A while back (almost a year ago!) I posted about my first post-Milkweed novel, Something More Than Night. I’m very excited about this book. Thanks to my excellent editor, it’s looking fairly polished now and is starting to make its way through the production process.
Which means, among other things, that it now has cover art! Which has been unveiled in a cool post on Tor.com.
Holy smokes! (Heh. I kill me. I really do.) Is that a great cover or what? I love that image, and I’m proud as hell to have written a book associated with it.
Something More Than Night is currently scheduled for the Fall season, which will probably put the book on shelves (and e-readers) around December of this year. That’s an estimate, and might change, of course, since it’s still nearly a year away. But the writing/editing phase is completed, again thanks to my brilliant editor, so the next stage on my end will be copyedits.
Golly.
That’s the kind of cover that’s difficult not to pick up. Damn.
Another excellent cover! All the elements are there (noir, angels) and it is really very sharp. The hat with the (holy) smoke are great details.
> will probably put the book on shelves (and e-readers) around December of this year.
Or, put another way, just a few weeks after the final Milkweed book. (No, I’m not bitter, why do you ask?)
I am really delighted with this cover. It’s everything I’d hoped for. I’m actually thinking about printing it out and putting it on my office door at work. I’m glad I’m not alone in thinking it’s pretty swell!
Tim– if only it were just a few weeks. But on the other hand, the ~7.5 months between April 30 and December ?? isn’t all that bad. Why, it’s less time than most people need to conceive, gestate, and give birth to a baby!
Oh. Ohhhhh. Sooo cool! Didn’t think I could be any more excited about this book, but then came this.
Didn’t think I could be any more excited about this book, but then came this.
Then let me blow your mind: not only does it have an awesome cover, but it’s a pop-up book that dispenses FREE TACOS.
Admit it. You’re even more excited about it now. Right?
Tacos! Cool! Once I asked my grand niece what she had been doing earlier (she was 3 at the time). She said they had been at the liquor store. I asked her what they had bought at the liquor store.
TACOS! she exclaimed with great relish.
Now, as far as I know they don’t really sell tacos at liquor stores around here; she was clearly in a slightly alternate dimension. But, since I implicitly believer both her and Ian, I am very much looking forward to my taco book.
The taco-dispensing book is a totally real thing and not something I made up. Now, it’s possible that because of production difficulties the final product will be just a regular non-taco book. But that’s not because the taco dispensing part is impossible, only because it might lead to delays.
The tacos have always been part of the plan for this book. I mean, maybe not always always, but you know.
I have it in writing that Ian Tregillis has promised free tacos to all buyers of “Something More Than Night”. Don’t think I won’t hold you to that, mister. I’d be more than happy to allow you to use that for a blurb. Nothing moves book sales like free tacos.
Also, as per one of the riders in Obamacare, every internet mention of tacos is required to be accompanied by this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBrKjunL5DQ
Nothing moves book sales like free tacos.
Tell me about it. I fall into a taco-induced coma every time Charlie Stross or Tim Powers put out a new book.
Yes. These tacos are totally going to happen. It is a very real thing and not the very least made-up.
Now technically — and we probably don’t want to get into a whole semantics thing here — technically that statement might be something that linguists call a “lie.”
Wow! Taco or no! Just wow! Or Wowco… Or Wacko. Eek! No no just Wow! Love the cover can’t wait for the book.
Thanks, Andrew! I really love this cover and I’m happy that you like it, too!
Condition-contrary-to-fact tacos, wow! Those are hard to find. Beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, fish, those I can get. Tacos in the subjunctive, though, are so rare they carry a warning about the hazards of under-cooked proteins. Do they come with margaritas, insubstantial or otherwise?
That’s a truly great cover, in all seriousness.
By-the-by, when I write The Coldest War in on my Locus ballot, do you prefer it be in the SF category or F? (Alternate history is usually considered SF. The book operates on both sides of that border, it seems to me. How do you think of it? Or does it depend on whether your copy serves weinerschnitzel or bangers and mash?)
Susan, the subjunctive tacos are best paired with either a gimlet, or a shot of rotgut rye served in a dirty glass. If neither is available, a suitable garnish may be made from an ashtray full of unfiltered cigarette butts and a dash of lonely regret.
And, thank you! But I wouldn’t presume to try to influence folks’ ballots for any occasion. It’s sort of a headache to categorize these books, though. I guess I tend to think of them as fantasy alt-history, but that’s just what I’ve settled on for ease of conversing with myself. (Which, of course, I do frequently and loudly.) But as you point out, alt-history is often considered a subclass of SF. On the other hand, I think the dedicated alt-history crowd might be unlikely to consider the Milkweed books as part of that genre (and I can see why).
Writing a series that plays in multiple sandboxes doesn’t make it very easy for the marketing folks, either, I can tell you that 🙂
Every edition should serve cough syrup and candy circus peanuts. If yours didn’t, you might be entitled to a refund.
Ian, I believe that you have taken “waffling” to a whole new level. (Now you have to write a novel that serves waffles.)
I must say that you reproduced my internal argument about categorization pretty much in its entirety, and with the same result.
I think I’ll take my subjunctive tacos with the gimlet, thanks. I’m not much fond of rye, or unfiltered cigarette butts. Dirty glasses and lonely regret are sometimes available, but they only show up on the daily specials, never on the regular menu. Gimlets, now, those I drank in my twenties.
Ah, now I understand where all the cough syrup came from. I think I got extra syrup, because I’m allergic to peanuts. Gretel would, of course, have known that.