Questions, Questions, Questions
I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. Since I can’t answer a glut of email personally, I’m just going to take the most common questions and answer them here. THEN I will answer weekly questions sent by Readers on Mondays. World without end, amen. Heh.
Reader Sam asks: I just finished reading Fire Watcher and was wondering if Abra there and in the Valentine books were the same?
Answer: Yes. Abra’s been around Saint City for a very long time. The Saint City of Selene and Nikolai, Dante, and the Watchers is the same city at different points in its timeline. Abra actually moved in right after the founding of the city, in about 1870 or thereabouts, and has had a total of three stores, with the one Elise and Dante visit being the most recent and longest-lasting.
Reader Wanda writes: I was just wondering about your new Steelflower book. I was disappointed to see that it is out on e-book. I’m not sad that it’s out, just that it’s only available on e-book.
Answer: Steelflower was originally supposed to be out in print in September. That might get pushed back with the recent ly-announced partnership of Samhain and Kensington, but there is definitely a print version in the works, with illustrations by my buddy Josh Carter.
Reader H. Wesley writes: Beyond the transcript of the lecture, “The Nine Canons, An Introduction”, is there any material, reference or otherwise, to which you can direct me? As a student of Nordic Runes and other magical lettering and glyphic representations I would like to know more of the specifics, if such exists (yet).
Answer: The Nine Canons don’t specifically exist yet, though they’re loosely based on both the Theban and Norse runes currently floating around New Age books today. The runes used in the Watcher series are based just on the Norse runes, since the Awakening is about a century in the future from the Watcher series. I’ve added a few of my own interpretations, of course, but the basic structure is there.
Of course, there are varying degrees of scholarship and just plain idiocy in the New Age-y applications of runes, but intent sometimes cancels out lack of scholarship on a magickal front. Your mileage may vary. 
I started out when I was about sixteen with Ralph Blum’s The Book of Runes and went on from there.
Reader Alexandra speaks for a lot of you when she asks: Why is there so much repetition…? I understand that you’d want to stress a few things – for instance the fact that Danny smelt like this and Jace smelt like that, or that Psions had problems [being] in hospitals and etc – but I felt a really overwhelmed by so many references to the same thing. I noticed that other authors do something similar (like Christine Feehan) – I wonder whether this is some kind of thing that runs in this genre?
Answer: *sigh* Some of that is stylistic. I tend to write in long run-on sentences, especially when the action gets intense, mostly because I’m writing so fast. A lot of it is editing–copyeditors, for some reason, want to fill me full of commas and semicolons, and by the time they get to a manuscript I am so sick of it I am just about ready to let them have a few.
The repetition comes in earlier in the editing process. I get a lot of “need more here” notes in manuscripts, because it’s so clear in my head and I write so quickly I fall into the trap of assuming everyone can see the movie in my skull as clear as I do. So I’m often asked to put in sensory markers for the reader so they can feel/hear/see the scene as vividly. I understand it’s not for everyone and am trying to find a happy medium.
I think it does tend to run in the genre for just those reasons. Additionally, we paranormal writers are asked to spell it out a lot–like publishers are afraid the Reader won’t “get it.” We’re working on that too–heaven knows Readers are smarter than us or the publishers–but it’ll take time. *wink*
That’s all I have time for today. After re-fiddling our wireless internet (again) I’m about cranky enough to start screaming, so I’m off for more coffee and lunch for the kidlings. Thanks for writing, dear Readers, and keep the questions coming! I will answer, I swear. Just maybe not soon.
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