Under-read book recs, a fantasy sampler, and other assorted news

Upon returning from Worldcon I got about halfway through writing a post detailing all the fun I had and cool people I met, plus my thoughts on some of the less good things that happened at the con (such as the infamous short story panel trainwreck). Sadly, my task load is such right now that I fear that post will never be finished, since I'd far rather spend my scant moments of writing time on actual fiction.

Ah well! Suffice it to say I had an excellent time overall, and I was delighted to see N.K. Jemisin's Fifth Season win a Hugo, because I thought it was a damn good book. Oh yes, and at my reading I did not get to eat all those tasty cupcakes myself, since a good 20+ people showed up. (I let them vote on which story they'd rather hear. Lizaveta won over Cara--it seems people like blood mages.)

But as I've said, my time is short, so here's a quick round-up of news that I've been meaning to post:

1) I'm writing a four-part series on under-read SFF books for a new feature on the Lady Business blog they're calling "Readers of the Lost Arc" (how cute is their title?). I'm doing one post per decade, for the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. My 1980s post is now up and ready for your reading pleasure. I just turned in the 1990s one, so that one should be up sometime in the next few weeks.

2) On r/Fantasy somebody was asking what books we'd suggest as a beginner's guide to the fantasy genre. Here's a fantasy sampler list I put together to show off the range of the genre, just in case the Readers of the Lost Arc posts aren't offering enough book recommendations.

3) In other r/Fantasy news, they're about to start a group read of Sherwood Smith's excellent epic fantasy Inda. I highly recommend the Inda series, and the group read looks to be extremely well organized and should be a lot of fun, so if you enjoy epic fantasy, consider joining in! Oh yes, and for extra group read fun, in September the Goodreads r/Fantasy group will be reading the equally terrific standalone sword-and-sorcery novel To Ride Hell's Chasm by Janny Wurts.

4) If you're a Colorado local, I'll be attending the RMFW Colorado Gold writers conference Sep 9-11, and participating in their group author signing at the Renaissance hotel on the evening of Friday the 9th. (I love this conference. I always come back newly energized and ready to work hard on whatever I'm writing.)

5) I will NOT be attending World Fantasy this year as I'd originally planned. Partially because I'm traveling a lot already this fall, and partially because I'm a bit frustrated with the con's inability to join the 21st century (in terms of ensuring disability access and protection against harassment, as well as the focus of their programming). I've donated my membership to a newer Colorado writer who can hopefully benefit from the networking opportunities, since WFC is terrific for that. While I personally have always had a wonderful time at WFC, I figure I can have just as much fun at a different con that's more responsive to member concerns. (Right now I'm thinking of giving ConFusion a go.)

6) Shattered Sigil short story update: progress continues on the Cara novella, albeit slowly due to family and day job needs. The Lizaveta story is headed off to the anthology editor this week, and the three other stories I promised you awesome Labyrinth of Flame kickstarter backers wait in the wings.

That's it for now! For those of you in the US, hope the upcoming holiday weekend is a good one. We're supposed to fly to Orlando on Thursday...right when a tropical storm is forecast to cross over Florida. That seems to be a metaphor for my entire week right now. All I can do is take things one day at a time.




 

Kickstarter Day 9 (20 days left): Dachstein Alps and 4 great series endings

Day 9 of the Labyrinth of Flame Kickstarter, and as of now there's only $200 left to go to hit the short story stretch goal! (Hard to believe it's only been 9 days.  Kinda feels like more, maybe because I'm not used to posting so much. :)  Yesterday's AMA on r/Fantasy was a lot of fun.  People asked some really great (and sometimes hard!) questions, and I talked about everything from my closest brush with death in the wilderness to theme songs for Shattered Sigil characters to the state of the US space industry. 

Today in lieu of a book rec here, I shall point you to my guest post on Fantasy Book Cafe, in which I answer a great question posed to me by a friend: which SF/Fantasy series not only have great endings, but the final book is my favorite of the set?  I share four such books and would love to hear about more.

Last but not least, today's mountain pic is from the Dachstein range of the Austrian Alps.  Yet another place I hope to return to one day, as the weather was not good enough for my husband and I to do any serious climbs when we were visiting.  Still had an excellent time trekking around on glaciers and admiring the views, though!  

Snow and rock on the Dachstein massif

 

An Illustrated Guide to The Whitefire Crossing

You know how some people like to play the "casting game" with a book's characters?  As a mountaineer, I can never resist playing it with my books' landscapes.  I've shared some pics here in the past of mountain spots that inspired me for the Shattered Sigil series; but today over at BookSworn I went whole-hog and provided an illustrated guide to the journey that Dev and Kiran take across the mountains in The Whitefire Crossing.  Hope you enjoy the pics as much as I did picking them out.

I've also got a guest post over at Bibliotropic, talking about Pamela Dean's Tam Lin and the ways in which re-reading a book can surprise us.

And in not-related-to-me-or-my-books news, Fantasy Book Cafe's Women in SFF Month might have concluded, but Bookworm Blues is still hosting another series of "Special Needs in Strange Worlds" guest posts.  There've been some really excellent ones so far, both new posts and re-runs of the best of last year's series - I highly recommend you check them out.

Winter is coming...so get your skis on

I'm buried in day job tasks while trying to get ready for MileHiCon this weekend, so no full-on Thursday Adventure post today.  Instead, I'll first give you links to two guest posts I did this week:

• Broaden Your Horizons, in which I share six of my favorite fantasy novels set in non-European locales (they are all awesome books and you should read them!).

• Building Fantasy Worlds One Name at a Time, in which I talk about how I chose names for characters and places in The Whitefire Crossing and The Tainted City.  This is part of a whole series on names in fantasy that Abhinav Jain is running at his blog - make sure and check out the other posts in the series, as some really great authors have weighed in over the past weeks.

And then I'll leave you with a few pictures from my favorite winter activity: skiing.  Every year when that first storm kisses the high peaks with white, I start to dream of deep powder.  (Powder skiing is practically a religion in the west, and for good reason.  Skis float in deep snow, letting you turn and bank like an airplane.  Between the speed of descent and the sheer freedom of movement, it's the closest most people ever get to flying.  The rush is incredible.)  Right now as I drive to work, I eye the newly white peaks and salivate...soon, soon my husband and I will spend more days like this:

Me enjoying a powder day at Alta, Utah.  (They really do have the greatest snow on Earth.  Every skier should make a pilgrimage to Alta at least once in their lifetime.)

Or if we're really lucky, like this...

Our friend Jim needs a snorkel 

If it's been a few days since a storm, we can still amuse ourselves by cornice jumping:

Robert jumps a cornice at Aspen

Or if we're really brave, couloir skiing:

Who's got enough guts to take the leap?  Our friends Jeanne, Khurrum, and Gary scope out the infamous Corbet's Couloir at Jackson Hole.   

No matter what, I'll have a grin this big on my face:

Skiing rules.