Other News (Quickly)

Posted on August 1, 2005    Posted by John Scalzi      16 Comments

Aside from writing The Ghost Brigades, here’s what else has been going on:

* Agent to the Stars is now out and selling quite nicely — between pre-orders and early sales, well over half of the 1,500 print run is already gone. So if you wanted a copy but have been putting off the actual purchase, you might want to reconsider your procrastinatory ways, since there are no more after these ones are sold. As an appeal to your munificent side, I’ll remind y’all that 10% of the cover price of each copy of Agent to the Stars goes to the Child’s Play charity, which gets video games and other toys into the hands of kids in children’s hospitals across the US, and also that I’ve made a pledge that if the entire print run sells out by December 31, I’ll kick an additional $350 out of my own royalties. So go ahead, make me donate my own money, why don’t you.

* I noted briefly that I have other projects I have lined up for the rest of the year. What are they, you ask? Well:
— I’ve been asked by Rough Guides to update The Rough Guide to the Universe, which will make it the first of my books to go into a second edition. And not a moment too soon, considering the vast amount of new information regarding Mars and Saturn since the first edition came out (and also that whole “10th planet” thing last week).
— I’ll be spending the last couple months of the year editing collecting and slushing stories for the Subterranean Magazine edition I’m editing, the one with the theme of “Big Honkin’ SF Cliches.” Don’t worry, I’ll remind you all again when it’s time to start sending in stories. I suspect I’ll also probably whomp something up for that in terms of a short story; I have an idea. No, I won’t tell you. Think up your own!
— I have one other small but cool project I’m working on for Subterranean Press, about which I’ll say no more until Subterranean makes its own announcement.
— My agent and I have been churning through a couple of ideas for the novel I’m going to write after I complete The Ghost Brigades, so immediately after I’m done with TGB, I’m on those to get out to the market. After I finish TGB, I won’t actually have another novel project lined up, which the first time I can say that in a couple of years; clearly we’ll need to address that.
— I’m still doing stuff for the Uncle John’s folks, so chances are pretty good if you pick up one of their books in the next couple of years, it’s got an article or two from me in there.

That’s the stuff I know I’m doing; there are other projects I have in the hopper that are in various stages of nebulosity, most of which are likely to vaporize, so best not to discuss them for now. Suffice to say I’ve got enough to keep me busy — enough that I has to turn down a chance to work on a project that I thought was very cool because for the life of me I didn’t know where or how I was going to fit it in. It kills me to turn down work, especially when the project seems like a big ball of fun as this one did. But I’m coming to grips with the fact that I actually have to sleep and spend time with the family as well as work — as I go along time management becomes rather more of a concern.

* I’m off in a couple of days to Interaction, this year’s Worldcon; my own poor time-magaement skills (see above) caused me to have to beg the US government to rush deliver me my passport, but let’s not talk about that now. For those of you who will be there and wish to see me expound on various subjects, here are my panels:

— Thursday 5:00pm: How to Participate in and Moderate a Panel
— Friday 12:00 noon: The Immortal in Written and Media SF
— Friday 1:00pm: You Killed Off the Old People: Depicting Older People in SF
— Saturday 7:00pm: Is Blogging Helping or Hurting Your Career?

You will also probably see me wandering about from time to time although possibly not as much as you might expect, since I do plan on banging away on The Ghost Brigades while I’m there as well. What can I say — it’s getting about that time. However, I don’t plan to be a total hermit. Expect me to be scarce in the day but about in the night. The usual vampire schedule.

* Oh, and changed the look of the Whatever again (as you can see).

That’s where I’m at.