I may end up redoing this and re-posting it, after I have a chance to try it on some more monitors and printers this week, and if it's too dark/too light, but here is a link to a hi-res PDF (400 dpi) of the Rusalka cover, in a more-or-less finalized state as far as the artwork goes. This one is scaled to fit the US paperback trim size, which is ( Read more... )

Here is a case-study attempting to show what I mean about how a bad promotion can drive away your target audience. The subject is a book that I most definitely am the target audience for - I have given multiple copies of it away, I like it so much - but I always tell the recipients to "just ignore the cover, it totally misrepresents it, it makes it ( Read more... )

Pretty much apropos of nothing, in an attempt to cheer myself up after a particularly bad yesterday by sketching for a bit - a piece of C.J. Cherryh fanart-- ( yes, I know this was wrong to commit )

Q: So, the Daleks vs. the Borg in a fight, who would win?

Ans: Your question is illogical. Assimilate! ASSIMILATE! ASSIMILATE!!!

(No, I shouldn't be allowed near a keyboard, I know.)

So, Nenya - um, would a picture suffice?
( They do say they're worth 1k/10k words, depending who you talk to )

Very well then, as promised - the WAFFiness* (or not, we'll see) of 'ships in the Foreigner universe. --Not all relationships are, I remind probably no regulars, sexual, of course: there are other sorts of interpersonal entanglements, little though you might guess it from fandom sometimes, and some of them are no less important, though fangirls ( Read more... )

Or perhaps, rather, what isn't--?

One thing which is very unsettling, in a number of ways, is how the Foreigner universe differs from our own on a single significant point, regardless of species of sentient. (More ammunition to the Alt-Terra AU theory, maybe.) And this is regarding gender roles, and assumptions ( Read more... )

It was kind of a toss-up to figure out which aspect of the Foriegner universe to tackle next - worldbuilding abstractions, which I find personally cool as an archeology/sf junkie; sociological commentary, which always rocks when done well; or personal/political conflicts which mesh the two of them? Backstory or plot advancements? Kabiu & culture ( Read more... )

Attack on some system? The paidhi-aiji might find himself identified as belonging to any number of systems...like being human, like being the paidhi-aiji at all, like advising the aiji that the rail system was, for long-range ecological considerations, better than highway transport...but who ever knew the reason or the offense, but the party who'd ( Read more... )

To this day, Tabini professed not to comprehend the human word 'treaty,' or the word 'border,' which he denied had real validity even among humans. An artificial concept, Tabini called it. A human delusion. People belonged to many associations. Boundaries might exist as an arbitrary approximate line defining provinces - but they were meaningless to ( Read more... )

(very minor spoiler for Fortress in the Eye of Time)

Okay, the first one took a bit longer than I planned (unlike some people, I do have to sleep!) and so did this (if only I could write full-time, alas) but altho' it didn't cover as much as could have wished, it got a lot down important nonetheless. One good thing about CJ's work is that spoilers ( Read more... )