everyone loves blue dog

Reviews, part 22

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1) An anonymous reviewer at Daily Ebooks Reviews gives Child of Fire four and a half stars (out of five, it seems). “I found Child of Fire to be both an accomplished debut novel and an extremely enjoyable read.”

That’s a much more positive response than the Game of Cages review from last month.

2) Dr. Henry Leon Lazarus (pseudonym? real?) at Philadelphia’s Weekly Press liked both Child of Fire and Game of Cages: “Only the tattoos that protect him from bullets, his magic knife that can slice through anything, and grit and determination can keep Ray alive in this solid thriller. Impossible-to-put-down. I liked the tale well enough to find the first, Child of Fire (paper), at Amazon for my kindle software. It was just as much fun.”

3) Josh Vogt at Examiner.com gives five stars to both Game of Cages and Child of Fire. “A rare and greatly enjoyable set of reads, with exceptional potential for the next installments.” Nice!

4) David Marshall at Thinking about books weighs in: “In many ways, I think Game of Cages rather better than Child of Fire.” NB: He liked the first one quite a bit.

5) Charlaine Harris, being Charlaine Harris, has read and posted about Circle of Enemies declaring it “just as action-packed and thoughtful as the first two.”

6) Drey of Drey’s Library gave Game of Cages a Very Good rating: “Harry Connolly keeps you on your toes from the first page until the very last word as you ride shotgun with Ray in this rough-and-tumble read.”

7) Tegeus at Mare Nostrum calls Child of Fire a “This is a definite keeper and is recommended for fans of the Dresden Files and Anita Blake.“

The obligatory Turkey Day post

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The pies have been made, the dishwasher has been unloaded, loaded and then run again, the coffee has brewed, and it’s snowing. Thanksgiving! (for Americans, at least) Me, I’m about to go do today’s pages before I get together with the family for cooking, eating and watching some old movie (up this year: Errol Flynn’s THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD–and didn’t my 8yo roll his eyes when he saw that DVD cover.)

But it’s a time to take note of those things we’re thankful for. Me, I’m a guy who thinks about thankfulness and gratitude all year long; in a sense, I obsess over it. I’m always measuring my debt to those who are kind to me or who love me, and I’m constantly trying to pay back. However, today is a day when those feelings are normal, so I’m going to indulge, especially since I have something new to add this year.

First I’m thankful for my family. Nothing is ever going to trump that. If aliens came down in space ships and gave the world free energy machines, pills that heal knee injuries, and cameras that never took a picture of a politician with their mouth closed, I’d still be more amazed that my wife not only puts up with me and all my craziness, but agreed to have our child.

But for the first time I have something new to add to the list. Maybe I should have said this last year, but I was still kinda dizzy from publishing that first novel. I’m thankful for all the folks who read my books, enjoy them, and recommend them to their friends. It’s a tough economy right now, and a lot of new series are struggling or have already been cancelled. The Twenty Palaces books still have a chance to continue, though, and that’s because the readers have been so great.

So thank you for reading and spreading the word.

The menu for today is pretty traditional: Filling but unhealthy breakfast, then cut vegetables with dip, along with pickles and such. For dinner: brined turkey, sausage stuffing (I ground the sausage myself), giblet gravy, mashed potatoes, roast asparagus, cranberry sauce, honey-glazed onions. If I’m lucky, the boy will try–just try–the turkey and cranberry sauce. We also have some nice wines to enjoy after dinner with Errol and sweet potato and/or apple pie.

And finally! I’m am thankful to the guys at Wyrd and all the folks doing great work on the book trailer. And because I can’t resist, one more image. This time, it’s not a photo taken on set; it’s an actual frame grab from one of the shots, showing Ray throwing his ghost knife.

Frame grab--Ray throwing ghost knife

Damn. Now that’s Ray Lilly.

Photos from day three of the book trailer shoot

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Frank Woodward posted pics of day three of the book trailer shoot. They’re here. You can see Jim and Marissa in character as Ray and Annalise, and Charlie Talbert who’s playing Wally, a character from book 3.

I wish I could have been there. It looked like a helluva lot of fun.

Book trailer wrapup post, snow, and happiness.

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In fact, I returned home yesterday afternoon after picking up my son at my wife’s work. It was snowing then and it’s snowing harder now–it’s not accumulating on concrete but it is on lawns, roofs, cars, etc and it’s really beautiful. I know some of you live in very northern climates and hate the snow–it’s dangerous, too–but I find it gorgeous and peaceful. Later, if it sticks a little more and this cold I seem to be building to goes away, I’ll be heading out with my wife and son to cardboard sled down the hill behind our home. (Yeah, it’s good to see them again.)

As a followup to my Los Angeles trip, there needs to be an English word that means “work that is fun but also satisfying,” because that’s what I did this weekend. The book trailer shoot, (see day one and day two with photos of the main characters from books one and two, as well as the ghost knife prop, sets and production process) was exactly this sort of thing. It was work, it was fun, and it was very satisfying to do. Writing is like this, often.

The guys at Wyrd are doing a great job. Seriously. When they asked me what I wanted in the trailer, I wrote a script that seemed cool and somewhat ambitious. They took that and ran with it, making the shots more complicated, adding effects, motion, conflict, all sorts of things. Honest-to-God, I was amazed at what they’re doing. The actors have been terrific, the footage is beautiful, and the work everyone has been putting in is profoundly humbling.

But! “Fun, satisfying work” needs a word of its own, so we can describe some of the best moments of our lives and better tell young people what they should be striving for.

What should the word be? Is there one in a foreign language we can steal borrow, or do we need a portmaneau?

Added later: To followup on Shecky’s comment on my main blog, I will now be promoting the word “vocate” as a verb form for vocation.

Here’s a photo of me with Annalise Powliss.

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Day two of the shoot was much more sedate. Not a lot of night shooting and there was no running pell mell along an insanely steep slope. Unfortunately, heavy rains postponed a shot of Annalise throwing a green ribbon and burning a guy down to his bones. You can probably guess how much I’d have wanted to see that. Instead they got shots of Charles Hammer breathing fire, Ray’s iron gate spell activating, and Ray and Catherine fleeing from a bunch of Washaway pets.

I got to play one of the Washaway pets. I feel like Alfred Hitchcock. :-) The only problem was that I was advancing with the other pets toward Ray Lilly, and when he pulled back and threw the ghost knife at us, I busted out a huge grin. Couldn’t help it. I don’t think it mattered because the shot wasn’t the keeper the director was looking for, but I had to remind myself to have fun on the inside only. Inside only!

I’m sorry I can’t stay for tomorrow’s shots, which will include some effects shots of characters going through windows and other fun. It’ll also be the first call for actors playing characters from Circle of Enemies who I would have loved to meet and get pictures taken with. The characters’ names won’t mean anything to you guys because the book isn’t scheduled until next summer, but Wyrd has been doing such a great job that I wanted to see how they handled things.

As for myself, I’m holding up pretty well, pain-wise. My left leg is pretty swollen, but the aching has gone way down. And as much as I wish I could hang out for the third day of the shoot, I miss my son and my wife. It’ll be good to see them again (and get back on a sensible schedule so I can get back to writing. Jesus, these film people never sleep). Hopefully, once I get back to my real life I can start responding to comments, answering email, the whole deal.

I’ll put the picture of me and “Annalise” behind a cut, but you can see more at the set. Continue reading

Here’s a photo of me with Ray Lilly.

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Got back from yesterday’s shoot at nearly one a.m. and now I’m about to head out again. Last night I met the actors who are playing Ray and Catherine Little, and they were both great people. Poor Marisol Acosta didn’t have much more to do but run through the woods from a glowing light overhead, but Jim Freivogel had a brief little scene where Ray cuts through the gate of a lock with his ghost knife, and wow is it more involved to shoot that then to say “Ray approaches the gate and cuts through the lock with his ghost knife.”

Marisol is much better-looking and ten times kinder than Catherine is in the book, but just as smart. I was lucky enough to have a chance to talk to her for a while. I linked to a picture of Jim earlier and many people thought he was much more handsome than they’d pictured Ray, but he seemed spot on to me: he’s tough, slender, very physical, and has great intention. I’ll put the photo behind a cut, but you can also see that he’s a good-looking dude, and not just because he’s standing next to me.

Today I meet the actress playing Annalise, although heavy downpours mean they can’t shoot an outdoor scene of her killing a guy. I hope to get a picture w/ her in full wardrobe and costume, just as I did with Ray and Catherine.

As for me: we left the house at 8am yesterday and returned at nearly 1 am. It’s now 7:30 and we’re about to head out again. I’m tired but my pain is at reasonable levels.

And now, the picture of me and Ray: Continue reading

L.A. followup

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I’m here in L.A. Wifi is spotty and I don’t expect to have a lot of computer time. I can barely keep up with my emails, let alone read anyone’s blogs.

I spent much of the day talking about what Annalise’s tattoos will look like, and looking over the many copies of the ghost knife the prop guy made. Also Annalise’s ribbons.

Tomorrow is the first day of shooting, and they expect things to run very late. I expect to push myself very hard as money guy/production assistant’s assistant.

And I should have been asleep two hours ago. G’night. I expect to post again in a couple of days.

Two things make a pretty awesome post

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First, anyone who’s ever stood within earshot of me for more than 30 seconds has heard me say that Child of Fire was named to Publishers Weekly’s Best 100 Books of 2009 (hmm, the formatting for that page looks to have been borked at some point, possibly by a change in themes).

Well, Game of Cages didn’t make this years list, but Genreville editor Rose Fox did give it an honorable mention in the fantasy category.

A close but no cigar! Hey, I’m happy to make Miss Congeniality for a book where the protagonist lays into a crowd of people with a length of pipe. Thank you, Rose!

Second, the Twenty Palaces book trailer begins shooting in less than two weeks, and I have permission to link to the photo of the actor who’s been cast as Ray Lilly. Here he is.

What do you think? Does he look like your vision of the character?