Writing

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She-Wolf & Cub

I promised myself I wouldn’t start autumn’s round of baking until the daily high temp became a comfortable mid-seventies1 or so. The forecast appeared good, I put together a starter while prepping the pot roast yesterday…

…and today the forecast has changed and the goddamn high is supposed to be in the eighties, just where I didn’t want it.

Ah well. A little sweat is a small price to pay for the season’s first bread.

Last night Damage finally dropped into its groove with a deep, satisfying internal click. One of the characters is a cagey beast indeed, and I had to wait just outside his mousehole for him to get interested and stick his nose out. Now I’ve got him, and the real work can start.

So much of this job is patience. Waiting, while frustrating, is often the most efficient strategy. If childhood didn’t teach me that, motherhood certainly did, and writing’s just sealed the deal, so to speak.

I also have to put together a short survey. I may cancel HOOD after only two seasons and shift to a different serial. It’s sad, but the story is structured like a TV series and that might be a little too much for some readers. Sometimes when the audience numbers aren’t there, one has to refocus.

So if you like Robin Hood in Space, be ready to say so when the survey comes around. Only actual Serial Time or Nest Egg subscribers will get a chance to vote, since they’re the ones funding the whole deal.

I’ve the dogs to walk, bread to mix and set for its bulk rise–if I get it done early enough I might escape the heat later–and more of Damage to write. It’s going to be a busy day, just how I like it.

And so, off I go.

Soundtrack Monday: Pump Up the Volume

Dante Valentine

It’s Soundtrack Monday again! This one is for the readers of the Dante Valentine series.

One of the things I loved about Danny’s world is slicboards. Flying skateboards are just plain cool. This particular song, MARRS’s Pump Up the Volume, was what I played repeatedly and obsessively while writing a certain bit of Saint City Sinners. Readers will remember when Danny goes to the Hole to find Konnie Basileus’s slictribe; this particular track is also, incidentally, the closest to the sound of Krewe’s Control and the Hover Squad, Jace Monroe’s favorite and preferred provider-of-jams, that is currently available.

I do want to write the Hell Wars trilogy, which centers on Lia Spocarelli and her adventures. (You can find a taste of that in the short story Coming Home.) One of these days I’ll have the time to do so.

Or so I hope. Japh would probably tell me to do it quickly, since mortal lives are so regrettably brief.

Enjoy!

Soundtrack Monday: Let Me Down Easy

Strange Angels

It’s time for another Soundtrack Monday! It’s Labor Day, so I’m only working a half day, but I’ve been wanting to share this one with you.

Graves in Strange Angels had his genesis in several boys I knew in high school. His musical tastes were eclectic, to say the least, but I could always reliably get him to come out and start talking if I played a little Chris Isaak. (Or Metallica, but that’s neither here nor there.)

Eventually, even the first few bars of Let Me Down Easy would give me a window into how he was feeling. The series is told from Dru’s point of view, but you can’t know just one character’s motivations and expect to have a whole story. You need to know what everyone in the room wants, even if it’s something so simple as a glass of water. (Thank you, Vonnegut.)

And poor Graves wanted, above all, to be worth his glass of water. It may be what every child with a highly suboptimal home life wants. I did plan to go back to that world with a Maharaj girl sent to train Dru in her heritage, but the publisher didn’t want it and finally took the Human Tales instead.

Anyway, enjoy the tune, and when I come back tomorrow I’ll tell you more about that turkey.

COVER REVEAL: Incorruptible

I’ve something special for you guys in lieu of the regular Friday photo post. Feast your eyes upon this, my darlings:

Falling was only the beginning…

Jenna Delacroix is determined to keep her life as simple as possible. Maybe if she tries hard enough to be normal the nightmares and strange occurrences plaguing her all her life will finally recede. But then the monsters arrive—and with them, the man who says he’s her protector.

Lonely and disciplined, Michael Gabon is just a grunt in the Legion’s endless war, but now he’s stumbled across something special—a living, breathing Incorruptible, the first one he’s seen in more decades than he can count. She’s also being hunted. And now, so is he.

On the run without backup, the diaboli haunting their trail, their only hope is working together. Even that might not be enough, because the unclean seem to know more than they should. Whether it’s treachery or bad luck doesn’t matter to Michael. The only thing he cares about is seeing his Incorruptible safe…

…no matter who–or what–he has to kill.

Isn’t it lovely? The cover is from Indigo Chick Designs; I highly recommend all of Skyla’s work and have for years.

I’ve got another treat for you, too–you can read the first six chapters for free, by downloading the sample here. You can also sign up for my newsletter at the same time, but you don’t have to in order to get your fiction fix.

It’s been a super long week and I still have turkey-wrangling to do. Thankfully, the goats have been returned to the care of their regular humans, who were slightly confused at my excitement over my new Capra aegagrus-whistling skills. (That’s okay, the goats and I understand one another just fine.)

But that damn turkey, oof.

I’ll tell you what else happened with Shirley, me, and the turkey next week, my friends. In the meantime, enjoy your free sample, and stay tuned because I’ve so much more coming in the next few months.

Over and out.

No Nap Required

It’s not even 11am and I need a nap. I’m on my second jolt of coffee and have already spent an hour and a half in the car.

No nap will be taken today. There’s too much to do, between school starting for the Little Prince and the hour spent in the car daily.

It will be nice when I don’t have to commute anymore. Really nice.

I suspect I won’t get a lot of fresh wordcount today, but I have a very small, very slight revision pass on a Certain Book I Can’t Tell You About Yet. Hopefully there will be good news on Incorruptible soon, too–as well as a teaser, as soon as all the preorders are set up.

I do so love giving you guys teasers.

I’m sure there’s a million things more to do, but I think I just want to sit and stare for a moment. Get a good breath or two in me, and maybe even some fleeting Zen. Then I’ll make a list, because it’s a day when nothing on earth will get done if I don’t write it down.

At least the dogs have been walked and the second coffee jolt seems to be doing its duty. No nap required–at least, not for the first few hours. We’ll see what happens when three PM rolls around.

Over and out.

Soundtrack Monday: Boy With a Coin

Gallow & Ragged

The first scene I ever had of the Gallow & Ragged books was the pike-vs.-knight fight in the beginning of Trailer Park Fae. As with any endeavour involving the Good Folk, music was a necessity, and Robin in particular needed just the right songs.

There wasn’t much music for Gallow at first–most of the light and rhythm went out of him when Daisy died. But slowly, he started to open up to me, and all of a sudden young Jeremy had a ballad, Iron & Wine’s Boy With a Coin. (The video’s pretty stunning, too.) That was also when I knew exactly what had happened between him and Alastair, and how it affected both of them.

There is no enemy like he who was once a trusted friend.

I knew exactly how the trilogy would end the moment I wrote the first words. It was a long, strange ride to get there, almost as wild as Unwinter’s Hunt itself. And every time I grew discouraged, a bright feather would cross my path, or an echo of unearthly song, and I’d know I was committed until that end.

Sometimes a story possesses one, in the old pagan sense of having a genius or daimon. It’s always best to continue such things to their natural end, for unfinished they tend to turn on their creators. Still… when it’s over, one can’t help but feel a sweet piercing pain, and all the songs that coalesced into the book soundtrack express that longing in one form or another.

Enjoy.

Highlands Thoughts

Steelflower

I’m considering doing an Indiegogo or a serial run for The Highlands War. It would be nice to get Kaia’s story to a natural resting place before I walk away from it for good.

Originally, there were only three books planned–Steelflower, then her adventures in the Highlands, then her return (with Darik) to G’maihallan. The rash of piracy–not to mention small publishers going under–put paid to that plan; the former is a curse and the latter a mixed blessing since it allowed me to stretch out and tell the story of Antai and the journey to the North in the proper fashion.

But I think the G’maihallan book(s) will never be written. Kaia’s return (less triumphant than fated, and full of the secrets of those she’s learned with such effort to trust) will have to stay in my head, unwritten. I know what happens, and it has to be enough.

It’s a constant struggle to go back to Kaia’s world now, because I flinch at the thought of the work being stolen again and again. People stealing these books in particular drains away the energy needed to complete more of them. And people arriving at my website searching for “torrent”, “free”, and “PDF” don’t help.

At the same time, it bothers me to leave the Highlands part of the series unwritten, because Redfist’s arc really needs its completion and Gavrin begins to come into his own. The minstrel is slowly becoming a hero in his own right, and it’s fun to see him in the background, learning from Kaia and her friends. He’s going to have an interesting life.

I just haven’t decided whether I’ll put together a fundraiser so I can take some time off and write the story, or if I’ll put together a short-term serial. The latter would require having at least the zero done so it can be scheduled. When I make the decision I’ll get to work.

Unfortunately, that might have to wait a couple months. I need to finish Damage and Season Two of HOOD is taking up all my emotional strength right now. Parl Jun’s costume party is beginning to take on a different character indeed, and we’re going to see just how far Giz will go to protect Marah.

And even that will have to wait for a run, for the dogs to be walked, for coffee to finish soaking in, and a battle with a turkey. Some days I–

–what? Oh, the turkey.

Uh, I’ll tell you later. Because it really deserves a post or two of its own.

Over and out, then. For now.