My recently-released cyberpunk novel STELLARNET REBEL reached #2 today on my publisher’s “Most Popular” list. Here’s a screen shot of my laptop. If you look closely in the bottom left corner, you’ll see that I’m working on a file called “Stellarnet Prince.” Hm…
~ J.L. Hilton
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ILLOGICON was a small, first-year, fan-run science fiction convention in my home town this past weekend, with an attendance of about 200. I went to sell my handmade jewelry, promote Stellarnet Rebel and have fun!
This event had a very welcoming community. I enjoyed seeing the amazing costumes, meeting some really nice people, and talking about my one-of-a-kind steampunk jewelry and gnome terrariums. Big shout out to my con-minion, Lilith, for keeping me company and making a Bojangles run.
I also had the opportunity to appear on the Triangle Area Authors panel with Sam Montgomery-Blinn, Richard Dansky, M. David Blake, and Jeremy Whitley.
And, of course, I talked about my novel all weekend. What I didn’t expect was how often I was asked about my publisher, Carina Press, who became somewhat of a hot topic at this small con because of a bag of lanyards.
When Carina Press first sent me a large mass of bright pink doohickeys, I was a bit, “Uh… why?” I never knew lanyards were so popular, but many people wanted them for their Illogicon ID badges. It was exciting to be able to spread the word about this great publisher and all of their awesome titles.
Can’t wait to do ILLOGICON 2013!
~ J. L. Hilton
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STELLARNET REBEL is the featured book in my publisher’s newsletter!
It’s also in the “Our Staff Loves…” section, where my editor Alison Janssen has this to say:
“Stellarnet Rebel is such a smart, vivid and perfect imagining of space colonization and first contact with new species. The worldbuilding feels like a natural extension of what we have today—internet culture, LOL-speak and MMORPG slang, body mods and constant connectivity through personal devices—all of it is there, just amplified and extrapolated a half century or so into the future.
“And living in that fully-realized world, a cast of incredible characters, who are striving to make a measurable, positive impact on the universe. Genny, the blogger who gives voice to the overlooked members of society; Duin, the leader of a resistance on his home world, who struggles every day to get humanity to listen and help his people; and Belloc, the fiercely loyal, private, and sexily sullen alien who will do anything to protect the people he loves.
“I absolutely loved how easily I was swept into the world of Stellarnet Rebel, and how believable J.L.’s version of the future felt. I am so lucky to have worked with her on this title!”
~ J. L. Hilton
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We held a STELLARNET REBEL release party January 5 at Tir na nOg Irish Pub, the inspiration for Aileen’s Pub in my novel. Kilcarragh performed some of the traditional Irish songs mentioned in the book, and I gave away promotional swag — goodies from Carina Press, nagyx “soul stone” necklaces based on the book, stickers, chocolates, and autographed book cover cards. Annie Nice (the inspiration for Aileen herself) presented me with a really cool and terribly delicious cake.
This is a replica of the nagyx “soul stone” that belongs to Duin in STELLARNET REBEL. It is labradorite tied to a cord of recycled sari silk.
Many of my friends and family were there, in person or in spirit, and even some people I didn’t know! That’s always nice. I hope they enjoyed my first time reading a part of my own book in public.
It wasn’t easy. I’ve taught classes, given oral reports in school and presentations at work, led workshops, emceed events, acted, sang, chaired meetings, and even read other people’s books during storytimes for children, without a bit of stage fright, but this was the most nerve-racking thing I’ve ever had to do.
Almost as difficult as the reading itself was deciding what part of the book to read. I considered several excerpts. Some exciting, some funny, some set in Aileen’s Pub… but I couldn’t make up my mind. Being a thriller, it seemed like too many of the excerpts contained spoilers or involved some piece of information the reader would need to know from a previous chapter. Or the excerpts involved too many expletives. Granted, it was an Irish pub, so what word hasn’t been said there before? But it’s also a restaurant, and I didn’t want to offend any casual diners who might be within earshot.
I settled on the prologue, which was sufficiently short, dramatic, intriguing, and self-contained. And no questionable language.
I’m happy to report that I survived, and so did the audience, best I could tell. I love listening to other people do readings. It thrills me to hear a story, whether it’s from a published author or just a chatty friend (if you ever say to me, “I can’t stand that person, because they go on and on…” I’ll probably say, “Next time, send them my way…”). I’m a sucker for author readings. If I attend one, I’ll buy the book. So, I know how important a reading can be. But I don’t have to like doing my own. Do I?
I do, on the other hand, like cake.
Happy birthday, Andrew.
~ J. L. Hilton
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STELLARNET REBEL is now available for all digital reading devices, wherever eBooks are sold. It is also available as an audio book from AUDIBLE. My publisher is offering an extended excerpt via Facebook.
ORDER on AMAZON U.S. / AMAZON U.K.
ORDER the ePub file from the publisher CARINA PRESS
For those who like to shop local and support small businesses: Many independently-owned book sellers now partner with Google Books to sell eBooks through their websites. Check with your local bookstore.
I’ll be featured on Manic Readers on January 3. And I’ll be doing a special giveaway on my publisher’s blog the morning of January 4. Follow Carina Press on Facebook and Twitter to see their posts and tweets about STELLARNET REBEL.
I’ll be at the Illogicon fan-run SF con in Raleigh, NC, on January 13-15, selling steampunk and spacepunk jewelry and handing out STELLARNET REBEL promo swag.
~ J.L. Hilton
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Princess Leia, 1978
I grew up with science fiction and fantasy. As a kid, I saw Star Wars in theaters in 1977, wrote fan letters to Gil Gerard and memorized the Buck Rogers theme song. I played with Star Wars action figures and Battlestar Galactica toys when other girls played with Barbies.
As a teen, I read my dad’s Heinlein books, Dune novels, Omni and Twilight Zone magazines. At Thanksgiving, the annual Twilight Zone marathon held more interest for me than turkey. I bought the Ol’ Yellow Eyes is Back CD by Brent Spiner when I was in college.
Now, I’m a Browncoat who started a Can’t Stop the Serenity charity screening in my hometown, I still think Data and Worf are mad sexy, and G’Kar is my favorite fictional character.
But before Stellarnet Rebel, I usually wrote fantasy. I played a lot of Dungeons & Dragons, and published my first short story “The Visitor” in Dragon Magazine in 1989. Twenty years later, my novelette Wren & Wood: Oak Moon won the 2009 Andrew Britton short story competition. That’s a huge span of time in between, during which I worked as a newspaper reporter, editor and columnist, and a professional jewelry designer.
I never felt motivated to write a novel, until one day in May 2009 when I woke up from an unusual dream about a news blogger and an alien rebel. That conversation appears in the novel almost exactly as it appeared in my head during that very first dream.
When I dreamed of Duin and Genny, a lot of things were going on in my life. I’d just finished re-watching Babylon 5 and started watching the BBC’s Robin Hood. I’d discovered a new favorite costume drama, North and South, based on the book by Elizabeth Gaskell. I’d donated 60 pairs of handmade Browncoat earrings to the Can’t Stop the Serenity worldwide fundraiser. I’d been listening to a lot of traditional Irish music and the Les Miserables London cast album.
All of these tv shows, movies and music had three themes in common: Love, social commentary, and the struggle for freedom. Stellarnet Rebel has these same themes, as well.
Stellarnet Rebel also has a lot of technology — PDAs, non-lethal weapons, genetic modification, programmable clothing, recyclable materials, vertical gardening, ubiquitous internet and, of course, video games. Because…
1) The Internet.
2) I like video games.
3) Alex Steffen and Worldchanging.com, particularly the article “Science Fiction, Futurism and the Failure of the Will to Imagine.”
It was important to me that Stellarnet Rebel was neither utopian (like Star Trek) nor dystopian (like most cyberpunk), nor alternate reality (like steampunk). The future in Stellarnet Rebel is extrapolated from current trends as (I hope) a relatively plausible future both grand and distressing, and a realistic — not just futuristic — backdrop for a compelling, character-driven story.
Dreams, music, technology, history, visionaries, video games, and a lifetime of experiences all came together to become Stellarnet Rebel, my first published novel.
~ J. L. Hilton
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Bull Spec logo pendant acid-etched, hammered and made by me. See more of my jewelry at JLHjewelry.com.
I spent the evening with the Research Triangle Science Fiction Society at their annual holiday party. I got to see some familiar faces, meet a few new ones, and hang with Sam Montgomery-Blinn, editor of Bull Spec magazine and keeper of the Audible SF/F blog. I also thanked his lovely wife Kendra for sharing him with us. Everything he does to help local authors and readers means time away from his family, and I sincerely appreciate that.
I designed a pendant with the Bull Spec logo for the magazine’s kickstarter campaign, and I took them to the party so they could be sent to the lucky supporters. I spent several hours banging away at hammer and anvil to create their shiny goodness.
I also got to geek out (again) on Richard Dansky, the author of Firefly Rain. Every time I see him, my brain turns to fan-mush and all I can manage to say is some variant of “I loved your book” and he’s so nice, he just smiles and says “Thank you.”
I met Becca Gomez Farrell, the author of “Maya’s Vacation,” the Gourmez blog, and several other stories. We discussed Nathan Fillion’s early soap opera work, literary agents, open and closed door romances, feeling like imposters, ebooks and the future of the publishing industry with her husband Ben and author M. David Blake. I heard Mr. Blake read his story “Absinthe Fish” at the Bull Spec Fiction Night in April.
The next public event for me will be the release party for my debut novel “Stellarnet Rebel,” at Tir na nOg Irish Pub in Raleigh, NC, on Thursday January 5, 2012. More info to come.
~ J.L. Hilton
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I began making neo-Victorian jewelry several years ago but didn’t learn the term “steampunk” until 2007. My work was not inspired by the steampunk community but by my interest in Art Nouveau, Victorian history, movies such as “Time Machine,” “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” “Time After Time,” and a youth spent on Disneyland’s Main Street.
I haven’t enjoyed much steampunk fiction, but I do enjoy the writers from the era upon which steampunk is, more or less, based: Dickens, Wilde, Gaskell, Thackeray, etc. They satirized society and class divisions. The Victorian Era was a time period in which there were massive social, political and scientific changes. Unions, women’s rights, industrialization, child labor laws, safe water and sewer systems, germ theory, Jell-o… just to name a few.
I have a science fiction novel coming out in January. Because I’m featured in two steampunk art books, and because I love the Wild West and the Victorian Era, I’m often asked if the book is steampunk.
To be honest, I have a difficult time relating to the steampunk community. Not because “steampunk at Hot Topic” is ruining anything for me but because of the talk about it being a lifestyle. That’s just too far removed from reality, for me. I’m not interested in pretending to be someone else or having an entire house that looks like Frankenstein’s laboratory. If steampunk is goggles, funny names, competitive biscuit dunking and brass, then I’m not steampunk.
My publisher is calling Stellarnet Rebel a “cyberpunk thriller.” I didn’t sit down thinking “I’m going to write a cyberpunk thriller.” I sat down to write the kind of story I wanted to read — one that seemed to be missing from a literary landscape dominated by steampunk, zombies, werewolves, vampires, and epic space operas resembling fantasy as much as science fiction.
Alex Steffen’s article, “Science Fiction, Futurism and the Failure of the Will to Imagine,” made me want to write about a future extrapolated from current technology and social trends.
The general definitions I’ve seen for “cyberpunk” include high tech and low life, hackers, AI, megacorporations, and the negative impacts of technology upon society. Stellarnet Rebel is set in the squalid confines of an extra-solar space colony where humanity connects via personal devices, walls, ceilings, tables, clothing, even bottles of whiskey. Computers, video games, virtual reality, hackers, the “Stellarnet” (interplanetary Internet) and rebellion all figure prominently.
There are aliens, though, and not all technology is viewed as a bad thing. Some people might call Stellarnet Rebel “post-cyberpunk.” In any case, it’s not steampunk, but maybe I’ll have to write something with corsets and airships, someday.
~ J. L. Hilton
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Only 28 days until the release of STELLARNET REBEL and things are getting very exciting! The book now appears on my publisher’s “coming soon” page and is available for pre-order on Amazon and B&N. It’s also listed on Goodreads.
Read an excerpt of the book online here.
I’m planning a book release party at Tir na nOg Irish Pub on January 5, and some release day giveaways. More info to come.
Also, here’s a pic I made of Belloc, the “mysterious Glin with uncanny abilities and a tragic past.” The Glin have larger than human eyes with large irises, and no ears (they have ear slits, but hear better than humans because they sense sound vibrations with their entire bodies).
I’ll be at the Celtic Christmas event tonight, where I’ll have 10% off promo postcards for Stellarnet Rebel, and I’ll be selling my steampunk and spacepunk jewelry. Come by and say ‘lo!
~ J.L. Hilton
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Stellarnet Rebel is now listed on the “coming soon” page of my publisher’s website. No pic of the cover yet. I imagine that will be posted in December. But you can see it, right here.
Advance review copies will be available in mid-December through NetGalley.com.
Official release is January 2, 2012, and I am currently working on the sequel.
– J. L. Hilton
