Category: books.

books. capitalism. writing.

news about superheroes and graphic novels.

I can finally share some fun news I’ve been sitting on for a while:

I am a new member of George R.R. Martin’s WILD CARDS consortium, and will be contributing to a new batch of WILD CARDS books in the very near future.

(For those unfamiliar with the WILD CARDS books–these are shared world anthologies set in the WILD CARDS world, where an alien supervirus has killed a great deal of people and turned a small percentage of the exposed into monstrous freaks called Jokers, or turned them into superpowered humans called Aces.)

This is really fun stuff, especially because it’s slightly out of my usual ballpark, but in an area that I really enjoy: superheroes and supervillains. I don’t have specifics on the upcoming volumes yet because all of that is still getting hammered out right now, but I’ll be on the team, along with other WILD CARDS newbies Diana Rowland, Max Gladstone, and Saladin Ahmed.

In other excellent news, the first volume of the Frontlines: REQUIEM graphic novel series is now up in the Previewsworld catalog of new comics. It will be released in May, and the follow-ups will be released in a one-month cycle thereafter. Frontlines: REQUIEM will be released by Jet City Comics and features a new character, Colonel Soraya Yamin. The series takes place concurrent with some of the events in ANGLES OF ATTACK. It features a script by Ivan Brandon, artwork by Gary Erskine, and colors by Yel Zamor, all of whom are fantastically talented and a delight to work with.

STL003037

books. shameless self-promotion. travel. writing.

ConFusion schedule.

I’ll be at ConFusion in Detroit next weekend. If you’re going to be there, here’s where you can find me:

 

Friday 9:00:00 PM Who Threw Away My Monster Compendium

When was the last time a zeitgeist novel had a bugbear or a cockatrice? How long is it since someone fought a giant, flesh-eating beast instead of pikeman? Where did all the monsters go? With quest plots out of fashion, deus ex machina ditched, treasure-hunting too economically dull, and stories about ethics, is the monster still relevant in today’s fiction?

Saturday 4:00:00 PM Power Armor and Rail Guns: The Science of Future Wars

Military technology in science fiction settings: Who wore the powersuit better?

 

Saturday 6:00:00 PM The Fallacy of Commercial Fiction

Literary culture often derides the idea of commercial work, suggesting that marketability signals a lack of refinement. What exactly is commercial fiction and why is it snubbed? Furthermore, are science fiction, fantasy, and horror equally burdened by this dichotomy?

 

Outside of the panels, I’ll be hanging out with old friends and making new ones, so if you see me there, feel free to come up and say hi. I’ll also be at the Autograph Session on Saturday, and my awesome publisher is sending a box of TERMS OF ENLISTMENT paperbacks to the event hotel to give away as promo freebies. I am not above using bribes to make sure people show up for the signing, so if you want to snag a free signed coy, SHOW UP. I’ll hand out the freebie copies until they’re gone. (Of course, I’ll also sign stuff you bring with you.)

If you’re going to ConFusion: see you in Detroit next week!

art. books. capitalism. shameless self-promotion. writing.

dispatch from the frontlines graphic novel front.

Here’s something extremely cool: the provisional cover for Issue #1 of the Frontlines: Requiem series of graphic novels, due out by Jet City Comics this spring. I just got the green light to be able to share this with you all.

Frontlines_cover_CLR_FINAL_editR2

Frontlines: Requiem will be a tie-in of sorts. It tells the story of a different character in the Frontlines universe, someone you haven’t met yet. The protagonist is Colonel Soraya Yamin, an NAC starship commander in her Forties and mother of two. The story takes place during the events in Angles of Attack, and it will provide a lot of backstory to the series. In particular, it shows what’s going on back on and around Earth while Andrew is gallivanting around in space. There will be four issues, and the artists are Ivan Brandon and Paul Erskine.

That’s all I can tell you right now, but I’ll post updates as soon as there’s a page for pre-orders via ComiXology and/or other sources.

 

books. travel. writing.

2016 already?

I’ve been an awful blogger in 2015.

I’m pretty active on Twitter and Facebook, but I use them mostly to stay in touch with friends and family (Facebook), and dash off one -liners and short thoughts as they pop into my head during the day (Twitter). But the long form requires one to actually sit down, open an editor, and think about content and structure and stuff, and that comes perilously close to work. Alas, there are readers out there who don’t do Twitter, and my private Facebook account is limited to real-life friends and family, so I suppose I should get more regular with the updates on the blog again.

2015 was great. I don’t have a thing to complain about—the curve of professional good fortune that bent sharply upward in early 2013 has been going on that trajectory ever since. Angles of Attack came out in April and earned out its advance on Day One on the strength of pre-orders alone, which is a feat I would love to repeat with Chains of Command when it comes out this April. I did more work-related travel than ever before: San Antonio in May, Europe in June, Readercon in July, Worldcon in August, NY ComicCon and Honorcon in October, World Fantasy Con in November. And it looks like this year will be just as busy, if not more so.

Right now the calendar has ConFusion in it later this month, so I’ll get to see more of Detroit than just the airport for once. I’ll be Guest of Honor at Manticon in Minneapolis in May, and I’ll be going to Europe again in June when the third Frontlines book comes out in German. I never miss Readercon in July, and I’d like to do Worldcon again this year, and then there’s NYCC again, and so on.

New fiction this year includes Chains of Command in April for sure, and very likely the first of a series of tie-in Frontlines graphic novels around the same time. If I get Frontlines #5 (Fields of Fire) finished reasonably on schedule, you’ll probably see that one this year as well, which would make 2016 the first year in which you’ll see two Frontlines novels.

2016: More fiction, more travel, mmmmmmmmaybe more blogging. We’ll see how things go.

art. books. capitalism. writing.

chains of command, the shocking cover reveal!

Hey, boys and girls—do you want to see the kick-ass cover for Frontlines #4, CHAINS OF COMMAND, due out on April 19th? OF COURSE YOU DO.

CoC-cover

Pretty sweet, huh?

I like all the covers, of course, but I have a particular fondness for the first one, TERMS OF ENLISTMENT. That said, this one may just be the best cover yet. It’s very dynamic in a Star Wars: battlefront sort of way. What do you think?

art. books. capitalism. shameless self-promotion. writing.

frontlines: the…graphic novel?

Frontlines #4 (Chains of Command) will be out in April, and I am hard at work to see to it that Frontlines #5 (Fields of Fire) will be out in 2016 as well. 

HOWEVER….there are other things in the works that may be of interest to you, and I hear that I am now free to share them.

First, Audible/Briliance Audio has purchased the audio rights to my Frontlines short story LUCKY THIRTEEN, and the novella, MEASURES OF ABSOLUTION. The audio versions should be out at some point next year as well, and I’ll let you know when we have a definite date of release.

The second order of the day is something pretty cool indeed:

Jet City Comics is going to release a series of graphic novels in the Frontlines universe. They will be called FRONTLINES: REQUIEM, and provide you with some interesting backstory about the events on and around Earth between ANGLES OF ATTACK and CHAINS OF COMMAND. There will be four issues and an omnibus graphic novel at the end that contains all four issues, and Jet City Comics is working to get the first issue out and into your hands by the time CHAINS OF COMMAND comes out in April. 

There will be Frontlines graphic novels! Is this cool, or what? I’m still a little beside myself over this. It’s not just a fun way to tell more stories in the Frontlines universe, but it’s also an amazing chance to show that world and some of its characters in a different, more visual medium. I can’t wait for the first issue to come out.

books. friends. movies. shameless self-promotion. travel.

gooder reads.

Hey, look at that! ANGLES OF ATTACK made the semifinals in the science fiction category of the Goodreads Choice Awards. Thanks to all of you who voted for Space Kablooie #3. And feel free to vote for it some more!

I spent the weekend at World Fantasy Con in Saratoga Springs, NY. I didn’t bother with a con membership, and mostly spent time with old friends. I did walk the ballroom floor on Friday night when all the writers had their tables set up for signings, and got to say hello and introduce myself to Joe Haldeman, which was a thrill. (Another awesome thing was realizing just how many of the writers present were friends of mine.) The weekend was basically all drinking, eating, chatting, and watching movies. I brought my PS4 to the hotel suite to stream movies from it, and we got a little zapped and watched three movies in a row on Saturday night–and that was after I took the opportunity to see the new Bond movie at the theater in the afternoon.

Writing is a rather solitary pursuit, so it’s always fun to get out of the house and meet up with friends who do the same thing you’re doing, and who understand what it’s like. I’ve made the best of friends as a genre writer–we enjoy each others’ company, are happy for each others’ successes, and glad to commiserate over the bumpy stuff. Friendship: it truly IS magic!

Now I’m back to work on Frontlines #5 (FIELDS OF FIRE), which will keep me busy for the rest of the year and possibly a bit into the new one. If all goes well, it will be out in 2016 as well, which means you’ll get to spend your shekels on TWO Frontlines novels next year. (And you may want to keep some of your tooth fairy change back for some other Frontlines-related spending opportunities. But more of that later, when I am at liberty to…. divulge.)

 

 

books.

signed books: an experiment.

I know that some people would like to have books signed, and I probably don’t go to nearly enough conventions and such just yet to sign in person for everyone who would like a signed and/or personalized copy.

Soooooo–here’s the new experimental plan. I don’t think there are so many of you out there that signing your stuff on the side would overwhelm me, but I won’t know until I find out one way or the other. I have very convenient post office access, and I figure I can sign a few books a day and mail them back to their owners without making too much of a dent in my schedule. (If it does, I may either discontinue the practice, try to partner up with a local bookstore for it, or hire an assistant.) But hey, let’s give it a try. It’s not like I’m Neil Gaiman or John Scalzi.

Until I post otherwise, you may send me Frontlines books to sign and/or personalize to the following address:

P.O.Box 9

Lyme, NH 03768

Don’t forget to include a self-addressed envelope with enough stamps for sending you the book back via USPS Media Mail. If you hand the book(s) to be shipped to your friendly postal clerk, they’ll weigh it for you and sell you the right amount of postage. If you want or need the book(s) returned more quickly than Media Mail, you can pony up for Priority, and I’ll try to get it back into the mail to you the day I sign the book(s).

If you live outside the United States, you can go to the usps.com website and calculate the USPS international return postage for a large envelope of your book’s weight and then PayPal me to marko.kloos@gmail.com, but I have to warn you ahead of time that this isn’t a super-cheap solution, and you may pay as much for the return postage as you paid for the book to begin with.

Please include a note indicating how you want me to sign the book(s)–just my signature, or any personalization, preferably all in legible block writing so I don’t ruin your book by signing it to the wrong name. I will send the book(s) back to you as soon as I can.

Again, this is a test run. I don’t expect this to generate a ton of extra work for me, and I’d like to offer a way to get personalized and signed books to people who don’t usually go to cons and such, so let’s give this a shot and see how it goes.

books. shameless self-promotion.

the 2015 goodreads choice awards and you.

It appears to my untrained eye that ANGLES OF ATTACK, the third Frontlines novel, made it into the opening round of the Goodreads Choice Awards 2015, science fiction category. That means a whole lot of readers thought it didn’t suck, which is a cool and pleasing thing.

In the wake of the ballot-related kerfuffle that happened earlier this year, I am extremely hesitant to throw out any recommendation or suggestion regarding votes, but if you have a Goodreads account and think that ANGLES is deserving of a vote, I would not oppose it in the least. And if you think one of the other fine novels in the SF category was better than ANGLES, you should totally vote for that, and I won’t mind in the least. There are some pretty good novels in that list, including stuff from John Scalzi, Ann Leckie, Neal Stephenson, and Paolo Bacigalupi, all kick-ass writers in their own right.

(Thanks to Chuck Wendig for pointing this out to me on Twitter.)

books. friends. travel. writing.

brief nycc 2015 weekend recap.

I spent last weekend at NY Comic Con in the Big Apple. As usual, it was a ton of fun, although the teeming mass of humanity that is the Javits Center at Comic Con is something I have to take in limited doses. I did a signing at the 47North booth, a panel with other writers including the sentient tarantula-filled meatbag known as Chuck Wendig, and some general milling about and saying hi to friends.

My publisher 47North threw a little mill & swill at an artisan cheese shop downtown, and we somehow ended up staying out until, oh, 2:30AM. Luckily, I had nothing on the schedule for Saturday other than touristy stuff. Robin had never been to NYC, so I played tour guide. We spent the day doing the tourist thing, and then went to have dinner and see a Broadway show (Sylvia with Matthew Broderick, at the Cort Theatre). We had a great time, and it was nice to do grown-up things for a few days without the kids in tow.

Here are a few snapshots from the NYCC weekend:

10999759_10208144700799054_1691117523356152707_o 12068538_10208144667398219_7276205879454934812_o 12080299_10208144730439795_6685020276755964732_o 12087646_10208144670758303_6779293354257516817_o 12087800_10208162053112851_2608505645367028401_o 12095249_10208144678038485_1178066259293003629_o 12109999_10208144676318442_4219306575716467544_o 12113358_10208144691718827_5372363764834980345_o 12113529_10208144743480121_8714468151282533737_o 12113556_10208144732079836_2430319533457797493_o 12132490_10208144745200164_8938171342220890002_o 12138508_10208144735479921_2919944529876290340_o 12140069_10208144657437970_6939440120180434897_o 12140156_10208144753440370_5017390816366637287_o 12140203_10208144724959658_3553891095229310410_o 12140977_10208144725879681_1149780529822555291_o

Next up on the calendar is Honorcon in Raleigh, where I will be a featured author guest. (Honorcon is a military SF con centered on, but not limited to, David Weber’s Honor Harrington series.) After that, I’ll be at World Fantasy in Saratoga Springs in early November to hang out and do some barconning with old friends. After that, the schedule is mostly clear for the rest of the year, which is a good thing as I have another Frontlines novel to finish.

Onward into Friday! <saddles platypus>