Things have been glorious here in the UK. I’ve spent loads of time with friends since I got in, and it’s been so nice! Last week found me doing lots of catching up with people, and it’s been lovely to have a chance to do so. Tonight I’m going to my friend Linda’s in Notting Hill, where we’ll hang out till our friend Judith arrives from Belgium. Tomorrow we’re throwing our friend Kristin a baby shower, which is not at all a British thing, so everyone’s quite excited.
I’ve finally gotten some work done on my rough draft, and I’m super inspired for Other Projects from being back here. Jane’s series is wrapping up with book six, but I’ve got loads of other things on various burners, simmering away. Meanwhile, in very exciting news, Orbit UK has relaunched my series with an entirely new look. These covers are totally different from Sharon’s, and I love both looks. Both are so quirky, which I think is great for the series. Here’s the UK cover for Tempest Rising:
And Tracking the Tempest:
And Tempest’s Legacy:
And, finally, Eye of the Tempest:
Release dates for these are as follows:
Tempest Rising and Tracking: Both out August 4, 2011
Tempest’s Legacy: September 1, 2011
Eye of the Tempest: October 7, 2011
Tempest’s Fury: July 5, 2012
So for those of you who have been so patiently waiting for book 3, it will be out soon, with book four shortly thereafter!
In other exciting news, I will be doing a London appearance. It’s gonna be a big event that should be loads of fun, and will include other authors. I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve got official word of everything that’s going on, so watch this space!
In terms of pimpage, there were a few releases I FORGOT to pimp with the last batch. I am horrified at such a slip up, and my pimp hand burns with shame.
First of all, the ever lovely Dakota Cassidy has just released Burning Down the Spouse, which looks adorable:
Dakota’s offering these very cool trading cars, featuring her adorable mug:
For details on how to get the trading card, email her at dakota(at)dakotacassidy(dot)com.
Finally, last but certainly not least of our awesome Month o’ League Releases, Michelle Rowen has released the smexily-covered Bloodlust:
So go forth and read! I am now off to zumba. Yes, I’m so addicted I’m doing zumba in London. YAY FOR ZUMBA.
Go to web sites, peruse, and then GO BUY. I can’t wait to read Richelle and Juliet’s latest, and Dakota’s coming out with something totally new with her first Contemporary Romance. Imagine how funny she is with the supernatural? Now take all that snark and apply it to the idea of an ex-trophy wife? Seriously? Wear diapers, people. You have been warned.
As an added layer of pimpage, the lovely Mario Acevedo has graced my blog with a guest post. Yay! For his graphic novels are coming out today, too! FUN!
Say hello to Mario!
Mario’s Guest Post
I’ll admit, I got lucky. A lot of us fantasy writers dream of getting our stories picked up as a comic book or graphic novel. Well, it happened to me.
Last year, I was contacted by IDW Publishing. They had read my urban fantasy novels and asked if I would like to have a comic book treatment of my detective-vampire Felix Gomez. Would I?
The interesting part was IDW didn’t want an adaptation of an existing story but a spin-off with an all-new tale. In fact, they even picked out a line from my first novel, The Nymphos of Rocky Flats, and suggested we build a story around that.
This is an excerpt describing Felix’s first assignment between the time he became a vampire and then arrived at Rocky Flats.
“Besides the Blanford case, there was another assignment that told me you were the man for this. The Han Cobras.”
Chinese heroin smugglers. Ruthless. Invincible. Killed three Federal Drug Enforcement agents, not to mention dozens of foreign cops. Invincible. Except against a vampire.
The next step was pulling my literary agent into the conversation and hammering out a contract. In the meantime, the publisher offered the portfolios of several artists for the panel and cover art. As an artist myself, I thought it was presumptuous of me to pass judgment on artists with professional credential far better than mine. The publisher made it easy, and the two artists he suggested– Alberto Dose for the panels and Pinturero for the covers–were perfect.
Here’s another sample, Elf Embryo, that demonstrates Pinturero’s freaky awesomeness:
I was contracted to write the scripts for four comics and since the concept was mine, to provide guidance to the project. IDW provided sample scripts and comics for reference. Additionally, I had to turn in an author’s bio, promotional copy, and a detailed synopsis of both the overall story and each comic book story. My editor did a thorough job picking through the synopsis and offered suggestions to improve the story. Comic scripts are different from screenplays in that the artists want a lot of detailed descriptions and you can include interior dialog (“thoughts” which are shunned in screenplays). The script can be as long as you feel necessary but you’re limited (in most cases) to twenty-one comic pages to tell your story. The most fun was writing classic lines such as:
BLAM! Ka-POW! BOOM!
Another difference from my previous writing experience was how collaborative the process was working with a comic book publisher versus a traditional book publisher. With traditional book publishers, sometimes it seems that even as the author, I’m out of the loop in a lot of what happens with my novels. That wasn’t the case with IDW as they were constantly cluing me in. They would submit pencil drafts of work-in-progress for my comments. (Which were minor. Alberto Dose in particular has been doing comic books for a long time, and I respected his interpretation of my script.) Another difference was the brisk production schedule. In traditional publishing, you can expect a year–or longer–from the time you submit a manuscript and publication. IDW wanted the first comic on the street in less than six months after I’d turned in the script. And another big difference between comic books and novels publishers, IDW asked for cover ideas and actually ran with my ideas!
For example, for the cover of issue #2, I suggested that the artist incorporate a crow (used by vampires as messengers), Hei Men Dao (a rogue vampire shaman), Qian Ning (the love interest), and separately, Felix involved in a shoot-out.
Here’s the first draft.
We kicked the concept around and Pinturero came back with:
Closer but Felix wasn’t there yet.
On the third try, Pinturero nailed it. Awesome. My favorite. Felix at his bad-ass best.
Here is a sample of panel art in pencil form.
Alberto Dose was also contracted to provide alternative covers for all four issues. Here’s his take on issue #2.
And what’s the point of having vampires and ruthless gangsters if you can’t include a little kinkiness like topless bondage gear and ball gags?
The four issues of the comic book have been bundled into the graphic novel, Killing the Cobra: Chinatown Trollop, and is out December 7. The embossed cover is amazing!
On sale at your local comic book store, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.
I have one thing to say about Romantic Times: I loved it.
The fans were awesome, I had SO MUCH FUN with the League and the other authors, and the con, itself, couldn’t have been more well organized. I also adored Columbus and the actual location of the convention. There’s nothing worse, to me, than being trapped in the middle of nowhere in a hotel, but the Hyatt Columbus is in a great area, close to bars, restaurants, and even a farmer’s market where you could buy fresh produce and deliciously evil ice cream.
I arrived a day late, unfortunately, to find that things were already in full swing. And by full swing I mean most of the League already looked decidedly hung over. The rest of the con was a bit of a blur, but a blur of hilarity; loads of fantastic friends, both old and new; and, admittedly, a lot of food and booze. Here’s a wee RT in Pictures (some of which I’ve stolen from other people’s websites–with permission–as I’m rubbish at taking photos):
The Hyatt Columbus did some really smart customer outreach by having a Twitter Fairy: Basically, people were hashtagging #RT10 on Twitter, and if anyone said anything about needing hangers, for example, hangers would magically appear in their room, that night. Pretty soon people caught on, and I asked for dancing girls and champagne. I got the champagne, which was lovely. And the hotel, in general, was wonderful: clean, great service, and an absolutely marvelous location. The nearby North Market was my heaven.
I’m sure y’all have seen other pics of Diana Rowland’s Creepy Doll, but here are two from my own phone. In the first, Kat Richardson reacts with appropriate horror. In the second, Dakota’s maternal instincts extend even to Creepy Doll, whom Dakota teaches to play drums. Creepy Doll only tried to stab Dakota twice with the drum sticks. I love the look on Jeanne Stein’s face almost as much as I love Jeanne, herself. Classic! And you can just see Carolyn Crane peeping out behind Jeanne. She’s adorable! Carolyn, Jeanne Stein and I will be rocking Rom Com this summer, so look out for us, if you’re there.
Meanwhile, Diana took that damned doll everywhere. Here she is out with us for food (fried cheese curds!). That’s me, Jaye Wells, Tor’s Heather Osborne, and Zombie Joe (who made us lovely cupcakes). Meanwhile, I stole this picture directly from Lucienne Diver’s blog. Lucienne is an agent and writer and absolute bombshell who I really enjoyed hanging out with. Check out the rest of her RT pics at her site!
Here’s another couple of pics from Lucienne’s site:
Me with John Scalzi and my gorgeous critique partner, Diana Rowland.
I was rocking out my vampire heart fake tattoos, and for the final big night I went for something super subtle and classy. It’s about time the girls earned their keep!
Probably the coolest thing at RT was the League and our Passports to Snark. Mario Acevedo and Mark Henry cooked up the plan, and it worked a treat. And by treat, I mean I have never seen such foulness spewed onto a page as was spewed onto those passports. And everything said about me (especially by Mario!) is a foul lie. A lie, I tell you! A lie.
Here’s my little set up for the GINORMOUS signing on Saturday. I was sitting on the very end of a slightly extended row. So I watched as the doors to the signing opened, and hundreds of people came running towards me . . . and then past me, and on to J. R. Ward’s ticketed line. I had a good giggle, at that, once I came out from underneath my chair.
Another highlight of RT was the fact my wondrous editor, the Eye of Sauron herself, Devi Pillai, came to RT! She took Jaye Wells and me to a lovely dinner, and here’s a picture Devi took of the two of us. I think I should get the tattoos for real. My mother would be thrilled.
My final night at RT (Saturday) meant only one thing: Suite party (hosted by the effervescent Michele Bardsley), featuring Erotic Readings by the League. Apparently it’s an old tradition, one that I was thrilled to enjoy. But before the readings, there were all sorts of shenanigans. Including the gifting of these Fetish Feet to Mark Henry, although the model in question is the absolutely fabulous Sophie Littlefield. I hung out quite a bit with her, Julie Goodson Lawe, and Rachael Herron. I am slightly obsessed with all three of them, as they are rockin’ ladies.
Here are some live action shots of Mark Henry and Stacia Kane reading their amazing, amazing smut. The word “glutinous” was used at some point, and not to describe Elmer’s Glue. I was transfixed and inspired. Look for “glutionous” in my next work . . . it will be hot. And sticky.
To round out my pictures, I’ll leave you with my favorite of the lot. The moment Stacia broke Mark. It was beautiful.
Enjoy! And I will definitely be seeing you at RT, next year, in LA. If I were any more excited, I could spit. Glutinously!
First of all, I am flexing my wrist in preparation of EXERCISING MY PIMP HAND.
For the ever lovely and fabulous Dakota Cassidy’s new book, Accidentally Demonic, is out tomorrow!
I haven’t read this one, yet, but I’ve read all the other books in this series and they’re SO FUN. Dakota’s marvelous sense of humor shines, her characters are adorable, and these books are always fab reads.
So go forth and purchase if you already know and love Dakota. Or, if you’re looking for a new para rom series to embark upon, try the first in the series, The Accidental Werewolf:
As for me, I have been having a fabulous start of the semester. I much prefer teaching my ENG 115 class to the other freshman comp course, my night class is my favorite ENG 215 (so very little pressure for a lot of enjoyment), and Modern Poetry is turning out to be very manageable and enriching, for me, as a writer. In other words, my primary career is going very well, and the writing is fab, as well! I’m figuring out my plan of attack for editing Jane True book 3, Tempest’s Legacy, and I’ll start writing my edits soon.
In the meantime, however, I’ve been watching a lot of movies and series on my Netflix, and one of the movies that I was randomly inspired to order was the 80′s classic, Jumping Jack Flash:
I was OBSESSED with this film when I was a kid. I adored it. I can’t really describe how much I adored it, because it would be like me trying to explain how much I love my family . . . it became a part of me and I would give it my kidney if it asked politely.
This film came out in 1986, eight years after my birth. And watching it as an adult I can absolutely see where it had a HUGE influence on me and my writing.
First of all: the swearing. I swear like a pirate, this is true. My family is a family of swearers, in general, but I seem to have taken up the swearing mantle and run right the fuck off with it. Then I watched this film, again, and Whoopi has a mouth so potty it’s like a psych ward.
Second of all: my love of a non-traditional heroine. Where do I start with my admiration for this film, in terms of its heroine? First of all, Whoopi is BLACK. How many films can you name that star (entirely) an African-American, let alone an African-American woman? And that are mainstream? Even nowadays? Second of all, while I think Whoopi is an extremely attractive individual in this film, she is by no means your traditional blonde bombshell. She’s Whoopi, and she’s gonna wear some MC Hammer OVERALLS (cause the only think that makes Hammer pants better is some straps!), and dreads, and YELLOW REEBOKS and she’s not gonna give a fuck! For dress up, she caps off that outfit with a turban!
As a kid, I was blonde and blue eyed, but I was also way too smart, way too mature (in some ways), and already short and chubby. So I knew I was never going to be the leggy, doe eyed thing expecting some hero to come along and rescue her because even though she’s a bit of a bint, DAMN SHE IS PHOINE.
In other words, I was looking for films that expressed my solidarity with the outsider, the underdog, the eccentric, for those who “sang his didn’ts” and “danced his dids.” For the most part, however, I was getting Melanie Griffith. And, while I love me some Working Girl, I knew that while my brain was going to be all about sin, my bod would, at best, most likely suggest white-collar misdemeanors or parking violations.
So Jumping Jack Flash was a revelation. I wanted to be Whoopi: a woman who was strong because she was smart, passionate, and brave, not because she’s beautiful and manipulative or, like Red Sonja, beautiful and ‘roided right the fuck out.
On watching the film as an adult, as well, I clap at how it handles “the issues.” Whoopi is constantly being told she’s not welcome because of her gender, her skin color, and her class. But she enters anyway, on her own terms, and uses her enemy’s cultural expectations against them. If they expect an African-American woman to be a singer, by golly she’ll dress up like a Supreme. She’ll give them what they expect, in an unexpected way, to get what she wants from them. If they expect a woman to be weak, delicate, and easily victimized, she will BITE HER WOULD-BE EXECUTIONER IN THE NADS. Cuz that’s what she does! Bites him! In the nads! I think this is partly why the film, despite being over twenty years old, hasn’t aged. Okay, the computers look a bit silly, but the real story is based on Whoopi’s character. And she is both ageless and paradoxically original, for Hollywood, it seems to me, has actually gone backwards in terms of its depiction of real women of any race.
My final plea: If you haven’t seen this film, please do. I think you’ll see some of Jane True in it, and you’ll definitely have a good time. Watch out for the giant toothbrush!
Gave up on my own writing today. Too starey and tired. So I cleaned. I now feel better about the universe after scrubbing the toilet.about 1 hour agofrom TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite
