Science fiction and mainstream books by award-winning author M. Darusha Wehm
I worked on a really fun collaborative interactive fiction project called A Death in Hyperspace, and it is a finalist for the Nebula Award in Game Writing this year!
Thanks to my collaborators: Stewart C Baker, Phoebe Barton, James Beamon, Kate Heartfield, Isabel J. Kim, Sara S. Messenger, Naca Rat, Natalia Theodoridou, and Merc Fenn Wolfmoor.
Happy new year all! Here’s what I did in 2024:
My tie-in novel with the board game Terraforming Mars, Shores of a New Horizon, came out.
I contributed to the short interactive fiction project A Death in Hyperspace for the IF Comp.
Hamlet, Prince of Robots, won the Sir Julius Vogel award for best novella!
And, of course, along with the other darklies, I was working on the trilogy project which begins with Transmentation | Transience, which will be out in March.
It will be here before we know it!
Over at Many Worlds, we’ve shared the incredible cover for Darkly Lem’s Transmentation | Transience: Or, An Accession to the People’s Council for Nine Thousand Worlds (Book One of The Formation Saga).
Phew, that’s a mouthful!
The book is the first in a trilogy coming in March 2025 from Blackstone, and the cover was designed by Kathryn English.
Darkly Lem is the shared pseudonym for five members of the Many Worlds collective: John Eure, Craig Lincoln, Ben Murphy, Cadwell Turnbull, and me! We are so excited to share these worlds with you all!
I am going to be in-person at Worldcon Glasgow, so if you see me, say hi!
I’ll be at the following events:
Is the Multiverse the New Time Travel?
Saturday, August 10, 2024 10:00 BST
It used to be that if you wanted to resurrect a character, you had to turn back time. Now, you just bring over a doppelganger from the nearest parallel universe. Is this innovative or lazy? Why is this happening all of a sudden? What does it mean for narrative conventions when all bets are off?
Stroll with the Stars – Sunday, The Tall Ship
Sunday, August 11, 2024 09:00 BST
This weekend at Continuity, the 2024 Aotearoa New Zealand national SFF convention, Hamlet, Prince of Robots won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for best novella!
Thanks to the voters and my esteemed fellow nominees for their excellent company!
I’m delighted to share that Hamlet, Prince of Robots is a finalist for the Sir Julius Vogel Award for best novella.
The Sir Julius Vogel awards are a fan-voted award recognizing excellence in science fiction, fantasy and horror from Aotearoa New Zealand.
Here’s what I published in 2023:
Novella
Short Story
“I, Not I” in Many Worlds or the Simulacra
“Blink” (as part of Darkly Lem) in Many Worlds or the Simulacra
I’m beside myself (and four other people) to be able to share that along with my co-writing team of Josh Eure, Craig Lincoln, Ben Murphy and Cadwell Turnbull, we’ve signed a three-book deal with Blackstone for a trilogy of multiversal political thrillers. The first book is planned to come out in late 2024.
Blackstone Publishing has also acquired another trilogy with Turnbull, as a part of Darkly Lem (which also includes authors Josh Eure, Craig Lincoln, Ben Murphy, and M. Darusha Wehm). Book 1 will be called Transmentation | Transience and is expected to release in Fall 2024.
IN A (MANY) WORLD(S)… in which people can travel between universes – entering new bodies with entire in-universe identities gifted to them by a mysterious entity known as the Simulacrum – universe-spanning societies of interdimensional travelers have arisen over thousands of years. But this unchecked expansion has been curtailed in recent centuries as these societies encounter each other with greater frequency… and friction. Now they vie for power, knowledge, wealth, and control within their many worlds (actually many universes, but… that’s just not as poetic, is it?). For fans of The Expanse Series by James S.A. Corey, The Hainish Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin, and the Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer.
Darkly Lem is five authors in an impeccably-tailored trenchcoat (Josh Eure, Craig Lincoln, Ben Murphy, Cadwell Turnbull, and M. Darusha Wehm). They live in an Earth-type locality in the Central Cluster with their five kids, several spouses, and a modest menagerie, where they are at work on Many Worlds novels.
From tor.com
I’ve put together a kind of soundtrack for Hamlet, Prince of Robots. Arguably there are some spoilers in here, so if you haven’t read the book yet, you’ve been warned.
Happy New Year!
Here’s what I published this year:
“The Stars Above Eos” in Fireside, March 2022 (1700 words). A short, sweet (sad?) science fiction love story about transcending death. Content notes for body modification and death.
“A Ghost of a Chance” (8400 words) in The Stars Beyond: A Twilight Imperium Anthology from Aconyte. Groundhog Day, but it’s a first contact story.
“how to make time” in The Deadlands, March 2022. A recipe.
While not my things exactly, I would also like to draw your attention to the original stories we published at Many Worlds.
“Roamers of Tala” by Josh Eure
“True Believers” by Craig Lincoln
“And the Flower Grows and the Petal Falls and I Am Left Holding this Withered Stem” by Ben Murphy
“What Has Vanished” by Elizabeth Sinden Pipher
“Kichkandi” by Smriti Ravindra
“The Cemetery for All the Mothers Who Died Way Too Young” by Mark Galarrita
“Memento Mori” by Elliot Richards
My book Children of Arkadia is one of the core books in the brand new HopePunk StoryBundle, curated by Adam Gaffen.
Welcome to the Hopepunk bundle!
What is Hopepunk, you ask?
It’s a subgenre of speculative fiction, so it includes fantasy as well as science fiction, and it’s a reaction to the dystopian views that grimdark novels have. Where grimdark is violent and amoral, hopepunk stories feature characters who fight for positive change, communal responses to challenges, and even radical kindness. It’s an intentional ray of sunshine in what could be a bleak literary landscape. It’s taking a stand because it’s right, not because it’s profitable. It’s rebelling against an oppressive regime to improve everyone’s lot, not just your own. It emphasizes cooperation over conflict while realizing that a Happily Ever After isn’t guaranteed.
And it’s everywhere.
A few examples, you say?
How about The Martian? The classic Discworld novels? Jumping into movies, look at Black Panther. Or head to television and watch The Orville or Doctor Who. Hopepunk promises that tomorrow can be better than today, given passion and effort.
And it’s here for you today!
We’ve gathered some of the most rousing, forward-thinking, relatable Hopepunk novels on the market for you today and put them into this special bundle. Check it out!
Adam Gaffen
For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you’re feeling generous), you’ll get the basic bundle of four books in any ebook format—WORLDWIDE.
If you pay at least the bonus price of just $20, you get all four of the regular books, plus seven more books/boxed sets for a total of 11!
Happy New Year! Nebula, and Sir Julius Vogel Awards are open for nominations for prose, Rhysling nominations are open for poetry and Hugo nominations will open soon.
My short story “A Thorn in Your Memory” is eligible for prose.
My poem “the chrononaut” is eligible for poetry.
