Browsing Tag

bone walker kickstarter

Short Pieces

Working titles for pending Warder universe novellas finally!

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, my writing’s rather stalled out hard after the release of Victory of the Hawk earlier this year. I’ve released a couple of short stories for sale this past summer and fall, but that’s about it. I’ve been struggling to try to find the mental energy to keep going on other projects, and that’s been challenging–partly out of weariness with juggling the Kickstarter obligations with my obligations for Carina, and partly out of the simple fact that I do have a technically challenging day job, and it’s often difficult for me to muster enough mental oomph to pull words out of my brain when I get home from work in the evenings.

But I’ve gotten really tired of that state of affairs, and I think I’ve managed to replenish enough creative stamina to get back to work. SO!

I am very pleased to announce that I finally have some working titles for the three Warder universe novellas that are the final obligations I need to clear off my plate for the 2012 Kickstarter. To refresh everyone’s memories, these novellas are:

  1. What I was previously referring to as my “psychic chick of size” story, in which Elizabeth Breckenridge, a psychic in Providence, Rhode Island, must assist her client Ross Taggart in tracking down what or who murdered his sister Edith, the Warder of the city. This story now has the official working title “A Power in the Blood”. Bonus for those of you who have read Faerie Blood and Bone Walker: Luciriel, Queen of the Unseelie Court, will be making a guest appearance in this story. It’s actively back in being worked on again, thanks to Scrivener!
  2. A story featuring a tuba player who is recruited by the local Warder–a woman who also happens to play in the same community orchestra–to help her guide a migration of supernatural sea creatures when she discovers they’re being hunted. Possible working title for this story: “A Last Sweet Breath of Song”.
  3. And last but most definitely not least, an origin story for Millicent Merriweather, the Warder First of Seattle in Faerie Blood and Bone Walker, and how she first came to Seattle and became its new Warder. The possible working title for this is still kicking around in my head, but it’s likely to involve “Bone” somehow. (I realize this is repetitive given the title of Bone Walker, but there’s also a theme of “blood, breath, and bone” that I’m playing with here. I do however reserve the right to change my mind once I make it around to finishing this story up!)

I don’t have a target release date for these stories yet. I am however going to target finishing “A Power in the Blood”‘s first draft by the end of November, as a sort of unofficial Nanowrimo. December, the plan will be to hand that off to whoever would like to beta read it for me, while I shift over to writing story #2. Then I’ll need to finish writing Millicent’s story.

There is ALSO a potential fourth novella brewing in my head, one which will feature Christopher’s cousin Caitlin Hallett, and her imminent conflict about whether she’s going to take up her father’s mantle and be the next Warder of St. John’s–because she’s about to fall head over heels for Gabien Desroches of les Gardiens of Quebec. And when two young people of the Warder lineage fall in love, somebody is going to have to leave their home. In the meantime? They’ll have to save St. John’s, too.

I am not sure yet whether I will be releasing these stories for individual sale or whether I will do them as a collection. If I do the latter, chances are very high it will be under the title Walking the Wards.

Stand by for more data on this as it happens!

Main

Monday news roundup

For those of you who are my Kickstarter backers:

I have arranged with PS Print to get a second shipment of posters since the first shipment arrived damaged. When that second shipment arrives (ETA currently somewhere between the 20th and the 23rd), I’ll get those posters out to you. I also need to start sending out the postcards, since I have those as well.

Props to PS Print’s customer service who were very willing to work with me on getting this satisfactorily resolved.

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I am deploying an updated digital file for Faerie Blood out to the places where it’s sold. The differences in this file are:

  • I’m correcting a long-standing typo of the name of the demon Azganaroth in Chapter 20
  • Adding a bit of extra styling to fix wrapping issues with an mdash early in the book
  • Adding the same “Also by the Author” list of my titles that appears in Bone Walker
  • Adding ads for my other books and for the soundtrack at the end of the book, similar to Bone Walker

This updated file has been deployed to Smashwords, and as soon as it clears review there, I will be using Smashwords to deploy out to B&N and Kobo.

Which, by the way, is a thing I’m going to be doing now. My sales numbers on B&N and Kobo are low enough that I am electing, moving forward, to use Smashwords to deploy out to those sites instead of deploying to them directly. I will also be looking into Smashwords to deploy to iBooks as well.

The overall reason for this is to simplify my book deployment process some, and to cut down on the number of individual sites I have to check for sales numbers. If I use Smashwords to deploy to B&N, Kobo, and Apple, that’ll cut the number of sites I need to check from six to three.

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Pleased to report that crossposting to Dreamwidth and Livejournal is working again. But in case you missed a couple of my recent posts that had crossposting issues, here they are:

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Last but not least, I was pointed on Facebook to this rather nifty little video, called “What is up with Noises? (The Science and Mathematics of Sound, Frequency, and Pitch)”. Pretty much what it says on the tin, and it’s a lovely little exploration of the science of sound and how we hear things. Check it out.

Bone Walker, Faerie Blood

Bone Walker Kickstarter update, and other news!

As I’ve just told the backers of my 2012 Kickstarter, all owed copies of the print edition of Bone Walker have been sent out to their recipients. This is very gratifying, as it gets me that much closer to being able to finally finish off my Kickstarter obligations.

This means that the rest of the copies in my personal stock are ones I can sell, free and clear! A couple will be handed out as part of my ongoing Goodreads giveaway, which ends at the end of this month. So if you’re a Goodreads user and you’d like a crack at a free copy of the book, hop right over here and clickie! I’m offering two copies of the book to Goodreads users in the US and Canada.

ALSO: reader and supporter David is about to finish up his own giveaway for print copies of Faerie Blood and Bone Walker, as well as a copy of the soundtrack. That giveaway is in progress over here, and it ends on March 8th, so time is running out! Your chances of winning are still VERY good, so go give it a look, won’t you?

Meanwhile, the sales on the ebook editions of Faerie Blood and Bone Walker are over, and both books have reset to their $4.99 price points. But they’re still available on many major ebook vending sites, as well as directly from me! As always, links to buy are on the official Faerie Blood and Bone Walker pages.

And since the rest of my stock of copies of Bone Walker are free and clear to sell, don’t forget, you can order those directly from me (see the Buying From Me page) or buy one via the Bandcamp page!

Any questions, let me know! And as always, thank you for your support.

Bone Walker

Attention, everybody who backed the Bone Walker Kickstarter

THIS JUST IN:

I have an ETA on when the rest of the first Bone Walker print run is expected to be done, and when I can therefore pick books up. This ETA is this coming Monday, one week from today.

If you are a backer of my 2012 Kickstarter and you are owed a copy of Bone Walker, OR a postcard or poster of the cover art, please consider this your reminder to let me know ASAP if your contact data has changed! It is very, VERY important to let me know this so that I can send you the long-overdue stuff you are owed!

You can visit the project page and scroll down to your reward level. There, you should see a link you can use to update your address data on the survey I sent out before asking for that very thing. Update your physical address AND your email address if necessary; I know of at least one backer who’s changed email addresses since I originally ran the project. She’s already told me about her change, but if anybody else out there has new email addresses I need to know about, I need to hear from you about that as well.

Alternately, you may DM/PM me on the social networks, or email me at my annathepiper address on gmail to get me your data.

Speaking of the posters and postcards: they’re not ready yet but I hope to have them ready soon. Please stand by for updates on that too!

Any questions? Let me know!

Bone Walker

Today’s Bone Walker report!

Bone Walker’s official page has now been updated with all of its Amazon links, both US and International. It’s pre-orderable everywhere Amazon has it posted. So if you’re a Kindle user, you can have at it! Pre-orders would be very helpful as they’ll count towards my February sales and help bump up the book’s early Amazon ranking. There are four pre-orders already, which is awesome!

Also, if you’re someone who’s read one of the pre-release versions of the book and you are so inclined, please consider rating or reviewing it. That’ll help too!

And! Bone Walker now also has an official Goodreads link, so if you’re on Goodreads you can add it to your shelves right over here. Same commentary re: early reviews and ratings applies here, too.

I’ve gotten in some good commentary from proofreaders (thank you, Talya, Jennifer, Maria-Katriina, and Anne!), and I have Emma looking at the test MOBI for any formatting problems. I do still need volunteers to check my test EPUB as well.

Carina Press has given me final text for the official copyright notices at the front of the book, for use of my Carina books’ covers and blurb copy in the back. I still do not have an official cover or copy for Victory of the Hawk there, so Victory may or may not get an ad into the print edition. It will hopefully have one in the ebook at least!

(Also, Carina’s editorial staff sent around a helpful mail to all the Carina authors after working with me on this, with a how-to for how to use allowed Carina material for promoting our titles with them in our self-pubbed works. Which is pretty awesome. Kudos to Carina’s team for that. ^_^ )

Last but not least, I’ve started whipping up a few tweets to fling around Twitter to encourage people to go preorder the book. If you’re on Twitter and feel like signalboosting me, here, have some example tweets you can use! Or feel free to make up one and use the bit.ly link!

All that keeps a dark spirit from destroying Seattle is a half-Seelie mage! Bone Walker by @annathepiper, out 2/3! http://bit.ly/1FRTDpV

Kendis Thompson thinks she’s mastered her magic. A dark spirit and a dragon prove her wrong. Bone Walker out 2/3! http://bit.ly/1FRTDpV

The Unseelie Court wants Kendis Thompson–and they’re willing to destroy Seattle to get her. Bone Walker out 2/3! http://bit.ly/1FRTDpV

Still to come:

  • Dara beginning work on the print edition and the PDF
  • I need to file official copyright for the book
  • I need to launch an ad for it on Goodreads
  • Proofreading changes will get rolled into the master file

Getting close to this being a real live book. SO EXCITING!

ONE LAST THING: Dara has a question for folks pertaining to CD Baby’s release of the soundtrack! She wants to know whether you think CD Baby’s automatic appending of “(Original Soundtrack)” to the title is a good thing or a bad thing. If you have thoughts on the matter, tell her over here!

Bone Walker, Faerie Blood

Monday morning news: Bone Walker has a release date!

First up, I had a couple of excellent Boosting the Signal posts this past Friday! Cory Dale sent me an excerpt from her new release Demon Fare, and Jake Elliot, fellow member of NIWA, came by to tell me about his “mock-epic” fantasy The Wrong Way Down. Check their posts out if you missed ’em when they went up!

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Second, Bone Walker has a release date! AND A COVER! \m/ The ebook edition will be officially releasing on February 3rd! The official Bone Walker page has been updated accordingly! And the cover is now included on the homepage as well!

And as soon as I have a viable test mobi, I will be putting the book up for pre-order on Amazon. Other pre-order links will be following as soon as I can make them.

All hail Dara for her cover work and Kiri Moth for the art!

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Third, speaking of Bone Walker‘s march to release, I have already asked current proofreaders to get any noted typos back to me by Wednesday the 14th. Because Dara needs to commence work on the print and PDF versions ASAP in order to maximize our chances of having the print edition ready by Conflikt. So if you’re proofreading and you didn’t already see a request about that, do please get back to me by Wednesday!

On a related note, however, if you’d like to sanity-check ebook formats for me, stand by. As soon as I have a viable test mobi, I will need it tested on any and all available Kindle devices. I personally own a Kindle Fire HDX 7″ and will be using that for testing purposes. But all other types of Kindle will be welcome.

Likewise, I have two Nooks: a Nook HD and one of the new 7″ Samsung Nooks. I also have a Kobo Mini. Both will be used to test. If you have other type of Nook or Kobo device, though, those would be helpful.

AND, any iOS device owners comfortable with using iBooks OR Android device owners comfortable with getting books onto your devices, testing from you would be welcome too. Though tablets will be most useful once we have the PDF ready to test.

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Last but not least, don’t forget, Faerie Blood remains on sale for 99 cents to celebrate Bone Walker‘s imminent release! It will remain on sale until the end of February, at which point I’ll bump the price back up. So if you haven’t gotten the ebook of Faerie Blood yet, now would be a REALLY good time. ;D

And if you’re so inclined, do please spread the word about the sale! The sale price applies wherever Faerie Blood‘s ebook edition is sold, and I will honor it for any requests to buy the book directly from me as well!

Bone Walker

Bone Walker HAS A RELEASE DATE

Bone Walker, book 2 of the The Free Court of Seattle, is now decreed by me to have February 3rd as its official release date!

Tonight, Dara will be making the cover for the ebook editions for me. Once I have that, I’ll be creating entries on all the various ebook vending sites where Faerie Blood is sold, and will be making the book available for preorder in as many places as possible. When I have those links, the book’s official page will be updated accordingly!

IF YOU ARE PROOFREADING, I will be required to upload the final version of the book to Amazon no later than the 24th of this month, which will mean I’ll need all proofreading feedback back before then. I will be working on the epub and mobi editions TONIGHT, and will get those ready for sanity checking. So if you have ereaders of any kind and are available to format-check the ebooks, I would like to hear from you!

IF YOU SUPPORTED THE KICKSTARTER and are due an ebook of Bone Walker as part of your rewards, you WILL be getting the ebook before its official public release date. Watch the update mails I send around for further updates on when the book will be available to you.

IF YOU WANT A PRINT EDITION, Dara and I will be doing everything in our power to get the print edition ready before Conflikt, which will be the weekend of January 30th through February 1st. Whether we will have books will depend hugely upon how fast Third Place can print me, so the sooner we can get that done the better. I will ALSO need proofreaders for the print edition, so if you want to volunteer for that, I’ll need to hear from you too!

Are you excited? I’m excited! 😀 And looking forward to getting this book to you all!