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frontiers of joy
Norilana Books has now issued its first Press Release about the acquisition of Leaving Fortusa: http://norilanabooks.livejournal.com/38421.html.
I'm so very fired up about this. My ballbuster agent sent the book out with her (genuine, she told me) comment that she felt this was the novel I'd been put here to write, as it were. I was a bit stunned by the description at first, then realized I agreed with her.
It's also a novel that's going to get a lot of people very angry. No one I personally give too much of a $Zb about, to be honest; but a lot of folk out there. I hate raising hackles, but there are times . . . Sinclair Lewis didn't write It Can't Happen Here because he wanted to offend people but because he was terrified by the anti-human horrors that well intentioned Denial might unwittingly accomplish. That's kind of where I'm coming from, too. We can no longer afford the luxury of good people refusing to face the unpleasant truths in front of them.
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Thanks, Charles! Would you like to be on the PDF list in due course?
(Oh, and do I still owe you a PDF of The Dragons of Manhattan? If so, it's because I've been waiting seemingly forever for a JPG of the final cover from the publisher. What I can't remember is if I finally lost patience and sent you the PDF with the semi-final cover.)
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Yep -- you got the semi-final cover. Bob went off on holiday for a few days, came back refreshed, and decided there were some improvements he could make. Seeing the revised artwork, Steve Upham of Screaming Dreams decided that, if Bob could make improvements to the artwork, Steve could make improvements he to the design. Since then I've been waiting for the revised masterpiece, so I can post it on my blog!
Glad to hear you're having fun with the book!
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Will stalk your blog for the cover. =)
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"Just wondering, when's the release date of the book?"
I still haven't had a final date out of Steve -- he's been trying to get one out of the printers. Sometime in the next three or four weeks, is my guess.
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Keep saying that VERY VERY LOUDLY!
It's a great joy that this book, which means so much to me, is being published by Norilana. Who'd ever have thought, a few years ago when we first started chattering, that this would happen?
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Sheesh I had no idea when 'meeting' you here on LJ you were this person.
:)
The things we find out about our friends down the line.
Love, C.
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That's a slightly nerve-racking comment to receive, C! Quite what do you mean, ma'am?
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The comment signifies nothing but positive reaction for thee, Mr. RealThog.
I had no idea you were Mr. Grant, that you are Famous and for a long time, and etc. etc. etc.
I just found you an appealing person and enjoyed interacting with you.
Love, C.
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Oh, dearest C.! Who did you think you were meeting up with at the KGB Bar reading in February?
Oh, and I'm not famous.
xx
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A talented writer who is a smart, informed, congenial sort of person, with a sense of humor (when Ellen or Gavin publishes a person, all of those are given, but I hadn't realized you were published with them at the time I encountered you online either). And who wasn't afraid of a drink.
The sort of person I / we (meaning Vaquero and I) spend our time with. :)
The great thing about LJ is that I've run into and made friends with a lot of people who are like that, but who aren't in -- well, slots. If that makes sense.
Love, C.
deleted and edited coz I'd made one of my famous finger tangles on the keyboard, and because I hadn't addressed himself's famousity. He is, as I learned in the last few days. But I'm always lalalaing around, not knowing these things about people I run into and then like a lot.
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Did I mention to you a while back that I'm neither conservative nor liberal? Well, actually, I lean toward liberal. It's just that I play my cards close to the vest. I really do try to avoid discussing politics and religion, but recent circumstances dictate otherwise.
There are times when we simply must take a stance and fight.
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"There are times when we simply must take a stance and fight."
I couldn't agree with you more.
I don't know if you're familiar with the Sinclair Lewis novel I cite above; if you are, forgive me for telling you what you already know! But . . .
It Can't Happen Here is about the election of a populist POTUS (Buzz Windrip, if memory serves), who over a period of a few years turns the country into a fascist/Nazi state. The novel's central character is a small-town newspaper editor called Doremus Jessup. He's a good man, but no crusading journalist; he just bobs along, trying to put the best face on events, etc. Well on through the book, it strikes him -- and the reader -- with the force of a thunderbolt that the person who's turned the US into a military dictatorship isn't Buzz Windrip . . . it's Doremus Jessup, and all the other Doremus Jessups who didn't do anything.
I expected the events of the past few years to spark a whole host of responsive novels from the f/sf community, but in fact there's been next to nothing. So I decided that for once in my life I'd not be a Doremus Jessup, and began putting together the pieces of Leaving Fortusa.
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In short, they didn't want to draw attention to themselves -- a common human sentiment.
Again: there are times when we must risk being hated or drawing unwanted attention...
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"thanks for recommending Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here. I have not read it but will, now"
If you read online, I think (I may be wrong) you can find it for free download at Project Gutenberg Australia. Yep -- here it is: http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-a-m.html#letterL (scroll down).
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"The insidiousness of apathy...what I refer to as the sin of omission."
That's part of it, yes, but I think there's also a major Denial component: people have difficulty getting their heads around the true enormity of the situation we're in, because no other US Administration has ever acted like this before. Round here there's a political grouping called the Real Republican Party, comprising Republicans who do recognize all too clearly that this ain't the same old Dem/Rep political football game any longer, but a lot of the Reps I meet (and even a few Dems, including far too many in the Senate/Congress) seem incapable of realizing it. What's needed is a bipartisan effort to pull the country back from the brink.
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Denial is a destructive hedge, across the board.