mermaid

Yay, I have a new story coming out.

For those of you paying attention at home, I have written elsewhere about CampCon, the annual summer camping/writing weekend in central Oregon. Last year was my first visit (I’ll be back this year, hopefully).

There were about a dozen writers there, all furiously heads-down generating new stuff. During the weekend, Phyl suggested that we should do an anthology on a theme. Considering the circumstances, the consensus was that everyone would do a science-fictiony kind of story related to camping and wilderness. As I have also mentioned elsewhere, my first two stories were fun and turned out well, but didn’t fit the category. (First attempt turned into Valeriya, which led directly to Tatiyana. Second attempt became The Librarian.)

After a fit of silliness and creativity, I ended up writing a story in a whole new universe. The result is The Shipwrecked Mermaid. It’s a story about an alien scientist, a mermaid, who gets trapped inland by a tsunami and needs help to survive and escape. I’m rather proud of it, and I think it turned out pretty good (IMHO).

I liked this story so much that I took the main character, a convict/chef named Rick Pine, and wrote what will turn into my second novel (due out this summer), called Imposters. (More information about Rick, Imposters, and The Collective when we get closer.)

Back to the Anthology.

Irene Radford is the editor. She is an absolutely wonderful lady and I highly recommend her to anyone who loves fantasy and SF. Because Leah is so well organized on the topic, Ms. Radford asked Knotted Road Press to handle publishing it. All told, there are about a dozen authors represented, and we cover science fiction, fantasy, serious, and silly. Sometimes, all in the same story.

The result is Tales From An Alien Campfire. It will be officially published on Tuesday, but it is already available now here. And apparently already has reviews, but that might be because at least one of Dr. Amy’s friends has already ordered it.

All the ways to reach a reader

I have had good teachers.

Kristine Katherine Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith (both of http://www.wmgpublishing.com) are big time writers who have made it their work to train up new writers in the craft of good writing and business of being a successful businessman. What I know comes from what they have taught, largely filtered and refined through my own sweetie.

I am just back from the “Anthology Workshop” for Fiction River (http://www.fictionriver.com). I didn’t participate (this is by invitation to really seriously high-caliber writers), but I got to hang out because Leah was in it (and she sold two stories). I also got to do a lot of baking, goofing off, and writing/world-building. But I also got to listen to Kris, Dean, Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Kerry L. Hughes, John Helfers, and Mark Leslie (yes, go google those names for things they have written and edited, and then pick your jaw up off the floor).

One of the things Dean lectures about is the need to have as many different ways to communicate with readers and potential readers as possible. That means making sure you have a personal web-site (www.blazeward.com & www.knottedroadpress.com) that you keep up to date, plus author pages in as many places as you can: Amazon, Kobo, GoodReads, etc. It means making your work available on as many different platforms and as many different places as you can, because not everyone reads the same thing, the same way, or the same place.

——————–

When The Science Officer became a minor hit, I went out and got lucky to find a fantastic voice guy (Matt Weight) to read the story (available on Amazon, iTunes, and Audible). People who have listened to the audio book have given the story pretty high marks, and him five stars for absolutely awesome radio voice. I am extremely lucky.

After that, I got him to do The Mind Field next.

I am happy (serious happy-dance-time) to be able to say that The Mind Field is also now available for you to purchase on on Audible and Amazon, to go with The Science Officer.

And better yet, I expect The Librarian to be available in the next few days, for those of you who need more Suvi.

Hopefully, I will be able to convince Matt to do more things for me in the future. He has a fantastic voice.

As I wrote this, the thought that has been with me is how important it is to be out there where people could find me, read me, enjoy me. I would be writing without the outlet of publication (I was writing before I met Leah, after all), but it is extra rewarding to be part of a larger writer community, to be able to sit at their knees and listen, to learn as they adapt in real time, and even make my own contributions.

For those of you into audio books, please let your friends know about Javier and Suvi. I think they’re kinda awesome, and hope to share them with more people who feel the same way.

And if you have questions, let me know via FB, on blazeward.com, or goodreads. It’s fun to talk to readers and see what they like, what they want to know, and where they want the stories to go. I have lots of Javier plotted out, I just don’t have time to fit it into my crazy schedule right now.

But the readers are still the reason I do this. I’m just the storyteller, here.

One of THOSE conversations

I grew up in what west coasters colloquially refer to as “flyover country.” Specifically, Kansas. Flat, gold, extreme weather. I grew up hunting and fishing, and doing all sorts of crazy things in the eyes of people from the left coast. (Please note: I am NEVER mucking out a stable again, thank you.)

From my grandfather, I inherited a couple of extremely old firearms. As in, manufactured before I was born and well kept. My dad got most of the old ones, and one of these days, I’ll inherit those as well. And I do mean old. I have a little .22 Short High Standard that belonged to my great-grandmother when she was young. And a Lee-Enfield .303 rifle that was, as near as I can tell, manufactured in Pakistan right after the Partition. Etc. Weird stuff.

Along the way, I started my own collection. Mostly old and exotic stuff. Blame the old DC character Manhunter (the Goodwin and Simonson version, not that green weirdo), and George Lucas. I fell in love with the old Mauser 1896 Broomhandle. And I bought myself one. Rarely shoot it, because ammunition is so hard to find, but I’ve owned it for more than 20 years. The other pieces have similar exotic heritage.

So yesterday, I’m in a room with a collection of writers, most of whom are from the left/west coast and know nothing about firearms, except what they see in the movies. And one of my fiance’s friends turns to me and says “She tells me you own guns…”

That is not a conversation opener I ever enjoy. Especially not with a group like this.

So I look at her and kinda agree, leaving her to fill in the blanks. I’m not really in a mood at this point to explain my culture to her, and I don’t EVER talk politics (or religion) with people I don’t know VERY well. And even then, rarely. Matthew covered this in Book VI. And I figure that this is going to be one of THOSE conversations, since I don’t know this woman at all, except that my sweetie dotes on her.

What she said next surprised the hell out of me.

“I have this western series character I want to write, but he needs a gun and I don’t know anything, except that it needs to be something exotic. Something that can be its own character. Can you help?”

Huh? Oh. Well, sure.

Apparently, among these writers, the word has gotten around that Blaze knows guns. And, if you know writers, they love to find someone they consider an expert so they can pick their brain. For 95% of your readers, they don’t know any specific topic well enough to realize if you get some detail wrong. However, for the other 5%, they can spot any flaw and pick it apart. And will send you (not hate mail, exactly) but nastygrams explaining how much of an idiot you are for not realizing that the screw is one-third of the way back rather that out at the edge. Etc. Not that I’ve ever gotten that sort of critique…

So, I sat down last night and this morning and did a little research for her, looking for something weird and period, rather than just another Winchester carbine for her hero to sling around. My fiance laughed at me, and told me over lunch that several other people had said to ask me gun questions in the group.

I suppose there are worse things. After all, I had another conversation last night where I suggested that every firearm sold should, by law, be required to be one of three colors: Lime Green, Canary Yellow, or Hello-Kitty Pink. And with another writer, I made a couple of suggestions as to what she should consider for home security. (My own preference is a Brazilian Side By Side 12 gauge Coach Gun, but I’m not a nice person and I don’t figure anyone that breaks into my house has my best interests at heart. YMMV)

So this writer has this really cool gun to work with. I haven’t write westerns (yet), but I’m a gamer, and I had to kind of sit down and think about how this particular thing might work, and how it might get into his hands, and what you could do with it. Because it could be a character all by itself, as the best bits of gear are.

I mean, face it, the Millennium Falcon is just a spaceship. Right?

The Zolnerovy Stories

In the Summer of 2014, I got invited to participate in a closed anthology, meaning one that is by-invitation-only, rather than open for submissions. The theme was science fiction and having to do with in the woods, so terrestrial and arboreal instead of space ships.

For writers, the question is never “Where do you get your ideas?” but rather “How do you make them stop?” This is important because at the time I was just about midway through what would become the novelette Moscow Gold, and started noodling on various ideas.

I still have no idea what caused me to come up with the story Valeriya. Seriously. Even today, I’m still at a loss as to where that came from.

But it surfaced, like a great whale broaching from the weird depths of my subconscious. A Soviet tank crew, fighting in the Great Patriotic War (WW2 for Americans), when their lives get interrupted by a time-traveling assassin from the distant future.

Obviously, you change the past by killing someone important, isn’t that how every story tries to work? The people of the future, not wanting to be wiped out, also send someone back into the past to preserve the timeline.

Think about how many times you’ve come across this particular trope. Lots, right?

So I had this interesting idea. And because I have played table-top games that take place in that time frame, I am familiar with it. And I wanted to put them in a poky little British Matilda II tank, because there were a lot of those in Soviet hands until American Shermans arrived and Soviet factories began putting out a mess of T-34x76mm.

For me, what makes this world so interesting is sending someone like Tatiyana back from the distant future, leaping backwards from the fifty-eighth century to the twentieth, and what they encounter. Imagine you being able to meet Herakles, or Iason, or Menelaus in their own day, only thirty-two centuries in the the past from us.

In their own day, the Zolernovy are fairly powerful psionicists, but not overlords. They see themselves as protectors. They are, to quote themselves, the Children of the Soldier, zolner being a cognate into Russian of soldier. They are descendents in line from Sergey Orlov and his mate, Valeriya, whom he has not yet met during the war.

And family legends get a little twisted over the centuries, even for telepaths, so they don’t quite understand that the Valeriya who was with Sergey during the war was his tank, named Valeriya for the woman who haunts his dreams, rather than the woman herself. But they went to the beginning, to where the legend began, not realizing that they caused the legend in their own way. Because altering the past is never easy.

From the distant future, they knew that something happened in 1944, but not what. They knew that in 1945, during the Battle of Berlin, Sergey Orlov would do something that would keep the Nazis from suddenly fighting back and winning.

Sergey knew that he was special, able to catch glimpses of the future that always came true. He could see, but could not control it. It took the presence of his many-times-over great-granddaughter, Tatiyana, to help crystallize his powers. When she died, part of her soul became bound up in his, teaching him some of the very basic techniques that would help him survive.

So, I had this story. And it was kinda awesome. It still makes me tear up to read it, so much emotional baggage.

But the anthology I was invited to participate in was not scheduled (at that time) to come out until mid-2015. Midway through writing Valeriya, I realized that I had to write the second story, Tatiyana, as well. And I didn’t want to wait until summer 2015 for the first story to come out, and then fall so I could publish the second one. (That anthology story, by the way, turned out to be The Shipwrecked Mermaid and is coming out in March 2015 as part of Tales From An Alien Campfire.)

So I decided to put them into Beyond The Mirror: Volume 3, Alternate Worlds as the bookend pieces. I plan to write another short story in that universe in the near future, after I finish the novel I am currently in the middle of.

This makes Zolnerovy the second of the science fiction universes I plan to work in over the next several years. The Shipwrecked Mermaid (modern SF) will introduce the third, and Rick Pine (and Laurie Bradley) will be the main character(s) there. Now I just need time to write everything in my head.

Auberon now available for pre-order

After a lot of work, I am finally able to announce that the first novel in the Jessica Keller series is now available for pre-order on several sites (see links below).

Amazon
Kobo

The novel is entitled Auberon, and is the beginning of a series of novels that takes place in the Alexandria Station universe, roughly 1100 years after the story The Librarian. It is pure military space opera SF, dealing with the commander and crew of a Republic of Aquitaine Strike Carrier (RAN Auberon).

As you read this, I am about halfway through the sequel to Auberon, which is called Queen Of The Pirates. Its expected publication date is this fall.

For those of you keeping score at home, the third book for this initial trilogy (yes, I plan another one after the first) will be entitled Last Of The Immortals, and Suvi, your favorite AI Librarian, will make an appearance. A special guest-starring kind of appearance.

Once Queen Of The Pirates is done, I would like to go back and write some more about Javier Aritza, continuing that serialized story arc. Unfortunately, there is only one of me, and I still have to be a geek for living, but I’m writing as fast as I can.

Languages in the Future (or why I want a Bulgarian Fan Club)

I got asked the other day why I had Bulgarian as a language in The Science Officer. And in The Librarian. It’s a complicated question to answer, because it goes to the heart of what I see in science fiction, or rather, one of the things I see wrong. Many authors (myself occasionally included), use a single language and ethnicity for the names of their characters.

I live in a very international city, at least by American standards. I work at a high-tech job where the team members were born in nine different countries. People have names from their own cultures, many of which are extremely old.

Javier Aritza will be born in the year 7510 C.E. Doyle Iwakuma will be born in 12,263 C.E. Suvi becomes self-aware in 7426 C.E. (And yes, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, I have all of this in a spreadsheet and a document encyclopedia).

That’s five to ten millennia from now. A little over three millennia ago, Agamemnon’s forces stormed Troy. Two millennia, Roman Britain was a barbaric outpost on the far edge of the world.

So what will the future look like? I don’t know. I don’t have to know. (I hope, someday, centuries after I’m gone, I have some scholar reading this and laughing at me.) I look at where we are and contemplate where we will be going. In Javier’s time (as referenced by Doyle in The Librarian), these are the major trade languages in the galaxy: Kiswahili, Hindi, Mandarin, English, Arabic, Spanish, and Bulgarian. Kiswahili because of Doyle and his story. Most of the rest, because the languages that are dominant today, at the transformation between the past and the technological age, will probably be the languages that continue to dominate, in some form, as we explode out and explore the whole galaxy.

Which brings me to Bulgarian. I was asked at some point, what my measure of success was. That’s an even more fuzzy question. For me, off the cuff, I said “a Bulgarian Fan Club.” Not because that is a measure in and of itself, but because, if I have people translating my books into Bulgarian (a language I would have to pay a lot of money to do myself), then I have a serious fan base, world-wide. And because, little known outside their own space, Bulgarians have a very proud and successful tradition of good SF, most of which does not get translated into English (at least, that I am aware of. And I don’t read Bulgarian to enjoy it natively.)

So as I’m writing the future, Bulgarian takes on its own mythical quality. I could see them colonizing a dark corner of the galaxy, well away from everyone else, and happily living their lives. Later, when the Earth is destroyed (in 10,397 C.E., mark your calendars), and most of the galaxy falls into a dark age, those Bulgarian descendants keep plugging along.

When Doyle helps rebuild Suvi as Alexandria Station, and turns her into a Great Library, she helps spark a renaissance of culture and learning. In the process, those happy little Bulgarians will create a new Republic, called Aquitaine, and absorb Ballard and Suvi as they go. Because they are a meritocracy leavened with republicanism, the best and the brightest are elevated, regardless of birth, and join with a stable semi-aristocracy. In Jessica Keller’s first novel (Auberon, coming soon), the Republic is represented by what are called the Fifty Families. Those clans tend to have good Bulgarian names, because of where they are. But there are a tremendous spectrum of names that you will encounter.

For me, the writer, it comes down to a fantastically rich, random name generator website I found. You select a culture (or several), a gender, and hit go. It randomly spits back at you a name, with an explanation of what the name means. Because it is random, I get hit with exotic names that come from everywhere, especially if I pick non-adjacent ethnicities, like Japanese and Italian. And it reminds me that there might be a trillion humans alive in the age of Jessica Keller, scattered across hundreds of thousands of planets and stations. And love will follow humans, not cultures.

So I see this fantastic cross-pollination of cultures in the future. And I get to write about it. And hey, fans in Bulgaria: you figure out how to get me there, I will come. 🙂

20140215 – bw