Pluralistic: Announcing the Picks and Shovels book tour (06 Feb 2025)


Today's links


A list of upcoming dates for my Picks and Shovels tour.

Announcing the Picks and Shovels book tour (permalink)

My next novel, Picks and Shovels, is officially out in the US and Canada on Feb 17, and I'm about to leave on a 20+ city book-tour, which means there's a nonzero chance I'll be in a city near you between now and the end of the spring!

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels

Picks and Shovels is a standalone novel starring Martin Hench – my hard-charging, two-fisted, high-tech forensic accountant – in his very first adventure, in the early 1980s. It's a story about the Weird PC era, when no one was really certain what shape PCs should be, who should make them, who should buy them, and what they're for. It features a commercial war between two very different PC companies.

The first one, Fidelity Computing, is a predatory multi-level marketing faith scam, run by a Mormon bishop, a Catholic priest, and an orthodox rabbi. Fidelity recruits people to exploit members of their faith communities by selling them third-rate PCs that are designed as rip-off lock-ins, forcing you to buy special floppies for their drives, special paper for their printers, and to use software that is incompatible with everything else in the world.

The second PC company is Computing Freedom, a rebel alliance of three former Fidelity Computing sales-managers: an orthodox woman who's been rejected by her family after coming out as queer; a Mormon woman who's rejected the Church over its opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, and a nun who's quit her order to join the Liberation Theology movement in the struggle for human rights in America's dirty wars.

In the middle of it all is Martin Hench, coming of age in San Francisco during the PC bubble, going to Dead Kennedys shows, getting radicalized by ACT UP!, and falling in love – all while serving as CFO and consigliere to Computing Freedom, as a trade war turns into a shooting war, and they have to flee for their lives.

The book's had fantastic early reviews, with endorsements from computer historians like Steven Levy (Hackers), Claire Evans (Broad-Band), John Markoff (What the Doormouse Said) and Dan'l Lewin (CEO of the Computer History Museum). Stephen Fry raved that he "hugely enjoyed" the "note perfect," "superb" story.

And I'm about to leave on tour! I have nineteen confirmed dates, and two nearly confirmed dates, and there's more to come! I hope you'll consider joining me at one of these events. I've got a bunch of fantastic conversation partners joining me onstage and online, and the bookstores that are hosting me are some of my favorite indie booksellers in the world.

BOSTON (Feb 14):

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VIRTUAL (Feb 15):

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MENLO PARK (Feb 17):
* Kepler's Books with CHARLIE JANE ANDERS, 7PM, 1010 El Camino Real
https://www.keplers.org/upcoming-events-internal/cory-doctorow

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LOS ANGELES (Feb 18):
* Diesel Bookstore with WIL WHEATON, 630PM, 225 26th Street, Santa Monica
https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Cory-Doctorow-Wil-Wheaton-Author-signing

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SEATTLE (Feb 19):
* Third Place Books with DAN SAVAGE, 7PM, 17171 Bothell Way Northeast #A101 Lake Forest Park
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow-with-dan-savage-picks-and-shovels-a-martin-hench-novel-tickets-1106741957989

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TORONTO (Feb 23):
* Another Story, 630PM, 315 Roncesvalles Ave
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/picks-shovels-cory-doctorow-tickets-1219803217259

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NYC (Feb 26):
* The Strand with JOHN HODGMAN, 7PM, 828 Broadway
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow-john-hodgman-picks-and-shovels-tickets-1131132841779

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PENN STATE (Feb 27):
* Kern Auditorium, 7PM, 112 Kern Building
https://www.bellisario.psu.edu/assets/uploads/CoryDoctorow-Poster.pdf

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DOYLESTOWN (Mar 1):
* Doylestown Bookshop, 12PM, 16 S Main St
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow-picks-and-shovels-a-martin-hench-novel-tickets-1146230880419

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BALTIMORE (Mar 2):
* Red Emma's, 2PM, 630PM, 3128 Greenmount Ave
https://redemmas.org/events/cory-doctorow-presents-picks-and-shovels/

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DC (Mar 4):
* Cleveland Park Library with MATT STOLLER, 630PM, 3310 Connecticut Ave NW
https://www.loyaltybookstores.com/picksnshovels

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RICHMOND (Mar 5):
* Fountain Bookstore with LEE VINSEL, 6PM, 1312 E Cary St
https://fountainbookstore.com/events/1795820250305

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AUSTIN (Mar 10):
* First Light Books, 7PM, 4300 Speedway/43rd
https://thethirdplace.is/event/cory-doctorow-picks-shovels-1

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BURBANK (Mar 13):
* Dark Delicacies, 6PM, 822 N. Hollywood Way
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3257/Thu%2C_Mar_13th_6_pm%3A_Pick_%26_Shovel%3A_A_Martin_Hench_Novel_HB.html#/

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SAN DIEGO (Mar 24):
* Mysterious Galaxy, 7PM, 3555 Rosecrans
https://www.mystgalaxy.com/32425Doctorow

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BELFAST (Mar 24) (remote):
* Imagine! Festival with ALAN MEBAN, 7PM UK
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cory-doctorow-in-conversation-with-alan-meban-tickets-1106421399189

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CHICAGO, Apr 2:
* Exile in Bookville with PETER SAGAL, 7PM, 410 S Michigan Ave, 2nd floor
https://exileinbookville.com/events/44853

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BLOOMINGTON, Apr 4:
* Morgenstern Books, 6PM, 642 N Madison St
https://morgensternbooks.com/event/2025-04-04/author-event-cory-doctorow

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PDX, Jun 20 (TBC):
* Powell's Books (date and time to be confirmed)

I'm also finalizing plans for one or two dates in NEW ZEALAND at the end of April, as well as a ATLANTA date, likely on March 26.

I really hope you'll come out and say hello. I know these are tough times. Hanging out with nice people who care about the same stuff as you is a genuine tonic.

Hey look at this (permalink)


A Wayback Machine banner.

Object permanence (permalink)

#20yrsago Japanese software patents kill Word competitor https://web.archive.org/web/20051202020452/http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/0/3BDE72837B1DD5BBCC256F9C0070E506?OpenDocument&pub=Computerworld]

#20yrsago Chicago’s public sculpture can’t be photographed by the public https://web.archive.org/web/20050204040938/https://newurbanist.blogspot.com/2005/01/copyrighting-of-public-space.html

#10yrsago No future for you: cultural institutions can’t afford to play along with pointy-headed bosses https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/06/go-digital-by-all-means-but-dont-bring-the-venture-capitalists-in-to-do-it

#10yrsago Gov Walker caught lying about his rewrite of the U Wisc mission https://web.archive.org/web/20150205182804/https://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/documents-show-walker-administration-seeking-removal-of-uws-wisconsin-idea-b99439710z1-290927651.html/

#10yrsago Hacking diabetes: the open artificial pancreas project https://web.archive.org/web/20050207005818/http://openaps.org/

#10yrsago Family fake-kidnapped 6-year-old to teach him to mistrust strangers https://www.cnn.com/2015/02/05/us/missouri-fake-kidnapping/index.html

#10yrsago Necromantic lawyers say George Patton can’t appear in video games https://www.techdirt.com/2015/02/05/video-game-maker-sued-lawyernecromancer-featuring-general-patton-in-game/

#1yrago Apple to EU: "Go fuck yourself" https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/06/spoil-the-bunch/#dma


A screenshot of me at my desk, doing a livecast.

Recent appearances (permalink)


A grid of my books with Will Stahle covers..

Latest books (permalink)


A cardboard book box with the Macmillan logo.

Upcoming books (permalink)

  • Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025

  • Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 2025
    https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

  • Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025


Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

  • Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Status: second pass edit underway (readaloud)

  • A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

  • Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS FEB 2025

Latest podcast: Canada shouldn't retaliate with US tariffs https://craphound.com/overclocked/2025/02/02/canada-shouldnt-retaliate-with-us-tariffs/

This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

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"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla

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