Well.

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Today I’m writing at Austin Chase Coffee, which is right next door to the Fisherman’s Terminal. There’s a big glass wall on one side of the room, with the coffee roaster right on the other side. So shiny! So many colored lights! So many turning machines! It’s hypnotic, like an episode of HOW IT’S MADE without the v/o.

Anyway, here’s some big news: The official title for book 3 is going to be CIRCLE OF ENEMIES. Yay! I like it, not least because there isn’t another book on Amazon.com with that title. Also, Google Alerts won’t be sending me links to people who’ve posted Queensryche lyrics.

All CIRCLE OF ENEMIES posts will still be tagged with the working title, MAN BITES WORLD, just like GAME OF CAGES is tagged EVERYONE LOVES BLUE DOG.

Also, I want to talk a little about the book giveaways I’ve been doing. I want to clarify a couple of things: You can enter once for each item, but you can request as many books as you want. I don’t care if you ask for all 31. You can also win as many times as luck allows; you don’t have to stop requesting books after you’ve won one.

I’m not actually picking any winners. Here’s what happens: I receive comment notifications for every LJ and blog comment. Each day’s contest has it’s own folder in Thunderbird, and I drop the email notifications into the correct folder. Once three days have passed since the blog post went live, I make sure there have been no requests within the previous 24 hours; I don’t want to cut things off if people are still actively asking for the book.

Once both conditions are satisfied, I open the folder in Thunderbird and my 8 yo son rolls a die. Whatever the number he rolls, we count down that many emails and that’s the winner. (If he rolls a number higher than the number of emails, he rolls again.)

So far, all the winners have been LiveJournal people, and none on the blog. In part, that’s because LJ comments outnumber blog comments four or five to one in some cases. I’m sure there’ll be a couple of blog commenters getting books at some point–random chance can’t keep favoring LJ forever.

And as of yesterday, all of the claimed books had gone into the mail. The first five, I believe. The giveaway for day six, Ombria in Shadow, will be chosen tonight (as long as no one new jumps in to ask for it.)

If anyone has any questions about this, or if I’ve been unclear, let me know. But one thing I did want to emphasize is that I’m not picking winners of each book. It’s all random chance.

Announcing a month of book giveaways! Day 10

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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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At one point, so long ago, I’d planned to write a pre-agricultural/”caveman” fantasy novel, but it never came together. Interested?

Update: This book has been won.

Announcing a month of book giveaways! Day 9

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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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Old fashioned nudie pictures of beautiful, zaftig women, many of them wearing flesh-colored body stockings. You know what’s in these books. (FYI, the larger book has had one corner chewed by a mouse.) Interested?

Update: these books have been won.

Randomness for 8/8

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1) The alphabet, carved on the tips of pencils.

2) Kanye West Tweets combined with New Yorker cartoons. It’s not exactly Nietzsche Family Circus, but, um…

3) I don’t even know what to say about this news story. My initial shock at reading it has lessened as I realize this sort of thing isn’t unusual. It wouldn’t be newsworthy at all if not for the Facebook connection.

4) What a bestseller’s marketing push looks like. Someday, this will be me.

5) Amazing Lego Animation. Not for some technical razzle dazzle, but because it is so simply shot and effective. Video

6) It’s hard to believe this isn’t partly cgi in post, but this is a 3D projection onto a building, and it’s mindblowing. Video.

7) “But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave.” A New York high school valedictorian delivers a controversial speech against the public school system in which she excelled.

Announcing a month of book giveaways! Day 8

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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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Songbooks! Folk music! Burl Ives! I don’t like any of it (except Burl Ives–I’m not a monster) but would you like it? Just leave a comment letting me know.

Update: These books have been won.

Announcing a month of book giveaways! Day seven

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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.

Today’s book:

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This is old-school horror, and while it’s been a while since I read it, I remember it as pretty damn scary (but not gross–I hate gross). Want to give it a read?

Update: This item has been won.

Announcing a month of book giveaways! Day six

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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.

Today’s book:

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I read this book. It’s well-written, but I barely remember anything about it. Are you a fan of her work? Want to give it a try?

Update: This item has been won.

Dear Day: Whoa.

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Today was tough. Day job was crazy–one of the clinics had a fire the night before. No one was hurt, but the doc in charge decided they would open to see patients anyway, never mind the ten foot hole in the roof or the fumes in every room that made people’s skin sticky.

They closed eventually, and will be closed for several days, but there were a lot of patients to call and reschedule. Yes, the phones have been crazy.

Also, I went to be early last night, woke up early, and started writing early. Sekrit Project 1 is nearly done–with luck, I’ll finish tomorrow and move on to the essays and interviews I have to do.

I’m still at skip=90 on LJ and I’ve barely looked at Twitter today. The book giveaway posts are already written and scheduled (for this week, at least) and the first book (the Pagels book about Satan) has been won. Tonight I’ll roll a die for Thieve’s Kitchen.

And now it’s time to catch a bus home. Supposedly, traffic accidents have blocked part of my neighborhood–I’m not sure the buses will be running. The Blue Angels have been buzzing downtown all day, so I’m planning to look up as I walk to my bus stop.

Oh, and have I mentioned that I have an ARC of DREADNOUGHT (Cherie Priest’s sequel to BONESHAKER) in my greedy little hands? I haven’t? Well, now you know to be jealous.

I’m off for home. Hope everyone has had a fantastic day.

Announcing a month of book giveaways! Day five

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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.

Today’s book:

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Yep, it’s a book about Jewish gangsters. No, I haven’t read it. Do you want to?

Update: this book has been won.

Bullet points make a post

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* ‘Sfunny, when I’m writing a first draft, I sit down for a specific time to write, and when I’m done for the day I’m done. When I’m doing a polish, it’s like an all-day thing. I keep dropping back into the file, reading a few lines, tweaking sentences. It’s kinda annoying, especially since it makes me feel as though I’m not accomplishing anything.

* Yesterday I got word that my Russian language rights money was on its way. Hooray! I’m really looking forward to posting scans of the foreign language translations of my books.

* I’ve decided to wait 3 days (or 24+ hours of inactivity) before announcing the winners of the book giveaways. I’ll roll a die for the first one tonight, maybe the second, depending. Also, I’ll announce it when someone has won.

* I have a couple Sekrit Projects to work on. Those are nicer than my public projects, because I enjoy them just as much but you, blog reader, don’t have to listen to my complaints.

* I have a bunch of interviews and essays to write. If I owe you one, don’t worry I haven’t forgotten. I have an SP to breeze through and then I’ll be all over it.

* Thank you, Judge Walker. The ruling still needs to go through the 9th District and Supreme Court, but this is the right step.

* I’ve been contemplating a post about all the ways the Obama administration has disappointed me, but honestly, I have better things to do. I knew the administration would disappoint me when I voted for him, but I didn’t anticipate the manner.

And just how busy do I have to get before I accept that I’m honestly busy? My LJ friends list is currently at skip=120, and that’s only after a day of dedicated downtime-at-day-job reading. Really, Obama can wait.

* It’s now less than 4 weeks until the publication of Game of Cages, and I feel sick. There’s so much to do and (seemingly) so much at stake and the economy is still in the crapper and I may be laid off from my day job and I may have to stay at this day job and I’m not sure which is worse and I just want to stand up, go home, take a shower and go to sleep for a very, very long time.

But other than that everything’s great.