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November 2009

Bone Walker

Nanowrimo Day 1: Some extra words to spare

Ladies and gents, my Nanowrimo effort is now officially underway, with a grand total of 1,876 words clocked in on Chapter 1 of Bone Walker. This is a couple hundred over the necessary daily quota, but that’s fine–I wanted a bit of buffer just to account for the couple dozen words always taken up by contact data at the beginning of a manuscript, and then the couple hundred I’d already tried to write to get this chapter underway.

And yeah, technically, I know you’re not supposed to start a true Nanowrimo effort before November 1st. I figure roughly 200 words could be safely ignored–and I dropped about half of those words anyway because I decided I didn’t like the paragraph.

Anyway, Bone Walker is out of the starting gate, you guys. For the interested, this book will be set roughly two months in time after Faerie Blood. And I’m already close to the end of Chapter 1, which feels like it’s going to run short as my chapters tend to go. But that’s okay. Because this means I’m also very close to the return of Elessir. Muah!

No word meter, because the lovely and talented Zokutou Word Meter appears to have vanished off the face of the Net. But I daresay I can soldier on without it.

Written tonight: 1,876
Chapter 1 total: 1,876
Bone Walker total (first draft): 1,876

November 1, 2009 by
Faerie Blood

We have a winner!

Folks, I would now like to take this opportuity to announce the winner of my October Drollerie Review Drawing Contest! I had a total of five participants who checked in, four of whom did reviews in various places, and one of whom rated me on Fictionwise. So without further ado, the random number generator announces that the winner is… Lexie!

Lexie, please send me email with your preferred book vendor so I know where to get you your gift certificate from, and also, give me your email address so I know where to send it! You can find my own email address on my Contact page. You have until Wednesday the 4th to claim your prize, otherwise I will pick another winner!

Meanwhile, everybody else who participated in the drawing, thank you very much! I will definitely do more drawings, timed as my personal budget allows. I may well do another one in December.

November 1, 2009 by
Book Log

Another book roundup

This being yet another rundown of books I have purchased lately!

Ebooks:

  • Kingdom of Shadows, by Greg F. Gifune (horror)
  • No Control, by Shannon K. Butcher (romance, replacing physical copy)
  • Silent in the Sanctuary, by Deanna Raybourn (mystery/romance, replacing physical copy)
  • Wild Thing, by Doranna Durgin (romance)
  • WebMage, by Kelly McCullough (urban fantasy)
  • Trick of the Light, by Rob Thurman (urban fantasy)
  • On the Edge, by Ilona Andrews (urban fantasy)
  • Child of Fire, by Harry Connolly (urban fantasy)
  • Unfallen Dead, by Mark Del Franco
  • The Serpent and the Scorpion, by Clare Langley-Hawthorne (mystery)
  • Bright Hair About the Bone, by Barbara Cleverly (mystery)
  • Fledgling, by Octavia Butler (SF)

Physical books:

  • Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead, by Steve Perry (self-explanatory 😉 )
  • Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters (hee hee hee)
  • Doubleblind, by Ann Aguirre (SF)
  • Spectre, by Phaedra Weldon (urban fantasy, although I actually took this one to Third Place so I can buy the ebook instead)
  • Dreadful Skin, by (horror)
  • Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami (not at all sure how to classify this one!)

This for a grand total of 18, to bring me up to a total of 138 books purchased for the year. Do note that a few of these ebook purchases are re-buys, since I’m winding up replacing a notable number of physical books with ebook equivalents.

I bought the Priest and Murakami on the strength of store credit from Third Place, yay! These being authors that I do actually want in print. Meanwhile, the Gifune horror ebook I picked up to enter a contest being held by the folks over at Horror Mall, since they’re launching a new forum about digital horror books and I figured what the hell, couldn’t hurt to enter. Might get a good read in the bargain.

And of course Fictionwise still totally has my number. It’s worth mentioning though that I’ve poked around a bit on Barnes and Noble’s ebook store, and I note with interest the following:

  • B&N is pretty much selling files in the same format as Fictionwise and eReader: i.e., PDB format with DRM on it.
  • B&N is also using pretty much the same reader programs, only branded differently. Same functionality both on the iPhone and in the Mac-side app you can download. Which means that I can at least read all of these files in the same program.
  • B&N gets points for also letting you download purchases directly to your computer.
  • They do not however get points for the fact that my B&N membership apparently doesn’t apply to ebooks. Which means Fictionwise is still a way better deal for purchasing ebooks. I may however occasionally resort to B&N if they have something in electronic form that Fictionwise doesn’t–because Fictionwise does tend to lag on getting new releases posted, and B&N seems to be aiming for competive pricing with the Kindle. And that means that if I want something that’s out in trade paperback I can get it cheaper on B&N, probably, than I can on Fictionwise. This will require mulling.
  • Last but not least I’ve actually also snurched three free books from B&N, but I’m not counting them in the list above since they were freebies and I’m tracking number of books actually purchased this year.
November 1, 2009 by