March 2013 – Upload

Interview On Good Mornings! with Chris Oaks, WFIN-AM

It’s up! Check out my radio interview on Good Mornings! with Chris Oaks: http://www.goodmornings.net/download/audio/0329-7a.mp3

It starts about a minute 38 seconds in, and runs roughly eleven minutes. You’ll know it’s coming when you hear the musical lead-in: Gordon Lightfoot singing, “If you could read my mind”. (Now I’ve got that song stuck in my head.)

A big thank-you to Chris for having me on the show. He did a great job framing the conversation and moving it along fluidly — clearly a pro.

I’m also thrilled to see that the interview is prominently featured today on the WFIN-AM home page (http://www.wfin.com/) and the Good Mornings! program page (http://wfin.com/morning/mornings.asp).

Midwest Book Review

Another bit of happy news… a favorable write-up in Midwest Book Review, from reviewer Willis M. Buhle:

The future may be in cyberspace. “Upload” is a novel exploring the concepts of mental uploading and its effects on humanity, focusing on what it could mean for love and life, exploring the philosophy of a completely online world that has conquered biology. “Upload” is an exciting work of science fiction, very much worth considering for fans of the genre who seek something discussing the effects of a possible near future technology.

Established in 1976, Midwest Book Review is an outstanding resource for readers, authors, and others in the publishing and bookselling industry. Its focus is on promoting quality small-press works, a role I believe is becoming increasingly relevant with the increasing number of self-published authors.

Midwest Book Review encompasses several publications. This particular review was in Reviewer’s Bookwatch, “an online forum for volunteer reviewers that makes their book reviews available to librarians, book dealers, and the general reading public.”

Thank you, Mr. Buhle, for taking the time to read and review Upload.

Finalist for ForeWord Reviews 2012 Book of the Year Award in Science Fiction

I got a happy bit of news today. My novel, Upload, is a Finalist in Science Fiction for ForeWord Reviews’ 2012 Book of the Year Award.

Curious about the other finalists in Science Fiction? I was, so I compiled a list of Goodreads links to the books and their authors. (In the case of State of Union, I couldn’t find the book on Goodreads. I suspect it’s a sequel to State of Mind.)

Document 512, by Thomas Lopinski
God Bless The Dead, by Evan Geller
Six, by Calvin J Brown
State of Union, by Sven Michael Davison
The Death of Eve, by Shaun Penney
The Samsara Effect, by Paul Black
The Serpent’s Grasp, by C. Kevin Thompson
The Water Thief, by Nicholas Lamar Soutter
The Webs of Varok, by Cary Neeper
Upload, by Mark McClelland (me)
Wildcatter, by Dave Duncan

What is this award? In their own words, “ForeWord’s Book of the Year Awards program was created to highlight the year’s most distinguished books from independent publishers.”

If you’re looking for some good fresh sci-fi, this seems like a great place to start!

Author Spotlight on SpecFicPick

Another author interview… I was the spotlighted author over at SpecFicPick on Thursday. Check it out: http://specficpick.blogspot.com/2013/03/author-spotlight-mark-mcclelland.html. Fun question to get to answer: “What role do you believe speculative fiction plays in society?”

If you’re an author of speculative fiction, you should check out SpecFicPick, and join the community on Facebook.