Echo 8, from Tor Books. Action, suspense, science, and romance! |
But it did. And I'm thrilled, because this one holds a special place in my heart, and it's the favorite of my beta readers.
If you read Laurie's post last week, you know there have been some interesting synchronicities, to say the least. The most poignant of which, perhaps, is the dismantling of the Kalakala coinciding with the release of ECHO 8. She sat for more than a decade in the Port of Tacoma, taking on water and threatening to disrupt shipping in an important waterway. Then just over a week ago she made her final voyage, and they've been taking her apart piece by piece ever since.
I was sad to see her go after spending so much time researching her for the book. She'd begun to feel like a friend, and she had some really hard luck over her lifetime. But the man who finally put her out of her misery did it with compassion, even arranging a special ceremony when the dismantling began. And the old girl put up a fight to the end! There is some great footage of cranes trying to knock her over in dry dock.
I think part of the reason I empathized with her is that sometimes being an author (especially an author in a niche genre) feels exactly like that. Sometimes it seems like there's every reason in the world we should keel over and give up. But deep down we know we're made of better stuff than that.
By R. M. Calamar (Flickr: Mural of the Kalakala in Port Angeles) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
And out of her ashes (pardon me while I melodramatically mix metaphors) rises ECHO 8. A story about parallel Earths, and on one of them Kalakala lives on.
(But lest things get TOO serious, check out this sci-fi interpretation of the Kalakala's last stand.)
Happy release day, ECHO 8! (And happy birthday to baby ECHO 8 - see Laurie's post yesterday to see who I mean!)
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Congrats on Echo 8's launch! We've been waiting for this for a long time and now it's finally here! Yay!!! How ironic that the Kalakala met her doom at the same time that "her novel" released. At least she lives on in this other Seattle.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Laurie! Yes, it's been a long road for this one. :)
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ReplyDeleteSo awesome! Huge congrats!!!!
Thanks, Pauline!
DeleteOnce again you lead the way, Sharon! Congratulations and I can't wait to read this one!
ReplyDeleteAw, thanks, Donna! It's an exciting month 'round the old blog, for sure!
DeleteYay! (I assumed the giveaway wasn't international as it doesn't say).
ReplyDeleteOh lordy I always forget. Since I didn't say, I'll cover it regardless of where. (Though it may not be signed if it's outside US or Canada, because Book Depository will be cheaper delivery.)
DeleteSo excited this is out! Never give up!
ReplyDeleteJessa!!! Golly, I think I wrote my first-ever guest blog post about this story for your blog, probably like five years ago! Thanks so much for dropping by to say howdy. I just picked up the first in your Sheerspace series!
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