Category: publishing

• Chapter 0

  Whether you make books, music, software, or sandwiches, how you describe what you make is a crucial part of how other people experience it. Some authors submit their manuscript and expect their publisher to handle the rest. But a book’s cover, dust-jacket copy, and marketing materials are promises to the reader about the journey on…

• Veil

  Veil is a character-driven science-fiction thriller set in a near-future where someone has hijacked the climate. Diplomats, hackers, scientists, spies, journalists, and billionaires grapple with the power and consequences of technology, life in the Anthropocene, and what it means to find a sense of agency in a world spinning out of control. August Cole calls…

• What If a Tech CEO Tried to Save the World With Geoengineering?

  OneZero just published an exclusive excerpt from my new novel (warning: minor spoilers): As the climate crisis grows increasingly dire, a radical question is appearing on more politicians’ lips: What if we geoengineer our way out of the mess? The notion that we could reduce global temperatures with a sweeping technical fix and for relatively…

• The promises and perils of geoengineering

  I went on the Technotopia podcast to talk to John Biggs about geoengineering, the future of climate change, and the inspirations behind my forthcoming novel, Veil. Complement with my conversation with Andrew Liptak about Veil, how it feels to write fiction, and this podcast interview about how technology shapes society. This blog exists thanks to…

• Alix E. Harrow on opening doors to other worlds

  Alix E. Harrow can spin a tale. Her debut novel, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, is a no holds barred adventure full of heart and imagination in which a young girl discovers magic doors that lead to other worlds and must learn to harness her power to write changes into reality itself in order to untangle…

• Ursula K. Le Guin on the book as technology

  From Words Are My Matter: The book itself is a curious artifact, not showy in its technology but complex and extremely efficient: a really neat little device, compact, often very pleasant to look at and handle, that can last decades, even centuries. It doesn’t have to be plugged in, activated, or performed by a machine;…

• Announcing Veil

  I have a new novel coming out May 20th, 2020. Veil is a character-driven speculative thriller about a near-future shaped by geoengineering: When her mother dies in a heat wave that kills twenty million, Zia León abandons a promising diplomatic career to lead humanitarian aid missions to regions ravaged by drought, wildfires, and sea level…

• Oliver Morton on science journalism and humanity’s fascination with the moon

  I interviewed Oliver Morton about science writing, the relationship between science and science fiction, and the creative process behind his latest book, The Moon: In World War II, two of the signature technologies of science fiction came about in real life, in part because of people who were science fiction fans: the superweapon and the…

• What’s worked for me as a novelist

  Live my life, pay attention, ask hard questions, engage in deep conversations, and follow my curiosity. Notice a story I want to exist in the world. Write it. Edit it. Finish it. Share it with people who have a specific, personal reason to love it. Publish it (myself or with a publisher). Reflect on what…

• William Gibson on tracking reality’s Fuckedness Quotient

  I interviewed William Gibson about tracking reality’s Fuckedness Quotient, how to avoid terminal shortsightedness, and the creative process behind his new novel, Agency: I think I’ve learned that we need, individually, to find those areas in our lives where we do possess agency, and attempt to use it appropriately. And it seems to me that’s…