Pharmacon (a blog)

When Two Whales Collide, I Publish Fiction for 99 Cents (or However Much it Costs in Europe/Can/Aus/NZ)

Administrator — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:06:02 +0000

Someone once told me there was a Korean proverb that went something like this: “when two whales collide, the shrimp get crushed.” Well in the world of publishing, the whales are colliding. Who are they? Amazon, for one, the classic publishing world, for the other, and it’s the kind of competition that will benefit the consumer with lower prices. So who are the shrimp? I am – along with every other author out there. One can almost hear the corporate types in New York thinking about how, having lost much of their influence on e-book pricing, they can recoup their losses by reducing the author’s percentage on e-book revenue. No I have no knowledge of anyone actually thinking about doing (or actually doing) this; I’m a cynic. But it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that someone is going to have to pay for lower prices and usually the weakest are the ones who pay: authors.

So I’m hedging my bets; I’m teaching myself the ins and outs of electronic publishing, and putting out my own content – just in case the author’s standard percentage for e-books gets ridiculously low. Without further ado, from the blurb for my latest short story, “Somewhere it Snows”:

“Lev Sandakchiev is old and worn out. An indentured servant to a warrior alien race, he wonders if he’ll survive his last assignment. If he does, Lev has a choice: return to Ukraine – on Earth – or stay in space as the master of his own indentured servants, forever tied to the commerce of destruction…”

Buy “Somewhere it Snows” at the following places (also available for Kindle in Europe and CAN/AUS/NZ at Amazon):

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords

Contest for US Kindle Readers!!!!

Administrator — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:21:01 +0000

Beware the ides of March. Yeah – it’s March 27th, I know (not the 15th) but I’m way behind on putting my publicity ideas into action so here goes a contest I wanted to run two weeks ago. I am conducting a random drawing so that 10 of my US readers will receive a free kindle copy of my new short story, “A People’s Army.” To enter, just complete the following simple tasks:

1. Tweet this (just click the twitter button at the bottom of this post)

2. “Like” this post (just click the Facebook button at the bottom of this post)

3. Enter your name and email address in the comments section. I will not publish your comments and your email address will not appear in my blog, so don’t worry. As soon as the contest is over I will delete the entries and will never post your information.

4. You must be willing to review the book on any online outlet of your choosing (Amazon, etc.) and do your best to give it a review. Negative, positive, short, long – whatever – just give me an indication that you intend to write some kind of review.

5. This is a requirement, not a task: you must be a US person (sorry, my short fiction is not available in UK, etc., yet) and must be able to read on kindle.

Get going already!!!!! Contest ends on April 20th, 2012. Also, don’t forget about the worldwide Exogene contest over at Goodreads, which ends on March 31.

Women in Military Science Fiction (cont) – What About Genetically Engineered Homosexual Women? What About North Korean Women?

Administrator — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:29:35 +0000

My previous blog posts covered work I’ve done regarding female characters, partially in response to oversights by Liz Bourke’s discussion about the lack of women in military SF, and partially just to get the word out about my novels and novelette. Along the same lines, Orbit just launched book 2 of the Subterrene series, Exogene. One irony of Exogene’s publication is that it comes on the heels of someone (I can’t remember who) pointing out that I hadn’t considered the possibility of homosexual genetically engineered girls in book 1, Germline. Well, I had. And they appear in Exogene (as was crystal clear from the teaser in the back of Germline! ).

Here’s what critics have to say about Exogene – but decide for yourself:

“Former CIA analyst McCarthy delivers a stark and wrenching sequel to Germline. The conclusion is simultaneously heartbreaking and triumphant, and utterly appropriate for the brutal, bloody, and magnificent story. One of the ten best SFF novels for Spring 2012.” -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“McCarthy does an excellent job of building and presenting Catherine [the protagonist]. The gritty realities of the futuristic conflict Catherine participates in, leads, and navigates may shock readers…getting to know Catherine is worth your time.” -Victoria Frerichs, RT Book Reviews

“McCarthy captures a fascinating mix of naïveté and ruthlessness…this exciting and thoughtful story marks McCarthy as one of sci-fi’s most promising new talents.” -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

In addition to exploring the psyche of female genetically engineered soldiers, Exogene takes a close look at North Korean women and culture, a theme I partially reprise in the short story “A People’s Army.” Take a look. I wrote this long before the death of Kim Jong Il, so the timing of its release is entirely coincidental, but in this case – unlike in Exogene – the characters are all male.

Oh – and click here to enter for a chance to win a free signed copy of Exogene!

Sensored News Footage from the Subterrene War…

Administrator — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 23:18:24 +0000

Doctor Jennifer Parson, PhD, MD serving in the maintenance unit for the Germline forces:

Women in Military Science Fiction (cont) – What About Moms?

Administrator — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:15:19 +0000

At WorldCon in Montreal (2009), there was a panel discussing the question of why we rarely/never see middle aged women as the protagonists/heroines in any science fiction – let alone in the military subgenre. At least I think that was the discussion. I had the session marked as one I wanted to attend because until then I’d never considered the question, but circumstances got in the way of my attendance (if you’ve ever been to a WorldCon, they sometimes schedule the best panels all at once!).

Confession: I have no idea how rare middle aged women are in science fiction. But I do know that off the top of my head, I can’t think of any mom heroines except for Sarah Connor.

In 2011 I wrote a novelette that has a middle aged mother as the heroine, because I figured I’d try to start filling that gap even though I’m a middle aged father who hasn’t a clue what it’s like to be a woman. The novellette has gone largely unnoticed. So it was time to post about it here since there has been much discussion about the lack of women in military SF. Besides, I think it’s gauche to cry out from someone else’s blog and say “wait a minute, I write with women as main characters in my military SF! Buy my story/book at Amazon!” but since this is my blog, I can do whatever the hell I want. In fact, book II of the Subterrene series is an all woman cast – almost – so I look forward to future discussions and reviews, assuming bloggers choose to include the book as a data point in women-relevant topics.

Anyway, here’s the link to “The Legionnaires” – a novelette that examines what would motivate a middle aged mother to join the French Foreign Legion, an institution that as of today, does not allow women to serve.

Tor and Military SF: Scalzi and Ringo? What about Haldeman?

Administrator — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:22:40 +0000

In her post on Women in Military SF over at Tor.Com, academic, frequent Tor blogger, and self-described “cranky feminist,” Liz Bourke, has this to say about women and race in Military SF:

Military SF is, fundamentally, a politically conservative genre… the wild-eyed revolutionary firebrand and the generally stable — even, one might say, socially rigid — institution of the military tend to get along about as well as a house on fire… That conservatism is most glaring, though, in my opinion, when it comes to the position of female characters and non-“western” cultures.

As examples she cites a few authors (Shepherd, Drake, etc.), but suggests they come up short in their attempts to portray different cultures - inventing the unique term “Irish Chineseness” in the process. Scalzi, however, is the only author she cites as bucking this trend.

There are lots of places to start in dissecting her arguments, and lots of places where we agree (e.g., we need more diversity in our military SF). I was going to write an entire “but, but, but, you didn’t even MENTION Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War” post (this is a glaring omission) but then I looked at the comments. As usual I’m late to the game; others have raised this issue on the Tor blog so no analysis will be forthcoming from me (for now). Plus, upon reaching the end of her article it struck me that before I decide if this is worth my time, I’d like to see Ms. Bourke’s response to the multiple Forever War comments.

In the meantime, Livie Tidhar’s tweet sums things up nicely: “ha, ha, that Liz Bourke, trouble maker!”

Instead I’ll leave you with this self-serving reminder: make sure you register for WorldCon so you can nominate for the Hugo and Campbell Awards!!!!!

It’s Hugo Award and Campbell Award Nomination Time…

Administrator — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:31:55 +0000

Don’t forget: the Hugo and John W. Campbell Awards are open for their nomination period. To nominate a work, you must have been a member of the last WorldCon (Reno), or you have to be a member of the 2012 or 2013 WorldCons as of 31 Jan 2012.

I have two eligible works:

Best Novel: Germline
Best Novelette: The Legionnaires

I’m also eligible for the John W. Campbell Award and a full listing of my work is at: http://www.writertopia.com/profiles/TCMc…

You don’t have to nominate me, but register now for WorldCon so you can nominate someone! Time is running out and each WorldCon attendee or supporter gets to nominate up to 5 people. More award information (and links to registering for WorldCon) can be found at: https://chicon.org/

Also, if you’re a Germline fan, spread the word! Link to this post, tweet it, whatever; sometimes it’s difficult to be a debut author and get the word out, so any help is appreciated.

Tor.com: Reader’s Choice Awards!

Administrator — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 21:22:51 +0000

Help me get some buzz going for Germline? Tor is running their Reader’s Choice Awards and the rules are loose, so you don’t just have to nominate one work for best novel, one for short story, etc. – you can nominate multiple in each category. It’s easy, too! Just post your answers on their blog. Also, consider voting for the artist for Germline, Steve Stone!

Recap: Fiction Published in 2011

Administrator — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 11:41:28 +0000

Looking back on 2011, it was the busiest year I’ve ever had. I wrote and submitted two books (the sequels to Germline), wrote and submitted I don’t know how many short stories, worked a full time job, and found the time to parent. This is why I’m always tired?

Books:
Germline, by T.C. McCarthy (Orbit Books)

Novelettes:
The Legionnaires, by T.C. McCarthy (Orbit Books)

Short Stories:
Private Exploration, by T.C. McCarthy, Nature, Vol 474, 2011
A.I.P., by T.C. McCarthy, Story Quarterly, Issue 45 – not sure if this counts since it came out digitally in 2011, but the print version has not yet been released.

Looking forward to 2012: I’m about 75K words into writing my first literary novel, which is an entirely different beast when it comes to time commitment and word choice, but it’s something I needed to do for myself. The setting is in the deep south. I’m keeping the exact location a secret for now but it’s a place that had special meaning for me as it was the location where I had some of the best times, and one of the worst, and there’s a whole lot of kudzu – I promise.

DC Looked Abandoned

Administrator — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 14:34:34 +0000

This day, 2011: I was outside of DC with a group when it all went down in New York and someone recalled us; then they told us to head home any way we could, because a plane had struck the Pentagon and another was on its way so inbound roads to the Capital had been closed. One of the guys dropped us off at the metro. The only station he could reach was the New Carrollton stop and nobody was getting on the trains, everyone was getting off, which made things even more strange since it was still that time of day when people should have been heading to work or to meetings.

Just before the train went underground, you saw the Pentagon fire – a wide column of black smoke on the horizon on the other side of the Potomac and the few people on the train started talking to each other; this never happens on the metro. Nobody ever says a word to strangers. But we couldn’t stop our mouths from working and it didn’t matter what was said and I couldn’t remember it anyway, and something had flicked on inside everyone’s heads that put speech into overdrive.

One by one people got off until I was the only one left in the car and when I skipped at Metro Center the place was deserted. Completely empty. So was my last stop, Tenleytown, and when I came aboveground the streets were emtpy too and this was Wisconsin Ave, a busy-busy DC street. Nobody had known where I was or how to reach me, and my mom thought I might have been at the Pentagon so there was some relief and surprise when I opened the front door to my apartment; Lynnie and I had only been married for a few months.

After that we got the anthrax scare. My metro commutes were things to be scared of now, and in my bag was a gasmask, neoprene gloves and a hooded plastic overcoat – like I’d even know if it was time to put them on. Then came the DC sniper. It was a weird time, a bad dream that went on for years (a year later I found out that the guy who had convinced me to try surfing had bought it in the WTC), and this isn’t a day that seems good for me to dwell on.