News from the Golden Age
I was taken completely by surprise when the Parsec Award for Best Story (Long Form) went to Captain’s Share. I’m still not quite grokking it because I was so certain that the field would leave me standing on the sidelines again and I was already aiming for next year with Owner’s Share.
Thanks to all who supported my work over the years and I’m looking forward to many more years of podcast novels.
The 2010 Parsec finalist lists were posted today. Captain’s Share made the short list, and I’m up against some truly formidable competition. Being up against Sigler and Hutchins is tough enough but Mike Bennett? And one of my own favorite authors — Mercedes Lackey!
Jeez. Just being in a list with them is heady stuff.
We’ll know on September 4th if I get to keep my Susan Lucci title and notch another title on the bed post of “losing-est author in the novel category.” Fingers crossed and full speed ahead.
Good thing I got Owner’s Share to keep me occupied in the mean time, eh?
It’s that time of year again, folks, and this time there’s some interesting developments in the category department. Here’s the qualification blurb for novel form:
Best Speculative Fiction Story (Long Form)
* Novel-length stories containing elements of science fiction, fantasy or horror
* Story audio length (minus intro/promo) over 7 hours
* Uses only 1 or 2 people for the story presentation
* Work completed within the eligibility year and have not competed in a previous year
* Audio samples only, no video
It looks like I may have a chance to win a Parsec after all!
For reference, works completed between May 1, 2009, and April 30, 2010, are eligible for this year’s Parsec.
In my world, that’s two books — Captain’s Share (completed October 15, 2009 at something over 11 hours of audio), and Ravenwood (completed February , 2010 with more than 10 hours of audio). If they both make it to the finalist category, I’ll need to figure out which one to hold back. I made the mistake of competing against myself before and I think it was a strategic blunder.
Personally, I’m pleased to see these changes although I know that it puts some of my friends in an awkward spot. Well, we’ll see how it shakes out this year. I’ll still polish up my Susan Lucci Tiara for the ceremony.
Yay! I went to check my iTunes stats and found this waiting…
In case you’re new to the iTunes Music Store, that’s Captain’s Share as the first title under New and Notable for ARTS! Not Arts > Literature which is cool enough but the parent category of ARTS!!
Thank you SO much to the 46 people who rated and the 21 who left comments. I’m boggled!
A Trader’s Tale from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper
A shuffling of cabins puts Ishmael Horatio Wang in command of the worst ship in the fleet. He learns that being Captain doesn’t make you infallible and that life in the Captain’s Cabin is filled with new kinds of challenge as he tries to keep the ship moving, the crew out of trouble, and turn a profit to earn his Captain’s Share. In a ship where the officers outnumber the crew, how can he manage to keep everybody happy? Welcome to the SC Agamemnon.
The first episode has been submitted for QC. I have some issues to resolve, but the new book is just around the corner.
UPDATE: Sept 26. If you’re following comments, or Podiobooks on Twitter, or any number of other news outlets, you know that we’ve got a release date of Sept 30. I’ve got the first episode through QC after several false starts (thank you iTunes for hiding what my ID3 tags really looked like — not) and I’m on track to have at least five episodes ready to go when the gates open.
UPDATE: Sept 29. It’s almost midnight on the East Coast of the US and already the 30th in large portions of the globe. Captain’s Share is going live in the next few minutes. I’ll get it posted to iTunes as soon as I can.
Enjoy.
