Grab a pack of cards. Strap your pressure suit on. It’s time to head to the poker game that started it all, and the book that View From Valhalla called “lovingly detailed, well-written thinking man’s science fiction at its best.*”

Joss Kyle is a one-time National Security Advisor who barely escaped Washington D.C. with his skin intact. For three years he’s lived by his wits and the fall of the cards in the criminal underworld of South America, but jumping planet for Space Station Sidon means walking into an ambush more dangerous than any he’s yet faced:
A man named Alex Hart wants to play cards with him.

Their meeting will fling Joss into a game playing for highest stakes in town: control of the entire solar system. Chased by a revolutionary leader, agents of a corrupt senator, and an underworld boss known only as The Green Lady, he quickly discovers that in the looking-glass world above the gravity well, survival, like poker, is just another sport. And in this contest, it isn’t whether you win or lose, it’s how you rig the game.

Now available in paperback from AWP Science Fiction, Predestination is the story Nathan Lowell calls “A sweeping tale of politics, corruption, intrigue, betrayal, and murder…a fast-paced ride through a world that’s too plausible to be ignored**” and that Brand Gamblin calls “…a lush, powerful story of hunter and pray, betrayal and rebellion, and poker.***.” Available for the first time ever in paper, this handsome new edition rings in at 341 pages contains the full text of the ebook edition, plus new line art and a sample of the sequel, Free Will.

Now, it’s true that you can buy the novel at Amazon now, and you’ll be able to find it in bookstores this fall, but for you loyal folk that read my blog, it’s available for a special rate. Until Worldcon, buy your copy by clicking here and using the coupon code XX2QR2Z8, and you’ll receive $2.00 off the $14.99 cover price.

Finally, for those of you who run vending booths at conventions (or who work in bookstores) and would like to carry Predestination (or any of my other books), shoot me an email from the Contact Form and I will send you the AWP Books wholesale pricing schedule.

I’ll be back soon with news about Free Will and Down From Ten, but until then remember…
It isn’t whether you win or lose, it’s how you rig the game.

*Odin1eye, View From Valhalla
**Nathan Lowell, Author of The Golden Age of the Silver Clipper
***Brand Gamblin, author of Tumbler and The Hidden Institute

My friend Danny Schade has now soundtracked two and a half books for me over the last couple years. For Predestination, he composed upwards of nine hours of music, and it made such an impression that people started immediately clamoring for versions they could listen to without the story talking over it.

A year ago, Schadey came out to ArtisticWhispers where he and I brought in veteran producer Mary Mason, and the three of us proceeded to rework the music into an album. In that first glorious weekend, we culled those original nine hours down to nineteen emblematic tracks with a running time target of between fifty minutes and an hour. Then, over the year since, in stolen moments, Schadey composed and recorded new material and arrangements at his home base in Colorado, while we here in California re-mixed, produced, sweetened, polished, and sometimes re-orchestrated the original material, blending the old with the new to bring Schadey’s audio vision snapping to the fore. The result is one we now proudly present to you, for the first time anywhere: A one hour instrumental genre-spanning rock opera. Predestination: The Soundtrack.

Available now as a DRM-free MP3 download.

Also, don’t forget that the novel which started it all is now available as an ebook, with all new scenes and other material to deepen the world and set you up for Free Will, which is coming in June. Get it now for Kindle, Nook, and for all other readers on Smashwords. And, of course, if you like the artwork, you can get a signed and numbered limited edition poster print for your private gallery.

And remember…
…It isn’t whether you win or lose. It’s how you rig the game.

[poll id="2"]

You may vote for two of the three options (this is to let you voice your desire for hardbacks, as well as priority). Let us know what you want!

Lookie what I’m taking to UPS right now:

The Predestination cover art drew rave reviews when it appeared two years ago — I got more blog traffic from the artwork than I did from the audio promos. Now, at long last, thanks to your pre-orders and patience, it’s available to collect or display as your tastes dictate.

What you’re looking at on the right, here, is a composite of ten signed posters (the first ten orders that came in) with the numbering in my handwriting on the front, and the backs of the same posters which are numbered with a stamp, since, honestly, who can read my handwriting?

If you’ve been waiting to order your posters till we had them in stock, now’s the time. Click on the PayPal button at the bottom of this post, and go through the shopping cart. In a week’s time you’ll have an 18×24″ poster, suitable for framing on high-gloss, 25lb. paper with my disreputable-looking scrawl on it. Limited print run of 100–only eighty left!

Thanks to all fifteen of you who pre-ordered (particularly those who ordered two!) to put us over the top so we could cover printing costs.

Click on the paypal link to pre-order your poster!

(In the event that we do not receive the minimum order quantity by January 1st, 2010, we will refund your paypal order.)

Predestination is a parsec finalist. Officially we’re up for “Best New Speculative Fiction Podcaster/Team,” and, while it’s only *one* of the nominations I was hoping for, if i had to pick only one this would probably be it. Why’s that? Well, this one has the advantage of being a shared award. I don’t know how many physical awards they give out, but if they give out multiples one is definitely going to Danny Schade, whose music made the world complete.

Thank you — all of you — for a hell of a first year doing this. Next year is, I hope, going to be even more exciting — I’ve gots me some plans!

For Predestination, I’ve been nominated for:
Best Speculative Fiction Story (Novel Form)
Best Audio Drama (Long Form including Independents)
Best New Speculative Fiction Podcaster/Team

And for Sculpting God, I’ve been nominated for:
Best Speculative Fiction Story (Short Form)
Best Audio Drama (Short Form including Independents)
Best Speculative Fiction Magazine or Anthology Podcast

There’s obviously a lot of genre bending that I’m doing between fiction/drama, so that may work against me. Who knows? The only down side of this is that I have to send in samples, which is one more thing on my overlong to-do list. Even so…

Being nominated for the Parsecs f*cking rocks! Thanks guys, you are all fabulous!
-Dan

What kind of insanity have I wrought? What does it take to do something like this?

What’s next on my plate? What does Tee Morris’s pubic hair have to do with podcasting?

Give it a listen and find out as Tee Morris roasts and interviews me on this special one-hour retrospective on Predestination and look forward to Free Will and Down From Ten.

Thank you all for listening all these long months.

Check out the details here. Come out with me and celebrate the successful completion of the Predestination podcast, and also the launch of Seth Harwood’s Jack Wakes Up! ]]> http://jdsawyer.net/2009/05/06/predestination-wrap-party-pub-crawl/feed/ 0 http://jdsawyer.net/2009/05/01/predestination-episode-27-finale/ http://jdsawyer.net/2009/05/01/predestination-episode-27-finale/#comments Fri, 01 May 2009 15:13:52 +0000 jdsawyer http://jdsawyer.net/?p=467 Download Subscribe

Here we are, everyone. The final episode. The guy that got me into this whole thing, Scott Sigler brings us the final Story So Far. Be sure to stay tuned for the end matter — there is new music and a surprise at the end!

Thank you all for listening — it’s been an honor and a pleasure to torture entertain you.

Cast this week (in order of appearance):
Steven H. Wilson as Voleish and Percy Scott
Stephanie Sawyer as Cassy Orinthal
George Chlentzos as Douglas Reeves
Brian Levy as Jim Hartman
Erin Balabanian as Alyssa Hartman

The Climactic episode of Predestination clocking in at 37mins. This is easily the most acoustically complex episode of the series, with more kick-ss original music by Danny Schade. P.G. Holyfield joins the cast, too!

But that’s not what you’re interested in. You want to know what happens, and I can’t even ask you provocative questions because it might give something away. So, without further ado, the climax of Predestination.

Story So Far this week by Miss Kalendar of Brass Needles.

Cast this week (in order of appearance):
Stephanie Sawyer as Cassy Orinthal
George Chlentzos as Douglas Reeves
Erin Balabanian as Alyssa Hartman
Brian Levy as Jim Hartman
Kitty NicIaian as Fugitive and The Spaceport Announcer
P.G. Holyfield as Docking Controller

Luna is rioting – Jade and Voleish are navigating their own ways through it. Meanwhile, Nineveh sleeps uneasily – in the calm before the storm, what small movements will change the course of the storm? The second transhumanist in our cast of characters is revealed – if you pay attention.

J.C. Hutchins, author of Personal Effects: Dark Art, brings us The Story So Far.

Cast this week (in order of appearance):
Stephanie Sawyer as Cassy Orinthal
Lorien Wheeler as Jade Orin
Steven H. Wilson as Voleish
Kitty NicIaian as The Computer
Christiana Ellis as The Protester
Justin McComber as The Shopkeeper
Michael Lemonjello as Xylar
Jonathan Sawyer as Furgeson

Joss may be able to hold his own against Doug Reeves, but will he be able to stand up under Doug, Ali, Jim, and Cassy all cross-examining him? And what does Cassy need to finally make up her mind about where she stands? This episode features more new music by Danny Schade, another cliffhanger and an unexpected appearance by a character we haven’t seen in a while. Enjoy!

Mur Lafferty , author and host of some of my favorite podcasts ever brings us The Story So Far.

Cast this week (in order of appearance):
George Chlentzoz as Douglas Reeves
Erin Ballibanian as Ali
Stephanie Sawyer as Cassy Orinthal
Brian Levy as Jim
Shannon Holden as The Air Traffic Controller

Chris Lester interviews composer Danny Schade about the music for Predestination, his creative process, and the nuts and bolts of collaborative composing. Author J. Daniel Sawyer joins the fun. An informative must-listen for podcast producers and music aficionados.

Enjoy!

On this episode of Dealing In, Gail Carriger brings a touch of prurient Victorian wit to the proceedings, while Chris Lester gets re-acquainted with scotch and Kitty Nic’Iaian reminds us all why she’s around: To keep the rest of us in line!

Topics Mentioned
Prophets of Panimendorah
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
Metamor City
Gail Carriger’s Soulless
Down From Ten
Transhumanism
Winnipeg
The Red Panda
Furries
Body Modification
God’s Army: A Dark Day in Paradise
CERN
The Large Hadron Collider
Has the LHC destroyed the world yet?

And the countdown continues. After this one there are only four left. This week, some BIG reveals about a couple of our characters. Joss, Cassy, Doug, Ali, and Jim pick up right where we left them at Phalanx, at the moment of Joss’s betrayal – but theirs is not the only story with fireworks. Back on Luna, Percy attends to some unfinished business. This episode features more new music by Danny Schade, another cliffhanger and an unexpected appearance by a character we haven’t seen in a while. Enjoy!

Steve Riekiberg , host of Geek Cred brings us The Story So Far.

Cast this week (in order of appearance):
George Chlentzoz as Douglas Reeves
Erin Ballibanian as Ali
Stephanie Sawyer as Cassy Orinthal
Steven H. Wilson as Percy Scott
Kitty Nic’Iaian as The Spaceport Announcer

Well, now that the series is well underway, it’s time for a new promo. Any of you listening, please put this on your feed. Siva will fail to destroy you if you do

This promo features Joss Kyle, and is the first of a series of character-based promos I have planned. Enjoy!

Here we go. This episode kicks off with Ali and Jim arriving on Nineveh, and ends on yet another cliffhanger. All the main characters are now in one place — will all hell break loose? Find out. This episode features new music by Danny Schade, as well as his cameo and probably the cruelest cliffhanger to date. Enjoy!

Michael Lemonjello, our very own Xylar (and just about everyone else I need on short notice), brings us the Story So Far.

Cast this week (in order of appearance):
Danny Schade as The Pilot
Kitty Nic’Iaian as The Spaceport Announcer
Brian Levy as Jim
Erin Ballibanian as Ali
Stephanie Sawyer as Cassy Orinthal
George Chlentzoz as Douglas Reeves

Larry Bushey, Host of the Going Linux Podcast, brings us the Story So Far.

Cast this week (in order of appearance):
Robin Hathaway as Marian Shelley
Tee Morris as Brandon
Kimi Alexander as Ashan
Amy Gahran as Ined
Stephanie Sawyer as Cassy Orinthal
Philippa Ballantine as Brittany Hydra
Steven H. Wilson as Percy Scott
Chris Lester as Greg Singh
Shannon Holden as Ophelia
Michael Lemonjello as Xylar

Marian Shelley emerges from her convalesence to discover whether or not she can actually face the world after what she’s lived through. On Luna, Brittany runs into an unusual character, while on Nineveh Joss gets a not-quite-unexpected visitor.

Larry Bushey, Host of the Going Linux Podcast, brings us the Story So Far.

Cast this week (in order of appearance):
Robin Hathaway as Marian Shelley
Tee Morris as Brandon
Kimi Alexander as Ashan
Amy Gahran as Ined
Stephanie Sawyer as Cassy Orinthal
Philippa Ballantine as Brittany Hydra
Steven H. Wilson as Percy Scott
Chris Lester as Greg Singh
Shannon Holden as Ophelia
Michael Lemonjello as Xylar

The first book in the series, Predestination, deals with rigged poker games. Do you play? What did you learn from personal experiences that played a key role in creating scenarios in your book?

I’m actually pretty rusty, but at the time I wrote the first draft I played a lot, and had been playing for years. I got started when I was about ten, when an uncle of mine who was a low-level diplomat explained the nature of his job to me by saying “If you know how to play poker, and you know how to play chess, then you have the basic skills it takes to do diplomacy.” I was the kind of kid that viewed that sort of statement as a challenge, so within about two months I had a regular poker game going in my garage with my siblings and other neighborhood kids – we played for M&Ms or other types of kid-gold because we weren’t allowed to play for money. I kept on playing right through college on a daily-to-monthly basis, but since college it’s been hard to find people willing to play for stakes I can afford.

Read the rest here!

This year, particularly the second half, has seen a lot of people turn very pessimistic about, well, everything. Yeah, the economy’s slowing down. Yeah, people like me are scrambling just to make ends meet – when money goes slow everywhere, it hits the arts hard. And yeah, some things just sucked. But you know what? Today’s “awful” is a hell of a lot better than “great” was when my grandparents were growing up. Despite environmental problems, terrorists, crooked investment bankers, and crookeder politicians (yes, in all parties), I’m living in a time when “five-percent unemployment” is really bad. When I was a kid in the early 80s, that would have been music to everyone’s ears. Ditto for crime, poverty, war casualty, plague death, and violence figures almost everywhere on Earth (though some of us are a lot luckier than others, through no merit of our own).

So, yeah, 2008 might have been a scary year. But as I look back at the global “Big Picture” there aren’t a lot of things that are truly scary in the long run – not like there were twenty, fifty, or eighty years ago – not to mention longer ago than that.

On a personal level, it’s been a mixed year, but as I was drawing up this list I can’t help but be staggered by how far the scales tip towards the wonderful. Click on the link to read my self-indulgent recap.

The Bad or Bittersweet

In May of 2001 I started preproduction on a film I’ve spent the intervening years working on. Hunting Kestral, a science fiction action film set in the universe of Antithesis, was officially retired from the active projects list. Of all the things I’ve done in my life, this project has to be the most important so far. I met people I still work with to this day, I learned the meat of the different trades I now call my career, and the process irrevocably altered the story and universe of Antithesis. Perhaps most importantly, I spent some of the most rewarding months of my life to that point in the company of actors who taught me far more about life than I ever thought I’d learn at the age of 24. Unfortunately, I had to admit that on this one I bit off way more than I can reasonably hope to finish chewing in the foreseeable future, so the dream of doing a professional level live-action independent film is something I have to set aside for now. I’m planning on a post-show article on it sometime in January.

My first website, Blenderwars, which had for years been a vibrant hobbyist community, finally died. It was a long time coming, but last May I finally gave in to the inevitable and pulled the plug. We were online from 1999 to 2008, hitting our peak of half a million page views per month in 2002. Some of the folks I met through there have gone on to work with me on various film projects, and have proved to be excellent people all the way down the line.

A lot of death touched my life this year, both first and second degree. I’d say I could have done without it, but the truth is that I’ve lived an unusually long time without someone close to me dying – I was expecting it sooner or later. Needless to say, I’d have preferred “later.”

My nonfiction publishing momentum slowed down in the second half of the year as a result of my podcasting endeavors.

The Unfinished
Filmed and have nearly finished (finally) a short film called “Lights Out” for Project Obsidian. Early 2009 will see its completion. Better late than never.

Began writing The Auto Motive, a steampunk young-adult urban fantasy novel. It’s got a ways to go, but it’s rocking.

Sculpting God: Bedtime Stories For Adults is half done – the final half will see the light of day in mid-2009.

The Good
Saw eight friends and acquaintances get book deals.

Made my first fiction sale: My steampunk story “Cold Duty” went simultaneously to Steampod and ClonePod and did very well among fans of both podcasts.

Finished and garnered publisher interest in book one of the Antithesis series. Plotted, outlined, and roughed out the remainder of the series.

Podcasted the first 15 episodes of the 27 episode audio version of Antithesis, Book 1: Predestination and Other Games of Chance with full cast, full production sound, and an original score.

Did my first professional publicity events.

Wrote a 6 hour miniseries for Canadian TV. The deal fell through, so the script is now in the process of novelization. The resulting novel, Down From Ten, is now 25% done.

Finished Season 2 of The Polyschizmatic Reprobates Hour. Recorded Season 3, and it is now half edited.

Garnered my first cover story in a magazine.

Interviewed (either for podcast or for publication) Michael ShermerM, Cory Doctorow, Elizabeth Pisani, Tee Morris, Richard Carrier, Philippa Ballantine, J.C. Hutchins, Seth Harwood, and Mur Lafferty.

Apologia, a show I participate in, got picked up for radio distribution.

Got to hang out at the Googleplex.

Technically this and the next item both belong in “unfinished,” but they’re here because they are undeniably good. First, I had great fun doing some very satisfying photo shoots with both new models and old, and made serious progress on bringing the long term Sophi and Logos projects together.

Hit BayCon and SteamCon with my friends, and got to moderate a few panels along the way.

Discovered Twitter.

So many other memorable moments of wonderfulness I can’t even begin to enumerate them.

Final word count for the year, including novels, short stories, screenplays, articles, and non-trivial blog posts: ~350,000

Parting Thoughts for 2008

From my very limited perspective on the world, I wouldn’t trade this year for any other. 2008 saw a lot of reconnection with old friends, strengthening of connections with new friends, and meeting more fascinating and decent people than I dare to count – some of them well on the way to becoming close friends. It’s been an emotionally intense year, much moreso than I expected. This time last year I said that 2007 was my best year so far, but I think 2008 surpassed it handsomely, despite the heartbreaks and hardships which I’m sure none of you want to read about here.

For all of you who’ve touched my life this year – friends, fans, colleagues, and fellow travelers – from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

The chapter ends, and always on a cliffhanger. There is only one question:
“What happens next?”

Okay, I know, it’s late again. I’m really trying to get ahead on these and they keep kicking my ass, as real life bears down on top of me. Hopefully, next week will actually be on time.

This week, we find out what happens to Joss after he escapes the Hartmans, learn about oranges in the sky, and meet a couple new characters as the camera pulls back and we get to see more and more of the universe our characters inhabit. Turn down the lights, lean back, and enjoy!

This week, the incomparable Seth Harwood, author of the excellent Jack Palms crime novel series, the spinoff Young Junius, the short story series A Long Way From Disney, and the host of CrimeWav, brings us The Story So Far as only he can.

Cast this week (in order of appearance):
Robin Hathaway as Marian Shelley

Stephanie Sawyer as Cassy Orinthal

Michael Lemonjello as Hakim and The Second Drunk

Kitty Nic’Iaian as The woman in the bar

George Chlentzos as Doug Reeves