Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Reddit tonight

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Douglas

I’m a bit last minute in posting this, but I’ve been neck-deep in revisions and kids the last few weeks (ah, summer!).

I will be joining with a host of other fine authors tonight over on Reddit for an Ask Me Anything session. Festivities are scheduled to kick off at 7:00 PM CST and run until about 9:00, but the forum will be open earlier so people can post questions, and I expect authors and readers to be stopping back over several days to continue the discussion.
This whole thing is the brain child of @jdiddyesquire (Justin) of Staffer’s Book Review fame. He was brave/inspired/foolish enough to invite a bunch debut authors to guest post on his blog over the next couple weeks about writing the dreaded Second Book. Things have already kicked off, with Mark Lawrence, Kameron Hurley and Elspeth Cooper making appearances, along with excerpts of their upcoming works. The full schedule for the site is:

Week 1

7/16: Mark Lawrence
7/17: Kameron Hurley
7/18: Elspeth Cooper
7/19: Courtney Schafer
7/20: Stina Leicht

Week Two

7/23: Teresa Frohock
7/24: Mazarkis Williams
7/25: Bradley Beaulieu
7/26: Anne Lyle
7/27: Doug Hulick

As you can see, I am batting clean up this time around. :)

But don’t stop by just for me. These are all great people and great writers, and their posts have been illuminating. Last year was a damn good one to be a debut author, IMO, and I’m proud to be among this graduating “class.”

So, roll by Reddit tonight if you’re able, or even over the next few days, and make sure to check out Jason’s blog, too.

ETA: The AMA site is now open for people to post questions. Author answers won’t go live until 7:00 CST, but you can get in the queue.

CONvergence

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Douglas

July 4th is nearly upon us and you know what that means….

~~Blowing Things Up!~~ CONvergence Con!

I’m especially excited this year because, aside from letting me in the door (the fools!), the folks at CONvergence have asked one of my friends and fellow Wyrdsmiths, Lyda Morehouse, to be a guest of honor. This means that as I stand around the hallways or sit in the bar and socialize, I get to see Lyda being shepherded past, en route from one busy engagement to another. I will attempt not to laugh mockingly (much).

Actually, in all seriousness, this is pretty awesome. I am fortunate to be friends with a couple of past GOHs, and the folks at CONvergence treat their guests exceedingly well. I know Lyda will be busy, but I know she’ll also have a blast.

As for me, I’m going be on three panels over the course of the weekend…

I should be around most of Friday night and Saturday evening, along w/ much of Sunday. Saturday day will be touch & go, as I have revisions to do, and may stay home for part of the day (yay local cons!) However, as I have not looked at the rest of the schedule yet, and as how I have not actually set foot in the con and had con-brain set in, I fully reserve the right to be at said con far more than I planned.

No matter how it works out, though, feel free to hunt me down after one of my panels, or even stop me around the con to chat. Unlike Lyda, I don’t have to be anywhere most of the time. And, of course, the bar is always a safe bet to find me post-dinner. :)

Happy Book Day! (Wine & Smelly Cheese Edition)

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Douglas

I’m psyched to announce that “Among Thieves” sees it’s French debut today under the awesome title “Princes de la Pègre” (Princes of the Underworld). The book is published by L’Atlante Editions, with translation by the talented Florence Bury. If the cover looks familiar, it’s because L’Atlante (like all my other foreign publishers to date) have opted to use Larry Rostant’s art from the Tor UK edition. I don’t blame them–I still love this cover.

Me, I think I’m going to celebrate with a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau I have sitting about from last fall and a fitting plate of cultured animal milk. Maybe even a baguette or two as well.

As always, if anyone happens to see this edition in the wild and wants to share a picture, I’d be most grateful. :)

So What the @)(%^! is up with “Sworn in Steel”?

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Douglas

As many (most?) of you have realized by now, “Sworn In Steel”, Book 2 in the TotK series, didn’t come out on June 5, 2012 as advertised on Amazon (or B&N, or…). Still other sites are listing the release date as being in September 2012, or even as far away as December 2025 (this last one seems to be mainly for ebooks, which either hints at one hell of a delay, or one sloooooow download).

So what’s the story?

In a nut shell, I was late handing the book into my publisher. Way late. So late that they took it off the publishing schedule and are only now figuring out where it will fit in. Any date you see on the web is going to be wrong. Furthermore, at this point, I don’t want to even hazard a guess as to the release date, since I don’t want to write a check I can’t cash.

What I CAN tell you is that book is done, and that I am currently engaged in the first round of revisions. This is going to involve cutting huge swaths of words from the book in hopes of making the final product a leaner, meaner read. (What can I say? I went a little nuts… :) I can’t say whether there will be a second round of revisions–neither I nor my editor will know about that until I get the current version beaten into shape. Rest assured, though, that work is being done, and I am making good progress.

All that aside, though, what I really want to do is apologize to all of you. You folks have been more than patient in waiting for word that I’ve been slow in getting out; and what’s more, when some of you have contacted me to ask about the book, you’ve been unfailingly polite and supportive. That means a lot to me, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed, especially in this age of instant gratification. It would have been easy to froth from the other side of a screen, but you all were better than that. You plain rock.

So thank you. And my sincere apologies for the delay, both in terms of Sworn In Steel and in letting you all know what was going on.

And lastly, as you can see I’ve tweaked the site a bit, and even added a more prominent blog. I’m hoping to post more regularly (okay, let’s be honest, I’m hoping to post *at all*) as I work through my revisions. I’m also wanting to do a more serious overhaul of this joint, but that may be a bit further down the line. My time in summer is limited, but I plan to check in at least a couple times a week (and even get the other pages updated at some point…)

Once again, thanks for you patience and your support.

“Among Thieves” up for two UK awards (plus, an aside on plans for the site)

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Douglas

I haven’t been very good (okay, I’ve been terrible) about posting updates or thoughts or much of anything else here for a while. A lot has been going on, and the web site fell behind the mental couch for quite a while, I fear. My apologies for that.

However, I wanted to take a quick moment to do a tiny bit of SSP (Shameless Self-Promotion) and bragging by noting that “Among Thieves” is up for two awards in the U.K.

The first award is the Kitschies, which is a juried award given by the SFF blog Pronokitsch for “those books which best elevated the tone of genre literature” (yeah, I was kinda stunned to find my book under that heading, too…still am, honestly) and meet the criteria of being “intelligent, progressive and entertaining” (ibid). I’m a finalist in the Golden Tentacle (debut author) category and have already apparently won rum. (Woo! Rum!) The fact that I made it that far is boggling, since 152 books were submitted for consideration in three categories, with only five making the final cut in each of three categories (best novel, best debut, best cover art).

The Kitschies are only in their third year, but they have already generated a lot of buzz, to the point of being mentioned in the Guardian. The award is being handed out at a big SF shindig called The SFX Weekender on Feb. 3rd (which is tomorrow at the time of writing, but probably today for most people reading). So, news should be forthcoming Real Soon Now.

The second is the Gemmell Morningstar award. This is the debut category for the Gemmell Legend Award. The interesting bit about this is one is that is it done by popular vote, which means anyone can vote with a click of the mouse. This is also a big deal for me, in that the Gemmell wrote Sword & Sorcery and heroic/adventure fantasy, which is pretty much what AT is all about. The list of books up for both the Gemmell Legend and the Morningstar are impressive, and I encourage everyone to go over, check out the lists, and vote. And while I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’d appreciate it if people decided to vote for “Among Thieves,” I also have to say that it’s damn hard to make a bad choice with any of the listed titles. The big thing is to go and vote.

You can vote for the Gemmell Morningstar debut novels here (this is the one I am in the running for).

To vote for the Gemmell Legend (best novel), go here (I’m not up for this one, but lots of other cool people are).

I will also point out that Larry Rostant (artist) and Neil Lang (designer) are up for the Gemmell Ravenheart Award (best fantasy book cover/jacket) for the UK cover of “Among Thieves.” Like the other Gemmells, anyone can vote. There are also some other dynamite covers there as well. So go on over and show some artist love while you’re at it. :)

To say I’m both surprised and honored by being nominated is putting it small. I set out to write a book that was a fun, fast-paced read that people would hopefully enjoy. Awards were never a part of the consideration. To even be on the same lists with the other books in these categories is both daunting and a thrill.

I also want to repeat that I know I’ve been bad about updates and sharing news here. I am hoping to fix that soon. I am planing to do a stop-gap update to the site in the near future, and then a bigger re-design in the slightly longer term. The goal is to make it easier (for me) to post thing without feeling like they are off in a corner, and simpler (for you) to find information in the first place. I’ll also be posting a status update on Sworn In Steel, along with information about cons I will be attending over 2012. And I will even try to get into a regular blogging habit.

But first things first. Look for some smaller changes and status updates soon. And thanks to everyone who has taken the time to post your thoughts on AT, either here, or on my Facebook page, or even in e-mail. Writers write not just for themselves, but to share their stories with other people. Thank you so much for sharing your reactions to my stories with me. It means the world, and truly appreciate it!

WisCon Schedule

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Douglas

For those who may be gong to WisCon, my schedule is posted below. I plan to arrive some time Friday afternoon, and will be around through the sign-out on Monday. If you see me (I’ll be the 6’7″ gent with a goatee and slightly (*ahem*) graying hair wandering about), be sure to say Hi.

Sat, 1:00–2:15 pm Great Lakes Urban Graverobbers, Inc. Reading, Michelangelos
Saladin Ahmed, Will Alexander, Barth Anderson, Douglas Hulick, Kelly McCullough
Readings by writers from the shadowy hoodoo-holes and soggy nether-reaches of the Upper Midwest.

Sun, 8:45 pm–Mon, 3:00 Wyrdsmiths Publication Party: Among Thieves: A Tale of the Kin by Douglas Hulick and Resurrection Code by Lyda Morehouse, Room 634
Eleanor A. Arnason, Douglas Hulick, Naomi Kritzer, Kelly McCullough, Sean M Murphy
Members of the Wyrdsmiths writing group are going to publish four novels in 2011. We’d like to celebrate this, and especially celebrate the publication of Doug Hulick’s first novel.

Mon, 10:00–11:15 am Being a Resilient Writer, Conference 5
Moderator: Eleanor A. Arnason, Douglas Hulick, Kelly McCullough, Catherine M. Schaff-Stump Writing is a line of work full of setbacks. What are these setbacks? How does one bounce back and keep writing? How does one find ways around setbacks and blocks in the road?

Mon, 11:30 am–12:45 pm The SignOut, Capitol/Wisconsin
Alex Bledsoe, K. Tempest Bradford, Richard Chwedyk, Alan John DeNiro, Moondancer Drake, Timmi Duchamp, Pamela Dean, Carol F. Emshwiller, Matt Forbeck, Valerie Estelle Frankel, Hiromi Goto, Anna Black, Eileen Gunn, Andrea D. Hairston, Jacqueline Houtman, Douglas Hulick, Deborah Lynn Jacobs, Vylar Kaftan, Ellen Klages, Josh Lukin, Kelly McCullough, Neesha Meminger, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Sarah Monette, Nancy Jane Moore, Pat Murphy, Nnedi Okorafor, Mark D. Rich, James P. Roberts, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Mary Doria Russell, Catherine M. Schaff-Stump, Fred Schepartz, Nisi Shawl, Jennifer Stevenson, Kathryn Sullivan, Lynne M. Thomas, Sheree Renée Thomas, Amy Thomson