stillsostrange

Because 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 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.

This morning I braved the poisonous fume that is our air to get a HEPA purifier. (It seems to be working!) As a reward I promised myself a healthy bran-type muffin, but Target and its captive Starbucks refused to sell me one. So I broke down and made my own.

Because I didn't want it to turn into an all-morning displacement activity, I found a machine-made banana bread recipe and altered it. I traded all white flour for 3/4 whole wheat, the white sugar for 1/2 a cup turbinado and a squeeze of agave nectar, and the bananas for two servings of pomegranate applesauce (best stuff ever!). Then I added walnuts and dried blueberries. To my dismay, I realized I have no cinnamon, so I poured in a healthy glug of chai and a dollop of ginger (and a little more flour to offset the new liquid). I also added salt, because salt is important. The result is blue-tinged and delicious, though not quite right without the cinnamon.

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2400+ words today on Kingdoms, but much of that was rewriting an old scene to account for the new character. I'm fond of the new girl so far--she actually talks, and the change in age and gender gives me more interesting dynamics to play with.

I must also admit, grudgingly, that a change in the timeline that matociquala talked me into making seems to be helping. I still think it makes the opening weird, but it ratchets up the tension in later chapters.

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As you may have heard, elisem had a stroke recently. She's fine now, with no permanent damage, but she is fine because people recognized the symptoms and called 911 immediately. Timely intervention is critical for strokes, so please, learn the symptoms and call for help.

Speaking of "hey now, hey now now", and assuming everyone doesn't already know about this (I am perpetually far from the pulse), there's a remaster of Floodland available on iTunes, and presumably elsewhere. The sound quality is better than the tracks on the original CD, and it includes the full version of "Never Land" (in addition to the fragment) and "Emma." This makes me the happiest I've been since I got my hands on a copy of Some Boys Wander By Mistake.

This also makes my interwar Europe ghost story/spy novel much more likely to happen. Dammit.

Friday

ETA: My reading has been moved to 2:00 on Friday
5:00 - On the Beach on the beach (Charnas, Crowley, Downum, Straub, Taaffe)*, Salon G
7:00 - Kaffeklatsch, Vineyard
8:30 - Reading, Vermont
10:15 - Meet the Pros(e) party, Salons F & G


I'll be reading from the The Bone Palace but no one will care because I'm scheduled across from Elizabeth Hand.

Saturday I appear to be free, so you will likely find me in the bar.


*I am making a face that looks like 0.0, but moreso.

In other news, I sent my synopsis for Kingdoms to my editor yesterday, and he didn't fire me. He even made encouraging noises.

Joule tells me I have new people reading, which I failed to notice in my deathmarching haze. Hi, new people.

Introduce yourselves, ask questions, lurk--whatever seems best to you.

The Drowning City is longlisted for David Gemmell Legend Award, in both the Legend and Morningstar categories. And Larry Rostant's awesome cover art is also up for Ravenheart award. How cool is that? Many other fine books are nominated as well. If you are so inclined, I encourage you to click over and vote for whoever you think should win what appears to be a shiny axe. Shiny axes come in handy in all sorts of situations.

I'm angry, and probably shouldn't post when I'm angry, but I'm going to do it anyway. This anger isn't going away. So I will leave my opinion here for posterity.

The advent of the internet makes it easier to "meet" artists of all varieties, and therefore to discover that they're people with opinions just like everyone else, and those opinions often run counter to our own. Getting bent out of shape because an artist doesn't agree with you on everything is certainly one's prerogative, but usually a very silly one.

But I draw the line at basic human rights. Including the right not to be fucking raped.

There is no moral grey area here. There is never a time when rape is maybe okay. Or not really that bad. And if anyone says there is, they have lost any respect I might ever have given them. I don't care what kind of art you make, or what your other political views are. If you think rape is okay, I think you're a waste of skin.

I have succumbed. I'm a twit. (I would say twat, but I have never found that word euphonious.) If anyone cares, I'm stillsostrange on Twitter.

For anyone who hasn't already found me, I'm on Facebook already. As Amanda Downum, shockingly enough. Play Scrabble with me.

Even though you've heard this from twenty other LJs by now.

Americans, have you registered to vote? Today may be your last day to do so. Hank wants you to vote. He's pretty serious about it. You don't want to disappoint Hank, do you?