Steven Gould's Blog, page 4
May 21, 2013
What I Said
At the Nebula Award Weekend in San Jose, I presented the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy. This was what I said:
A reading from the sacred texts of my people. As you are brought
to remembrance, recite them with me.
The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile
above the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for
wizards.
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to
say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
There was a hand in the darkness and it held a knife.
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of
the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded
yellow sun.
All children, except one, grow up.
It was a dark and stormy night.
You see, I had this spacesuit.
It was a pleasure to burn.
In fairy tales, witches always wear silly black hats and black
cloaks, and they ride on broomsticks. But this is not a fairy-tale.
This is about REAL WITCHES.
The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone.
The nominees for the 2012 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult
Science Fiction and Fantasy are:
Iron Hearted Violet, Kelly Barnhill (Little, Brown)
Black Heart, Holly Black (S&S/McElderry; Gollancz)
Above, Leah Bobet (Levine)
The Diviners, Libba Bray (Little, Brown; Atom)
Vessel, Sarah Beth Durst (S&S/McElderry)
Seraphina, Rachel Hartman (Random House Children’s Books; Doubleday UK)
Enchanted, Alethea Kontis (Harcourt)
Every Day, David Levithan (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
Summer of the Mariposas, Guadalupe Garcia McCall (Tu Books)
Railsea, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan)
Fair Coin, E.C. Myers (Pyr)
Above World, Jenn Reese (Candlewick)
And the award goes to…
Fair Coin by E.C. Myers
May 17, 2013
Do you know the way to…?
2013 Nebula Awards Weekend
San Jose Hilton, San Jose, California
May 16-19, 2013 (Mass Autographing Open to Public May 17, 5:30-7:30 pm.)
May 10, 2013
Southwest Book Fiesta 5/11/2013
I’ve got a brief signing tomorrow at the PageOne Bookstore Booth at the Southwest Book Fiesta being held in the Southeast Hall of the Albuquerque Convention Center.
Here’s the schedule for the PageOne Table
11:00 am FIESTA PROGRAM – Christine Barber
12:30 pm SIGNING – Walter Jon Williams
1:30 pm SIGNING – Melinda Snodgrass (Phillipa Bornikova)
2:00 pm FIESTA PROGRAM – Land of Enchantment Romance Authors
2:30 pm SIGNING – Steven Gould
3:30 pm SIGNING – Darynda Jones & Gabi Stevens
4:30-5:30 pm SIGNING – Jacquelyn Frank
May 8, 2013
As of 1 July 2013
If you follow writing in general and SF and Fantasy in particular, you may have already heard that I have been elected the 27th president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. I take office the first of July as John Scalzi steps down from the office after three years at the job. Previous presidents:
Damon Knight (1965–1967)
Robert Silverberg (1967–1968)
Alan E. Nourse (1968–1969)
Gordon R. Dickson (1969–1971)
James E. Gunn (1971–1972)
Poul Anderson (1972–1973)
Jerry Pournelle (1973–1974)
Frederik Pohl (1974–1976)
Andrew J. Offutt (1976–1978)
Jack Williamson (1978–1980)
Norman Spinrad (1980–1982)
Marta Randall (1982–1984)
Charles Sheffield (1984–1986)
Jane Yolen (1986–1988)
Greg Bear (1988–1990)
Ben Bova (1990–1992)
Joe Haldeman (1992–1994)
Barbara Hambly (1994–1996)
Michael Capobianco (1996–1998)
Robert J. Sawyer (1998)
Paul Levinson (1998–2001)
Norman Spinrad (2001–2002)
Sharon Lee (2002–2003)
Catherine Asaro (2003–2005)
Robin Wayne Bailey (2005–2007)
Michael Capobianco (2007–2008)
Russell Davis (2008–2010)
John Scalzi (2010-2013)
Most of these people are heroes of mine. Eight of them are Damon Knight Memorial Grandmasters (including Damon, though it was just called the Grandmaster when he received it.) Inevitably, seven of the past-presidents are dead–the first, Alan E. Nourse in 1992, the most recent, andrew j. offut, just nine days ago. Several of them are really good friends. I first served as Regional Director for SFWA when Jane Yolen was president and if I can be half as gracious and effective as she was, I will consider my time in office to be successful.
As you may have noticed, I don’t post here very often, though I will be trying to improve that. Most of my effort, right now, is devoted to finishing my book Exo before I take office. I have been told that serving as president will seriously slow my writing output. I am going to do my best to make that a lie. I’ve written more in the last three months than in the year before it, so we’ll see.
Wish me luck.
Various posts on the news of my election:
April 6, 2013
An Auction For a Good Cause
Gaslight Gathering, San Diego’s steampunk and victoriana convention. Jay Lake will be the convention Guest of Honor this year (May 3-5) and we are holding an auction to help him with his fight against cancer. We would very much appreciate any item(s) for the auction that you might be willing to donate (e.g. autographed books, galleys, etc.). We are also asking for your help in getting the word out to anyone you think might be willing to donate – authors, artists, editors.
Please send any donations to
Jay Lake Auction
c/o Val and Ron Ontell
4557 Rueda Drive
San Diego, CA 92124
As time is short, we would appreciate receiving donations by April 25. Much thanks for your help with this.
via Esther Friesner and Cat Rambo
March 29, 2013
Albuquerque Group Signing Saturday 3/30 1pm
840A Juan Tabot Blvd NE * (505) 296-6107
(Near the intersection of Juan Tabot and Lomas)
Writers in attendance are:
Stephen R. Donaldson
Ralph Estes
Steven Gould
Melody Groves
Maryelizabeth Hart
Paul Hutton
Jim Jones
Jeffrey J. Mariotte
Robert Vardeman
Joan Spicci Saberhagen
Melinda Snodgrass
Ian Tregillis
AND Phillipa Bornikova!
March 23, 2013
Ur Doin’ It Wrong
One of our students from Viable Paradise self-published a short novel (it was his Viable Paradise submission) in eBook and it has really taken off. This doesn’t surprise me–I was pretty riveted when I read the beginning of it and I bought it and read it in pretty much one sitting. Good book. Check it out: Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos. Future Military SF, gritty and gripping. That link is to Kindle, but I’m pretty sure you can find it in all the usual ebook stores, including direct buy from Marko himself.
As of the time I’m typing this the book is:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #499 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Science Fiction > Military
#11 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Science Fiction > Adventure
#15 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Adventure
That indicates some kick-ass sales. Marko is on Twitter (@markokloos.) He follows 172 and is followed in turn by 904. He has 13,740 tweets, meaning he’s active. If you actually look at his twitter stream you’ll see he interacts with others, is amusing, and doesn’t spend all his time talking about his self-published book.
Marko is doin’ it right. He is connecting with an audience and he is providing something they care about.
There is a person on Twitter who is not.
@Author (And yes his twitter handle is really @Author) follows 2,186, and is followed in turn by 2,014. He has 25,489 tweets. When I paged back through his tweets, not only are they all links to his four self-published ebooks, they contain phrases like, ”The characters, the settings, the storytelling is unbeatable. A masterpiece.” When you look at the reviews they are, shall we say, uniformly laudatory, yet the sales rank is:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #654,615 Paid in Kindle Store
Now let me be clear, I have no personal knowledge of the quality of Mr. @Author’s fiction, but, given the above I am not going to even look. In my opinion, @Author is doin’ it wrong.
Why do I care?
Mr. @Author, for the last year or so, adds the hashtag #SFWA to his every tweet. He does, by the books’ descriptions, write Science Fiction, so I don’t think he’s talking about the South Florida Wrestling Association or the Scottish Football Writers Association. I can confidentially say that @Author is not a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America since I am and I checked the member directory. This is annoying, but mostly I would like people to know that this is not connecting to your audience.
This is lying to your audience.
This is holding your audience in contempt.
Don’t do this.
It’s not really working for Mr. @Author and it won’t work for you.
March 22, 2013
But that day is not today
I’m sure you guys are really tired of me talking about Impulse but it’s the nature of having a book out. The few months around the release tend to be about that. There will come a day when I really try to blog here about things that aren’t all promotion-y.
BUT THAT DAY IS NOT TODAY.
I got a starred review from School Library Journal. Good reviews are nice but STARRED review are one of those Sally Field moments where you say “You like me, you really like me.” So, forgive me for this additional Impulse post.
STARRED GOULD, Steven. Impulse. Bk. 3. 368p. (Jumper Series). Tor. 2013. Tr $25.99. ISBN 987-0-7653-2757-4; ebook $12.99. ISBN 978-1-4299-8754-7.
Gr 8 Up—This addition to the series is the first one marketed to young adults. It stands strongly on its own, but will encourage teens to pick up Jumper (1992) and Reflex (2004, both Tor) as well as seek out the 2008 film, Jumper, based on the first book. Sixteen-year-old Cent has spent her life in isolation, hiding from the people who are looking to kidnap and control her father and his ability to jump from place to place via teleportation. Although she has been able to travel the world by “jumping” with her parents, her entire existence is a secret, and she has never been able to go to school or have friends. This all changes when she is caught in an avalanche and suddenly ends up back in her own bedroom. Cent is a jumper, too. No longer able to protect her, her parents allow her to assume a false name, set down roots, and attend school, where she makes friends and finds her first love. But what happens when her identity is discovered and her family is suddenly in grave danger? A great science-fiction story that holds up to classic adult/YA crossovers, this is a must-read for any fans of the genre. With a strong female protagonist, interesting secondary characters, a bit of romance, some humor, and loads of action and adventure, Impulse will keep readers engaged from start to finish. –Sharon McKellar, Oakland Public Library, CA.
March 13, 2013
Audio Book of IMPULSE still on sale.
…but the eBook promotion at Kindle and Nook seems to be over. The price is back at $12.99.
However, the Audible.com Audiobook is still $4.49 (normally $24.95.) That’s a fantastic price. And, as I’ve said before, the narration/performance by Emily Rankin is equally fantastic.
February 27, 2013
IMPULSE SALE
seems to be having some promotional pricing right now.
The Nook eBook is currently $1.99 (normally $12.99)
The Kindle eBook is currently $1.99 (normally $12.99)
The Audible.com Audiobook is currently $4.49 (normally $24.95.)
Also, if you do Kindle AND audiobooks the two whisper sync (that means they keep track of where you are and can switch back and forth without losing your place.)
I’ve made inquiries, but I don’t know right now how long this pricing will last so strike while the iron is hot!
