David J. Williams

First the good news. From John Ottinger of Grasping for the Wind’s review of MIRRORED HEAVENS: “Very few books have ever lived up to overused description of a “non-stop thrill ride”. The Mirrored Heavens is one of those few.” He goes on to say that its “vision of a dark and terrible political future and constant and significant plot twists make this novel a book you could read twice, each time with a wholly new perspective.”  I particularly appreciated his insight that in many ways the book’s more of a spy thriller than a traditional SF read; of special note is his discussion about whether it veers closer to James Bond or Jason Bourne (in the course of which he becomes the first reviewer to spot the underwater volcano homage, but that’s worth a whole ‘nother post. . .)

With a review like that, you know the karmic balance has to be evened up somewhere; credit here goes to Tia Nevitt at Fantasy Debut, who notes that the book is meant to be a “can’t put it down thriller” but that it took her months and months to read, so that’s clearly not what it is.  She also finds my editor’s favorite character, Linehan, to be “repugnant”, which I’m guessing probably has something to do with his penchant for delivering one-liners while committing acts of mass-murder. And then the inimitable Claire Haskell is compared to R2D2, which I gotta admit I’m still scratching my head over.  But hey, Tia, as long as you don’t invoke the Star Wars Xmas Special, I think we can still be friends.

Anyway, never mind the critics:  some will like it, some will hate it, but only YOU can decide.  Did I mention the mass-market is available HERE?

John C. posted a comment recently asking about my writing process for MIRRORED HEAVENS and sequels:

I was wondering if you could write a little bit more about HOW you go about writing. Do you outline the chapters first with a general idea of what u want to write about within a chapter. Or just shoot from the hip and figure it out later?

And I’m glad he asked it, because this is something I feel pretty strongly about. I plan it all out, and I’m firmly convinced that one of the biggest mistakes new/aspiring writers make is that they don’t. To some degree, I think this is because they get terrible advice from the senior/pro writers. I’ve been struck by how many professional writers who should know better proudly tell neophytes about how they write novels by “just diving in”, not knowing where the whole thing was going, and often having no clue whatsoever about the ending. And this may not be such a bad approach . . if you’re a seasoned writer with several books under your belt, and you’ve got well-honed instincts and a well-trained subconscious that’s used to bailing you out of tough situations.

My subconscious, on the other hand, hits the rip-cord when the going gets tough (thanks dude). And I don’t have time or resources to plow 40,000 words into something and then realize that it’s not going anywhere. To me, not planning out what you’re writing is about as irresponsible as a Hollywood director hauling a million dollars worth of cameras into the desert without having a fucking script.  Writing is painstaking, and I’ve got to have maximum assurance (it can never be total) that the hours I’m spending writing a page are well-spent.  Which is why I map everything out at a several levels, and I never, EVER write a scene without knowing (a) how I’m getting in, (b) how I’m getting out, and (c), most critically of all, what’s the center of gravity of that sequence.

To be clear:  I’m not saying there’s no room for spontaneity.  I’m just saying there’s plenty of room for good planning.  In fact, I’ll go out on a limb here and define writer’s block as being fundamentally about the failure of the planning process.  My formula in four words is brainstorm hard, write easy.  Even though writing never is . . .

They broke out the drinks and had themselves a roundtable discussion over at SFF.world about everybody’s “top five” 2008 SF books, and MIRRORED HEAVENS got mentioned not once but twice, by Graeme Flory and by Pat at Fantasy Hotlist. Plus I also got on the scoreboard with John Ottinger over at Grasping for the Wind, who gives me the prize for most surreal read of the year. I find this to be the most gratifying review yet. . .

And don’t forget, MIRRORED HEAVENS is getting released in mass-market paperback on January 27th.  Why not beat the rush and pre-order?

. . . enough time for me to resurface to say that (1) Valkyrie rules, for the love of God don’t let Tom Cruise stop you from seeing it; and (2) MIRRORED HEAVENS has made Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist top SFF reads of the year (20 out of 20, but hey, no complaints this end).  Hope everybody’s enjoying the holidays. . .

This has been making the rounds on the SF blogosphere, and as you guys know, I’m all about bandwagons.

Age when I decided I wanted to be a writer: 29
Age when I wrote my first short story: 31
Age when I first got my hands on a good word processor: 28
Age when I first submitted a short story to a magazine: 31
Rejections prior to first short story sale: Never made a short story sale.
Age when I sold my first short story:  See above. You trying to rub it in?
Age when I killed my first market:  Can someone tell me what this means?
Approximate number of short stories sold:  Approximately zero.
Age when I first sold a poem: A what?
Poems sold: If I admitted to anything here, I’d destroy myself with my ultratough battle-crazy constituency.
Age when I wrote my first novel: 29-35
Age when I first sold a novel: 36
Novels written between age 23 and age 37: 2
Age when I wrote the first novel I sold: 29-35
Number of novels written before that: 0
Age when that novel was published: 36
Total number of novels written: 2
Books sold:  3
Books published or delivered and in the pipeline: 2
Number of titles in print: 1
Age when I was a Writers of the Future winner:  I met one once.
Age when I became a full-time novelist: 36 (courtesy of these guys)
Age now:  37

I’m currently going through the copy-edits of the sequel to THE MIRRORED HEAVENS. Turns out the editor(s) had a problem with the Remixed Ending I wrote up in the last stage of the edits. They like virtually all of it, but there’s just. One. Thing. They. Aren’t. Sure.  About.

So now I have to decide whether or not I agree with them. This is always the weirdest part of the process—years in the planning, months in the writing, and now whatever I choose, I’m stuck with.  My desk is littered with manuscript pages; my cat has been banished from the study because of his fascination with them, as well as with that Awesome Blue Pencil I’m using to mark up the text. He doesn’t give a fuck what I decide to do with the text, just as long as he gets the chicken/turkey combo that keeps appearing in his bowl like magic. Maybe he’s got the right perspective.

Most of what I post about agents on this site involves the sort found in my book: folks who are busy blowing up shit, or getting their memories wiped, or fighting their way out of maglev trains racing beneath the Atlantic. But there’s a whole different kind of agent out there, the kind that made THE MIRRORED HEAVENS possible in the first place. I’m talking, of course, about literary agents, none of whom are dearer to my heart than Jenny R. Rappaport, who took a chance on my manuscript when I was an unpublished newbie, and managed to turn what had been mere dreams and ambition into a three-book deal with Bantam.

So it gives me a lot of pleasure to tell you that Jenny has now hung out her own shingle, founding The Rappaport Agency after several years of working with industry vet Lori Perkins.  The split is entirely amicable; Lori is increasingly focused on erotica and chicklit, whereas Jenny intends to continue concentrating on SF/fantasy.  Check out her own blog for details.  You can also learn more about Zoe the Wondercat there, but I’ll let Jenny bring you up to speed on that. . . .

I’ll be at Chicagoland’s WindyCon this weekend, which (as luck would have it) is dedicated this year to military science fiction. My schedule’s as follows:

Saturday, 10:00: Strategy, Tactics, Logistics

Saturday, 20:00: Building Future Weapons

Sunday, 13:00: Space Battles are Not Sea Battles

Only problem is that right now my plane back to D.C. flies out of Chicago BEFORE the last panel, and I may not be able to change the flight.  Stay tuned. . .

I’ll be in Rockville this weekend at Capclave 2008; my schedule’s as follows:

Saturday, October 18th: Space Warfare (panel), 10 a.m.

Sunday, October 19th: Why Did We Give Up On Space? (panel), 10 a.m.; reading from THE MIRRORED HEAVENS at 11:30 a.m.

I’m not exactly a morning person, so expect to see me no further than a foot from a cup of coffee during all of this.  At any rate, it should be a nice break from revising the second novel while I obsessively check my election RSS feeds. : )

Just got word from Bantam that they’ve sold the Spanish language rights to MIRRORED HEAVENS worldwide. Hopefully it’ll hit some bookstores in South America, given that’s where all the opening scenes take place. Or maybe I’ll become like one of those heavy metal bands that fails to crack the U.S. but everytime they go down south, they’re playing in huge arenas before a hundred thousand die-hard fans. I’ll keep everybody posted.

And speaking of, er, fantasy:  following a very favorable recent review at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist* (in which described the book as “a strong candidate for my Unexpected Surprise of the Year), Patrick kindly asked me to do an interview with him, and that’s here.   Tune in for my utterly uncontroversial views on why British SF is kicking American SF’s ass these days.

*He reviews science fiction as well.  But you knew that already.