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Posts Tagged ‘in ashes lie’

on the topic of Nebulas

If you’re eligible to nominate for the Nebulas, you might be interested in an offer from Mike Allen, editor of Clockwork Phoenix 2: he’ll provide a PDF review copy to any SFWA member who wants to give the anthology a look. (Details about halfway through that entry.)

That antho, of course, has my story “Once a Goddess,” which has been getting some very pleasing attention in reviews. Other stories of mine out this year are:

Those first two and “Waking” are free to read in their entirety online; click through to find the links on their respective pages. Also, of course, I had a novel on the shelves this year.

Here endeth the obligatory Nebula-eligibility post.

Finit. (Again.)

Unless I end up cutting more than five hundred words from this in the copy-edits — which, I will grant, is possible — A Star Shall Fall has now squeaked out In Ashes Lie for the title of Longest Novel I’ve Ever Written.

By about five hundred words.

It’s been kind of amusing, watching the count inch upward as I add in bits here and there. I had a bet on with myself as to whether it would break that boundary, only I kept changing my wager. 🙂 Anyway, I may or may not be truly done with revisions; I’ll be looking back over it when I come home from India, before I send it off to my editor, to see if anything else has occurred to me in the interim. But for now, I declare it Done.

Time to go reward myself with a candy bar and some fun reading.

134,229.

Finit.

Man, it took me a long time to write that epilogue.

A Star Shall Fall both is and isn’t my longest novel to date. In Ashes Lie clocked in at about 143K in its final draft, but only 129,682 in the first round. I have no idea whether this, too, will be the Amazing Ever-Growing Book when it comes time to revise. That, my friends, is a concern for later.

This is my eleventh novel. I’m pretty pleased with it.

fun facts to know and tell

The Monument to the Great Fire of London — which started in a baker’s house — was the site of six suicides between 1788 to 1842 (when they enclosed the gallery to stop people jumping off).

Two were bakers, and one was the daughter of a baker.

Maybe someday I’ll write a short story about the vengeful faerie who went around trying to provoke bakers into suicide because Farynor didn’t sweep his damn floor.

This is kind of fabulous.

The VanderMeers, having been given a 13th anniversary ale to try out, decided that of course the thing to do was to see how it went with different books.

It kinda makes me wish I liked beer and/or wine. You could have a pretty ridiculous party, swigging down different drinks, trying to match them up with appropriate books. “I think this is more of a chardonnay kind of fantasy . . . .”

As it happens, Ashes didn’t go well with the beer at all, especially the selection Ann was reading. But she recommends a rich honey mead — Rosamund and Gertrude would approve. ^_^

All is right with the world.

Last night I stayed up late writing, and today I slept until late in the morning, and a week after returning home, I am finally back to my normal self. All is right with the world.

So it seems a good time for more linky. First up, another Mind Meld:

Many world-building science fiction and fantasy writers get their inspiration from real-life places. What real-life city seems the most fantastical or science fictional to you?

I of course start out by saying London, but use that as a jumping-off point for talking about what makes a place fantastical or science fictional to me.

Next, an interview I meant to link days ago, but was slapped down by brief illness: Lobster and Canary (not remotely to be confused with Cat and Muse), where I am interviewed by a fellow Harvard folk&mythie — though not one from my own time there. (Also, if you missed it during LJ’s problems last Friday, I point you once more at the interview with Alma Alexander.)

Third — because I might as well just make this a post of miscellanea — something I missed during LJ’s problems last Friday, putting me well behind the train when I finally saw it come through, but Catherynne Valente has posted the first chapter of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, which is utterly delightful. There will be new chapters every Monday, and there is a story behind why she’s conducting the project this way.

Fourth — utter silliness — “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” literalized, in case there’s anybody left on the planet who hasn’t seen it already. Basically, what if the lyrics to a song actually described what was happening in the music video?

Fifth, a cute poem explaining the whole Schroedinger’s Cat thing.

I have one more thing open in my browser that needs linky, but it needs more serious linky than this, so I’ll save it for now. Ladies and gents, as I startled my husband by loudly declaring to what I thought was an empty house, I’m finally back! I feel like myself again.

Two things I forgot to mention

One is that for the duration of June, Midnight Never Come is available as a one-dollar e-book. You can pick up a Kindle copy at Amazon, or eReader or what have you at Fictionwise, and maybe other formats elsewhere — but the offer only lasts until the end of the month.

The other is that I will be doing a reading and signing at Borderlands Books in San Francisco tomorrow (Saturday) at 1 p.m. If you’re in the Bay Area, come on by, and hear some assortment of short stories and/or excerpts from In Ashes Lie. (I really should make a decision on what I’m reading . . . .)

Open Book Thread: In Ashes Lie

It does occur to me (now that I’m starting to get my brain back — I’ll be home this evening, yay!) that street dates are normally Tuesdays, but hey, Amazon swears blind that mine is today, and they’re never wrong, right?

Since I’m not a big enough name for bookstores to put me on the special “don’t shelve this too early or we’ll get sued” list, it doesn’t matter much one way or another. Happy Street Date for In Ashes Lie! Unless you’re in the UK, in which case I believe you have to wait just a couple of weeks longer.

Comments and questions on the book are welcome here (and you don’t need an LJ account to post). If you haven’t read the book yet — which most of you, I expect, have not — just come back later; I’ll link to this from my site so you can find it again.

(Previous discussion threads for Midnight Never Come and Deeds of Men are still open, too.)

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.

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.

What better way to fight diabetes than with books?

I meant to post this yesterday: Brenda Novak’s Online Auction to Benefit Diabetes Research. It’s an annual thing, apparently, and this year they contacted me to see if I’d like to donate. You can find me under Historical Fiction (a signed set of Midnight Never Come and In Ashes Lie) and Sci Fi and Fantasy (ditto Warrior and Witch), but more to the point, you can also find goodies by lots and lots of people who aren’t me. Not all of them are books, either.

The auction is huge, and it all goes to a good cause, so poke your nose on over there and see if you can’t find something for you or someone in your life.

last excerpt

Normally, when posting novel excerpts, I just go from the beginning until I reach a suitable stopping point a suitable way in.

In Ashes Lie, however, is a nonlinear novel: it cuts back and forth between the four days of the Great Fire, and the events leading up to that point. Because of that, I’ve decided to skip ahead, in order to give you a taste of the Fire scenes. (Don’t worry about spoilers; the only thing you really need to know is that Nicneven — mentioned in an earlier scene — has grown to be a major threat against the Onyx Court.)

I don’t really get into the mode of Blowing Shit Up until later, but hopefully that will whet your appetite just a little.

(If you missed or want to re-read the earlier excerpts, they start here.)

That’s it for IAL samples — you’ll have the rest of the book in a little over a month — but stay tuned for a few more treats . . . .

odds ‘n ends

“A Tiny Feast” — The first paragraph made me think it was not my kind of story, but then I read on. The New Yorker does occasionally publish fantasy . . . .

More on Strunk & White — since the last piece I linked to had gone behind a paywall by the time I got around to doing so. Five perspectives on the book, none of them entirely flattering.

About that used copy of Ashes — Or rather, about other books in the same situation. Definitely there’s something a bit whiffy about the whole affair, though I couldn’t say for sure what’s going on.

Supposedly it takes five things to make a post. I guess that makes this 60% of a post, then.

writing-ish things

Important one first: John Klima of Electric Velocipede is looking to move some stock and help out his finances to boot. Head on over there to see what’s on offer — back issues of EV, plus chapbooks. If you’re looking for my fiction, issue #13 is the one you want; that has “Selection,” which might very well be the oddest short story I’ve ever written. It also has Rachel Swirsky’s excellent “How the World Became Quiet: A Post-Human Creation Myth,” which I suspect some of you would really dig. (If you perked up at the word “post-human,” then yes, I mean you.)

Sillier, but very true: a rant against Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. I’ve become more jaundiced about that book over time, so it’s good to see my jaundice backed up with some evidence.

And a distinct moment of oddity: someone on Amazon claims to be selling a copy of In Ashes Lie for the low, low price of $1,000 dollars. Yes, that’s a comma, not a decimal point (and yes, that’s American-style notation). No, I have no idea what’s up with that. Even if they’ve gotten ahold of an early copy, a thousand bucks??? WTF, mate.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled whatever you’ve been doing.

back on schedule

Today, you again get a Midnight Never Come tidbit, to whet your appetites for In Ashes Lie. (I have to get variety in here somehow.)

This time, it’s a look behind the scenes at the relationship between the novel, and the game it’s based on.

(It should go without saying, but: DO NOT FOLLOW THAT LINK IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE BOOK. Spoilers abound. In abundance. Of aboundishness.)

While I’m at it, I’ll also link to something that’s been up on my site for a couple of days now: the first piece of Marie Brennan fan-art that I’m aware of. (tooth_and_claw — I don’t feel I can count commissioned or Memento-inspired pieces, or you’d be the first.) It’s a portrait of Lady Lune, painted by the British artist Mark Satchwill. The original is sitting on my desk as we speak, because of course I’m going to buy it — what kind of ego-stroked author do you think I am???

Enjoy, and I’ll have something else for you in ten days.

a (purposely) slightly-delayed goodie

Since I posted the excerpt late, and since the schedule would have had me posting this one on a weekend, I decided to wait until today. But now you can head on over to Flickr and see my photos from my research trip last year.

The Ashes pics are fewer in number than the Midnight ones because I inadvertently left my camera cable at home when I went to London; this mean I couldn’t download my photos to my laptop, which meant I was limited to the capacity of my (rather small) SD card. I kept having to delete my poorer or less important shots to make room for new ones. But you can see several of the locations that will be appearing in the novel, or at least whatever’s currently standing on their sites now, plus other things representative of the period.

They are also pegged onto a map, if you want to know where those things are.