Category: Books

2008 Convention Schedule

Posted on By Wil

Scalzi does these posts from time to time that are filled with information, mostly so he can point people to them when the information contained therein is requested at some point in the mysterious future.

This will be one of those posts. It may be updated from time to time, though it’s more likely that I’ll just write new posts that link back to this one, because that’s just how I roll.

If you’re interested in seeing me perform in person in 2008, here’s what’s on my schedule as of March 18:

April 27
2pm
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
UCLA Campus
Westwood, CA

I won’t be able to perform, but I’ll be at the festival to sign all of my books, thanks to my friends at Mysterious Galaxy. I’m super excited about this because it’s the first real writers only thing I’ve ever done.

May 3
3pm
Mysterious Galaxy Books
San Diego, CA

Mysterious Galaxy is an indie booke shoppe that specializes in Science Fiction and Fantasy. I went there with Just a Geek, and this will be my first time back since then. I think 30 or 40 people came out last time, making a great audience for the reading, while still being small enough that I could talk to everyone who was there.

May 4
3pm
Book and a Beer
Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens
Escondido, CA

Stone Some of my favorite beers in the world are crafted by Stone, and Stone’s owner, Greg Koch, has a lot of the same beliefs about marketing and making stuff that is awesome that I do. At his brewery in Escondido (in North San Diego County) he has an incredible restaurant and gorgeous beer garden. A few times a year, he invites authors to come out for something he calls Book and a Beer, which is exactly what it sounds like. We’ll have Stone Pale Ale, Stone IPA, Arrogant Bastard, and all sorts of non-beer drinks if beer isn’t your cup of tea. I suspect this will be an intimate gathering, but it will most certainly be an awesome one. If you’ve ever wanted to have a beer with your old pal Wil, now you can do eet.

May 10-11
Emerald City ComiCon
Washington State Convention and Trade Center
Seattle, Washington.

This is an awesome show, with a focus fucos on indie
books and publishers. I think I’ll feel right at home, if I can keep
myself from totally geeking out too much. (Yeah, who am I kidding?)

The schedule hasn’t been finalized, but I’ll be doing a performance from Happiest Days and maybe Just a Geek
on Saturday, and I’ll be doing a more general Q&A about blogging,
writing manga, being a geek, the burdens of being awesome, and writing
humorous panel descriptions on Sunday.

I will have a booth to hang out in when I’m not empaneled, so I’m
bringing copies of all my books, pictures to sign, and my glasses and
my shoes, so I have them.

May 17-18
Super-Con
San Jose, CA

When I worked on NUMB3RS, I met the guys in charge of Super-Con in San Jose. In fact, they were a big part of making Alt Con 9 (the fake con in the show) look and feel as real as it did. I haven’t been to San Jose for a convention since the only way to get there was via mule train, so I’m looking forward to traveling up the coast in more modren style, perhaps by zeppelin or auto-gyro.

July 23-27
San Diego ComiCon
San Diego, CA

I’ll be doing some panels and signings with TokyoPop to support the new manga. I don’t have a schedule, yet. I’m also going to be there the entire time, getting my geek on. Maybe we can organize a WWdN meet-up if enough people are interested.

August 29-31
Penny Arcade Expo
Seattle, WA

I won’t be delivering a keynote, but I will be at PAX for the whole show. Last year, I didn’t get to do nearly as much gaming as I wanted, so that’s my number one priority this year. I’ll also be signing books and babies, and I’m going to perform a gaming-related story from Happiest Days. Probably something from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Geek. There will be a group photo, where we all show up with Wil Says . . . shirts. For the win.

Other than that . . .

I’ve been asked by several people if I’ll be going to Grand Slam in Burbank next month, or the Big Creation Star Trek con in Vegas this Summer. I’d like to go, but I’m not sure if it’ll happen. They didn’t invite me to Grand Slam last year (I have no idea why) and I always end up feeling like chump when I call them up and say, "So, uh, can I come to your con? People are wondering if I’m going to be there because you used to invite me all the time but never call any more. Did we break up and you didn’t tell me?"

I’m trying my best to schedule a bunch of cons this year, because I’m super proud of Happiest Days, I’ll have two Trek mangas to promote, and there’s something wonderful coming that will be released in the mysterious future. I feel like the time is right for me to make the effort to get off the West coast and travel a little bit to meet new people. I’ve sent e-mail to a few regional cons, expressing an interest in attending. Hopefully, I’ll hear back soon, and I’ll be mapping out the route our family truckster will take on Geektour 2008.

some cool star trek: the manga news

Posted on By Wil

TrekMovie had some very nice things to say about my story in Star Trek: The Manga:

Wil Wheaton skipped the easy Wesley Crusher story (are there any other kind?) to pen a TOS tale for Tokyopop’s second Star Trek: The Manga collection that debuted last year, and it’s easily one of the best in the book. Drawn by E.J. Su, recently of IDW’s Transformers comics —official non-Trek plug accomplished!— Wheaton’s “Cura Te Ipsum” (Latin for “heal thyself”) tackles a Kirk vs.
the Prime Directive tale with surprising skill, and establishes his
cred as a comics creator well beyond his celebrated cult of geek.

Uhm. Wow. Thanks! I was scared to death the entire time I worked on it, but I had a lot of help from Andrew, and I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out, myself.

I was at Trekmovie yesterday, reading this great editorial by Andre Bormanis, and I would have missed the review if reader T hadn’t pointed it out to me. Thanks, T!

Speaking of the manga, I’m was lucky enough to work with E.J. Su again on the next one, and he sent in his pencils yesterday. I wish I could show just a little bit of them, because even though it’s only pencils, it’s absolutely magnificent. Once again, he took my descriptions and turned them into something cinematic, while capturing all the emotional weight of the story. Tokyopop plans to release this one, called "Aratanaru Michi He", in summer, so we can have it available during the big summer convention season. I didn’t think I could reveal any details about the story, but I see that my editor, Luis, told Trekmovie pretty much the same thing I’d say if I had permission:

The story, "Art of War" shows Kirk dealing with his hatred of Klingons,
but for the first time sympathizing too (foreshadowing the peace treaty
between the Federation and the Klingons).

Writing scenes between Kirk and a Klingon commander was as much of a thrill as it was a challenge. I knew that I was taking a huge risk with the story, and it was going to live or die based upon how these two guys interacted. I had this awesome and unexpected Writer moment while working on a scene between them, when I just got out of the way and let the characters talk to me. I know it sounds very "ooga booga" but I felt, for the first time in my life as a capital-W writer, like I was transcribing something real, rather than making something up. It was kind of a big deal for me.

This time around, we got 10 more pages to work with than volume two, so I was able to make the story richer than last time without sacrificing any action. In fact, I deliberately put more action into this story, so it would be more of a traditional manga than my last one. In fact, I told Luis, "I want to bring manga to Star Trek this time, since I brought Star Trek to manga last time."

Yeah, it doesn’t make much sense now, either, but it made sense in my head when I said it. Having drinks with your editor rules.

Happiest Days orders from February

Posted on By Wil

I know that there are a dozen or so outstanding Happiest Days
orders from February. I’m going to process them all today and tomorrow,
so domestic orders should arrive by the end of the week, and
International orders should arrive within 2 weeks. I’d like to apologize to everyone who is waiting.

It’s so weird to feel like I’ve completely lost over a month of my life. It’s kind of like looking at a faded photograph with most of the details blurred out, or trying to remember a dream that runs away as soon as you wake up.

Quote of the day

Posted on By Wil

"Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes."
–Tycho, at Penny Arcade

Yeah, let that roll around in your head for a little bit. It’s really as simple and beautiful as that, isn’t it?

I see a bookshelf, filled with different books from different authors, all acting as portals to different worlds and different times. The author may give them birth, but it’s the readers who keep them alive.

A fistful of reviews

Posted on By Wil

While I ramp up for writing more original fiction in 2008, I’ve been making an effort to read more books and watch more movies. Here’s a brief look at some of the things I’ve come across recently that I think are worth your time and money.

Books

Hammered

This is Elizabeth Bear’s first novel, and it kicks off the Jenny Casey trilogy that’s continued in Scardown and concluded in Worldwired. It takes place in a dystopian world that was plausible enough to give me chills, and is the first book I’ve read that I’d admiringly call post-cyberpunk.

Jenny Casey is a cybernetically enhanced former soldier living in post-war Connecticut, dealing with the ghosts of her past. When those ghosts come back to life, they ensnare not only her, but some of her closest friends, as well.

It took me longer than usual to get into the narrative, because the story changes point of view a lot in the beginning, but once I got all the characters straight, I was on board and it was difficult to put down.

This was one of those books where the main character is compelling, but the supporting characters are magnificent. I just loved it, and as soon as I finish Atrocity Archives, I think I’m going to finish the trilogy.

Coraline

Coraline lives in a boring house with uninteresting parents surrounded by strange people. But when she goes through a forbidden door and finds herself trapped on the other side with her Other Mother, her life suddenly becomes very interesting. It’s not quite horror, it’s not quite fantasy . . . I guess I’d call it a "dark fantasy," sort of the way Neverwhere was a dark fantasy. It’s a quick and thoroughly enjoyable read.

I wish this had been written when my kids were still young enough for me to read to them. I have number 238 of the limited Subterranean printing.

After Halloween

I got this book from Daniel Davis when I spent the weekend next to his
Steam Crow booth at Phoenix Comicon. It’s a children’s alphabet book
about what the monsters do to make a living after Halloween. ("E is for Ealwatte, a mage
of the dead / Now he crafts hats to adorn your bald head.")  It’s all
rhyming, it’s charming and funny, and the illustrations are ridiculously awesome. In a world
where everything — especially children’s books and stories — are so
mindnumbingly banal and similar, After Halloween is unique and
wonderful. It’s another one that made me wish my kids were little
enough to enjoy it.

Graphic Novels

WE3

Grant Morrison is with Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, and Alan Moore on the list of authors I’ll buy anything from without even reading the back cover, so it’s weird that I just got around to reading WE3 now. (Actually, I started it when I was working on NUMB3RS, and just finished it on Friday. I got distracted, I guess.)

WE3 is about three domestic animals — a dog, a cat, and a rabbit — who are kidnapped by the military and turned into cyborgs to be used as weapons. When the project is going to be terminated and the animals destroyed, they’re set free by a well-meaning researcher. Much of the story is about them trying to survive outside of the lab, while they’re hunted by their former masters. I found it sad and touching. It’s also a story that, I think, only works as a graphic novel, making it pretty unique.

Batman: The Man Who Laughs

A new take on the introduction of The Joker into the Batman universe, this is set right after Batman: Year One, and could be a companion to The Killing Joke. I loved the writing, the shift in narrative between Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne, and the artwork was perfectly unsettling, without being disturbing. I’m a lifelong Batman geek, so it takes a lot to impress me with a Batman story. This impressed the hell out of me.

Fell Volume One: Feral City

Richard Fell is a detective sent over the bridge from a city that feels like New York to a totally fucked up place called Snowtown. In Snowtown, everyone has something to hide . . . including him. It’s classic detective stories, filtered through Warren’s sublimely twisted lens. I liked it so much, Fell could be the fourth comic to make it onto my single-issue list.

Movies

A Scanner, Darkly

My expectations were really low for this movie, after talking to some
friends about it, so I was pleasantly surprised. I thought the
acting, music, and animation combined very effectively, and I thought they did a better than usual job of
staying true to PKD’s story. Admittedly, this isn’t saying much, but it shouldn’t be misconstrued as a back-handed compliment. I genuinely enjoyed this film.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

One of the most engrossing documentaries I’ve seen in years. On the surface, it’s the story of two men trying to achieve the highest score on Donkey Kong, but the story ends up being about much, much more than the quest for a high score on a video game; it’s about a group of petty sycophants doing everything they can to protect a cowardly tyrant whose tiny fiefdom is threatened by an honorable man. I lost a lot of respect for Twin Galaxies by the time the film was over. I also wanted to go spend a hundred dollars in an arcade.