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Really enjoyed doing a signing at Tucson Festival of Books. It’s one of the largest book festivals in the country. 150,000 people descend on Tucson.
And thankfully, the end of the pandemic appears to be here at last.
A Peak at My Latest Books
Dread Child
Book 1 in The Dreadmark Covenants
Is the birthmark on a young boy’s arm
just a smear of discolored skin,
or the nexus of an ancient curse?
Epic fantasy at its best
Young Ket is the half-breed son of a Scairn bondservant and an unknown Duchies man. To him, the birthmark on his arm is just a smear of discolored skin. But the wizard Kainborne sees in it the Dreadmark, a portent of both evil and greatness. With his mother murdered, and him kidnapped by Kainborne’s assassin, Ket must survive the enemies about him. But can he survive the curse of the Dreadmark?
Available
March 1, 2024
Tranquility Lost
A Commonwealth Re-Contact Novella
The Devastation is a swath of star systems 400 light-years across in which something unknown exterminated all human life about four centuries ago. A Commonwealth survey ship on a routine mission finds a habitable planet in one of its systems, and for the first time in recorded history a planet in the Devastation is inhabited by living humans, not decayed corpses. But the crew of the ship goes berserk, and barely escapes the system with their lives. The Commonwealth now wants disgraced re-contact specialist Jack Strand to go in under cover, to blend into the medieval culture there and find out what is going on. Jack would prefer to pass on the job, but they don’t give him any choice in the matter.
The Thief of Val D’Ossa
. . . his lover the Harlot, plus the Witch, and her Apprentice
Book 1 in The Deck of Chaos
The paths of chaos lead only to damnation.
Jaxon is the son of an impoverished nobleman. When Jax was sixteen years old his father died, and his older stepsister and stepbrother threw him out on the streets of Val d’Ossa to fend for himself. The city was not kind to a young boy, especially one who is a little bit pretty, and to endure he learned some brutal lessons.
Nine years later he has survived by being a thief, for which he has a very unusual talent he calls his instinct. An agent of an anonymous noble house wants to hire him to steal a valuable figurine, but Jax wants nothing to do with the politics of the noble houses.
Can Jax and his lover, the beautiful prostitute Maelleen, survive the machinations of the High Noble Houses? And what of the Witch who rules the city of Val d’Ossa? She is reputed to maintain control over the High Noble Houses by sorcerous incantations and demon manifestations at the Witch Palace. If the High Nobles are involved then so is she, and Jax desperately wants to avoid any involvement with the evil, old woman.
A Hymn for the Dying
Book 1 in The Blacksword Regiment
For most, the dying part is hard.
For some, the living part is harder.
At sixteen years of age, Mathius’s life is focused on scrounging bits of food in the midst of a five-way civil war on the planet Novalis III. Two government factions and three rebel factions are all trying to kill one another, and the civilian population is caught in the middle. If Mathius doesn’t find food, he and his father, mother and sister will go hungry for the day, a not unusual occurrence. Mathius must also avoid the rebel factions, who frequently kidnap young boys and force them to become soldiers.
Will the Commonwealth of Allied Systems intervene? And what of the Blacksword Regiment, the elite soldiers of the Commonwealth Security Corps? Will they sweep in and make everything right? And then there is the Kelk Supremacy, a race of strange humans that evolved for a thousand years in isolation on a far planet. Why does Mathius keep seeing signs that the Kelk are somehow involved in the unrest?
A Dirge for the Damned
Book 2 in The Blacksword Regiment
Damned if I die today,
Cursed if I live tomorrow.
Nikaela Vreekande joins Kristdokar’s clandestine operation to identify those responsible for the tragedy on Novalis III, and the incident on Reisenar. Lieutenant Colonel Katrine Primatov meets with Thordahl and Brynjar on Norandyne to establish covert lines of communication between the Kelk Supremacy and the Commonwealth. John Mathius travels to Trafalgar to attend O-School, and all seems well. But there are those in the Commonwealth and the Supremacy who would prefer that John and Nikaela fail, or barring that, they would see them dead.
A Prayer for the Fallen
Book 3 in The Blacksword Regiment
Pray not for those who fell before,
and grieve not for those yet to fall.
After John and Nikaela are rescued from the rogue warship Sycorax, Katrine Primatov has only a lone hunter-killer to back her in the remote Sarkovie system, and she is faced with a Kelk force of overwhelming firepower superiority. The Kelk decide to take John and Nikaela back to Viktorkinde, whether Katrine likes it or not. With no choice in the matter, she accompanies them, and the three are reluctant guests aboard the Kelk heavy cruiser Konigsborge. But the Kelk are quietly at war among themselves, fighting their own battle against superstition and irrationality. John and Katrine begin to learn the roots of their hatred of the Blacksword, and Nikaela does what she can to help them.
A Requiem for the Forsaken
Book 4 in The Blacksword Regiment
Forsaken, damned and dying,
a bad day all around.
The diplomatic mission has arrived at Viktorkinde, but something big is up. Katrine and John need to figure out what’s up before the shit hits the fan.
Upcoming Events
This year, other than the Tucson Festival of Books, everything is happening in the last half of the year. I’m looking forward to WorldCon in Glasgow, and World Fantasy in Niagara Falls, NY should be fun.
I hope all of you out there, and your friends, colleagues and loved-ones, are healthy and well. I’ve just finished Dread Witch, the third and final book in The Dreadmark Covenants, a new coming-of-age epic fantasy. There’s more information at the top of this page.
Do get out, but stay safe, stay well.
WorldCon
August 18–12, Glasgow Scotland
This should be a lot of fun.
Here’s a link to the web site. And here’s my panel schedule:
Panel Schedule for WorldCon:
Date/Time/Loc | Title/Participants | Description |
9 Aug 2024 Friday 1:00 PM Hall 4 (Autographs) | Autographs J. L. Doty | Bring stuff. Buy stuff. Get stuff signed. Ask questions while they sign stuff. Have fun. |
10 Aug 2024 Saturday 11:30 AM Dochart 1 | DIY Audiobook Production Dena Bain Taylor, Gabrielle de Cuir, J. L. Doty, J.J. Green, Stefan Rudnicki (mod) | Many creators are self-publishing ebooks and paperbacks, but audiobooks are another avenue where writers can choose to go it alone. What are the positives and negatives of taking this approach? What approaches are there to audiobook production, and how can you successfully market and sell your own audiobooks? |
10 Aug 2024 Saturday 7:00 PM Meeting Academy M4 | Your Future Thoughts May (Not) Be Your Own Barry Tilton, J. L. Doty, Karen Panetta, Kathleen Kramer (mod), Ljiljana Trajkovic | Brain-machine interface (BMI) technology promises to help cure debilitating illnesses, allow magnification of human abilities, and perhaps even create the semblance of telepathy. Sponsored by, and featuring experts from, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), this panel will discuss what is possible today and consider how future developments in BMI technology could transform the ways we live and work. |
11 Aug 2024 Sunday 10:00 AM Lomond Auditorium | Urban Fantasy Settings Carrie Vaughn, J. L. Doty (mod), Seanan McGuire, T.L. Huchu | From Ben Aaronovitch’s magical London to T. L. Huchu’s near-future Edinburgh, the settings of urban fantasy novels are often a key element of the story and maybe even the central character. Come along as our panellists share their favourite urban fantasy settings and discuss how to write about a familiar place but not as you know it! |
BuboniCon
August 23–25, Albuquerque, NM
A really great Con. The scientists from Los Alamos are nicely represented, so they have an excellent Science and Technology track. And a lot of top-notch writers attend.
Here’s a link to the web site. And here’s my panel schedule:
Panel Schedule for BuboniCon:
Date/Time/Loc | Title/Participants | Description |
23 Aug 2024 Friday 5:00 PM Main Room – Salon E | MODERATING 101: HOW YOU DO IT J.L. Doty, Loretta Hall, Lauren C. Teffeau, Ian Tregillis Jon Black (mod) | A panel for new and perspective moderators at which panelists (drawn from experienced moderators) discuss tips and techniques, the role of the moderator, and maybe share a couple of “challenging anecdotes”; and how they handled them. This is an idea borrowed from MileHiCon in Denver. While they don’t make it mandatory, attendance for first time moderators is encouraged. |
24 Aug 2024 Saturday 2:00 PM Main Room – Salon E | A BOOK NAMED GIZMO: A NOVEL OR STORY BY ANY OTHER NAME Yvonne Coats, J.L. Doty (mod), Cassie Sanchez, Connie Willis. Arkady Martine | It’s been pretty well established that character names have power or description. But what about the title of a book or story, or even a chapter heading? What’s in a name? Does it matter whether a book is simply named Gizmo or Space Adventure? What about a short story title? Do titles have power or do they just help publicize/sell a book? Can a story’s title add appeal for readers? How do you come up with cool titles? Is there a difference in creating a title for SF vs Fantasy? And what about chapter headings? What is their purpose? Do they add to the joy of reading a book or distract? What are some of the best titles in genre fiction? |
25 Aug 2024 Sunday 10:00 AM Sante Fe | ORBITAL MECHANICS – BASIC: HOW DO THEY DO THAT? J.L. Doty | How do NASA and the ESA get their astronauts and satellites up into orbit. It turns out you have to speed up to fall back, and aim low to hit high. This presentation will include active computer simulations of orbital mechanics, and the maneuvers necessary to get those astronauts up there, and hopefully back down in one piece. We’ll cover basic orbital trajectories, as well as more advanced concepts like binary star system orbits, translunar trajectories, and gravitational slingshot maneuvers commonly used in interplanetary exploration. No equations needed. |
25 Aug 2024 Sunday 12:30 PM Main Room – Salon E | TOMORROW THROUGH THE PAST: ROME IN SPACE John Barnes, J.L. Doty, Melinda M. Snodgrass, S.M. Stirling, Arkady Martine (mod) | From Asimov’s Foundation to Palmer’s Terra Ignota, writers have been using examples from history to worldbuild the future, whether it’s putting the Napoleonic Wars or Vietnam in space or re-enacting the settlement of the American west on other planets. Ken MacLeod has said, “History is the trade secret of science fiction.” Why do we have this compulsion to re-enact the past when thinking about the future? What are some of the advantages of doing it? What about challenges and drawbacks? |