Month: February 2013

Author Mark McClelland Reveals All!

Find out about my childhood habit of “car trips” in the living room, how I use functional poetry to fight my mild addiction to video games, what my personal utopia might look like, and much much more in my second author interview.

Jayme Beddingfield - 340 x 317Thanks so much to Jayme Beddingfield for reaching out and offering to interview me.  I had great fun, and I feel like doing interviews is forcing me to think through my own story — an unexpected benefit of publishing my novel and pursuing.

Jayme Beddingfield: Self-published author of the Emerald City Night Series, comic book devourer, shamelessly obsessed with zombies, and Diet Dr Pepper addict.

Support a Local Bookseller – Use IndieBound

I just discovered that Upload is now on IndieBound, which means you can easily order the print edition from a local bookseller.

When I typed in my own zip code, I saw Chicago’s The Book Cellar at the top of the list, so I clicked through, and sure enough, you can add Upload to your cart, right there.

Then I noticed that The Book Cellar has partnered with Kobo to bring you eBooks through your local bookseller.  How cool is that?  The easiest way is to search for the eBook by ISBN: 9781300206705.  I tried that on The Book Cellar’s website, and came up with this link to buy the eBook.  Cool stuff.  This looks to be an easy way to avoid the Amazon monoculture.

Author Interview on Marvelocity Style

A big thank-you to my friend Chrystal Price for posting my first author interview on Marvelocity Style, the fun and informative lifestyle blog for her style consulting company.

What’s a style consultant, and what would she blog about?  “While fashion is my focus, this blog is dedicated to living your life in style.  That’s everything from food to clothing.  My job is to thoroughly study and understand trends and how to use them to my clients’ advantage.   I strive to snatch ideas from the runway and artfully apply them to my clients’ closets, no matter their budget, shape, or size.”

And how did someone as decidedly unstylish as myself end up on the blog of a style consultant?  Charity, mostly.  One look at me and Chrystal knew right away: I need all the help I can get.  But I like to think style isn’t all on the surface.  Who couldn’t use a little brain food to spruce up their conversation?  Next time you’re sipping Sazeracs with some high-caliber minds, do be surprised if Upload is the topic all the cool kids are talking about.  And with the help of Marvelocity Style, you can be one of the cool kids, too.

(If Upload actually comes up in the context of cocktailing, please let me know.  Cuz that would make my day.)

Area man writes entire book with cat on lap

Area man writes entire book with cat on lap
Area man writes entire book with cat on lap

Somehow, I managed never to post this gem of a birthday gift, written by my friend Camille Martinez.  Hope you get a kick out of it.  (I’ve loved The Onion since I lived in Milwaukee, back in 1996.)

Camille runs Dígame, a wonderful little language school here in Logan Square.  She’s also one of the funniest people I know.  If you live in Chicago and are looking to improve your French or Spanish, you’d be hard pressed to find a better or more charming way to do it.  Camille also does translation.  If Upload takes off in Europe, I know who will be doing my French and Spanish translations!

The Race is On: Upload vs. Upload

I first published Upload as an eBook in September.  At the time, I performed a search and confirmed that the title hadn’t already been used by any book written in English.  I went on to release the paperback in October.

Then, in late December, another book was published with the same title — also a work of fiction.  As you can imagine, I was a little irritated.  Fully three months after I published Upload, somebody chose to publish another technology-centric novel with exactly the same title?  Now, the other Upload has the same number of Amazon reviews as my Upload (13), and I’m worried that my book, which reflects an immense amount of work over thirteen years, is at risk of being overshadowed because someone wasn’t considerate enough to find their own title.

Help keep the original Upload at the top of the search results on Amazon: buy it, rate it, review it, talk about it.

The race is on.  If you enjoyed my Upload, help keep it at the top of the Amazon search results by rating it now.  If the other book by the same title appears to Amazon’s ranking algorithm to be more popular, it will rise above mine in search results, and then there’s the risk that people will confuse it with mine or will never even discover mine.

If you haven’t read Upload yet but have been meaning to, here’s a little extra motivation — bump it to the top of your reading stack, and help me keep my title on top!

The Human Brain Project

Image converted using ifftoanyThe Human Brain Project won one of two billion-Euro research grants from the European Union. Over the next ten years, it aims to create a complete computer simulation of the human brain.

As the author of Upload, a thrilling sci-fi story about the first person to upload his consciousness into a computer, I’m keenly interested in this cutting-edge research into cognitive computing. It has the potential to bring futuristic technologies like those in Upload much closer. It also makes my fiction feel all the more relevant, as thought-leaders struggle with the possibilities and ethical implications surrounding simulation of the human mind.

There’s a pretty good introductory video up at the Human Brain Project’s website. Exciting stuff — check it out. And then read my book to help stir your imagination!