Goodbye, Melbourne. Hello, Atlanta.

Bad news, good news.

First, the bad: I won't be attending the World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne this summer. I wanted to be there. Traci and I bought attending memberships back in 2008, and it's been her dream to visit Australia. In the end, we decided that we'll be better prepared to afford the trip and have a longer visit, at a later date. We still intend to buy supporting memberships for the con, and we're gonna miss seeing our friends out there, and especially the Aussies that will no doubt put on a killer show. Believe me -- we tried, folks. It just wasn't in the cards at this time (even with the current Qantas airfare sale). Best wishes to all Aussiecon organizers.

A friend has already claimed one of our two attending memberships for transfer, and we have the other available at this time. That attending membership is available for $155 USD and Aussiecon's Clare McDonald will soon have the transfer forms available at the Aussiecon website. Contact me if you're interested in purchasing it. (The current con rate for attending membership is $225 USD, so our price is a pretty significant savings.)

I'll definitely be at Worldcon in Reno in 2011.

Big sigh.

Now the good news: although I'm disappointed that I won't be able to attend Worldcon this year, I'm very pleased to say that I'll be attending Dragon*Con in Atlanta over the Labor Day Weekend! Lou Anders spoke highly about last year's show and I'm gonna give it a shot this year. From what Lou says, the con has become more diverse, more literate, and more art-friendly over recent years. I'm really excited to be part of this year's guest lineup. They're still announcing who will be there, and still ironing out the site updates, but I see that Donato Giancola, Cherie Priest, and Brandon Sanderson are amongst the early names announced. Should be great times. Really looking forward to the action this summer.

Next month -- Boskone!! I can't wait. :)

ZOO CITY

Here's my final cover illustration for Lauren Beukes' forthcoming novel ZOO CITY. It'll be an Angry Robot mass market paperback, coming this May. Lauren is the author of one of 2009's breakout hits, MOXYLAND. She describes ZOO CITY as an urban fantasy -- "a muti noir set in a re-imagined Johannesburg. It's the story of a girl with a sloth on her back, a dirty 419 habit and the magical ability to find lost things who gets drawn into a case to find a missing pop star."

Here's my initial thumbnail doodle for the cover. I even drew in a first stab at the typography, just to get some sense of how that might work (or not). I knew I was only responsible for the cover art, but I factor in the type placement when I sketch thumbnails for covers. Sometimes I draw it in, even if I'm not designing the final type, and sometimes I just leave space for it. It's always a consideration though. The final type design is by Argh! Nottingham (see below), and I dig it. It's a simple, strong solution, and says "noir" without being cliche.

As for the art, I was given a solid brief from Angry Robot that described what they wanted on the cover. They wanted three main characters, and their pets, to be the focus, and offered a fairly specific way to handle it. I saw the cover a completely different way, but made sure to include all of the elements (main characters, pets, setting, mood, attitude). They were terrific and said "go for it!"

Relevant note here -- it's not often that authors have input during the process of making a cover. There are lots of reasons for this, and that could be a whole blog post by itself. The point is it doesn't happen often. In this case, Lauren was very involved, and she and Marc Gascoigne (publishing director) were fun collaborators. It was my first time working with Angry Robot, and a pleasure. They're building a terrific line of books. I'm really excited about ZOO CITY, and am already looking forward to its release in May.

My 2009 Published Work

First post of the New Year: here's a one-stop visual list of my 2009 published works. As noted here and here, the awards nomination season is upon us again (Hugos and otherwise). If you wish to reference the list below for future consideration this year, please bookmark. FYI: in addition, my blog sidebar displays my 2009 work in abbreviated form. Onward...



(above)
Cover illustration for
MUSE OF FIRE
by Dan Simmons
Subterranean Press
January 2009



(above)
Cover illustration for
the limited edition of
DROOD
by Dan Simmons
Subterranean Press
April 2009



(above)
Cover illustration for
AGE OF MISRULE: BOOK 1
WORLD'S END
by Mark Chadbourn
Pyr
May 2009



(above)
Cover illustration for
AGE OF MISRULE: BOOK 2
DARKEST HOUR
by Mark Chadbourn
Pyr
June 2009



(above)
Cover illustration for
AGE OF MISRULE: BOOK 3
ALWAYS FOREVER
by Mark Chadbourn
Pyr
July 2009



(above)
Cover illustration for
WAR & SPACE: THE BEST OF
LESTER DEL REY
Edited by Steven H. Silver
NESFA Press
August 2009



(above)
Cover illustration for
ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION
September 2009



(above)
Cover illustration for
ARE YOU THERE AND OTHER STORIES
by Jack Skillingstead
Golden Gryphon Press
October 2009



(above)
Interior illustration for
KNOWING DARKNESS: ARTISTS INSPIRED
BY STEPHEN KING
Edited by Jerad Walters
Centipede Press
November 2009



(above)
Cover illustration for
the limited edition of
THE TERROR
by Dan Simmons
Subterranean Press
December 2009



(above)
Cover illustration for
STARSHIP: FLAGSHIP
by Mike Resnick
Pyr
December 2009



(above)
Cover illustration for
THE 13TH REALITY:
THE JOURNAL OF
CURIOUS LETTERS
by James Dashner
Simon & Schuster / Aladdin
December 2009
(alternate cover version)