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How to Procrastinate #MagicXMayhem Style

Writers of the world RELATE because we’re talking procrastination. There’s no end to the distractions from writing, but everyone needs a break sometimes. All work no play does something that is undesirable (we’ve heard). So we sat down our Magic X Mayhem authors (Actually we sent them emails–they may have been sitting?) and asked about their favorite distractions from writing and editing the work we love so much.

What’s your favorite way to procrastinate when you should be writing?

(We promise not to tell your editor)

 

Andrew Bannister, author of Iron Gods

I am a world-class procrastinator. I’m so good that I don’t actually have to do anything active. I can procrastinate while sitting still. I can procrastinate while simply breathing. But that said, listening to records is a favourite, as anyone who seeks me out on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter will quickly discover.

Sarah Gailey, author of Magic for Liars

Right now, as I’m writing this, I’m on book tour, so the way I’m procrastinating is by collapsing onto my hotel bed, watching old episodes of Chopped, and eating as many Chees-Its as I can fit into my face. When I’m at home, I like to procrastinate by cleaning and coming up with elaborate recipes to try out. You know I’m on a tight deadline if I’m scrubbing the baseboards or googling ‘where to buy lamb tongue’.

Max Gladstone, author of Empress of Forever

Category error! Writing is a way to procrastinate from the rest of life.

Cate Glass, author of An Illusion of Thieves

Image Place holder  of - 64Small scale? Spider solitaire is excellent for clearing the mind of the modern and mundane before diving into a difficult scene. Or large scale? Binge-watching four seasons of Lucifer in three nights is necessary in order to study the story and character arcs and experience the rising tension to remember what I’m striving for, even if it means staying up far too late…

 

Duncan Hamilton, author of Dragonslayer

It’s not procrastinating, it’s ideating!

Saad Z. Hossain, author of The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday

I game for hours at night, often with a crew of three or four friends. We live in different countries, so gaming together, talking shit is a priceless way of keeping touch. Right now we are playing Red Dead Redemption 2 online. It’s a cowboy game, we spend a lot of time hunting, fishing, and hogtying random people. Not sure this is procrastination though. My view is that during downtime, your brain is still trying to process the story. Whenever you actually put down something on paper, I don’t know it’s like a quantum event almost, all those other possibilities just seem to die and you can’t get them back even if you go for rewrites or edits or whatever. So sometimes procrastination is good, it’s healthy. I look like I’m not doing anything but in reality… ok fine I’m not doing anything.

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S.L. Huang, author of Null Set

Beating people up on the mat! (Or getting beaten up.) It’s okay, you can tell my editor—she does it too!

Tamsyn Muir, author of Gideon the Ninth

I play Donkey Kong Country on the SNES, because I am so unbelievably bad at Donkey Kong Country that after ten minutes I am more than ready to switch to something that I am more competent at than playing Donkey Kong Country, which is anything else.

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Brian Naslund, author of Blood of an Exile:

I have a low-key addiction to reading “Today I Learned” facts on Reddit and going down Wikipedia rabbit holes about obscure animal behavior that could potentially be applied to dragons down the road.
I also have a bird feeder right outside the window by my desk, so I am definitely guilty of getting stuck with a scene, and spending 20 minutes looking at chickadees, which rarely helps solve the problem.

JY Yang, author of The Ascent to Godhood

I’m pretty sure he [my editor] knows anyway, he sees me posting about it on Twitter. My favourite way to procrastinate is some kind of eldritch combination between Tumblr, Instagram, and making art.

 

Stay tuned for more #magicXmayhem all summer long!

 

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The Best and Worst SFF Worlds—According to Our MagicXMayhem Authors

Some fantasy worlds leave us aching for a passport to another world. Some futures seem worth skipping the present for. Others…not so much. We asked our Magic X Mayhem authors which SFF worlds they would most and least like to try out and—not to sound like a lousy clickbait article—some of their answers might surprise you.

What are the SFF worlds you would most and least like to live in?

 

Sarah Gailey author of Magic for Liars

Most: The world of Abhorsen by Garth Nix. The magic system is just so COOL. I’d have to learn how to whistle, though.
Least: The world of Harry Potter. We’ve got enough regular fascists, I don’t need wizard fascists too.

Duncan Hamilton, author of Dragonslayer

Most: Westeros, north of the wall. I’ve never seen so much untracked powder…

Tamsyn Muir, author of Gideon the Ninth

Most: Dinétah from Rebecca Roanhorse’s Trail of Lightning so that I could, with sweaty palms and dry mouth, shake Maggie Hoskie’s hand.
Least: Dinétah from Rebecca Roanhorse’s Trail of Lightning, because I am weak and would just be gnawed to death or shot before I ever got to sweatily shake Maggie Hoskie’s hand. I guess I could nod respectfully at her as I died.

Brian Naslund, author of Blood of an Exile

Most: Tamriel, because I’ve spent enough time playing Elder Scrolls games that you can drop me anywhere and two weeks later I’ll be a moderately successful adventurer with a decent house. (Or I’ll have been killed by a mud crab within five minutes, but I’m willing to risk it.)
Least: Mad Max Universe, because I’m very prone to rashes and a desert apocalypse environment seems very rash-inducing, with very few options for treating said rashes. Also, murderous raiders don’t seem like great neighbors.

JY Yang, author of The Ascent to Godhood

Most: Honestly I would love to live a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…. Star Wars was the first thing that truly got me into SFF as a child, I just loved its textures and its sense of fun. The juxtaposition of its high-gloss centers of power and sand-crusted backwaters. I too would like to silence irritants during work meetings with the power of my mind, or tell the fuzz that these are not the droids you are looking for…
Least: The worlds I would least like to live in are all the post-apocalyptic ones. Sure, Fury Road was fun and everything, but would I actually want to LIVE there? Hell no.

Max Gladstone, author of Empress of Forever

Most: Peter F. Hamilton has a knack for making weird, cool, adventurous and above all livable futures—before he takes a sledgehammer to them. The first half of The Reality Dysfunction, and most of Judas Unchained, are essentially Escape Velocity fanfic: sprawling adventurous futures in deep SPAAAACE, rich with secrets and opportunity. Yeah, eventually ghosts and aliens show up, but by the time they do you’re really bought into the future they’re wrecking! Banks’ Culture certainly seems like the most pleasant future on offer, so long as you’re not drowning in feces on a secret mission. Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosiverse would also be a good choice. There are a lot of things to do there.

Least: Most worlds with a destined savior, chosen one, or whatever. Not because I dislike the concept of destiny! But because worlds that turn around a Destined One tend to be pretty uninteresting if you’re not the One. What’s everyone else doing with their time?

S.L. Huang, author of Null Set

Most: Yoon Ha Lee’s Machineries of Empire. It may be a terrible and violent dystopia, but I’d be able to do magic with MATH!
Least: …Yoon Ha Lee’s Machineries of Empire.

Saad Z. Hossain, author of The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday

Most: I’d like to live in the Culture universe. Post-scarcity human society, totally utopian, sarcastic machine minds that are almost more human than human, glands that let you experience a plethora of mind-altering states without ill effect, killer drones at your beck and call… it doesn’t get better.
Least: The most horrible is probably Joe Abercrombie’s world. I mean it’s a standard dark fantasy world but the way he gives it to his characters, it’s almost impossible to believe anyone will get out with any shred of dignity, let alone an actual happy ending.

Cate Glass, author of An Illusion of Thieves

Least: Game of Thrones world. Whew. You can’t trust anybody.

Most: Roger Zelazny’s Amber, though only if I was one of the royal family and I could actually travel through Amber’s many reflections, finding one that was just perfect for me.

Andrew Bannister, author of Iron Gods

Least: This is going to seem strange, but the sff world I would least to live in would be anything that resembled Iain M Banks’ Culture. At first sight that must seem strange because who wouldn’t want to live in a utopia like that? No work, no ill health, unlimited leisure – what’s not to like? But Iain knew exactly what he was doing. The only time anything interesting happens in the Culture is as a result of external threat; so much so that the really interesting people join a secretive body called Special Circumstances which practically has the remit of going out to look for trouble. Without that, the people of the Culture are fundamentally unchallenged and bored.

Most: That leaves the question of where I would most like to live. A place where stuff is happening, I think. A place, a civilization in flux, experiencing some challenge. And I fancy somewhere sunny. How about the near-future South Africa of Lauren Beukes’ ‘Zoo City’? My only condition being that I would like to be one of the people with money.

 

Stay tuned for more #magicXmayhem all summer long!

 

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The Ultimate Magic X Mayhem Playlist

We asked the authors of Magic X Mayhem to pick theme songs for their main characters. And the resulting playlist is definitely full of mayhem. We advise listening to it on shuffle to maximize the chaos.

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Pick a Theme Song for Your Main Character

 

JY Yang, author of The Ascent to Godhood

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO ASK ME THIS because in the process of writing the first two Tensorate novellas I definitely came up with theme songs for the Sanao twins. They’re classic Mandopop songs from my childhood and now I have a chance to inflict them upon the world:
Akeha’s theme song is “潇洒走一回” (loosely meaning like “to live without care/restraint”): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ8Hxm2W5Ts It’s hard to explain the meaning of the song, just enjoy the music.)
Mokoya’s theme song is “橄榄树” (The Olive Tree): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u3MRVXGU9M (“Don’t ask me where I’m from/Home is far away/Why do I wander?/Wander these lost places”)

Brian Naslund, author of Blood of an Exile:

“When the Levee Breaks”, Led Zeppelin

Tamsyn Muir, author of Gideon the Ninth

This already got picked for me, so Gideon’s theme song is Cobra Starship’s “Good Girls Go Bad”, sorry.

S.L. Huang, author of Null Set

Eye of the Tiger”.

Saad Z. Hossain, author of The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday

“I’m too Sexy” by Right Said Fred

Duncan Hamilton, author of Dragonslayer

I picked my villain for this – Amaury, the Prince Bishop – “Wannabe”, by the Spice Girls.

Cate Glass, author of An Illusion of Thieves

For Romy? “Black Magic Woman” from Santana. “I’ve got a black magic woman; got me so blind I can’t see…”

Max Gladstone, author of Empress of Forever

For Vivian Liao, tech billionaire turned far-future survivor: “Power,” by Kanye West (from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy).
“Living in the 21st Century / doing something mean to it”

For Zanj, imprisoned pirate queen: “What’s Up Danger”, by Blackway & Black Caviar (from the Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse Soundtrack).

Sarah Gailey author of Magic for Liars

“Don’t Ask Me” by OK GO

Andrew Bannister, author of Iron Gods

Goodness, that’s difficult. But I think “Isobel” by Bjork comes close. It captures her sense of separation, of the unbreakable self-contained core of her.

 

Stay tuned for more #magicXmayhem all summer long!

 

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Magic or Mayhem?

Our year of Magic X Mayhem is about to kick into high gear, and our authors are more than ready.

We asked them: Magic or Mayhem? and the results are pretty wild. But then again, we expected no less.

Magic or Mayhem?

Andrew Bannister, author of Iron Gods

Definitely mayhem, because people are the cause and the cure (if it needs during) of mayhem, and people are my favorite thing. Magic, on the other hand, seems to me to be somehow detached from people. Also, let’s face it, mayhem is fun!

Sarah Gailey, author of Magic for Liars

Magic, because I’ve already had enough Mayhem to last me a little while.

Max Gladstone, author of Empress of Forever

Mayhem! Especially for Empress of Forever. Magic is many things to many people—it’s a tool for revolution or a technology for control. Mayhem is always and truly mayhem.

Cate Glass, author of An Illusion of Thieves

Image Place holder  of - 10Magic most definitely! Designing and writing magic is at least as cool as doing magic. It’s fun teaching it to your characters, especially in a world like the Chimera world, where there are no schools of magic, no books of lore, and asking questions about it can get you dead. I enjoy deciding what it feels like and watching them mess up and discover the cost. I do occasionally deprive my beloved characters of body parts—or at least the temporary use of them—and I’ve been known to stuff an extra soul into a person’s body, which I think would qualify as mayhem. That is the price of them having me write their stories. It is all for their own good.

Duncan Hamilton, author of Dragonslayer

Mayhem! Because, well, MAYHEM!!

Saad Z. Hossain, author of The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday

I gotta go with magic. Magic just gives us endless possibilities and fun. I think we spend our whole lives trying to actually find some magic, and this search for magic is what keeps us alive. Do you remember that childhood yearning for actual magic to exist, any little bit of it, that desperate wish for hidden worlds to exist, even if we can’t see them or be a part of them? The sense of wonder? The conviction that impossible things might happen any minute? We become beggars when we lose that, plodding along trying to get ahead of some useless drudgery.

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S.L. Huang, author of Null Set

Mayhem. Because let’s be real, if I had magic, I’d just use it to create more mayhem.

Andrew Bannister, author of Creation Machine

Magic or mayhem? Definitely mayhem, because people are the cause and the cure (if it needs curing) of mayhem, and people are my favourite thing. Magic, on the other hand, seems to me to be somehow detached from people. Also, let’s face it, mayhem is fun!

Tamsyn Muir, author of Gideon the Ninth

Magic, because I am aspirational and can already cause mayhem on my own.

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Brian Naslund, author of Blood of an Exile:

Mayhem! Spells and incantations are cool, but anarchy is far more interesting. Life’s always a little more colorful when the world is completely falling apart.

JY Yang, author of The Ascent to Godhood

insert “Why not both?” gif, and also “Both. Both is good.”*

(Note from Tor: Reader, we inserted the .gifs)

But if I really had to pick one, it would be magic. Why? Because mayhem is fun, but magic actually gets shit done.

 

Stay tuned for more #magicXmayhem all summer long!

 

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Roll Up a #MagicXMayhem Character!

We’re a thief in a haunted space castle with a Hand of Glory who’s definitely fomenting rebellion.

Who are you?

MxMCharacterSheet 3_19

 

Learn more about the books of #magicXmayhem:

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

Dragonslayer by Duncan M. Hamilton

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

The Ascent to Godhood by JY Yang

The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z. Hossain

Blood of an Exile by Brian Naslund

An Illusion of Thieves by Cate Glass

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

And look for more magic and mayhem later this summer featuring:

Elizabeth Bear’s The Red-Stained Wings
Cherie Priest’s The Toll
Andrew Bannister’s Iron Gods
S. L. Huang’s Null Set
Max Gladstone’s Empress of Forever

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Introducing Magic X Mayhem!

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Great Power. No Responsibility.

Feel like everything’s a little crazy this year? You’re not alone. There’s mayhem in the air, and magic too. 2019 is a year for breaking all the rules, both in the world and on our bookshelves. Gone are the days of simple good-versus-evil narratives; these are complicated times that call for complicated characters. Henceforth, 2019 shall be known as our year of magic and mayhem.

Place holder  of - 29An impressive array of writers are fueling all this chaos and charm. Featured authors include Seanan McGuire (Middlegame), Cate Glass (An Illusion of Thieves), Sarah Gailey (Magic for Liars), Duncan M. Hamilton (Dragonslayer), Tamsyn Muir (Gideon the Ninth), Brian Naslund (Blood of an Exile), Saad Z. Hossain (The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday), JY Yang (The Ascent to Godhood) and more. 

To paraphrase a great philosopher of our time, these books have everything: murder, dragons, alchemical twins, regular twins, godhood both forgotten and newly attained, schools for sorcerers, lesbian necromancers, magical heists, helpful reanimated skeletons, prophets, swordplay, immortals, too-mortals, mercenaries, space dictators, terrestrial dictators, haunted bridges, ancient technology, ancient folklore, and, naturally, dirty magazines. 

To get started with our year of wild rides and chaotic characters, download our free digital sampler of Magic & Mayhem titles and follow #magicXmayhem for more content in the coming weeks and months.

In addition to the authors above, look for more magic and mayhem from:

  • Elizabeth Bear’s The Red-Stained Wings
  • Cherie Priest’s The Toll
  • Andrew Bannister’s Iron Gods
  • S. L. Huang’s Null Set
  • Max Gladstone’s Empress of Forever

Download the Sampler:

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