July 2010 Archives

I know that writers write, but I've been spending long hours in the office — staying till midnight on one occasion this week, and likely doing more work tomorrow. When I come home, do I immediately start whipping out my daily quota of words? No. I value my sleep and sanity. When I do have a few spare moments to breathe, I end up reading instead. Some recently discovered gems:

Barbara Hambly has been writing short stories with characters from various novels, in what's called The Further Adventures of... It's always unexpectedly pleasing to find an author work deftly in both the long and short forms, and to discover that her voice rings true and clear with or without professional edits. I have a ridiculous soft spot in my heart for Mother of Winter, and "Pretty Polly" wasn't a disappointment at all even after that awesome novel. In fact, it pulled off the same feat of a mystery that I got, one that just made perfect sense to me without any gimmicks. And I love characters who are realistically practical, as Hambly's tend to be. If you liked Gil, I think you'll like this.

Similarly, Victoria Janssen impressed me with the solid historical setting and non-florid eroticism of Moonlight Mistress. I read one review that complained of its disjointedness, of its trying too hard to be a historical war novel, a romance, a werewolf story, all in one — and I see where that reader was coming from, but I was overall won over by it all. There are no crazy pack dominance or mating rituals with the werewolves, as most paranormal werewolf novels get into. Janssen instead finds natural situations of attraction and opens them to the surface. And these situations are varied, free of over-set drama, and not shoehorned into the plot. I wouldn't call this a romance, exactly, but I think warmly of all the characters and how they get entangled with each other. I'm a little sad not to be able to categorize this one better, even though part of what I liked was its willingness to slide around traditional genre boundaries, because it means it'll be hard to find more in this vein.

And here's the final cover for Demon's Fall. I'm pretty much in awe of Frauke of Croco Designs, the artist. She somehow took the vagueness of my character and story descriptions and rendered it into something beautiful.

Copyright © 2010 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited. Cover Art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited. ® and ^TM are trademarks owned by Harlequin Enterprises Limited or its affiliated companies, used under license.

Edited to add: You can find the first chapter of this book here.

I was taken with the concept of Drollerie Press's double anthology Trafficking in Magic/Magicking in Traffic, and it provided the last oomph necessary to finish up "Unsilenced" — a story about the different prices people will pay for power. One is an empress who seeks even more; one is a madwoman who has all of it anyone could dream of.

I can finally announce that it's been accepted! And I'm actually looking forward almost as much to seeing what other stories will be alongside mine.

I got the countersigned contract back from Carina Press for Gutter-wing -- renamed to Demon's Fall -- so it's all official! The executive editor was kind enough to actually call me about the acquisition, which was an exciting first for me. Things moved along at a steady clip from there:

Revisions are already done, and I'm quite happy with them. (I've been lucky with my editors so far, across all three publishers.) It does seem to be a struggle for me to give the heroine's arc proper weight and curvature when I write from the hero's POV. The cover art request is also in, and I'm quite curious how that'll turn out. And while there isn't a firm release date yet, I've got an idea-seed for a connected short story I'd like to post at the same time. Now to find the time to write it while navigating the new job...