Happy Belated Book Birthday to Me!
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This day (yesterday) kind of snuck up on me. Things have been busy at work and at home, and I've also been working hard on the whole book launch, looking back on a great Can*Con event, and looking ahead to launch parties at Bakka-Phoenix Books and the Waterloo Public Library (with help from Words Worth Books). Then there's the current political situation to weigh down on my psyche. I hadn't realized official launch day was upon me until my editor/publisher Ed sent me these images above. So, today is, for me at least, a good day. The initial reviews have also been quite favourable.
(Note: if you read these books and like them, please review them. It's oxygen to a writer's life)
I am happy that The Sun Runners is now in print, and I'm really proud of what me and my fellow authors put together for Tales from the Silence, and it amazes me that it all started from one line back in 2014. Around then, noodling with a few images in my head, I came up with this first line:
Frieda Gibbons, crown princess of the Messenger, knew from very young that when she came of age, she would have to marry an engineer. But that wasn't why she was fascinated by the engine rooms.
That has since been changed to:
For as long as she could remember, Her Highness the Crown Princess Frieda Koning had wanted to be an engineer.
Thanks to Erin for helping me tighten these words into their essence, but you can see the launching idea stayed put. And, boy did it launch a few things. By asking questions about Frieda, her life, her world, and following those answers wherever they would go, the universe expanded and expanded. Why was Mercury isolated? Why had the Earth gone silent? What about the other colonies in the inner solar system (because you know that if they put something on Mercury, they're sure as heck not going to ignore Venus and Mars). Soon, I had a draft not only of The Sun Runners, but the companion novel The Cloud Riders, a short story entitled The Phases of Jupiter, and the idea for The Fall of McMurdo. About then I realized, there was no way I was going to get everything published, given the slow nature of publishing.
Fortunately, I ran into Ed at Shadowpaw Press, who loved The Sun Runners and agreed to give it his full support (which has been tremendous). Also, fortunately, I realized that my universe was big enough for others to play with, so I reached out, proposing an anthology exploring the other corners of Frieda's universe in what would become the anthology Tales from the Silence.
I think a lot of writers share this trait: they don't just create stories about their characters: they know the universe around those characters is something real and bigger than them, informing their lives, making them who they are. Most readers don't get to see this. But I am pleased to have launched an entire universe starting from one paragraph.
I have a lot of thank yous to give out, which I did in the foreword and afterword of my books, but let me again thank Erin, my kids Wayfinder and Eleanor, Ed, my friends, and the authors who helped and/or contributed to Tales from the Silence for believing in me and believing in this universe, helping to make it happen.
It's been a long journey, but it's been worth it, and it isn't finished yet.
https://bowjamesbow.ca/2024/11/13/happy-belated-b.shtml