Dan Moren

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The Aleph Extraction

  • Cover story: The Aleph Extraction

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    I’ve had the fortune to know a lot of talented artists in my day: my aunt was an accomplished painter, my mom majored in art for a time and produced some beautiful work, and even one of my childhood friends is now a celebrated cartoonist and illustrator.

    Me, I’m lucky if I can draw a stick figure with the right proportions.

    And yet, I somehow keep ending up trying. Back when my first novel came out, I made a terrible sketch that a truly amazing artist used as a jumping off point, yielding the gorgeous cover of The Caledonian Gambit.

    When it came time to discuss The Aleph Extraction‘s cover, my publisher liaison Gemma asked me to help fill out a brief about goal for the cover: what it might convey, what imagery or scenes from the book might lend themselves to depiction, and so on.

    Luckily, by this point I’d already seen the final cover for The Bayern Agenda1, and I knew that, to me, one of the key things was to keep a consistent visual look and feel with the sequel.

    In terms of subject matter, given that the majority of Aleph takes place on a luxury starliner, with one of the key dramatic moments a heist inside a wormhole, I figured that would be something fun to highlight on the cover. And since I’d established in previous books that wormholes are blue/purple on the inside, bringing out those colors in a similar fashion to Bayern‘s red/yellow palette would hopefully produce a similarly eye-catching effect.

    So I picked up my iPad and my Apple Pencil and set out to craft another masterful sketch of what the cover might look like. After consultation with my agent, he somehow let me send the publisher this wondrous work of art:

    To Gemma’s credit, she did not immediately dissolve into paroxysms of laughter—well, okay, I wasn’t there when she read the email, and I certainly wouldn’t have blamed her. When I showed this sketch to my then-fiancé, she looked at it, then looked at me, then back at the drawing and asked “Is that a…space whale?”2 Other friends to whom I hesitantly showed my sketch offered other, perhaps more untoward comparisons. And that was before they got to the astronaut’s, er, questionable anatomy.3

    But no, in her response, Gemma jumped on it, saying “That cover is winner. It’s happening. That’s gonna be it.” And, sure enough, when I got a look at cover designer Georgina Hewitt’s initial pass a couple weeks later, all the basic elements—the wormhole, the spaceship, and the floating astronaut—were there. We made some subsequent tweaks of those elements, including color and image choice, but the composition stayed largely the same throughout the process.4

    Authors often don’t get a big say in their covers, and I appreciate having had the chance to give even a tiny bit of input. I’m delighted with the way Aleph looks, and happy to continue my run of having three excellent cover designs for my books.

    But I’m probably still not going to learn how to draw anytime soon.

    1. Which, I should note, I provided very little input on. The first I saw of the cover was a handful of mockups, at which point I made some noises about colors, and that was about it.↩

    2. Don’t worry: we still got married.↩

    3. It’s a broken tether cable, people. Get your mind out of the gutter!↩

    4. One disappointment: I loved the pop of the magenta lettering that you can still see on early images, and I think is still the cover of the ebook version, but it turned out that color didn’t translate well to print, which is why the physical copy has more muted lettering.↩

  • One week of ALEPH, and what I’ve been up to

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    I would say “what a week” if I had any idea what week it actually was. Launching a book in the middle of a pandemic is on the one hand, weird, but on another, surprisingly not unlike launching a book not in the middle of a pandemic. And if you can follow that sentence, then I am exactly as amazing a writer as I purport to be.

    As is traditional, I’ve spent the week of my book’s release traveling around the Internet like an itinerant performer, doing podcasts and writing guest posts on blogs and partaking in interviews. Friday seems like a good opportunity to round up some of these week-one appearances, just in case you are either a) trying to catch them all or b) need to know where you can avoid me.

    Guest Posts
    * Wondering what theme really drives the story of The Aleph Extraction? Over at John Scalzi’s blog, I wrote a Big Idea post about truth, our perception of it, and why that matters so much to all the characters in the book.
    * As I’ve said elsewhere, I. Love. Heists. So naturally, my favorite bit of Aleph is the adrenaline-fueled heist that takes place in the middle, and Mary Robinette Kowal gave me the opportunity to discuss the challenges of planning, executing, and writing it on her site.
    * They say you learn something every day, but it definitely took me more than five days to write The Aleph Extraction, so I probably should have learned more than the five things I talk about on Chuck Wendig’s blog.

    Podcasts
    * In what’s become one of my favorite traditions, Jason Snell and I sat down on an episode of The Incomparable to not only chat about The Aleph Extraction, but also to answer questions from listeners!1
    * I also made my second appearance on Rocket, where Brianna Wu and Simone de Rochefort peppered me with questions about the writing process and how my career has progressed.
    * Scott McNulty had me back on Random Trek, in which the luck of the draw presented us with the Star Trek: The Next Generation two-part premiere, “Encounter at Farpoint.”
    * And I had a delightful conversation with Scott Ullery on the Narrated podcast, where he also got a chance to turn the tables and ask me some Inconceivable-style quiz questions.

    Interview
    * In an interview with Paul Semel, I recall some of the inspirations for Aleph, including an episode of Star Trek: TNG and a trailer for a TV series that never got made.

    That’s it for the first week of Aleph‘s release. I really appreciate all the support, the pictures from readers, and the tweets about the book, and I hope you’re all enjoying the read. If I may entreat one more thing from you, it would be to share the love, whether that means posting on social media or writing a review on Amazon or Goodreads or your blog, or wherever. It’s a small thing that can have a big impact, and it would mean a lot to me. Stay well, have a good weekend, and remember to watch out for the space bees.

    1. We’ve done similar episodes about The Bayern Agenda and The Caledonian Gambit.↩

  • Alternatives for delayed Aleph Extraction copies

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    Strange days, to be sure. Hope you’re all doing well, or at least as well as can be expected when you’re probably bouncing off the walls in your own home.

    So, here’s the deal. This weekend, several folks on Twitter alerted me that they’d received emails from Amazon telling them that pre-orders of the paperback version of The Aleph Extraction, which are supposed to be released on May 12, have been delayed, with no new ship date offered. As a result, customers who ordered the book have been given the option to cancel or keep their orders.

    I have it on good authority that I’m not alone in this situation; unsurprisingly, the coronavirus outbreak has had wide-reaching effects, and Amazon has responded in part by delaying shipments of non-essential goods, including books. Let’s be clear: authors—and, in many cases, publishers—have had no hand in these decisions whatsoever.

    Obviously, this isn’t great for writers. Pre-orders, as I’ve discussed elsewhere, are very important to authors, as they contribute to first-week sales numbers, which are also generally the biggest week of sales for a book and can often make or break a title. And those sales are even more important for a book like Aleph, where I can tell you that the possibility of future installments in the Galactic Cold War series very much hinges on how well this book does. Plus, since Amazon is still the biggest game in Booktown1, it’s in a position to make unilateral decisions that no author or publisher has a say in—so my career is, quite literally, at the company’s whims.

    That said, I know this is fairly small potatoes with everything else going on right now. Financially, I’m going to be fine; fiction writing is still only a small chunk of my income. If you’re content to just sit and wait until Amazon delivers your pre-order in its own sweet time, or, hey, if you feel you need to cancel your pre-order entirely, I don’t begrudge that in the slightest. I always advocate borrowing an ebook copy from your local library, via tools like Libby, Overdrive, and Hoopla—and, if the book isn’t available in your local library system, I bet they’ll probably even order a copy if you request it.

    If, after all of that, you are still determined to get a copy of The Aleph Extraction as soon as humanly possible—for which I thank you and bestow upon you many blessings!—you have a few options:

    • The ebook version is still on track and will be delivered on May 12. You can order it from a number of places, including direct from my publisher, Angry Robot, which gets you DRM-free copies in both of the most popular ebook formats: ePub (compatible with iPad, Kobo, and other readers) and MOBI (the Kindle format).2 Moreover, Angry Robot is currently running a sale through April 11: you can get 50 percent off all ebooks using the code SHELFISOLATION. If you prefer a different platform, you can also pick up an ebook copy from Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.3

    • If it’s a print copy you have your heart set on, I obviously can’t guarantee when it will arrive, but you may have better luck with a non-Amazon vendor. Barnes & Noble is, again, always an option—given that their business is much more book-centric than Amazon, they may still be prioritizing those shipments—but I always recommend you contact your local independent bookstore, because a) local bookstores are the so-called knees of the bees and b) they are probably full of lovely people who will do their best to help you out. The good news is that there are a couple great resources to help you with that: Indiebound will help you find independent bookstores near you, and the new Bookshop will let you order directly from many of those establishments online. And hey, even if the book doesn’t arrive any faster that way, you’ll at least get a warm and fuzzy feeling from supporting a local business!

    • I can’t speak to the current status of the audiobook for The Aleph Extraction. I know it was being produced as of about a month ago, but as Mary Robinette Kowal points out on Twitter, there are reasons the current world situation may result in delays to audiobooks as well. I’m hopeful it will still be available on May 12, alongside with the ebook, but I don’t have any guarantees as of this writing.

    Again, I know the problems of one little author don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, but I do appreciate the support you’ve all shown me over the last many years. It’s a weird time to be releasing a book, for sure, but we have to play the hand we’re dealt. It’s just over one month until Aleph‘s release, and the good news is that we’ve got a few more things up our sleeves, so keep an eye out.

    1. Population: Me↩

    2. You can also convert ePub files to Kindle format, if you’re so inclined.↩

    3. And, of course, Amazon, if you must, though, for obvious reasons, I’m reluctant to send it more business ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.↩

  • Giving it all away: Signed copies of BAYERN, free audiobooks, and more!

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    Update 11/22: The Commonwealth of Independent Systems shirt is also going to print, so I’ve thrown in one of those as a prize as well!

    Update 11/18: As my Illyrican Empire t-shirt is officially going to print, I’m adding a code for a free shirt as an extra prize!

    Here’s the thing about publishing: it takes time. Last year, right about now, I was knee-deep in cranking out The Aleph Extraction; here we are, a year later, and I’ve just delivered the revised manuscript of the book, with only a last look-see before it goes off to the printer. And then, six months from today, it’ll be winging its way into your hands, ears, or e-readers—as though by magic.

    In the meantime, however, what’s large left for me with this book—aside from a few last-minute tasks—is sitting and waiting. And, of course, encouraging all of you to pre-order.

    I’ve explained before why pre-orders are important: in short, they feed into the number of first week sales for a book, which is the most important week of sales, because it’s generally the highest and most reflective of what kind of demand there is for a book.

    If anything, pre-orders are more important than usual with this book, because I am not at present contracted for any future Galactic Cold War titles. So if you want to read more about the adventures of your pals Kovalic, Brody, Taylor, and Tapper1, the best way to ensure that there is a next adventure is to pre-order this one.

    To that end, I decided it would be fun to do a little promotion. So, if you’ve pre-ordered my book, send a copy of the receipt (photo or screenshot) to contest [at] dmoren.com. Make sure you send it from, or supply, an email address at which you can be reached.

    On November 26th, I’ll do a random drawing from those who have entered for each of the following prizes:

    And in case that isn’t enough, I may add one or two more prizes to the mix in the next week or so, in which case I will update this post accordingly. I appreciate all of your support and wish you the best of luck.

    Official Rules

    • Entrants must be over 18 and live in the US. (Sorry, international folks, but that’s the way it is. You can always request a free signed bookplate though!)
    • If you’re a family member or personal friend of the author, you’re ineligible for this giveaway. (But I still love you.)
    • Enter by sending a copy of your receipt for The Aleph Extraction to contest [at] dmoren.com. One entry per person! Your email will be used only for notification purposes related to the giveaway and will be discarded after the giveaway has concluded, unless you have opted to subscribe to my newsletter.
    • NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. To enter without a receipt, use this form; method of entry will not affect odds of winning.
    • Giveaway begins at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, Tuesday November 12th and runs until 11:59 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, Tuesday November 26th.
    • At the close of the giveaway, random numbers will be generated by random.org for each prize to be given away. The corresponding number in the spreadsheet of entries will be declared the winner. Only one prize per person, so if the same number comes up again, a new number will be generated.
    • Odds of winning depends on the number of entries.
    • Once contacted, winners have 48 hours to claim their prizes or a replacement winner will be picked. And so on, until winners are found for all the prizes.
    • VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

    1. Plus a few new faces from Aleph who I think you’re going to love.↩

  • The Aleph Extraction moves to May

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    We’re on the move! As mentioned on Twitter and in my newsletter yesterday, The Aleph Extraction, which was previously due in March of next year, has moved to May 2020.

    This came out of discussion with Angry Robot; we agreed that the schedule for getting the book out the door was a little tighter than we liked, and that adding a bit more time would ensure that Aleph would be the best book it could possibly be.

    I know many of you were looking forward to something to perk you up in the dreary days of March, but I think we can all agree that the superior weather of May means a great opportunity to lounge in the newly warm weather with a good read. My thanks to all of you who have already pre-ordered—it makes a huge difference to not only the success of Aleph, but also to helping advocate for further books in the Galactic Cold War series, which I’d love to continue writing. So, if you haven’t pre-ordered yet, well, what are you waiting for?

    Oh, and if you are a subscriber to my newsletter, you’ll have also gotten a treat with that aforementioned email: a never-before-seen deleted scene from The Bayern Agenda. I’m hoping to share a few more of these here and there, but I figured that might be a fun little extra. Interested in seeing that and more? Sign up for the low-volume newsletter.

  • Aleph’s well that ends well

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    What’s that, another book? Damn skippy.

    Get ready for THE ALEPH EXTRACTION, book two of the Galactic Cold War series.1 Coming in March 2020, we follow our intrepid band of covert operatives as they infiltrate the luxurious starliner of a notorious gangster, attempting to track down a mysterious artifact that could have major implications for the fate of the galaxy.

    Things certainly don’t look great for our heroes, if that spaceman below is any indication, but you can check out the lovely full cover designed by Georgina Hewitt, along with an exclusive excerpt, over at Barnes & Noble’s Sci-Fi Blog. And rest assured that there will be a lot more info to come over the next several months.2

    1. This time for real!↩

    2. Although I’m getting married this weekend, so it may have to wait a little bit.↩