Jeffrey A. Carver

18 May 2019

At the 2019 Nebula Conference

posted in: personal news, science fiction, SFWA | 3

I’ve been enjoying this year’s Nebula Conference (in Los Angeles) hugely. It’s been years since my last one, and the number of new faces is astounding. I’ve seen old friends, made new ones, had dinner with some of my Book View Café buddies, and attended a couple of business meetings, which were actually quite interesting. I’m part of the rules committee that wrestles with issues pertaining to the Nebula, Norton, and Bradbury Awards, and for once, we were all in the same room, talking face to face instead of through endless emails. Much more satisfying.

One thing SFWA (that is, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) has instituted at the Nebula Conference—besides expanding the programming into a real conference, full of interesting information—is a Mentor program. The idea is that experienced members volunteer to meet with new members and newcomers to the conferences, and present a welcoming and friendly face and answer questions, whether it’s about con-going or getting published. I met with two “mentees” and had great conversations.

Here’s a pic of me with Roman Godzich, one of the mentees, a great guy and new writer. Now, how is it that he was giving me the useful tips about book promotion, especially how to successfully advertise on Facebook and Amazon? I’m not sure he learned much from me, but we had a fun conversation.

Here’s another pic of me with Joe and Gay Haldeman, two of my favorite people in the science fiction world.

14 May 2019

Who’s That Guy on ManyBooks?

posted in: interviews, specials | 5

I recognize that Author of the Day on ManyBooks.net! It’s… wait wait, don’t tell me… on the tip of my tongue… Oh, I know—it’s me! I didn’t recognize him at first because of how young he looks. That must be it, yeah.

There’s actually a whole interview with me, right up there on top of a stack of previous authors of the day.

A free Reefs of Time coaster* to the first three people who report here something interesting about me that they learned from the interview. What are you waiting for? Go!

*Who doesn’t like a coaster?

11 May 2019

Tell Them About the Big Sale, Jeff

posted in: specials, The Chaos Chronicles | 0

(Hey Jeff! C’mon, these blogs posts don’t write themselves, you know. Tell the people! You’ve got a book on special!)

(Right. Here goes…)

_____________________________

Leader: Hey, all—have I got a special for you!

People: How big a special? What’s a special?

Leader: Really big! A special is when I take a really big book—say, f’r’example, an omnibus edition of Three Really Big Novels, All In One—and I set the price way down, for a limited time only. That’s a special. I’ve got one of those.

People: Ooh. We like specials. Tell us more!

Leader: Ask, and you will receive. I’ve got the first half of The Chaos Chronicles, aka The Chaos Chronicles: Books 1-3, marked down to just $1.99!

People: Is that cheap?

Leader: Is it ever! That’s the cost of… of… well, a chocolate chip cookie, in some places. Or a kiddie-sized espresso shared among three people, in others. Yes, it’s cheap.

People: Why would you do that? Hey! Are you trying to sell us something else? Is this a LOSS LEADER? Are you trying to get everyone HOOKED on this series, so they’ll go on and buy the next book, Sunborn (which you just happen to have just released in your own edition)? And then they’ll go on to scoop up the rest of your books, and maybe even PREORDER your new, forthcoming, long-awaited chapter, THE REEFS OF TIME? Is that what you’re trying to do? Come clean!

Leader: Um. Yeh.

_________________________

So, yeah. Here it is, and if you don’t already own it, I hope you’ll get it. And if you do already own it, I really hope you’ll recommend it to a friend, or several. Or even write a review!

This is a Bookbub special, and it will be repromoted on a number of other sites in the coming days. Yes, I’m really trying to make people want to buy the new book, as you can see! And I sure could use your help!

By the way, my first newsletter will be going out on Monday! It’s not too late to sign up!

You can do that here. http://bit.ly/CarverNews

Or here:

4 May 2019

Reefs and Crucible Rolling Toward Publication!

posted in: Book launch, books, ebooks, The Chaos Chronicles, The Reefs of Time | 11

Like a runaway freight train. I haven’t posted in a while, and that’s because I’ve been busier than a one-armed steam-locomotive engineer without a fireman, boosting this project toward launch date!

The editing is all done, and both books are out with a colleague for proofreading. The cover for Reefs is done. Preorder buttons are starting to appear. The website is updated (for Reefs, not yet for Crucible.) A newsletter announcement with an excerpt from the beginning of the book is in prep (going out soon!). I’ve submitted advance ebook copies (eARCs) to Publishers Weekly and other review sites, and queried some more. I have not yet seen Avengers: Endgame. This thing is really happening!

Here’s the long and the short of it:

The Reefs of Time (Part 1 of the “Out of Time” sequence) is scheduled for launch on July 23, 2019. Simultaneous ebook, trade paperback, and hardcover. Prices TBD, except that during the preorder period, the ebook is discounted to $6.99.

Crucible of Time (Part 2 of the “Out of Time” sequence) is scheduled for launch on September 10, 2019. Pricing similar. Not yet out for preorder. (The cover is still being developed.)

More news to come. I’m excited! I hope you are, too!

10 Apr 2019

Vonda N. McIntyre, 1948-2019

posted in: Book View Cafe, deaths, farewells, friends | 0

The science fiction world lost another giant with the passing of Vonda N. McIntyre on April 1, and I lost a friend and colleague. Vonda was probably best known for her Nebula and Hugo Award-winning novel, Dreamsnake, which was feminist and compassionate and insightful, and also heartbreakingly beautiful. But she wrote lots of other books, as well, including several Star Trek novels, and The Moon and the Sun, filmed in 2014 as The King’s Daughter with Pierce Brosnan and William Hurt, but not yet released. Vonda died two months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and she finished writing her last novel, Curve of the World, just days before leaving us.

Though I had met Vonda once or twice before, we first really got to know each other at the Launchpad Astronomy Workshop, where we were classmates in the first session, in 2007. A few years later, when I was going it mostly alone publishing my backlist in ebook form, she invited me to apply for membership in Book View Café, the writer-coop of which she was a founding member and one of the most active volunteers. That’s where I really saw her tireless efforts helping others. We worked together on picky ebook-formatting questions, and on customer support, a job that I took over from her. We only met in person on one more occasion, I think—at Sasquan, the SF Worldcon in Spokane, in 2015, where she was Co-Guest of Honor. But with the magic of the internet and BVC, she felt like an essential part of my book-publishing community. I miss her already.

For more complete tributes to her life and career, see the Guardian and New York Times obituaries.

Here’s something Vonda would have loved to see, if only she’d been with us a little longer, the first picture of a black hole:

I like to think she’s somewhere right now, smiling at that, perhaps having gone to visit M87 in person!

5 Mar 2019

So Many Titles, So Little Time!

posted in: Book View Cafe, The Chaos Chronicles, The Reefs of Time, titles | 12

Or in the case of this book, too much time. For you to be waiting, that is.

Here it is: I’m publishing The Reefs of Time in two volumes—two months apart—in both ebook and print.* I’m aiming for July and September. Yes, of this year, wise guy. I want to promote the launch of the first one at worldcon. Each volume will be heftier than any of the other Chaos books except Sunborn. Taken together, they’ll mass something just shy of a neutron star, or maybe a quantum black hole.

Okay, that could be an exaggeration. But I do hope they’ll suck you in, heh-heh.

I have a mountain of work to do to prepare for this. But today I want to talk about titles. Specifically, the title of the second book.

My first thought was, The Reefs of Time (Vol. 1) and The Reefs of Time (Vol. 2). But that doesn’t work, because it’s already Volume 5 (and 6) of The Chaos Chronicles and the potential for confusion was endless. So I started noodling around titles for the second part. Until a few days ago, I thought it was going to be:

The Reefs of Time (and)
A Triumph of Time

But then I had an epiphany. How about this, instead:

The Reefs of Time (and)
Crucible of Time

I actually like both. But I think “crucible” sounds more dangerous. Riskier. Anything can happen.

What do you think? I’m inviting comments, or even alternative suggestions!

*In case you missed it, these are no longer going to be published by Tor. I am publishing them under my own Starstream Publications imprint, in cooperation with Book View Café.

23 Feb 2019

Sudden Left Turn at the Reefs (or, The Great Divorce)

posted in: Book View Cafe, ebooks, my books, personal news, print editions, publishing, Sunborn, The Chaos Chronicles, The Reefs of Time, updates, work in progress | 13

Grab a partner and hold tight!The Reefs of Time have taken a sharp left turn. My long-time publisher, Tor Books, has declined to publish it, sight unseen.* This came as something of a shock. The reason given is that it’s been too long since the last book—which is certainly true.

Fear not—the project is not grounded! But it has changed direction abruptly. I will publish it through my own imprint, Starstream Publications, in cooperation with Book View Café. While at first glance this seems like a setback, I choose to regard it as a blessing and an opportunity. I’ll get the rights back to the earlier material, and can now control the entire series, top to bottom. And I can publish the new work the way I want.

It does mean I have a lot of work cut out for me, and I don’t just mean publishing Reefs. Before the new book can come out, I need to have all the first four books available in new print editions, so that new readers can start at the beginning and read the whole story. These books are already available in ebook, but many people still prefer print. And then, of course, I need to do all the production of ebook and print book on the new novel—including cover design.

I have hired an assistant for the promotional efforts. I have called on artist and writer Chris Howard, who has already done two covers for me, to outdo himself. Various of my colleagues, both in and out of Book View Café, have stepped forward with offers of help. It’s been amazing, really. Still others have offered strong encouragement, including some terrific authors who have been dropped by traditional publishing and gone on to do exactly what I’m doing, and done quite well at it.

This all happened suddenly, and it’s too soon to have a realistic time frame sketched out. But my goal is to have the new work out in time for the World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin, in August.

Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

*This might seem odd, since I’ve been working on the book with my editor for about eight months. But he’s working on a consulting basis for Tor, and it was only when the books were ready to go into production in-house that the editorial oversight team at Tor said no. I’m not taking it personally; in fact, they’re settling graciously, and unlike many authors I’ve known in similar positions, I’m getting all my rights back without a fight. It’s an amicable divorce. There are no hard feelings on my part.

6 Feb 2019

Update on The Reefs of Time

posted in: The Chaos Chronicles, The Reefs of Time, updates | 6

It’s been quite a while since I posted anything about the book. The reason is that the editorial process has been excruciatingly slow, and it’s not done yet—though I’m done with my revisions, at least for now. For reasons I’m not going to get into, the work process on this book is unusual, and the primary editing has been handled by an editor not on staff at the publishing house. Now it goes to an in-house editor, and that may entail more work; I don’t know yet.

The long and the short of it is, I don’t have a publication date yet. I think it’s likely to be published in two volumes, hopefully close together. But I don’t know that for certain, either.

Do I hear you groaning? Oh, me too! Me too! In fact, your groan is just an echo of my own! But I’ll post more info when I have it. Please keep hanging in there with me! I can’t do this without all of you behind me!

Thanks!

4 Feb 2019

Boskone 2019

posted in: appearances, conventions | 1

I’ll be at Boskone in a couple of weeks—Friday and Saturday, but not Sunday. Maybe I’ll see some of you there? It’s a really nice convention. You should come!

Meanwhile, the Boskone folks just posted a mini-interview with me on their blog:

https://boskoneblog.com/2019/02/04/b56-mini-interview-with-william-hayashi-sarah-smith-jeffrey-a-carver/

You can see my schedule here:

https://www.boskone.org/program-event/program-participants/

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Author Archives: Jeffrey A. Carver