UPLOAD Free on Kindle 4/17 – 4/20!!!

Readers of the award-winning techno-thriller Upload are comparing it to Transcendence, starring Johnny Depp. To celebrate the April 17 release of the film, the Kindle edition of UPLOAD will be FREE 4/17 – 4/20.

Upload Kindle Edition*** UPLOAD Free on Kindle 4/17 – 4/20 ***

Invite friends to the Goodreads event and the Facebook event. Help spread the word!

For a lot of people watching Transcendence, it will be their first exposure to mental uploading and the Singularity. Intrigued by the concept of humanity ditching our biological bodies and moving into computers? If you’re excited — or scared — by what lies on our technological horizon, UPLOAD is a thought-provoking way to explore what this future might look like.

A winner of ForeWord Reviews 2012 Book of the Year Award in Science Fiction, UPLOAD is the story of the first person to upload his mind into a computer, an unlikely hero in an all-too-plausible tale of transhumanism and the Singularity.

To find out more about the book, check it out on Goodreads or right here on the About the Book page.

If you’ve already read UPLOAD and are looking for a different perspective on the same topic, check out David T. Wolf’s Mindclone: When You’re a Brain Without a Body, Can You Still Be Called Human?, a more humorous take on mental uploading that’s been getting great reviews.

Amazon Prime Members, Borrow Upload Free!

From now until June 16, 2014, Amazon Prime members can borrow Mark McClelland’s award-winning science-fiction novel, Upload, from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library for free.

Download Upload on Amazon

Upload is a near-future sci-fi thriller that goes deep into the mind of Raymond Quan, a troubled young hacker with a criminal past and dreams of escaping into a digital utopia of his own creation.  Upload is the story of the first person to upload his mind into a computer, an unlikely hero in an all-too-plausible tale of transhumanism and the singularity.

Intrigued?  Take a look at the About the Book page.  Check it out on Goodreads and Amazon.   Or read what Goodreads Author R.S. Carter has to say about it:

WOW. I LOVED this book. There are so many sides to this book that I could attempt to tackle. But my brain is exhausted from this read. Upload would be a premium selection for any scifi book club.


First there is the issue of ethics. If you could upload a consciousness into virtual reality while simultaneously destroying the physical body, should it be allowed? What if the body was going to die anyhow?

The main character in this novel is a loner. An introverted genius who has joined the Upload project at a local university. He has a past he wishes to escape, but it is that past which created and funded his life. He has plans to upload in the future but all at once, our protagonist is hit from three sides: the Upload project is going to be disbanded because a government committee deemed human upload to be unethical, his criminal past is catching up with him, and finally he discovers real world love for the first time.

Think you know how this book is going to end? You’ll be wrong.

This one takes a turn into a virtual reality adventure. Ready Player One meets The Matrix combined with the God complex of The Lawnmower Man.

My analogy to The Lawnmower Man is a little extreme – it isn’t that severe. But then again, we don’t know the whole story so it might have been more similar than we can imagine. You’ll understand when you read the book. There are some parts of the story intentionally missing.

I’ve read a number of reviews from people who loved the story and the science-fiction, but hated the protagonist. I LOVED Raymond! Sure, he had his character flaws (and some are very dark), but that what makes him such a perfect character for this story. And I’m always a sucker for child geniuses. This is Ender Wiggins as an introvert – hence the Lawnmower Man reference.

Ah, I’m going in circles. Read this book!

Win a Signed Copy of Upload – Less Than 8 Hours Left

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Upload by Mark McClelland

Upload

by Mark McClelland

Giveaway ends May 19, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Science Fiction Author Event + Networking Shindig at Open Books

Open Books Author Event and Networking Shindig - SmallWriters’ Panel and Networking Event

When: May 19th at 3pm – 6pm

Location: Open Books 213 W. Institute Pl, Chicago

Cost: FREE!

Open Books and Chicago Nerd Social Club will be hosting an in-store author event with me, Wesley Chu, and Wesley & Brad Sun. Also present: members of science fiction writers group Just Write Chicago to conversate and collaborate.  It’s going to be a Q&A panel, led be Jeff Smith of CNSC but open to all, followed by a general conversation about what folks are writing.

I’m excited about this great opportunity to connect with fellow sci-fi readers and discover new books from Chicago authors.

Learn more about the event on the CNSC website.  Register on Eventbrite, or join Just Write Chicago and sign up for the event on meetup.com.

Open Books is an award-winning nonprofit social venture that operates an extraordinary bookstore, provides community programs, and mobilizes passionate volunteers to promote literacy in Chicago and beyond.

Upload is a Finalist in Science Fiction for the ForeWord Reviews 2012 Book of the Year Award.  Open Books has copies of Upload available now, and I’ll be happy to sign books at the event for anyone who’s interested.

My First Public Author Event

Thank you so much to everyone who attended my first “author event” at City Lit Books Thursday evening. It’s been a tremendous source of joy to discover that people take an active interest in books — that I can schedule an event to talk about my book and people actually walk away GLAD they went. That this is a phenomenon I can participate in just bowls me over, and makes me feel like I’ve finally found my voice.
Reading at City Lit Books – Photos and Collage by Jenny Moran

I was especially touched that Tina, whom my wife and I just met recently while having a truly remarkable dinner at Elizabeth Restaurant, drove in from the suburbs for the reading, and even convinced her son, her cousin, and her cousin’s son to come along.  Tina, you’re a woman of your word, and you made my night.

We also had a Seattle contingent attending via Skype, from just about the best place I can imagine a reading has ever been attending: Saké Nomi, easily one of the nation’s best sake bars (and retail shop).  Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I now have this fun photo of me reading in Chicago, simulcast on the TV over the bar:

Discussing Upload at City Lit, in Chicago… simulcast on the TV at Saké Nomi in Seattle.  Photo by Jimmy Grisham.

 

The best part of the evening, for me, was the Q&A that followed the reading.  Everyone asked great questions, and the questions just kept coming… and I actually felt like I knew what the hell I was talking about!  When I started my software development career, almost twenty years ago, I often felt like a fake.  I felt like four years of college wasn’t enough, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel comfortable claiming expertise.  I think a lot of people starting a new endeavor feel this way — are you really qualified to be doing what you’re doing?  I expected to feel the same way at my first author event.  But I didn’t.  I absolutely suck at bullshitting my way through pretty much anything… and I didn’t have to.  There were a few times where I scrambled for coherent responses, but I felt like the answers were coming from honest reflection, not from some sense of what I “should” say, what a real author would say.  This was a huge confidence boost for me, and makes me eager to step into the role of “author” as public speaker, not just the person behind the printed words.  I wasn’t scared, I didn’t feel like I was faking my way through; I felt like I had something to say, I could say it with a fair degree of authority, and I could have fun doing it.  And best of all, people actually wanted to hear it.  Wow.

Double-Whammy At Century Guild Chicago: 40th Birthday + Book Release Party

I’m so excited for my 40th birthday party at the Century Guild Chicago pop-up gallery, TOMORROW, which my wife and I decided to make a double whammy: 40th Birthday + Book Release Party.  Thanks in advance to Nancy, for making it happen and being relentlessly awesome, to Jerry Suqi, for graciously offering his beautiful gallery space, to Tracy Kellner and Provenance Food & Wine for what will no doubt be a fabulous spread of wine and nummies, to Teresa Kirschbraun and City Lit Books for being on-hand to sell “Upload” (and for being the first brick-and-mortar store to carry my book!), and to all my friends who will be helping me celebrate two major life landmarks.

It’s no coincidence that the two events are being celebrated together.  It was the fact that Forty was looming so near that inspired me to make the final push to publish.  In a sense, I’m celebrating mortality’s success in forcing me to outwit trepidation.

Refining the Print Edition

Fresh delivery from Lulu.com today: Draft copies of the new 9″ x 6″ trim size (Amazon doesn’t do the 8.5 x 5.5 Digest trim size), with a new font on the font and a blurb and link to uploadthenovel.com on the back. This new print edition will have its own ISBN. I’m working to get it finalized in time for my book release party at the new Century Guild art gallery in Logan Square!