Shameless Self-Promotion
December 16th, 2007 by 
Caroline Spector
Unlike Steve, I haven’t actually had anything to promote in the last year on EOB. Happily that has changed.
Next month, Tor Books will be releasing INSIDE STRAIGHT, a new Wild Cards book. I have a story in it. It’s plunked down in the middle of the book and the title is METAGAMES. As I am really not a short-story writer (I’m far too wordy for that), I was happy that this book is very tightly plotted and reads more like a novel than a collection of shorts.
Tor has launched a wonderful website to promote the book and there have been some very nice reviews on the web, including a review at Publishers’ Weekly. (Scroll down for the review at PW. No further. No further. Keep going…) There are glowing reviews at Genre Go Round Reviews and Fantasy Book Spot. There’s also an “interview” with all the authors at Pat’s Fantasy Book List.
I’m also happy to say I have a story in BUSTED FLUSH, the next book in the new Wild Cards trilogy.
It’s been interesting working on this project. A very different experience than working on my own stuff. You can’t be too attached to anything you’ve written because it might not agree with someone else’s story. And sometimes you have to change something because the overall story isn’t hanging together quite right.
When you write your own stuff, you know exactly where all the bits and pieces are. But with Wild Cards, things are much more fluid and, in some cases, opaque. You write your story, send it off and like those guys who jump off mountains in well, flying squirrel suits, hope like hell you’ve got the right current. But George is a terrific editor and if you have to have someone telling you something isn’t working, he’s not a bad one to have.
You can pre-order the book here. Not that I would engage in any shameless self-promotion.
P.S. My main character is The Amazing Bubbles. Yeah, I know, she sounds like a fifties stripper.
December 16th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
This is great news, Caroline. Even better than flying squirrel suits.
December 16th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
I really admire your ability to Work With Others like this, Caroline. (Personally, given a choice between multi-author collaboration and jumping off a mountain in a squirrel suit, I’d have to take the squirrel suit. Flying or not.)
Can’t wait to see the book!
December 16th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Go you, Caroline! I’m much looking forward to reading this.
However, I disagree with Morgan, in that I think that the flying squirrel suits are cooler than just about anything else. I was watching the links in your post, and had a sudden a-ha! moment.
I’ve always wanted to get into parachuting, but the on-going expense was daunting. You gotta pay too damn much money every time they take you up. With a squirrel suit (a one-time expense) and a motorcycle (already got one), I think I can find some high places to jump off of for free, while still getting a ride as long and intense as I might with a 10,000 foot HALO drop.
Even close to home — Austin has some really tall buildings downtown, right? How exhilarating would it be to zoom over Congress and take a tight left at Sixth Street on a busy, gleaming Saturday night?
Thanks!!!
December 17th, 2007 at 12:24 am
Nah, the squirrel suits LOOK cool, but while they slow you down vertically, you still end up going over 100 mph horizontally when you land. Major design flaw.
December 17th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Glad to hear that the volume “reads more like a novel than a collection of shorts,” since Tor has forthrightly called it a novel.
December 17th, 2007 at 8:53 am
http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2007/12/inside-straight.html
Yet another review. Quite a nice one at that.
And Greg, there was a lot of debate about what the book was going to be called — a collection of short stories or a novel. My opinion (and that of some of the others) was that because of the nature of the book’s narrative and the fact that the stories were best understood in relation to each other, the book was really a novel. Looks like Tor agreed.
December 17th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
New Wild Cards! YES! Thank you!
And now that’s two of you I have to shamelessly go all fanboy over.
December 19th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
“My opinion (and that of some of the others) was that because of the nature of the book’s narrative and the fact that the stories were best understood in relation to each other, the book was really a novel.”
Oh. Well, okay. Your original post seemed to make clear, in a couple of places, that you thought of the book as a collection.
December 21st, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Greg,
I’m sorry if you felt as if my post was misleading. Of course the book is a collection of short stories, but after the collection was done, we discovered that, NARRATIVELY SPEAKING, they were BEST understood as a novel rather than as a collection. I apologize for the confusion.
December 21st, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Heavens, Caroline, don’t apologize. You weren’t being misleading; I can readily understand how a shared-world anthology (to use the term that most fits what you describe) can seem, after the contributors have gone to some effort to make the volume cohere well, to read like a unified work. And I can certainly understand how Tor would forthrightly put “A Novel” on the cover. Given the party line, for you to describe the effort as you did, rather than simply saying, “We wrote a novel,” is franker than many would be.
December 21st, 2007 at 9:00 pm
When Tor did Future Boston, a collection of short stories that moved toward a specific thematic and emotional conclusion, the term that David Smith and Tor used was “braided novel.” The Wild Cards books have always struck me as being of the same order.
December 22nd, 2007 at 2:12 am
That’s how I’ve thought of them, too.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
[…] with the interstitial material, from the point of view of a pervy guy named Jonathan Hive. And as mentioned earlier, our own Caroline Spector has a kickass story in it. Highly […]