Philippa Ballantine's Blog, page 12

Win the Eye of the Dragon

To celebrate me turning in the first draft of the sequel to Hunter and Fox (which is titled Kindred and Wings), I’ve decided to give away some really neat swag.

Hunter and Fox came out in July this year with Pyr books, under the careful eye of Hugo award winning editor Lou Anders.

The world of Hunter and Fox is inspired by New Zealand, and contains some characters I have had a blast playing with. Oh yes, and slight spoiler….there are dragons…but I bet you won’t see them coming!

RT Reviews said “Ballantine draws readers into a fascinating new world, peopled by characters you will genuinely care about. In this first volume of the Shifted World series, she draws from classic fantasy traditions but makes them wholly her own…. Talyn is a heroine to cheer for and treasure.”

The Miami Herald said “Weaving a tale of a world on the cusp of physical and social upheaval, Ballantine tells a story of mighty magics, pacts made and broken, betrayal, sacrifice and redemption. Hunter and Fox is a worthy feat of world-building, with Ballantine cleverly giving new clothes to old fantasy tropes so that those familiar trappings (recognizable only under close scrutiny) come across fresh and wondrous.”

But I would like to hear what you think.

What to do: You get two entries into the drawing by a review of Hunter and Fox. It can be on your blog, Amazon, Goodreads.com, Barnes and Noble.com (or any of the online bookseller sites). And/or you can tweet about Hunter and Fox.

What do you get: When the competition has run its course, I will draw two names to win. I have two wonderful Sightmares from the delightful Dr. Brassy Steamington. I personally have two of these wonderful creations that have been getting lots of comments and love wherever I wear them. They are handcrafted (even the glass eyes) and will get you noticed. If you love dragons, or know someone who does, the craftswomanship on these will blow you away. So two lucky entrants will be getting one of the Sightmares and a personalized and signed copy of Hunter and Fox each. This is open to anyone in the world, since I know how annoying it is to see a cool competition and be in say…New Zealand.

How long do we have: Since I want you to actually read the book, and there may be some of you who haven’t, I am keeping this competition open until December 4th. (Wouldn’t this prize make a great Christmas present?!)

Naturally, if you’ve already read and reviewed it, then you can jump right into this!

So use the Raffelcopter below, and I look forward to hearing what you thought about the book.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Times like this…

…I fantasize about having a PA. Someone to write witty blogposts, and let people know I am still around, just working really hard.

But since I don’t, and I still have to travel, write, do laundry, write, and scoop kitty litter, this will have to be my wave from deep in the writing waters. Yes…I am waving, not calling for help.

Back to back deadlines are hitting me hard and all those fun blogpost things have had to be set aside, along with podcasting. Yet I wanted to drop you a quick note to tell you I am indeed still here, just with my head down.

Hopefully, in the next two weeks I will be back on deck, breathing deeply, and very proud of myself for handing in two books in as many months. And then I will have hopefully some news I will be cleared to share with you. It’s been so full on this year.

As you all gear up for Nano, think of me…I am planning a No Nano this year. Yep, not working on a novel at all. Just short fiction, and polishing up a couple of new series proposals for my agent of awesome Laurie McLean to shop around.

On the game plan are some blogposts about what I have learned in these last madcap two years. (Yep, it is only two years since Geist came out!)

Until then…let me share with you my new friend. A lucky tiki I found at Goodwill. He was only 99c, but is a little battered, and lost his friend. I imagine he and his friend were bought from New Zealand by some holidaying Americans, as souvenir salt and pepper shakers. So, we found each other. Ex-pat kiwis, far from New Zealand, and no we are traveling companions. I plan on taking him to all my conventions, and maybe even back to New Zealand some time soon—just for a visit.

His new name, thanks to the unlikely event of us finding each other, is now #luckytiki

More stories from him when I return!

I’m a Writer, and I Study History

Today I welcome K T Bryski to my blog. She’s about to be newly minted author, and I am sure we are going to hear much from her in the future.

Hi, everyone! Pip has kindly invited me onto her blog to talk about a subject quite near and dear to my heart, and important to my writing: history.

Right now, I’m finishing up a degree in history (of late, it seems to be equal parts medieval and Victorian). When I tell people this, I tend to get one of two responses:

So, you want to be a history teacher?

Are you going to be a professor?

Inevitably, I squirm, and say something along the lines of, “No, actually, I want to be a writer…” whereupon I get asked why I’m not studying English.

I tried. Really, I did. However, midway through my second year, I realized three things.

1.      History is incredibly useful for fiction.

2.      The English department cares less about art and craft, and more about what the author meant.

I don’t just like history. I love it.

In essence, history is a collection of stories, complete with characters, plot, and setting. Studying history, you study how events link from one to the other, what factors drive people to act in certain ways, or how a single, “pivotal” moment may well have been centuries in the making. Plus, history professors like it if you can write coherently.

Sounding familiar, yet?

And that’s not even touching the practical side. Two words: primary sources. My high school history teacher first taught me how to find and use primary sources, for which I am eternally grateful. These are the newspaper articles, diaries, images, letters, papal bulls, edicts, court proceedings, and so forth that offer a window directly into the period. Not only are they often highly entertaining, they’re great for world-building and sparking ideas.

Some illustrative tidbits: medieval monks occasionally added obscene doodles in the margins of their manuscripts, and one poor seventeenth-century Englishman was prosecuted for “likening the Trinitie to a football player.”

I love it.

Looking at my bookshelf right now, the top shelf is stuffed with history books, the middle with science fiction and fantasy, and the third with everything else. To me, that sums up my writing education. Other authors show me their tools; history offers a wealth of material.

Besides, it’s fun. While researching for my upcoming novel, Hapax, I got to read heaps of cool sources. I studied floor maps and chronicles of cathedrals (I poked around some real cathedrals, too). I read an awful lot of patristic theology. In one very old and dusty book, I stumbled across Civita di Bagnoregio: a walled city atop a plateau that became the model for my City.

And so, one grey November afternoon, I took a stroll to the registrar’s office. I switched programmes, and became one of that rare breed: the history specialist with no plans for a career in academia.

For me, it was definitely the right choice.

Thanks, Pip, for letting me share my history with history. And thanks to you, readers. Whatever your interests may be, I wish you all the best in following them!

About K T Bryski

K.T. Bryski was born and raised in Toronto, a city she grew to love after venturing south of Bloor. The writing bug bit her early, and some of her earliest memories include pounding out stories on her father’s (then very cool, now very obsolete) computer.

Photo Credit: Donald J. Woodbury, Jr.

Since then, she has written both prose and plays. Her playwriting includes Key of D Minor (2009), Dracula (2009), the libretto for East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon: A Children’s Opera (TBD), and various scenes and monologues for Black Creek Pioneer Village, Toronto (2011).

Her first novel, Hapax, will be published by Dragon Moon Press in October, 2012. Her first podcast, also Hapax, will be available in September, 2012.

At the moment, she is pursuing an Hon. B.A. in History from the University of Toronto. As such, she spends her days writing, acting as Black Creek’s “Jill-of-all-trades,” and doing each and every one of her assigned readings.

She is @ktbryski on Twitter, and you can find her website at ktbryski.com

In the mouth of DragonCon

So my husband Tee Morris and I got back from DragonCon yesterday, and I have pretty much been asleep all day today.

It was 2008 since we were last year, and oh my the convention which was already huge has exploded…all over Atlanta. The convention is now over five offical hotels and is in the region of 50,000 attendees.

This year, as an official guest I was on panels, and did four signings (two at book shops in the dealer room, and the other two at the Pyr booth). This meant hoofing it around four of the five hotels, dodging photographers taking pictures of cos-players, and trying to get through the press of people. It was honestly more like the feeling of New York Comic Con than the DragonCon I remember.

That being said, it was still a fun event…just very, very tiring. Tee and I recorded a Shared Desk episode on the way home in the car, but needless to say, DragonCon is quite an event.

However, one of the highlights was definitely winning a Parsec Award for my story The Precarious Child, which was part of Season One of the Tales from the Archives. Tee had two stories, as did Grant Stone and Jack Mangan—so it was amazing to win the Short Fiction, Small Cast Parsec.

Then later on, PC Haring of Cybrosis fame, won for his story The Seven, in the Short Fiction, Large Cast category. So very, very pleased with the win for Tales from the Archives—a project Tee and I have loved doing, and are very proud of too!

So after getting a boost from all the fellow writers and readers and listeners at DragonCon, I am back to the grindstone, and should have book Three of the Ministry done and dusted shortly. Kindred and Wings, the sequel to Hunter and Fox is on the final approach, so still much to do. However, events like this are certainly part of the enjoyable aspects of being a writer. Thanks to all those who voted for the Ministry…you all really made my year!

Gotta love the hardbacks

The Science Fiction Book Club has produced some beautiful hardback versions of both Phoenix Rising and the Janus Affair.

There is something about a hardback—even in this day and age of the ebook.

So when news arrived today that the Science Fiction Bookclub wanted to do an omnibus edition of the three Books of the Order series. I got rather excited.They are a nice decent size, and you actually get them at a pretty good price.

Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate Series has been bought out in this format, and I really love what they did with that.

Sorcha, Merrick and Raed’s first three adventures will be out for pre-order in December, and then ready for delivery in January. So readers will be able to get themselves (or someone they love dearly) this omnibus to get them through those grey days of winter.

I am not yet sure what cover they will be going with (Gail’s omnibus editions got a new covers from the paperbacks), but I guess we will find out in the coming months!

I’d be really interested to know how many people still love hardbacks! Tee Morris and I have been using our limited supply of Science Fiction Book Club editions as extra special giveaways, and they do seem really popular.

Top Five Ways to Keep Your Favourite Authors Writing

My writing partner and husband got back from the wonderful event that is Authors After Dark which this year was held in New Orleans. We got to meet a bunch of awesome book bloggers, readers, and fellow authors. We both highly recommend this convention if you write fantasy, horror, science fiction, romance…or any combination of the above. Seriously, as a writer you don’t get to have this kind of quality interaction with readers. This convention is one of a kind in that very important regard.

However, the point of this post is about something else. It is about supporting authors, and helping them keep writing. Tee and I were both on a panel about this very topic, and it turned out in a reverse of the usual way things go, that we learned a heck of a lot, rather than disseminating what we know.

Writers are creative people, but I know of far too many who have had to give up their creativity because the realities of providing for themselves and their family have taken precedence over doing what they love.

After meeting the people we met in New Orleans, I realized that readers are just as invested in the careers of their favourite writers as the writers themselves. So, the panel I attended was all about feeding that desire to keep reading what they love.

Here they are in no particular order

Amazon. Click the Like button under the title of the books you love. The Amazon folk use this in their magic algorithm, and it helps the book show up higher on a list.
Amazon. Scroll down and click on the tags that the book has. Or make new ones yourself. This will also help people find your friendly author.
Amazon/Barnes and Noble/Smashwords/Kobo/Goodreads/any other social network. Leave a review. It doesn’t have to be long. Apparently the least it can be is twenty words—but that is not too much. In the end the reviews all add up.
Blog or Facebook. If you have a blog and can write a paragraph or two, then spread the word. Also imbed images or video files so that it can be pinned on Pinterest.
Tell a friend. Honestly, Fifty Shades of Grey didn’t become popular because of marketing, it became popular because all the mums in the world talked about it at the playground. Unlikely anyone will be able to replicate that success, but still word-of-mouth does really help.

What do you think? What are your best ways for helping out your favourite authors?

New Town; New Orleans

Authors After Dark is a unique event. It’s all about romance, horror and fantasy writers getting together with genuine time with readers, bloggers and book clubs.

It is also our very first romance convention. I’ve never been to NOLA, or Louisiana so I am really excited.

For those not attending the convention (it is kept to a strictly limited size) there is an open book signing from 2-4 at the Royal Sonesta Hotel, 300 Bourbon Street, New Orleans. Both Tee Morris and I will be there, so please come along if you want anything signed.

As for the rest of the convention, here’s where you will find me.

Thursday:

-Author Etiquette panel

-Blogger: New Authors

-Book Club: Meet and Greet

Friday:

-Reader Responsibility: How to keep your fav authors on the shelves

-Gaslight/Victorian/Steampunk

-Multiple Viewpoints

It’s going to be a great chance to mix with bloggers, book clubs, readers and other authors. In addition, I love seeing new parts of America—so hope to see you there!

 

The Story of Ghost Hand

Today I bring you a guest post from a SpecFicNZ colleague, who is venturing into the world of indie publishing by using Kickstarter to rally her fans and readers. Ripley Patton is a fabulous and talented writer, and I highly recommend you go support her newest venture!

Pip has kindly invited me to her blog to tell a story, the story of my book, a young adult novel titled Ghost Hand for which I am currently running a Kickstarter Project. Lucky for Pip, I LOVE telling stories. Telling a story about a story is even better. So, here it goes.

The Impetus:

In 2009, I was living in New Zealand happily clipping along writing short speculative fiction and having it published. I was up for an award. Life was good. Then, out of the blue, I got a message from a New York City literary agent asking me if I was working on anything longer. Because if I was, she was interested. Apparently, she had seen some of my short fiction on-line, and she had liked it.

Well, after I picked myself up off the floor, I checked her out, and since she seemed legit, we began to e-mail back and forth. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure I could write a novel, but I had the beginnings of a few swimming around in my head, and I thought that was a good sign. So, I spent about two weeks of jacked-up days and sleepless nights writing sample chapters and synopses of about five different projects. I then sent these off to the agent, and she read them, and she said, “Write this one.” “This One” was a very rough draft of the first three chapters of Ghost Hand.  Rough enough, in fact, that I doubt anyone would recognize it as the same book today.

The Inspiration:

I often wish that I was interesting, but the truth is I am not. Because of this, I try very hard to surround myself with interesting people to ensure I have something to write about. One of the most interesting people in my life is my husband. He is a Native American adopted and raised by a Scottish American family. He is a long-haired, metal head that plays the electric bass and lives on the wild side. He has come back from the dead twice. And he is a therapist who has worked with the seriously mentally ill for sixteen years. His life makes my life look like paint drying. He is also my muse and inspiration.

Watching my husband work with his clients led me to the core idea of Ghost Hand, the essence of its paranormal plot. It caused me to ask the question, “What if you could reach into someone and pull out their biggest emotional hang-up?” What if grief, or hurt, or fear was as solid and real on the outside of someone as it is on the inside? What would it look like? What power would it hold in the material world? What would happen to the person who had lost it? And what would happen to the person who had taken it from them?

And from those questions arose the idea of a girl with a ghost hand. A girl who could reach into people with that hand, and grab onto their psychological baggage, and pick-pocket their soul. That is what Ghost hand is about. It is about a girl named Olivia Black born with a rare birth defect known as Psyche Sans Soma, or PSS. She has an ethereal, glowy, see-through right hand where her flesh and blood hand should be. And in the book that hand develops the ability to pull things out of people.

The Implementation:

There I was with an idea, a few sample chapters, a basic outline in my head, and the encouragement of an agent. I wish I could say that was the hard part, but it wasn’t. The hard part was actually writing the book. It was hard because it was very different from writing short stories. I write by the seat of my pants, not outlining but writing to find out what happens. This works well for short stories, but for a novel it results in a huge amount of over-writing. In the end, I did find the core story and edited out the unneeded writing in three vicious revisions. But it was a lot of hard work.

During all that hard work, my home city of Christchurch was devastated by two large earthquakes and thousands of aftershocks. We were displaced from our home. My kids were displaced from their schools. And ultimately my husband was displaced from his job, and we had to move back to our homeland of Portland, Oregon.

It was a rough couple of years writing Ghost Hand, but I am pretty sure having Olivia Black’s world to retreat to was the only thing that kept me sane during some of it.

The Epiphany:

After beta readers, three revisions, and more editing passes than I can count, Ghost Hand was done. Done is a very loose term when it comes to novels. To me, it meant that Ghost Hand was as good as I could make it. Not perfect. But readable. And enjoyable. A very solid first novel.

Unfortunately, the agent who had originally “picked” Ghost Hand had fallen off the publishing map. So, I began to query Ghost Hand to agents and publishing houses. Based on a strong reference by a friend, the full manuscript was called for by a major agency. While I sat at home, waiting the five excruciating weeks it took them to decide on it, I became very depressed, and I could feel the universe trying to tell me something. I just wasn’t sure what it was saying. Then I went to a Con, and I was sitting in the audience at a panel on women in the gaming industry, and some women I don’t know said something I will never forget. She said, “As women, we are always waiting for others to validate us. We want to be told we’ve done a good job, or made something worthwhile before we will ever believe it ourselves. It is time for women to rise up and self-validate. It is time for us to take our place and toot our own horns.”

And that is when I knew why I was so unhappy. I knew Ghost Hand was good. I knew that my writing had been validated numerous times through contest wins and awards won and publications accepted. Yet there I was back at square one, trying to get someone to validate me. And as I looked ahead at a writing career by way of traditional publishing, I saw it stretch before me as one long repetitious struggle to regain the validation of others. Not my readers. They have already validated me. But just some random validators positioned between me and those who love my writing already, and those who are waiting to love it. That was the day I decided to self-publish Ghost Hand.

The Application:

Self-publishing is no small feat, especially if you want to do it well. It is an investment of time and skill and money. It is basically starting your own business and learning the ropes of publishing, something I find myself absorbing like a happy sponge. I did weeks of research, and much of what I learned can be found on my website where I hope it will help other self-validating writers. I also commissioned a beautiful professionally-designed cover for Ghost Hand which will be unveiled when my Kickstarter project reaches the halfway point (only $225 dollars away, as of this writing). The Kickstarter is to raise funds for a professional edit and basic printing costs for Ghost Hand and includes rewards of the finished product for those who back me. It isn’t charity, but more a way to fund a novel through pre-orders from an existing fan base.

The first two chapters of Ghost Hand can be read on my website HERE. Two more chapters can be acquired by sending a request to my Ghost Hand mailing list. And of course, if you are really interested, I hope you will go to my Kickstarter and back Ghost Hand with your financial support. Pledges are processed securely by way of Amazon, and overseas backers get free shipping if they back me this weekend (July 28 &29).

Thanks, Pip, for letting me tell Ghost Hand’s story. And thanks to all of you, her wonderful readers, for listening.

DragonCon…oh so close!

Yes, Tee Morris and I are making the journey down to Atlanta for the delicious madness that is DragonCon, in Atlanta, Georgia.

It is four years since I’ve been there, and since then I have bathed in the similar madness that is New York Comic Con. So I feel I am not that wide-eyed girl from New Zealand that first went to DragonCon. I’ve seen my share of slave Leias, furries, and tons of celebrities. However, I do long to see them all again.

This time, Tee and I will be sending significant time in the Alternate History Track, which is being run by the estimable Doctor Q, and we are both excited by what he and his team have worked on.

So here’s my schedule for DragonCon. There maybe some additions from other tracks, but this should be where you will find me in steampunk garb. I really do hope to see you there!

The Retro-Cast: Steampunk Podcasting & More – Fri. 8:30p in Int’l BC (Main Room)

Steampunk Author Roundtable – Saturday 1pm in Int’l A (Roundtable Room)

Social Steam: Steampunk, Social Media, and Making It Work – Monday 10am in Int’l A (Roundtable Room)

How Do You Take Your Steampunk — Light or Dark? – Mon. 1pm in Int’l A (Roundtable Room)

Women in Alternate History- Monday 2:30p in Int’l BC (Main Room)

Deadlines and appearances

Time for an update from me!

Well, the deadline for Harbinger is drawing in, and it is hard to let go of these Deacons, Pretenders and geists that I have spent the last five years visiting with. I am pulling all the threads together and deciding their fate…

On the happy side, I’ve had word that the German version of Geist will be coming in the summer of 2013—which makes me wonder what the title will be. Since Phoenix Rising came out in Russia and Germany, I’ve begun to crave as many foreign versions as possible!

And finally Tee and I will be doing a local signing on the 27th of July at midday at Books-A-Million, 1 Dupont Cir NW  Washington, DC 20036. So if you are in the area then please pop by. We’ll be happy to sign and chat.

Our next appearance after that will be at DragonCon!

For now back to the writing!