MultiReal

Grasping for the Wind Praises “Infoquake”

I’m putting the finishing touches on my website redesigns, and I’ve been enjoying the scenery in Sedona, Arizona, which is why I haven’t been posting much here lately. But here’s one nice quick bit of news… the Grasping for the Wind Science Fiction and Fantasy Reviews blog has posted a rave review for Infoquake: David Louis Edelman has recreated the excitement of the world of business in his science fiction novel, Infoquake… Edelman has succeeded … Read more

Read Chapters 1-5 of “MultiReal” in the Pyr Sampler

Interested in reading chapters 1-5 of my new novel MultiReal, a good three and a half months before the book’s in stores? Now’s your chance. Pyr has just released a 326-page sampler (PDF, 3.5 MB) of its upcoming titles for the spring and summer, and the first 45 pages or so of MultiReal are in it. Keep your eye out at science fiction conventions if you want to get your hands on a paper copy, … Read more

Robert J. Sawyer Praises “MultiReal”

I knew that attending the 2007 World Fantasy Convention would be a good idea for my career, I just didn’t know why. You always hear a lot of jabber about how networking is so important, it’s always good to have friends, blah blah blah — but you rarely get any concrete examples. Well, here’s a concrete example. In one of my blogs about my World Fantasy experience, I mentioned that I had finally met Hugo … Read more

An Inside Look at the Copy Editing Process

If you’re at all interested in the copy editing process that a novel goes through before it sees print, you might find this interesting. Here’s a conversation I just had this morning with my copy editor, Deanna Hoak, about a sentence in my upcoming book MultiReal. I’ve done a very minimal amount of editing to remove the “brb”s and such, but otherwise this is exactly how the conversation occurred.

MultiReal by David Louis Edelman The chapter in question is a flashback featuring a conversation between Marcus Surina and his daughter Margaret. In the original passage, Marcus says: “There’s a look people get when the Null Current is about to pull them under, Margaret. A look of inevitability. It’s the look of the stalk of wheat, watching the thresher approach and knowing that the time’s come for a newer, stronger crop to bask in the sun.”

Now Marcus Surina’s supposed to be a little — well, odd. But Deanna’s concern was that having him ascribe emotion to a stalk of wheat might be a little too odd. So we hashed it out this morning over IM as follows:

Deanna: With the wheat thing, maybe about a mouse that can’t get away fast enough?

Deanna: I’ll look at it more closely on second read, or you can let me know if you think of something.

DLE: Let me look at that sentence

Deanna: I just know it hit me as off when I read it the first time.

DLE: Hmm

DLE: You’re right… it does seem weird for a stalk of wheat to have a “look”

Deanna: Yeah, I was afraid the reader would perceive him as loonier than you intended.

DLE: He *is* supposed to be odd, and use really weird metaphors

DLE: But… you’re right. That might be pushing it.

DLE: What if I said something like “It’s the look that the stalk of wheat must get when it watches the thresher approach…”

DLE: Does the “must get” distance it at all?

Deanna: Hm. I think “look” is really the problem.

Deanna: “Look” with “wheat”

Deanna: From my way of thinking…

Deanna: It’s early in the book. The reader isn’t going to know yet if it’s just him who talks that way, or if you just write that way. I would fear someone picking it up in the bookstore and thumbing through the first few pages might think you continually use those.

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Peter Watts Praises “MultiReal”

I had been planning to unveil this news at a later time closer to the book’s July release date. But I just browsed to the Amazon page for MultiReal and saw that the news is already out. So no use waiting. Peter Watts, Hugo Award-nominated author of Blindsight and the Rifters Trilogy (Starfish, Maelstrom, and Behemoth), expert in the ecophysiology of marine mammals, Canadian, and just all-around nice guy, has given an advance blurb for … Read more

The Final Cover for “MultiReal”

I mentioned that Pyr was moving in a new direction for the “MultiReal” cover art. Well, feast your eyes on the final cover of “MultiReal,” hitting bookshelves early summer 2008.

“MultiReal”: It’s Done

'MultiReal' manuscriptThe photo you see here is the completed manuscript of my second novel, MultiReal, the sequel to Infoquake. It’s been somewhere around three years in the making, and now it’s done.

The book measures 477 pages, or about 148,000 words (including appendices). There are 6 sections, 45 chapters, and 8 appendices. The opening epigraph comes from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” The tagline? “Infinite possibility is only a state of mind.”

Now, when I say the book is done, of course that doesn’t mean it’s absolutely, completely done. That means it’s going off to my editor at Pyr, Lou Anders, for any last-minute comments. I’ll be printing out another copy of the book for myself and giving it a last read-through with red pen in hand. I’ll be incorporating those changes by the end of the month — and then the book goes off to the copy editor. But I expect the changes to be pretty minor from this point on.

(Want to know how finicky I am? The printouts after the jump below showing some of my line edits to MultiReal are from the fourth complete draft of the book.)

Here’s an example of the kind of changes I’m talking about. I discovered yesterday that, after who knows how many read-throughs and rewrites, in chapter 45 one of my characters was “threading her way through the throngs of Thasselians.” I’ll admit I’m not always above allocating an assortment of alliteration in my writing, but this one was totally unintentional. And it sounded ridiculous, so it needed to be fixed. (The even more ridiculous part is that I had misspelled “throngs” as “thongs.” Freudian slip?)

So having completed the book, I can definitely say this: you have never, ever read a book like MultiReal before.

MultiReal might be the most exciting book you’ve ever read that contains both a series of Congressional speeches and a three-way dartgun battle. It has both a granular discussion about the ethics of different software pricing models and a virtual sex scene with four-breasted mermaids.

To give you an idea of how complex this book is, chew on this: there are three main point-of-view characters, three minor point-of-view characters, one chapter in epistolary form, and one chapter from the global omniscient point of view. The prose slips from past to present tense a few times. You’re going to learn that one important piece of history mentioned in Infoquake didn’t quite happen the way you think it happened. Some of the characters speak in code. More than one have double allegiances. Oh, and have I mentioned the multiple, alternate, simultaneous, and asynchronous realities?

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A Preview of “MultiReal,” the Sequel to “Infoquake”

Today I’ve reached a milestone. I’ve finished what I’m labeling the fourth draft of MultiReal, the sequel to Infoquake. The book still has some rewriting to do before I let it out into the world for the public’s delectation. But if MultiReal were a piece of software, you’d call it “feature complete.” Meaning it has all the bells and whistles that will exist in the final version, even if some of them still have some rough edges.

Here are some things you can expect to see when MultiReal finally hits the shelves:

  • The death of at least one (and possibly two) major characters
  • The return of the group in black robes, and the answer to the question of who was behind the black code attack on Natch
  • A hands-on demonstration of how an enraged Islander delivers smackdown justice (hint: you need a big-ass Islander shock baton)
  • Many more details about the MultiReal program, including what happens when two users pit MultiReal programs against one another
  • A vicious power struggle between Natch and Jara for control over the Surina/Natch MultiReal Fiefcorp
  • The hidden truth behind the death of Marcus Surina and the onset of the Economic Plunge of the 310s
  • The introduction of several new pivotal characters, including:
    • Magan Kai Lee, Len Borda’s right-hand man
    • Papizon, Rey Gonerev and Ridgello, Magan’s loyal aides
    • Khann Frejohr, the newly elected speaker of the Congress of L-PRACGs
    • Pierre Loget, bio/logic programmer and rival to Natch
    • Geronimo, some anonymous dimwit who looks almost exactly like Natch
    • Berilla, the infamous queen bee of Horvil and Ben’s family
  • More slippery dealings by Frederic and Petrucio Patel
  • A look at what the Defense and Wellness Council is really up to, including several chapters from the POV of Len Borda and Magan Kai Lee
  • Scenes set on the virtual sex gratification network known as the Sigh, and a nice fat appendix about the workings of that network which will probably frighten my wife when she reads it
  • Chapters set in:
    • Old Chicago, a bombed-out city now inhabited mainly by the diss
    • Melbourne, the city of the central government
    • D-WeCC, the hidden headquarters of the Defense and Wellness Council
    • London, locale of Berilla’s cavernous West End estate
  • A look at the inner workings of the Prime Committee, including a section that does for governmental hearings what Infoquake did for product demos
  • An explanation from Brone about how MultiReal is pivotal to his impending “Revolution of Selfishness”
  • A climactic scene full of surprises, dartgun battles, double-crossings, quick escapes, and multiple realities
  • Another set of appendices exploring the world of the Jump 225 trilogy, and a thorough synopsis of the events of Infoquake

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