Reader News for July 11, 2013

Some interesting stuff coming down the pike this week.

Short story writer and poet LaShawn Wanak just did an interesting interview at the blog of no less a writer than Jim Hines! You can see it here.

Closer to home (at least for me), fellow Spanish residents Sue Burke and Lawrence Schimel have translated Terra Nova, An Anthology Of Contemporary Spanish Science Fiction.

Sue and Lawrence are both experienced translators and science fiction writers, so this is a great chance to get a look at a  Spanish take on the future.

Here's the blurb:

Six top Spanish-language authors prove that science fiction remains sharp and visionary, with stories about the deepest anxieties, challenges, and problems of our societies. Their speculations and metaphors analyze and dissect a reality in continuous change.

"The Texture of Words", by Felicidad Martínez: women seek to lead despite being blind and dependent, while men fight constant wars.

"Deirdre", by Lola Robles: in the future, robotics can create made-to-order lovers.

"Greetings from a Zombie Nation", by Eric J. Mota: a stagnant society turns its citizens into the living dead.

"Light a Lone Candle", by Victor Conde: social networks want too much and never let go.

"Bodies", by Juanfran Jiménez: in a globalized and pseudodemocratic Europe, the rich practice sex tourism by means of mind exchange.

"Memory", by Teresa P. Mira de Echeverría: personal relationships and sex roles evolve in radical ways on a terraformed Mars in a relatively near future.

"Science Fiction from Spain", by Mariano Villarreal: a close view of what Spanish science fiction is and has been.

Offering my fantasy novella for free

I have decided to offer my fantasy novella The Quintessence of Absence as a free ebook. It's now available on Smashwords in all formats. Since I'm not in the Kindle Select program, I can't make it free on Amazon unless someone reports a lower price to them (hint, hint).

I've never done a free promotion before so I want to ask my fellow indie publishers--what's worked for you? I've already done the usual FB and Twitter announcements. What else can I do besides plea for a bit of your blog and Twitter time? Of course, I'm assembling the next Reader News post, so if you have anything you'd like to share, I'd be happy to reciprocate.

This dark alternative history novella was originally published in Black Gate magazine. I'm hoping this free promotion will boost sales on my other fiction. By the way, if you were one of the kind folks who bought a copy before it went free, drop me a line at the email address you see on the sidebar and I'll send you another, as-yet-unpublished story as a thank you.

A blurb is below:

Can a drug-addicted sorcerer sober up long enough to save a kidnapped girl and his own Duchy?

In an alternate 18th century Germany where magic is real and paganism never died, Lothar is in the bonds of nepenthe, a powerful drug that gives him ecstatic visions. It has also taken his job, his friends, and his self-respect. Now his old employer has rehired Lothar to find the man's daughter, who is in the grip of her own addiction to nepenthe.

As Lothar digs deeper into the girl's disappearance, he uncovers a plot that threatens the entire Duchy of Anhalt, and finds the only way to stop it is to face his own weakness.

A Civil War veteran in Tangier

While I was in Tangier I learned of an interesting connection between the American Legation, pictured here, and the Civil War.

In December of 1777, Morocco became the first country to recognize the United States. Diplomatic relations soon began and the American Legation, now a museum, was built in 1821.

One early consul was Felix Mathews. Mathews was living in California when the war broke out and organized a Union cavalry force in the California militia to patrol the area. He rose to the rank of colonel.

His service had started earlier than that, however. He had been in the navy and served with Admiral Farragut, who later commanded the Union navy during the Civil War. He spent time sailing the seas and suppressing the slave trade off the coast of Africa. Once he left the navy he went hunting silver in Utah and got into several skirmishes with the Indians.

His real name was Felix Mateo. He was born in Spain and immigrated when he was young. Like many immigrants, he Anglicized his name. Mateo/Mathews was appointed consul by President Ulysses S. Grant, another Union veteran, in 1869. His connections with Admiral Farragut probably played a big part in getting the job.

Tsarist coastal artillery in Estonia and Jesse James in Italy

While I was away on my writing retreat in Tangier I popped up on the Web a couple of times. The organizers of the èStoria Festival, who hosted me for the release of the Italian edition of my Jesse James book, have posted this video of my panel on the outlaw. Everyone's speaking Italian except for yours truly, so I'll forgive you if you don't watch it.

I also did a guest post for the Osprey Publishing blog on a shore battery in Estonia dating to the Tsarist era. It’s located near the village of Suurupi, overlooking the Gulf of Finland. It's an interesting bit of military history and nearly gave us a nasty surprise!

Civil War Photo Friday: First at Vicksburg

Titled "First at Vicksburg", this painting at the US Army Center of Military History shows the Confederate lines at Vicksbur along the Mississippi River during the Union assault on 19 May 1863. The Union 1st Battalion, 13th Infantry, lost forty-three percent of its men, but was the sole regiment to get its regimental colors up to the top of the steep defences.

General Sherman called its performance "unequalled in the Army" and authorized the 13th Infantry to inscribe "First at Vicksburg" on its colors. Despite this heroism, the assault failed and a long siege lasted until July 4, when the rebel garrison finally capitulated. Soon all of the Mississippi River was in Union hands and the Confederacy was cut in half. From this point on, the war in the Trans-Mississippi; Missouri, Arkansas, the Indian territory, etc., would be in effect a separate conflict.

Photo courtesy U.S. Army.

More on writing in Tangier

As I mentioned in my last post, I just got back from a writing retreat in Tangier. Not only was it hugely productive but it shifted my thinking about my career.

I originally got into writing with the dream of having a successful career writing both fiction and nonfiction. Well, the nonfiction part happened and the fiction didn't. Oh, sure, I've had several short stories published and a novel that has received good reviews and poor sales, but the vast majority of my effort has gone into developing my careers as a history and travel writer.

I need to change that. No, I'm not quitting my day job unless one of you happens to be rich and wants to be a literary patron, I'm just shifting emphasis. You see, I was really happy for those ten days on Tangier. I was doing nothing but writing a novel and getting into random situations that informed my novel. Like meeting Arabs, Berbers, and Saharawis. Like meeting French millionaires and children addicted to sniffing glue. Like wandering through the market at night and discovering that it smells of popcorn.

I'd spend long hours in cafes and in the courtyard of my pension writing it all down and working some of these details into the developing story. I delved into my protagonist's head. I immersed myself in the story.

I haven't been doing enough of that. Over my 13 year writing career I've squished my fiction writing time in between my nonfiction research and writing. It's always been secondary; now it's going to be a priority.

So I've changed my habits. Now the first thing I do in the morning is fiction, not email or blog posts or the thousands of other things that demand my attention. The email is being drastically cut down. When I returned after ten days offline I found more than 500 new messages in my inbox. In half an hour I was done looking at them. I read and responded to all the important one and the ones from friends and deleted the rest. Yes, it's really that simple.

Have you had a shift in your writing career? What prompted it?

Back from my writing retreat in Tangier

I'm baaaack!

After ten amazing days in Tangier, I'm back in Spain. I went there on a writing retreat to work on my next book, a novel set in contemporary Tangier.

I cut myself off from the internet, music, video, and all those other distractions that are only important when we have them around. I wrote 21,000 words in longhand and outlined the whole novel. It's amazing the progress you can make when you have nothing else to do.

It was nice to fully reconnect with my fiction, something I haven't been able to do for far too long thanks to all the other writing responsibilities that demand my time. Writing longhand was wonderful too. It made me write more slowly and focus on each word and phrase.

Of course I didn't spend all my time hunched over a notebook, although I did carry it everywhere. I explored the city more than I had time for on my previous visit and met lots of interesting folks who I'm looking forward to seeing again.

Yep, I'm already planning my next trip. This time I'm going to rent a cheap room in the medina and stay for a whole month, probably in November. The kind folks at the American Legation have given me access to their excellent library, complete with a desk and wifi. If I'm going for a month, I'll have to take my computer. I don't think my editors would take kindly to me disappearing for that long!