The Game of Cages post

Standard

My original plan was to place all book information into one convenient post. Hah! Turns out that doesn’t work very well; there’s too much! New plan: create a dedicated page for each book.

Game of Cages is the second book in the Twenty Palaces series. (Book one is Child of Fire which came out in September, 2009 and was named to Publishers Weekly’s list of best 100 books of 2009). Check out this Chris McGrath cover:

Game of Cages

God, I love that cover. You know what? The inside of the book is gorgeous, too.

The series follows Ray Lilly, an ex-con and former car thief press-ganged in to working for the Twenty Palace society. There are, scattered around the world, a small number of spells and spell books. The magic they allow people to do is often dangerous, but nothing is as risky as the summoning spells that let sorcerers to summon strange, extradimensional beings to our world.

These beings, which the society calls predators, view our world as a fresh hunting ground and see humans as prey.

The Twenty Palace Society hunts these creatures–and the people who summon them–with brutal, ruthless zeal. While Ray is not exactly the nicest guy in the world, he’s a saint compared to the society members he’s forced to work with.

In Game of Cages, Ray is given an emergency job–a predator is going to be auctioned off, and some of the wealthiest and most dangerous people in the world have gathered at a remote mountain mansion to place their bids. Unfortunately, the sale goes wrong and the creature escapes into the small town below with the bidders in close pursuit. Can Ray destroy the predator before it destroys the town?

It already has a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly. Read the first chapter here, the second chapter here and the third chapter here.

Order the book right now from:

| Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository (free int’l shipping!) | Books a Million | Borders | Indiebound | Kobo | Mysterious Galaxy| Powell’s Books |

And be sure to look for book 3 in the series, CIRCLE OF ENEMIES, out now.

Announcing a month of book giveaways! Day 24

Standard

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.

IMG_7380

There is no excuse for combining these two books in one giveaway, but there you are. Any takers?

Update: These items have been won.

Randomness for 8/23

Standard

1) Medieval copy protection: Sometimes people come to me and ask, “How did medieval filmmakers protect their DVDs from piracy?”

2) Choose (or create) wake up music for NASA astronauts on the last space shuttle mission. via @seattlegeekly

3) Reading, all around the world.

4) The Freedom of the Road wasn’t free for everyone.

5) Small countertop machine turns plastic back into oil Video. Put some solar panels on the top of that bad boy and I’m happy.

6) Why SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD bombed at the box office. “People say it’s become cool to be a geek. That’s not true. People have just started applying the word geek to cool people. Hipsters aren’t geeks and geeks aren’t rock musicians and rock musicians aren’t old school gamers”

7) Brandon Sanderson’s long-awaited WAY OF KINGS available at a charity auction. The charity benefits Doctors Without Borders. Spread the word!

Announcing a month of book giveaways! Day 23

Standard

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.

IMG_7379

It’s an eye-witness history of WWII, as written by AP correspondents. Want it?

Update: This book has been won.

Game of Cages Chapter Two

Standard

If you haven’t read any of Game of Cages yet, Chapter One is here. If you have read it, read on:

Game of Cages
Chapter Two

“Oh, shit,” Catherine said as she backed away. I moved toward the dead men, more out of a sense of duty than common sense. Apparently, searching the dead wasn’t part of an investigator’s job. Continue reading

Announcing a month of book giveaways! Day 22

Standard

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.

IMG_7376

A Patricia Cornwell giftpack. Want to read some works by this bestselling author?

Update: These books have been won.

I need a to-do list

Standard

If only I had time to create one.

Update: Time!

    Email promo essay 1 to recipient
    Email promo essay 2 to recipient
    Email promo essay 3 to recipient
    Format and schedule sample chapter 2 of Game of Cages.
    Format and schedule sample chapter 3 of Game of Cages.
    Mail off giveaway books to folks who’ve claimed them
    Buy more brown mailing paper
    Revamp website home page to be less artsy
    Revamp blog sidebar to include cover image for Game of Cages
    Revamp “buy” links in sidebar to simplify them.
    Give Game of Cages its own “book” post.
    Write blog post about writers, job lock, and HCR
    Mail off copies of Game of Cages to the winner of the school benefit tuckerization auction.
    Ditto for John Scalzi for my Big Idea essay.
    Email [writer] regarding review/interview for [name] Magazine.
    Talk to my agent about my next project.
    Change my sig lines at the various msg boards and forums I visit.

Announcing a month of book giveaways! Day 21

Standard

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.

IMG_7378

That’s one old-fashioned Advertising Novel (MAD MEN w/out the ironic distance) and three dumb humor books. And yes, that middle one is full of ethnic jokes with blanks where you can add whatever ethnicity you want to offend. I’m sure it seemed like progress at the time. Want these? Leave a comment to let me know.

Update: These books have been won.

Randomness for 8/20

Standard

1) This is one excellent ad for a pen. Large images, but no video. I’d show these to my son, but then I’d have to buy him a couple. I especially love the UF heroine.

2) Have a spare million dollars? Maybe you can come up with story ideas as good as J.D. Salinger’s if you sit where he sat.

3) Have you been seeing computer folks talking about “P=NP” lately? Have you wondered what it is? Here’s your explanation.

4) An article featuring several writers who are also parents, and how they manage it. One of them happens to be me. Give it a read if you like.

5) INCEPTION… starring Dora the Explorer. Video.

6) “Can you tell me who the author of Shakespeare is?” and “What kind of bookstore doesn’t have anything on BAYWATCH?”

7) Better book titles.

When I want to feel virtuous, I think about my backup system

Standard

Yeah, I’m a computer backer upper, and I’m damn happy, too. The first few times I lost files–always a few day’s work, never an entire project, thank Pikachu–I thought “I should back up more in the future.”

And I would be diligent about it… for a while. But I’m a lazy bastard, so what I really needed was an automated system. Which I did. (Ask me about my backup protocol!)

First, I do my writing on my laptop. There’s an 8GB travel drive on a lanyard around my neck, so whenever I finish a day’s work I copy the changed files to there. Those files (plus a number of family/kiddie pics) are as safe as I am.

I also copy the files to my dropbox folder. Dropbox is not only an online backup service, it syncs files with my home computer. As soon as I have a wifi connection, Dropbox copies the updated file to their server, then downloads it to my desktop computer at home.

Copying the files to those two places is the only part of this I have to remember to do. It takes less than 20 seconds, which is apparently just on the correct side of onerous for my lazy self.

Dropbox gives me 2GB for free (plus a little extra I get for referrals–anyone want a free backup and sync service? Lemme know)

Once the file is on my desktop, Time Machine automatically backs it up to the 2TB external hard drive on my desk. I also have Mozy, which, for five bucks a month, backs up everything in my dropbox folder plus all our family photos and home movies.

That’s two external hard drives, two online servers, and two computers. Excessive? Maybe. But to me it feels like virtue.