It's a Writing Thing

There's definitely one big silver lining about being sick (yah, same cold/sinus/rundown stuff as per usual, this time with bonus cough and now 3 sets of meds) - one can stay home and READ.

Although earlier in the week, I was mostly just sleeping, this weekend, my attention span got a little better and I devoured the most recent 2 books in Jenna Black's Devil series.

If you're looking for a good new urban fantasy series, this would be a great one. I adore this series beyond the telling of it. I bought the first book only a couple of weeks ago and immediately bought the next two. It's been a long time since I raced through a set of books.

What I love:
The premise - very interesting and unusual. The world created is detailed and yet, no boring infodumps, go Jenna! She does a fabulous job at revealing the details through action, dialogue and showing the reader.

Morgan, the protag - tough, but yet vulnerable in many ways; her relationship with her BF, her brother, her family is real and handled well.

The lovely and so very hot and endearing relationship between Adam and Dominic. There's a truth to their interactions and love doesn't mean they don't screw up.

Note to theamusedone - I think you'll really, really like these guys.

Lugh and Raphael - Jenna makes these guys fascinating - likeable, yet extremely dangerous.

The plots - interesting in their own right, and I like the overall arc mixed in with each book's discrete plot line. Answers are given, yet more questions raised in just that right mix of "omg, I must keep reading".

So major kudos to Jenna Black. I'm looking forward to her continuing this series.

I stayed up way too late last night reading The Devil's Due, right after I finished The Devil You Know. This is definitely a sign that I'm hooked. :)

Buy these books at your favorite indie bookstore.

Bouchercon has published the panel schedule. All the panels are titled after songs.

I'll be on a great panel on Thursday, October 9, 2008 (as moderator):

WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH (Frank Zappa) Mixing mystery and horror.
Maria Lima(M),
Mario Acevedo
Heather Graham
Kat Richardson
F. Paul Wilson

Pretty darned good line up!

On a side note, my wonderful team at work gave me a pirate birthday card today and there was pie. :)

Okay, that's it, I'm off home, then finish the last wee bit of packing, then to bed early so I can get up at 3:15 a.m. (YIKES!)

Let me be one of the first to congratulation my friends Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner on their new book (which debuted on my birthday!) and hit the stands at #30 on the New York Times bestseller list.

Many Bloody Returns is an anthology of vampire tales, containing stories by Charlaine, Toni, Jim Butcher, Christopher Golden, Jeanne Stein and others of note.

Kudos to Charlaine and Toni for a fabulous debut!!

Of the great, my dad is doing fabulously with the radiation/chemo. Things are progressing well and the doctors have every confidence. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

Of the good, seems that although Amazon is having problems fulfilling orders for my book (they seem to have under-ordered), my editor assures me that they are working with their rep to rectify this. In the meantime, if you want to get it sooner, order from an indy or you can order directly from my publisher.

Now for the utterly sucktastic.

I just heard that a dear dear friend and fellow author, Elaine Viets, suffered a stroke last night at 9:00 p.m. and for a while, the prognosis was the worst. Luckily, after surgery, things seem to be better. She's slated to be okay, but with a long, long road to recovery. Elaine is a fantastic, fabulous woman and one of my closest friends and mentors. I love her dearly and am still processing the news.

The women at the Lipstick Chronicles - the blog she participates in - have set up an entry to keep us posted. If you know her or read her books, please drop in and leave a comment.

Back to work now.

So yesterday, in the midst of two hours of crazy!insane work type stuff, I get an IM from oldcharliebrown, chief editor at Wildside. Mostly chit-chat, until the really really cool thing about orders for Matters of the Blood.


Him: Borders took 1200 copies.
Me: WOW
Him: Barnes and Noble took 900 copies.
Me: :-D

::chickwriter grins wildly::

Holy crap, all - I'm going to be in the chain stores!

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore my lovely indies, especially Mysterious Galaxy and Mystery Loves Company. Both stores have been wonderful supporters. But try as they may, they can't deal in those kinds of numbers. I'm still in a bit of shock.

On Wednesday, I'm at the Alexandria Public Library with 3 other local authors. Olsson's ( another fine indie) ordered a case of my book (36). What's left over after the signing will be my author copies, so I'm dying to see it finally.

If you're in the area, feel free to stop by. It's a free event and I promise I won't force you to buy anything. ::g::

The weather has cleared up (thankfully!) but unfortunately, we didn't get to go to Paula Poundstone last night. Weather was much too risky, plus after the work insanity, I had a splitting sinus headache. Although, the news about the book went a long way to alleviate that.

Of the amusing: In my mail last night, I got a promo postcard for a new book: Whips of the West. Tracey, I swear, it's not what you think...no, really, I am so not lying. Evidently, since Chesapeake Crimes II, which I co-edited, is published by this press, I'm on the mailing list.

I'm going to have to keep this postcard.

In conclusion: 2 weeks until MJ!!!! 1 week until DS fannish weekend!!!!!

After a couple of insane work days, I came back from lunch to find a great big box from my sis. Knowing it was early b'day pressies from birki_lib, I immediately had to open it. (Yah, no delayed gratification here!)

First thing I found: A note, written on a note paper from a pad I'd made for her (designed, had printed) about 10 years ago. It read:

STOP!!!!

You must call me before opening any of your presents. I want to be able to hear you reactions! I'll have my cell on.

Eep!! Delayed gratification. So, I pull open the rest of the box, because I know she's wrapped everything and call her.

( PRESSIES!! )

I was dead dog tired on Saturday night, and decided to take my time getting in to the convention center in the a.m. on Sunday.

Stopped off and got coffee and a bagel and some cash, then drove to my lovely corner lot from the day before only to find it chained shut. :(

Had to drive around, but I found another one, nearly as convenient.

Fewer attendees walking around on Sunday, as many folks were leaving for home early, but still extremely successful.

Got to meet Chuck Zito, a new author with a truly funny new series set in the theatre. First book: A Habit For Death. (No, this isn't the actor that played on Oz ::g::)

More serendipty, author Clyde Ford and our booth boy S discovered they went to high school together in NY, class of '67. A big HS in NY, so they never met. And I thought I was the queen of serendipity!

beledibabe and I did another pass through the show, gathering more freebies. Ended up at Diamond Distributing again at my publisher's booth, when all of a sudden I heard my name. It was Patrick Heffernan, the incomparable store manager from Mysterious Galaxy. It was great running into him - got a gigantic hug and a chance to chat without thousands of people around.

Back at the MWA booth, I had a chance to visit a bit with my old pal, Steve Brewer, who'd run out of books at his publisher signing the previous day, so we had nothing for him to sign. I hadn't seen him in a while, as Steve now lives in CA, and I'm here on the East Coast.

Margery and S packed up all their myriad of goodies, including a Smallville 2nd Season Companion book that S somehow scored. This dude is AWESOME when trolling for goodies. People just GAVE him things, especially on Sunday, as publisher reps packed up and realized they didn't want to take stuff back with. Unfortunately, the Smallville book was a display copy that they were discarding, so there was only one. Oh well, I did taunt S with the SV magazine with Lois on the cover. ::g::

We wrapped up the day in a haze, trying to figure out just how to get all the stuff back out. At least I had a car, but poor beledibabe had to pack mule everything on the Metro. At the last minute, Brooke B from Dorchester, home of naominovik's hubby Charles' Hard Case Crimes, came over with bottles of wine and a book for each of us. We'd steered folks over there yesterday during the Jason Starr signing and wine party so she wanted to thank us. No hardship there. I love the books and think Charles and the gang are doing a fabulous job with the imprint. But, hey, free wine!

Got home at a decent hour and basically vegged.

I had SUCH a blast, even though I was dead tired and felt battered and bruised afterwards. Where else can you spend such a fabulous weekend talking about the book biz with folks that know it from all ends of the spectrum?

Next year: NYC!

For those of you who knew who this was, Gene Pitney died while on tour in GB. (In case the subject line wasn't hint enough, he was a singer/songwriter, most well known for that song).

Work has been a roller coaster of insanity, but I'm trying to remain zen about all of it. Today, that's working better than it was yesterday.

My DVD of Brokeback Mountain arrived today, so w00t! I've spent the majority of today listening to Rufus on the iPod - hooked up to my speakers and just chilling while I work on catching up on daily stuff. I could get used to this. Have scheduled Friday as "work from home" day, so I'm very happy about that. Nothing like rolling out of bed at the last minute to start working. ::g::

On the TSTL* list for the day, because, yah, live ordnance as paperweight is really smart. Sigh. (snurched from scott_lynch)

Didn't watch House last night, but am looking forward to more roommate fun with the boys. hee!

Current issue of Sci-Fi magazine has a lovely article and some photos from the upcoming Dresden Files, a series pilot based on Jim Butcher's books. I'm looking forward to this. I first met Jim a few years ago, just as the first audio was released (Storm Front) , he was and is a fabulous writer and interview subject. I've loved the Harry Dresden books from the start and have hooked at least 8 or 9 people in my office to the series. My book pimping is an awesome thing. ::g:: (but I learned from the best, right, allaboutm_e?

On the writing front - I'm working on the query/synopsis of Matters to get that back out in the world, plus I have an idea for another book/series that I'm toying with. I do want to eventually get the 2nd book of the Blood Lines universe finished, too. I wish there was more time in the day/week/month and more energy. With work being as soulsucking as it's been, it's really really tough to make my brain work for fiction writing. I'm hoping that the energy from the upcoming cons (Malice and Mayhem) will help. I usually come back from those with a renewed sense of purpose.


*TSTL: Too Stupid To Live

Ran to B&N at lunch for my semi-regular dose of Sci-Fi mag and other genre mags, and spotted naominovik's Her Majesty's Dragon on the "new releases" dump at the front of the store. I got my copy already, what are you waiting for? ;-)

Still pimping Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell and Covenants by Lorna Freeman. I'm halfway through Lorna's 2nd book (The King's Own) and am not wanting to finish it because then I'll be done and there are no more yet!! EEEEE!!! /bookpanic

The weather is awesomely beautiful - high 60s and not a cloud in the sky. I was tempted to not return to work after the lunch outing. But alas, I'm still here. Saturday is our staff retreat, which means working, but it should be productive.

Watched House last night - my reaction? Pretty much the same as all of you - OMGWTFGAYERTHANAGAYTHING! 'Nuff said.

Did not watch Lost or Veronica Mars, those will be tonight. Thank goodness for the DVR.

Tomorrow I go to a new doc for the sinusy stuff. If I like this clinic, I plan to transfer all my gyn records over to them. These folks are a women's clinic that does primary care work and gyn. I like the idea of a one-stop shop.

Trying to plan out my nearly!midnight panel for Malice Domestic - the title: Things That Go Bump In The Night - not sure of who's accepted the invite to be on the panel, but we've invited any of the attendees that have written paranormal/supernatural elements into their mysteries. I'm wracking my brain for ideas for what we'll actually do - maybe readings? I'm drawing blanks. Discuss the seductive aspects of horror? Why is the supernatural sexy?

My "official" panel is the following morning at 10:00 a.m. - Crossing Genre: Is there a bridge that allows passage from one genre to another? - My co-panelists include Carole Nelson Douglas, Barbara Hambly, Lillian Stewart Carl and Lois Greiman. I'm not running this show, but I did offer up some ideas to our moderator, who is a good friend. I did a similar panel at ConDor a few weeks ago and shamelessly stole some of the questions we discussed. ::g::

May brings BEA - and I'm an official exhibitor - working the MWA/Sisters in Crime booth. I'm psyched, as I've never attended this event. So if any of you author types are there - stop by the MWA booth and say "Hi".

Just after BEA, I'm off to Mayhem in the Midlands - my favorite small con (<200 people). This years GOH is Laura Lippman.