Links and posts and a giveaway, oh my!

A. M. Dellamonica, 2014, photo by Kelly Robson

A. M. Dellamonica, 2014, photo by Kelly Robson

It’s been a fun couple of days. A pipe in our sink broke, necessitating emergency plumbing, and humidity made our front door swell just enough that we were trapped in the apartment yesterday morning. The security guy for our building had to come up and kick the door in so we could get to work.

I must say, if you’re going to be in a situation where your door’s getting kicked in, that’s probably the way to go.

Anyway, these bits and pieces of drama have delayed my telling you about Oh Magic Hour’s four-star review of Child of a Hidden Sea. Emily at OMH has also interviewed me, and the site is giving away a copy of the book in their Pirate Pack Giveaway, which is part of their Swashbuckling Summer event.

Go! Enter! Swash ye some buckles!

I’m also up at SF Signal with a bunch of other Mindmeld authors, talking about how to avoid Jo Walton’s Suck Fairy.

Last but certainly not least: Book Launch! If you happen to be in Toronto this Saturday afternoon, Bakka Books is holding the official Child of a Hidden Sea launch at 3:30 p.m. There will be cookies, a giveaway, and… me! I will probably read from one of “The Gales,”–I’m thinking about a Tonio story none of you has had a chance to read or hear.

Novel Gazing Redux reviews Child of a Hidden Sea

imageOver at Novel Gazing Redux, Marissa Lingen says:

Sophie loves her adoptive family like crazy, but she’s still curious about her birth family. When she goes looking, things get wild very very quickly. There’s an angry birth mother who wants nothing to do with her, there’s an aunt who’s slightly more reasonable, there are people attacking the aunt, there’s transit to a watery world of ships and weird magic tech and different species of bug and bird and sea critter, with variable languages and national customs…and the variable languages and national customs matter. A lot. If you’ve ever complained about books where it was raining on such-and-such an entire planet, Dellamonica has your back.

Gardner Dozois may have had a hand in that. One of the things I remember most from Clarion West was his throwaway mention that too many writers imperfectly imagine their SF-nal settings, and that in particular they simply assume that each planet (sometimes each solar system, or galaxy!) will have one culture, one language, and one government. A lightbulb went off.

Anyway, now I have a planet with two hundred and fifty nations. Plus assorted languages, religions, official state sciences and other cultural ephemera.

My Terrible Mind Gets Subconscious…

write memeI am at Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds today, talking about the process of writing Child of a Hidden Sea, and what it taught me. (Hint: I write talky books.)

This was especially exciting because I love Chuck’s blog, and often find myself sending students and other new writers to read his frequently-profane essays about writing and publishing.

I’m also very pleased to be over at Corey Redekop’s blog for his Subconscious Interview feature, blithering about apples and coffee.

Conscious Interview with an Authorganism

imageCorey Redekop, whose site describes him as a “maker up of wordy thinglets,” does conscious and unconscious interviews with writers as well as reviewing for Quill and Quire, and my conscious interview is here. This would be the more serious one…  he asks about portal fantasy, and the magic in Child of a Hidden Sea, and the legal thriller angle.

Friday Review Trio

Yesterday I caught you up on all my guest bloggery, and today I am posting reviews, all quite glowy and gratifying.

NPR – “What Happens when Fantasyland Doesn’t Want You?

I was especially pleased that Paul Weimer of SF SIGNAL liked the book, because he’s been such a marvellously vocal fan:

… Sophie makes a believable and interesting protagonist. Given that she quickly learns her own foundling origins are on this world, her motivations and desire to learn more about Stormwrack rather than turn tail and forget her experience are completely believable and easy to identify with. Would I, in her place, start maxing out credit cards to obtain cameras and other equipment to document this world next door? Absolutely! Her stubbornness, her intelligence and her effusive appeal are palpable.

and Bookworm Blues says some great things, too!

And, as before, Kitten Pic!