Home page

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I’ve been told that the best home page a writer can show is the one that displays their books (along with synopsis, blurbs, links to sample chapters and buy links); rather than force people to click through a couple of links to buy a book, they can do so right at the front.

So I’ve redesigned my front page and I linked it to the style.css file that governs my blog. Now the front page looks like the rest of my site.

Mostly. I need to set my name so it comes up next to the photo and I want to eliminate the white space beneath the picture. I also want to reduce the size of the picture.

So I’m not done fiddling with it, but I’m kinda married to the plain white page. What do you think? Anything I should change? Anything that doesn’t work for you? All advice welcome.

Announcing a month of book giveaways! Day 29

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Game of Cages will be coming out on the last day of the month, so I’ve decided to hold a special month of book giveaways. Every day (unless I screw up, which I probably will) I’ll give away a book or themed set of books to someone who asks for it. To enter, you have to comment on this blog or on my LiveJournal–email, Facebook, and Twitter won’t count, and if more than one person speaks up, I’ll roll a die to determine the recipient. U.S. residents only, please.

You get a new book every day, and on the last day of the month I’ll give away my own.

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Books on writing! Anyone want them?

Update: These books have been won.

Randomness for 8/28

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1) Note to shoplifters: Don’t try to rob a store while they’re in the middle of a police charity event.

2) Deep Fried Beer. Linking is not approval.

3) By the time this post goes online, I expect this policy to be rescinded: School segregates class elections by race.

4) Spontaneous badassery.

5) A treehouse for people who love fantasy and need cardio. Lots and lots of cardio.

6) In case you don’t have enough reason to be sick of TWILIGHT, here’s the toilet decal.

7) Alternative Universe movie posters. Brad Pitt as Plastic Man? Tim Curry as the Joker? Love it. via tor.com

Announcing a month of book giveaways! Day 28

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Game of Cages will be coming out on the last day of the month, so I’ve decided to hold a special month of book giveaways. Every day (unless I screw up, which I probably will) I’ll give away a book or themed set of books to someone who asks for it. To enter, you have to comment on this blog or on my LiveJournal–email, Facebook, and Twitter won’t count, and if more than one person speaks up, I’ll roll a die to determine the recipient. U.S. residents only, please.

You get a new book every day, and on the last day of the month I’ll give away my own.

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A mystery/thriller sample pack! Anyone want them?

Update: These books have been won.

Aren’t I a fun date?

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Last night we had a surprise baby-sitter[1], which means it was date-night with my wife. We had a terrific dinner at Palermo’s in Ballard, did a little boring shopping, then walked around the neighborhood having an actual uninterrupted conversation.

It was nice, even if I was a little distracted. I’ll admit that I’m stressed about the release of Game of Cages and we talked about that quite a bit.

You know what? I am no damn fun at all. Other writers dance around and get giddy when their books come out. All that hard work finally coming to fruition, right? But all I do is fret.

I so very much need to get over this. I’d really like to be a person who was easy-going and optimistic, but damn, that just isn’t my response.

Comments are turned off because sympathetic or encouraging responses make me uncomfortable.

[1] How I define “surprise”: We scheduled the date with her and then got so wrapped up in our lives that we forgot she was coming over.

Announcing a month of book giveaways! Day 27

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Game of Cages will be coming out on the last day of the month, so I’ve decided to hold a special month of book giveaways. Every day (unless I screw up, which I probably will) I’ll give away a book or themed set of books to someone who asks for it. To enter, you have to comment on this blog or on my LiveJournal–email, Facebook, and Twitter won’t count, and if more than one person speaks up, I’ll roll a die to determine the recipient. U.S. residents only, please.

You get a new book every day, and on the last day of the month I’ll give away my own.

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A seven-pack of John LeCarre. If I had Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to offer, I’d have the whole “Karla” trilogy. As it is, you’ll have to settle for these. They’re pretty wonderful, and not at all like Bond-style action-thrillers.

Writing, Health Care, and Job Lock

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I was going to write about this later, but I just had a woman cry on the phone to me about this, so I don’t want to put it off any longer.

I’m a writer. (No kidding, right? Check out the images of book covers all over my website.) As a pro, I get all sorts of things from Random House, my publisher: I get deadlines, and publication dates, and a smart editor who gives me fantastic notes, and a copyeditor who cares about the difference between “among” and “between”, and publicity, and front-of-store displays, and a beautifully-designed book (seriously, wait till you see the inside of GAME OF CAGES) and I get those covers. Did I mention the covers?

What I don’t get from Random House is health and dental benefits for my family. Continue reading

Announcing a month of book giveaways! Day 26

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Game of Cages will be coming out on the last day of the month, so I’ve decided to hold a special month of book giveaways. Every day (unless I screw up, which I probably will) I’ll give away a book or themed set of books to someone who asks for it. To enter, you have to comment on this blog or on my LiveJournal–email, Facebook, and Twitter won’t count, and if more than one person speaks up, I’ll roll a die to determine the recipient. U.S. residents only, please.

You get a new book every day, and on the last day of the month I’ll give away my own.

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Men’s adventure novels! Three “Killmaster” novels, two “Executioner” novels, and one “Dirty Harry” media tie-in novel. Does anyone want them?

Update: These books have been won.

Randomness for 8/25

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1) Hobo Superman, and the sad superheroes of Latvia.

2) Hungover owls. Tumblr has reached its apotheosis.

3) I don’t usually link to “books as construction material” items, mainly because I don’t see the appeal of having walls you want to read but can’t, however this mushroom garden, where the books are both structure and food for the mushrooms, is pretty compelling.

4) Occasionally I’ll see aspiring writers say things like “Don’t pro writers see all sides of a situation? Aren’t they a little wishy-washy?” Really, though, no. Almost all the writers I run into have very strong opinions, most of them dopey. (Warning, that link is aggravating.)

5) Former RNC Chairman and Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlmen comes out of the closet.

And:

6) Remember the “I’m Sorry” people at the last Chicago Pride Parade? The ones with signes that read “I’m sorry that Christians judge you,” “I’m sorry the way churches have treated you,” and “I used to be a bible-banging homophobe, sorry.”? Yeah? Well it turned out to be more “Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin” bullshit. Sorry, people who hoped for better.

7) On a lighter note: Library books thwart purse-snatcher. Good thing that old guy wasn’t reading books on his iPad.

Announcing a month of book giveaways! Day 25

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Game of Cages will be coming out on the last day of the month, so I’ve decided to hold a special month of book giveaways. Every day (unless I screw up, which I probably will) I’ll give away a book or themed set of books to someone who asks for it. To enter, you have to comment on this blog or on my LiveJournal–email, Facebook, and Twitter won’t count, and if more than one person speaks up, I’ll roll a die to determine the recipient. U.S. residents only, please.

You get a new book every day, and on the last day of the month I’ll give away my own.

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Six Matt Helm novels. Anyone interested?

Update: These books have been won.