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Posts Tagged ‘pay attention to meeeee’

Sirens schedule

There is now a proper schedule for Sirens, with times and rooms and everything; look at the bottom of that page for details.

Fortunately, the setup of the schedule — which has blocks for panel etc. programming that are separate from the blocks for other kinds of stuff — means my GoH obligations won’t cause me to miss anything I wanted to do. But sadly, the workshop I volunteered to run is directly opposite a panel about YA that I really wanted to go to. Woe is me!

Oh well; I’ll just have to corner the panelists at other times during the weekend.

Launch party drink contest ends on Sunday. Get your recipes in while the getting is good!

more excerpt, more discussion, more everything!

Twenty days and counting; the last piece of the excerpt has gone up. (Beginning is here.)

Over on the LJ, the discussion of Midnight and Ashes continues with a new question, regarding time and point of view in the novels. The first question, about the connection between the mortal and faerie worlds, is still open; you don’t need to be a con attendee or even an LJ user to jump in.

And speaking of things you don’t have to be a con attendee to do, there are four days left to submit a recipe for the drink contest. There’s been some by e-mail already, and I’m looking forward to trying these things out!

last chances, drawing near

You have until tomorrow to put your name in for one of three advance copies of A Star Shall Fall up for grabs on GoodReads, and until the 15th to submit a non-alcoholic drink recipe for the launch party (with a signed copy of Deeds of Men as the prize). Time’s running out!

Edited to add: Remember, you don’t have to be coming to Sirens to enter the drink contest; it’s open to everybody. (The costume contest, for obvious reasons, requires that you be there.)

Real bookses!

Today has not started off terribly well, but it’s at least partially ameliorated by the fact that I got author copies for A Star Shall Fall! They are so very shiny. (Okay, they’re actually not shiny at all; the cover is matte, not glossy. But you know what I mean.)

In celebration of this, and of the A Star Shall Fall contest, and of the discussion for Midnight Never Come and In Ashes Lie, I’m giving away some more copies on GoodReads — three this time, actually. Plus you still have one day to put your name in for a copy of In Ashes Lie. So it’s Yay Book Day here at Swan Tower, and you’re all invited!

more giveaways

It occurs to me A Star Shall Fall isn’t the only book I could do a giveaway for. If you don’t already have a copy of In Ashes Lie (or want one that’s signed), you can now try to get one over on GoodReads. (That one goes until August 7th; you have until this Friday to put your name in for the offered copy of Star.)

another chance to win a book

I think I’ll try to do about one of these a week until A Star Shall Fall releases: if you head on over to Goodreads, you can enter the drawing for a giveaway of another ARC.

(I’ll also do at least one more giveaway here on LJ, so you won’t have to be a member of Goodreads to try and snag a copy.)

Forty days, and the good news keeps coming

Booklist‘s opinion on A Star Shall Fall:

Brennan’s historical research is as impeccable as ever, and the twining of the two worlds is the best yet. Fans of the Onyx court novels, and anyone who enjoys historical fantasy, should like A Star Shall Fall.

And also bookblather:

A Star Shall Fall starts fast and goes faster, despite its apparent length. The climax is brilliant. I honestly did not want to put the book down or close it for any reason, and I was sniffly for a good while afterwards. This is one spectacular book; Brennan is firing on all authorial cylinders. I finished it and wanted to start it all over again, just to have some more time with the characters.

Forty days until the book comes out, and that means it’s time for another excerpt! You’ve already met Irrith and Galen St. Clair; now it’s time for them to meet each other. Or, if you missed the earlier excerpts, you can start at the beginning.

Also, don’t forget the contests for the launch party. Even if you aren’t attending Sirens, you can still enter a drink recipe and win a bound copy of Deeds of Men. You have until August 15th!

Launch party for A Star Shall Fall!

On August 31st, A Star Shall Fall comes out.

On October 7-10, I will be at the Sirens Conference in Vail.

I have therefore decided to have my first (slightly belated) proper launch party for a book, at the conference. It will take place on Saturday the ninth, in the hour leading up to the costume ball. There will probably be giveaways of the book at that party, but there are also two chances to win special prizes.

WHETHER YOU ARE ATTENDING THE CON OR NOT — we’re holding a contest to design a faerie-themed (non-alcoholic) drink to serve at the party, with the winner to be announced that night. If you aren’t present, I will ship your prize to you when I get home, which is a signed copy of Deeds of Men, the Onyx Court novella.

IF YOU ARE ATTENDING THE CON — since the party will take place before the costume ball, I’ll also be awarding a prize for whoever shows up at the party in the best Onyx Court faerie costume. You don’t have to present as a specific character; something in the general style is fine. The winner gets signed hardcover copies of Midnight Never Come and In Ashes Lie.

Full details for both contests are here. If you have any questions, just let me know. (And yes, I will be showing up in costume to my own launch party. Assuming everything works out the way I’m currently trying to arrange for it to do.)

all the comet news you can shake a stick at

It’s now sixty days until A Star Shall Fall reaches shelves, so you know what that means: more excerpt! This time we introduce the book’s faerie protagonist, Irrith, first seen in Ashes. Or, if you’ve missed the excerpts so far, you can start at the beginning.

In honor of that — and of the fact that the Science Fiction Book Club will be printing Star as a featured selection, which is the news that greeted me when I woke up this morning — and of the fact that I’ve joined Goodreads — I’m doing another ARC giveaway, this time over on their site. You have until the twelfth to toss your name into the hat for a copy.

Edited to add: Sorry, the Goodreads giveaway is US and Canada only. If you live elsewhere, stay tuned in this space for other opportunities.

ARC giveaway winner!

Congrats, landofnowhere; you’re the winner of an ARC of A Star Shall Fall!

(No, it isn’t Harvard bias. I rolled a d30. Yes, I am enough of a gamer geek that I own a d30.)

E-mail me at marie[dot]brennan[at]gmail[dot]com with your address, and I’ll send the books along! Everybody else, stay tuned; I still have a stupid number of ARCs, and will be finding a variety of creative ways to get rid of them.

bookbookbooksiesBOOK

Ahem. What I meant to say was, I have ARCs of A Star Shall Fall, and I am doing my very best not to hug them and squeeze them and call them George, but it’s hard, because you put in months and months and months of work, and this is the first point at which it really starts to seem like that thing you poured your brain into is actually going to be a book.

In honor of that, I’ll jump the gun by three days and give you what I planned to post one hundred days before the street date: the prologue. More excerpts will come later, and other goodies too; and if you leave a comment to this post, I’ll put your name into the hat for a drawing, the winner to receive a signed ARC of A Star Shall Fall. (With bonus copy of In Ashes Lie, if the winner doesn’t already own it; I’ve ended up with an absurd number of those, and need to send them to good homes.)

So. Enjoy the prologue, comment here if you want an ARC, and while you’re at it, think about bidding on a piece of Onyx Court history.

Edit: this particular giveaway is now closed. But stay tuned; there will be others.

Running with the Pack ARC giveaway

Like werewolves? Want an anthology full of ’em? Over at calico_reaction‘s LJ, Ekaterina Sedia, editor of the upcoming Running with the Pack (table of contents here) is giving away an advance copy. This is, for those who are interested, the home of my Fake Werewolf Paper, aka “Comparison of Efficacy Rates for Seven Antipathetics as Employed Against Lycanthropes;” the rest of the contributors include some of the biggest names in the field of People What Grow Fur Under the Full Moon, Comma, Fiction Concerning. Should be a great antho, and this is your chance to snag a copy before anyone else.

Free fiction! Mine and other people’s.

One thing you get from being published in print magazines, that you don’t get from the online ones: author copies.

Sometimes, more than you need.

I’ve got a stack here of random magazine issues, each one of them with a story of mine in it, above and beyond the copies I’m keeping for posterity. I’d like to get rid of them, to good homes — but how to arrange that? With a contest, of course!

It consists of three easy steps:

1) Blog in some fashion about the Onyx Court series. It can cover any piece of the series: Midnight Never Come, In Ashes Lie, Deeds of Men, one of the upcoming books. Your post can be anything you want: a review, historical nitpicking, speculation about what’s coming, fanfiction/fanart, pictures of your cat dressed in a homemade Invidiana costume — whatever.

2) E-mail me a link to your blog post. Send it to marie {dot} brennan {at} gmail {dot} com.

3) Profit! Or at least be entered for a chance to do so.

The items up for grabs are as follows:

That’s eleven potential winners, all told. You’ve got until September 1st to post something and notify me of it — which is plenty of time to sew that costume for your cat, so get cracking!

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 . . . .)

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.

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.

more roundup

These things have been piling up, so . . . .

I answer six questions for Jeff VanderMeer’s Amazon blog. Some of them are standard. Some of them are very much not.

***

Doug Knipe, Sci-Fi Guy, liked the book.

So did Graeme Flory, though he felt a bit overwhelmed by the historical detail.

By contrast, Emily Huck didn’t see much actual history in it, at least in the sense of specific events. (She will find this flaw remedied and then some in the next book, if she picks it up.)

Gayle Surrette of SFRevu forgot to take review notes while reading, which is encouraging.

Matt Staggs of Enter the Octopus thought the ending was a bit rushed, but liked it anyway.

Kathy, the Oklahoma Booklady, gave it 4.5 out of 5.

fhtagn read it side-by-side with The Queen’s Bastard (which I blurbed) and liked it. Go Elizabethan fantasy!

And more good things from Aliette de Bodard, who’s the first person I’ve seen peg it as a secret history. (Which is how I view it — that and “historical urban fantasy” are my personal labels for it. Which answers a question in Graeme’s review, I suppose.)

***

I’ve gotten way fewer e-mails about this book than I did after Doppelganger came out, but many more reviews, both professional and casual. Interesting.

bonus Friday roundup

Normally I would wait until I have a few more things to post, but two of these, fresh as of today, are the ones I was waiting for before, so what the heck.

***

I’m today’s Big Idea over on John Scalzi’s blog “Whatever.” It’s a feature he runs, where authors lay out what story/setting/conflict seed they started with, and how it developed during the course of writing.

Also, Fantasy Book Critic has posted the world’s most in-depth interview with me. The Midnight Never Come-related parts are probably familiar to those who have seen or heard me talk about it before, but Robert asked a lot of other questions pertaining to academia, short fiction, the future of publishing, and more.

***

In more review-like territory, I made yhlee cry. (In a good way.)

***

There will, I think, be an awesome piece of news to relate soon, but that’s still sitting in the box of Things For A Later Post.