places i have been lately

I don't know what happened to this week! I've spent less time at my desk than any other week of the year; most of my social media has happened on my phone in the car, in store queues, or in waiting rooms. I know I'm remiss in mentioning some places I've appeared, so if you're interested in reading some of my ideas on various Things, here it is.

First: thank you!! to all the folks saying nice things about Emissary, particularly Paul Weimer of SF Signal, whose opinion I greatly value. I've gotten a few friendly notes too, and the first review was a happy one. That readers are enjoying it delights me no end. Paul interviewed me here about Emissary, Akrasia, and what's next.

As I mentioned before, thanks very much to John Scalzi for hosting me on Big Idea at Whatever, wherein I talk about how hard it is to go home again and my cover gets taken to task by, um, "barking trolls" for being "sexist" since Draken doesn't have a shirt on. All in good fun, I guess, though I'd just as soon keep the focus on my story. I imagine most of those folks speaking out would feel the same if it were their project that they'd poured heart and soul into for over two years. The funny-odd-haha thing is two years ago my piece on Exile got taken to task for a few words I used by some folks on the opposite side of social equality. Their point was taken and we all moved on with our lives. I also discussed the cover on Twitter with Paul and Courtney Shaffer. A summary amounts to We admit to not knowing much about designing covers and my tweet

"Bare-chested is culturally accurate for the Brinians. Story accurate would be him blood-splattered and beat up."

I do so love the smell of irony in the morning.

Bibliotropic asked me to talk about worldbuilding in Akrasia. They've been avid supporters of my books and it means a lot.

I talked about the Five Things I Learned over at Chuck Wendig's blog. He is also going to appear at Anomalycon next year and I look forward to hanging out with him there and maybe at WorldCon. Sweetheart of a guy, Chuck.

I talked about Anti-heros at Adventures in SF Publishing.

The Quillery interviewed me about Draken and character and a favorite topic: obligation vs opportunity in addressing social issues in fantasy.

I'm sure there's more that I've missed but this will get you started.

As for Hugogate:, Yes, I have thoughts. Probably not very interesting ones.