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Welcome to Jean Johnson's
Official Website
Greetings!
This is being partitioned into 3 sections, divided by ellipses (...). Part 1 covers award nominations. Part 2 covers what stories will be released next. Part 3 (the exciting part!) introduces you all to a new series of short stories which will be posted right here.
For those of you who might not remember the name, Philip. K. Dick is the fellow who wrote the novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep which was then turned into the cult classic film Bladerunner, starring Harrison Ford (a movie which won the Hugo Award). He was also the author behind the story that eventually became the movie Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise. In fact, he's had 8 of his works turned into movies, a feat surpassed only by Stephen King. After his passing in 1982, his family set up a trust fund to administer this award, which grants the winning novel the right to display "Best Original SF Paperback" on its cover.
My military SF novel, A Soldier's Duty, has been selected as a nominee for this award. My thanks go out to the judges of the Philip K. Dick Awards for selecting myself and 6 other science fiction authors for the chance at earning the title of Best Original Science Fiction Paperback of 2011. I have no idea if I'll win or not--though I will be at Norwescon when the winner is announced, at least--but simply being selected as one of the 7 nominees is exciting and an honor. No, seriously, don't roll your eyes at me. It's an honor. Of the hundreds of science fiction stories that are published in a single year, only 7 got selected for 2011...which is pretty awesome when you think about it.
Another famous award in the realm of Science Fiction & Fantasy is the Hugo Award. This one's like the Oscars of the SF community in that it covers a wide variety of categories, including dramatic presentations (such as the film Bladerunner, which won in 1983). This upcoming WorldCon, also known as Chicon, all such novels and works which were published in the year 2011 are eligible to be nominated. Whereas the P.K.Dick Award is decided upon by the judges, the Hugo is decided upon by the members of the World Science Fiction Society--much like the Academy Awards are voted on by members of the movie community. Nominations are open now right now for the Hugos, too.
What this means is, if you attended last year's Worldcon in Reno, Nevada (Renovation), or are a current supporting member or have membership to Chicon (this year's Worldcon location is in Chicago), or the following one, Lone Star Con (San Antonio, Texas), you are eligible to nominate various science fiction and fantasy works that were produced for the public in 2011. The categories range from short fiction to dramatic presentation, graphic novels to long form novels, and even categories for best editor.
A Soldier's Duty, having been published in mid-2011, is eligible for nomination for a Hugo as well. If you liked it and you have or are attending one of these three conventions, or have a supporting membership where you can vote even though you're not attending, please feel free to nominate my book for the Hugo, as well as any other eligible work. (Just a reminder for the Best Graphic Story form, Girl Genius is not eligible this year as the Foglios have removed themselves from eligibility, having won the award 3 years in a row.) Even if you don't think my novel was good enough for inclusion, if you have the opportunity to vote, go and do so for the stories you think are good enough.
Writing is a mostly solitary, highly underpaid task. We authors do it because we love it, not because we're going to get oodles of cash--Stephen King and J.K. Rowling are the mutant space monster exceptions to how little we authors actually get paid. Most of us don't get the entire three-layer cake. We get a muffin. The nominations and the awards we receive from the readership communities are like the frosting that turns our muffin into a cupcake. It might not seem special to outsiders, but it is very special to us. Please go forth and vote, yes?
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Yeah, yeah, so when are my next novels coming out? Here's the science fiction stuff first:
I have a short story in Flying Pen Press's anthology Space Battles, entitled "The Joystick War"...and this is a tale set in the Theirs Not universe, just as my previous short story in their anthology Space Grunts, "It's Not A Game" was also set in the same scifi universe. That anthology will be released April 2012, so look for it in bookstores and online. (Continuity-wise, it actually takes place at the start of the 3rd book in my scifi series, but don't worry, you won't get lost if you read the short story in advance.)
Speaking of which, Book 2 in Theirs Not To Reason Why: An Officer's Duty will be released at the end of July, start of August...just in time for Chicon, yay! Book 3, Theirs Not To Reason Why: Hellfire, has been shipped off to my editor. I have no idea when it will be published. Hopefully it won't take a full year after Book 2 hits bookstore shelves, but I cannot make any guarantees, since I don't control that part of the process.
On the fantasy romance side:
Those of you who liked Shifting Plains and were wondering what happened after that book ended, never fear! The Shifter will be released this May from Berkley in trade paperback. We'll get to see what happens to Kenyen as he investigates the lingering traces of the so-called Family Mongrel and their current villainous acts. (This was actually one of my cleanest manuscripts during the copy-editing process, so I'm very proud of that.) It's a fun story with drama, action, adventure, comedy, smut, and cheese-waxing. Oh, yes, the cheese will be waxed, and ripened, too! ...Trust me, it'll make sense when you actually read it.
For those of you patiently waiting for the mass market paperback version of The Mage, last in the 8-book Sons of Destiny series, you only have to wait until June to complete your normal-sized collection. As always, all of my books published through Berkley & Ace are available in ebook formats.
Beyond that, I'm working hard to produce the last book in Ia's saga, Theirs Not To Reason Why: Damnation...and working on a little project just for you.
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I'd like to introduce you, my readers, to a new universe through a series of short stories filled with magic and machinery, mystery and mirth. Yes, it will have a bit of a steampunk flavor, though it definitely isn't set on our world. Vulland is a planet divided by the Vull, a membrane separating Earthland from the Skylands and beyond. A realm where the classic four elements of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth have a tangible influence if wielded correctly. A world where exploration of distant continents and interkingdom strifes will have to compete with the exploration of its own shrouded past to understand the dangers of imbalance that will one day threaten everyone.
The first handful of these tales will be available for free, as my thank-you to all my readers. After that, well, I'm not a giant mutant space monster in terms of income, so if people like them and want to read more, I might make some of them available as ebook .pdf downloads for like a buck or something on Amazon.com. But for now, please enjoy! The first story is "The Knot". Click here for the Vulland Chronicles.
~Jean