Friday, October 16

• 7:00 PM: LibraryThing, Goodreads, and Other Book Conversations
  Participants: Colleen Cahill (m), David Louis Edelman, C. Alan Loewen, Karen Newton
  The annual panel on online book social media, which Capclave has put me on for four years running now. Guess I haven’t made too much of a fool of myself on this panel.
• 9:00 PM: Books (and Writers) Past their Expiration Date
  Participants: Allen Wold (m), John Betancourt, David Louis Edelman, Kathy Morrow, Darrell Schweitzer, Ted White

  A discussion about why books and authors go out-of-date and/or out-of-style.

Saturday, October 17

• 4:00 PM: Even Hard SF Uses FTL
  Participants: David Louis Edelman (m), Eric Choi, Michael Flynn, Ed Lerner, James Maxey
  For some reason, somebody decided I should moderate this panel. Perhaps it’s because Norman Spinrad wrote in Asimov’s that “Edelman seems to have convincing and convincingly detailed knowledge of the physiology and biochemistry of the human nervous system down to the molecular level. And cares about making his fictional combination of molecular biology and nanotech credible.” (I never get tired of that quote.)
• 7:30 PM: Reading from Geosynchron
  This will be the first public reading from my upcoming Geosynchron. I plan to read chapter 3, which features Quell the Islander running around shooting people with black code in prison. You’ve been warned.

Sunday, October 18

• 12:00 PM: Book Signing
  Alongside Allen Wold and Yoji Kondo. So, um, bring your books and I’ll sign them. Or better yet, buy new books and I’ll sign them.
• 2:00 PM: Post Consumer Economy
  Participants: James Maxey (m), Lenny Bailes, David Louis Edelman, Tom King, Kathy Morrow
  I keep asking to be put on these futuristic economy panels, despite the fact that I know almost nothing about economics, largely because I keep thinking it will help promote my books.

Hope to see you there!

Friday, October 17

• 5:00 pm — LibraryThing (Montrose)

Saturday, October 18

• 12:00 pm — Reading from MultiReal (Twinbrook)
• 2:00 pm — Signing
• 10:00 pm — Best & Worst Ideas (Montrose)

Sunday, October 19

• 1:00 pm — Election 2208: Politics and Economics of the Future (Plaza II)
• 2:00 pm — Sequelitis (Montrose)

Before I had even left for the con, the panel schedule was already messed up. The Balticon folks had mistakenly given me Scott Edelman‘s reading slot and emailed me panel assignments that were at variance with the pocket schedule on the website. Things further devolved from there when it was discovered that my picture appeared next to Scott’s bio in the program book; my buddy Tom Doyle had been given two reading slots; and the schedule for at least one entire room seemed to have come unstuck in time, leaving plenty of people with double bookings, missing panels, or both.

Late Sunday afternoon, I discovered that my panel on “The Future of Cities” — which had been listed at 3 pm in the email I received from programming — and which the pocket program listed at 5 pm 6 pm — was actually going to be held at 6 pm 7 pm. Plus it was going to be short a moderator, considering that he was double booked. At that point, I just decided I’d had enough and bagged the whole thing. I was sick anyways.

Some cons are just like that.

But hey, just because Balticon was chaotic and organizationally challenged in places doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun. I go to cons for very specific reasons: (1) to catch up with friends that I generally wouldn’t otherwise see; (2) to soak up SFnal ideas and pour a few into the mix myself; and (3) to promote myself and my books. But most of the people wandering the hallways at Balticon seemed to have a different agenda. They were more interested in filking or dressing up like slutty Jedi knights or playing obscure board games until four in the morning. Which is fine. Personally, I’d prefer to listen to panelists discuss the ways in which Maud’Dib deviates from the Joseph Campbell mythical hero track, but that’s just me.

Add to this the fact that the Baltimore Marriott Hunt Valley Inn is a terribly nice place, perfect for cons with its abundance of labyrinthine hallways and nooks for display tables. The dealer’s room was enticing and not too crowded, the bar was inviting, and the conference rooms got a little too hot (but then again, when have you been to a con where that wasn’t the case?).

Will I go back? Maybe not every year, but… sure, I’ll go back.

Some of the highlights of my Balticon experience:

• A very nice dinner with fellow authors Jeri Smith-Ready, Maria Snyder, and David J. Williams, among others, during which we discussed our favorite topics (publishing and book promotion).
• A hyperkinetic reading by David J. Williams for his just-published debut novel The Mirrored Heavens. Let’s just say that watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was kind of a letdown in comparison. Indy may have had a nuclear bomb blast, giant killer ants, motorcycle chases, and a swordfight atop Jeeps cruising at 80 mph, but David’s excerpt had some SERIOUS FRICKIN’ ACTION. David mentions on his blog that one of the audience members fell asleep and began snoring during the reading — which is true — but hey, I’m sure there was some deranged sap who slept through the bombing of Pearl Harbor too.
• A joint signing with comic book artist and fabulously friendly guy Mark Wheatley, during which much discussion was had about Marvel Comics film properties (Iron Man, of course, plus the upcoming Captain America, Thor, and Avengers flicks) and Hollywood in general. That’s the cover of Mark’s Frankenstein Mobster on the right.
• A long discussion with Nathan Lilly and Diane Weinstein about William Hope Hodgson’s classic 1912 science fiction/horror novel The Night Land, which then segued into a discussion about H.P. Lovecraft, which then segued into a long complaint by me about how nobody’s done the kind of authoritative chronological trade paperback treatment for Lovecraft like Del Rey has done for Robert E. Howard.
• Reading chapters 1, 9, and part of 10 from my upcoming novel MultiReal and hand-selling a number of copies of Infoquake in the hallways. Supposedly the readings will be available on the Balticon podcast at some point, at which point I’ll link there.
• A very stimulating panel on “How Long Will It Still Be Called the Internet?” The panel’s supposed moderator (whose name I never caught) walked in two minutes after the hour, informed me and fellow panelist Angela Render that he was double-booked, and promptly hightailed it out of there. Since neither Angela nor I had prepared any questions, the panel soon turned into a lively free-for-all with the audience about net neutrality, government censorship, the changing nature of web client technology, and the sad state of email. The discussion quickly went over my head, but in a good way.
• Counting the aforementioned Internet panel, writer and web programmer Angela Render moderated no less than three of my Webbish panels this weekend. I think she deserves a metal of some sort. (No, not a medal. I think we should name an atomic element after her.) No offense, Angela, you did a good job, but I’m sick of you.
• Sampling the wonders of шљивовица with my official fangirl Danita Fries and my future wife Suzanne Rosin. (No, she’s not really my future wife. Not in this dimension, at least.) (What, you don’t read Cyrillic? That’s “Slivovitz.” Otherwise known as “fermented plum juice,” “paint thinner mixed with battery acid,” or “good shit” to you and me.)

“Mathralon” is a somewhat unusual story. I’ve been tinkering with it for a year or two, off and on, and the idea’s been in my head for much longer. But though I was convinced I had a fabulous idea, I couldn’t quite figure out the way I wanted to get it across. The characters of my early drafts were all plasticy, the action was formulaic, and the dialog trite.

So I decided: hey, if the plot, the characters, and the dialog are giving me such fits, why don’t I just take them out?

Sounds like “Mathralon” is something of a one-trick story, but there’s a lot more to it than that. It’s something of an epistemological think-piece, a meditation on the nature of work and why we do it. It’s a spotlight shone on the dark places of an otherwise well-oiled economic machine. It’s a protest against subjugating one’s self to one’s job. And it got a really kick-ass reaction from the crowd at the KGB Bar when I read it there last year.

If you want to hear me read it, come to Dining Room A in the James Madison Building at the Library of Congress this Thursday, February 21 at 12:10 pm. The building’s located at 101 Independence Ave, SE in downtown Washington, DC. The title of the reading is “Capitalists at Warp Speed,” a title that I’m really sorry to say I came up with.

I’m unclear how long the reading’s supposed to go for, but I’m also planning on bringing along the first two chapters of my upcoming novel MultiReal to read as well. And after the reading’s done, there will be autographed copies of The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two and my first novel Infoquake for sale.

For those of you not blessed enough to live in the Washington, DC area, go to Amazon and order the book. Or you can wait a few days until after I post “Mathralon” onto my website, read it, and then go order the book. Either way, you know you’re going to buy it. There are original stories there by Peter Watts, Michael Moorcock, Karl Schroeder, Mary Robinette Kowal, Chris Roberson, Eric Brown, Kay Kenyon, Neal Asher, Paul Di Filippo, and more. It’s cheap. It’s fabulous. How much more convincing do you need?

Those of you in DC, hope to see you at the Library of Congress!

• Readings in Baltimore and Northern Virginia Next Week. On Tuesday, September 5, at 7:00 P.M., I will be making an appearance at the Barnes & Noble in White Marsh, MD to promote Infoquake. And on Thursday, September 7, at 7:30 P.M., I’ll be reading and signing at the Barnes & Noble in Reston, VA. If you’re in the area, come along and bring your books for me to sign. Or better yet, buy more!
• SFFWorld Calls Infoquake “THE Science Fiction Book of the Year.” Rob Bedford of SFFWorld has published the official SFFWorld review of Infoquake, saying: “The manner in which people who experienced Dune upon its publication speak about Herbert’s opus is not dissimilar to the feeling Infoquake elicits — the genre might not be quite the same after this book…. Infoquake is a stunning debut novel by a lucid, precise, and talented new voice in the genre…. This may be THE science fiction book of the year.” Rob goes even further on his blog, calling Infoquake “THE science fiction novel of the year, if not the past five years.”
• Rave Reviews from Meme Therapy, Fantasy Magazine and Bookgasm. Three more outstanding reviews for Infoquake that make me literally blush:
  • Meme Therapy. The science fiction/technology blog Meme Therapy (which recently interviewed me) published a 4-star review, saying “Infoquake definitely hooks in the reader, and I for one can’t wait to get my grubby wee paws on the second installment.”
  • Fantasy Magazine. The upcoming issue of Fantasy Magazine calls Infoquake “an entertaining and intelligent debut” and states that “the novel also addresses weighty themes: the destructive price of greed, the unchanging relentlessness of the human drive to innovate and to compete.”
  • Bookgasm. Ryun Patterson of Bookgasm said in his rave review: “Infoquake is a triumph of speculation. Edelman has foreseen a nanotech future of warring corporations and stock markets of personal enhancement in which both the good and the bad of the present day are reflected with an even hand and startling clarity…. it’s Wall Street meets Neuromancer.” (Pattersun also praises my publisher, Pyr, saying that “Pyr is quickly becoming the standard by which all other sci-fi imprints are judged.”)
• Flickr Photos from Infoquake Launch Party and WorldCon. I’ve uploaded a handful of photos to Flickr both of the August 12 Infoquake launch party (featuring the world famous Infocake) and of a few events at the WorldCon Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim, CA this past week. Okay, so Ansel Adams isn’t exactly rising from the dead to praise the artistic quality of these photos, but he’s not spinning in his grave either. (In fact, we kind of like Ansel exactly how he is right now.)
• Nine Drafts of Infoquake‘s Chapter 1. I recently posted all nine drafts of the first chapter of Infoquake onto my website, with footnotes to comment on the editing process along the way. From the blog: “Now the point of posting these drafts is not to dazzle everyone with how wise and witty I’ve become. (Although if anyone is dazzled, I’m enough of an egomaniac to take it, no questions asked.) The point is that I thought writing neophytes might be interested in a behind-the-scenes look at what novelists go through in the revision process.”

Believe it or not, there are still more reviews pending, which I’ll link to as I get them. Also in the coming weeks, watch for a full-length audio interview with me (clips of which are supposed to appear on NPR at some point) and another web interview as well.

My most sincere thanks to all those who have lent their support to my efforts to get the word out about Infoquake!

• B&N Rave Review and Interview Now Online. Paul Goat Allen’s rave review of Infoquake (where he calls the book “one of the most impressive SF debuts to come along in years” and the author “the love child of Donald Trump and Vernor Vinge”) is now online at Barnes & Noble Explorations. Paul also conducted an in-depth interview with me about the relationship between fiefcorps and dot-coms, whether Infoquake is a cautionary tale, and what’s at stake in the next two books in the Jump 225 Trilogy. My favorite quote from the interview: “There’s a part of Infoquake that’s a cautionary tale, but I’ve been very careful not to go too far down that road. The book isn’t a polemic. Like with the character of Natch, there are things to both admire and fear about the future I’ve come up with.”
• Infoquake Discussion Forums Now Open on Yahoo! Groups. Online discussion forums for Infoquake (and anything else I’ve written) are now open on Yahoo! Groups. Post questions for the author, discuss Infoquake, or just talk amongst yourselves. The group is moderated by the author, but there’s no filter; as long as you’re not trying to pitch Cialis tablets or online gambling, your views (critical or otherwise) are welcome!
• Rave Review for Infoquake by Amazon’s #1 Reviewer. Harriet Klausner, Amazon’s #1 ranked customer reviewer, gave a rave 5-star review to Infoquake. “The reason this futuristic science fiction seems plausible is the depth of detail interwoven into the cat-and-mouse story line, so much so that the audience will accept nano-technology bio/logics as happening today…. In the first Jump 225 tale, David Louis Edelman writes an exciting thriller that grips the audience.” (Harriet’s reviews appear all over the web, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Alternative Worlds.)
• Appearances and Readings Scheduled. I’m starting to book in-person readings and appearances to promote Infoquake. Here are a few places you’ll be able to find me:
  • August 23-27: WorldCon in Anaheim, CA
  • September 1-4: Dragon-Con in Atlanta, GA
  • September 5: Reading and signing at Barnes & Noble in Baltimore, MD (time TBD)
  • September 7: Reading and signing at Barnes & Noble in Reston, VA at 7:30 P.M.
  • October 20-22: CapClave in Silver Spring, MD

Coming soon: another in-depth interview on LiveJournal, more appearances, and more online content.

Meanwhile, have you reviewed Infoquake on Amazon.com yet? Well, why not? (Okay, I’m not going to be that much of a self-publicity fiend to give you guilt trips for not posting online reviews.) (But seriously, why not?)