By the time you read this, you and I are living in different worlds. You are living in the real world, where real things happen. I have travelled to Conference Land, where my head disappears into spreadsheets and phone-calls and a couple of hundred people wanting things done all urgent-like. There is no downtime once you enter Conference Land. There are simply times when you are working on the con, and times where you are sitting quietly, not really doing anything, ready to leap into action the moment the next emergency lands.
GenreCon begins Friday.
One of those phrases that resonates through my consciousness with a big, earth-shattering KABOOM! And in the silent aftermath, amid the desolation where all thought is wiped away, I start thinking of random things I should be telling people about.
FIRST: LAMENT FOR THE AFTERLIFE, BRISBANE LAUNCH
If you’re in Brisbane for GenreCon and looking for something to do on Thursday night, might I suggest heading along to Avid Reader bookstore for the launch of Lisa L. Hannett’s novel, Lament for the Afterlife. I’ve been friends with Lisa since she came to Brisbane for Clarion South in 2009 and promptly became the second half of Angela Slatter’s brain, and she was already a fabulously talented writer back then. She’s only gotten better in the years since, and I am looking forward to this book so damn much.
Basically, my recovery plan for GenreCon is over basically consists of reading this book, going to Melbourne to play boardgames for a few days, then mainlining Jessica Jones the moment it goes live on Netflix. After which I will probably read this book again, ’cause I expect it to be that damn good.
SECOND: AND THEN, THE INDIGOGOING OF AN ANTHOLOGY
Back in January, Lindy Cameron of Clan Destine Press emailed about an anthology they were putting together. They were after old-fashioned, rip-snorting pulp stories featuring duel protagonists. “Think Holmes and Watson,” Lindy said. “Xena and Gabrielle; Butch and Sundance; John Steed and Emma Peel.”
“Sounds cool,” I said. “But I don’t really know. This year is really busy.”
“Turner and Hooch,” Lindy said.
God knows why that was the combination that convinced me, but it did the trick. I went and wrote a story about cryogenics and people who think they’re Kaiju and genetically engineered super-soldiers with a heart of gold, and a bunch of other people went and wrote stories featuring two dual protagonists, and suddenly they had a whole lot of stories and a really big book on their hands.
So it became two books. And, for various reasons relating to various writers writing really long stories, an indiegogo (which is like Kickstarter, but far more awkward to verb).
THIRD: THE FLOTSAM OMNIBUS
I have, more than once this month, had conversations that ran a little like this. Someone says, “so you’ve got a book coming out soon, yeah?” and I look confused and say “no, why would you think– oh, shit, yes.”
The Flotsam Trilogy Omnibus comes out in November, which packs Exile, Frost, and Crusade into a single print volume, along with some extra stories set in the same universe. It features my favourite of the Mark Ferrari covers commissioned for the series:
Word from the Apocalypse Ink crew is that they’ll have copies of the print edition for sale at OryCon, so I would imagine they’re aimed at a Mid-to-Late November release.
