Dayton's Blog: A pimple on the ass of the Internet.

As reported by Unreality SF, the snazzy little news and info site with a focus on media tie-in fiction, David Mack (infinitydog) has earned top honors for the first installment of his Star Trek: Destiny trilogy, Gods of Night. Congrats to Dave!

As for our 4400 novel, Wet Work, it ended up placing sixth. Considering how frikkin' shocked I was that the book made the list of finalists in the first place, I was going to be happy no matter where it landed in the ultimate ranking.

It was a strong field of contenders, featuring several friends of mine, and we therefore found ourselves in mighty fine company. Many thanks to Unreality SF for hosting the poll, to all who voted to get Wet Work nominated at all, and then voted again once the final list was announced. It was quite the pleasant surprise, and is very much appreciated.

Who knows? Maybe we'll be back in the hunt next time.

I learned from reading kradical's LJ that Unreality SF is conducting a poll for best tie-in story of 2008. I was further surprised to learn that the 4400 novel Kevin and I wrote, Wet Work is among the 10 finalists.

If you read Trek, Doctor Who, Torchwood, even 4400 tie-ins, you might want to check out the site, which posts all kinds of news, reviews, and interviews relating to the media tie-in field. I'm not going to ask that you vote for our book, as the list of finalists is full of strong contenders, including entries by fellow Trek scribes kradical, terri_osborne, infinitydog, and Christopher L. Bennett. I'm only gonna ask that you go, vote for your favorite if it's on the list, and support the site. The poll closes on March 22nd, so be quick about it!

Cast your vote!

And to the person/persons who nominated Wet Work: If you're reading this, thanks very much!

The good people over at Unreality SF have posted a review of our 4400 novel Wet Work.

Read all about it!

While I have a couple of very minor quibbles with one or two points they raised, they're certainly not anything I can't live with. Overall, it's thoughtful and balanced, and by any measure a quite favorable review. And hey, we definitely appreciate the exposure (Hey! Somebody actually read the thing!).



Nice way to start the day. :)

Got my first piece of fan mail this morning about our 4400 novel Wet Work, from Singapore, of all places.



One of the things I love about the Internet is how it's able to bring people together from anywhere in the world with no effort. I have friends I would never know if not for the 'net, e-Mail, message boards, and so on.

Definitely a nice way to start the day. :)

Came home today to find a box from Simon & Schuster containing my author copies of our 4400 novel, Wet Work. As Hank Moody might say, Kevin and I have indeed given man-birth to yet another kinda sorta weighty tome.



Looks pretty swank, if you ask me. Judging from the size, I'd think they make pretty nifty stocking stuffers. Just sayin'.

According to my spies, Wet Work, our novel based on The 4400 is listed as in stock and shipping from Amazon.com!



Just in time for holiday shopping, too. Sweet!

I received a notification that Chapter 1 of Wet Work, our forthcoming novel based on The 4400, is now available for reading on the Simon & Schuster website: Read me!



The book should start showing up in stores around the last week of the month or so.

Nootch, and all that.

Daniel Berry of Unreality SF has posted a new interview with me, where we talk about the various projects Kevin and I are working on, including our forthcoming 4400 novel, the next installment of the Star Trek: Vanguard series, and a few other cool things.

You can read the entire interview by clicking on this linky-type thing right here.

Thanks to Dan and Unreality SF!

I was updating my Amazon author profile info and noticed that they've posted the cover for Wet Work, our 4400 novel. Therefore, I guess that means I'm safe to pimp it here. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version at my site:



In related news: Yesterday, I handed over my first-pass pages from the manuscript to Kevin for his perusal. After he goes over them, he'll mail our changes back to our editor later this week. Woo and a bit of Hoo goin' on there....

Got a few things going this weekend, writing-wise, and actually have some progress to report on a couple of fronts. First, the big'un...that being my half of Vanguard 4:

15,733 / 60,000 (projected) (26.2%)

Thanks to yesterday and today, I've made up some lost ground and I'm where I wanted to be on June 1st.

Also read a good chunk of the Wet Work first-pass pages yesterday, with plans to read some more tonight before bed. Not finding anything too crazy so far as corrections or changes are concerned, so that's a good thing. I'll probably finish up my read-through tomorrow.

Thirdly, I sent my half of our next article for Star Trek Magazine to Kevin over the weekend, and I'm currently waiting to see his part so we can put the final polish to it and deliver it tomorrow.

Also sent an invoice for some web content work I completed last week, the first in a recurring series of pieces I'll be delivering every other week or so. Since it was the first time working with this group, I held off until I heard back that they were happy with what I'd given them. Now that I've got the thumbs-up and know what they want from here on out, it's time to ask for some of that (sort of) fat cash they offered me.

(More on this when it's appropriate. :D) 

Well, not really, but I liked the sound of the title.

DHL managed to deliver to my house today two copies of first pass pages for Wet Work. For those wondering, after the formatting and whatnot, the book will be coming in at 355 pages.

Anyway, Kevin and have until June 13th to get our requested changes back to our wonderful editor at Pocket. It's almost a real book, folks!

I hate reading copyedited versions of my manuscripts.

I always open the package with trepidation, wondering what I'll find when the pile of papers lands in my lap. Have I been blessed with a helpful copyeditor, who's taken great pains to correct my numerous grammatical gaffes, insert forgotten words ("to," "the," "a," "as," etc.), fact check (and possibly correct) any real-world references I've made, ensure that none of my characters switch genders from chapter to chapter, die and then appear in later chapters (and it's not intentional), and so on? Or, have I been cursed with someone seething with resentment at being unable to sell their own book, and so takes out their frustration by trying to rewrite mine?

Thankfully, for Wet Work, my copyeditor was very much of the former variety. Therefore, reading the copyedited ms. wasn't nearly as painful as I always think it's going to be.

None of which means I hate reading the things any less.

So, with my review done, it's off to Kevin for his perusal, then back to our editor at Pocket. The next time we see it, it'll be in galley form, and we'll read through the whole thing one more time, looking for any last minute stuff to fix.

And then it'll get published, and there'll still be dozens of things in there that we missed.

Damn.

Heard back today from the editor of our 4400 novel. Wet Work was approved by the licensing department with no changes requested. Woo to the mutha-effin' Hoo!

The copy-edited manuscript has also been handed in, and said editor-san is sending it to us for review/rebuttal. It's being sent via DHL, so I therefore request your prayers and sacrifices to the parcel delivery deities in order to barter for its safe passage.

Not a post of great import, but then again...which posts of mine are?

Anyway, I've already bored you with status reports on our 4400 novel. Well, in the course of various e-Mail and phone exchanges with our editor at Pocket, we were asked if we wanted to write our book's cover copy -- that text you see on the back of the book. 

Found out today that our forthcoming 4400 novel, Wet Work, is now available for pre-order from Amazon.com. Sweet!

Of course, they've got the title wrong, (it's called Wet Works there), and they spelled Kevin's last name wrong, but at least that sort of goofiness is fixable. It's right on our contracts, and at Pocket Books' website, as well.

In other news about the book, we heard late last week from our editor that she was forwarding our manuscript on to CBS Licensing for approval without requesting any changes from us. Sweet again!

The manuscript for our 4400 novel, Wet Work -- all 84,000 words of it -- is winging its way to the editor this morning.

Woo. And, dare I say it, hoo.

I pause for a cleansing breath, then turn my attention to the next item of business while we wait for a green light to get started on Vanguard 4.

A few weeks back, I was approached about writing tie-in fiction for a new license (a role-playing game, in this instance). It's a game that's still being developed, so much of the material given to us (what there is of it) it to be considered "in flux." For all I know, some of the things I've read have already changed since the last time I looked at the material. Anyway, I think I've found an angle for a story I'd like to write in this new universe, but I need to organize my thoughts and send a query back to the editor to make sure my ideas are consistent with the still-evolving game setting. Assuming I can float his boat with my story outline, I'm hoping I can write this and have it to him by the end of the month.

Also during this period, Kevin and I are turning some brain cells toward a notion he's been considering for a book aimed at the "young adult" market. He went to a workshop a couple of months ago and pitched his idea to an editor, who in turn said she liked what she was hearing and wanted to see an outline and some sample chapters. This got back-burnered while we worked on our Mirror Universe story and Wet Work and a few other odds and ends, but there's nothing holding us back from playing with this while we've got a bit of time to burn.

At least, until I morph back into ZombieDaddy again at the end of the week.

ND company helps campaign to revive TV's The 4400.

February 1st is the day that fans of The 4400 officially launch their campaign, in the hopes of convincing USA Network to rescind its earlier decision to cancel the show. Fans are sending letters along with packages of sunflower seeds, the preferred snack of Dr. Kevin Burkoff on the show.

The campaign is modeled after a similar effort by fans of Jericho, which resulted in that show's return for a second season, albeit a shortened one. Still, the fans made their voices heard, the studio suits listened, and voila!

Can the same thing happen for The 4400. Only one way to find out. Check out the campaign's website at www.savethe4400.com.

...the "Yeesh" News.

The Good News: Kevin and I can finally talk about the novel we're currently writing.

The Bad News: Though it's a tie-in novel, it's not the (supposedly) much anticipated fourth Star Trek: Vanguard book. If it's any consolation, that's supposed to be the next novel we work on.


Ah, the life of a sometime freelance writer.