stillsostrange: (Valkyrie Air)
Dreams of Shreds & Tatters is loose in the world today! I'm so proud of my little book.

And as a lovely book day present, Tor.com says nice things about it.
stillsostrange: (Default)
The "Recent Entries" tab mocks me with inaccuracy.



Progress continues! Pieces fall into place!

In other exciting news, today I made anticuchos de corazon for the first time, and it was delightful. Although I'm not sure how you mess up anything as lovely as beef heart.

Also also, today my story "Snakebit" went live at Strange Horizons. I was so enamored of hearts I nearly missed it. There is also a podcast! This is so fancy!
stillsostrange: (Default)
Everything we've ever done or will do, we're gonna do over and over and over again.

I will always be writing Dreams of Shreds & Tatters.

I will always be revising Dreams of Shreds & Tatters.

I will always be selling Dreams of Shreds & Tatters.

I am thrilled to announce that [livejournal.com profile] arcaedia and I have sold Dreams of Shreds & Tatters to Solaris.

More details to follow after the book mines.
stillsostrange: (Bowie)
Books read in 2012 )

A much better reading year than last year, if not as fabulous as one might like. The writing front was also not as fabulous as one might like, but not too shabby. Kingdoms came out, and Brave New Love. And maybe A Fantasy Medley 2--I got my author copies, at least. I finished an extremely thorough revision of Dreams, and my fabulous agent has sent it out into the world. I also tidied up a partial of Pinion, and started a few other projects. I did not finish any new short stories, but oh well.

I'm not as happy to be rid of 2012 as some of my f-list. I would like to be more productive in 2013, and slightly less crippled with indecision (well, laugh), but if nothing else the success of Project Valkyrie and my Run For Your Lives training has made this a pleasantly memorable year. We'll see how Warrior Dash turns out. Hopefully 2013 will be the year of the unassisted pull-up.

And of course, there was that whole adoption thing. Can't forget that.

Hopefully the boy will find his missing driver's license soon, so as not to thwart our plan to go for cocktails and Elysium tonight. My house has already thwarted my plans to repurpose last Halloween's griffin costume by eating my feathers and copper foil. I'll be less of a danger to myself and others without dozens of sharp copper feathers, I suppose.
stillsostrange: (Conscious)
In a small publishing miracle, Orbit responded about the option novel within 45 days (and just after a hurricane, too!). They are passing on Dreams*, which means we're free of the option and [livejournal.com profile] arcaedia will begin shopping the book around elsewhere. What this does not mean is that Orbit has passed on any subsequent Necromancer books, or the Savedra books: I haven't pitched them any yet. As soon as I have a solid S&3 for either Isyllt IV or Savedra I, I will happily throw them at Orbit.

I am presently poking around on several projects at once, including Changeling Hearts, The Poison Court, and two other Necromancer-world ideas that haven't yet accreted enough plot. (Nothing ever has enough plot.) Having two intrepid young heroines surrounded by danger and intrigue, I vaguely wonder if I shouldn't try to mash them together. But I'm not sure if that would work out. I also need to designate a Work on Some F*cking Short Stories Day, and see what that produces.

But first I have to clean my bathroom.



* A mild disappointment, but not really a surprise.
stillsostrange: (Default)
The good news is, The Drowning City has earned out its advance. The bad news is, the devils of basket accounting keep me from those delicious royalties until the other two earn out. (The Bone Palace is close! Kingdoms, alas, has a way to go.)

So, just to get the tackiness over with: Necromancers make great presents for the holidays! So do manticores! Consider giving your loved ones the gift of angst and setting!

Okay. Sorry. Had to get that out of my system.

We now return you to your previously scheduled programming.
stillsostrange: (Elbow sex)
I had hoped to have at least the chapters of this damn proposal done before Readercon, if not the synop, but that looks questionable now. Still, progress continues. So far we've had one corpse, one unexpected betrothal, and two unsettling revelations. Next I need to plant some clues about the murderer, and then figure out how to wring an interesting scene out of searching someone's room.

8018 / 10500
(76.36%)



Today also brought the joyous news that I can finally announce the details about "Bone Garden." It will appear in A Fantasy Medley 2, edited by Yanni Kuznia, which will be released in late November. I share a ToC with Tanya Huff, Seanan McGuire, and Jasper Kent.

I'll be reading from "Bone Garden" at Readercon on Friday, if any of you are wandering by.
stillsostrange: (Default)
Originally posted by [livejournal.com profile] squirrel_monkey at Circus: Fantasy Under the Big Top

So finally I turned in the manuscript for my reprint anthology, CIRCUS: FANTASY UNDER THE BIG TOP. Many thanks to everyone who suggested reprints — your help certainly pointed me to a number of stories I wouldn’t have seen otherwise, and the book is better for it. Now, for the good stuff, cover and table of contents:



CIRCUS: FANTASY UNDER THE BIG TOP Table of Contents
Introduction
“Something About a Death, Something About a Fire” Peter Straub
“Smoke & Mirrors” Amanda Downum
“Calliope: A Steam Romance” Andrew J McKiernan
“Welcome to the Greatest Show in the Universe” Deborah Walker
“Vanishing Act” Elise C Tobler
“Quin’s Shanghai Circus” Jeff VanderMeer
“Scream Angel” Douglas Smith
“The Vostrasovitch Clockwork Animal and Traveling Forest Show at the End of the World” Jessica Reisman
“Study, for Solo Piano” Genevieve Valentine
“Making My Entrance Again with My Usual Flair” Ken Scholes
“The Quest” Barry B. Longyear
“26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” Kij Johnson
“Courting the Queen of Sheba” Amanda C. Davis
“Circus Circus” Eric Witchey
“Phantasy Moste Grotesk” Felicity Dowker
“Learning to Leave” Christopher Barzak
“Ginny Sweethips’ Flying Circus” Neal Barrett Jr
“The Aarne-Thompson Classification Revue” Holly Black
“Manipulating Paper Birds” Cate Gardner
“Winter Quarters” Howard Waldrop


Mirrored from ekaterinasedia.com.

stillsostrange: (Listen)
My story "Smoke & Mirrors," originally published in Strange Horizons in 2006, will be reprinted in Ekaterina Sedia's anthology Circus: Fantasy Under the Big Top. Since it was previously reprinted in Best New Romantic Fantasy 2, this means I finally have a most reprinted story. Woo!

"Smoke & Mirrors" is the child of my very first artist's challenge necklace from [livejournal.com profile] elisem, two different dreams, and the song "Hoist That Rag" played on repeat.

Also, that isn't Loki. And it makes me sad that I've ever had to say that.

The same circus in S&M also appears in "Catch." I hope to eventually get another couple of stories out of it. If I ever get more stories out of anything.
stillsostrange: (Agony)
Because [livejournal.com profile] plunderpuss asked on Twitter.

I've only had to do this once, with The Drowning City, but it went something like this:

My editor asked me if I knew any authors who might be willing to blurb the book. Luckily, I did. He also asked my agent if she had any suggestions. He then made a list of authors he thought might be appropriate--some of whom were Orbit authors and some who I'm pretty sure weren't--as well as my and [livejournal.com profile] arcaedia's suggestions. Those authors who were willing and who hadn't read the book in draft already were sent bound galleys. That's how I got blurbs from Jacqueline Carey and Brent Weeks.

Not every publisher sends out bound galleys; PDFs are also used, and sometimes the author will send out Word files, if that's all that's available. I've heard that some editors make the author do more work about soliciting blurbs, which sounds completely cruel. This is one of the times where professional networking may be of use--by which I mean meeting people at cons and being pleasant and friendly online, not spamming people on Twitter. DO NOT SPAM PEOPLE ON TWITTER. I MEAN IT!

If you know other writers, a polite email asking if they would be willing or able to read your book and possibly blurb it is perfectly okay. The worst that will happen is that a) they'll say no upfront, probably because of time constraints, or b) they'll agree to look at the ms but not actually have time or inclination to offer a blurb. DO NOT NAG PEOPLE. Obviously. If they have to time to read the book and have something positive to say, you'll probably get a blurb. Someone at your publisher will perform blurb-fu and trim the quote down to be punchy and cover-sized.

With any luck, the blurb won't say "No one can touch [AUTHOR] when he is on fire," or "[CHARACTER] is as hardboiled as a 5-minute egg." "Lush and evocative" seems pretty popular.

While I'm sure someone somewhere has said nice things about a book that they didn't really mean, most authors I know have no desire to lie to readers or their friends. I also have no idea how you would ever make money off blurbs. Maybe that only happens to people way more famous than me.
stillsostrange: (Driven)
I'm tired of coming up with alternate names for The Book Which Must Not Be Named, so I'll finally clarify the crazy book scrambling that's been going on around here since July.

Having delivered the three contracted books in The Necromancer Chronicles, I now have to come up with a proposal to show Orbit for an option novel. Either they like it (optimal, since I've been very happy with Orbit), or they pass and Fabulous Agent shops it elsewhere. My editor had some suggestions for possible option novels, which led to all my frantic scrambling to find a project that would make us both happy.*

In October, my editor left Orbit. Reader, I wailed; I tore my hair and beat my breast and rent my garments. Then I decided that since he wouldn't be the one we pitch the option novel to, I would be a shameless hack as practical as possible. So I started working on the fourth Necromancer Chronicle, The Winter Road, also known as Big Gay MacHamlet and That Damn (un)Norse Book.** I'm also revising Dreams, so I have two completely different projects to spread the insanity between.

I'd hoped that Orbit would assign me to a new editor fairly quickly, but since it's December and I haven't heard anything, I'm guessing that won't happen till next year.

So that's what's going on now. Any questions?



* I ended up with several different ideas I like, so it was a productive scramble.

** Unless it becomes The Ashen Throne, which is growing on me right now.
stillsostrange: (Sif)
Title Redacted
Words today: 1653
Words total: 1653
Darling: "There's a ghost in the garden. If it stays there much longer it will kill the tomatoes."
Mean things: interrupted sleep, familial expectations

I received some news today that's affected my choice of WiP, above and beyond my natural flakery. I'm going to be all cryptic and shit four a couple of weeks, just to be safe, but while the news is a little scary, the change in projects is actually pretty soothing. (This one has a title, a soundtrack, and an epigraph out of the gate.) We'll see how long that lasts. I'll try to be more forthcoming when I have more details.
stillsostrange: (Blood)
I mentioned some time ago that I had sold "Bone Garden"--now I have a few more details. I've sold "Bone Garden" to Subterranean Press, for A Fantasy Medley 2, edited by Yanni Kuznia. I've been a fan of SubPress for years, and I'm thrilled senseless to be included in this anthology.

I don't have all the release details, but it will include a limited signed hardcover version. I'll get signature sheets! This is the fanciest I have ever been.

For those playing along at home, "Bone Garden" is a novelette set in Erisín shortly after the events of The Bone Palace, also known as "Demimonde Theatre Boys vs. Oracular Demons", or the story in which I kill [livejournal.com profile] sovay.

And now I have to get back to page proofs for Kingdoms.
stillsostrange: (Default)
Yesterday brought doubled good news. "Red", my not-exactly-a-zombie-romance featuring goth bicycle gangs in post-apocalyptic Austin, has sold to Brave New Love, a dystopian YA anthology edited by Paula Guran. (For those of you who followed the Wicked Pretty Things debacle, yes, there was a change of editors. I've worked with Paula before, and am very happy that she took over the anthology.)

Shortly after that, I learned that "Bone Garden"--or Boywhores vs. Oracular Demons--was accepted by its anthology as well. I don't have the all-clear to share details yet, but I'm very happy to be accepted by this publisher.

The CEM for Kingdoms went back to my editor today, leaving me with with a surprising fondness for the book, and the restless itch to write The Bitter Road, aka the unsold fourth Necromancer Chronicle. Not to mention The Poison Court.

That leaves the to-do list looking like this:

Finish Kingdoms of Dust
Write "Bone Garden"
Eurocon
Write dystopian YA story
Kingdoms CEM
Revise "Bone Garden"
Revise "Red"
Write synop & 3 for Oracle of Plagues
WorldCon
Armadillocon
Kingdoms page proofs
Pitch option novel
Poke "Flood" with a sharp stick
Poke "Birthgrave" (Isyllt's origin story) with a sharp stick

Project Valkyrie and Operation: Badger Reduction continue apace. Several of my shirts are becoming less like sausage casings, but I seem to have lost all my swimming stamina since last summer.

Now I guess I'll start looking for awesome stuff to pack into Oracle. Any suggestions?
stillsostrange: (Default)
Good news/bad news:

The good news is, I got the edit letter for Kingdoms today, and my editor likes it! I appear to have pulled off the desert gothic thing. He also had useful suggestions for making the end into less of a dog's breakfast.

The bad news is, the release date has been pushed back till March of 2012. Alas. This is what happens when you blow your deadlines and your middle initials aren't R. R. To everyone who was hoping to get in in December, I apologize for the delay, but I'll try to offer bonus content to make up for it. Necromancer Christmas cards, maybe...


"Bone Garden"
Words today: 1618
Words total: 6886
Reason for stopping: tired
Darling: "What went wrong?" Something always went wrong. The theatre had taught him that, even if he hadn't seen [the plot] himself.
Tyop: n/a
Named things: If domovoi is "house thing", does that mean kostovoi is "bone thing"?

I'm not sure I can wrap this up in 3k, but at least the beginning has some fluff I can trim.


The book-and-art sale continues, and will do so till Monday.


Mad science baking led to Goblin Market muffins (beets, cranberries, pomegranate applesauce, orange zest), a brilliant idea that fell through somewhere along the way. They're tasty, but way too sticky, and end up fused with the cupcake papers. I'll try this again some time.


Shadowhand (aka Mad Max Beyond Ragnarok) is clamoring at me. The characters have started telling me too much about their sex lives, which is always a dubiously good thing. I'm especially enamored of Loki's grandson, and am trying to figure out a graceful way to conflate both Vális.

Oh, hey... I thought Fenrir was the man with the cold grey voice (because Hel is the hag), but maybe it's Váli. This book is turning into one big family reunion. Maybe Laufey herself will get a cameo.
stillsostrange: (Blood)
Fourth-day Universe is having a contest, with many categories. The Bone Palace is one of the contenders for Best Horror Novel of 2010 (I know, but I guess it is kinda spooky?). If you have some free clicking time, feel free to vote for any of the many fine books nominated for various things.

Today I sent back the page proofs for the End of an Aeon anthology! It's scheduled for print and ebook in July. I'm so glad that "Blue Valentine" will finally be loose in the world, even if I'm not in love with its commas anymore.

Now I need to read someone else's book to crit, and then try to figure out what's going on with my boywhores and oracular demons.
stillsostrange: (The Drowning City)
The Orbit France site has a book trailer for La Cité des eaux. How awesome is that? (The text goes by too fast for my poor French to keep up.)

I started to make my own trailer for TDC back in the day, but it fell prey to the apathy demon. I should make one for Kingdoms.
stillsostrange: (Rilke)
In prowling for epigraphs for Kingdoms, I found "Dust", by Dorothy Anderson. I'm quite smitten, but I'm having a hell of time getting any information on her out of Google. It was apparently published in the Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1920 (William Stanley Braithwaite, ed.), but that's all I have.

Is anyone familiar with Dorothy Anderson, or know where I should look for more information?

My other favorite so far is Carl Sandburg's "Troths", which is too short for two lines fair use. At least I have contact information for his estate.
stillsostrange: (Agony)
Have any other authors with Bookscan access noticed a sales spike in the past two weeks? I wonder if it has anything to do with Borders' store-closing sales.
stillsostrange: (Plot Octopus)
The magic of LJ comes through again! I figured out my elephant. I also named my warrior priests--they ended up being the red pilgrims, but thanks for all the suggestions. Bonus thanks to [livejournal.com profile] desperance, because "the Risen" is excellent and I'll have to use it somewhere, and to [livejournal.com profile] lindensphinx, because I found another home for Illumined.

Now I have to insert the newly-discovered elephant into relevant scenes, and prepare for the elephant stampede that now gets to happen somewhere in the second part of the book. Okay, maybe that metaphor has run its course. Nonetheless, I look forward to the stampede.

Also, I feel that I should sing the praises of my publisher. Remember the cover art prints Orbit was giving away? Anna-my-UK-editor sent me one! I now have a gorgeous print of the yellow Bone Palace cover, which I've framed and will soon hang.

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