Colin Alexander's Blog

Yay!  The Lucky Starman is now available on Amazon.  This is the third adventure of Leif the Lucky.  It has a gorgeous cover from Alejandro Colucci that creates some dissonance with the title.  There's a reason for that.  Leif finds himself stranded in orbit, viewing a destroyed civilization on Earth through the screens of a starship that is running out of food and fuel.  Is Leif really Lucky?  He could be forgiven for doubting it at that particular moment.  Find out what happens next in the book.

Of course, having published The Lucky Starman, my first thought was to move on to writing the next book.  After all, that's what a writer does.  But no.  There is so much more involved with launching a book today and that's what I'm busy with now.  The difference from eight years ago when I started self-publishing as an indie is enormous.  When I get past that, yes, it will be back to writing.  Next up will be the fourth Leif the Lucky book.

Before that, I'll be at Boskone in Boston.  Hope to see lots of you there.

Yay!  The Lucky Starman is now available on Amazon.  This is the third adventure of Leif the Lucky.  It has a gorgeous cover from Alejandro Colucci that creates some dissonance with the title.  There’s a reason for that.  Leif finds himself stranded in orbit, viewing a destroyed civilization on Earth through the screens of a starship that is running out of food and fuel.  Is Leif really Lucky?  He could be forgiven for doubting it at that particular moment.  Find out what happens next in the book.

Of course, having published The Lucky Starman, my first thought was to move on to writing the next book.  After all, that’s what a writer does.  But no.  There is so much more involved with launching a book today and that’s what I’m busy with now.  The difference from eight years ago when I started self-publishing as an indie is enormous.  When I get past that, yes, it will be back to writing.  Next up will be the fourth Leif the Lucky book.

Before that, I’ll be at Boskone in Boston.  Hope to see lots of you there.

The post The Lucky Starman is now available appeared first on Afictionado.

Well, Murder Under Another Sun has been released on Amazon.  A combination of "Yay!" and "Whew!"  Hard science fiction with a murder mystery and a bit of nasty pharmacology.  This is the sequel to Starman's Saga and it's the first time I've written a sequel.  It's looking like, in fact, that it's going to be a series since I'm still writing about Leif.  I've always enjoyed getting to the point in writing a story where it feels as though the characters are dictating how the story goes.  Here, I've become quite entangled with Leif.  The universe isn't done with him.  So, I'll see where he takes me next.

With the book out, though, I can look forward to Worldcon.  This is happening in Chicago, Sept 1 - 5 and the schedule is pretty firmed up at this point.  I will be on several panels: "Terraforming and Alien Life", "We're Here for a Good Time *and* a Long Time" (about creating long-lived species), "One Hero To Save Them All", "Medical Trauma in Science Fiction and Historical Fantasy", and "How 'Hard' Can It Be?" (about what we call hard science fiction and how close to science it comes).  This should be a lot of fun and it's a good time to be in Chicago.  Hope to see lots of folks there.

Well, Murder Under Another Sun has been released on Amazon.  A combination of “Yay!” and “Whew!”  Hard science fiction with a murder mystery and a bit of nasty pharmacology.  This is the sequel to Starman’s Saga and it’s the first time I’ve written a sequel.  It’s looking like, in fact, that it’s going to be a series since I’m still writing about Leif.  I’ve always enjoyed getting to the point in writing a story where it feels as though the characters are dictating how the story goes.  Here, I’ve become quite entangled with Leif.  The universe isn’t done with him.  So, I’ll see where he takes me next.

With the book out, though, I can look forward to Worldcon.  This is happening in Chicago, Sept 1 – 5 and the schedule is pretty firmed up at this point.  I will be on several panels: “Terraforming and Alien Life”, “We’re Here for a Good Time *and* a Long Time” (about creating long-lived species), “One Hero To Save Them All”, “Medical Trauma in Science Fiction and Historical Fantasy”, and “How ‘Hard’ Can It Be?” (about what we call hard science fiction and how close to science it comes).  This should be a lot of fun and it’s a good time to be in Chicago.  Hope to see lots of folks there.

The post A new book and a coming convention appeared first on Afictionado.

I was at Boskone 59 in Boston two weeks ago, in person.  Let me say, first, that it was a great convention.  The organizers did a terrific job to put on a hybrid con.  Everything (to my eye) ran well.  I enjoyed the panels and the kaffeeklatsches.  All of that said, I would put the in-person attendance - and this is only my estimate from what I saw - at about 500.  Maybe a little less.  That's lower than the attendance pre-pandemic.  I don't know how many were online but I am willing to bet it was a lot more.  So, where are we going with conventions?  There is a great attraction to the online (or hybrid in-person + online) model even if, in the future, we no longer need to consider COVID.  You don't have to travel, with all the cost and inconvenience involved.  The number of attendees can go up substantially.  On the downside, however, a hybrid convention is challenging for the organizers from a technical perspective.  Discord and Zoom are not the same as being able to meet spontaneously and have conversations with people you have never met before.  It does not work well for Author's Alley tables and (I don't think) for dealers and artists because the foot traffic is down.  Which brings me back to the question: where are we going?

Heliosphere - this year in Parsippany NJ, will be in-person March 25 - 27.  I will be there.  The Nebulas in May will be virtual only.  I believe that Worldcon in Chicago and World Fantasy in New Orleans, both in the fall, will be hybrid.  Against this backdrop, the Wesleyan Writer's Conference, which I have enjoyed in the past, has been canceled for the third year in a row.  I don't have a handle, now, on how all of this will come out.  I do think, by the end of this year, we will know.  I'm hoping that in-person events don't fade away.  We'll see.

Boskone is coming! https://www.boskone.org/ Boskone 59 will be in Boston February 18 - 20, 2022. This will be a terrific science fiction and fantasy experience that will feature books, science, art, games, music, and more. There will be excellent panels to attend. I'm going to be on four. Look for the full schedule to be posted soon. We are back to being in person this year and I am really looking forward to this! See you there!

I had the opportunity to write a guest post for BookClubBabble on the differences between what we call Science Fiction and what we call Fantasy and where the two can come together.  Read the post at Science Fiction or Fantasy? Guest Post by Colin Alexander – Book Club Babble.

I hope everyone has had a great holiday and is looking forward to a happy New Year.  It's my wish that 2022 is a healthier and more normal year than we have gone through in 2021.

Looking back on 2021 purely from a writing perspective is interesting.  I published two novels in 2021, Complicated: The Interstellar Life and Times of Saoirse Kenneally in January and Princess of Shadows: The Girl Who Would Be King in November.  This may look like I really had nose-to-grindstone despite everything going on in 2021, but it was actually fortuitous.  Complicated was planned for the last quarter of 2020, but the pandemic had an impact and it had to be pushed to 2021.  Sometimes you think that when you are indie/self-pub you have complete control over your timelines.  Then reality smacks you in the face.  Both books are included in the current exhibit "Books for Comfort, Books for Inspiration" at the Brookline Public Library in Brookline, MA.  If you happen to be in that area, check it out, and the library, which is a really nice one.

There were some great conventions that I was able to attend this year: Boskone in Boston, which was virtual, and World Fantasy in Montreal, which was hybrid.  Both ran really well and were enjoyable - kudos to both organizing teams.  Looking forward with cautious optimism to more in-person meetings in 2022.

Also looking forward, the audiobook of Princess of Shadows should be ready by spring.  I'm also working on another adventure for Leif the Lucky.  Planning for that to come out in the second half of the year.

Best to all.

Was up in Montreal for the World Fantasy Convention this past weekend.  I thought the organizers did a fabulous job managing a hybrid convention.  We had in-person panels, virtual panels, and hybrid ones (some panelists present and some remote).  It all worked.  They had a nurse come to the hotel on the next-to-last day to do swabs for folks who had to catch planes.  I do have to note that the in-person attendance was way down from World Fantasy Conventions in the past, a not-surprising consequence of COVID-19.  Will attendance ever return to what it used to be?  Obviously, the biggest factor in that is COVID, and whether we will be able to, eventually, put the pandemic behind us.  Even if we do, there are certain advantages to attending remotely - no plane tickets, hotel rooms, and restaurant meals.  I do miss the energy, though, of having a large group together and the chance to meet new folks.  I'll be at Boskone in Boston in February and we'll see how things evolve from there.

Post-convention, PRINCESS OF SHADOWS: The Girl Who Would Be King is now available on Amazon in ebook and paperback formats.  An audiobook will follow in the spring, but the narrator isn't settled yet.  With PRINCESS out, I can focus more on the next Leif the Lucky story.  That draft had been progressing at the same time as the PRINCESS edits, and having one story in a swords and castles society with another in an interstellar ramjet society was creating some real mental whiplash.  Time to give Leif his due.

I've been running quite a while between posts this summer.  A lot of it has been immersion in readying the next book.  I think I have said before that there will be a princess and castles, but no magic and no dragons.  That is how the story will go, and the princess should make her appearance before the end of the year.  It now looks like the cover art will come at the end of October, and that should be the last key piece.  One of the things about self-publishing is that I am, essentially, assembling the production team that a traditional publisher would supply to an author.  This means the editor(s), the cover artist, the person to format the files and so on.  I realize it is possible - at least in theory - for the author to handle all of this themselves, but those aren't my skill sets.  And it all needs to mesh.  So, the thickness of the spine is determined by the thickness of paper and the number of pages, which means the cover for the paperback can't be done until there is a final page count - or really close approximation - and, hello Gantt chart!  All of which is a long-winded way of saying that, between this work and drafting Leif's next adventure, I haven't been keeping up with posting.  I should do better as we get into the fall and I will comment on what I have been reading when I do.  That has also taken something of a back seat, but I have read some interesting books and will have some comments down the road.