May 16th, 2012 by jdsawyer
If you’re not the kind of obsessive geek I am, you might have missed that yesterday the first major accomplishment in de novo life extension through gene therapy got published. This project has been going on for a while, but up until yesterday, all therapies and attempted engineering have either caused cancer or other degenerative diseases, or just flat not worked in any significant way that’s applicable to humans, because they relied on flipping genetic switches that evolution flipped for us millions of years ago. Now, though, a one-shot gene therapy has been discovered that that successfully increases life-span and health-span by 13-25% in adult mice, and it’s a kind of therapy that humans can actually benefit from (i.e. it does something that our biology doesn’t already do for us).
Reading the (above linked) article late last night got me thinking along lines I’ve posted on before. We’ve all started saying things like “we’re living in the future” because we’ve now got toys that look (and sometimes act) like tricorders, and we have video conferencing and Internet access and other cool stuff, but the world around us often feels quite prosaic, if tumultuous and threatening. And, really, most of the stuff we look at as “new and shiny” are incremental, rather than revolutionary, improvements. They’re welcome and they’re fun, but do they really change the game all that much?
Well, last night I made a list of revolutionary developments in technology (and its applications), business, and science in the last four years. Some look minor, others are hard to wrap one’s head around. In no particular order, here they are:
Artificial Life — life forms invented from scratch by humans. One of the current application projects involves making biological computers.
Lab-grown organs (this first one is actually from 2006, but it’s still way cool) and printable organs
Vaccines manufactured in goat’s milk
Spider silk engineered into goat’s milk for enviro-friendly fibers and body armor.
DuPont begins the process of transitioning from petrochemicals to bio-engineered plastics and chemicals — This is one of a handful of big things that needs to happen to end the fossil fuel era. Details scattered throughout this lecture.
Private space tourist flights — Now open for business.
Private space flight — SpaceX makes the first supply delivery to the international space station later this month.
Asteroid mining — Now open for business. A moderate asteroid contains over a trillion dollars worth of Iron, Nickel, Gold, Platinum, Titanium, and Rare Earth elements (which won’t be rare once the payloads start arriving). The maturation of this industry means 1) Serious reductions in the costs of spaceflight (due to ice extraction and the creation of orbital fuel stations, thus reducing the water and fuel spacecraft have to carry out of the gravity well), 2) The abandonment of terrestrial mines for everything but coal, salt, and similar minerals (no more open-pit mines and their environmental, economic, and human costs), 3) The radical increase in the material wealth of the entire planet as the materials that our everyday tools and luxuries are made of plummet in price, opening up new opportunities for people all over the world to invent new things with materials previously available only to the very wealthy, 4) A serious reduction in greenhouse gasses and demand for coal as smelting and refinement are carried out in space (better and cheaper) instead of on earth, 5) As a side-effect, the creation of an orbital power generation infrastructure that can create surplus electricity (mostly solar) for sale back to Terrestrial markets.
The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, the world’s most advanced ground car, the research for which is already spawning revolutionary changes to the world’s automotive industry, to the advantage of both consumers and the health of the environment, such as the following item:
The Volkswagen XL1 — A ~300 Miles-Per-Gallon car that hits the market in Britain late this year. Initially planned as a limited test marketing, the next decade will see more and more of this kind of thing, even if the XL1 doesn’t achieve high-volume production status.
The first successful test of the X-51 Waverider, a scramjet capable of going from Sydney Australia to Los Angeles in 90 minutes. This was followed shortly by the unveling of a competing prototype, the Zero Emissions HyperSonic Transport.
The first efforts to build the space elevator are finally underway — they may not succeed, but even if they fail, it should be an instructive failure. Check it out here.
First earth-like extrasolar planets are discovered
Pollution control and toxic cleanup through mushrooms has now been discovered and is beginning to be adopted.
And, the one that started us off today:
Mouse lifespan extended 25% with a single genetic treatment after the mouse is already mature.
—
This is just what I could come up with off the top of my head. It doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of what I’ve seen and read about in the last four years. It’s gonna be socially uncomfortable dealing with the move to abundance materially, socially, and in terms of lifespan, but holy shit, the future snuck in the back door while we were all worried about mortgages.
April 24th, 2012 by jdsawyer
Many of you have been asking how to get autographed paperbacks now that I’m not going to Balticon (or, let’s face it, any cons) this year. Well, I’ve crunched the numbers and discovered that I can get you autographed books for the same price you’d get them on Amazon (with about the same shipping rates, assuming you’re not a Prime subscriber).
So, here they are. Add each to the cart as you need to, then click “continue shopping.” You will also need to add your appropriate shipping option to the cart as well. Once you’ve got everything you need, click “check out” instead of “continue shopping.” The shipping options will cover your order of books. Please do not forget to add your shipping option to your order, or I will not be able to ship the book(s). If you are a dealer or want to order more than 10 units, email me privately for a discount schedule using the contact form.
Note: I CAN deliver to Balticon, as I have someone who has agreed to distribute the books there. I am not sending along general stock, only signed preorders. If you want Balticon delivery, please be sure to select “Balticon Pickup” from the shipping options.
Books
Shipping for Books
(Choose one only)
| Balticon Pickup (must order before May 14) |
$2.99 |
|
| Continental U.S. |
$3.99 |
|
| International shipping (includes insurance) |
$7.99 |
|
Posters
Note: Posters require special packing and thus their shipping is hard-wired into their buy button.
 Predestination Cover Art
Signed and Numbered Collector's Edition Poster
$12.00+shipping |
If you’re going, please do enjoy Balticon and raise a little hell for me. Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm!
April 12th, 2012 by jdsawyer
I must admit, I never 
quite understood the appeal of unboxing photos until…well, today. One of my voice actors, Michael Lemonjello (who plays Xylar as well as a number of bit roles in The Antithesis Progression sent in this photo of his paperback of Down From Ten, which arrived in the mail today with Scott Sigler’s Nocturnal.
I love seeing the books in the wild–if you’ve got unboxing pics, send them in. I’m officially a convert 
April 11th, 2012 by jdsawyer
This is a review of Trader’s Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper, a science fiction series by Nathan Lowell comprised of the books Quarter Share, Half Share, Full Share, Double Share, Captain’s Share, and Owner’s Share. The series is reviewed as a whole.
Call him Ishmael–and forget the Moby Dick reference at your peril. This really IS a series about a whale (a dolphin, actually) and the man who is ruled by it. Nathan Lowell’s “Trader’s Tales” starts as a coming-of-age novel. Over the course of six gently-paced books, it becomes something unique: a coming-of-age epic. A meditation on the nature of adulthood through the eyes of a man trapped by the very tragedy that catapults him off into the cosmos to seek his destiny.
Continue reading ‘A Golden Epic (Review of Trader’s Tales)’
April 6th, 2012 by jdsawyer
Okay, here we go. I’ve got the major and minor open roles collated for Free Will. If you’re interested in being a part of it, download the following PDFs, look over the information, and contact me about the roles you’re interested in.
Major Roles
Minor Roles
It’s already shaping up to be a great production. Our cast already contains such folks as:
Stephen H. Wilson
Miss Kalendar
Tee Morris
Philippa Ballantine
Christiana Ellis
Chris Lester
Nobilis Reed
Scott Sigler
and many, many more…
Casting calls on Monday will post for the Clarke Lantham books.
April 5th, 2012 by jdsawyer
A bit of fun news.
My co-author on Throwing Lead, Mary Mason, and I had so much fun doing Throwing Lead that we’re starting work on our next Writer’s Guide. After much discussion over whether to start straight in with Throwing Lead 2 or to get on with another one of our planned volumes, we decided to wait on TL2 until feedback and questions have come in for the just-released volume 1.
In the meantime, we’re going to be doing a Writer’s Guide to Cars and Driving (probably called either “Grinding Gears” or “Laying Rubber” or something similar), and we start work on it tomorrow. So, step 1 is the same as step 1 was with Throwing Lead: Ask for your questions.
What is it about cars and driving, car chases, stunt driving, etc. that you’ve always been curious about? What about cars just doesn’t make sense to you? What things have you seen in movies that strain credibility? What weird cultural things have always puzzled you about bikers, gearheads, mechanics, and getaway drivers? Let us know. Leave your questions in the comments under this post, or send them in to feedback at jdsawyer dot net.
Your questions helped make Throwing Lead happen, and helped us out when we got stuck. We’re dying to know what’s on your mind when it comes to all things automotive.
Thanks!
April 3rd, 2012 by jdsawyer
So, as many of you might have noticed, we occasionally produce audiobooks through ArtisticWhispers Productions. Those of you that have may have also noticed that we haven’t put a new one out (or, at least, anything resembling a complete one) in about two years.
The hiatus is over. As of this past weekend, the following books have all moved out of the pre-production stage and into the production stage.
The books currently in production are:
Throwing Lead
And Then She Was Gone
A Ghostly Christmas Present
Smoke Rings
Free Will
Being In Production
Being “In Production” means that the project is currently being recorded. Some bits of pre-production might go on concurrently, for example…
Casting
All of the fiction books will be full-cast productions in the classic AWP style. Here are the numbers on the roles available for each book (bearing in mind that, since this is audio, actors can double, triple, or quintiple up on roles):
And Then She Was Gone needs 27 roles filled. 9 of these have five lines or fewer.
A Ghostly Christmas Present needs 14 roles filled, 4 of these have five lines or fewer
Smoke Rings needs 21 roles filled. About half of these are roles with fewer than five lines.
Free Will needs 118 roles filled. About half of these are roles with fewer than five lines.
What Happens Now
Starting later this week, I will spool out the open casting calls. These books will be available commercially, so if you wish to participate, in addition to having the ability to record clean audio and (for the more involved roles) the willingness to take live-direction, you must be willing to sign a contract detailing the release of your voice for commercial purposes and entitling you to payment.
Payment for these books, because they’re the first commercial round, will be on a deferred fee basis + royalties. Because payment is involved, you will need to include your Tax ID number on the contract and, when payment comes due, fill out the relevant tax forms.
Watch This Space
These are the first five of an anticipated 9 productions this year, and there will be a similar number next year. I’m looking to build a stable of actors I can work with medium-to-long term.
What Does This Mean for the Podcast?
The podcast returns with Free Will (rebooted) in late spring/early summer. I’m aiming for Balticon, but might overshoot or undershoot by as much as three weeks, depending on how briskly casting goes.
Free Will will be approximately 60 episodes long, and will start out as a bi-weekly podcast, ramping to weekly once the entire production is wrapped. As such, it will run for 13-19 months before we reach the end. Since such a long story full of cliffhangers will drive some of you around the bend, the full audiobook will be available for purchase by DragonCon, if not before.
Additionally, the initial chapters of the other books will drop in the feed so that you who subscribe can hear what’s going on in the productions that aren’t delivered to you on the feed.
And, of course, Dealing In will return, as I sense we’ll have quite a lot to talk about as the story unfolds.
Future novels will podcast after Free Will wraps, but there will always be more content available than what’s going through the ‘cast. You all have spoken loudly, and we here around the Bay have heard your cries.
Stay tuned! More in a couple days.
Update: Free Will casting call has posted. Find it here
March 5th, 2012 by jdsawyer
You heard about
it here eighteen months ago when the project first started, now it’s done. I am pleased at long last to announce the release of Throwing Lead: A Writer’s Guide to Firearms (and the People Who Use Them).
Here’s the back-of-book copy:
While they may be an indispensable tool of drama, firearms aren’t something you see everyday in real life. If you write fiction, you have to know about them–but what if you don’t have any formal training, or a job that brings you into regular contact with firearms?
Sure, you could watch a lot of CSI, but as you’ll quickly discover upon cracking open this volume, you can’t trust everything you see on TV.
Entertaining and humorous in style, Throwing Lead shows you the gestalt of guns, showing you the history of small arms in one readable, accessible, graphics-rich and easy-to-reference volume. Packed full of revealing research shortcuts to help you find accurate information on your book’s period and culture, and cut through the jargon to get you the information you need with a minimum of fuss, it’ll leave you chuckling and get your creative juices flowing with tips on underexploited plot devices and hidden opportunities for comedy and drama that firearms present, but that authors often miss.
This unique tour of the history, technology, and cultural development of firearms, examines how they’ve shaped our language and idiom, influenced manufacturing technology, and created warrior cultures in different professions. More than just a “how to write about it” manual or a technical glossary, this rigorously non-political guide reveals the common myths about firearms foisted upon us by filmmakers while using those mistakes as springboards for deeper discussion.
Topics covered include:
Terminology
Safety practices
Handguns
Long guns
Concealed carry
Ballistics and Forensics
The visceral experience of shooting a gun
Home defense
Police tactics and psychology
Criminal cultures
Snipers and spies
Gunfighters and PTSD
Ammunition construction and the handloading culture
Situational awareness and threat assessment
Science Fiction weaponry
Space combat
Historical weaponry
Urban warfare
Weapons maintenance
Gun handling training drills
Gunshot wounds and medical science
Stupid criminal tricks
Crazy movie gun tricks that sometimes work in real life
Selecting the gun that best fits your character
And much, much more…
Buy it now for your Kindle, Nook, or grab it in all formats from Smashwords.
February 21st, 2012 by jdsawyer
For those of you who prefer dead tree to ebook format, I’ve got some excellent news:
Down From Ten, Sculpting God, and Predestination are now in available as handsomely-packaged paperbacks.
They’ll be joined in March by A Ghostly Christmas Present, Smoke Rings, and Silent Victor, and in April by Free Will and the soon-to-be-released Throwing Lead
They are available for order at bookstores across the world, or you can get them now by clicking on the covers:
For those of you outside the US looking for a retailer who will ship to you at reasonable prices, all of the books are available through The Book Depository. Don’t be alarmed by the lack of cover art–my listings just went live there and it takes a while for them to update their images. I promise that the books you buy there will have the same excellent packaging that those here in the US get.
February 19th, 2012 by jdsawyer
I hate bad news–I actually hate giving it more than I hate receiving it. Unfortunately, in this case, I’ve received some bad news that means I have to give some bad news.
Continue reading ‘When Plans Change…’
February 11th, 2012 by jdsawyer
I am proud to announce
my first steampunk story collection Frock Coat Dreams: Romances, Nightmares, and Fancies from the steampunk Fringe, which includes two brand new stories: “A Goblet of Fifty-Three” and “Sleep, Walk.” This will be the first of two or three collections this year of steampunk stories grouped together for easy reading. Unlike the Sculpting God collections, these don’t have special features, but they will be an excellent place to get early releases and load up on short stories for about half of what you would pay to purchase them individually.
Here’s the back-of-book copy:
The author of The Antithesis Progression and The Clarke Lantham Mysteries brings you delicate, humorous, and brutal visions of a future that never was and a past that might have been. Collected her are stories of satire, romance, horror, and promise to delight every sensibility.
Contains:
Train Time
Sleep, Walk
On Matters Most Austere
A Goblet of Fifty-Three
Angels Unawares
and Cold Duty: Selected Readings from the Diary of a Gelusian Repairman, the story that Steampunk Scholar Mike Perschon calls “…probably the single best steampunk short story I’ve read.”
Get it now for all platforms from Smashwords, or grab it for your Kindle direct from Amazon or your Nook direct from B&N.
February 10th, 2012 by jdsawyer
Sometimes, I have 
bouts of madness. In 2010 at OryCon, a particularly whimsical bout of madness struck. I’d just gotten out of a panel on Steampunk and run into someone with a table advocating for public awareness of something-or-other, and it occurred to me that in the world of the Steampunk genre there would be a number of such groups going around trying to cope with large societal changes caused by the sudden disinclination of their fellows to stay dead.
Magazine editors loved it, and sent glowing rejection notes apologizing to me that the premise was simply too weird for their readers. Now, it’s your turn. If you need a draught of the truly daft and funky, check out this Guide for Her Majesty’s Subjects On Matters Most Austere.
From the Greater London chapter of the Committee to Restrict the Accidental Population:
A comprehensive guide for Her Majesty’s subjects on dealing with the social problems and legal issues created by the so-called “accidental population.” If you are finding your world complicated by vampires, resurrectionists, or the undead, this pamphlet will give you the vital information you need to survive awkward situations with your life and social standing intact, and in the process restore the dignity of the Empire.
Read it now on your Kindle or other e-reader.
February 6th, 2012 by jdsawyer
For those of you 
who liked my recent story on Escape Pod (which will hit ebook format this month), I’ve got another tale from the pawnshop for you. Call it a fable about the value of a healthy sense of self. And for me, personally, this is a favourite. So, step into the pawnshop and pay no attention to the cold. The bald cat and his pet man will give you what you need, even if it isn’t what you want.
Sunday Morning Giraffe: A Lombard Alchemist Tale
Aldo is a five-year-old who always gets his way. When he doesn’t, bad things happen. So when he wakes up his father at 3AM on Sunday and demands a giraffe–in spite of the fact that giraffes do not live in the high desert in the middle of winter–his father grudgingly takes him on a giraffe-hunting safari.
Unfortunately, his parents know nothing about the source of Aldo’s will power, and would be shocked to discover that his chief ally is a demon-posessed rat with an agenda of its own involving a toy giraffe from a creepy little pawnshop way out on the edge of nowhere.
Buy it now for the Kindle and for all other readers.
February 3rd, 2012 by jdsawyer
Ladies and gentlemen 
and those who prefer neither title, I am very proud to announce the continuation of The Clarke Lantham Mysteries.
This is the biggest one yet, ringing in at nearly the same length as Predestination, and the adventure scales with the book. Teaming up with his assistant Rachael and his new squatter Nya Thales, Lantham gets to match wits with alien hunters, Chinese assassins, and FBI agents in his attempt to solve an apparent alien abduction before the only witness is…but I’m getting ahead of myself. Here’s the back-of-book copy, to give you a better feel for what’s going on.
The California Academy of Sciences, a bastion of integrity in scientific public relations, has agreed to play host to one of the most valuable travelling exhibits in the world: a Mars rock with microbial alien life. But the attention it’s drawing isn’t just international, it’s interstellar. When a commando team of gray aliens steals the rock and abducts a security guard, in full view of the cameras, the head of the security contractor has only one place to turn: Clarke Lantham Investigations.
Clarke Lantham already turned down an alien-related job earlier in the week, and has had his fill of kooks, cranks, and crooks of all kinds. Unfortunately, with an old client suing him, a employee to pay for, and a new ward chewing through his finances, he needs the paycheck. This time, though, he’s not the only one looking for a missing person: the FBI, Lloyd’s of London, and the Chinese Ministry of State Security are all breathing down his neck.
From the dark underbelly of the Tongs slave trade to the shark-infested waters of Bolinas Bay to the skies far above the concerns of mere mortals, Lantham races against spies, assassins, and conspiracy theorists to find the missing man–and the treasure that went with him–before the theft becomes a diplomatic incident between the world’s most fearsome superpowers and the alien overlords they allegedly support.
When the field gets that crowded, someone’s bound to get hurt. But even that might be okay for Lantham…if he didn’t have to sleep on the couch.
Read the first couple chapters here.
Then, grab the book and dive in. It’s available right now through Read the rest on your Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.
I hope you have at least half as much fun reading it as I did writing it. Enjoy!
February 2nd, 2012 by jdsawyer
I spend my life cultivating and exploring questions at all levels from the inane to the putatively profound. Part of my job is asking questions–in fact, if you squint hard enough and look through enough lenses, you will be able to find a question or cluster of them behind every story I write.
As I prep to tackle the next round of The Antithesis Progression and another pair of SF novels later this year, I’m having fun wrestling with some biggies. Long story short, I thought it would be fun to share some of them with you guys, partly for the fun of the conversation, and partly to give you a peek behind the curtain for those of you who are interested in seeing the process that begins with a question and ends with a story or a novel.
So, to kick it off, here’s my nomination for one of the biggest questions anyone has ever asked.
“Where is everybody?”
Biggest question…seems kind of a grand claim, but I’m going to go a step further: I think it might be the single most terrifying, and the single most exciting, question anyone has ever thought to ask.
To illustrate why, I’ll give you a little context. This is the question that a man named Enrico Fermi asked when he turned his radio telescope at the heavens to listen in on television and radio broadcasts from alien civilisations, and found only static.
The universe is a big place. If carbon chemistry is common (as it seems to be), and if life bootstraps really easily, (which is now virtually certain), then in a big universe there should be at least some other folks out there who are building civilizations, and since all civilization is defined by energy use, they should be making some noise.
So…where is everybody?
It only took humans one generation between the invention of the radio (the ability to make cosmic noise) and the nuclear bomb (the ability to silence that noise forever, without reprieve). What if everybody eventually, inevitably, succumbs to self-destruction? Terrifying, isn’t it?
On the other hand, what if we’re the first? What if we are truly alone? This one’s terrifying too, but it sure is exciting–there’s a lot of universe out there that’s not being used, and oh, the places we’ll go!
But there are other answers, and some of them are very intriguing. Certainly, we haven’t figured out all the potential answers yet. I’ve got some ideas that I’m exploring in projects I’m currently working on, I’ve even got a few opinions.
It is a big question, though, maybe one of the biggest. Because whatever the answer is, it will forever define our relationship with the universe around us, and will profoundly affect the way our civilization unfolds as it winds out into the solar system and beyond.
Read more about this question here, then tell me…What do you think about this question?
