Archive for the 'About Writing' Category

Rainforest Writers Workshop Day 1

I am on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, and right at this moment I am in a dark bar with about a dozen writers.  There are a handful of community people as well, and much chattering and laughter from both groups. This is the Rainforest Writer’s Village workshop, sponsored by Patrick Swenson of Fairwood [...]

Our Books Have Returned

And what a silly weekend it was.
At least at the moment, my books are once again available at Amazon. They remain unavailable on the Kindle.
I sell content.  I like to call that content stories.  In general, I don’t control availability or format or price.
I want to wake up in a world where the stories I [...]

Writing in a Comfortable Place

In general, writing is pushing an edge for me – a new technology, a new type of character, an attempt at a new voice.  But sometimes it’s more like a hot cocoa by the fire.  I spent years grabbing the newest Mercedes Lackey books from the shelf as soon as they came out.  When I [...]

Animal Stories

My futurismic column for this month deals with animal intelligence –it’s entitled “What are the Animals Becoming?”  I just popped over to Nancy Kress’s blog to see how she’s doing, and it turns out she just blogged on the same topic (or at least mentioned the prevalence of stories about genetically altered animals in her [...]

Release Day for Wings of Creation!

Pardon the happy little post in advance.  It’s a gray day here is Seattle – with a touch of pink sunrise still in the window – but I’m hoping for a good one.
A lot of writing is work.  By the time a book comes out,  I’m two books or more past it, and living in [...]

How is publishing like the tech industry?

Yesterday, I listened to the Sofanauts podcast #30 while I was pulling out spent daises and mushed iris leaves and planting crocus and narcissus. The conversation is an hour and  half long argument where everybody is right.
The moderator was Tony C. Smith of Starship Sofa, guests lined up as Jeff Vandermeer and Jeremy Tolbert on [...]

Authors and Covers

We have no say.
Here is a copy of the cover for an anthology I have a story in.  It’s coming out on the 6th – which is next Tuesday.  It’s either so bad that it’s good or it’s really, really bad.  I can see it on shelves right before Halloween, though.
It’s being considered on the [...]

Two things that make SF stories well-loved….

SF Signal runs a mind meld periodically where they gather a  bunch of us sf writers and ask us a question (which I usually find on Twitter.  This week, they included me a two-part post about favorite short stories.  I thought I’d talk about two of them a little bit more here.
One is the most [...]

Getting ready for a week away

I get to go be a writer for a week.  When you’re balancing hats like I am (CIO/writer/futurist), getting a bit of a break to be any one of them alone for a week is a fine and rare treat.  I will be on the coast in Lincoln City, Oregon, with the dog, a pile [...]

The Images of Creativity

This is a very bizarre little image that makes me want to burst out in fantasy story.  The border collie, Sasha, and the household child, Katie,  are framed in the window while I’m outside taking a picture, the flash reflecting back like a star.  It looks like there is greenery inside and outside the window, [...]

Publications

A recent short story of mine is “My Father’s Singularity,” which came out in ClarkesWorld Issue #45

The story is available to read online, to purchase for Kindle, or as a podcast.

Wings of Creation by Brenda Cooper

Reading the Wind cover image

“The sequel to The Silver Ship and the Sea (2007) and Reading the Wind (2008) is intense and increasingly complex. Cooper continues to limn interpersonal relationships in considerable depth, including this time those of some individual fliers. Happily, the ending suggests yet another episode to come.” - Booklist

Available now from Tor Books in hardcover, on the Kindle, and on ibooks.

Reading the Wind by Brenda Cooper

Reading the Wind cover image

Audio promo:

“Brenda Cooper’s newest novel is a feast of character and concept. She depicts the devastation of war on microcosmic and macrocosmic levels, and even more so, the driving motives of young men and women caught in deadly conflict. Cooper is a master explorer of the interaction of society and individuals. She probes the psychology of her genetically enhanced characters with both rare depth and fidelity to scientific plausibility. Moral conundrums drive the plot in this unforgettable narrative. Don’t miss this compelling work by a major new talent.”
- Mary A. Turzillo, An Old-Fashioned Martian Girl.

“Brenda Cooper tells a tale of a powerful brother and sister in a fight for their lives, offering insights along the way into the nature of courage and the hunger for community that burns in every human being. This is a lively book, full of colorful images and a memorable cast of human and animal characters, a worthy successor to The Silver Ship and the Sea.”
- Louise Marley

Available in July, 2008, from Tor Books.

The Silver Ship and the Sea by Brenda Cooper

Silver Ship and the Sea cover image

Audio promo:

“The first solo novel by Larry Niven’s Building Harlequin’s Moon (2005) coauthor portrays the thoroughly
convincing human colonial society on Fremont, a dangerous planet rife with vicious predators, frequent earthquakes,
and falling meteors….Distinctive characterizations, well-limned interrelationships, and the
vividly realized Fremont contribute to an exciting coming-of-age story with a strong message about the evils of prejudice.”
- Sally Estes, Copyright American Library Association.

Mass Market Paperback, July 2008.
Included by Booklist as a “Best Adult Book for Young Adults.”

Building Harlequin’s Moon by Brenda Cooper and Larry Niven

Building Harlequin's Moon cover image

“Fans of both hard and softer, psychological SF will welcome veteran Niven and newcome Cooper’s well-written tale of a 60,000 year layover in space, in which physical challenges of world building are matched by the social challenges of collaboration among disparate groups.” – Publisher’s Weekly

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