New YA Series sold!
Current mood: ecstatic

I kept trying to post my good news yesterday, but MySpace was giving me attitude, so I gave up. Probably many of you have heard this news through other sources by now, but if you haven't . . .

I've agreed to a three-book contract with St. Martin's for a new young adult urban fantasy series. Whoo-hoo! The first book should come out in fall of '09. More details to come when I have them. One thing I can tell you, I'm going to be a busy, busy camper. Yay!

5:48 PM - 10 Comments - 18 Kudos - Add Comment

What’s in a name?
Current mood: embarrassed

In book 4 of the Morgan Kingsley series, Speak of the Devil, I have a minor character who ends up duct taped naked to a bed and shot in the head. When I was coming up with a name for this character, a particular name popped into my head. Several years back, I'd had a dentist by that name. His idea of comforting me when I was terrified about getting a root canal was to say: "Relax. If you're scared, it will hurt like hell." And no, he wasn't joking. He honestly thought this was helpful advice.

Needless to say, this man is no longer my dentist. However, I thought it was kind of fun to use his name for a victim--the author's tried and true revenge.

Yesterday, I received a pseudo-indignant email from my editor. You see, I'd forgotten this tiny little detail--that her husband has the same name as my ex-dentist! She was wondering what her husband had done to deserve such treatment from me. (I'm sure those of you who are very familiar with the industry will be able to figure out the mysterious name, but I decided not to blurt it out on the Internet.)

I found it both hilarious and a little embarrassing. But hey, it makes good blog fodder!

7:47 AM - 5 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Searching for Closure
Current mood: sad

Today is the four-year anniversary of my mother's death, and I think for the first time, I'm having my chance to mourn her. You see, my father died 13 days earlier of unrelated causes, and I was still reeling from that when I lost my mother. Ever since then, those two deaths have been linked almost as one in my mind, my grief for one parent intermingled so much with my grief for the other that I've always felt I never had a chance to mourn my mother properly.

Per my mother's wishes, her remains were cremated. It has always been my intention to send her ashes to Tahiti, which is where she spent the happiest four years of her life. I was only seven years old when we left Tahiti, and to this day I don't understand what we were doing there or why we were there for so long, except that it had something to do with my parents' divorce. But Tahiti was a paradise for my mother, and she never got to return during her lifetime.

Shortly after her funeral, I attempted to set the wheels in motion to send the ashes to Tahiti, but it turned out to be much harder to accomplish than I thought. The funeral home pretty much gave up, and I had no clue how to manage it myself. (None of these problems would have been solved by me taking the ashes to Tahiti myself, or I might have done that.)

In the ensuing years, I've had fleeting thoughts about trying again, but I kept being stumped on step one. (Those of you who know me know that research isn't my strong suit--I honestly had no idea how to go about researching this.) Then earlier this summer, I discovered Beth Downy of CanDoConcierge.com. Her office happens to be in my area, and it turns out she's a miracle worker.

I approached her with this project, and she took the proverbial bull by the horns. She then ran into all the bureaucratic red tape problems that I had--and then some! I'll spare you the details, but we went through weeks and weeks of hitting one roadblock after another. In some ways, this seemed like such a simple request. It was hard to believe how difficult it was to accomplish. But eventually, the amazing Beth made contact with a man who works for the U.S. Consulate in Fiji, who happens to live in Tahiti. He said that we could mail the ashes to him, and he would take care of scattering them and take pictures of the scattering so that I could see what is to be my mother's final resting place. And he would do this free of charge, unlike the other entities we'd been talking to who would have charged us every step of the way.

Today, I sent my mother's ashes to Tahiti. How fitting that I should finally be able to do so on the anniversary of her death. It has been a wrenching process since the very beginning, but today was hardest of all. Today, I'm finally saying good-bye. I've spent an awful lot of time in tears, and I expect I'm not finished with them yet. I'm especially saddened that after all those years she watched me struggle and fail in my quest to become a published author, she never got to share my thrill of victory when I finally got The Call, nor did she ever get to hold my published books in her hands. But together, we traveled the seven continents, and I will try my best not to allow my grief to overwhelm the memories of the good times we had together.

My mom with a friend, from our trip to Egypt about 20 years ago.

11:28 AM - 8 Comments - 16 Kudos - Add Comment

New Cover!
Current mood: exhausted

I'm back from San Francisco. At least in body. I'm not sure where my mind is right now, but I'm hoping it will come home when the exhaustion and jet lag wear off.

Anyway, now that The Devil You Know has been out almost a week, I thought it was time to unveil the cover for the third book in the series, The Devil's Due, which comes out on November 25. (And yes, you may have already seen this on Amazon, or if you were in San Francisco, but I'm sure it will be new to someone!)



We had a few birthing pains getting this one done, and for a while, I was scared I'd end up with a truly terrible cover, but my wonderful publisher pulled my fat out of the fire, and I love the final product! Let me know what you think!

7:41 AM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Live in or near San Francisco?
Current mood: optimistic

Next week, the Romance Writers of America national conference will be held in San Francisco. One of the great annual traditions of the RWA national conference is the Readers for Life Literacy Autographing, a massive book signing to benefit literacy charities. When I say massive, I'm not kidding: there will be somewhere around 500 authors--including me--signing! You can see a list of all the authors who are signing at http://www.rwanational.org/cs/literacy_autographing.

When: Wednesday, July 30, 5:30-7:30
Where: San Francisco Marriott, Yerba Buena Ballroom
 
This event is open to the public, so anyone can drop by and meet their favorite authors. Be prepared to be overwhelmed, though. If you've never been to one of these, you probably can't even imagine what it's like to have that many authors signing all in one huge room. It's kind of hard not to go crazy, buying books left and right. (I know--I've done it myself many times.) We will, however, be sitting in alphabetical order (except for the huge names--like Nora Roberts--who will have their own tables), so even though there are tons of us there, we're easy to find.

The Devil You Know will have just come out the day before, so I'll be signing copies at the Literacy Signing. The publishers donate the books, and I don't know how many my publisher will donate of a book that has just been released, so if you desperately want a signed copy, I'd advise you to come early.

Mark it on your calendars! If you can possibly get there, this is an event you won't want to miss!

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Home Demon Hunters Game
Current mood: adventurous

Today, I'm launching my new Home Demon Hunters game. For those of you who have played my Home Vampire Hunters game, this game will seem at least somewhat familiar. However, I've made it a lot less work for myself (whew!), and I've raised the stakes. The grand prize is a $200 gift certificate to the bookstore of your choice. (Some limitations apply--details on my website.)

Collect electronic trading cards (think of them as baseball cards, only with demons instead of baseball players!) for your chance to win the grand prize. Each week on Tuesday, I'll post a code word somewhere on my website. Email me the code word, along with your name and snail mail address, and I'll enter you in the weekly drawing to win an electronic game card, which will contain one of seven different demon characters. Play every week and try to win all seven of the different cards!

On November 25 (the release date of The Devil's Due, the third book in the Morgan Kingsley series), I'll declare one of the seven characters rogue, and any Home Demon Hunter who owns that character will be entered in a drawing to win the Grand Prize.

Happy hunting!

10:12 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

I’m Alive!
Current mood: productive

I bet some of you were starting to wonder, based on my total lack of communication these last couple of months. I had a killer deadline to meet, and it just sucked up all my energy. I kept up with email (sort of), and came up for air every once in a while to get some exercize, but mostly, my nose was to the grindstone.

But now I'm back! I turned in my book last week, and now I'm beginning to do all the things I neglected to do while I was in deadline-mode.

It's now just three weeks (and one day) until the release of The Devil You Know, and I am in full pre-release jitters mode. I wish I could stop feeling so nervous every time a new book is released, but since this is now my sixth book to hit the shelves, and I'm still nervous as hell, I guess it's not going to go away.

A fun new thing I've done for this release is I had a "sound scene" created by Circle of Seven, who created my first two videos. I was feeling a bit burned out on videos, but this is different. It's actually a dramatized reading (complete with music and sound effects) of a short scene from The Devil You Know. If you'd like to listen to it, go to the Books page on my website. I've created a kind of dummy video, because it's a lot easier for me to figure out how to embed a video than a sound file, so you'll see my book cover in the background for the entire scene.

In other news, I'm going to be unveiling a new game, the Home Demon Hunters game, tomorrow. It's another trading card game, similar to my Home Vampire Hunters game, but with some fun twists. Check out my Fun Stuff page tomorrow to see all the details. (I'll probably also publish a bulletin tomorrow, just to remind you.)

8:50 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Interview with Jeri Smith-Ready
Current mood: awake

In a continuing effort not to have to think up my own blog topics, I'm posting an interview with my fellow urban fantasy author (and all-around cool person), Jeri Smith-Ready. I'm about halfway through WICKED GAME  right now, and loving it. I also highly recommend her Aspect of Crow series (EYES OF CROW and VOICE OF CROW so far). She's a terrific writer!



Jeri's Bio:

Jeri Smith-Ready  has been writing fiction since the night she had her first double espresso. She holds a master's degree in environmental policy and lives in Maryland with her husband, cat, and the world's goofiest greyhound.  Jeri fosters shelter dogs with Tails of Hope Sanctuary. As of this writing, she has hosted twenty dogs at her home, all of whom have found loving adopters.

Jeri's latest release is WICKED GAME (May 13, 2008, Pocket Books), an urban fantasy about a cadre of vampire DJs and the con artist trying to save their 'lives.'

The Interview:

1) What was your inspiration for writing WICKED GAME?

A song, of course.  Not the song "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak—that came much later.  Almost three years ago to the day, I was driving down the road flipping the dial and came to a classic rock station playing "Bad Company" by the band of the same name.  I thought, Hmm, "Bad Company" would be a perfect title for a paranormal book with a shady main character.

By the time I reached my destination, I had a fully formed idea for vampire DJs who were psychologically and culturally 'stuck' in the era in which they were turned.  I also knew the heroine would be "bad" in some way.  (The punch line is that even though it all began with "Bad Company," the publisher ultimately asked me to change the title.)

2) Who are your favorite authors and books now and when you were growing up?

I tend to read widely rather than deeply and rarely follow series for more than a book or two, regardless of how much I enjoy them.  I'm the opposite of an addictive personality.  I'm pretty sure I'd be the world's first casual crack smoker.

I was completely different as a kid, of course.  I read EVERYTHING, especially books by Marguerite Henry, Walter Farley, and Jim Kjelgaard, who each wrote continuing series about animals (and not talking animals, either—usually just plain old horses and dogs).  I also loved the Trixie Belden mysteries.  Trixie was like Nancy Drew, but with an actual personality.

My all-time favorite book was DOGSBODY by Diana Wynne Jones.  It combined my love of animals with my passions for astronomy and mythology.  Because of that book, Sirius became my favorite star (not to mention my eventual choice in satellite radio).

My current favorite authors tend to write stand-alone novels or loosely connected series: Neil Gaiman, PC Cast, Charles de Lint, Christopher Moore, James Morrow, Caprice Crane, and John Irving, to name a few.  They also tend to be funny.

3) What is it about fantasy/science fiction that attracts you?

To me, speculative fiction at its core is about what it means to be human.  Often it does this by juxtaposing humans with other races or species (like elves or vampires or aliens), or by putting ordinary people in extraordinary settings.  I also like the genre's tendency to push the boundaries of humanity itself.

4) Why did you decide to make Ciara a con artist?

From the beginning I knew that the main character would have a shady past.  Her current job is in sales and marketing (S&M, as she calls it), which is really just a legal form of con artistry.  It sounds like a cheap joke, but the two pursuits both require an understanding of human nature and how to manipulate people's emotions to make them cheerfully act against their own best interests. 

Ciara tries to save the radio station from corporate takeover by branding it as "WVMP: The Lifeblood of Rock 'n' Roll," essentially hiding the vampires' nature in plain sight.  She disguises the truth as a marketing gimmick.  I loved playing with notions of truth and lies, and I loved watching Ciara's moral acrobatics in justifying her actions.  Con artists are sociopaths with little notion of right and wrong; however, Ciara's parents gave her a religious upbringing, which she's rejected, but only on the intellectual level.  She still feels guilt.

5) What (besides writing) do you do for fun?

I'm an avid pro football fan.  It's the only thing in my life that has nothing whatsoever to do with writing, and I guard my time with it like a starving dog with a bone.  I also follow politics, but that's not fun—more like a form of sado-masochistic torture.

6) What sort of research did you do to write WICKED GAME?

For the musical aspects, the research came by osmosis over the course of months and years.  I'd think of a band and then run to Allmusic.com (and more recently
Pandora.com) to learn all about them.  Then I'd surf the links to understand the connections among that band and its forerunners and followers. 

And of course I read books.  One of my favorites was THE ROCK SNOB'S DICTIONARY by David Kamp and Steven Daly.  Entertaining, informative, and an incisive look inside the mind of the cooler-than-thou rock snob. 

To learn about radio stations, I interviewed DJs and had them 'vet' the manuscript when it was in near-final form, to make sure I didn't have any major mistakes.  A highlight of my life was getting a cover quote from Weasel, who used to DJ at the legendary Washington, DC, alternative station WHFS.  He said that, disturbingly, he could relate very well to my characters. 

7) Shane McAllister (the 90s grunge DJ vamp) loves Nirvana. Is that your favorite band, too?

Yep, though I was only a casual fan during the band's actual existence.  I was sad but not devastated when Kurt Cobain died in 1995.  However, as the years go by and I've learned to appreciate the band's incredible talent, I grieve his loss more intensely. 

8)  What are you writing now?

I'm working on the second draft of WICKED GAME's sequel, BAD TO THE BONE (May 2009).  That's due to my editor in a few days, which explains the bags under my eyes.  And probably the hallucinations.

9) What does a typical writing day look like for you? How long do you write, that sort of thing? 

After three years of writing full-time, I've ceased to feel guilty for not writing first thing in the morning.  My brain just isn't wit-enabled before 10 or 11 am. 

10) What is easiest/hardest for you as a writer?

Dialogue is by far the easiest.  Maybe it's my theatre background, but my first drafts tend to consist of characters arguing in living rooms and coffee shops.  I keep forgetting that novels have infinite budgets for location shoots.

First drafts are the hardest by far.  It feels like sculpting air.  Once I have a rough draft down, no matter how crap-adelic, I can work to make it better.  But that initial creation of the story is torment.

11) This isn't your first book; tell us a little bit about what else is out there?

I also have an epic fantasy series, the Aspect of Crow trilogy, which takes place in a world where everyone has magic bestowed by their Guardian Spirit animal.  The first one, EYES OF CROW (Luna Books, 2006), won the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice award for Best Fantasy Novel.  The second, VOICE OF CROW, came out last October (a favorite of mine because it was the Book That Almost Killed Me), and the trilogy will conclude this November with THE REAWAKENED.

I also have an older urban fantasy (REQUIEM FOR THE DEVIL, Grand Central Publishing, 2001).  It takes place in modern day Washington, DC, and Lucifer masquerades as a political consultant.  For the first time in his ten-billion-year existence, he falls in love.  It changes everything.

To visit the DJs and listen to a sample of their shows:http://www.wvmpradio.com  
Jeri on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/jerismithready

Ciara on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/ciarawvmp

7:21 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Brenda Novak’s Auction for Diabetes
Current mood: thoughtful

Diabetes runs in my family. All of the women on my mother's side of my family--my grandmother, my mother, and all three of her sisters--have or have had it, and I have seen just how awful the disease can be. In fact, it's very likely that diabetes was a major contributing factor in my mother's death. So obviously, diabetes research means a lot to me.

Every year, Brenda Novak runs an auction to support diabetes research, and the bidding for this year's auction just opened up today. The array of items available is just stunning. There are tons of autographed books, lunches with great authors, promotional opportunities for writers, editor and agent reads for writers, and much, much more. A set of all five of my current books, autographed, is available, as is an ARC for The Devil You Know, which doesn't come out until July 29.

As well as donating items to auction, you can bet I'll be placing bunches of bids myself. The first year I knew about the auction, I won a lunch at RWA with Sue Grimshaw, the romance buyer at Borders, and I can't help thinking that that lunch is part of the reason why it's easier to find my books--particularly my backlist--at Borders than at, say, Barnes & Noble. I see that Sue is offering another lunch at RWA this year, and I urge the writers among you--particularly those who are new on the scene--to think about placing a bid on that. The price is sure to end up pretty high, but if you can afford it, I can tell you from personal experience that it's worth it!

To learn more about the auction and to see what items are available, go to http://brendanovak.auctionanything.com/Home.taf

7:12 AM - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Hungers of the Heart out today!
Current mood: good

6:01 AM - 6 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment