Just a tiny speck, but. . . .

I just saw Neptune with my own eyes. Through binoculars, but still. :)

*bliss*

It's just to the left or west (in the Northern Hemisphere) of Jupiter, which is very bright and, in North America, conveniently high in the sky. You can't see it without binoculars under ordinary seeing conditions. If your binoculars let you see the moons of Jupiter, you can definitely see Neptune if you swivel to the left along the ecliptic.

Sorry. I'm geeking out. I never saw it with my own eyes before, despite writing a novel mostly set there.

The more things change. . . .

I’m told I have a book coming out tomorrow. . . .

This is the oddest release day so far, for me; I am off on a family vacation at the beach, and I haven’t even seen a published copy of The Dark Reaches yet. The vacation is a bit more relaxing as a result; two years ago my entire family was reading The Hidden Worlds while I twisted slowly, slowly in the wind, unable to read anything. Oh, they all liked it, but having family read my work was an oddly unnerving experience. Perhaps it’s because I respect their opinions so much—my parents and brother are all published writers, and though I’m the first to publish a novel, I still came late to the party.

But, that didn’t happen this year. This year The Dark Reaches is getting some attention that makes me very happy indeed.

Heather Massey at her excellent blog The Galaxy Express is profiling my books for her "Catch a Rising Star" feature. The first part, a look at the trilogy and some links to past reviews and interviews, went up yesterday. The second part, an interview and a giveaway of two signed copies of the trilogy, is coming soon. I can’t wait.

Also, a fun interview about The Dark Reaches has been posted on the SF/fantasy page at the Penguin website. The questions were posed by my editor, Anne Sowards, and she zeroed in on some interesting points!

And that isn’t all that’s coming. . . .

But enough for now. I'm posting from a balcony overlooking the beach, it's a bright, sunny morning, and there's coffee. Virtuous writerly tasks will just have to wait!

Here we go again

I'm back, and to stay this time.

It's been a short year and a long one, both at once: so full of hard work it seemed to flash by, but so intensely involving that I feel as if I've been gone for ten years.

The Dark Reaches will be released a week from today, on Tuesday, June 30th. I've spent the last year and more writing it, finishing it, revising it, and recovering (which includes diving back into my freelance work).

Since turning Dark Reaches in, I've been fighting a battle most writers probably know too well: trying to balance life so that it includes writing without stinting spouse and children, a house, my "day job" (which often runs into weekends and evenings if I let it) . . . oh, and since late last December, a Cavalier King Charles puppy named Lucy. It's been an interesting process—difficult and infuriating and satisfying and mystifying in turns. And it's not done yet. Thirty-hour days would help, or maybe a nine-day week.

Or perhaps just adjusting my expectations. . . .

But here we are, and here I am, and I'm going to stick around. Not because I have a book coming out, though I'm proud of The Dark Reaches. But because I'm in this for the long haul. I have a lot more to write. And a lot to read—not just the pile of books on the shelf next to my reading chair, but online, too—blogs and communities where I've lurked and hovered on the edges but never quite dived in. It's time to dive in. There's so much to discover, so many people to talk to about writing and reading and science fiction and science and, and, and.

And, I'm realizing, I've got things to say. I'm excited about a couple of interviews that will be coming up online soon—I'll be linking to them here. I was also profiled in the January issue of The Writer magazine, on the "How I Write" page—the first science fiction writer they've ever featured there. To boldly go, etc., etc.

So . . . let's just see what happens. That's most of the fun in life, after all.

It's good to be back.