Just a few hours left . . . .

Which is to say that you can probably already find Ashes in your local bookstore, since they’re generally on the lax side about when they shelve things. But officially, June 10th is the street date for my second Onyx Court novel. Get your dose of faerie politics + explosions today! (Or tomorrow.)

I should also mention that I’ve recovered from the delay imposed by my London research, and picked the next two winners for the Deeds of Men giveaway. I think we’re doing one more set after this, so if you want signed copies of the first two Onyx Court books, sign up now — I’ll do the last drawing next Monday.

Day Five: In which I draw bad diagrams of clocks

Last night Irrith handed me the question I need to ask about her. She didn’t hand me the answer, mind you, but that’s okay. I’ll pry that out of her soon enough.

On less of a cheerful note, last night featured a different set of idiot roommates, in this case ones who apparently don’t grasp the concept that the last one to bed should turn off the lights. I woke up at 4 a.m. to find them all still blazing away, and me in the top bunk (of three), unwilling to risk my sleepy neck just to turn them off. So less than perfect sleep, and it’s a chilly grey morning when I get up. I’m happy to enjoy the comforts of the cabin this time as I head downriver again.

This route is getting familiar.

Day Three: In which your correspondent goes west, and west, and west some more

Last night’s bedtime wasn’t quite as early as I intended, owing to the sudden brainstorm I had while getting ready for bed, regarding how I could fix some of the problems with Part One of the comet book. I should have known better than to think I was going to accomplish anything on that front before 10 p.m. . . .

But it was a good night’s sleep nonetheless, and thus fortified, I follow the plan and head out to Westminster.

Where I do encounter certain difficulties.

Day One: In which I put my money where my mouth is (once I *have* money)

I don’t know if Mercury’s in retrograde or I spat in the Cheerios of the travel faeries or what, but every step of this trip so far has been plagued with problems: delayed flights, car rental difficulties, wrong turns, and so on. The only saving grace is that so far, none of them have reached the level of “detained for two hours by Israeli airport security.” <knocks on wood> But the unanticipated closure of Blackfriars station, coupled with my ill-considered decision to come in late on a Sunday night, left me stranded only partway to my hostel, with a rather expensive cab ride my only option for getting the rest of the way there.

Oh, and as of writing these notes, I have no money. Figuring out what’s wrong with my ATM card has been added to today’s schedule.

But I soldier on.

more giveaway and goodies

Second winner has been chosen for the Deeds of Men giveaway, so if you signed up, check your inbox.

Also — delayed by my travels — the last pre-pub goodie for In Ashes Lie: its soundtrack. As with Midnight, this is a two-CD collection I put together myself, “scoring” the events of the book. You can hear samples of some of the songs on iTunes, but since most of it’s built from film scores, they didn’t have everything available on that site. (You can, however, hit a pretty good percentage of the total for both novels by acquiring a few key scores, like Elizabeth and Henry V.)

Comet-book blogging will commence on June 1st, when I start the next round of London research. Other than that, transmissions will be few for the next couple of weeks.

Deeds of Men giveaway

The plan is to give away one signed set of both Midnight Never Come and (in advance of publication) In Ashes Lie each week between now and the book release, and the first winner has been drawn. If you’ve already signed up, you’re still in the running; if you haven’t, head on over to the page for Deeds of Men and provide your e-mail address, and you too could get an early copy.

Stage Two

Am now in Indiana, despite the best efforts of rental car companies to prevent me from getting here. Was in Ohio this weekend, despite the best efforts of the airline travel industry to prevent me from getting there. Will be bouncing back and forth to Chicago a couple of times in the next two weeks; hope nothing tries to prevent that. Then London. Then New York. Then home.

This trip is crazy.

another milestone

Now we’re at 20K. Once upon a time, this would have been a fifth of a book; since this novel’s planned for 140K, it’s a seventh.

That feels like quite a bit less.

But I made some interesting decisions in tonight’s writing, like answering the question of “how will this character find out about this otherwise well-concealed thing?” with the tidy solution of “they’ll tell him.” I need to make sure they have good reasons for that, of course, but it’ll be easier than contriving a reason he can stumble across it on his own. And this gives me a chance to spin a particular element of the Onyx Court in a direction I haven’t taken it before. When you’re writing a series, these things matter.

Now, however, we go into the Month of Unpredictable Progress. I’ll be on the road, without my research materials or a quiet place to work half the time, so for the next four weeks, 1K/day goes out the window. I’ll get what I can get, when I can get it. And then in mid-June we’ll see what good that semi-composting time has done me.

(Hopefully a lot.)

Word count: 20,718
LBR census: Love (of the puppy-dog sort) and rhetoric (of the rebellious sort).
Authorial sadism: Knowing how to hook Irrith.

Star Trek thoughts, round two

Since I was going to a Yoshida Brothers concert up in the city this evening, and kniedzw was going to the city for an IMAX showing of Star Trek with his co-workers in the late afternoon, I decided I might as well tag along and see what the space dive looks like when projected on a ginormous screen.

(Pretty good. Makes me wanna take up skydiving.)

Anyway, this is the post where I spoil like a spoilery thing, so I’ll cut-tag again.

More like a review than the last post . . .

The Littlest Orange Belt Says Rarrrr

In non-Deeds of Men news, I had a really satisfactory night at karate.

I don’t think I’ve come out and said here that I’m going to be out of town for four straight weeks, traveling hither and yon for family events and a friend’s wedding and research and so on. This will include a week in London, so look for a return of the trip blogging. I’m pretty excited.

But it means I’ll be missing four straight weeks of karate, which is honestly a little frustrating. I learned pinan nidan recently, a new kata, and have just started practicing it; in a month everything I was told about the neko ashi bits will have no doubt fallen out of my head. (Yes, I can practice it on my own, and may very well, but it isn’t the same as having a sensei watch and correct you. I might end up practicing bad habits without knowing it.) On the other hand, tonight I had a better-than-average sparring experience, and while that’s going to rust even more badly than my kata while I’m gone, it’s encouraging to go into my travels with a high note fresh in my memory. (Some nights, my timing and aim and reflexes are on. Other nights . . . not so much.)

I actually asked Shihan whether we had a sibling dojo in London. (Our own place has seen visitors from Hawaii, Germany, and Slovakia in the time I’ve been there; it wasn’t unreasonable to wonder.) Alas, we don’t — or perhaps not “alas,” seeing as how if we did I’d have to decide whether I’d really haul my gi across the Atlantic, and whether I’d have any energy for practice after walking all over the city. This way, I don’t have to find out how lazy I really am.

Oh well. I’ll just do situps and pushups and shiko dachi every day, right? Right???

Sure I will.

Come mid-June, I’m going to be rusty like a rusty thing. Sigh.

Open Book Thread: Deeds of Men

If you have any questions or comments about Deeds of Men, this is the place for them. No LJ account required to post.

It is obviously a Spoiler-Rich Zone for the novella, but may (depending on what people have to say) contain spoilers for Midnight Never Come as well.

IAL teaser: Deeds of Men

London, 1625. A young man lies dead in a Coldharbour alley. Before his death, he uncovered secrets that could threaten the mortal world above and the faerie world below. Now, to find the murderer and protect both realms, Sir Michael Deven will need the help of a man with reason to hate the fae of the Onyx Court — the victim’s own brother.

*** *** ***

In between the novels, there are other stories.

Deeds of Men is a free Onyx Court novella, taking place between Midnight Never Come and In Ashes Lie. You can download it from my website in your choice of formats (HTML, PDF, or ePub), or order a bound copy via AnthologyBuilder.

This is what I spent February working on, what I was researching Buckingham for, what I needed copy-edited in British style. You don’t need to have read either novel first (though it does contain some spoilers for Midnight), and you don’t need to read it to enjoy Ashes, but it covers some of the events between the two books, like a DVD extra. I hope to do more Onyx Court stories in the future, too: there’s lots of fun bits of history that fall outside the scope of my novels, and lots of chances to explore side characters.

(Confidential to matociquala — it has dead Spaniard in it just for you.)

In a little while I’ll post a Spoiler Zone thread for people to discuss the story or ask questions. In the meantime, enjoy!