While I work on the notes for book 4, my son has roped a handful of neighborhood kids to do voice over to his latest Lego animation. They’ve already had to rewrite because one of the “artists” didn’t know (and couldn’t say) the word “apocalypse” as in “zombie apocalypse.”
It’s hard to focus, what with all the cute.
Apparently Child of Fire is available in the Google ebook store. They even have sample pages from the beginning of the book. If you look at it as “scanned pages” (iow, laid out the way the printed book is) you can read up to page 37. If you set the sample to “flowing text” you can read a little farther, and can change the font, font sizes, and line spacing too. It’s pretty nice. I haven’t had the opportunity to read a book on an ereader; is this what it looks like, usually?
Interestingly, Game of Cages isn’t available for sale there. I’m not sure why. Maybe it just takes time to load the books in.
Hey out there. If you’re the Steve who sent an UPS package to me, please be aware that UPS has returned it to you for no good reason and without notifying me first. Please contact me before trying again.
I have no idea why UPS is pretending my address is no good, since it’s the same address they’ve delivered to many times. I have no idea why they’re sending me a postcard notifying me of the problem that doesn’t arrive until after the return date. I assume it’s because they put a new guy on the route.
The previous guy knew me by name. He’d wave when his truck passed me at the bus stop and I was happy to give him a copy of CoF. I want the previous delivery guy back.
My knee has improved to the point that I can sleep through the night with only occasional twinges of pain-that-wakes-me-up. As a result, I’m sleeping like a narcoleptic, crashing at odd hours and inconvenient times.
And, I hate to say, the muscles of my injured left leg look atrophied, even though it’s only been a week and a half. I know it comes quickly, but it always surprises me. Time to start up the rehab exercises–as long as the pain stays bearable. And maybe some walking tomorrow.
Sorry that the blog has become so much about my leg pain. I usually try not to write about it very much, but it’s been a big deal in my life lately and has taken over everything, including my blog.
1) A Wrinkle in Time in 90 seconds. Video. So. Effing. Cute.
2) MEOW. Video. Zombies uber alles, yeah?
3) A jury of your peers, not a jury of your purrs. I deeply regret writing that previous sentence.
4) Before and after photos of the flooding in Australia. Mouse over the pics to change them.
5) Why I don’t pay much attention to reader reviews.
6) “Impossible” physics w/out special effects. Video. Trompe l’oeil made awesome.
7) Edgar Allen Pooh.
Except this one. In short, it’s a novel contest where the winning entry will get a full edit by Del Rey editor in chief Betsy Mitchell. She’s my editor, and I’m going to tell you right now that she’s smart and knows a helluva lot about making stories work. She won’t be going through the text marking the verbs that should be pluperfect or whatever, but she will get in depth with the characters, setting, plot and tone of your work. Invaluable.
Also, there’s no entry fee, no crazy rights grab, and even if you don’t win the grand prize, you might still win a whole bunch of books. Free books! You can’t beat that with a cricket bat.
I think most writing contests are a waste of time. Better to work on the manuscript, create a good query, and compete in the marketplace. The prizes are better. However I’m making an exception and recommending this one. If you have a novel that you think is damn good but can’t place anywhere, consider entering it. You might learn a lot.
Death to novel-writing workshops! Check the comments, too.
I took a novel-writing class way way back in the day. You wanted to learn how to do something, you took a class, right?
Well, it wasn’t what you’d call useful. The teacher taught an odd, artificial system and workshopping a six- or sixteen-page chapter outside the context of the book was useless. Before printing up pages to hand out, I’d search the document for the word “eye” because it was a huge deal there if you made a mistake like “His eyes went around the room, searching for a face he recognized.” Sure, it’s bad writing. It’s also an extremely easy critique to make, and they would make it, every time, even if the word didn’t appear in the document.
What did help my writing was: smart critiques from smart people, and studying good novels.
Some sad news: Jim Butcher’s latest novel Ghost Story has been pushed back from it’s original publication date in April to July 26th.
Unfortunately, that was the publication date for Circle of Enemies, but because Harry Dresden casts such a long shadow, Ray Lilly has been bumped back by one month; the new publication date is August 30, 2011.
I know that will annoy readers who have been waiting for the new book. Sorry. It can’t be helped.
It’s been a week since I screwed up my knee. Things are much improved, but I’m still a bit hobbled. I can bend my knee now, but not all the way. It also feels mostly swollen rather than deeply painful. It’s not a miniscus tear, since I can put weight on it. In fact, I can walk pretty well on it as long as I don’t get too ambitious and try to leave the apartment. In essence, it has improved to the point that it is back to the usual pain/impairment levels, although at the “bad” end of those levels.
In other news, the basic shape and structure of the fourth Twenty Palaces book fell into place over the long weekend, and like most revelations of this sort it looks so obvious in retrospect that I feel stupid for not putting it together sooner. As I said on Twitter, it’s all uphill from here but at least I know what hill I’m tackling.
And yeah, the new tag below is the working title for book four.
I’ve talked enough about my book trailer, haven’t I? You’re not sick of it yet?
Well, get this: the guys who are making my trailer now have their first documentary (which won Best Documentary at San Diego Comic Con when it played there) online for free. If this works correctly, you can see a preview below.
They’re damn good at this, and that’s why I’m really looking forward to the trailer.
