Faerie Blood

Review an album, win my book!

Here’s another shot for y’all to win Faerie Blood if you’re up for it–but this time, the contest is being held by my beloved , who has finished a work EP for her forthcoming very first CD, to be titled Dick Tracy Must Die! Dara is recording every track on this thing singlehandedly, including vocals, bodhran, bouzouki, mandolin, flute, bass, and other instrumenty goodness. I am, frankly, in awe that she’s made herself sound like an entire band.

But she has! And she is Crime and the Forces of Evil! And her contest, wherein she’ll put folks into a drawing to win either a copy of her EP, a copy of my book, or a picture of our cats is over here. Check it out, and fear not, you can tell the Forces of Evil I sent you.

Book Log

Quick book roundup

Because I forgot to mention in the grip of the Martian Death Cold, picked up more ebooks from Fictionwise:

  • Naked in Death, Glory in Death, and Immortal in Death, by J.D. Robb. The first three of the In Death series, as I’m swapping out paperback copies for ebooks.
  • Just the Sexiest Man Alive, Practice Makes Perfect, and Something About You, by Julie James. Bought because of Julie James being highly recommended over at .

Total books for 2010: 75

Drollerie Press, Faerie Blood, Publishing

Announcements! The winner is…

Announcement the first: It has come to my attention that a shiny new release by Seattle author , Battle of the Network Zombies, is being given away on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble’s ebook sites. So if you’re a Kindle or Nook owner, you might want to scamper over to your site of choice and grab this third installment of the Amanda Feral series! Then, if you really like it, go buy the print version. Because Seattle authors are awesome that way.

Announcement the second: Drollerie is participating in an auction for diabetes, being held by romantic suspense author Brenda Novak. Lots of tasty goodies are being put up for bid, stuff that should appeal to writers and readers alike, and it’s all for a good cause. If you’re interested in supporting this worthy endeavor, you can find out more over here. And if you want to see what Drollerie editor is putting up for bid, you can look here and here.

And last but most assuredly not least, announcement the third:

The winner of the What Should Anna Name Her Nook? poll is NOOKRONOMICON!

This means JGS is the winner of the poll! And since he elected to share his prize with Stickmaker, since Stickmaker built on his idea for the winning name, that means it’s a two-way prize split! Gentlemen, you may each have one of the previous listed prizes:

  • Free electronic copies of both Faerie Blood and Defiance in the format of your choice
  • A free print copy of anything Drollerie currently has in print
  • A $25 gift certificate to the Drollerie Press bookstore

Please to contact me through appropriate channels to let me know what your choice is, and appropriate contact data to which to send your prize! Thanks all for participating!

Great Big Sea

Great Big Sea at Olympics Victory Ceremonies in Vancouver, BC, 2/26/10

Most of the rest of the world may have converged on Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, but and me? We were there for Great Big Sea, baby!

I do have to admit it was very awesome that they got dinged to be the headlining performance at the Victory Ceremonies last night–which featured a celebration of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. (For those unfamiliar with Canadian provinces, Newfoundland and Labrador are officially one big province.) You couldn’t have chosen better ambassadors, really!

Continue Reading

Bone Walker

Better

Back to Bone Walker exclusively tonight, just because that’s where the words seemed to want to go. Still working on the fight scene between Christopher, Kendis, and the nogitsune, and figuring out how to choreograph the actions so that a) they all move farther along the trail to the north, and b) Melisanda has an opportunity to show up and help them drive off the last of the nogitsune. Not quite there yet but at least there was more than a page’s worth of progress tonight.

I kind of want to push for 500 words tonight, but on the other hand, I need to go to bed. And also, I think it’ll actually encourage me more to write tomorrow if I can maintain this feeling of “more writing needs doing!” It’s all about the pacing myself.

Written tonight: 355
Chapter 7 total: 2,078
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,812

Bone Walker, Mirror's Gate, Short Pieces

That's all I got

When I find myself staring dully and tiredly at the screen and no words are flowing, that’s the signal that it’s time to go to bed. But I did at least make a few words go tonight! And even if about 100 words into each of these things doesn’t seem like much individually, it will at least add up if I keep at it. That’s good advice to keep telling myself.

Let’s see if I can do this again tomorrow.

Bone Walker:
Written tonight: 110
Chapter 7 total: 1,723
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,457

Mirror’s Gate:
Written tonight: 115
Chapter 1 total: 1,417
Mirror’s Gate total (first draft): 1,417

Untitled short story:
Written tonight: 115
Story total: 615

Bone Walker, Mirror's Gate, Short Pieces, Vengeance of the Hunter

Finally, some more words

I’ve been frustrated enough with my months-long block on regular writing that I figured tonight I should try the multi-novelling trick. That’s helped in the past, and I felt it was long past time to try it again, just for the sake of advancing some pointers on various works on progress. I’ve mentioned before how it’s often helpful for me to just try to do little chunks at a time–and tonight, I was pleased to note that it worked again.

So yeah, a small number of words for Bone Walker, Mirror’s Gate, and Shadow of the Rook out of the novels in progress–and a few more for the as of yet untitled story about my Psychic Chick of Size. Whose name is, by the way, Elizabeth Breckenridge. Her male lead is Ross Taggart, and so far what I know about him is that he’s actually too heavy himself (because if there’s anything as rare as a fat heroine in a fantasy story, it’s an overweight hero) by thirty or forty pounds, and that he’s either a private investigator or a reporter or maybe a blogger. I’m not sure which yet. Waiting to see if anything pops out of my head as I throw words at the story.

And we’ll have to see if I finish it in time to submit it to and for their anthology.

Meanwhile, the word stats:

Bone Walker:
Written tonight: 109
Chapter 7 total: 1,613
Bone Walker total (first draft): 18,347

Mirror’s Gate:
Written tonight: 104
Chapter 1 total: 1,302
Mirror’s Gate total (first draft): 1,302

Shadow of the Rook:
Written tonight: 112
Chapter 2 total: 3,950
Shadow of the Rook total (first draft): 13,378

Untitled short story:
Written tonight: 266
Untitled short story total: 500