books. food and drink. travel. writing.

a wild blog update appears!

If I’m less active on social media at the moment, it’s because I am finishing up FIELDS OF FIRE, Frontlines #5, for delivery to my publisher.

(FIELDS OF FIRE already has a pre-order page if you want to put your order in early, but be aware that the delivery date is provisional and can change.)

Other than my typical “finish line sprint” stress, things are going swimmingly here in scenic Upper Cryogenica. The weather is lovely, the kids have two weeks of school left, and my calendar is pretty light for the rest of the year. I just attended Manticon in Minneapolis as Guest of Honor and had a great time. Manticon (and its sister con, Honorcon) are military science fiction conventions run by The Royal Manticoran Navy, the official fan organization for David Weber’s Honor Harrington series, and they’re all lovely and fun people with a shared enthusiasm for all things Military SF. They made me an honorary Sergeant Major in the Royal Manticoran Army, which was pretty cool:

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Manticon was also the first occasion where someone other than me mixed Shockfrost cocktails, which were a crowd-pleaser. They taste great, and watching the preparation is kind of fun. (Video is still uploading to YouTube at the speed of molasses in the freezer, so refresh in a little while if it’s not loading yet.)

And on the last day of the con, a bunch of TRMN folks kicked off the inaugural meeting of the official Frontlines fan club, if you can believe that. (There’s a Facebook group and everything.)

The weekend was fun, but now I have to put the pedal to the metal finishing up FIELDS, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see a whole lot of me on the FaceTwits until this thing is in the bag.

books. food and drink.

frontlines: the cocktail.

Just in time for the upcoming Manticon (where I will be Guest of Honor), I present to you the first Frontlines-themed cocktail: the Shockfrost.

Those of you who have read ANGLES OF ATTACK will know that the Shockfrost is featured in the novel as the specialty of the bars on the ice moon New Svalbard, and that it’s supposed to pack quite a punch. Andrew mentions the look (blue) and the flavors of the drink when he tries one for the first time (notes of licorice, mint, and God-knows-what-else). So I made a trip to the liquor store for ingredients and experimented with the flavors a bit to create a real-world replica.

Frontlines Shockfrost:

1.5oz Bombay Sapphire Gin

1.5oz Blue Curacao

1.5oz Everclear 151

1/4oz. (a dash) of absinthe (Pernod will substitute)

1/4oz. (a dash) of peppermint schnapps

Put 4-5 ice cubes into a shaker and add all ingredients except for the Everclear. Shake until ice cold.

Take a lowball glass and pour the Everclear into it. Swirl to coat glass with Everclear. With a long-nosed lighter, set the Everclear on fire and let it burn for a few moments.

Dump contents of the shaker, ice included, into lowball glass to extinguish the Everclear. Drink one of those for a really good mood, drink two to get soaked, drink three if you want to forget what planet or moon you’re currently on.

(In the novel, Sergeant Fallon lights her drink and puts it out with her hand before downing it. In real life, that would take a great deal more Everclear than I added to the recipe. Let’s just say that the ice miners on New Svalbard don’t screw around when it comes to getting drunk, and that they like their cocktails strong enough to fuel a drop ship.)

For expediency, you can add the Everclear in the shaker and pour the whole thing without lighting the glass on fire, but that takes away half the fun.

 

 

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books. bullets & links. capitalism. shameless self-promotion.

frontlines kindle sale.

The first three books in the Frontlines series, which are (chronologically) TERMS OF ENLISTMENT, LINES OF DEPARTURE, and ANGLES OF ATTACK, are currently on sale in the Kindle store for a measly $1.99 a pop. If you’ve been wanting to check out the series, here’s your chance to pick up the first three books for under six bucks total. Why, that’s less than the twenty-ounce cup of foam-topped caffeine sludge you pick up on the way to work every morning!

 

books. capitalism. shameless self-promotion. writing.

Chains of Command

It’s that day again, friends and neighbors–book release day!

CHAINS OF COMMAND, the fourth novel in the Frontlines series, is now available for IMMEDIATE PURCHASENINGS in Kindle, dead tree, and unabridged audio format:

 

CoC-cover

CHAINS OF COMMAND takes place roughly a year after the events of ANGLES OF ATTACK. With humanity up against the ropes after the Lanky takeover of Mars, Andrew Grayson is asked to join a high-stakes, high-risk mission to help stack the deck in the NAC’s favor for the upcoming do-or-die assault on Mars.

CHAINS is the longest Frontlines book yet by a fair margin, and the beta and ARC readers all seem to think it’s the best one in the series yet. I think it came together pretty well, but it’s always nice to have confirmation that I didn’t just squirt ink onto a notebook for the better part of a year. If you’ve followed Master Grayson’s exploits so far, consider picking up CHAINS OF COMMAND in the format of your choice. (The audio version, from Audible/Brilliance Audio, is again read by the awesome Luke Daniels.)

Now I get to finish up Frontlines #5, FIELDS OF FIRE, which may see a release late this year if I don’t screw up. Until then, dig in and read up on what Andrew has been up to in the year since New Svalbard and the Second Battle of Detroit.

books. shameless self-promotion. writing.

e-arcs for CHAINS OF COMMAND are live.

If you would like an early electronic review copy of CHAINS OF COMMAND, the NetGalley link for downloads is now live here. Go download it, read it, review it, and revel in the knowledge that you get to have access to the fourth Frontlines novel almost a month before release. DON’T EVER SAY I NEVER DO ANYTHING FOR YOU.

books. capitalism. shameless self-promotion. writing.

chains of command giveaway.

The clock is ticking for CHAINS OF COMMAND, the fourth book in the Frontlines series. It will be released in less than a month, on April 19th, and you can pre-order the paperback, Kindle, or Audible audiobook here:

 

Goodreads is also running a giveaway right now. You can enter to win one of 20 copies:

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/178279-chains-of-command

 

So if you like free books in general and the Frontlines series in particular, you should put your name into the hat. As I type this, there are fewer than 100 requests for those 20 books, so you have better than 1-5 odds if you enter RIGHT NOW. 

I may also do a fun contest with some of these author copies I have in the office. Those will have the added bonus that I can sign and personalize them for the recipients if desired. Stay tuned while I think about what to do for my own little giveaway…

books. bullets & links. capitalism. writing.

The first issue of Frontlines: Requiem now has a product page on Amazon, where you can pre-order it if you are so inclined:

And if you’d like to preview some of the content, Fanboy Comics has one up on their page:

http://fanboycomics.net/index.php/fanboy-scoop/item/6232

I’m very excited about this project and happy with the way it turned out. I came up with the storyline, Ivan Brandon wrote the script, Gary Erskine did the artwork, and Yel Zamor did the colors. 

It’s never quite possible to fully translate a story from a written medium to a visual one and have 100% fidelity because you have various artists bringing in their own visions and ideas. But Requiem is very, very close to the way that world looks in my head. It’s a great addition to the Frontlines universe, not just because it tells a new story from a different character’s point of view and shows that every faction in the story has its own motivations and reasons for what they do, but also because it finally gives readers concrete visual references. (“What do the Lankies look like? Will there be Lankies in the graphic novels?” is a question I get frequently. Yes, there will be, and the reveal is pretty bad-ass.) You will see SI troopers in armor, NAC capital ships, Lanky seed ships…and yes, finally the big, bad Lankies.

So that’s coming out in may, which is great timing, because CHAINS OF COMMAND is coming out in April, so you’ll be able to get your hands on new Frontlines stuff two months in a row. And having seen the finished issue #1 of REQUIEM, I can tell you that you’re in for a ride.

 

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.

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art. technology. writing.

old-fashioned word processing.

People who know me in real life are aware of my quaint love for fountain pens and my little ritual of buying a nice new fountain pen every time I finish a novel. (When I finished TERMS OF ENLISTMENT, I got a Lamy 2000. For LINES OF DEPARTURE, it was a Pilot Vanishing Point, and for ANGLES OF ATTACK, I bought a Pelikan M600. When I finished CHAINS OF COMMAND, I got a Namiki Falcon.)

But when I am out and about with my notebook, I don’t use a fountain pen. Those are for desk use at the office, not for scribbling down notes or making sketches at the coffee shop or in the school’s pickup line. For travel note-taking, I use a pencil–usually a Lamy 2000 mechanical pencil with 0.5mm 2B lead.

The benefits of the pencil over the fountain pen, ballpoint, or gel ink stick are numerous. It doesn’t make a mess, it doesn’t bleed through pages, it tolerates airplane travel without leaking (unlike most fountain pens), and it’s quick and easy to refill. In addition, pencil marks–being graphite–are the most durable way to put words on paper. Graphite doesn’t smear when the page gets wet, and it doesn’t fade. Pencil marks are impervious to light or chemicals, and they won’t make the cellulose of the paper deteriorate over time like most inks. The only enemy of pencil writing is the eraser, but I’m way more concerned about fading or moisture than I am about the possibility of some stranger taking an eraser to all my notebooks.

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travel. writing.

the cost of going to a con.

I went to ConFusion in Detroit last weekend and a had a terrific time meeting old friends and making new ones. (It marked the first time a fan recognized my name in the elevator and got all excited. ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED.)

I tend to do the local cons regularly because I can drive to those and can be home quickly if needed. Boskone and Readercon are both in Boston, a 2-hour drive away, I can bring tax-free NH liquor in my own car, and if I had to, I could pack a cooler and a lot of sandwiches, so I can do those cons on the cheap if needed.

Out-of-town cons are a different story, fiscally speaking.

I just totaled up receipts for the ConFusion trip, so I thought I’d take a second to share the numbers. I spent a total of $1,888.00, which breaks down as follows:

Air fare: $319.20 (Manchester–Detroit, basic economy)

Hotels: $889.27

Rental car: $267.66

Food and drink: $284.01

Other expenses (gas, luggage fees, etc.): $127.86

Now, I did spend an extra $400 staying at the Clarion in the Detroit airport because I volunteered my seat on Sunday and had to stay an extra night, and the airline’s voucher was for a run-down shithole of a hotel that had dirty walls and smelled like cigarette smoke throughout. Subtract that as a non-essential expense, and chop $100 off the rental car price because I took their insurance coverage instead of just chancing it with my own. I also brought my own bow, which cost me $70 in luggage fees, and if I were a teetotaler, I could have saved roughly $200 in bar tabs I racked up buying drinks for myself and friends. But even when you subtract the frills, I still spent north of $1,000.

For a lot of fans and even new pro writers, that’s an expense they can’t swing for a long weekend of drinking and talking about books.

To be sure, it’s a tax write-off (which doesn’t mean it’s a freebie–it only reduces the tax burden a bit), but in order to even get that little financial break, you have to have writing income to write the con expenses off against. A lot of writers don’t have that, especially ones just breaking into the field or selling mostly short fiction. And fans don’t have it at all.

I came out slightly ahead because I volunteered my seat twice (the snow storm travel mess meant a lot of people were trying to get alternative flights east due to the closures of NYC and all DC area airports), and got to bag more than my expenditures in Delta travel vouchers. But every other con I’ve been to has been a loss leader for me, financially speaking. It’s great to see old friends (and truth be told, that’s why most writers primarily go to cons), and it’s fun to meet fans and sign books, but it’s not nearly enough of a career helper to justify the expense. You pay for the fun and the mini-vacation among like-minded people, not for the networking and the career benefits (although those can be an ancillary bonus if and when the networking does happen.) But the expense involved in attending even a small regional con is why a lot of writers and fans only do cons that are in reasonable driving range, or strictly local stuff. Our field simply doesn’t have a lot of people who can afford to lay out the cash to go to half a dozen or more cons every year.