Just a quick note to say that Jonathon from Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing interviewed me at WFC in San Jose this year. I rambled, but he did a hell of a job editing that up. Listen!

http://tinyurl.com/ykrhc96

I am in full and desperate writing mode, plus I have a convention this weekend with panels and readings and, HA!, and autograph session. So if you're in the vicinity of Lombard IL, I encourage you to come out and heckle me. I'll be carrying the Haggler.

I also bought a netbook last night. I needed a dedicated writing engine, because with my current configuration it was too easy for me to get stuck and just log in to WoW to do my dailies and next thing you know it's 2am and I've got 300 words, none of which I like. So this is good. I'm happy. Asus Eee PC 1005HA, for those of you who must know.

And after the battery had charged overnight and I rushed downstairs like a little boy on Christmas (as an aside, I love being an adult. I love being able to declare my own Christmas and just go buy what I want) to set up the box and get my bookmarks lined up, there was a very happy email notifying me of the following review:

Rich Horton reviews Heart of Veridon: http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/2009/11/book-review-heart-of-veridon-by-tim-akers/

For serious, I'm thrilled. I was nervous when I saw it was Rich, because he's big among sf/f reviewers and his reviews of my early work, while not bad, were not exclamatory in their admiration. It's interesting to me that he notes The Algorithm and A Soul Stitched to Iron when he discusses my stories, because those are the best and closest to HoV.

I like being promising. So all in all, I'm having a good morning. Have at ye!

Usually I feel driven to rush home after WFC and write a post about everything I did and everyone I saw. Not so much this year. Not that it wasn't a great con, because it was, but I think because I'm more balanced this year than I have been in the past. For the last few years I was miserable in my daily life and absolutely ecstatic in my con life. Now, my daily life is pretty good. Not perfect, certainly, but the range between Tuesday morning commute and Saturday night con party is much less than it used to be, emotionally.




Also, I've learned not to drink as much. I just really hate trading most of the next day for a decent night. And I don't really trust myself to not be an idiot while drunk. So even though I was staying up until 2 most nights, I was in fine mental and physical shape each day, and getting back to work has been a breeze. I don't know if this means I'm settling into being a boring person, or if I'm just not that into lying in bed with a killer headache and wondering what I said to whom the night before. *shrug* Call it business.




But it was WFC, and there was business. Couple things I'm following up on that might lead nowhere, but I'm excited.




For those of you wondering what con you should go to if you're a young hopeful, let me give you some stats. At WFC I met my agent and the editor who bought my second book. I can trace both of those contracts back to, respectively, a conversation at Tor's party in Madison and a breakfast in Calgary. Business gets done. Maybe once you're established the other cons become more important for the doing of business, but I haven't gotten to that point.
Of course, the most important thing that happened in San Jose was that I got to meet Colin Peters, whom I've known for years online and never thought I'd see because of the whole "he lives in Japan" thing. But he's on temporary US assignment in San Jose, so we got to shake hands and drink beer and, you know, be human to one another. Non-electronic. It was marvelous.



Anyway. Next year is Columbus (OHIO!) so I'll be able to drive down and actually buy all the books I want rather than just the three books I can stuff into my bag. And maybe this time around I'll try to get on some panels. Sure. That could happen.

I was honored to be asked to participate in SF Signal's feature, Mind Meld. The topic for this round was about literary science fiction and fantasy, and whether it had mainstream respect. Go read all the responses below (big names! bright lights!) but my response is as follows:

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2009/10/speculative-fiction-and-mainstream-acceptance-part-2/

I think we need to talk about what we mean by mainstream respect and approval, because I think the entire discussion hinges on that. I get the feeling that what you're asking is "does literary sf/f have literary respect?" The answer to that, of course, is no. We don't win those awards, we don't appear in those magazines, we don't get filed on those shelves. And that's okay, because we have our own awards and shelves and magazines. There are a lot of voices calling for sf/f to get the recognition it deserves, but I think that's wasted breath. We're trying harder and harder to get recognized and admitted to a club that just keeps getting smaller and duller and less important. What we need to understand is that sf/f is the seat of innovation, modern creativity and true cultural relevance. Of course the literary establishment is borrowing from our toolbox. It's the best toolbox there is, and they're welcome to borrow it. It's kind of amusing to watch them treat time travel, or the apocalypse, or whatever else as a shiny new plot device. They probably won't hurt themselves.

But that's the literary community. You asked if sf/f have mainstream respect.

Let's be absolutely clear here; I'm not sure *books* have mainstream approval. Increasingly though, science fiction and fantasy are the default languages of true mainstream media - videogames, movies, television and their continuously evolving, singularity inducing internet spawn. You can blame short attention span if you'd like, but only if you haven't played World of Warcraft. WoW has eleven million subscribers, and it is the opposite of a short attention span game. The best television shows expect a lot of their viewers, emotionally and intellectually. We can pretend that we're losing market share because we're crafting a higher product in a lower world, but that's just inane. If anything, we're losing market share because we're writing books for each other, and not for our audience. Or our potential audience, I should say.

The heart of the matter is that we seem to think we have to choose between beauty and excitement. We write ponderously important books that no one really wants to read, or we write vapidly exciting books that expect nothing of their readers and less of their writers. We can do both. We can write exciting books that are beautiful, and beautiful books that are exciting. We can make our readers think while they're on the edge of their seats, and literary respect be damned.

I will be attending WindyCon this year, in lovely Lombard IL. My appearances follow:

Friday
5:00 p.m.
Junior Ballroom A: So What is Steampunk?
What makes Steampunk steampunk? Is it the Victorian setting, the gadgets? The characters? Our panelists will tell you.
T. Akers, J. Ballard-Smoot, R. Garfinkle

Saturday

10:00 a.m.
Walunt: Reading by T. Akers

2:00 p.m.
Hallway: Autographings by T. Akers J. Hines, P.C. Hodgell

3:00 p.m.
Lilac A: The New Weird
No need to ask if it's really weird, but is it really new? Is this the same stuff that was always hiding around the corners, but with genetic recombination added? Our panelists discuss the idea and tell you their opinions.
T. Akers, F. Gehm, K. Hughes, A. Woolard

Y'all come out now, ya hear?

Lou Anders speaks glowingly of HoV over at Tor.com. I'm a little speechless, honestly.
http://tinyurl.com/yz32lud

Well, the main data server is down, but I still have internet access so... guess I'll blog a little. Beats staring at the wall or complaining about the server, which is what everyone else is doing.

I was sick all weekend. I was supposed to run a D&D game on Saturday, but stayed home and napped instead. The group still got together and started a new campaign. I told them I need to step away from gaming until I finish The Horns of Ruin, since that's due at the end of February. Don't like leaving a group, since gaming is so important to me, but I have to set up priorities. The campaign they're running in my absence is Pathfinder, btw, for those of you with such interests. I'm curious to see how they find it.

HoV's amazon number have been getting steadily better. There was the obvious baseline spike when it first dropped, but since then it's been tumbling. Over the weekend and today it's improved. Hopefully that's a sign of good word of mouth, since nothing has happened with its visibility. I'm doing some interviews in the next couple of months, too, so we'll see what kind of impact that has.

Also, I'm excited for Autumn, but dreading Winter. See what you can do about that, please.

Just a quick note to say that Tor.com is offering 30% off on a bunch of steampunk titles, including Heart of Veridon. Great way to get your stack on!

http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=58015

It seemed like August 29, 2009 was a long way away. And practically speaking, it was. Since the first hint of interest I got from Solaris to today, it's been two years, three months. Something like that. And then it was a year spent writing the book, and most of another year going through edits and making plans for book two. And while I've been distracted by the Solaris business and have shifted my attention to Eva Forge, Veridon will always be my first book, and will always have a special place in my heart. I love that world, I love the characters, I love the themes and the visuals and just...everything. I want to write more of it. But mostly, I want people to read it and love it, too.

And today's the day that can start happening on a grand scale. It is my book day, the first day of my professional life, the last day of my excuses. There are days we remember because of what happened to us. There are days we hold close because of happenstance, of luck, of birth and death and memory. There are days that are important to us.

And then there are days we remember because we made them important, because we worked hard, we threw ourselves into each night, each page, each word because it's something we wanted. Because it was important to us. There are days we forge out of nothing but ourselves.

Today is that day. Today is my day.

Busy weekend. My inlaws are coming to town, and that is always preceded by a furious round of cleaning and trimming and what have you. It's hectic. Add in the usual work madness and, well. Busy.

But on Friday I stopped by my local barnes & noble and they had the book in stock, so I signed their two copies and then went and had a beer. Very satisfying. There was a little while there that I wasn't sure HoV would make it onto US shelves at all, but now all the B&N's in the chicagoland area are showing copies on shelves, so that's good. Again, very few reviewers ever received copies, so this book is dropping out of the sky. Life.

So, inlaws, acquisition mailing for DSA, and then book, book, book. And book during those first two things, because Book! Sorry I'm rambling. Just one of those days.