(This is Part 2 of the Niran story: https://www.patreon.com/posts/20-niran-in-last-6645787 )
Niran had tried to help Blossom and Rill build the cooking pit for the preparation of the ingredients for Fell poison the Arbora had gathered, but Rill had gently explained that he was interfering with Blossom's artistic vision for the site, so he sat down on a log to watch. &nbs...
2017-02-21 17:16:17 +0000 UTC View PostThe Harbors of the Sun is coming out simultaneously in paperback, hardcover & ebook, and the paperback is now up for preorder: http://marthawells.livejournal.com/696314.html
2017-02-14 17:24:30 +0000 UTC View Post
(This POV is Hiak, the Kek friend that Merit made during The Dark Earth Below, in the second volume of Stories of the Raksura.)
Hksktst was in the healer's house, planting the new crop of twistvines in the ceiling, when Cthstk ducked into the door and said, "Your Raksura friend is here, the short one with no wings."
Hksktst jumped up. "Good! I was hoping it would come back today." She gathered the rest of the vine sprouts and dropped them in the car...
2017-02-09 13:48:37 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor Tananarive Due will be one of the guests of honor for World Fantasy Con 2017 in San Antonio! Other guests of honor are Karen Joy Fowler, Gregory Manchess, David Mitchell, Gorden van Gelder, and I'm the toastmaster. Dates are November 2-5 2017 http://wfc2017.org/wfc2017/
Other stuff:
- The Harbors of the Sun will have a simultaneously release in hardcover, trade paperback, and...
2017-01-31 21:28:15 +0000 UTC View Post
"Moon's not here."
It wasn't the first thing Stone had expected to hear when he stepped into the greeting hall after returning from the Golden Isles. He hadn't expected the trip to take this long and he hadn't expected to come back with yet another flying boat and yet another crew of Islanders.
He was beginning to wonder what else he should have expected.
Stone stared down at Grain, and the Arbora soldier twitched nervously. Stone had meant to speak to Pear...
2017-01-24 13:51:35 +0000 UTC View PostI've posted a couple of images of the only map of the Three Worlds:
On my tumblr: http://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/156038048012/im-not-getting-much-done-this-week-as-watching
and my blog: http://marthawells.dreamwidth.org/
2017-01-18 15:10:20 +0000 UTC View Post
"I'm going to do it," Frost said.
"It's a bad idea," Thorn told her. Bitter nodded solemnly.
Frost felt her spines lift. She had expected them to support her. They always supported her. "You're just jealous you can't do it," she snapped.
Thorn was unimpressed. Bitter tilted his head in a way that conveyed both rebuke and irony. Thorn said, "You're just mad that we think you're being stupid."
Frost braced to leap on them. They both glared at her, ...
2017-01-13 13:51:34 +0000 UTC View PostThe B&N SF blog has the cover of The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Redand an excerpt: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/exclusive-cover-reveal-excerpt-systems-red-murderbot-diaries-martha-wells/
The novella will be out on May 2 and is now up for preorder in ebook and paperback.
Also, I'm ab...
2017-01-11 20:43:36 +0000 UTC View Post
They left the ruin hurriedly. Moon threw one last look at the statue as the others climbed back up the steps. Jade caught his arm and tugged him along.
Once they reached the upper hall again, it was a scramble to get the Arbora out. Jade tossed Bramble at Moon and hissed, "I can't believe this is happening again."
Moon caught Bramble, who said, "We don't know that it is yet!"
Moon agreed, but he wasn't going to argue with Jade. If this was a forerunner ruin...
2016-12-21 20:17:56 +0000 UTC View PostFYI, my new SF novella The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red from Tor.com is up for preorder in ebook at all ebook retailers http://publishing.tor.com/allsystemsred-marthawells/9780765397522/ . It will be published in ebook and trade paperback on May 2, 2017.
For Patrons, I'm hoping to get the second Raksura story for this month up here next week before Christm...
2016-12-14 13:41:16 +0000 UTC View Post(I'm still working on the Hidden Colony story, but in the meantime, here's this. Hopefully I'll be able to post another Hidden Colony section later this month.)
When Celadon walked into the reigning queen's bower, she knew something had happened.
Malachite paced in front of the bowl hearth, her tail moving in a slow deliberate lash that conveyed more restrained rage than any growl. Rise stood near the door in her groundling form, arms folded, face care...
2016-12-09 15:24:29 +0000 UTC View PostSo we made the next goal, yay! And the patreon will definitely be continuing to at least July 2017 when The Harbors of the Sun will be released. I'll keep going with the Hidden Colony story, and also may intersperse some unrelated Raksura snippets. If there's anything you'd like to see, please feel free to post a suggestion in comments. I can't promise I'll do it, as the suggestions don't always spark ideas for me, but I'll give it a try.
2016-11-30 15:23:56 +0000 UTC View Post
The lighted moss bundles they had tossed into the ruin yesterday were still glowing. As Moon made his way over the cracked, uneven floor, it gave the shadowy hall the temporary illusion of an inhabited colony. It made Moon's spines twitch.
The warriors had already climbed up to the vines and branches growing in the upper part of the hall, taking guard positions. The Arbora slowly spread out, pointing and whispering in awe. Jade had gone ahead with a small group of warriors a...
2016-11-26 15:49:41 +0000 UTC View PostI've said what I need to say on my Facebook and Live Journal here
http://marthawells.livejournal.com/689699.html
, so here I'll just say briefly: if you're a Trump supporter, I don't want your money, feel free to withdraw your support from this Patreon. I am not open to discussion about this in any form or location.
To everybody else, I will finish the hidden colony story even though w...
2016-11-11 15:29:27 +0000 UTC View PostOf course the Arbora wanted to see the ruin of the old colony. Moon could tell Jade was reluctant to agree, but also reluctant to tell the Arbora no just because of her own feelings. She also hadn't been exactly thrilled to hear that Moon had been the one to go after Fair, and had told him so once they were alone in her bower.
Moon felt he had way too much experience at this point going into strange and likely dangerous place...
2016-10-26 15:02:00 +0000 UTC View Postwww.tor.com/2016/10/25/announcing-the-murderbot-diaries-by-martha-wells/
I've sold two new SF novellas to the Tor.com novella line, and the first one
The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red
will come out next summer in ebook and paperback. Yay! I'm really excited about this.
FYI, I meant to get the new Raksura snippet posted today, ...
2016-10-25 15:10:49 +0000 UTC View PostI gave a lecture on worldbuilding in SF/F and did a question and answer session on the TAMU campus last night, as part of Cushing Library And Archives Hal Hall Lecture Series. It was a great audience of students and faculty, and I had a lot of fun.
Here's the talk I gave about worldbuilding:
What is worldbuilding? Briefly, it's the setting you create for a fictional work, including the type of landscape, the environment, the climate, as well as the people who live there and ...
Moon should have been the last one to want to explore a strange doorway deep in a disintegrating trunk of a dying mountain-tree, but here they were.
Granted, there hadn't been much choice after Fair had fallen into it and they had had to go after him.
Beside Moon, Balm muttered, "Why does it always happen to Fair?"
Chime, holding up one of the glowing balls of moss Thistle ha...
2016-10-11 16:45:38 +0000 UTC View PostThis is a missing scene from The Harbors of the Sun, but there aren't any spoilers.
Moon hated it out of all proportion whenever Stone got hurt. Even when it was an injury that he knew Stone would shake off within hours. But it still made something deep inside him shake and panic like a fledgling.
He didn't want to leave Stone alone while he checked out the potential shelter in the crevic...
2016-09-27 16:39:21 +0000 UTC View PostTwo notes before the story:
* Pixel Project: On Saturday, September 17, 2016, at 7:30 CST I’ll be doing an online reading and an interview as part of The Pixel Project’s Read for Pixels Fall Edition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1EyARkzeKQto to help raise funds to fight violence against women.
They also have an Indiegogo (2016-09-13 15:24:04 +0000 UTC View Post
If you don't follow my Live Journal (http://marthawells.livejournal.com/) or other social media, FYI the cover reveal for The Harbors of the Sun is at 2016-09-07 20:59:41 +0000 UTC View Post
http://www.marthawells.com/compendium/MarthaShortReading.mpg
In the next post, I'll try to post a link to a video of part of the reading I did at WorldCon. It's from The Harbors of the Sun and is therefore a bit spoilery.
If it doesn't work, which, let's face it, it probably won't, here's the text I read:
"You promised them what?" Pearl said to Malachite. "Have you lost your mind?"
Ember controlled a wince. He saw Celadon, seated across the hearth,confine he...
2016-09-01 00:39:57 +0000 UTC View Post(This is part one of this Niran story. I also have two videos of my reading at WorldCon to upload, hopefully this week. (I had to get someone's help to shrink them down enough to post.)
In his heart of hearts, Niran had expected to have been eaten by now. If not by theRaksura, then by something else roving the deep jungle.
But on the first day in hiding, under the heavy screen of trees, a warrior whose name he would lat...
2016-08-30 17:48:58 +0000 UTC View PostJust to let everybody know, the next story will be posted on August 30. (I just got back from WorldCon on Monday and am still bleary with tiredness.
At the con, I did have a friend film my reading with an iPad, so I may try to upload that as an extra. Hopefully the file won't be too big.
"He really didn't know he was a consort," Chime said to Flower. They were in the back of her bower, sitting on the furs, the storage baskets stacked around them providing a little protection against prying ears. "He really didn't know what a Raksura was."
"It's a strange thing to consider, but it's perfectly possible." Her expression was distracted, and she hadn't touched the cup of tea she held. She had warmed the he...
2016-08-09 15:32:32 +0000 UTC View Post(Note:I realized finally that I made some timeline errors in the first story about when Indigo Cloud left the Reaches. I'll correct them at some point and repost it as an extra.)
To make it worse, Stone woke up that morning missing the old colony in the Reaches so intensely it was like he couldn't breathe. The mentors told him this happened sometimes, there was nothing to be done about it.
It would just make ...
2016-07-26 17:09:03 +0000 UTC View PostFYI, I have two books in a DRM-free historical fantasy ebook Storybundle curated by Melissa Scott:
https://storybundle.com/fantasy
If you pay the minimum of $5.00, you get:
• The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells
• The Emperor's Agent by Jo Graham
• Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jon...
I was trying to do a moodboard/aesthetic thing for The Books of the Raksura
and this is what I came up with, so I thought I'd share it here. It should be attached to this post.
I'm revising The Harbors of the Sun, which is due in to the publisher on July 31, and the next patreon story (also Stone and Azure) will be posted on July 26.
On the day the delegations from Wind Sun and Mist Silver were to arrive, Stone ended up sitting in the opening to one of the airshafts. The others had been up
here earlier, watching as the visitors flew in, but they hadn't lingered. Stone wasn't sure why he hadn't left as well.
The late afternoon sun was making the river gleam and a low breeze stirred the leaves of the heavy jungle on the hills. The scents were heavy with sun-warmed grass and water. Mo...
2016-07-12 16:55:47 +0000 UTC View Post