How's this for an excuse. The reason I haven't updated this blog in so long is because I've been working so hard on my second novel. It's true! I've been putting in between 30 and 40 hours a week on it for the last several months. Last Saturday, I finished the Reader's Draft, which is the second complete rewrite. I've sent it off to my trusty gang of first readers. But the manuscript is so late, I can't wait for their feedback and am already starting from page one and revising.
An interesting note: I didn't keystroke the manuscript. I dictated it, all 455 pages, with Dragon Naturally Speaking, version 9. That software is a wonder, and in another version or two, I won't even have to speak; it'll just know what I want to write.
Anyway, the photo above is from my front door. I am spending the winter in Homer, Alaska, the house guest of some wonderful people here.
10 comments:
I'm about halfway through Counting Heads, and am very excited that there will be more of this world to get absorbed in once you're finished with Mind Over Oship! Congratulations on the progress!
David, your book is one of my favorite science fiction books of all time. It's no small feat to make me read a book again just to catch all the details I might have missed, thats how much I loved it. I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel and will be the first in line on the first day its on sale!
thank you for the great comments! Just an update; I'm still revising MOO (Mind Over Oship). Things are moving quite nicely.
all best,
David
Hi Dave,
Sorry you didn't win the Quill. Imagine, being beat out by a wizard story. Who da thunk?
love from Kath
"in another version or two, I won't even have to speak; it'll just know what I want to write."
that sounds like we're moving towards personal valets like henry then! (the nanotechnology has some catching up to do though)
hi david, i'm siehjin from malaysia. just finished your excellent book, 'counting heads'. i really wanted to know what happens next, so i searched the net looking for a sequel and i found this blog!
look forward to reading 'mind over oship' soon. keep up the good work!
God bless,
siehjin
p.s. i noticed that u mentioned malaysia in the list of countries that samson visited after being seared! it was a real kick to see my own country listed there. way to go! =)
Mr. Marusek,
My name is Robert H., and I was a Unix System Administrator and TCP/IP Network Engineer for mostly Fortune 100 Companies for ten years. In all that time, I so wanted to write a science fiction novel about what I could sense was on the horizon.
I have to tell you, 100 pages in to "Counting Heads", you have written the book that I wanted to write--except that I surely could only have imagined about 5% of what you have. I feel that you are definitely Neal Stephenson's equal. Your world is so fully realized, and your writing style is wonderful. I have stacks of books next to my bed which constitute my "immediate reading list" and your book was an impulse purchase. I typically read the first few pages of a book to get a flavor for it, but your book just sucked me in. I found myself sitting on the can at 3:37am involuntarily reading page after page. Great stuff. It must be a rewarding feeling knowing that you are broadening the interior landscape of so many people.
Well that's it. A bit of flattery from a fan. :-) The only other thing it occurs to me to say is that I once worked for a company that processes a quarter of the volume of the Institutional trades on the New York Stock Exchange, to the tune of about $750 million per day. I ran the firewalls there for about six months. I understand things have changed since I left, but when I was there, physical security was not adequate to the importance of the site. In fact it is my understanding that many core parts of the Internet physical infrastructure are physically very vulnerable... another topic which I've long considered for a "near future" sci-fi story. What if the 9/11 terrorists had any kind of brains at all, and instead of knocking down a physical symbol (which Unix guys I know quickly rerouted the network functionality around), they went after the functional hub sites? I guess it's really just another catastrophe story idea, but I'll bet you could make it interesting! :-)
Well, take care, and thanks for writing "Counting Heads". I sure hope it has a happy ending. I hate sad endings, there's too much of them in real life already. When Nancy Kress killed off one of her sympathetic characters (the sweet supersleepless girl in "Beggars In Spain" or it's sequel) I contacted her asking her why and she was so condescending--"Well sometimes in life, Robert, bad things happen"--what a drag! And she was such a knockout too. But I guess some people feel that it can't be art unless you bum everybody out. Hell, we "live in interesting times" so we're gonna get plenty of that as it is...
At this point in the book, I'm a little confused why Eleanor doesn't have a "secure memory store" somewhere... the nanotech you describe is pervasive and complex enough to map a human brain completely... I can see it as a plot device but don't understand the technical discrepancy... of course I'm on 100 pages in, so probably there is no technical discrepancy. :-)
I noticed you try to use "feck" and "fecking" in deference to your father's blackout pen. I believe the dead watch over us, and I'm sure he appreciates the gesture man.
Keep up the good work!
Best Regards,
Robert H.
Westminster, Colorado
Again, thanks for all the great comments. As to the Quill, I think it would be hard for me to win a popular award with the type of stuff I do. But that's OK.
Robert H--
As to the "secure memory store"--have you been reading Book 2 (Mind Over Oship) already? Stay tuned.
David
> I noticed you try to use "feck" and
> "fecking" in deference to your father's
> blackout pen.
It completely ruined the atmosphere and immersion for me. Every time I hit that, I had to mentally translate it back to the original (it doesn't help that I'm not native English speaker) and it always was one of these "oh right, this is only a novel, nobody talks like that for real".
It wasn't just a blackout pen. He cut whole words out of some of the books. At least the blackouts let you read the next page. When he cut out words, the next page had chunks cut out, too, and sometimes you couldn't read the rest of the story.
I'm earerly awaiting the sequel and will be the first in line on the first day its on sale.
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