We’re still rolling through Mongoliad press around here. I have a post on John Scalzi’s Whatever this morning (thank you, sir!). We did a video roundtable for Tom and Victoria at Sword and Laser on Monday, which is up on YouTube already. It’s pretty cool that we could do a group interview with most of the team like that without technology getting in the way.

As intimated in the Whatever Big Idea and in the video interview, the team is back at work on the next piece of Foreworld history. It’s not that we stopped between Janaury and now; it’s more that we went into brainstorming mode and have been collecting ideas. There’s a structure emerging, and we’re going to disappear again for awhile as we go make things up. Book Two of The Mongoliad is scheduled for September, and I believe Book Three is penciled in for February. The short stories will start tumbling like fall leaves in the appropriate season, I would expect. There will be a lot for people to read in the next year.

That makes me happy. We’ve got you covered, folks.

In fact, Duane has arranged for a mass signing of all the authors on May 17th. 7:00pm. Upstairs. Where the crowd will be. We will have all SEVEN authors present. This is, to my knowledge, the only time that we’ll have all seven in the same room for the near future.

Before I get to the obligatory launch day link-o-rama, I would like to highlight the addition of the Collector’s Edition of Book One. The Amazon page has lovely cover art now (which, I am told, may not be final, but I’m pretty pleased with it as it is, since it wouldn’t hurt my feelings any if it ended up being the final cover).

You’ll notice, in the fine print, that the Collector’s Edition contains the prequel story called “Sinner,” which is one of the pieces of our next phase in world domination. The Collector’s Edition may also contain some additional materials which we’re still wrangling.

Okay, to the link list.

There are a number of excerpts that have been posted online as part of the marketing blitz.

• Boing Boing
• io9
• Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist
• Tor.com

Also, a couple of guest posts/interviews on blogs:

• Fanboy Comics
• Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist
• Tor.com

For me, these days, it is somewhat akin to being strapped to a locomotive with a fully-stoked engine, going down-hill. It’s all I can do to hang on.

This, then, is one of those attempts to raise my head enough that I can shout out a few things without the wind ripping me off the engine entirely.

I’m teaching another class in a few weeks. Branching Narratives: The Mechanics of Plot Topiary”. It’s on March 25th at the Richard Hugo House in Seattle. For those who attended the one I did last fall an outlining a novel, this is sort of the follow-on workshop. It’s coming up quick, and I have no idea how full the class is, but the previous one sold out and then some.

The PR machinery for The Mongoliad is starting up. We should have some exciting announcements about Phase Two of our Sektrit Plans about that same time. Meanwhile, remember what I said about the train? Yeah, there’s a lot of work being done behind the scenes right now. There’s actually a bit of new Foreworld content that’s been written as well.

The Cabiri, an aerialist group I do some things for, is having their spring show in a few weeks as well. Tarhun: Legend of the Lightening God runs the first two weekends in April. It’s basically an ancient Hittite spring festival performance with monsters. I know. Where else are you going to see such a thing?

I signed the contract last week for a one-off book. Its codename was GREENFANG, but its official title is going to be EARTH THIRST. Night Shade is publishing it, and it should be out in the early part of 2013. It’s my vampire book, and yeah, it’s a “vampire” book in the same sense that the CODEX books are strictly “urban fantasy.” The gang at Night Shade is pretty excited about this book and that’s exactly the sort of home it needed, and so I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with it.

And now you can understand why I’m going to go hide out at the Rainforest Writers’ Village for a few days. I’ve got some writing to get done.

And yes, on the “Science of Magic” panel, I may play the “I’m a practicing magickian” card again. And I’ll report on the act of magick that came out of the WFC panel on the somewhat similar topic.

Whose Story Is It, Anyway? (Friday Noon Cascade 3&4)
Having trouble with too much villain and not enough hero in your stories? Do you have too much hero, while the villain never comes out of the woodwork? Striking a balance isn’t always easy, but sometimes a balanced tale isn’t the best thing to write, either. Come discuss with the pros which villain- or hero-heavy stories they thought worked, which ones didn’t, which ones were great when well-balanced, and which ones sucked anyway.
Christopher Bodan (M), Mark Teppo, Irene Radford, Jean Johnson

Fact and Fantasy (Saturday 11 am Cascade 6)
When does ‘staying real’ matter, and when does it just get in the way? Should fantasy Seattle streets match real Seattle streets perfectly? Does your pseudo-medieval weaponry have to perform like the real thing? How much can we alter history for the sake of the story before the reader cries ‘Enough!’
J. A. Pitts (M), Stina Leicht, Mark Teppo, Mary Robinette Kowal, Adrienne Carlson

Character Arc, Plot Arc — Story! (Saturday Noon Cascade 11)
Knowing how your plot and characters change as the tale moves forward helps a writer to craft more powerful stories. What makes a great character arc, and how can you make your character’s internal change more compelling? What makes a great plot arc, and how can you intertwine your plot with your character?
Carol Berg (M), Corry L. Lee, Mark Teppo, Mary Rosenblum

The Science of Magic (Saturday 6 pm Cascade 7)
How do you create a believable system of magic? Is knowledge of Latin useful? What about wands, crystal balls, and other tools? And, how do you create real jeopardy in a story when, literally, anything is possible?
Mickey “Meowse” Phoenix (M), Bart Kemper, Carol Berg, Mark Teppo

Nope. Still giddily taken by it all.

One of the apps I downloaded almost immediately was Instagram, mainly because I do not pretend to be a good photographer, but I do like to take pictures. The built-in filters with Instagram make every picture much better than they really are. Which delights me to no end.

And they are all the same size. Every time. Which makes tiling and big pages filled with lovely pictures that make the world seem more like a Terence Malick film than it really is.

Anyway, should you want to follow along as I take pictures and fiddle with filters, you can see all my efforts here at my Instagram profile.

I’d rather not, really, and the reasons are part of the continuing issue I have with keeping the personal separate from the professional. Blogging, as a writer, is a means of keeping an open channel with the wider world, but so much of the day-to-day is filled with mundane shit that no one cares about, especially when it is of the “I didn’t get shit done, again, today” variety. And the rest is not really of anyone’s business, and I have, over the last year, come to realize that the last thing I really want to do–ever–is process my private life publicly.

So, briefly, 2011 was an incredibly hard year, but it was also an amazing year, and lot of it falls in the category of “Look, ma! Personal growth!” Professionally, I didn’t have a lot of fiction released that I could point to explicitly and say, “Yes, I wrote that,” but I can point to The Mongoliad and say, “Yes, I was key to that happening.”

In 2007, I wrote The Potemkin Mosaic, and it was the hardest thing I had ever done. When it was finished, I vowed to never do anything like that again. Last year, I didn’t; I did something harder. As we wrap up The Mongoliad, I have heard myself say that I don’t ever want to do something that complicated and difficult again, and in 2012, I won’t be. I’ll be doing something harder.

I am very fortunate to be able to keep what is fabulous and enriching in my life, as well as being blessed at being able to let go of what is rotten and broken. Much of the latter was my own attitude about life; much of it was my own fear of change. Change happens; what we do in response is nothing more than seizing opportunities.

Nothing is ever destroyed. It simply becomes something new. It is up to us to decide whether it is an obstacle or a piece of the foundation of something new. Do we keep climbing, or do we get caught up in the detritus of the past?

I’m climbing. You are all welcome to come along.

I’m deep in the Mongoliad deathmarch. Book 1 has been through editorial and is winging its way through production. Book 2 has been turned in, and we’re lashed to our keyboards through the end of the year, trying to finish this beast. I think we’re finally past that point of not being able to see the end. For several months, it seemed–no matter how much content we wrote–there was still 60,000 more words to write. Now, I think we’re past that point, and the remaining word count is diminishing. I hope.

In January, I have another project to sink myself into.

In February, there will be much noise about Sektrit Plan Alpha.

All in all, the writing continues at a breakneck pace. Blogging suffers.

And looking through the archives, I see that I never reviewed an Ulver record during the eP era, and I wonder if I hadn’t really discovered them yet.

Anyway, the remixes. I seem to recall only recognizing Fennesz, Merzbow, and Bogdan Raczynski. when I first saw the disc. Now, it reads as Ulver having a very hip circle of friends in the electronic music world. At first pass, I wonder if Ulver’s most hardened fans scratched their heads in confusion as well. Given the band’s direction on Perdition City and the following EPs, the list of participants makes a great deal of sense. And the record is certainly a glitch fest. Some of it is the sort of squealing tone waves that I’ve given myself clearance to no longer pretend I have to say kind things about (in the abstract, it is interesting; it just isn’t interesting to listen to), and some of it does take Ulver’s stripped down electronic lounge sound in interesting directions. As Ulver’s sound has continually changed from record to record, you start to wonder how you can talk about some of these aural efforts as being unlike anything Ulver has done because they could very well be the sound of the next record.

I’ve been waiting for War of the Roses to grow on me. I see that they’re releasing a live DVD from the Norwegian National Opera, and given the track listing, it should be an interesting listening experience. Visually too, if the live visuals for “Norwegian Gothic” (at the War of the Roses link listed above) are any indication.

Also, there is a track by track interview at the War of the Roses site that was conducted by the Freethinkers blog that is worth watching. (Oh, it’s a Pop record.) And Jørn’s quote–”The paradox always has a home with us”–sums up the Ulver sound so well.

But then, at the end, I saw the telltale reason. Planes is a DISNEY movie. Not a Disney Pixar movie. Not a Pixar movie. A DISNEY movie.

And Disney never passed up an opportunity to wring everything magical out of a property in the search for squeezing parents out of a few more dollars.

I have to admit that when I first saw the trailer for Cars 2 and the fact that it was a joint production between Disney and Pixar, I was afraid. Needlessly so, as it turned out because I found Cars 2 to be better than the first, but that may have more than a little bit to do with the fact that I’m one of those dads for whom all the James Bond gags are written for, plus I can tell how much fun Eddie Izzard and Michael Caine are having. Always a bonus.

But, pursuant to the topic of my last post, I suppose you can’t blame Disney. They do know they have a dedicated content consumption pipeline. Why wouldn’t you keep it filled?

And you know Rob Zombie cashed that licensing check without a moment’s hesitation. Hell, I would too.