Archive for November, 2009
Introducing Flesh Circus!
Today, ladies and gents, I am pleased and proud to announce the official release of the fourth Jill Kismet book, Flesh Circus.
The Cirque de Charnu has come.
They will clean out the demons and the suicides, and move on. As long as they stay within the rules, Jill Kismet can’t deny them entry. But she can watch–and if they step out of line, she’ll send them packing.
When Cirque performers start dying grotesquely, Kismet has to find out why, or the fragile truce won’t hold and her entire city will become a carnival of horror. She also has to play the resident hellbreed power against the Cirque to keep them in line, and find out why ordinary people are needing exorcisms. And then there’s the murdered voodoo practitioners, and the zombies.
An ancient vengeance is about to be enacted. The Cirque is about to explode. And Jill Kismet is about to find out some games are played for keeps…
Available now at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Borders, and Indiebound
I listened to a lot of circus calliope while writing this, and it shows. I am actually terrified of clowns, and slightly amazed that Jill hasn’t run across a psychotic clown in this book. Of course, what with voodoo and vengeance, not to mention Perry and trouble with Saul, her dance card is kind of full.
To celebrate a brand-spanking-new Kismet book, I’ll be giving away two signed copies here on my website and a couple more signed copies through my newsletter. Today I’ll be giving away a signed copy to a random commenter. All you have to do is go here and leave a comment about circuses (before midnight today)–do you find them creepy? Cool? Do clowns make you shiver? Tell me all about it, and I’ll pick a comment with the help of Random.org!
Wow. It’s been a busy, busy month. Thanks for reading, dear Readers. If not for you, well, this whole thing would sink. Thank you all.
If We Don’t, Who Will?
Sometimes the days when I am most productive are the days I feel like I’ve gotten nothing done, because of the sheer amount of time I’ve spent running around with my hair on fire. I guess adulthood, motherhood, and working in publishing are all like that.
So here I am with one book revised and out of the way, a short story boiling in the foreground (got to get to that before it boils over and spills something) and a ton of correspondence done. Where did the weekend go? Oh, yeah. I worked straight through it.
Great.
Still, I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’m supposed to be celebrating how far I’ve come over the next two weeks. Looking back I can see the changes, the peaks and valleys. There’s a long way yet to go, but for a while at least the hard part is behind me. At least I scraped along the bottom for a while, and now I can feel the lift gathering under my wings to help me back up.
I’m going to start my celebration with some leftover Indian food for lunch. And by putting on the two rings I just got. They are simple silver bands. On the inside of each is etched the simple words: I love you. They’re promise rings–and they’re a promise I’m making to myself. I am going to love myself. I need to be the first person I nominate for that job. I am tired of what Irene O’Garden so memorably called “the venom of the Bitch Within.” I deserve better.
So, dear Reader, this Thanksgiving week you can imagine me being grateful for how far I’ve come. Every person who’s ever been knocked down and wondered if they could ever get back up–you can. Here’s my hand. See the rings? Imagine the slight scratch of etched silver against your own skin, whispering I love you all day, every day. Let that be a gift you give yourself.
It’s a damn hard job. But if we don’t love ourselves, who will?
Over and out.
The Mystery of Steel
First, the updates: there’s the Bitten By Books interview with me, where I answered a ton of questions. I had a great time. Go check them out! Plus there’s a new interview with Tanith Lee, my all-time favorite author. And, in case you haven’t heard, here’s the SFWA’s statement on Harlequin’s proposed vanity press imprint. (Ilona Andrews has a link roundup about this.)
My writing post is very short and simple today, mostly because I am working under a severe time crunch.
Last night I went outside. It was warm and windy, little spatters of rain. I was standing in my driveway, thinking about things, when all of a sudden…it was like a weight lifted and I knew I was going to be OK. Way down deep, in the nonphysical (but still in-my-body) core of me, there’s a band of steel. It can get beat up, heated red hot, ground at, and bent, but it’s always there. And it just gets stronger.
Writing has taught me a lot about that steel. One of Jill Kismet’s most admirable (or maddening) qualities is that she doesn’t know when to give up. Quit is so not in her dictionary. I like that about her, even if other aspects of her personality infuriate me. (I do not often like my characters. I don’t have to–I just have to write them.) Dante Valentine endures whatever the world throws at her, and struggles to endure on her own terms. Many of my characters have that core of resiliency, of inner strength. Finding it in a character helps me find it in myself.
I think everyone has some steel in them. Some more, some less, but everyone has some. The trick is, when everything is whirling around you like a snowglobe full of razorblades, to find the stillness, the strong space inside you. No matter how battered I get, that steel is there. Sometimes it cuts deep, but when I need something other than my spine to carry me, well, it takes up the job.
Being reduced to your steel is an uncomfortable experience. You may find yourself rejected for publication so many times you wonder if it’s worth carrying on. You may find yourself in much worse situations where you wonder if it’s worth surviving at all. The steel doesn’t count the cost and it doesn’t care about what you think you can do. It’s a tiny piece of irreducible grit we’re all built around. We’re pearls, but at the heart of each pearl is that harsh speck of irritation.
I just finished Kage Baker’s Empress of Mars. It’s about a woman who has that steel. Several times things would be easier if Mary just quit. But she’s staked her claim, dammit, and nobody is going to make her back down or give up. It hurts, it’s goddamn uncomfortable sometimes, but that steel is a gift from the gods. When you cannot rely on anything else, if you can find your core it can and will carry you through.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my own steel. I was wondering if it had vanished, burned or melted away. I was wondering if I was ever going to feel strong again.
Last night, with the wind pushing wet dry leaves and warm rain spattering down, I felt that slender core of strength inside me. Sometimes it does cut, worse than anyone else’s words or actions could. I’ll take it, even if it does. When it comes right down to it, that steel has seen me through much worse than a broken (and mending) heart.
I’m just glad I found it again. Of course, it needs to be used responsibly, because even a healer’s knife can cut…
…but that’s another blog post.
Keep writing.
More Release Madness!
ETA: There’s an interview with Christophe over at LiyanaLand, for all you Christophe fans!
Today I’m over at Bitten By Books to celebrate the release of Betrayals! There’s an interview with me, and I’ll be popping in there to answer questions and comments all day. There’s also a chance to win a $15 Amazon gift certificate. So, come on over and have some fun.
Right now, though, I’ve got to hit the treadmill. I’ve been on the phone all morning, what with one thing and another, and I need to get the daily run out of the way. It’s beyond me why I struggle and suffer and sweat on the treadmill while I could be eating choco, but I guess it will help me live longer so I can eat more choco. Delayed gratification, the hallmark of adulthood.
I just wish gratification wasn’t delayed so long.
Strange Angels: Betrayals!
That’s right! Today marks the release of the second in the Strange Angels series, Betrayals. And do I have some treats for you.
* You can go to Bitten By Books and vote for Lucifer from the Valentine series as the best villain of all. I’ll also be at BBB all day tomorrow for their big Betrayals event.
* I have a guest post over at Fantastic Book Review–Werewolves vs. Vampires. Go and tell everyone who YOU like best!
* LiyanaLand’s Betrayals week just keeps on going with an interview with your favorite loup-garou, Graves. (Christophe’s interview is tomorrow.) Go find out what he wants to be when he grows up–and find out what he thinks of Dru.
And now, ladies and gents, I give you…Betrayals!
Dru Anderson’s parents are long gone, her best friend is a werwulf, and she’s just learned that the blood flowing through her veins isn’t entirely human. (So what else is new?)
Now Dru is stuck at a secret New England Schola for other half-vampire teens like her, and there’s a big problem—she’s the only girl in the place. A school full of cute boys wouldn’t be so bad, but Dru’s killer instinct says that one of them wants her dead. And with all eyes on her, discovering a traitor within the Order could mean a lot more than social suicide.
When murderous vampires start showing up and the body count begins rising, Dru has to figure out who to trust and when to run–or tonight might be her last…
Available now at Barnes & Noble, Indiebound, Borders, & Amazon
Don’t forget, if you don’t win a signed copy this week with all the giveaways, you can easily buy one by contacting Cover to Cover Books. Their shipping rates are quite reasonable and I can sign and personalize books for them with no trouble at all.
Once again, dear Readers, thank you for reading. I can’t wait to hear what you think of Dru’s further adventures.
