Monday, January 18, 2010

Possibly the Longest Year of Your Life

Did I mention that I've completed the rewrite of Deep State, the sequel to This Is Not a Game? This would be the New Improved Deep State, Now with Editorial Input.

I expect the book will appear in a year or so. You'll all have something to look forward to in 2011!

As an aside, I have an idea for an alternate title: Revolution Creep. What are y'all's preferences?

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16 Comments:

Blogger Mark B. Wise said...

Revolution Creep sounds like orbital mechanics or Benedict Arnold. Is either appropriate?

8:25 PM  
Blogger john_appel said...

If you're looking for potential positioning outside SF-genre space... Hell, I don't know which would be better. *Maybe* Revolution Creep. I think if you're envisioning being shelved with your other works, then Deep State may be better. But I'm not a marketing guy, just a humble infosec practitioner.

But 2011? Man, you haven't been kidding about publishing being a broken industry. Then again, I guess they have to put all the resources into true rush jobs like Going Rouge... (And yes, your sarcasm meter should be pegging about now...)

9:19 PM  
Blogger Mark Hughes said...

I prefer sequel names that reference the original, and that seems to be popular in the mystery genre as well ("The Cat Who…", etc.), though there's plenty of counter-examples (Robert Parker's individually-named books). Maybe "The Deep Game"? "This is Not a Revolutionary Creep"⸮

10:14 PM  
Blogger Michael Grosberg said...

I like both, but Deep State sounds too much like a sequel to that other ten-minutes-into-the-future-thriller out there, Halting State. So I say, Go with Revolution Creep.

6:15 AM  
Blogger Memerson said...

I like both as well, but leaning towards Revolution Creep

10:03 AM  
Blogger Max Kaehn said...

Being well familiar with mission creep, I find “revolution creep” to be an amusing and intriguing notion; I’d go with that. (I work in Silicon Valley and This is Not a Game was very plausible to me...)

3:06 PM  
Blogger Rebecca said...

I don't "squee" very often, but dammit, this may be one occasion that demands it. :D :D :D

3:09 AM  
Blogger Charlie Stross said...

Michael Grosberg: the sequel to "Halting State" is titled "Rule 34" (yes, that Rule 34), and it's about 60% written right now. Although "Deep State" would be a really good title for the third book in that trilogy, should I live long enough to write it.

Actually, if $BOOK is a sequel to TINAG, I've got a gut feeling that the marketing department will find it easier to shift if it has a title that resonates with the earlier book. Putting 'em together, how about "This Is Not A Revolution"?

5:39 AM  
Blogger halojones-fan said...

Max K: Yes, that's exactly what I was going to say. I think that "Revolution Creep" is a great title--IF the text supports it.

Or you could go just use the title "Cutesy Internet Reference So Geeks Will Buy This Book" the way that some other authors do.

11:30 AM  
Blogger halojones-fan said...

PS john_appel: I've never heard of "Going Rouge", is it some kind of cosmetics-industry memoir?

11:30 AM  
Blogger john_appel said...

halojones-fan: Bah! Can't believe I got that wrong. Well, yes I can.

Although I'm sure some marketing wunderkind would still give that more push than one of Dubjay's books.

2:51 PM  
Blogger dubjay said...

Okay, that settles it. The book's new title will be "Going Rouge."

I guess my editor's take on the matter was correct: "Revolution Creep" works for those whose first thought was that it was a take on "mission creep," not so much for those who didn't.

So I guess it stays Deep State. And maybe Charlie's third book will have to be something like State of the Union.

11:36 PM  
Blogger halojones-fan said...

If anything, Stross's third book should be "For Great Justice", the only internet meme to inspire the name of a US military operation.

9:20 AM  
Anonymous Dru said...

"Collapsing State Vector" ?

4:01 PM  
Anonymous Saladin said...

Probably way too late for my two cents, buuut: I believe I may have seen a chunk of this book? If so, I have to say that Revolution Creep seems to fit better with what I read... The concerns with (the) 'state' were there, but I dunno about 'deep.' Part of what was so interesting, in fact, were the questions posed about how 'superficial'-seeming phenomena could have profound political effects.

4:47 PM  
Blogger Michael Grosberg said...

I just found out Peter watts is writing a novel titled "State of Grace", so perhaps you three (Walter, Peter and Charlie) could bundle all three *state novels and sell them as a unit?

8:48 AM  

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