David J. Williams

Pat over at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist has released his end-of-the-year Hotties, of which BURNING SKIES clocks in at #14. As if that weren’t enough, he’s also tied me with the formidable Jeff Somers for “most improved author” . . . . though last year he had MIRRORED HEAVENS at #20, so said improvement does not mean you get to ignore the earlier portion of my oeuvre, which remains as packed with hijacked maglev trains as ever.  Meanwhile, I’m off to relish my hawtness.

Well, it’s (almost) all over. I’ve sent Bantam my revisions to the copy-edited version of THE MACHINERY OF LIGHT, and now I’m surfacing with a couple of updates.

First, Jess Horsley and Jeff Saylor over at Figures.com have included the first two books in their annual Holiday Buyers’ Guide! It’s true that there aren’t any action figures for my characters yet, but my cats are busy constructing some even as I write this. So stay tuned.

Second, I gave some writerly advice to the folks at io9:  “How Do you Bridge the Gap Between Two Cool Moments in Your Novel?” Check out what I had to say here.  And like all writer advice, take it with a grain of salt.  (Or maybe a chunk.)

From today’s news.

From THE MIRRORED HEAVENS:

So at the end of Moon there’s a labyrinth. At the end of that labyrinth’s a chamber. That chamber wasn’t built by man. It’s been there since this rock cooled. It contains the most valuable thing in this world.

“Water,” says Sarmax.

He steps into the light. His armor looks pretty beat-up. It’s been burned almost black. He walks toward the ramp’s edge.

“Come again?” says the Operative.

“Water,” repeats Sarmax.  “Or should I say:  ice.”

“My latest fortune,” replies Sarmax.

He stops just short of the edge—gestures at the sloped walls. He looks back at the Operative. He smiles. He’s so close the Operative can see teeth through visor.

“You’re a resourceful man,” he says quietly.

“It’s just too bad that such resourcefulness has to compensate for such lack of planning,” continues Sarmax. “Such a goddamn shame it’s forced to rely so heavily on pure luck. You almost brought the roof down on your stupid head, Carson. It’s a wonder you didn’t get buried in those tunnels.”

“Would that have been such a terrible outcome?” says the Operative.

“Now that,” says Sarmax, “depends on your point of view.” He gestures at the ramps and ladders stacked about him. “You see before you the industry of a new era, Carson. We live in the dawn times, old friend. Humanity is poised to boil out beyond the Earth-Moon system. The red planet will be colonized en masse within the next two decades. The prospectors are even now testing the tug of the gas giants. The Oort is surrendering her secrets to the probes. It’s all there for the taking. And it all makes me say I don’t give a fuck if you take me down. I don’t give a damn about the Rain or anybody else. Let them squabble. Let them plot. What does it matter when history itself is coming into focus?”

Congratulations, NASA.  May we make it back to that rock yet.

The challenge: Praise me, Spartacus the Wonderbeast.

The prize: Dave’s miserable prose, translated into Spanish

The winner:

What a week! I was a little worried about swine flu, until I realized that all it kills are humans. And it’s not like I ever get near pigs anyway. In fact, I don’t even know what a pig is. Hopefully it doesn’t resemble those fake mice I like to chase, because then maybe this could start to get a little hairy. Kinda like those things I love to cough up on Dave’s bed.

But before that happens, we need to wrap up last week’s contest.  Don’t pretend like you forgot, either.  My sources indicate that there are STILL some humans out there who (a) haven’t died a miserable swinish death and (b) have yet to praise me.   You’ve got till the sun sets today to do so, in order to win your copy of the Spanish translation of MIRRORED HEAVENS!  Again, the rules:

1.  Send an email to djw@DAVEHATESPAMautumnrain2110.com, subject line “Cielos Reflajdos”

2.  Praise me—aka Spartacus the Wondercat—and don’t be shy!

3.  So far the best entry is a 30 page equation proving mathematically that cats are the highest form of life on this planet.

4.  But I think you can beat that by just saying something nice and sincere.

5.  Or you can lie.

Ok?   Ok.  The sun’s still in the sky, so GET TO WORK HUMANS!!

The winner will be announced Monday.  In the meantime, why not pre-order THE BURNING SKIES on Amazon?

One last review trickles in. Or maybe I just missed it at the time. At any rate, I’d call this one “guardedly positive.” Nathan Brazil (!) of SFSite.com takes me to task for “wafer-thin back stories” (to which I plead guilty if you need everything spelled out for you all at once—c’mon Nate, there’s a reason this is a trilogy), and also for the fact that this isn’t (gasp!)  really cyberpunk:  the characters “aren’t punks . . .but [rather] representatives of the government.” I take this to be further proof that the genre’s become more than a little rigid; as I’ve said before, to me cyberpunk is fundamentally about alienation, and there’s no reason why servants of the government can’t experience THAT.

(And I realize there’s a taboo against “arguing” with a review, but I haven’t had my coffee yet this morning, so I’m feeling audacious. Besides, for hundreds of years writers were free to dialogue with critics; it’s only recently that authors are expected to be Good Little Scribes without the right to make any kind of meaningful comment.)

But anyone with a name like Nathan Brazil gets cut a lot of slack round my neck of the woods, especially when they close the review with something like:

I was entertained from beginning to end, and congratulate the publisher on finding a new talent. Take a dash of Robert A. Heinlein, season with early William Gibson, baste in Robert Ludlum, and what you get is The Mirrored Heavens. It is by no means an ideal combination, and some readers may not like the mix of influences at all. But I far prefer it to the alternative of the same old names with their same old characters and settings. I have a feeling that there is much more to come from David J. Williams.

Damn, I hope so.

You can pre-order the sequel BURNING SKIES on Amazon.  And tune in tomorrow, when Spartacus gives some shit away!!!!!!

The first review of BURNING SKIES is in. . ! Steven Klotz of Mentajack describes it as “as perfect a middle book as you could ask for . . . it ratchets up every element that made Mirrored Heavens what it was, and laid some pretty sturdy foundations for the third book.” The “remember to breathe” injunction was what he wrote on his bookmark. Probably a wise precaution.

You can read the whole thing here.  Mentatjack’s also giving away two signed copies of the mass-market of Mirrored Heavens, so head on over there if you’re feeling lucky!

BURNING SKIES will be released on May 19th.

Follow me on Twitter.

The legendary Charlie Jane Anders over at io9 has done an awesome write-up of the new artwork on the website—check it out!

And stay tuned next week, as the BURNING SKIES campaign ramps up another notch! There’ll be prize giveaways, and rumor has it that Spartacus the Wonderbeast might be coaxed away from his magicfoodbowl to take the helm for a post or two. Hope everybody enjoys the weekend—I know I will (as long as I can crank another 3000 words by Monday).

The inimitable Mikes over at the Dragon Page did an interview with me a couple weeks back, which I’m only just now posting because I only just listened to it, because I have a Weird Phobia about listening to myself on tape. I suspect this is a subconscious fear that what I recollected as a reasonable conversation wil come across on tape as the mad ranting of a professional psycho.  Or maybe it’s just a very subtle method of procrastination. I’ll think it over and get back to you.

io9 put together a list of future presidents for the 21st century, and President Andrew Harrison from MIRRORED HEAVENS/BURNING SKIES has made the list!

THE AWESOME RETROFIT: Harrison rules from 2088-2093; other U.S. presidents include Lex Luthor, Victor Von Doom, Oprah Winfrey, the alien FXJKHR, and—my personal fave—Robert L. Booth from Judge Dredd, the man who started the Great Atom War that turned North America into radioactive wasteland!!!

THE ACTUAL TRUTH: As all loyal citizens know, President Andrew Harrison (aka “the Throne”) took power in 2088 as first president under the Reformed Constitution, and then proceeded to invoke the state of emergency clause; twenty-two years later, he continues to rule with absolute powers, presiding over an Inner Cabinet composed of scheming traitors loyal officers.