publishing

Who doesn’t love charts?

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The chart of fantasy cover art.

eta: Also, craziness!

Child of Fire giveaway

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I have a post about breaking in to professional publishing (at least, how I did it) and why I’m writing about it, but I finished it so late that I knew it was an ugly first draft and would have to read it again before I posted it.

In the meantime, Suvudu.com is giving away a signed copy of Child of Fire as part of their sweepstakes promo. Lots of other books there. Check it out.

Also: the online press kit. I’m going to get me one of these, and I’ve already sent a couple notes to my PR person at Random House to see what he thinks I should include. Seen via LJ user marthawells.

While you folks are thinking about Worldcon

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And arguing about Hugo winners, I will continue with my lifelong quest to be behind the times by posting… San Diego Comic Con photos!

Most people see a person in costume and ask them to pose for the picture. Which they do. Me, I liked taking pictures of them while they were looking at their watches, impatiently waiting for a pal, or sitting in a corner for a rest. What I wanted most was a picture of a cosplayer eating one of those sandwiches out of the plastic clamshell, or maybe a hot dog, but it was not to be.

Candid!

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But here’s one picture that’s not candid:

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Yeah, that’s me posing beside a poster for the book

You can see pictures of my panel, my signing, and the people at the con by skimming through the set.

Five things for a Friday

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1) For those who missed it, I posted the first chapter of Child of Fire on my site yesterday. You can read it here. If you like it, tell your friends. If you hate it, tell your enemies.

2) Woman getting married to fairground ride. According to the article, she says she has “objectum sexuality, a condition that makes sufferers attracted to inanimate objects.” I avert my gaze as I hurry past the obvious joke there.

3) “Nurse of the Year” in Connecticut, who gave injections and dispensed medical advice, not actually a nurse. Remember, all failures of private industry are individual cases, but all failures within a government program reflect badly on every government program.

4) Drug buyers call the cops on their own dealers. Not because they were ripped off or because the drugs were bad. It was because the dealers were setting up squirrel traps in the park where they operated, and taking the fresh meat home at the end of the day. The drug buyers didn’t like that and dropped the dime on them. Fun note: When I first moved to Seattle, I lived very, very close to that park. It’s a beautiful place. via matt-ruff

5) I’ve always had trouble remembering faces and recognizing people, but man, I have nothing on Ryan O’Neal.

Yay! Starred review in PW!

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Child of Fire just got a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly. Here it is, reprinted via them.

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STARRED REVIEW: Child of Fire Harry Connolly. Del Rey, $7.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-345-50889-8

Connolly’s gritty urban fantasy debut is not so urban: it takes place in Hammer Bay, Wash., where residents are thankful for the toy factory that stimulates their economy and are apparently oblivious to the frequent magical immolations of local children. Convicted felon Ray Lilly works for the mysterious Annalise Powliss and the Twenty Palace Society, hunting down people who use magic and the otherworldly predators whose power they channel. Callous Annalise and hard-nosed Ray have a complicated personal history that gradually comes to light as the Society faces off against factory employees, local law enforcement and other corrupt forces in the town. Unique magical concepts, a tough and pragmatic protagonist and a high casualty rate for innocent bystanders will enthrall readers who like explosive action and magic that comes at a serious cost. (Oct.)

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Holy crap, what a tremendous relief that is. Please do well, little book! Find lots of readers!

this is not a subject line

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Finished today’s work and yesterday’s, too. The book wants to be written now, and is helping me push it along.

I also “finished” some promotional stuff Del Rey asked me to do for Child of Fire, for certain values of “finished” that involve another read-through to polish it up.

I was supposed to also work on Cool Thing That Would Be Awesome If It Worked Out, but time has already left, and so must I.

I return

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My plane got in last night, and far from the cool summer of the Pac NW I was expecting, we had temps in the 90s. Today we’re supposed to be in the triple digits, which is rare stuff for this part of the world. Sitting around the table with my family last night at 10 pm, sweat was running down my face.

Luckily I’m currently at work, where we have “air conditioning.”

And! To commemorate my return, I give you a pair of links: Maker Time and Manager Time and the Freakonomics blog entry on the article. Personally, I think you can train yourself to enter maker time in short bursts. It’s not easy and it’s not optimal, but it works (and has worked for me).

I’ll never catch up with my whole friend’s list, but I’m reviewing it. If there’s something you think I should know about, let me know.

Finally, my weirdest moment at Comic-Con: I was signing books at the Del Rey booth, and a father brought his son to the table for a signed copy of my book. I’m terrible at guessing ages, but I’d say he was 8-10 years old–imo, way to young for the book I wrote.

His father had a copy of his own, though. Would he read it himself first? It’s not really my place to make that decision for them. I just signed the book and handed it over. Still, it felt wee erd.

New title!

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Isn’t that a fun, clever and original subject line?  I’m sure you’re all envious of my wit. 

Everyone Loves Blue Dog has a new name.  Not a new tag, because I don’t change tags.  I never change a project’s filename, either; that’s a lesson I learned the hard way. 

The new title is Game of Cages. 

I like it (I came up with it–ahem) and the sales department didn’t roll their eyes or bark out laughter when my editor presented it to them.  If you reacted that way, let me know.  Seriously.  But this means that Man Bites World is going to need a [Noun] of [Noun] title.  ::sigh::

In happy news, I’ve had a productive couple of days.  And I think I figured out the very end of the book.  Now I just have to work out how to get there.

Items of (dubious) interest

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From a former book publicist: What should air on C-SPAN’s “Book TV” this weekend. Well, I thought it was funny.

Twenty Best Cthulhu Tales–I’ve only read a fraction of the stories on this list, but I’m copying it here so I can reference it later. Mythos! I love it.

Man writes book that will take a thousand years to read. Embarrassingly, after 750 years, readers will discover that he used “it’s” when he should have written “its.”

This next one is off the (accidental) book theme of this post, but I do hope you’ll all read it: Urban Farmer finds success. So cool.

As for items of a non-linking variety: Tomorrow I get one of my birthday gifts–reading time. Just like Father’s Day, I’m going to spend a significant amount of time sacked out in bed with a book. I still have Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott on deck, and I hope to make a sizable dent in it.

Also, I’m told that Child of Fire will have the opening chapter of book 2 at the very back. Now, this is cool news, but I should come right out and say that I never read preview excerpts in books.  Invariably, I buy the excerpted book, put it on my shelf for a couple months (or years) and when I finally start it, I get a disturbing reader’s deja vu.  “Have I read this already?”  Since I’m terrible with titles, I can never be sure. 

Eventually, I just swore off the practice. 

And book 2, Everyone Loves Blue Dog, will soon have a new title.  There’s a current front runner, but I don’t want to talk about it until things are settled.  The happiest part for me is that I like this title and it doesn’t turn up in a Google search. 

With that, I’ll sign off to enjoy the holiday.

In which I link to things

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Because I am boring and can not spare the attention it takes to express a coherent opinion, here are some links:

1) [Deleted]

2) “Call me an ignorant Swede, but the last thing I thought possible in the U.S. was that you banned books.”

3) The NY Times on my favorite food. I’m almost afraid to read it.

4) This makes me want to hide under my desk, and it’s just a couple of pictures on a website. NB: that link is not for people who have issues with high places.

5) Gay sex decriminalized in New Delhi. Change may be slow, but it’s coming (so to speak).