Montgomery County Book Festival report!

Cyn and I are just back from the Montgomery County Book Festival, where we had an amazing time!  Congrats on a terrific event and thanks for all the hard work by the organizers and volunteers!

My panel was titled "We're Not in Kansas Anymore: SciFi Reads," and included co-panelists Brian Falkner and David Macinnis Gill.  I haven't read Brian's work, but am excited to do so now; and I'm thrilled that the third book in David's BLACK HOLE SUN series is forthcoming next month.

We had a great discussion, including how science fiction reflects society and inspirations of our respective works.

Here are some pictures:

Mari Mancusi and Cory Putnam Oakes

Origami by Larry Hammer

Opening night reception

Janni Lee Simner

Me and Brian Falkner

Suzanne Crowley, Janet Fox, and me

Jenny Moss and Cyn

Lisa McMann and David Macinnis Gill

Check out Cyn's report here for more photos!

INVISIBLE SUN

INVISIBLE SUN, by David Macinnis Gill (Greenwillow, April 2012)(ages 14+).  Former Regulators, now outlaws, Durango and Vienne are on a quest to retrieve data about Durango's past and the still-percolating plots his father left behind.  But the mission goes awry when Vienne is captured by agents of the insurgent mastermind Mr. Lyme. 

Can Durango get her back or is he doomed to lost both her and all of Mars?

INVISIBLE SUN is a riveting and action-packed companion to BLACK HOLE SUN, revisiting a Mars that is red in tooth and claw.  With sardonic wit and intricate plotting, Gill brings a dystopian world to life.  Readers will eagerly await the conclusion to the trilogy.     

BLACK HOLE SUN

BLACK HOLE SUN, by David Macinnis Gill (Greenwillow, Sept. 2010)(12+). For seventeen-year-old (in earth years) mercenary chief Durango, things keep getting worse. Once a member of an elite military corps, now he's just trying to get by.

It was one thing to attempt (for hire, of course) to thwart the bizarre kidnapping of the children of a noblewoman, but now he's taken a job protecting a group of reclusive miners from humanoid cannibals in the antipodes of an anarchic Mars. But the miners are harboring a secret, and even the cannibals are not quite what they seem. Can Durango and his group hold it together, overcome their past, protect the miners, and still get paid?

Plot is well-wrought, fast-paced, with an intriguing back-story; Durango, his AI implant Mimi, and Vienne (Durango's number two) are intense, sarcastic, and sometimes brutal in a society whose law has deteriorated into "kill or be killed." In sum, in BLACK HOLE SUN, Gill offers an exciting, action-packed read on a Mars that is red in tooth and claw.

SOUL ENCHILADA

SOUL ENCHILADA, by David Macinnis Gill (Greenwillow, 2009)(12+). Bug's grandfather sold his soul to the devil for a '58 Cadillac. Now that he's dead, payment is due. But somehow, he escaped, which means that Bug is responsible - when she was thirteen, her grandfather tricked her into co-signing.

Even with the assistance of her longtime crush Pesto (who is not what he seems), can Bug make sense of her life and save her immortal soul and/or her Biarritz?

SOUL ENCHILADA is warm, funny, and full of grace. Richly detailed, Bug and Pesto are engaging and believable; readers will be enthusiastically rooting for them to smite the devil. Highly recommended.