Many science bloggers, myself included, have plans to write a book. Of that creative pool few actually bind their ideas in a volume and get it onto shelves, but new self-publishing services like lulu.com have made it easier for writers to publish and sell their books. This service allowed Ed to bring us the best of Not Exactly Rocket Science, the Digital Cuttlefish to collect its poetry in ink, and Blake Stacey to bring us his new SF novel Until Earthset. Here is the synopsis;
1968.
The Protectorate has fallen.
The nation of Andalus is rebuilding after a bloody civil war, their efforts organized by an elite set of calculating technocrats. Just when life has almost achieved a kind of normality, one of their colleagues upsets the situation.
By turning up dead.
Plus, as the author tells us, it's got feathered dromaeosaurs and cephalopods in! I know I'll be picking up my very own copy, and I certainly recommend you do the same.
Congratulations on finishing your novel and publishing it, Blake! I hope this is just the first of many excellent works to come.
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Will you review it once you've read it?
I certainly will. I don't read much SF, so I might not be the best person to choose, but Blake is a friend and an excellent writer so I have little doubt that I will enjoy it. I will probably write up a review sometime over break.
I'm glad you have such high expectations of me. . . it's all downhill from here! :-)
At the very least, this little experiment of mine means I know a bit more about book typesetting and formatting than I used to, so I can help anyone else who wants their own brainchild printed up.
Blake; Thanks for your offer to help with a "best of" Laelaps collection. At this point, I don't know if I'm going to follow through with it, or when I might get the chance to. The "real" book is the priority at the moment, but maybe I will someday put together a blook. Either that or it will be forgotten as I move on to other projects; at this point I don't know.
Somehow, I find the idea of feathered cephalopods not altogether unappealing!
Brian,
Off-topic, but perhaps of interest to you. Catching up on Boing Boing posts, I see that Aeron at Monster Brains has come up with an uncredited 1889 full-color illustration of prehistoric beasties he would like more information about. I immediately thought of you.
Maybe you could check it out and see if you can contribute anything.