To An Author, This Is A Big Moment

My author's copies of my first three books arrived today.  Touching them makes me feel funny in my emotion places.

Right now they can be bought on Amazon and other book buying websites, but we're trying for Barnes and Noble stores.

Also Out In Paperback!

And now the trio is complete!  Wild Children is ALSO out in paperback!  Turns out it was slow being released in that format because it's a honking god damn big book and that creates printing and expense issues.  Still, everyone always asks 'When will it be out in a paper version?'  Well, my personal favorite of my books is now out in paper version!

Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain has not yet started editing, and I suspect it will be awhile.  Curiosity Quills is growing so fast they're crushingly understaffed, and selfish author that I am I demanded my favorite (and badly overworked) editor.  Frankly, Verity is worth it.  She's amazing.

This horror novel continues to drag, but it IS getting written.  Every scene gets a little more fun, as the process of bending without breaking the characters to suit me is left behind and the monsters creep back onto the scene.  The noose tightens, and I love building tension.  I'm getting interesting inspirations a little more all the while, but I can't deny my heart is still with Metal, Candy, Flesh.  My moods get involved weirdly, as well.  I'm a terrible writing addict.  If I stop writing, I close up in a ball and stop enjoying the world.  If I get really stressed, that process can work backwards.  This makes momentum tough when I'm constantly reeling from the emotional highs and blows to my self-esteem that come with being a newly published author.

On a lighter note, that duck that used to hang out on my front lawn watching the house returned this year, but I only saw him once.  Will he be back regularly?  Why in heaven's name did a duck want to hang out alone on a suburban lawn in the first place?  It's these little mysteries that make life interesting.

Out In Paperback!

I triumphantly announce that two more of my books are out, and they're out in paper as well as electronic versions!  Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Teeth is available on Amazon here, and Quite Contrary is available here!  I will be working on getting sales buttons back up on this blog tonight.  Everybody always asks me if they can buy my book in paper copies, and now they can.  I'd like a few myself, because they're gifts I can give away.

For those of you new to my writing, Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Teeth is a coming of age story set entirely in the world of dreams, starring a nightmare and his confusing romantic entanglements.  Quite Contrary is a very dark, not-quite-horror novel about a little girl whose life was pretty bad before she got stuck in the story of Red Riding Hood, but who is tough enough to survive even a serial-killer wolf.  Wild Children, the book about tweens cursed for being bad to look and be treated like animals, does not have paper copies yet.  I'm trying to find out why.

For those not new to my writing, I'm well into the horror novel my publisher asked me to write.  I don't want to say too much, but my publisher is happy with the progress and it's full steam ahead now.  The thing I can definitely say is that writing someone else's characters is hard.  They weren't chosen as characters I would love!

So That's Good, I Guess!

As a writer, it's been an exciting week.  Lots of back and forth with the publisher, got to see the cover art for Quite Contrary (I wish I felt like I could post these covers here), they're making audiobooks for Sweet Dreams and Wild Children.  This all just blows me away.  It's more interest expressed in my work than probably my whole previous life together.  Multiple (routine) doctor's visits and home repair have filled all moments in between, and physically and emotionally I'm wiped.

The writing upshot is that Metal, Candy, Flesh is going to have to go on hold.  I wrote exactly one chapter and learned a lot about what the book will be, but for the first time in a long time I have professional obligations.  Curiosity Quills wants a Wild Children story for publicity purposes.  No problem there - I've got a story in mind already, although of course it'll take a few weeks to write.  After that, they've asked me to write a book, and having someone come and ask you 'Please write Book X' is a weird experience.  It's seeming more likely by the minute that I will.  I'm not sure, but until I do know I can't dive into Metal, Candy, Flesh.

Wild Children Is Out!

Let it be known that on this day, 12/12/12, I am back in the novel selling business!  Wild Children is out, published by Curiosity Quills, and for those who want a copy here is their web page with links to order, or the US Amazon page if you want to skip straight to that.  The process has been one disaster after another as my cursed luck tried to stop me from being published, but victory is mine at last.  I want to thank my publisher Curiosity Quills, in fact.  They soldiered on despite multiple hospitalizations, real life threatening stuff.  Right now only the ereader version is out, but they do paper copies so that should be on the way.  Heck, I've seen the interior .pdfs and this book is SO GORGEOUS.

Oh, and they set up a Facebook author page for me!  It will be a mix of theirs and mine.  We're getting me linked up as one of its administrators right now.

A New Doll House Story

So, I've been hard at work doing Authory Stuff, which is basically writing.  I just finished another Doll House story, Doll House: Amethyst, which I will link to below this paragraph!  As far as I know, Curiosity Quills only wants my books, but I'll run it past them before publishing it online.  A short story gave me a nice break between books, clearing my head enough that I will likely do the major edits on Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain next.  My 'ol buddy Albert Berg said he thinks the later fights need to be more tense, and he's right, so I gotta fix that.  You can't be good at something if you're not willing to do it right.

For your enjoyment: The draft version of Doll House: Amethyst.

On a side note, I finally changed my blog photo.  If current publishing dates hold, I may soon be selling enough books to matter.  While I was absolutely a nobody, random internet art was fine.  I can't use art I don't own if it's even kinda helping make money.  It might be illegal, and it's for damn sure rude.  Fortunately, I have old cover art that I legally own to take samples from!

And That's #4!

Ladies and gentlemen and mysterious future beings who will read this blog to learn what an unsavory person their favorite author is, I finished the book!  Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain is written!  I just shopped the manuscript around to a bunch of friends of various levels of friendliness.  What they do and don't like will be very instructive, here.  I'm far less confident that this book is any good than I have been with others.  I wanted to write a light-hearted, gentle book, and this is as pleasant as I can get.  The problem is, I don't know if I have the skills to write a gripping narrative that doesn't involve misery and death!

Soon, I shall know if the book is any good.  After that, once my head is clear I'll need to do a proofreading run on my own - tying up loose ends, making sure references from the end of the book match the beginning, tightening language, correcting typos, all that sort of jazz.  Then, unless I've learned it's an utter failure, I offer it to my publisher and see if they're interested!

Presumably I'll be writing other things some time in the interim.  I'd like to do some short stories, but I'll have to see how fast Metal, Candy, Flesh takes over my brain.  I'm still reeling and it hasn't entirely penetrated this book is finished, so I can't predict.

Oh, and I wrote the last twelve thousand words in one day.  THAT was CRAZY.