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On the Road: Tor/Forge Author Events in July

opens in a new windowTor/Forge authors are on the road in July! See who is coming to a city near you this month.

Elizabeth Bear,  opens in a new windowStone Mad

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Friday, July 13th
opens in a new windowBrookline Booksmith
Brookline, MA
7:00 PM

Ruthanna Emrys,  opens in a new windowDeep Roots

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Tuesday, July 10th
opens in a new windowEast City Bookshop
Washington, DC
6:30 PM

W. Bruce Cameron,  opens in a new windowMax’s Story

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Thursday, July 5th
opens in a new windowRiver Falls Library
River Falls, WI
10:30 AM
Books provided by Chapter 2 Books.

Thursday, July 5th
opens in a new windowAngel’s Pet World
Hudson, WI
5:00 PM
Books provided by Chapter 2 Books.

Saturday, July 7th
opens in a new windowSt. Louis County Library
St. Louis, MO
1:00 PM
Books provided by The Novel Neighbor.

Sunday, July 8th
opens in a new windowAnderson’s Bookshop
Naperville, IL
2:00 PM

Jacqueline Carey,  opens in a new windowStarless

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Monday, July 16th
opens in a new windowHerrick District Library
Holland, MI
7:00 PM

Sherrilyn Kenyon,  opens in a new windowDeath Doesn’t Bargain

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Tuesday, July 17th
opens in a new windowBarnes & Noble
San Diego, CA
7:00 PM

Orly Konig,  opens in a new windowCarousel Beach

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Thursday, July 5th
opens in a new windowBrowseabout Books
Rehoboth Beach, DE
1:00 PM
Also with Shelley Noble.

Thursday, July 5th
opens in a new windowBethany Beach Books
Bethany Beach, DE
6:30 PM

Nancy Kress,  opens in a new windowIf Tomorrow Comes

Wednesday, July 11th
opens in a new windowElliott Bay Book Company
Seattle, WA
7:00 PM
Also with Daryl Gregory and Django Wexler.

William Martin,  opens in a new windowBound for Gold

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Tuesday, July 10th
opens in a new windowBook Passage
San Francisco, CA
6:00 PM

Tuesday, July 17th
opens in a new windowHarvard Book Store
Cambridge, MA
7:00 PM

Wednesday, July 18th
opens in a new windowSandwich Library
Sandwich, MA
7:00 PM
Books provided by Titcomb’s Bookshop.

Friday, July 20th
opens in a new windowBrewster Bookstore
Brewster, MA
10:00 AM

Saturday, July 21st
opens in a new windowYellow Umbrella
Chatham, MA
12:00 PM

Tuesday, July 31st
opens in a new windowAvon Free Public Library
Avon, CT
6:30 PM

Jessica Pennington,  opens in a new windowLove Songs and Other Lies

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Saturday, July 14th
opens in a new windowChicago Public Library
Chicago, IL
2:00 PM
Also with Megan Bannen, Nisha Sharma, and Sarah Henning.

Sunday, July 15th
opens in a new windowAnderson’s Bookshop
La Grange, IL
2:00 PM
Also with Christina June, Laurie Devore, Stacey Kade, and Gloria Chao.

Veronica Rossi,  opens in a new windowSeeker

Tuesday, July 10th
opens in a new windowBooks Inc
Alameda, CA
7:00 PM
In conversation with Jeff Giles and S.J. Kincaid.

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New Releases: 3/6/18

Happy New Release Day! Here’s what went on sale today.

opens in a new windowAmerican Drifter by Heather Graham and Chad Michael Murray

opens in a new windowImage Placeholder of - 59 A young veteran of the US Army, River Roulet is struggling to shake the horrors of his past. War is behind him, but the memories remain. Desperate to distract himself from the images haunting him daily, River abandons the world he knows and flees to the country he’s always dreamed of visiting: Brazil.

Then he meets the enchanting Natal, an impassioned journalist and free spirit—who lives with the gangster that rules much of Rio.

opens in a new windowThe Eterna Solution by Leanna Renee Hieber

opens in a new windowPlace holder  of - 29 Unnatural howls echo across the Atlantic. Lady Liberty’s torch blazes with hellfire. Dead bodies shamble through the grounds of Columbia College.

It’s 1882 and two government divisions of paranormal investigators have completed a most harrowing task—stopping a demonic nobleman from taking over the British Parliament. Now the motley crew of psychics, scientists, scholars, and magicians must race across the ocean to Manhattan to protect it from evil forces they believe Moriel unleashed.

opens in a new windowOathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

opens in a new windowPlaceholder of  -59 In Oathbringer, the third volume of the New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive, humanity faces a new Desolation with the return of the Voidbringers, a foe with numbers as great as their thirst for vengeance.

Dalinar Kholin’s Alethi armies won a fleeting victory at a terrible cost: The enemy Parshendi summoned the violent Everstorm, which now sweeps the world with destruction, and in its passing awakens the once peaceful and subservient parshmen to the horror of their millennia-long enslavement by humans. While on a desperate flight to warn his family of the threat, Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with the fact that the newly kindled anger of the parshmen may be wholly justified.

opens in a new windowSeriously Hexed by Tina Connolly

opens in a new windowPoster Placeholder of - 28 Teen witch Cam has resigned herself to being a witch. Sort of. She’s willing to do small things, like magically help her boyfriend Devon get over his ongoing stage fright. But tangling with other witches is not on her wishlist. Joining her mother’s wicked witch coven is right out.

New acquaintance Poppy Jones is a Type A, A+ Student of True Witchery. She’s got all the answers, and she’s delighted to tangle with a bunch of wicked witches. She doesn’t need any reluctant witch getting in her way, especially one who knows less than a dozen spells, and has zero plans for witch college.

NEW IN PAPERBACK

opens in a new windowDeadhouse Landing by Ian C. Esslemont

opens in a new windowImage Place holder  of - 78 Esslemont’s new prequel trilogy takes readers deeper into the politics and intrigue of the New York Times bestselling Malazan Empire. Dancer’s Lament focuses on the genesis of the empire, and features Dancer, the skilled assassin, who, alongside the mage Kellanved, would found the Malazan empire.

After the disappointments of Li Heng, Dancer and Kellanved wash up on a small insignificant island named Malaz. Immediately, of course, Kellanved plans to take it over. To do so they join forces with a small band of Napans who have fled a civil war on their own home island. The plan, however, soon goes awry as Kellanved develops a strange and dangerous fascination for a mysterious ancient structure found on the island.

 

NEW FROM TOR.COM

opens in a new windowMandelbrot the Magnificent by Liz Ziemska

opens in a new window Born in the Warsaw ghetto and growing up in France during the rise of Hitler, Benoit Mandelbrot found escape from the cruelties of the world around him through mathematics. Logic sometimes makes monsters, and Mandelbrot began hunting monsters at an early age. Drawn into the infinite promulgations of formulae, he sinks into secret dimensions and unknown wonders.

His gifts do not make his life easier, however. As the Nazis give up the pretense of puppet government in Vichy France, the jealousy of Mandelbrot’s classmates leads to denunciation and disaster. The young mathematician must save his family with the secret spaces he’s discovered, or his genius will destroy them.

NEW IN MANGA

opens in a new windowGeneration Witch Vol. 2 Story and art by Isaki Uta

opens in a new windowHana & Hina After School Vol. 3 Story and art by Milk Morinaga

opens in a new windowHoly Corpse Rising Vol. 4 Story and art by Hosana Tanaka

opens in a new windowMy Monster Secret Vol. 8 Story and Art by Eiji MasudaThe ebook edition of Home for Christmas by Andrew M. Greeley is on sale now for only $2.99! Get your copy today!

About Home for Christmas:

Petey Pat Kane and Mariana Pia Pelligrino have been in love with each other their whole lives. But on a night that is supposed to be one of the best of their lives, Peter makes a choice that forces him to leave Chicago—and Mariana—behind. Guilt leads him into the Army, where he becomes Captain Kane, war hero. But nothing can make him forget his love for Mariana.

On his third deployment in Iraq, Peter is injured and finds himself both alive and dead on a wondrous spiritual journey where he is given a second chance at life from God Himself. With Christmas approaching, time is running out for Peter to complete the most important mission of his life: convincing himself that he and Mariana were meant to share a special message of love with the world.

Order Your Copy

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This sale ends 12/31/19.Happy New Release Day! Here’s what went on sale today.

opens in a new windowCrimson Lake by Candice Fox

opens in a new window Six minutes in the wrong place at the wrong time—that’s all it took to ruin Sydney detective Ted Conkaffey’s life. Accused but not convicted of a brutal abduction,Ted is now a free man—and public enemy number one. Maintaining his innocence, he flees north to keep a low profile amidst the steamy, croc-infested wetlands of Crimson Lake.

There, Ted’s lawyer introduces him to eccentric private investigator Amanda Pharrell, herself a convicted murderer. Not entirely convinced Amanda is a cold-blooded killer, Ted agrees to help with her investigation, a case full of deception and obsession, while secretly digging into her troubled past. The residents of Crimson Lake are watching the pair’s every move . . . and the town offers no place to hide.

opens in a new windowThe Bags of Tricks Affair by Bill Pronzini

opens in a new window A conman always has a bag of tricks, ready to fool the unsuspecting, and almost everyone is unsuspecting until they get taken. When that happens, they turn to Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services, to recover their money and what’s left of their dignity, and perhaps even to save their lives.

When one such case leaves Sabina Carpenter the only witness to a murder, the family of the culprit vows to stop at nothing to keep her silent. The threat leaves John Quincannon deeply concerned for Sabina’s safety, but there’s no rest for the wicked and so the crime-solving duo must split up to tackle two separate con games, run by two villains with deadly bags of tricks at hand.

opens in a new windowGood Guys by Steven Brust

opens in a new window They can teleport themselves thousands of miles, conjure shields that will stop bullets, and read information from the remnants of spells cast by others days before. They all work for the secretive Foundation…for minimum wage.

Which is okay, because the Foundation are the good guys. Aren’t they?

opens in a new windowIf Tomorrow Comes by Nancy Kress

opens in a new window Ten years after the Aliens left Earth, humanity succeeds in building a ship, Friendship, to follow them home to Kindred. Aboard are a crew of scientists, diplomats, and a squad of Rangers to protect them. But when the Friendship arrives, they find nothing they expected. No interplanetary culture, no industrial base—and no cure for the spore disease.

Once again scientists find themselves in a race against time to save humanity and their kind from a deadly virus while a clock of a different sort runs down on a military solution no less deadly to all. Amid devastation and plague come stories of heroism and sacrifice and of genetic destiny and free choice, with its implicit promise of conscious change.

opens in a new windowPacifica by Kristen Simmons

opens in a new window Blue skies. Green grass. Clear ocean water. An island paradise like the ones that existed before the Melt.

A lucky five hundred lottery winners will be the first to go, the first to leave their polluted, dilapidated homes behind and start a new life. It sounds perfect. Like a dream.

The only problem? Marin Carey spent her childhood on those seas and knows there’s no island paradise out there. She’s corsario royalty, a pirate like her father and his father before him, and she knows a con when she sees one. So where are the First Five Hundred really going?

NEW IN PAPERBACK

opens in a new windowOur Angry Earth by Isaac Asimov & Frederik Pohl

opens in a new window From two of science fiction’s most celebrated and brilliant minds—Isaac Asimov and Frederik Pohl—comes the second edition of Our Angry Earth, a comprehensive analysis of today’s environmental threats and a guide on how we can heal our planet, with an introduction and afterword from New York Times bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson.

Our Angry Earth provides a candid picture of the present and many possibilities for a better, cleaner future. From the greenhouse effect and depletion of our ozone layer to nuclear waste and species extinction, Asimov and Pohl not only present accessible explanations of complex scientific processes but ways we can improve our behavior and relationship with the planet, whether it be involvement in social activism or individual lifestyle changes.

NEW FROM TOR.COM

opens in a new windowThe Warrior Within by Angus McIntyre

opens in a new window Karsman has a dozen different people living in his head, each the master of a different set of skills and hoping to gain mastery of Karsman’s body. He survives on a backwater planet dominated by the Muljaddy, a mostly ambivalent religious autocracy, where devotion and prayer can be traded in for subsistence wages and enough food to survive. Surrounded by artifacts of a long dead civilization, the population survives off its salvage, with Karsman eking out an uneventful life as the unofficial mayor of his small town.

NEW IN MANGA

opens in a new windowBeasts of Abigaile Vol. 3 Story and art by Spica Aoki

opens in a new windowDragon Half Omnibus 1 Story and art by Ryusuke Mita

opens in a new windowNew Game! Vol. 1 Story and art by Shoutarou Tokunou

opens in a new windowNirvana Vol. 2 Story by Jina and Sayuki (ZOWLS); Art by Sayuki

opens in a new windowThe Testament of Sister New Devil Vol. 8 Story by Tetsuto Uesu; Art by Miyakokasiwa

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OPORDS and SOPMOD Kits: Launching into the Great Unknown

Image Place holder  of - 83 Written by Nancy Kress

Why would any writer choose to write a novel about a subject he or she is completely unfamiliar with?

There are subjects I know quite a bit about, at least for a layman: genetic engineering, the history of chess, Tudor England, classical ballet.  I have written about these things.  However, in If Tomorrow Comes, the sequel to the 2017 Tomorrow’s Kin, a large part of the plot is military.  I have never served in the military; no one in my family has served since WWII with the exception of my niece, who is a Navy JAG.  She battles with legal briefs, not M4s.  But a major viewpoint character in my novel, Corporal Leo Brodie, is a young Army sniper who washed out of Ranger School with the elite 75th Regiment.

Why write this character?

And how?

The “how” involved a lot of research—really a lot.  I read memoirs by Rangers who served in Iraq.  I did online research for updates.  I read the Ranger Handbook: Ranger Training Brigade, United States Army Infantry School (and I can now construct a field antenna, should the need ever arise).  I read parts of the Manual for Courts Martial, especially Articles 90-94, which deal with disobeying orders from commanding officers.  And then, just to make sure I did not make a fool of myself, I hired an ex-Ranger to read and correct the manuscript.  He was incredibly helpful.

One of the oldest saws in writing is “Write what you know.”  Yes, good, do that if you like.  But you don’t have to.  Tom Clancy, author of such books as Th Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games, never served in the military (he flunked the eye exam for ROTC).  In The Dispossessed the late Ursula LeGuin, not a physicist, created the wonderful character Shevek, who was one.  William Gibson has said that when he wrote Neuromancer, he’d barely seen a computer.  And no writer has ever been to Mars, scene of many SF novels.  

If you want to launch into areas totally unknown to you, or set a story in a place you’ve never been, or create a character with a job you’ve never done, you can.  But you need to (1) read a lot, and not just for facts.  I wanted to know what it felt like to, for instance, patrol a perimeter. (2) Use the Internet, but judiciously because there is a lot of wrong information out there.  (3) Talk to people who have done that and been there.  Learn all you can from them.  And then, when the book is done, find someone (maybe the same someone) who will, for love or money, read what you’ve written and correct whatever is wrong.

That’s the how.  What about the why?  Why would I, a middle-aged (and that’s polite), female, non-military writer create Leo Brodie?

I believe that fiction is better when the author is intensely involved with the characters.  Brodie seized my imagination.  For months I thought, breathed, dreamed Leo Brodie.  Every time I sat down at the keyboard to write Leo’s scenes, I wanted to become him, echo his thought patterns, embrace his values (not all of which are mine), inhabit a twenty-four-year-old male body in superb physical condition who can make kills at incredible distances.  I didn’t completely succeed, of course—we never do—but I tried.

I did the same with my other viewpoint characters, but they were easier.  Marianne Jenner, the protagonist of Tomorrow’s Kin, is also a major character in If Tomorrow Comes.  She and I share gender identification, age, motherhood.  Dr. Salah Bourgiba and I share some background, even though I am not a medical doctor.  Although here, too, I had an expert, an M.D., read the final manuscript.  She made many valuable suggestions.

If Tomorrow Comes takes place on an alien planet, Kindred, in an alien culture, and in the future (although not that far in the future).  In Tomorrow’s Kin, the (sort of) alien Kindred came to the aid of Earth.  Now Earth is going to the aid of Kindred—although not in the way, or with the outcomes, that they expected.  Leo Brodie, Marianne Jenner, and Salah Bourgiba are also launching into the unknown.  

As SF, and SF writers, have always done.

Order Your Copy

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Follow Nancy Kress on opens in a new windowTwitter and on her opens in a new windowwebsite.

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On the Road: Tor/Forge Author Events in March

opens in a new windowTor/Forge authors are on the road in March! See who is coming to a city near you this month.

Myke Cole, opens in a new windowThe Armored Saint

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Friday, March 2nd
opens in a new windowEmerald City Comic Con
Seattle, WA
University Bookstore Booth 6-1000
4:00 PM
Also with Spencer Ellsworth.

Spencer Ellsworth,  opens in a new windowStarfire: Memory’s Blade

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Friday, March 2nd
opens in a new windowEmerald City Comic Con
Seattle, WA
University Bookstore Booth 6-1000
4:00 PM
Also with Myke Cole.

Saturday, March 24th
opens in a new windowVillage Books
Bellingham, WA
7:00 PM

Candice Fox,  opens in a new windowCrimson Lake

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Tuesday, March 6th
opens in a new windowBook Carnival
Orange, CA
7:30 PM

Friday, March 9th
opens in a new windowPoisoned Pen
Scottsdale, AZ
7:00 PM

Nancy Kress,  opens in a new windowIf Tomorrow Comes

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Tuesday, March 6th
opens in a new windowUniversity Bookstore
Seattle, WA
7:00 PM

Sunday, March 25th
opens in a new windowAmerican Bookbinders Museum
San Francisco, CA
6:30 PM
SF in SF – also with Jack Skillingstead and Silvia Moreno Garcia.

Brandon Sanderson,  opens in a new windowOathbringer

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Friday, March 2nd
Emerald City Comic Con
opens in a new windowECCC Live Stage: Brandon Sanderson talks about The Stormlight Archive
Seattle, WA
2:45 PM

opens in a new windowBrandon Sanderson Spotlight
Location: WSCC 611
4:00 PM

opens in a new windowBrandon Sanderson Autographing
Location: Writers Block—Autographing Table 1
5:15 PM to 7:15 PM

Kristen Simmons,  opens in a new windowPacifica

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Tuesday, March 6th
opens in a new windowJoseph-Beth Booksellers
Cincinnati, OH
7:00 PM

Tuesday, March 27th
opens in a new windowInterabang Books
Dallas, TX
7:00 PM

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