Above: An impressionistic representation of the next 18 months (or so) of my life — all the contracts I’ve signed for the three-book deal I have with Tor, the topmost contract there being for The Last Colony, the third book in the OMW series. If you’re wondering why there are so many contracts, it’s because each book has five copies of the contract I need to sign. After they are countersigned, one copy goes to me, one copy goes to my agent, one copy goes to my editor, one copy goes to legal, and one copy is shredded to make a paper-mache voodoo doll likeness of me, into which my publisher will stab steely knives should I wander too far from a deadline. Strangely enough, those are the contracts you always get paper cuts on. Coincidence? Doubtful.
While I’m navel-gazing here, some general notes about Old Man’s War and The Ghost Brigades:
* First, some good news about Old Man’s War (at least, good for me): I’ve been told they’re going back for a second printing of the trade paperback. The first printing of the trade paperback was about three times the first printing of the hardcover, so to burn through enough of them in a month to necessitiate firing up the presses for a second go-round is pretty happy-making. If you bought a trade paperback version of OMW, let me just say: You rock. You also rock if you bought it in hardcover of course. Oh, hell, you all rock. I’m just full of rock love today.
* Second, some news for those of you attending Boskone. As you may know, Boskone happens on the weekend before the release The Ghost Brigades, but because it’s damn fine convention of damn fine people, and because the NESFAns have been so kind to OMW, we’re making an effort to get a good-sized shipment of Ghost Brigades copies into the dealers’ room. I want to stop short of making an iron-clad promise they’ll be there — it’s a quantum physics universe and anything can happen — but right now it looks good. So, if you’re going to Boskone and you’ve been wanting to snag Ghost, cruise through the dealer’s room. And remember I’m happy to sign books.
* Third, The Ghost Brigades is going to be featured on and in the Barnes & Noble Explorations site and newsletter next month (and this month, it’s got a nice review of Tobias Buckell’s Crystal Rain — go Toby!). I’ll certainly remind y’all when it goes live there, but in the meantime, let me share a bit of the upcoming Ghost Brigades review by Paul Goat Allen, which I’ve been given permission to excerpt:
“Scalzi has been compared to science fiction legend Robert A. Heinlein for good reason: his smooth blend of hard science fiction, military sci-fi and space opera is addictively readable and his breakneck pacing and surprisingly deep character development makes his novels practically impossible to put down. Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades and subsequent installments in this loosely-knit saga could very well be the early 21st century’s answer to Asimov’s Foundation series – it’s that good.”
Yeah, it’s hard to complain about a review like that. So I won’t. Good of me, I know. Of course, now I have to make sure The Lost Colony doesn’t manifestly suck. Fortunately, I was planning on trying for that anyway (no doubt to the relief of my editors).
And now you’re caught up with me.