The weather was sort of nice (ie not too much rain). I dunked the H into the Brittany sea (a harsh experiment when all your swimming has been done south of Bordeaux, where the water is markedly warmer); we cycled to a few nice places (with raincoat on), and we did some shopping for clothes and shoes and stuff. And slept a lot. A nice, eventless holiday 🙂

Saw the cover and TOC for the September issue of Asimov’s, which will contain my non-fiction piece “The View From The Other Side” on non-Western, non-Anglophone SF. Happy to be sharing a TOC with Nancy Fulda and Mary Robinette Kowal (and, wow, why am I occupying so much space on that cover…?)

In other news, would anyone happen to have a copy of the latest (July) Locus? I’m told there are nice reviews of “The Jaguar House in Shadow” (which was in the July issue of Asimov’s) in both the Gardner Dozois and the Rich Horton column, and obviously I forgot to renew my subscription at this key moment… Thanks in advance!
ETA: didn’t realise I’ve been unclear–I just wanted a peek at the review contents, not the copy itself (wouldn’t want to despoil anyone here…)
ETA: thanks to the awesome Cate Gardner, my curiosity is now suitably sated.

On a matter tangential to Eight Against Reality, the publisher, Panverse, is having a kickstarter funding appeal, where you can win copies of their books–and more importantly support the awesome Dario Ciriello in putting a novella market into orbit. Check it out!

And my own Honorable Mentions in the Year’s Best SF: I have four (?!), for “After the Fire” in Apex, “Dancing for the Monsoon” in Abyss & Apex, “In the Age of Iron and Ashes” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and “Ys” in Interzone. Rather amusing that only one of those is SF 🙂

Your daily Aztec dose is this review of Servant of the Underworld. Not so much with the liking, but the book is being handed to someone else, so still pretty good 🙂

In other news, just a heads-up that the H and I are headed to Brittany to my parents’ until Wednesday, and that I won’t have internet access there. (but there will be tanning. Well, I hope. Currently I go all lobster rather than gracefully brown).

(there’s a scheduled blog post at the beginning of this week, too–just in case you’re wondering how it is that I manage to post without internet access…)
(I swear, next week there’ll be bona fide content here–with planned stuff on steampunk and Aztecs)

Ok, this is the bit where I jump up and down (and possibly throw some squeeing, too). This was the news I was sitting on last week, which was killing me (I’ve known for a while, but the signed contracts arrived last week, which made it even harder to wait).

My awesome agents at Zeno Agency have sold French rights to all three Obsidian and Blood books to Mathieu Saintout of Bibliothèque Interdite (the aptly named “Forbidden Library”). Bibliothèque Interdite is currently publishing Games Workshop books, but is planning to launch their new imprint at the end of the year.

I’m going to be translated in French. For French bookshops. This is going to be so weird. But so great.

This clearly calls for leaping Bubble Bobble dinosaurs:

As determined by my trusty throw of the die, the winner of the Eight Against Reality anthology up for grabs is…

kara_gnome!

Congratulations! Contact me via LJ or mail to give me your mailing address and whether you wish the antho signed.

Thanks very much to everyone else for entering–I had no idea Written in Blood was so popular 🙂 There will be another contest coming soon (July if I get around to it, or September, ’cause the wedding is a bit in the way of organising stuff like this), to win a copy of Servant of the Underworld and a cool Aztec coaster.

And here’s the cover to go with the blurb! Isn’t it so pretty? (note that I have different bloodstains on my covers–you can now collect them all *g*).

Coming January 2011 in the UK/Australia and February 2011 in the US/RoW. With star demons, conniving high priests and generalised political plotting. Oh, and more ahuizotls, because fingernail-eating monsters always make everything better.

Pre-order on Amazon.co.uk|Amazon.com|Barnes and Noble|Book Depository|Amazon.fr

And while I’m at it, another (very nice) review of Servant of the Underworld at Cold Iron and Rowan-Wood.

Lookie lookie, I found this awesome illustration for my Xuya continuity story “Fleeing Tezcatlipoca” (out now in Space and Time Magazine), courtesy of Alan F. Beck.

Remember that character I mentioned, way back when I was writing Harbinger? The one to whom I gave a long and complicated name, figuring we’d never see him again, and who ended up playing a major part in Harbinger?

Well, it turns out he’s going to play a major part in book 3, too. And I’m still stuck with him…

*sigh*

PS: in case you’ve read Servant of the Underworld and are wondering… It’s Acamapichtli, the disagreeable High Priest of the Rain God. He turns out to be still disagreeable, but way too useful for plot purposes.

No cover art yet (though that is being designed, I know for sure), but hey, there’s a blurb on amazon.co.uk:

The year is Two House and the Mexica Empire teeters on the brink of destruction, lying vulnerable to the flesh-eating star-demons – and to the return of their creator, a malevolent goddess only held in check by the Protector God’s power.

The council is convening to choose a new emperor, but when a councilman is found dead, only Acatl, High Priest of the Dead, can solve the mystery.

When he hears rumours of a sinister cabal of sorcerors he must face up to demons, not all of them his own.

FILE UNDER: Modern Fantasy [Aztec Gods / Star Demons / Secret Sorcery / Blood Rituals]

Shiny..

So, about that sekrit project I mentioned way back in April? Looks like it’s gone public: my non-fiction piece, “The View from the Other Side”, about non-Western/non-Anglophone SF, will appear in the September issue of Asimov’s.

First time I have non-fiction in a major venue, on a fairly controversial topic. Should be fun…