Go see a movie! Maybe this one:
Looks AWESOME, doesn’t it?
Hello my pretties! For those of you who didn’t already know, I’ll be going to Bouchercon in St. Louis in just a few weeks. Bouchercon is really a mystery con, and I’m not going so much as an author as I am a professor, to network with mystery writers for the nefarious purposes of our MFA program. I might also be going to hang out with Juliet Blackwell and Sophie Littlefield, and the fact that my good friends Ervin and Gary call St. Louis home is just icing on that sweet, sweet cake.
That said, I’m only going for three days and I’m not on any panels. But I did manage to wrangle a signing! For those of you who’ll be at Bouchercon, I’ll be at the Crimespree table, in the Dealer Room, on Saturday morning from 10 AM – 11 AM. I’ll be with Tom Schreck, who writes about boxing and basset hounds, and I’m looking forward to meeting him.
Now, on the one jazz hand, YAY SIGNING. On the other (less jazz) hand, the dealer room is only open to people with Bouchercon passes. So anyone already a part of Bouchercon who wants to come see me just has to show their badge at the door. BUT, Bouchercon does sell day passes for those of you who can’t do the whole con. They’re 75$, and they’re for the full day. The Saturday schedule for B’con is here. On Saturday, you can use that day pass to see far cooler people than me, such as Sara Paretsky, Val McDermid, Charlaine Harris, and Toni L.P. Kelner.
That said, if you happen to be in the hotel, and you happen to see me at the bar, come talk to me, pass or no pass. I drink Guinness or Makers Mark Manhattans, btw. Just sayin’. 
So yay for signings! Also yay to the fact I just turned in Book Five, Tempest’s Fury, to the editrix. She still needs work, obviously, but getting that first draft in always feels gooooooooood.
It also means that I can start on some new projects, one of which is a short story. Who’d like to learn a little more about Capitola, Moo, and Shar, the ladies of Triptych?
Hello my muffins. How are you?
I am very well, if tired. After an epic week combining our first days back at teaching, my beating my revisions for Tempest’s Fury into some semblance of readiness, and probably the most social engagements I’ve ever had in Pennsylvania, I’m feeling rather groggy, but great.
Actually, I just feel great. There’s nothing like sauntering through a deadline that makes me feel obnoxiously smug.
So I thought I’d celebrate by sharing with a few things I like. The first up is from Ida Maria’s summer release, Katla. It’s an adorable, very funny song:
Another thing I thought I’d share was a recent purchase I’d made, that I really like. It’s Benefit’s Smokin’ Eyes Palette. I was playing with it on Twitter a few days ago:
I would also like to acknowledge my excitement that, according to Elle, this fall’s fashion trends involve Victoriana, Mod knock offs, AND leather biker wear.
So basically it’s everything I like, and I plan on dressing like a Victorian biker with horn rimmed glasses EVERY DAY.
A more disturbing fashion trend is that they’ve brought back the poncho AND the cape. For a short girl like me, that means I will spend the winter constantly tempted to appear in public as some sort of midget troll doll come to life.
So there are some fun things for Fall. Anything you’ve recently discovered/are excited about?
Hello mah beauties.
For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you know I’ve recently become obsessed with the television show, Mad Men. Many people perceive it as a love/hate relationship, because I tweet things like “Mad Men makes me want to stab something while watching EVERY EPISODE.”
These tweets are misleading, however, as I don’t have ambiguous feelings about the show at all. I adore the show. I think it’s brilliant, and at least five times an episode there’s something that happens with the writing, or the cinematography, or the direction, that makes me marvel at the show’s genius.
What pisses me off (and what is supposed to piss me off) is the society Mad Men depicts. But it pisses me off in a good way, and it pisses me off in a way that I think our country needs to be pissed off, especially now.
After all, we’re living in a time of major economic difficulties. I’d love to be all upbeat as usual, but when it comes to the economy, I can’t. I think America has been living in a very luxurious bubble for a really long time (something that Mad Men addresses) and the fact is that bubble has to break. When half of the world lives on less than $2.50 a day, it’s a bit bizarre to assume we should all have our own McMansion, complete with multiple cars, flat screens, etc. The fact is that Americans are going to have to scale it back, and live like the rest of the world. But this is a difficult adjustment, and another sad fact is that major inequalities in our society mean that some still get to live the caviar lifestyle, undented, while others have lost everything. This makes people angry, and it makes people lash out against easy scapegoats. Age-old scapegoats for rough times have traditionally been the Other: other races, other religions, and other genders.
I have a lot of friends who shake their hands, wondering at the recent spate of attacks on women’s rights. Under the auspices of “pro-life” legislation, there are insane attempts to redefine rape and ever-increasing attacks on women’s health care (even Fox News reported on this one). I would argue that these are merely the more extreme symptoms of a more pernicious malaise: the idea that some people wish we could go back in time, to when things were “simpler.”
When confronted with America’s instability (both economic and social), with our countries ever-loosening grip on its role as the world’s sole Super Power, and the struggles with our own identity that these facts engender, is it any wonder that people are looking to the past for answers?
Especially when that past was so lovely, right? We’re involved in a “quagmire” of a war, when the war my grandparent’s generation fought is known simply as “The Good War.” Everyone had employment, and people stayed in those jobs until they retired. Children didn’t engage in inexplicable “flash mobs” (either of the dancing or the looting variety). Wives didn’t work 60 hours a week when their husband’s can’t even find a job, and they certainly didn’t divorce their husbands to “find themselves.”
It all sounds so great, right?
The fantasy does sound awesome. In a world where I confront about 50 decisions a day, where I see myself, my friends, and my students struggle to figure out how to make it in a world in which there are no more rules, even I understand the allure of a black and white world.
And that’s where Mad Men comes in. It is that golden world that we’ve heard discussed in hushed voices. A world in which the Greatest Generation strides the earth like lions, smoking up a storm and napping at work. At work! After having a four martini lunch!
Then there are the outfits, and the hair, and the garters. I swoon at the women’s garters, alone, and I imagine myself with enormous torpedo-shaped breasts, swanning around in about fifteen layers of lingerie, and petticoats, and dresses, while batting my luxurious fake eyelashes up at my gorgeously suited companion.
But let’s look under the proverbial petticoats of that world, something that isn’t hard, since Mad Men‘s genius is that it makes sure we do just that.
The structure of Mad Men is a bit like a call and response song. For every moment of glamour, beauty, luxury, and ease of lifestyle that’s depicted in Mad Men, there is an answering moment of pettiness, ugliness, poverty, and difficulty. Yes, the white women in the beautiful dresses go into powder their gorgeous noses in a luxurious bathroom. But the answering tableau is of the African American bathroom attendants peering out at the ladies as they leave, wondering how they’ll make a living now that the purses in fashion are too small to hold the tip money upon which the attendants live. Yes, Don’s beautiful wife Betty wears the singularly most gorgeous outfits we’ve ever seen, but she does so while sitting for hours and hours, smoking alone, at her kitchen table. Yes, the men all pull out the ladies’ chairs, but they also order for them, and this situation is a metaphor for their whole lives.
In fact, there are a hundred little carefully inserted needles an episode, puncturing the balloon that is the fantasy of Mad Men. For example, in the wonderful scene where Don’s secretary confronts her nemesis, the great beauty of the office, Don’s secretary says something about how she’s the first woman to write copy “since the war,” pointing out that part of the country’s current largess was due to the hard work of women who stepped up while the men were fighting, and who had to then step back into subservient roles when the men returned.
But the greatest triumph of Mad Men is what makes it so difficult to watch. When I first Tweeted that I was watching it, I had about a dozen people reply they couldn’t get past the first episode. And I had the same feeling. I wanted to punch everyone in the show in the face, hard, about fourteen times an episode. The women? They’re vain idiots, who fill me with a deep sense of shame and anger. The men? They’re monsters–silly boys who with no sense or sensibility, horrifyingly granted the powers of Mark Twain’s vicious child on the beach who destroys his sandcastles because he can.
It is here that I locate Mad Men’s singular power: it understands how, as we saw in the Plantation South, great beauty can be built upon grotesque underpinnings. We also see the fallout the various characters endure: the loneliness, spite, and eventual craziness of the women (Betty Draper’s shooting the pigeons with her cigarette dangling from her lips has to be one of my favorite TV moments ever), and the emotional paralysis of the men that has them shuttling between variously inappropriate women while competing with each other with the viciousness of fighting cocks.
And this is why I think everyone should watch Mad Men: because it does piss you off. Indeed, it wants to piss you off. Its power and its genius is that it makes you so angry about issues that we don’t even want to fight about any more. If I had a dime for every young, awesome, confident female student I’ve had that has blithely said, “I’m not a feminist, ew,” I’d be a millionaire. I think the feminist revolution was so successful that it’s easy to forget how recently we were empowered. Watching Mad Men’s women ask their husbands for money, or ask them whether it’s all right they work or pursue interests, or sit quietly despite desperately wanting to know about their husband’s lives is an amazing lesson in what our own realities could still be like, if we hadn’t had women willing to stand up for themselves, and for us.
So go watch Mad Men. Get really, really pissed off. Become absolutely horrified. Then think about what you’ve learned from those feelings, while you look around our own world.
See anything you don’t like?
*********************************************
And now for our Wieners from last week’s contest! The Contest Can has spoken!
The Wiener’s are Allison W., Holly K., and donnas! Email me at iheartselkies(at)gmail(dot)com with the name of ANY book on Amazon at $7.99 or under, with your address, and I’ll have it shipped to your door!
Thanks for playing, folks! Your comments were awesome and I’ve learned a lot. I’m really glad people are reading the blog, and I’m considering doing a newsletter, probably 2x a year.
Thanks again for all the comments.
Howdy folks!
I’m back in Greensburg, believe it or not! I came home to a dusty, but intact, apartment. Yay! Then I had TWO FULL DAYS of meetings for the day job. It was intense! But great seeing my colleagues again, all of whom are awesome.
But that’s not what you want to hear about. You want to hear about Authors After Dark! And see all the pictures I took, right?
Wellllllllllll….imma tell you about my photography skillz.
I have none.
So I took all these wonky-assed, out of focus, ridiculously far away photos of stuff that amused me at the time, but now I a) can’t think why and b) am not really sure what they are.
Which is why there will be my USUAL DEARTH OF PHOTOGRAPHS on this blog post. Because I suck.
AAD, on the other hand, DID NOT SUCK. It was, in fact, SO MUCH FUN! So fun I have to use all caps AND exclamation marks. There was just such a great vibe at the con: everyone was super enthusiastic, eager to be there and meet each other and the authors, and generally just be happy and enthusiastic. I had a blast meeting everyone, and hanging out with people, and I don’t know what else to say except it was GOOD.
There was much laughter, quite a bit of food consumed, some raunchy readings, many panels, I put the slap down as a moderator on occasion, and incited some pinnings of pensises on our poor founding fathers. To top it all off, there was also a film crew, filming a documentary about the romance community. So all in all it was a surreal, but fabulous, experience.
I will definitely be rocking out AAD 2012 in NOLA, my fave city. That said, it’s gonna be hotter than the hubs of hell, but you’re supposed to sweat in NOLA. If you ain’t sweatin’, you ain’t doin’ it right.
So that’s all she wrote about AAD. It’s not that I don’t have more to say, but it’s already been AGES, and everyone else and their mother has done AWESOME blog posts on everything that happened (with pictures! That don’t suck!). So if you’re intrigued, just follow the #aad2011 hashtag on twitter and it’ll lead you to many blog posts.
But it DID rock, and if you’re on the fence about coming next year, don’t be. Get off that fence and get to New Orleans!
Now, because I don’t have any of my OWN GODDAMNED PICTURES BECAUSE I SUCK, I’m going to share with you what has to be my favorite piece of fan art yet. I know, I say every new piece is my favorite, but that’s because it is!
I bet you readers will know exactly where this scene comes from, no?
This was made by Regan Johnson (blog and website) and I adore it! It’s now my wallpaper on my laptop.
I totally get a kick out of stuff like this, so whenever you’ve made anything Jane related, lemme know! I’ll pimp it on the blog. Because one of the things AAD and RomCon reminded me of is that I have the coolest fans ever. They’re people I like hanging out with, people who inevitably get me since they get my books, and people whom I’m lucky to have in my corner.
So VIVA LA FANS! In honor of you all, I’m going to do a contest. Just comment here about anything you like that authors do. Do you like when we blog? Do book groups? Do you like newsletters? Tweets? What? Let me know, as I’m always trying to figure out new ways to reach out to you and get you the information you desire.
So comment below, and on Monday, August 22, at 8:00 AM ET, I’ll randomly pick THREE winners (lucky number three!) who can pick ANY MASS MARKET PAPERBACK (the kind that are $7.99 or under) on Amazon and I’ll have it shipped directly to your door. Sound good? That’s ANY mass market paperback: it doesn’t have to be mine, or UF, or whatever. I can also ship it to your kindle if that’s how you roll.
I heart you guys! GROUP HUG!!! *slobbers*
Hi folks! I’m back from RomCon in Denver. I went last year, and although the con was significantly smaller than it was, it was still fun. Not least because we were hosted by the fierce creatures otherwise known of as Mario Acevedo and Jeanne C. Stein. Here they are, looking like they might shiv me:
Just as fun as seeing old friends is meeting new friends, and I shared a room with an author I’ve “known” through email, etc., for a long time, but had never actually met. Her name is Kimberly Frost, and we’re both with McIntosh and Otis, although with different agents. Kimberly was a great roommate and an awesome human being. She’s an ER doctor for her day job, and she regaled us with harrowing stories, assuring us that we’d “love how lungs felt, they’re like souffles!” So basically we were all obsessed, and made her tell us everything while we made ick faces. Well, while I made ick faces. Then Kimberly would say, “Oh, I’m grossing Nicole out, I’ll stop,” and I’d shake my head furiously and say, “No! I want more! Keep talking!” It was awesome. And a bit icky. Let’s just say I never knew there were so many ways to “crack a chest.” *shudders*
The first night we were in Denver, we did an event for the Public Library, called Mucho Mojo. It was super fun, and we got to hang out with Mario’s awesome friend Jennifer Mosquera, an incredible artist who runs one of the coolest galleries I’ve ever been in, The Art Salon in Denver. She wants it to be a real Salon, so there are tons of really interactive, awesome events, and also classes. If you live in Denver or the surrounding area you MUST check it out! Check out her website and the Salon’s for upcoming events.
The next day was full RomCon action! There were some peeps from last year, whom I was happy to see again, such as the lovely Monica Kaye:
There were swag bags full of mysterious, vaguely alarming items, such as this one. It’s called, quite ominously, “The Buzz Brush.” What do you think it’s for?
Finally, there was both cardboard and in-the-flesh man meat, as any good Romance Con must have. here’s me with the cardboard version:
We tried to get Mario to play with the fleshly version of the one on the right. He was there wearing leather pants and had a plethora of props, such as a dagger and a whip, to help him take pictures with the ladies. The model was also on hand to take pictures….
HAHAHAHA. See what I did there? I made it seem like Mario was walking around in leather pants with a whip hoping to get pictures with ladies.
Which he was.
No, seriously, Mario was his using charming self, and he even entertained us with this adorable fork dance:
I cackle like a hyena, which is my superpower. It can be ear shattering, depending on how much whisky has been consumed.
The final day we were in Denver, we did a signing at the Broadway Book Mall, my favorite coop bookstore ever. It was really cool, but when I did the same signing last year, I just had the one book out and I think everyone who came out was really there for the store and had no idea who I was. This year, there were tons of people there and all of them were there to see me or one of the other authors, so it felt like we had real fans. It was awesome! I saw the difference a year makes in publishing, in terms of building a readership, etc. There was even one of our SHU students there, Lesley, who blogged about her insights into author signings.
All in all it was an absolutely fabulous time, and I even managed to get a lot of school work done. I also signed up for an intensive Spanish class on Saturdays this semester, to brush up on my Espagnol. I used to chatter away quite rapidly, but now I sound like a three-year-old who may or may not have been drinking. So I’m very excited about that!
Tomorrow, meanwhile, will find me flying out to AAD in Philly. If you’re in the area but aren’t doing the con, there’s a FREE public booksigning Saturday, August 13th, from 2-5 in the Ormandy ballroom of the Doubletree Hotel, Center City Philadelphia. Come see me, Carolyn Crane, Dakota Cassidy, Anton Strout, Allison Pang, and tons more!
So hope to see you in Philly! Ciao for now!
Hello mah friends!
This finds me writing from Illinois, for I have been repatriated. I came back from London on Monday, and I only cried a tiny, tiny bit. Mostly because I was too tired to summon the energy for tears, and because after a month of glorious decadence I was actually ready to get back to a routine. And by “routine” I mean fruit smoothies and zumba.
That said, my last week in London couldn’t have been nicer. On Monday, I got back from Whitby, and did absolutely fuck all but recover. Then Tuesday I worked and worked, before making tacos for Dr. Ruth. Wednesday I worked and worked, before going out for delicious tapas with Linda. And then Thursday, I worked and worked before my friend came in for one last visit.
Sometime during All That Working, however, I did IT again. In my third book, something happens at the end that is Very Big. A character we thought was one thing turns out to be another. I think IT works perfectly, and IT was one of those things that, as I was writing IT, suddenly made perfect sense.
The problem was that I hadn’t planned IT to happen. That character had been slated for a totally different role in the rest of the series. Her doing what she did was awesome, but IT totally threw a wrench (a good wrench, I think, but a wrench nonetheless) into the works.
So I was writing either Wednesday or Thursday, and I was finishing the book. I had but a few more pages to write. And then IT hit me. Again. A totally mad, totally awesome, totally book six changing idea. At first, however, I dismissed IT, as IT was SO huge.
But IT stuck with me, like a burr in my hair. My poor friend came in Thursday, and I was totally distracted. I think he thought I was already pining for him, bless, when I told him I couldn’t stop thinking of the end. He reminded me we still had the whole weekend together. I told him I meant the actual ending, of my book. It was one of those deliciously awkward moments I live for, and if I wrote about a writer I’d use it in a novel.
Anyway, I finally had a talk with my marvelous agent, and by that point I’d gone over the scenario a million times in my head and I realized it was the right thing to do. It DID bugger up my plans for book six, but that’s because my plans for book six sucked, quite frankly. The Mad Idea will give book six a great tension, and I’m seeing a whole ‘nother facet of book five that I can now explore, and that might otherwise have been dropped.
So Saturday morning found me frantically writing. My friend popped off to the comic shops to give me some working space. The ending came stark and glorious to my fingertips, flowing into my computer with a relish that was the same as when I wrote the ending of book 3. It just felt right. I had about a paragraph left when my friend came back, and he found it equally glorious to natter at me while I was trying to get out those last lines, giggling when I threatened to end his life. But he did finally leave me alone, and I finished.
And it felt goooooooood.
So book five is in the can! I pretty much immediately sent it off to my critique partner Diana Rowland and to my friend Mary Lois, for them to give it an initial “What Does and Doesn’t Make Any Sense” read. Then I’ll give it a polish based on their feedback, and send it off to the other members of my Alpha Team, James Clawson and Christie Ko, for their input.
Immediately after finishing the book, however, I had to rush to get ready and head out to a signing at Forbidden Planet. I’d gotten an amazing dress from Vivien of Halloway just the day before, although of course I didn’t get any pictures. I’ll be wearing it next week in Denver, at RomCon, so will endeavor to be more organized. But the signing itself was awesome. I got to meet some of my UK fans, some of whom brought me some amazing presents. It was also great to hang out with Philip Palmer again, whom I adore, and it was equally nice to meet Simon Morden and Tim Lebbon. Tim’s last name is pronounced as one would the beginning of Lebanese, but the staff kept pronouncing it Le Bon (like Simon) over the PA, sending us all into fits of laughter.
After the signing, Orbit UK arranged some drinks to be had at a local pub for the authors and some local bloggers and journalists. It was great fun, and I was quite happy to celebrate both finishing book five and a successful signing. Eventually, Dr. Ruth and her friend Russel wandered in, and we all had dinner downstairs at the pub. Then we all went to see a West End show, The 39 Steps, and it was the absolutely perfect end to a perfect day.
It was the kind of day that made me feel very lucky, very loved, and very happy.
The next day we were off to the Steam Museum’s Steampunk exhibit and then to Kew Gardens, which were gorgeous and huge and we walked absolutely miles and miles. Then we had a quiet night at my lovely little rented flat, and the next morning I was off.
The month went way too fast, but it was perfect. And I even managed to dunk my deadline, which felt very good. Also, if any UK folks want signed copies of my first two books, there are TONS at Forbidden Planet in London.
And now that I’ve mostly recovered from my jet lag, I’m off again! Tomorrow I leave for Denver, where I have RomCon and some other fun events planned by the ever-nefarious Mario Acevedo. The night I arrive, in fact, Mario’s arranged an orgy of debauchery he’s entitled Mucho Mojo. If you don’t believe me, he’s making us perform “spicy readings,” and he’s threatening to bring a bull whip. Pervert.
Then it’s off to the equally raucous RomCon, where I’ll be doing loads of events.
Finally, we’ve got another, separate signing that Sunday at the Broadway Book Mall, so if you’re not able to make RomCon please see me there!
Then I come home for a day before leaving for AAD in Philly, but that’s another blog post.
I will leave you now, with some Pimpage. There’s been some great releases this week, from some of my fave people.
First up, we have Rachel Caine’s new book Working Stiff, from her new Revivalist series. It looks awesome! I’m a huge fan of Rachel Caine. I love her writing, and she was so very kind to blurb my first book. This series, meanwhile, looks awesome, and a big departure from her other books. I also adore this cover!
Next up is the ever lovely Kat Richardson, a good friend of mine and someone whose work I greatly admire. She’s got the latest in her Greywalker series out, Downpour! Like all her covers, this one’s a stunner:
In the arena of Romance, I was lucky enough to meet the fabulous Louisa Edwards last year at Romantic Times, and she’s got a release out this week, as well. It looks just as delicious as her other books!
Jennifer Estep’s new book is also getting a lot of buzz. I’ve not yet read or met Jennifer, but this looks awesome and I think I’ll have to read it very soon:
Finally, last but certainly not least, Stacia Kane has a story out in Charlaine Harris’s new Antho, Home Improvement: Undead Edition. I always love these anthologies!
So there’s loads of great stuff out this week, in case you can’t come to Denver and watch Mario torture us. But now I have to go do laundry and pack. Viva new adventures!
Hello folks! Just wanted to show you the video interview that Rachael Herron and I did at Romantic Times, which is quite the love fest. She’s an awesome lady, and thanks to RT for letting us do this! Fun!
Hello mah beauties,
Today is July 26th, which means it’s the day that Amazon ships book four, Eye of the Tempest! It’s already been out all over the place in bookstores, and it’s not quite out in e-reader (that will be August 1, the “official” release date). But if you pre-ordered a hard copy, it should be winging its way to you as of now.
So yay! Release Part 1 is in full effect. Sorry those of you with e-readers have to wait till August 1, but it’ll come shortly, I promise.
As for me, I’ve had the loveliest week! On Wednesday of last week, I had an absolutely hilarious dinner with UK writers Karen Mahoney and Suzanne McLeod, and with American expat writer Stacia Kane. Here are some photos of the evening. First up are Suzanne and Karen, looking gorgeous:
And next we have Stacia and me, looking like fierce (if giggling) creatures:
As for the giggling, Stacia might have been grabbing my boob. Again.
Thursday night I had dinner and watched a movie with Dr. Ruth. We watched Black Swan, which was very creepy. It made me frightened of ballet and also made me want to eat cake.
Friday I headed north to meet my friend and travel up to Whitby on the Northeast coast of England. I’d been pretty sure I wanted to set the final battle of the fifth book in Whitby, and was convinced it was perfect pretty much as soon as I saw the place. Whitby is absolutely gorgeous, with a seaside charm all of its own. In fact, it reminded me much more of Eastport, ME, than it did other British seaside cities, such as Brighton. This makes sense, as it’s really a working fishing village with a side in tourism, rather than having an economy based on tourism. But it was an entirely stunning place, made even funnier by the Dracula connection (Bram Stoker has quite a few scenes set in or based on Whitby) which brings loads of goths to the area. So one minute you’d be walking past a knot of bearded old fishermen smoking pipes, then there’d be a chubby goth couple in full regalia eating fish and chips.
But the book’s ending is really coming together in my mind. I kept playing through different scenes as we were in Whitby, and the place was so powerful an inspiration I couldn’t shut off my brain, even when we were in Scarborough for a day trip. Luckily I didn’t need much mental power, however, as I was being well taken care of. It was my ideal trip, really, as I was with someone who was originally from that area, and he was the perfect tour guide. All I had to do was wander along behind him and ooh and aah at the sights, a role I rarely get to indulge in, but which I love.
As usual, I took almost no photos, but here are a few that were too weird or funny not to take, plus I did remember to take a few photos for use in the writing. So they’ll be your obscure Fury spoilers for the day!
This picture was from the Whitby museum, full of all sorts of insane shit, like sea bishops. It also has an actual HAND OF GLORY, probably the creepiest thing I’ve ever clapped eyes upon. It was also great timing, as I’d just read Juliet Blackwell’s fabulous Hexes and Hemlines, which utlilizes a Hand of Glory. Here’s a very bad picture of the hand, in all its horrific splendor:
It really was repulsive. Equally cool, if slightly less repulsive, was a weird Victorian Steampunky device made to foretell weather. It looked cool, yes, but it did involve tons of leeches, which lent the device its own slightly repulsive nature. Anyway, its name gave me inspiration for book six, just in case I’m not allowed to use Tempestt Bledsoe:
TEMPEST PROGNOSTICATOR! It’ll be a steampunk Jane, naturally.
Finally, here are some pictures of the abbey, as a bit of cryptic Fury spoiler. Enjoy and see you soon. Londoners, don’t forget my Forbidden Planet signing this Saturday!
Your moment of cryptic Fury spoiler begins now:
Hi folks! Just a quick update to tell you that from now until July 27th, Tempest Rising is an Amazon Sunshine Deal at only $1.99 on Kindle! So if you’ve been wondering whether to give Jane a shot, now is the time. You can also admire the new Kindle covers Orbit has done for the series:
In pimpage news, Sophie Littlefield has another of her awesome dystopian zombie fictions releasing this week. Exciting! Here’s the cover with a link to Amazon:
The pimp hand has smacked! And now I must write a book. *le sigh*
