Archive for Contents

Childish Things

I like toys.  We all do, whether we admit it or not.  Cars, houses, and clothes are grown up toys.  Ninety-five percent of the SUV owners in the universe are merely expressing their inner child’s frustration that they can’t buy a sportscar that transforms into a robot.  And if most of us were honest with ourselves, we’d just go ahead and admit that we’d pay through the nose if we could pull a hidden lever and have our house change into a secret command bunker.

Games can be a great way of indulging our inner child while engaging our outer adult.  Studies have shown that playing video games not only increases visual acuity, but can have positive psychological effects.  Tetris helps reduce post-traumatic stress.  Halo teaches us to always keep an eye on our forcefield meter.  And if I ever have to fight a giant robot, experience tells me to look for the glowing points because that’s the only way to drain the robot’s health. (more…)

Cover Launch: TRACKING THE TEMPEST

Peeler_Tracking Tempest (MM)And the first new cover for the Spring/Summer 2010 season is the next book in the Jane True series: Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler. (Just because I will be seeing her in the Orbit HQ this week and I don’t want her to kick my butt for not posting it yet)

Of course I went back to the fabulous (and award-winning) illustrator Sharon Tancredi for our next look at Jane True. Tracking the Tempest finds Jane learning how to cope with her new view of the world, and the powers that come with it, in the midst of a very action-packed story. Where in the first book, Tempest Rising, we had more of a portrait of Jane on the cover, this time we wanted an action shot. Jane is learning how to control her powers, and growing as a character, and I think Sharon did a fabulous job of picking this scene out of the story to illustrate that.

I love how Sharon kept the theme going from the first book with the illustrated frame, and a new take on the heart icon that is very apt to the story.

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Found! One Creative Director

hanleia Sorry folks, I know I’ve been a little absent from the new-and-improved-now-with-author-posts orbit blog, but, as you might surmise from the photo to the left, I was off getting hitched. Not only that, but I had been feverishly working for months on the covers for the new Spring/Summer 2010 season, finished almost every one, had a huge Sales meeting here at Orbit HQ, and then ran off and got married in a supremely geek-flavored way. Among other geeky touches, Han and Leia over there were the cake toppers, and I made all the wedding party enter the reception to the opening theme to Star Wars.

Just wanted to let you loyal readers know, Orbit HQ is staffed with geeks at literally every level.

Now let the cover posts commence! (And yes, work on the WORST COVER EVER continues…)

Something that is not a packaging device.

Hello again, internet. Hope you’re doing well. It’s still been raining here a great deal, and I’ve found that my backyard doesn’t drain well at all. Arnold our Yorkie has to sidle along the edge of the grass at our porch to find a dry spot to use as a bathroom. I’d pity him if the sight wasn’t so awkward and hilarious.

Somehow, in the midst of all this rain, my wife has managed to collect three nails in one tire of her Prius. It’s almost amazing, her bad luck. I’ve never had a nail in my tires at all.

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Had a beer with Dan the other night. I really enjoy having a neighbor on hand to have a beer with, and I think Dan does, too. We split a six pack of Lone Star in his shed. He seemed a little despondent, or at least more than usual, and after a while I gathered that his creation was giving him trouble.
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Coming Soon – TEMPEST RISING

Jane True #1 Out in November
Jane True #1 Out in November

Nicole Peeler’s debut novel TEMPEST RISING is out next month – but you can read chapter one on her website now.

Rockabill, Maine, is a small town with a rapidly growing supernatural population. Like her fellow citizens, Jane True, a 26-year old bookstore clerk, loves the ocean, but even her hardiest fellow Downeasters hesitate to go for a plunge in the surf every night, be it winter or summer. The few who know of her solitary swims are OK with it, of course; it is part of her heritage, and the supernatural is as traditional in New England as lobster rolls. But after she discovers a murder, she realizes she’s being drawn further into a world populated by creatures of myths and legends, sometimes lovely, often terribly dangerous. Creatures such as Ryu, the young (and, need we add, handsome) vampire sent to investigate the murder, and who’d very much like to be her new friend.

TEMPEST RISING is fast, fantastic seaside fun. Look for the book in November, and keep up with Nicole’s adventures on her blog.

The odd neighbors of a first-time homeowner

Well, for the first time, hello everyone! My name, as you can probably tell already, is Robert Jackson Bennett, and I’m currently about to be a first time author. It’ll be official in January 2010 when Mr. Shivers comes out from Orbit, which is about four months away. That’s all self-promotion stuff, however, and I have a blog already started for whatever tooting is necessary for my own horn. To be honest, I’ve never written in any official kind of capacity on the internet, so I’m not sure what to say. Easily the most curious thing that’s going on with me at the moment, though, is what’s happening next door.
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Silly Fantasies

My first addition to the official Orbit blog page.  This is serious.  This is important.  This is something to think about.  So I’m going to just leap into the fray and admit something.

Fantasy is silly.

It just is.  There’s no way around this, and to think otherwise is an unnecessary strain on your justification cortex.  (I don’t know if there’s such a thing but seems like there should be if there isn’t.)

Science Fiction is (mostly) silly, too.  It’s all absurd, ridiculous, nonsensical stuff.  It’s whimsy.  It’s make-believe.  It’s escapist.  It’s childish.  It’s all these wonderful things and more. (more…)

In Their Own Words: K.J. Parker on The Company

K.J. says: COMPANY_B.indd

The Company started with an old friend of mine. He’s nothing like General Kunessin, but he used to have an old Air Force greatcoat with the rank and unit insignia cut off (he was a pacifist; military greatcoats are amazingly warm; we lived in a cold place)

The image of a tall man in just such a coat coming home stayed with me for thirty years. During that time, I figured he must be coming home from the war; which in turn begged the question, what war? My spasmodic studies of history during that time led me to the unavoidable truth that there’s only ever one war, and it’s never over.

All of the veterans I’ve met over the years brought the war home with them. They came back dressed in it, like a coat. Some of them put the coat neatly away in a cupboard. Some of them hid it in the attic, lagging the hot water tank. Some of them, usually the ones who didn’t do so well in peacetime, carried on wearing it because they had nothing else to wear, and they lived in a cold place.

It’s sad that war never seems to go out of style. The veterans I’ve talked to all said the same thing; it was the comradeship, the friends, that made it bearable, even joyful. Do you still see your old army buddies, I ask? None of them do. I conclude that my original mental image was deceptive; nobody comes home from the war, because everybody who fights in the war stays there, for ever and ever, and somebody else comes home, wearing their coat.

The Company [UK|US] is K.J. Parker’s first stand alone novel and is available in paperback this month from all good booksellers.

Free Podcast of TRANSITION by Iain M. Banks

Apparently I am what is known as an Unreliable Narrator, though of course if you believe everything you’re told you deserve whatever you get.’

Iain M. Banks is back with TRANSITION, an apocalyptic fable for terrible times.

And starting today we’re serializing the abridged audio edition of TRANSITION on iTunes. Each Tuesday and Friday you can download a new chapter of the abridged edition for free.

Transition on iTunes

“TRANSITION is a book that makes you think, one that makes you look at the world around you in a different light, and it’s also a properly thrilling read. If only more contemporary fiction was like it.” — The Independent