goggles and mirrorshades

I’ve been thinking about genre literary movements.  And it occurs to me that just as cyberpunk ought to be about more than mirrorshades and jacking in, steampunk ought to be about more than goggles and airships.

And now, I’m incongruously thinking about what a steampunk/cyberpunk crossover story would look like.  I’m picturing someone sitting in a chair, wearing one of those old-fashioned diving suits with the big brass helmets, with lots of tubes and wires connecting the helmet to a Babbage-style difference engine…

Hmmmm….

Realms of Fantasy and various

I really hadn’t intended on this being “shameless self promotion week,” but that’s what it’s turned into.  Lots of news happening.  The latest:  the April 2010 issue of Realms of Fantasy is available, along with my story “Just Another Word.”  Remember  a couple years ago when I was doing all that Janis Joplin research?  Here’s where it went.  Janis Joplin meets the Queen of Faerie.  Because you know she did.

Today is the last day to vote for Kitty in the Bitten By Books poll.  She’s in the lead, but could use a few more votes to pull ahead.

I’m currently reading Connie Willis’s new novel, Blackout.  It’s her first novel since 2002, and the first of a two-parter, and I’m so very, very excited.  Connie is one of my favorite writers, and this is set in her time-traveling historians world.  It’s almost as harrowing as The Doomsday Book.  It’s going to damage me, I know.

I’m also looking forward to Robin McKinley’s next novel, due out this fall, Pegasus.  I can’t wait because this one almost looks like, “Here, Carrie, I wrote this book just for you.”  What have I done to deserve the slew of new Robin McKinley writing I’ve been getting?  I don’t know, but I love it.

I have some more interesting posts lined up for the near future.  But I’ve been the kind of busy where I’ve been secretly hoping to catch a cold so that I’ll have an excuse to lie in bed for a couple of days doing nothing.  Then I think, be careful what you wish for. . .   I’ve talked about the four stages of book production before, and I’m sort of in the middle of all four stages right now, with four different books.  It was an accident of timing rather than design.  On the plus side, I’ve got four books coming out over the next year.  I am constantly astonished.

One last bit of shameless self promotion:  Rick’s origin story, Conquistador de la Noche, made Locus Magazine’s 2009 Recommended Reading List.  In honor of that, here is Procol Harum’s song, “Conquistador:”

Taos Toolbox 2010

Just a reminder — applications are now being accepted for Taos Toolbox, an excellent master class in science fiction and fantasy writing taught by Walter Jon Williams, who knows everything.  Co-instructor this year is Nancy Kress, and guest lecturer is. . .me!  Two weeks of intensive writing boot camp in the most beautiful location I have ever been for a writing workshop.

Kitty Goes to War

I have a new cover to show off:

Kitty #8 in all her glory.  I believe this one’s due out in August.

I’d like to note that Kitty Goes to War is being released by Tor Books, not Grand Central Publishing, as the previous books in the series have been.  When it came time to renew the contract, Grand Central and I couldn’t come to an agreement that we were both happy with.  So I moved.  As it happens, Tor is part of Macmillan, and thus part of the Amazon/Macmillan cage match I referred to earlier.  Great timing, eh?  So I am, as a matter of fact, intensely interested in how that works out.  For the whole sordid tale, I recommend John Scalzi’s multiple posts on the matter.

I’d also like to note that Craig White is still doing the cover art, which totally rocks.  I love the camo shirt.  So appropo.

And in other news, Bitten By Books is doing another poll, and Kitty’s just a few votes from first place!  Go!  Click!  Vote!

interview

Happy February!  I need a nap…

Here’s a new interview with me up at the Daily Dose.

an unlikely movie review

First, thanks to everyone who came to the signing yesterday!

Second, I will not be writing about the Amazon/Macmillan cage fight.  I think this makes me the only writer on the internet who isn’t.

Third, I would like to tell you about the movie Zombie Strippers! Because it was awesome.  What is it about?  Why, zombie strippers.  No, really.  The thing that surprised me about this movie?  It has plot.  No, really!  In a near future U.S. that is at war with Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, and Alaska, scientists have developed a virus that will allow soldiers to keep fighting after they’ve been killed.  But of course, because this is a zombie movie, the virus gets loose.  In a strip club.  That has a g-string wearing rhinoceros logo.  And after the first stripper (played by Jenna Jameson, natch) is infected, everyone discovers that becoming a zombie makes them better strippers.  And it all takes place in a town called Sartre, Kansas.  And it just keeps getting better.

Mostly, the actors just look like they’re having so much fun giving lap dances while spattered in blood and guts.  Also, Robert Englund is in it.  No, really!

signing Saturday, and stuff

Just a reminder, I’m signing books at Beth Anne’s Book Corner in Colorado Springs at 1 pm on Saturday.  Woot!

Also, today is my birthday.

image association

Back in the dark ages, when cable was first getting started, the brand-new Disney Channel didn’t have much original programming.  Instead, they mined their vast catalog — forty years of movies, cartoons, etc.  That’s how I saw stuff like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (with Kirk Douglas and Peter Lorre), Old Yeller, The Swiss Family Robinson, The Shaggy Dog, The Ugly Dachshund (a really fabulous kitshy movie in which a litter of really evil dachshund puppies continually get their adopted Great Dane foster-brother in loads of trouble), and lots and lots of old Disney cartoons.  A whole history of animation, really.  I kind of miss those days.  Fortunately, though, we now have You Tube.

Last week, when I was on that whale watch in San Diego and saw the sea lions on the buoy, I couldn’t help but think of this Disney short (esp. the song at 3:30 ).  I kept expecting the sea lions to start clapping…

Legion

As much as I usually like apocalypse movies, Biblical apocalypse movies aren’t really my thing.  Shocking, I know!  But I had to see this one for two reasons:  Paul Bettany and Dennis Quaid.  Woot!

And I know it’s getting crap reviews, but it wasn’t that bad (you know, for a standard formulaic Biblical horror movie).  I thought it was nicely claustrophobic and the pacing was well done.  And you know, Paul Bettany, shirtless.  But if you go see it, do yourself a favor and leave before the last ten minutes.  It’s when the survivors are racing away in the car, the guy realizes what his true destiny is (you’ll know the moment when you see it), and Dennis Quaid blows up the diner.  Just walk out right there.  Trust me.

Voices of Dragons: Chapter 1

I’ve posted the first chapter of Voices of Dragons on my website.  Check it out!