adelaidesean: (simpsons)
I’ve been writing hard the last few weeks (two short stories, one novel, numerous treatments of the Crooked Letter TV series pitch document), so I’ve been slack when it comes to posting to reviews of The Force Unleashed II, The Fixers, my story in Godlike Machines, and evenThe Grand Conjunction, plus a quick plug in The Australian Literary Review (thanks, Rowena). So there are some links, if you’re interested.

There have also been a ton of interviews, articles and podcasts. Most relate to The Force Unleashed II, but not all. I try to give new answers each time, which leads me to wonder if I’ve ever contradicted myself. Hopefully I have. It’d be a shame not to leave something for future scholars to argue over...

“Romantic preconceptions of sitting in an old leather chair, at a classically carved wooden desk edged by a quill pen, writing pad and a rustic typewriter quickly dissolve as Sean talks about balancing his writing duties with literary boards, international travel, publicity interviews, phone calls to an accountant, phone calls to editors, phone calls to publicists, washing clothes and the occasional trip to the shops.” (ABC) 

“I like to shake things up a bit, creatively. Doing the same thing over and over again is the quickest way to kill the excitement one should feel when working on a novel.” (Titan Books)

“[T]he character of Nitram was originally a Clantaani, but he was changed to the more familiar Bothan. In a galaxy so huge and varied, it seems a shame to me to default to the least unusual, but it doesn’t always happen, and being obscure sometimes comes with its own risks.” (Total Sci-Fi Online)

“My stepsons think I’m a total geek because I don’t like sport and love shows like Doctor Who. My study is full of remote-control Daleks, Colonial Vipers, steampunk Godzillas, and so on. I also have an Energy Dome, which probably gives me a bigger claim to geek status than anything sci-fi-related. I mean, sci-fi is so mainstream now. You have to dig deep to find something that people will really find odd.” (Geek Syndicate)

“Ultimately I’m writing an adaptation of the game–the canonical version, to boot–so getting the book right isn’t entirely a matter of aping what happens on the small screen. It’s about telling the right story.” (Blogomatic 3000)

“James talks to Sean Williams, author of The Force Unleashed II novelization.” (Rebelscum) - 

“As we continue our conversation we look into what happens to a story when major villains are brought into it and the consequences following. Why sometimes it's easier to omit something than change the entire course of a story. How these figures formulate the design or even alter the story itself.” (Galactic Holofeed)

“The staff of Star Wars Action News are excited for the return of Starkiller, and so this week they ... talked to Sean about the writing process of the books, as well as Sean's other Star Wars tie-in novel, The Old Republic -- Fatal Alliance!” (Star Wars Action News) 

Sorry to dump it all in one huge lump. I'll try to be good from now on!
adelaidesean: (tux)
It’s that time of year again. Congrats/commiserations to those on/off the shortlists. It doesn’t matter who wins--in some ways it doesn’t even matter if you’re shortlisted, although it is an honour to be there, one I’m very grateful for. The award thing is primarily a celebration of community. I booked my ticket to the party weeks ago and am looking forward to it already.

The Scarecrow - nominated for Best YA Novel
The Grand Conjunction - nominated for Best SF Novel

(Could this be eighth time lucky in the latter category? Time will tell!)
adelaidesean: (grand conjunction UK)
The Grand Conjunction continues to be treated very kindly.

Not Free SF:
"Resexed rising redux. ... A complex and psychologically dense work. Some of Williams' space operatic counterparts could probably take a lesson or two in bloat trimming from this gentleman." (Ouch!)

HorrorScope:
"...a vast, many chambered volume that actually manages to surpass its predecessors Saturn Returns, Cenotaxis and Earth Ascendant. ... A continuation of those novels? Yes. The same philosophical and cordial prose we have come to love? Yes. But what lies at this novel's heart is more layered in its transparency. Like a Russian Doll, the revelations slide away in a manner that the author himself probably found unexpected and even humorous." (True.)

Terra Incognita:
"This is a tale of unimaginable span. ... It doesn’t seem possible that a series of books could do or contain more. The Grand Conjunction concludes a grand achievement. Five stars."

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I don't want to inundate you with the full reviews, but I'm very pleased at how people have responded to the characterisation, the ending, and my little noir experiment. It reinforces my belief that, in SF, anything is possible.
adelaidesean: (grand conjunction)
Thank you, Simon A of Bookgeek, for this awesome line:

"breathless space combat and desperate gambits...a truly jaw-dropping piece of SF extrapolation and large-scale thinking"

But the review is a masterpiece in and of itself, and a touching lament to Imre Bergamasc. Farewell indeed. I'm going to miss the old gal.

(That isn't a spoiler, btw, except on the issue of gender. There'll be no more in the series, so what happens next is entirely up to your imagination.)

Also, from The Age: "Williams' world-building skills--and the ambition and intricacy of his ideas--make this top-flight SF fiction" (with a superfluous "fiction" there, thrown in as a bonus).

And Stuart Mayne in aurealisXpress: "rip roaring science fiction adventure... [Sean Williams] he has the ability to invent horizons that defy belief. That is a grand gift."

I'm very excited by how well this book has been received. Long may it continue!

adelaidesean: (grand conjunction UK)

One quick thing before I go.  Gary of Concept Sci-fi has given me my second review of The Grand Conjunction, and it's as exciting as the first.  Not just for lines like "epic space scenes spanning portions of time that the mind can barely comprehend" and "the words just seem to flow so easily that you're halfway through the book before you even realise it" and "an absolute winner and a joy to read", although they are of course wonderful on every level.  I'm excited for two other reasons.

One: Gary liked the ending.  "All of the loose ends are tied up nicely, and you're left with a nice warm 'cosy' feeling rather than a 'is that it?' feeling."  That concurs with Liviu Suciu's "the ending is pitch perfect", and suggests that I nailed at least one of my objectives (perhaps two, counting the humungous space battles).  After being criticised for leaving readers unsatisfied in previous series, I was determined to do it differently this time. I listen to feedback, and I know there's always room to improve. Looks like I did something right here.

Two: Gary again echoes Liviu, who said about the beginning, "I had to close the book and look at the cover to make sure I am reading the right book and then flip some pages to make sure pages from another book were not inserted inside by mistake - so great was the cognitive dissonance I suffered".  Gary's response was similar: "My initial reaction on pages one and two was 'what the hell has this got to do with Astropolis?' But the truth is that this bit of the book was actually the best bit for me."  He concludes: "Sean really has proved that he's an exceptionally talented writer who doesn't just do sci-fi and fantasy - Sean, if you're listening, you REALLY should write a detective novel!"

I'm listening, and I'm very pleased indeed.

adelaidesean: (grand conjunction)
Congrats to everyone nominated for a Ditmar!  I'm honoured to be one of them, for Earth Ascendant in the Best Novel category.  If you're going to be in Adelaide for the natcon, you can expect a huge celebration.  That's what it's all about, isn't it?

Also, the first review of The Grand Conjunction has hit the screens, thanks to Liviu Suciu at Fantasy Book Critic.  I was a bit nervous at first (I'm not often called "audacious and unconventional", like it's a good thing) but it worked out very well in the end:

"I would say the best in all the series and the novel succeeds grandly indeed.  Highly, highly recommended."

Whew!
adelaidesean: (grand conjunction UK)

Seven reasons I'm proud of The Grand Conjunction:

  • It contains the biggest kick-arse space battle I could imagine.
  • There's more than a hint of film noir.
  • I had fun dicking around with structure.  For instance: the "Previously in Astropolis" intro contains an important hint as to both the identity of the series narrator and the ultimate fate of our hero.
  • All the important questions (why Imre was reborn female in book one; what his other self has been doing all this time; etc) are answered at the end, so no one's going to be left scratching their heads.  I hope.
  • The Gothic text I chose for inspiration was Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.  Predictable, but still a wonderful text to work with.
  • The main characters literally go through a wringer.  Literally.  (Not really.)
  • It's dedicated to Gary Numan.

Oh, and the last line is possibly my favourite from all my novels to date.

(Okay, that's eight, but I liked the alliteration of the subject line.  So sue me!)


adelaidesean: (haighs)
If this doesn't call for a celebratory chocolate (or two) I don't know what does!



(Should be in stores any day now.)
adelaidesean: (hanging mountains)
If you're looking for a read, here are some things I have out at the moment:
  • The Scarecrow - the final book in my first kids' series, set in the same world as the Books of the Change/Cataclysm.
  • The Hanging Mountains - the third book in the Cataclysm series, now out in a delicious tpb from Pyr in the US.
(Despite being separated in time from The Scarecrow by several hundred years, these two books do share an important character, someone who may or may not be a dragon.)
  • "Signs of Death" - seed story for The Crooked Letter (the First Book of the Cataclysm) as reprinted in Australian Dark Fantasy + Horror Volume Three, edited by Angela Challis.
  • "The Haunted Earth" - in the bushfire benefit e-zine Hope.
  • "A Longing for the Dark" - set in the Geodesica universe and podcast-only from Terra Incognita, as read by yours truly.
Coming up real soon is The Grand Conjunction - the finale of Astropolis, which I received in the mail on Friday. It looks awesome! More on that later.
adelaidesean: (grand conjunction)
The UK cover of The Grand Conjunction has been out for a while, but for some reason I forgot to post it here. Not for any reason; I'm just forgetful. Here it is in all its glory:



Technically there are three moons in this cover (foreground, background, and creating the eclipse). Could that be any cooler?

Here's the blurb. )

Meanwhile Mark Chitty Hub reviewed Saturn Returns in its latest issue, concluding: "a great Space Opera novel... Highly recommended."

BBC Focus thought Earth Ascendant "admirably rich and baroque, bringing to mind Iain M. Banks's Culture novels."

And Bookspot Central recommended Saturn Returns to "anyone who likes dark, epic-scale space opera, stories with intense action, or science fiction about subjects such as slower-than-light interstellar societies and the technological transformation of the human mind. ...an excellent combination of atmospheric power, thoughtful speculation, and visceral excitement that I recommend highly."

No need to comment, unless you're moved to by the awesomeness of my lovely Lunatic trio. :-) I post reviews and stuff here for my own record, mainly. Much easier to search LJ than my hard drive.
adelaidesean: (city painting)
Long-term readers will remember the noirish novella I wrote in 1994 called "The Perfect Gun", which used the lyrics of the still-awesome band MC 900ft Jesus as a plot-point. Some might even remember talk of turning it into a novel, Widow of Opportunity, about a PI unravelling a science fictional plot in a far-future city dressed-up to look like the twentieth century.

Well, that title has fallen by the wayside, but the impetus to pursue that story has never faded. And finally it's going to see print.

Here's an excerpt. At the end of the excerpt is the name of the book. Why am I being so coy? Because the connection between this story and the one it's now part of might seem a little unlikely. But when you take out MC 900ft Jesus and insert a certain early-80s electro pioneer, it starts to make sense...

"The sky changed no less than three times on the way to the detective's office."

(Here and here are two other excerpts from the same novel.)
adelaidesean: (abort!)
I'm pleased to report that a novella "The Spark (a Romance in Four Acts)" joins several other large-ish pieces I have coming out in or around 2009. "Spark" clocks in at 20k and concludes one of the story arcs left hanging at the end of The Scarecrow (due March). The story picks up about five years after that book's end, with the characters facing challenges they never imagined as kids. I've just learned that it will appear in Australian Legends of Fantasy (edited by Jack Dann & Jonathan Strahan), and I'm very excited about that.

"Spark" is one of two stand-alone tales related to the Broken Land Series. The other is the 10k "Ungentle Fire", which is set just before "Spark" and due appear in The Dragon Book: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy (Gardner Dozois & Dann).

The other stories aren't fantasy. "The Inevitable" will appear in The New Space Opera II (Dozois & Strahan), while "A Glimpse of the Magnificent Structure (and the Threat it Entails)" is due in Godlike Machines (Strahan), both around the middle of the year. At 10k and 25k respectively, they're related to a new space opera idea I've been noodling with in the last few months. It's based on an old story, "A Map of the Mines of Barnath"--and you can expect a spoken word version of that work sometime in 2009 too, just to refresh your memory.

(While I'm talking about spoken word stuff, I've recorded "A Longing for the Dark", a stand-alone excerpt from Geodesica: Descent, for Terra Incognita, and that will be coming out in March too.)

The other big release in 2009 is The Grand Conjunction (May), which will wrap up the Astropolis series once and for all. I've just finished the page proofs and I'm very excited at how it turned out. If you thought the scale of the first two books was big, this might do your head in. Mine is still recovering from writing it.

So that's the year ahead. It's a little less hectic than 2008, for which I'm grateful. Unless you count all the deadlines looming ahead, of course...

----------------
Listening to: Telomere - Idiochrome
adelaidesean: (grand conjunction)
Want an excerpt from The Grand Conjunction? What about reviews, interviews and shameless plugs? I am brimming over with links today, so I'm posting them all at once. Here's your chance to find out what my name looks like in Bulgarian (me, I've been dying to find out) and to learn which novella legendary Lou Anders recommends for the Hugo.

First up, the Book Show interview I mentioned a couple of weeks back is available as an MP3 download here. For readers outside Australia, I should explain that is about as big as non-paid promotion gets for writers down here. Almost literary, you could say.

On the other side of the world, Gary Reynolds at Concept Sci-Fi has been wallowing in Astropolis. The fruits of his labour (to confuse a metaphor or two) are now online. First, there's an excerpt from and a review of Saturn Returns:

"really good space opera that is a joy to read"

Then there's a review of Cenotaxis:

"superbly written...either as a standalone story or as part of the Astropolis series"

In his latest Ezine, Gary has reprinted "The Seventh Letter" with original artwork.

And on his website, right now, is an exclusive preview of The Grand Conjunction, the third and last of the Astropolis novels. Enjoy.

Gary promises a review of Earth Ascendant soon (to sit alongside this excerpt) but for now I have just one to post, and it's a corker.

A couple of weeks ago I received advance notice of a Jan '09 review in F&SF by Chris Moriarty, which I've been sitting on like a wriggly kid. It contains this wonderful line:

"Words like riveting, gripping, and page-turning get tossed around pretty cavalierly, but they all apply to the Astropolis series."

It can't get much better than that, can it? Actually, it can. This is one of those reviews that had me nodding along, going "yes...yes...YES" at every other line. Chris gets what I'm trying to do, and I'm grateful for it. I'll post more of the review next year, or whenever the issue is in print.

Meanwhile Mark Chitty of Walker of Worlds "recommend[s] Cenotaxis without hesitation" and Stuart Mayne in the latest aurealisXpress waxed somewhat lyrical regarding The Dust Devils, saying that it "works on all fronts". Stuart also gave me my first ever review of a workshop, specifically a weekend intensive I ran at the Victorian Writers' Centre while everyone else partied at Conflux. He says: "It was an absolutely fantastic workshop and can whole-heartedly recommend a workshop with Sean Williams as an experience that will help your writing immeasurably." I am blushing at such kind words.

To round out this enormous list of links, Robert Thompson emailed this morning to say that The Grand Conjunction is on his list of 2009 highlights, while Lou Anders, guest blogging on Tor.com, chided everyone in the US for not buying more of my books:

"His stand-alone novella, Cenotaxis, published by independent press Monkeybrain Books, was one of my favorite reads of the year and my personal choice for the Best Novella Hugo in 2008. It ably demonstrates why some people feel the novella is the ideal length for SF, and I say that because it’s true, not because he kindly set the novel’s resolution in my own home town (albeit of the far future.)"

And Bulgaria? I was very pleased to be interviewed by Darth Sparhawk for Citadelata.com. You can see the results here.

I'd end on the exciting news I have to impart, but that can wait until next time. No one will read down this far anyway. :-)

(Today's titles, btw, from the songbook of hell are: "Disconcert 1-6", "Praedeludium 1", and "Disconcerto for Violin, No. 1 (occasionally in G Mixolydian)".)

just grand

Oct. 25th, 2008 08:41 am
adelaidesean: (Default)
Here, hot off the press, is the US cover of Astropolis 3: The Grand Conjunction:



What do you think? Stephan Martinière was unavailable so Scott Grimando has stepped up to the podium. I am excited, and not just because it depicts a setting from the climax of the book.

ETA - Here's the blurb:

Six hundred thousand years after Imre Bergamasc's abdication, the galaxy is barely recognisable. Emlee Copas is the Prime Minister of the Host, and the tyrant's own son Ra MacPhedron is its President. Imre himself has disappeared, and peace reigns where once was only chaos and war.

Underneath the veneer of civilization, however, revolution is fomenting. The murder of Helwise MacPhedron will never be forgiven, and neither will the slaughter of the Forts. With the Luminous still at large and the fate of humanity still very much in the balance, Imre's return may be all it takes to light the final fuse...


Since we're talking about the end of a series, "Tail of the Snake" is today's title of note.
adelaidesean: (Default)
I've just added some excerpts to my official site, specifically opening chapters of every book in the Broken Land series (including The Scarecrow, not due until March next year) and excerpts from Astropolis up to The Grand Conjunction (May):

"Real life was always more boring and deadly than fiction."

And to make this post more visual, I offer my contributions to Scalzi's LOLCreashun Thread, from way back when:



More... )
adelaidesean: (quantum lolcat)
...in approximate order of release. Why? I was curious to see if they created their own little narrative. They don't, but I thought I'd post them here anyway. A list of the second lines, below, turns out to be a lot more interesting.

First Lines

The life of Darth Vader's secret student took a strange and deadly turn the day his master first spoke of General Rahm Kota. (The Force Unleashed)

Ros drew the camel to a halt as a pair of very strange contraptions crested the next dune along from his. (The Dust Devils)

It is difficult to measure the time since my last communication. ("A Glimpse of the Marvellous Structure (and the Threat It Entails)")

Somewhere between Chemaly and Smerdon, Ros suspected they had become lost. (The Scarecrow)

The sky changed no less than three times on the way to the detective's office. (The Grand Conjunction)

The prisoner was both young and male, which suited Master Bannerman perfectly well. ("The Inevitable")

On the twenty-third day of his quest, the young man detected crabbler spoor. ("Ungentle Fire")

Second lines:

He had had no warning that a moment of such significance was approaching.

It wasn't immediately obviously if they were machine or beast or a weird merger of the two.

Too much has passed, I fear, for the suspicion of my demise not to have become a certainty in some minds.

Adi, as always, disagreed.

First, on stepping out the front door of the Iceberg building, a line of bright blue stars swayed erratically across the sky, casting sprays of sharply defined shadows down the length of Rammas Street.

She had encountered his type before--headstrong, shallow, visceral--and refined numerous techniques for extracting what she needed.

Swinging the reins of his mechanical steed sharply to the left, he parked in the shade of the yellow canyon wall and lightly hopped to the ground.


----------------
Listening to: Altus - A Different Universe
adelaidesean: (magic dirt)
Thanks, everyone, for the best wishes (the haiku remedies particularly helped). I'm back on-deck now and pondering which news to blog first: Swancon, the launches of Magic Dirt and The Changeling, finishing The Grand Conjunction, the Ditmar Awards, my Dickless status, the wonderful rain in Adelaide...?

I guess I'll start with the first one and work my way through. Swancon was a blast. Thanks to everyone involved for putting on another wonderful show. There have been reports posted on-line and I don't see the need in repeating what's been said many times over, but the guests were wonderful, the masquerade was a hoot, and the weekend in general went by in a happy, drunken blur. "Tick...tick...tick...tick...BOOM!"

A very big thank you to everyone who attended the launches, and even engaged in audience participation when pressed to. Magic Dirt is out and proud, and available from Ticonderoga in two splendid editions. Buy it now, if only for the cover! The Changeling is just as beautiful, imho, and a very different read. The feedback has been wonderful. I hope every kid in Australia reads and is freaked out by it.

Saturn Returns might have missed out on the Philip K Dick Award (despite Jay Lake's most excellent spruiking of it on the night), but it was still a splendid spread to be part of. Receiving the Ditmar Award at Swancon was icing on the cake, really, and I'm enormously grateful to everyone who voted for it. Kudos to everyone else nominated, and congratulations to the other winners on the night. This is such a talented and good-natured community. There will never be enough awards to go around.

My damaged status had everything to do with sleepless nights and exposure to the real world, and bore no relation at all to the cold and wet Adelaide to which I returned home. Perfect weather, really, to dive into the final edits of The Grand Conjunction, the last book in the Astropolis series. It's been a long and winding road, writing this book; I'm both relieved and sad it's done. So often I don't know what books are about until I've finished them, and in this case it appears I've spawned another romance: one in which the collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda plays a role, but a romance all the same. I'm a sucker for it, I guess.

My next projects are The Scarecrow (the last of this round of kids' books) and completely reorganising my study (you know, because there's never a good time so it might as well be now). Lined up after that are a thriller, another YA novel, PhD stuff, and appearances here and there. I'll report on the latter as they grow nearer.

For now, I'm off to have some soup.

Thanks for being such a wonderful bunch of people. I am sending you all happy vibes.

more dates

Jan. 24th, 2008 11:56 am
adelaidesean: (saturn returns)
I've just had some dates confirmed by the most excellent Darren Nash, so here is my publication schedule for the next few months:

March:
The Changeling - Australia mass market paperback (Angus & Robertson)

May:
Earth Ascendant - US mass market paperback (Ace)
Earth Ascendant - Australian mass market paperback (Orbit)

June:
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: US hardcover (Del Rey)
Saturn Returns: UK mass market paperback (Orbit)

November:
Earth Ascendant: UK mass market paperback (Orbit)

The best part of this news is that local readers of the Astropolis series aren't going to be stiffed by import prices when the next book comes out.

Meanwhile, work on book three continues apace. (I can hear the whips cracking as I type...)

MIA

Jan. 6th, 2008 03:58 pm
adelaidesean: (boot)
"MIA" stands, in this case, for "Missing In Astropolis."

You might already have guessed that I've gone quiet because I'm in the thrall of the latest ms, in which case I apologize for belaboring the point. (That could also be why I'm spelling in USese. Who knows?) So a belated Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all and sundry. I hope 2008 has got off to a magnificent start. Has anyone managed to break any resolutions yet?

I'll be back in a week or two with some news. For now, I'll keep tapping away (from my fourth state/territory in two weeks--it's been hectic!).
adelaidesean: (copernicus)
In March next year, I'll have three new books out--The Changeling, Earth Ascendant and The Force Unleashed--making them my equal-23rd novels. I'm quite excited about it, and not just because 23 is my favourite number.

What it's meant, though, is that I've spent the last month or so poring over three separate sets of re-writes, copy edits, and page proofs, plus many discussions about blurbs, cover quotes, maps, and cover designs. That wears a thin pretty fast, and can be a bit confusing on sleepy mornings with three books on the go at once. To keep things interesting, a French translation has also been popping up every now and again, plus the Pyr paperback reissue The Crooked Letter in paperback, also due in March.

Still, it's over now, and my brain can go back to normal (or what passes for normal around here). I'm about to launch into The Grand Conjunction (the last of the Astropolis books) and from there straight into The Scarecrow (the last in the Broken Land series). I have a couple of other loose ends to tie off after that, and then I'm free. What that means, I'm still working out.

But this might be part of it:

I've been accepted into a PhD in creative writing at Adelaide University.

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