The Orcs are coming! And to help introduce them we’ve created an Orc Mail website and Orc widgets.
And… if you’re one of the first ten people to post an Orc widget to your website or myspace page, and you email us the link at orbit@hbgusa.com, we’ll send you a finished copy of the book when it’s available in September! (US residents only!)
Over at Of Blog of the Fallen, Larry has translated this June 2008 Fantasymundo interview with Andrzej Sapkowski. There are some marvelous insights from the author, including this digression on cats:
“For me the cats are an obsession. … I believe that they are supernatural creatures, with an identity and personality of their own … . It is very good to have one in the house, because then no demon will cross the shadows, because this [the cat] is in the shadows, waiting and vigilant.”
You can read the interview in Spanish here, or read Larry’s translation here and here.
All in all, we had a great time at the show. Lilith Saintcrow rocked the Eye on the Present panel, which should be online eventually. We had a limited giveaway of Orcs galleys which were snatched up by fans in minutes. Kevin J. Anderson chatted with us about The Ashes of Worlds (vid to come) And our friends at Yen Press threw a great rooftop party complete with fireworks.
Over at io9.com Annalee Newitz has an interesting article on ARGs and pop culture marketing – The Argument Against ARGs. While she acknowledges that ARGs can be fun, she’s bothered by the ways that they blur marketing and entertainment.
“… what I’d like to see are ARGs for their own sakes — ARGs that involve fans not because they give away posters or free showings, but because they are genuinely compelling tales that you actually want to interact with.”
Jeff Somers has built small-scale ARGs for his books The Digital Plague and The Electric Church – both of which are extensions of the universe he’s created. For The Electric Church he scripted a story that involved a Monk and a hacker fighting for control of the “official” website of the Electric Church. The ARG was solved by the folks at Unfiction, and it’s still available for anyone willing to try and unlock its secrets. In solving the puzzle the player “wins” a resolution to the story the site is telling through its puzzles.
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Well, not beyond really, but Lilith Saintcrow will be at Comicon in San Diego! She’ll be on the “Looking at Our World: Eye on the Present” panel along with Kelley Armstrong, L. A. Banks, Kate Brallier, Marjorie M. Liu, C. E. Murphy, Justine Musk, and moderator Samantha Sommersby ( Room 3). That’s a veritable who’s who of urban fantasy stars, so if you’re a fan this is a can’t miss event.
And stop by the Orbit booth to get your books signed and to pick up a sweet Orcs pin, which will likely be handed to you by a bedraggled looking guy with a few days’ old beard (me). You can also get some great stuff from our friends at Grand Central Publishing, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, and Yen Press. For a complete listing of HBGUSA events at Comicon, including panels with Stephenie Meyer, Jacqueline Carey, Brad Meltzer, Method Man and more, download our event schedule here.
If you can’t make it to Comicon, you can still catch up with Lilith at her sparklingly redesigned site, www.lilithsaintcrow.com – and stay tuned for a free, never before seen serialized novel coming very soon.
If you’re a subscriber to the Orbit US enewsletter, you may have had a bounce-back error when entering our most recent sweepstakes – if that’s the case, just resend your entry to orbit@hbgusa.com . Sorry for any inconvenience!
Author Jeff Somers put together a great little trailer for his latest novel, THE DIGITAL PLAGUE.
If you’re in New York, make sure to save the date on August 20th to see Jeff at the Fantastic Fiction reading series.
Kevin says:
Yeah, I know you’ve been burned before. As a SF/F reader, you tend to look at anything touted as “a new epic series” with a jaded eye. You’ll believe it when the author actually delivers finished books instead of promises.
You’ve gotten hooked before by reading the first volume or two, and then the author goes AWOL, losing interest in the series, or being years late on delivery, or — worse — the purported trilogy turns out to be ten books or more, with no end in sight.
I stand before you humbly offering my “Saga of Seven Suns” — planned as a seven-volume continuous story (“Seven Suns” = 7 volumes, get it?) with a beginning and an actual end, not to mention a lot of high points in between.
Just as a good architect draws a detailed blueprint of a skyscraper complex before breaking ground and erecting the framework, so I outlined the “Saga,” knowing generally where all the features were going to be, but leaving plenty of room for embellishments.
I’ve worked eight years of my life on this series, which I consider to be my love letter to the science fiction genre: galactic empires, alien races, lost civilizations, strange worlds, horrifying monsters, exciting space battles, a vast cast of characters, dozens of tangled plot threads, romance, betrayal, politics, religion, and even some nasty robots.
Each book in the “Saga” came out on time, each year, seven years in a row. As a fan and a reader myself, I know what you expect from your authors — and if you read this series, I hope you think I’ve delivered what I promised.
Book 1: Hidden Empire
Book 2: A Forest of Stars
Book 3: Horizon Storms
Book 4: Scattered Suns
Book 5: Of Fire and Night
Book 6: Metal Swarm
Book 7: The Ashes of Worlds
Marie Brennan joined Sam and Shaun on the Adventures in Scifi Publishing podcast to talk about MIDNIGHT NEVER COME. Listen to the interview here.
Jo Graham, author of the historical fantasy BLACK SHIPS, chatted with Bethanne Patrick at Author, Author! Click here to see the interview!
