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Lambing 2008
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Mar. 24th, 2008 @ 04:23 pm
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Lambing is officially underway. It's due to start Wednesday but as usual no one told the ewes who all look enormous. Yesterday we caught up Nice Ewe - who's due on Wednesday - and moved her into the deluxe maternity stable ward. Today we set up the LambCam so we can monitor her remotely from the house (and, as the camera has a microphone, listen to her as well. So for the next ten days* I'm going to have the 24 hour Sheep Channel live by my bed - and you would not believe how noisy a sheep grinding her teeth can be:)
Rest assured there will be lamb pictures.
*I do get a respite Friday thru Monday as I'm off to the Phoenix convention in Dublin where I'm a guest.
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Author Interviews - The Feline Perspective
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Feb. 27th, 2008 @ 09:18 am
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One of the problems of being an International Kitten of Mystery is maintaining a successful cover. Dogs have learnt how to Google and tax humans get suspicious when unemployed kittens claim helicopter expenses.
So, for international security and tax purposes, Kai has decided to become an interviewer.
On March 4th he'll be posting an interview with Flop, Pod and Flit - three cats who ghost write under the human name of Jim Hines.
And on March 10th he'll be interviewing Laptop and Boboko who write under the human name of Alma Alexander.
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Annalise interview
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Jan. 28th, 2008 @ 08:27 am
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Jackie Kessler, author of Hell's Belles, has been running a series of interviews on her blog where one of her characters (Jezebel, a former succubus demon) interviews characters from other author's books.
Naturally, Annalise volunteered.
Here's the result.
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SF Signal Post
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Jan. 11th, 2008 @ 03:23 pm
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I'm still on a limited dial-up internet access (c 40 mins/day) until we get our broadband back (hopefully by the end of the month - flying pigs willing:) so posting will be short.
A few days back SF Signal asked a number of SF authors - including me - for their definition of 'What is SF?' The result can be viewed here. I thought about this for a while and decided - as is my wont - to come up with something a little different.
So, here's my definition:
Thinking musically, science fiction is what you get when fiction goes electric. You plug ideas into an effects box and play with all the settings - adding distortion, harmonics, sustain, feedback and maybe a little echo. Then you turn all the amplifiers up to eleven.
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Update
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Nov. 9th, 2007 @ 10:43 am
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I'm at one of those authorial crossroads, not quite sure which direction to take and wondering if I can get planning permission to create my own road - a far more entertaining path with lots of twists, good views and connecting all the places a good road should.
So here's my quandary. I'm still waiting for Baen to make a decision on my time travelling novel - they've had it for 14 months. In the past I would have completed the novel sans contract but, today, I find it difficult to motivate myself to spend nine months writing a book that may never see the light of day when I have a queue of other book ideas shouting 'Me! Me!' in my ear.
I'm six chapters into a police procedural with magic. I'm five chapters into a sequel to my mystery novel, An Unsafe Pair of Hands (the manuscript of which has just been requested by a New York agent). I'd like to bring out a Kitten's Guide book. I've been looking again at Nous Sommes Anglais. And, to cap it all, I've decided to try my hand at Urban Fantasy - combining my three loves, magic, mystery and humour.
Which is what I've been doing the last month. I thought I'd trial the experiment by constructing the first three chapters as a standalone short story - which I've done - and then send it out to the big mags and see what they thought. Chapter four would then be a 'setting up' chapter before going into another episode - which I'm now writing - which I'd send out as another short story.
I like the idea. Whether editors and publishers will is another matter.
Now I'm off to complete our ram shelter. We laid the concrete base yesterday, now comes the lifting of the shelter onto its base and the roofing. Unfortunately magic is not an option - so brute strength and craftsmanship is required:)
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Author Tea - Web chat
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Jul. 25th, 2007 @ 10:00 am
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I'm doing a web chat at noon EST (that's 6pm CET, 5pm BST and 9am PST) today. It's my first ever visit to a chat room - so there's plenty of chance for me to get lost amongst the virtual furniture and maybe even fall out of the window. But I'll be there for a couple of hours - maybe longer if I can't find my way out.
The site is here and you enter the chat room by entering a name at the top right of the page.
Apparently it's a moderated chat using UserPlane and here's a few of the guidelines I've been given:
In the blue colored box, you will type in your comments and responses. Please only type in TWO lines at a time. The program automatically cuts off after two lines and does not tell you where it stopped. You will see your whole post, but others will only see part of it. You transmit by clicking on SEND or hitting ENTER on your keyboard.
If what you have to say takes more than two lines, just type … before you hit SEND. When you've finished, type DONE.
We'll chat informally a few minutes until guests arrive. When five guests show or it is 12:10, the moderator will formally begin the chat by explaining how the chat works and announcing the following rules:
* To ask a question, type ? The moderator will call people in order.
* To make a comment, type ! and the moderator will call on you as convenient.
The moderator will briefly introduce you, then pass the chat over to you for your own opening comments. In the meantime, she will start taking requests for questions. You will see other people popping up with ?--just keep typing in your opening comments.
When you say DONE, the moderator will call on questioners. You answer questions, say DONE and themoderator calls on the next. If the audience runs out of questions, the moderator will ask some. You are also welcome to interject other comments.
So if you'd like to chat you know where I am. I might even bring an international kitten of mystery with me.
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Shift: The first reviews are in!
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Jul. 17th, 2007 @ 10:59 am
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It's always a tense time for authors - the new book comes out and you're not sure how it's going to be received. One minute you're up, the next you're down and in sweeps the doubt - the book's no good, I should have spent more time re-working it...
And then in come the reviews.
Well, the first two reviews for Shift are out and couldn't have been much better.
Don D'Amassa at Critical Mass writes:
"I think I somehow missed reading Dolley's first novel, Resonance, when it appeared a couple of years ago. It's an oversight that I plan to correct in the near future because his second is a very accomplished, intricate, and entertaining novel. There's lots of neat stuff in this, and the plot is clever and full of surprises. It's first class writing from someone whose name will, I predict, be much better known before long."
And Harriet Klausner at Alternative Worlds writes:
"SHIFT is a great science fiction mystery that will have the audience wondering who the killer is. The story line is fast-paced but brilliantly driven by the strong cast ... Chris Dolley mesmerizes his audience."
The full reviews can be read here
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Fourteen Hours
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Jun. 27th, 2007 @ 05:08 pm
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Fourteen hours to go before I board the Paris train and head off to the States.
I'll be most likely without internet access until Tuesday, July 10th so no posts for a while, but I'm taking my camera so there will be pictures when I return.
I'll be sightseeing in San Francisco on Friday and might pop into Borderlands early in the afternoon. Then I'll be at the San Mateo Marriot from about six in the evening. My reading is on Monday at 11:30 and I'm doing a signing with 'The Other Change of Hobbit' in the dealer's room.
Then I'm off to Readercon in Burlington, Mass on Thursday.
If I survive I'm flying home on Monday afternoon:)
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Last minute rush.
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Jun. 26th, 2007 @ 11:44 am
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Well, it's officially our wettest May and June ever. I was going to add that luckily our house is on high ground with free draining soil but luck had nothing to do with it. Our rule 4 of house buying has always been 'never buy a property close to a stream - no matter how small it looks or how pretty.' I've seen what small streams can turn into.
In between the rain, I've been packing for my US trip, writing the first three chapters of my fantasy detective, writing several bios for Westercon, Readercon and P-Con, researching information for the panels I'm on, panicking, and printing off maps and schedules for my trip. The latter not helped by the fact that my flight from San Francisco to Boston just been split into three hops - I now go via Charlotte and Philadelphia. I'm hoping that maybe US Air might split the Charlotte flight and make me fly via Boston:) Well, you can hope.
And progress is being made. I've almost finished the first three chapters. As usual despite intentions to write it all as one first draft and not rework as I go, I've relapsed. Stories evolve during the writing process and inevitably 'improvements' made in chapter three will impact on chapters one and two. And so I've been reworking and honing.
And will be taking the synopsis and first three chap to the US to hone some more. It'll give me something to do on all those airport layovers.
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Westercon - San Mateo, California (June 30th - July 3rd)
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Jun. 21st, 2007 @ 04:54 pm
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I've just received my Westercon program schedule. I have a reading and five panels - including one where Howard Hendrix and I discuss Experimental Metaphysics for 80 minutes. Methinks I better find out what it is:)
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A New Book
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Jun. 15th, 2007 @ 04:07 pm
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After what seems like months of solid promotional activities I'm now back writing. Yay! I'm aiming to get a synopsis and the first three chapters of my new fantasy detective novel ready for pitching before I disappear off to America for Westercon and Readercon.
The synopsis is almost done - I need to work out the denouement - and I'm nearly 2,000 words into the first chapter.
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I'm Back
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Jun. 12th, 2007 @ 03:45 pm
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Not only back but also alive - always a bonus when returning from foreign trips:) The book signings weren't packed by any means but I met a lot of interesting people and had a good time. There was even a film crew at the Piccadilly signing. The company that made last year's documentary series on British SF for BBC4 are doing another BBC series - this time on fantasy fiction - and came along to interview fans and the more photogenic authors. Where's Kai when you need him:)
And I returned to hear via ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) halspacejock in Australia that Resonance had just entered Galaxy's bestseller list at number 7. Yay!
Now I have my Readercon panels to work out and a book proposal or two to write.
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UK Trip Countdown
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Jun. 5th, 2007 @ 03:52 pm
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Two days to go and I'm busy printing off maps and itineraries for my trip to the UK. I'll be having a practice pack this afternoon to make sure I can fit everything in - and work out how many copies of Resonance and Shift I can take with me.
It's handy that Waterstone's have an online stock system where you can see (roughly) how many copies of your books are on the shelves of each branch. Birmingham High Street are well stocked but Piccadilly (where I'm signing on Thursday) and Southampton (Saturday) don't appear to have Resonance yet. Hence the need to take copies with me.
And to complicate matters - in a good way - I had an unexpected present in the post this morning. My 20 author copies of Shift. Yay! And hmmm, how many should I take with me?
So if you see someone travelling on the Eurostar surrounded by a fort made of books, you know it's me.
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Signed Copy Winner plus UK Book Tour News
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May. 25th, 2007 @ 10:49 am
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The draw for the winner of the signed copy of Resonance has just been made and with the help of the astral hand of Pelham Grenville Wodehouse - and Jeeves after the first three attempts to grasp a numbered ball failed - the winner is .... Dawn from Lyrique Tragedy.
A signed copy will be winging itself across the physical plane.
And I've just finalised the last leg of my Physical Book Tour to the UK. The itinerary is:
June 7th (5:30-7pm) Waterstone's Piccadilly, London
(7:15+) Melton Mowbray pub, Holborn, London
June 8th (5-6pm) Waterstone's Birmingham High Street
June 9th (3-4pm) Waterstone's Southampton Above Bar
The Piccadilly signing is with Steph Swainston, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Robert Holdstock, myself, David Langford, John Lambshead, Andrew Dennis, Eric Brown, Steve Savile and David Devereux.
The Birmingham signing is with Robert Holdstock, Juliet McKenna, myself, Mark Chadbourn, Ian McLeod, Eric Brown, Steve Savile, David Devereux and Graham McNeill.
And Southampton is just me - no safety net, no astral hand, no international kitten of mystery for support - just me.
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Virtual Book Tour Begins!
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May. 22nd, 2007 @ 11:42 am
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The Virtual Book Tour has begun and the remote signing experiment is underway - already the hand has been sighted in Australia and felt in New Zealand. I'll keep this page updated throughout the day as the astral hand moves ethereally across the globe.
For those who haven't read about the remote signing experiment the full story is here.
8 am (GMT) So far so good. Windows ESP is holding up and several people are holding Doris* up. Every hour on the hour, we're powering up and sending an astral projection into the ether. There have been a few teething problems - do I astrally project the pen as well as my hand? And if I do which ink do I use - Ectoplasm blue or White Spirit**. And if I don't astrally project the pen will I be able to find one at the remote site? Already there have been a few embarrassing moments when my hand grasped something inappropriate***.
1 pm (GMT) The first interviews are starting to appear.
Midnight(GMT) The quantum computer is powering down, Doris is falling down and the hand is being retracted from the ethereal realms.
Ariel over at UK SF Book News
Heidi aka ambasadora
Jim C Hines the Goblin King
Marva Dasef
Crazy Quilting For Fun
Dawn at Lyrique Tragedy
Diane
Karina at Virtual Book Tour de Net
And other contributions from:
David Schleifer, Alan, Tiberius Cornelius Festus, Mindy Klasky and Becca (who reviews the book)
I'll include a round up of more participating sites in the tour as they come in.
* For the informationally challenged concerning astral gossip, Doris is the lead medium on the remote signing experiment. And she likes to drink.
** her drinks include white spirit
*** I believe under Fijian law I may now be married
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