Celebrating Jackals

Are things ever going to settle down?  With everything that’s going on, that’s probably not in the cards for the near future.

Which makes it even more important to celebrate our victories and our accomplishments.

It can feel a little awkward, especially in these crazy times, to promote your own work or to be excited about something positive that’s going on in your life, so I hope this can be a place where we can all be excited when one of us has something good going on.

So here is the first post in what I hope will become a series:  Celebrating Jackals

I asked Dorothy Winsor if she would kick off the series by talking about why she’s excited to have been one of the people chosen to write a Big Idea post for John Scalzi’s blog, Whatever. Her post will be about The Wysman, which releases on June 27.  The hook for The Wysman:

As a former street kid, now training to be the king’s advisor, Jarka can’t stop hunting whoever’s grabbing street kids–even after the king orders him to back off. He also can’t stop wondering why the king ordered that.

I’ll let Dorothy tell us the rest – about the book, about John Scalzi, and about why getting a Big Idea Post is a big deal – in her own words.

Take it away, Dorothy!

Who is John Scalzi?

First, you need to understand that Scalzi is a very big name science fiction author. Here’s his author bio from Amazon.

“John Scalzi writes books, which, considering where you’re reading this, makes perfect sense. He’s best known for writing science fiction, including the New York Times bestseller “Redshirts,” which won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. He also writes non-fiction, on subjects ranging from personal finance to astronomy to film, was the Creative Consultant for the Stargate: Universe television series. He enjoys pie, as should all right thinking people. You can get to his blog by typing the word “Whatever” into Google. No, seriously, try it.”

His best known book is probably Old Man’s War about a far future world in which the old are given young, artificial bodies if they consent to fight in an interplanetary war.  I’m also partial to Red Shirts, which should resonate with “Star Trek” fans: A group of Star Fleet security guards realizes they’re dying at outrageous rates and takes action.

Additionally, Scalzi is past-president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He’s just a huge fish in the SFF world.

In contrast, I am a teeny, tiny minnow. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t know me at all. I scan his blog most days, but I hardly ever comment.

What is a Big Idea Post?

A Big Idea post is supposed to talk about what the central idea of the writer’s book is and how that idea affected the writing. To do one, you have to apply and explain what you want to do and why he should care. I applied with a previous book and was rejected.  But this time, he accepted. Holy cow.

So I wrote about the inherently political nature of science fiction and fantasy books that take place in a world the writer made up. As soon as you make up a culture, you have to account for power. That’s it. And I guess it was enough.

Links for purchase, if you’re interested.

Here’s the Amazon link for The Wysman. And the link on IndieBound to order from independent bookstores.

And the link for ebook purchases not from Amazon (iBooks, Google Play, etc.).

In the meantime, the ebook for The Wind Reader, the first book in this series, is currently on sale for $.99.

Thank you, jackals.

🎉🎈🎐

Do you have any questions for Dorothy?  Have you read any of her books?  Do you want to talk about john Scalzi, or how cool it is that he does so much to help other writers, or talk about science fiction, or anything related?  Great!  Share something positive?  Awesome.  Maybe we can skip all the bad stuff for this one thread?

The Mighty Trowel shared some good news with us right around the same time that Dorothy learned that she had gotten the nod for the Big Idea post from Scalzi, which is what gave me the idea for Celebrating Jackals.  I wish I could remember what that was!

You don’t need to have published a book or have received an award, but those work, too!  Maybe you moved into your dream house, or you finished rebuilding your 57 Chevy, or you just got married or you’re retiring, or you had a kid, or you just passed your boards – when you have something to celebrate, I hope you’ll be willing to write up a little something and share it with us.  Send me an email if you’re interested.

~WaterGirl

Celebrating Jackals: Dorothy Winsor Gets a John Scalzi ‘Big Idea’ PostPost + Comments (135)