Jason M. Hough's Blog
January 25, 2017
Musings about Androids and Electric Sheep
Signature Reads was kind enough to post an article I wrote about Phillip K. Dick's great novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
December 13, 2016
Covers revealed for the new DIRE EARTH books!
Yesterday Unbound Worlds hosted the cover reveal for my two new Dire Earth books, INJECTION BURN and ESCAPE VELOCITY!
Here they are just so we can all gawk at them one more time:
In this post I want to talk about the cover creation process. You often hear from authors that they have no say in their cover designs, and that's largely true. I've been quite lucky to have an editor who includes me in the process, if only to keep me informed. I give my opinions on what they're doing, and sometimes they listen and sometimes they don't. And that's okay! I'm not a graphic designer, nor am I a marketing guru. To quote Monty Python, "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like." So I weigh in and am grateful that my concerns are listened to, but I know in the end they'll do what they think is best. It is, afterall, their job.
These covers, though, went a bit differently than the norm.
Here's a run-down of how they came to be:
Okay. Wait. Before I do that, real quick it's important to know that these two books are very much a duology. They're part 1 and part 2 of a story. Cool? Cool.
So, my first comment to my editor was that I'd love to do something like Connie Willis's BLACKOUT and ALL CLEAR.
I love the way these tie together and immediately suggest they are two halves of something larger.
I also suggested that we do something that implies the arrival aspect of the first book, and the subsequent attempt at escape in the second. In addition, being DIRE EARTH books these have an element of a space elevator involved, so if the above could also somehow imply descent and ascent, that, I thought, would be awesome.
My editor agreed, and over dinner in Phoenix last summer we pencil sketched the idea. At which point he suggested something like this movie poster for High Rise:
And I promptly replied with this one, just to one-up my editor on the geek lore scale.
Point is, the triangular nature of the design implies going up, and if we did the opposite for book one... you get the idea.
Time passed and, as usual, I reached a point in the writing process (the mid-book doldrums) where I needed a little spark to get me motivated again. I decided to embark on one of my favorite pastimes, arm-chair cover design!
So I fiddled around in Photoshop for an afternoon, and came up with these:
Not bad huh? I must apologize to the artists who made the works I used in the above. I literally just started cutting-and-pasting random images that were close to what I wanted from Deviant Art, and didn't think to note who the artists were. Whoever you are, fantastic stuff!
It is also worth noting something else. The woman on the second mockup doesn't look anything like the character we wanted to portray, and that's because for the life of me I could not find a painting out there of a bad-ass sci-fi woman of African descent. Sad but true. I hope my new cover addresses that problem in some small way.
Much to my surprise, my editor loved this mock-up, and immediately went and showed it around the office. The reply that came back made me very happy: "I think we're going to do exactly this."
And so they did! Check out the final product, compared to my mockup above:
Amazing work, and pretty dang close to what we'd envisioned.
I'm super happy with the end result, and even though I didn't get a cover design credit, I can at least share my amateur design-chops with you all here, right?
That's it for now...
Jason
Here they are just so we can all gawk at them one more time:
In this post I want to talk about the cover creation process. You often hear from authors that they have no say in their cover designs, and that's largely true. I've been quite lucky to have an editor who includes me in the process, if only to keep me informed. I give my opinions on what they're doing, and sometimes they listen and sometimes they don't. And that's okay! I'm not a graphic designer, nor am I a marketing guru. To quote Monty Python, "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like." So I weigh in and am grateful that my concerns are listened to, but I know in the end they'll do what they think is best. It is, afterall, their job.
These covers, though, went a bit differently than the norm.
Here's a run-down of how they came to be:
Okay. Wait. Before I do that, real quick it's important to know that these two books are very much a duology. They're part 1 and part 2 of a story. Cool? Cool.
So, my first comment to my editor was that I'd love to do something like Connie Willis's BLACKOUT and ALL CLEAR.
I love the way these tie together and immediately suggest they are two halves of something larger.
I also suggested that we do something that implies the arrival aspect of the first book, and the subsequent attempt at escape in the second. In addition, being DIRE EARTH books these have an element of a space elevator involved, so if the above could also somehow imply descent and ascent, that, I thought, would be awesome.
My editor agreed, and over dinner in Phoenix last summer we pencil sketched the idea. At which point he suggested something like this movie poster for High Rise:
And I promptly replied with this one, just to one-up my editor on the geek lore scale.
Point is, the triangular nature of the design implies going up, and if we did the opposite for book one... you get the idea.
Time passed and, as usual, I reached a point in the writing process (the mid-book doldrums) where I needed a little spark to get me motivated again. I decided to embark on one of my favorite pastimes, arm-chair cover design!
So I fiddled around in Photoshop for an afternoon, and came up with these:
Not bad huh? I must apologize to the artists who made the works I used in the above. I literally just started cutting-and-pasting random images that were close to what I wanted from Deviant Art, and didn't think to note who the artists were. Whoever you are, fantastic stuff!
It is also worth noting something else. The woman on the second mockup doesn't look anything like the character we wanted to portray, and that's because for the life of me I could not find a painting out there of a bad-ass sci-fi woman of African descent. Sad but true. I hope my new cover addresses that problem in some small way.
Much to my surprise, my editor loved this mock-up, and immediately went and showed it around the office. The reply that came back made me very happy: "I think we're going to do exactly this."
And so they did! Check out the final product, compared to my mockup above:
Amazing work, and pretty dang close to what we'd envisioned.
I'm super happy with the end result, and even though I didn't get a cover design credit, I can at least share my amateur design-chops with you all here, right?
That's it for now...
Jason
December 7, 2016
My next novel is MASS EFFECT: NEXUS UPRISING
Hey everyone!
So excited to share that my next novel, co-written with my friend K.C. Alexander, is coming in March!
(not the final cover)
Details here, though it's a bit light at the moment. We're not allowed to say much (yet) as the game and book have closely intertwined stories. Bioware would prefer to avoid spoilers, and I agree!
This has been an incredibly fun project to work on, both in terms of it being my first full-length collaboration, and the fact that it's frickin' MASS EFFECT! K.C. and I worked very closely with the writing team at Bioware to craft this story, and I'm anxious to share it with you all.
Stay tuned, more news coming soon...
So excited to share that my next novel, co-written with my friend K.C. Alexander, is coming in March!
(not the final cover)Details here, though it's a bit light at the moment. We're not allowed to say much (yet) as the game and book have closely intertwined stories. Bioware would prefer to avoid spoilers, and I agree!
This has been an incredibly fun project to work on, both in terms of it being my first full-length collaboration, and the fact that it's frickin' MASS EFFECT! K.C. and I worked very closely with the writing team at Bioware to craft this story, and I'm anxious to share it with you all.
Stay tuned, more news coming soon...
November 28, 2016
Multi-author Cyber Monday sale! Signed books!
Hey everyone!
A bunch of author friends, plus myself, have put some signed books on sale for the holidays. Many of these are heavily discounted, they're all signed, and you'd be buying them directly from the author which means we get a nice perk, too. Everyone wins!
You'll find my books on sale here:
The Dire Earth Cycle | Zero World
There's a handy list of all the stuff on sale and their discount amounts HERE .
Or visit the authors directly:
Brad Beaulieu – The Lays of Anuskaya novels | 12 Kings in SharakhaiWesley Chu – The Tao Trilogy | Time Salvager using coupon code: bythepowerofgrayskullKevin Hearne - The Iron Druid ChroniclesBrian McClellan – The Powder Mage novels and novellasMichael J Sullivan – Age of Myth | Riyria Revelations & Chronicles | Hollow World Brent Weeks – Night Angel Trilogy and Lightbringer novels using gift code CYBER
Enjoy!
October 14, 2016
Television rights for ZERO WORLD acquired
Good news! Patrick Dempsey (star of Grey's Anatomy) and his production company Shifting Gears has acquired the rights to ZERO WORLD for a possible television (or film) adaptation.
This is just the first step in a long process, which often goes nowhere, but still! I'm thrilled that the book is being considered. It's way too early to think about what form an adaptation might take, or who would actually be involved, so for now let's just all keep our fingers crossed and see how things develop.
More news as I have it!
Several other big bits of news to come, so stay tuned...
This is just the first step in a long process, which often goes nowhere, but still! I'm thrilled that the book is being considered. It's way too early to think about what form an adaptation might take, or who would actually be involved, so for now let's just all keep our fingers crossed and see how things develop.
More news as I have it!
Several other big bits of news to come, so stay tuned...
July 17, 2016
A bit of Star Wars
I've been sitting on this news for a while (a common feature of the author's life), but it looks like it was finally announced yesterday at the Star Wars Celebration, so here we go!
About six months ago I was invited to write a short story for Star Wars Insider magazine, which I of course happily agreed to. Now, as of this moment, I'm actually not sure what I'm allowed to share in terms of details, suffice to say the story takes place just after RETURN OF THE JEDI. In fact it takes place during the events of AFTERMATH (a fantastic novel by my friend Chuck Wendig), only quite far away from the action of that book.
Writing in this universe (with a story that will be considered canon, no less) was a lifelong dream come true, as is probably the case for most sci-fi authors. And although it's an honor I don't take lightly, I have to say I was surprised how little pressure I felt. Major kudos to the editors at both Del Rey and Lucasfilm for giving me a ton of freedom. Other than a few minor tweaks, they hardly changed a word, which was quite gratifying. In short, I wrote it without worry, I had fun doing it, and they loved it.
I fashioned my story to feel, at least to me, like an episode of the brilliant Clone Wars cartoon, in terms of character, action, and complexity. It is a short story after all, barely 10 pages, so the scope is necessarily focused.
Publication-wise, TURNING POINT (my title, I don't know if they kept it) will appear in Star Wars Insider issue #169, which I think will hit shelves in October, but don't quote me on that. It may appear in other places, too, and if so I will post that news here.
As always, enjoy!!
About six months ago I was invited to write a short story for Star Wars Insider magazine, which I of course happily agreed to. Now, as of this moment, I'm actually not sure what I'm allowed to share in terms of details, suffice to say the story takes place just after RETURN OF THE JEDI. In fact it takes place during the events of AFTERMATH (a fantastic novel by my friend Chuck Wendig), only quite far away from the action of that book.
Writing in this universe (with a story that will be considered canon, no less) was a lifelong dream come true, as is probably the case for most sci-fi authors. And although it's an honor I don't take lightly, I have to say I was surprised how little pressure I felt. Major kudos to the editors at both Del Rey and Lucasfilm for giving me a ton of freedom. Other than a few minor tweaks, they hardly changed a word, which was quite gratifying. In short, I wrote it without worry, I had fun doing it, and they loved it.
I fashioned my story to feel, at least to me, like an episode of the brilliant Clone Wars cartoon, in terms of character, action, and complexity. It is a short story after all, barely 10 pages, so the scope is necessarily focused.
Publication-wise, TURNING POINT (my title, I don't know if they kept it) will appear in Star Wars Insider issue #169, which I think will hit shelves in October, but don't quote me on that. It may appear in other places, too, and if so I will post that news here.
As always, enjoy!!
May 30, 2016
ZERO WORLD ebook sale
Not sure how long this will last, so grab it now if you've been waiting!
ZERO WORLD is on sale for $1.99 right now (US only). Handy links for the major ebook sellers:
AmazonKoboApple iBookstoreGoogle
ZERO WORLD is on sale for $1.99 right now (US only). Handy links for the major ebook sellers:
AmazonKoboApple iBookstoreGoogle
April 25, 2016
The Darwin Elevator cover for Germany
Hey everyone! It's been ages since I updated the blog, sorry about that. I've been super f'ing busy of late on a number of projects. More on that very soon, promise! But today I thought I'd share the cover for "Darwin City", the German version of The Darwin Elevator.
Have a look!
Details here...
Release date is Sept 1st, 2016, and books 2 and 3 will follow soon after that.
Okay, back to the grind for me. Lots of neat stuff coming... stay tuned!
Have a look!
Details here...
Release date is Sept 1st, 2016, and books 2 and 3 will follow soon after that.
Okay, back to the grind for me. Lots of neat stuff coming... stay tuned!
October 26, 2015
Darwin recap
A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of spending ten days in Australia, and thought I'd give a quick rundown of my adventure.
This all started months ago though, so some backstory might help. I was contacted by a fan from Darwin via email, inviting me to come speak at a conference he organizes. This was not, as it turns out, a literary or pop culture event, but instead the annual conference of Occupational Heath & Safety Professionals.
What the hell do I know about Occupational Health & Safety? Only what I could infer after working for years at a Fortune 500 company. Which is to say, lots of signs in the workplace. To that point I used this slide in my (very tongue-in-cheek) presentation to the audience:
That was one of the more serious slides I used, to give you an idea of what my talk covered. Point is, the organizer wanted me to come to his rather dry conference and add a little spark. Something different to wake the crowd up after hours of very long and admittedly boring talks.
I don't do many presentations like this (and many thanks to my friend Ramez Naam for giving me some pointers beforehand). I wanted it to be funny, interesting, and ultimately worth the price of bringing me over there. Everything went great, or so I'm told! The audience laughed at all the places they were supposed to, and in the lobby afterwards we sold out of my books. The organizers were very pleased. Alright then! Job done!
So, all the way to Australia for a 30 minute talk. I filled the rest of my time, primarily, with exploring. This was my first visit to the city where my DIRE EARTH trilogy is set. And even though I deliberately set the books far enough into the future that present-day Darwin wouldn't matter much, I still wanted to get a feel for the place. Sort of after-the-fact research. What did I miss? What did I get right?
Right away I realized something I'd neglected: birds. The soundscape of Darwin, at least at certain times of the day, is absolutely full of birdsongs. They were everywhere, they were noisy, and I don't think I mentioned birds once in my writing. I also saw a fruit bat with a wingspan that shocked me (a meter? More?), and what the locals call a ta-ta lizard because of the way they wave at you. Of course, my Darwin is a megalopolis, not a sleepy beach town, so I suppose it makes sense the wildlife landscape would be different (I left out crocs for exactly this reason, despite knowing how central they are to the personality of Darwin).
Interesting to me is the fact that Darwin is already growing rapidly. They might not even need an alien-built space elevator to become a major city. Right now there's a new $50bn oil and gas project going on nearby that has high-rise condos going up all over this supposedly small town, giving Darwin a hotter real estate market than Sydney.
But aside from the safety conference, and my wanderings, I did have some official author business to attend to. I did a book signing in Sydney as well as Darwin. In Darwin they sold out of my books before the event even started though, so that made the event a bit... quiet. Still it was great fun to meet fans and readers, as well as introduce people to the series.
I did two radio appearances, and even had a half-page photo show up in the local newspaper!
Thanks to this picture, on my last day in Darwin someone shouted from across the street, "Hey, it's the zombie guy!" Perhaps the first and last time I'll know what it's like to be a recognizable face, and as you can imagine it was both cool and a little weird. But mostly cool. I decided not to tell anyone that my books, technically speaking, don't have any zombies. That would cross a nerd border that just didn't need crossing.
There was also the defense-against-zombies demonstration at the Progressive Combat Centre, a Krav Maga studio that invited me to come down and see what they do. Plus they offered to BBQ for me. It was awesome, and the people I met there were all tough as nails, but also incredibly friendly and helpful. I now have a whole list of folks I can send hand-to-hand combat questions to (and I plan to take full advantage).
Last but not least is the plaque. I had this idea to install a plaque at the location of the space elevator, and a fan (and friend) made one for me to take along. In Darwin, I wasn't able to meet with the mayor, who was out of town, but I did talk to a member of the city council. They took me out to the site in Nightcliff. While there we picked a spot beside a park bench and took some pictures. At some point, once the mayor approves it, the plaque will be permanently installed.
I'll post the exact coordinates once it's actually there, for the historical record. The spot isn't precisely where I marked it while writing the books, because that would have put it in someone's back yard. But it's within a hundred meters of that spot, and along a beautiful walking path. Good enough for me!
Many thanks to Martyn Hill at the Safety Institute of Australia for bringing me over, and to Anna at the Bookshop Darwin for adding book sales support to my events, as well as hosting me for a signing. Also, thanks to Rosina at NewSouthBooks for all help in organizing my appearances and radio interviews.
tl;dr - An awesome time in Australia. Can't wait to visit again!
This all started months ago though, so some backstory might help. I was contacted by a fan from Darwin via email, inviting me to come speak at a conference he organizes. This was not, as it turns out, a literary or pop culture event, but instead the annual conference of Occupational Heath & Safety Professionals.
What the hell do I know about Occupational Health & Safety? Only what I could infer after working for years at a Fortune 500 company. Which is to say, lots of signs in the workplace. To that point I used this slide in my (very tongue-in-cheek) presentation to the audience:
That was one of the more serious slides I used, to give you an idea of what my talk covered. Point is, the organizer wanted me to come to his rather dry conference and add a little spark. Something different to wake the crowd up after hours of very long and admittedly boring talks.
I don't do many presentations like this (and many thanks to my friend Ramez Naam for giving me some pointers beforehand). I wanted it to be funny, interesting, and ultimately worth the price of bringing me over there. Everything went great, or so I'm told! The audience laughed at all the places they were supposed to, and in the lobby afterwards we sold out of my books. The organizers were very pleased. Alright then! Job done!
So, all the way to Australia for a 30 minute talk. I filled the rest of my time, primarily, with exploring. This was my first visit to the city where my DIRE EARTH trilogy is set. And even though I deliberately set the books far enough into the future that present-day Darwin wouldn't matter much, I still wanted to get a feel for the place. Sort of after-the-fact research. What did I miss? What did I get right?
Right away I realized something I'd neglected: birds. The soundscape of Darwin, at least at certain times of the day, is absolutely full of birdsongs. They were everywhere, they were noisy, and I don't think I mentioned birds once in my writing. I also saw a fruit bat with a wingspan that shocked me (a meter? More?), and what the locals call a ta-ta lizard because of the way they wave at you. Of course, my Darwin is a megalopolis, not a sleepy beach town, so I suppose it makes sense the wildlife landscape would be different (I left out crocs for exactly this reason, despite knowing how central they are to the personality of Darwin).
Interesting to me is the fact that Darwin is already growing rapidly. They might not even need an alien-built space elevator to become a major city. Right now there's a new $50bn oil and gas project going on nearby that has high-rise condos going up all over this supposedly small town, giving Darwin a hotter real estate market than Sydney.
But aside from the safety conference, and my wanderings, I did have some official author business to attend to. I did a book signing in Sydney as well as Darwin. In Darwin they sold out of my books before the event even started though, so that made the event a bit... quiet. Still it was great fun to meet fans and readers, as well as introduce people to the series.
I did two radio appearances, and even had a half-page photo show up in the local newspaper!
Thanks to this picture, on my last day in Darwin someone shouted from across the street, "Hey, it's the zombie guy!" Perhaps the first and last time I'll know what it's like to be a recognizable face, and as you can imagine it was both cool and a little weird. But mostly cool. I decided not to tell anyone that my books, technically speaking, don't have any zombies. That would cross a nerd border that just didn't need crossing.
There was also the defense-against-zombies demonstration at the Progressive Combat Centre, a Krav Maga studio that invited me to come down and see what they do. Plus they offered to BBQ for me. It was awesome, and the people I met there were all tough as nails, but also incredibly friendly and helpful. I now have a whole list of folks I can send hand-to-hand combat questions to (and I plan to take full advantage).
Last but not least is the plaque. I had this idea to install a plaque at the location of the space elevator, and a fan (and friend) made one for me to take along. In Darwin, I wasn't able to meet with the mayor, who was out of town, but I did talk to a member of the city council. They took me out to the site in Nightcliff. While there we picked a spot beside a park bench and took some pictures. At some point, once the mayor approves it, the plaque will be permanently installed.
I'll post the exact coordinates once it's actually there, for the historical record. The spot isn't precisely where I marked it while writing the books, because that would have put it in someone's back yard. But it's within a hundred meters of that spot, and along a beautiful walking path. Good enough for me!
Many thanks to Martyn Hill at the Safety Institute of Australia for bringing me over, and to Anna at the Bookshop Darwin for adding book sales support to my events, as well as hosting me for a signing. Also, thanks to Rosina at NewSouthBooks for all help in organizing my appearances and radio interviews.
tl;dr - An awesome time in Australia. Can't wait to visit again!
September 25, 2015
UNBOUND
I'm in an anthology coming out later this year called UNBOUND, with a short story you might call a distant prequel to ZERO WORLD. Pre-orders are now available for the hardcover edition as well as a very limited run of advance reader copies for the collectors out there. Links below!
Here is the amazing Unbound line-up:
Joe Abercrombie
Kristen Britain
Terry Brooks
Jim Butcher
Rachel Caine
Harry Connolly
Delilah S. Dawson
David Anthony Durham
Jason M. Hough
Mary Robinette Kowal
Mark Lawrence
Brian McClellan
John Marco
Tim Marquitz
Seanan McGuire
Peter Orullian
Kat Richardson
Anthony Ryan
Shawn Speakman
Brian Staveley
Michael J. Sullivan
Sam Sykes
Mazarkis Williams
Pre-order!
Pre-order the limited run of advance copies!
Here is the amazing Unbound line-up:
Joe Abercrombie
Kristen Britain
Terry Brooks
Jim Butcher
Rachel Caine
Harry Connolly
Delilah S. Dawson
David Anthony Durham
Jason M. Hough
Mary Robinette Kowal
Mark Lawrence
Brian McClellan
John Marco
Tim Marquitz
Seanan McGuire
Peter Orullian
Kat Richardson
Anthony Ryan
Shawn Speakman
Brian Staveley
Michael J. Sullivan
Sam Sykes
Mazarkis Williams
Pre-order!
Pre-order the limited run of advance copies!
