S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 247

Twin Peeks Day

I know I am behind schedule with posting Rain Lashed, my first Kyndred free e-book novella and parallel story to Shadowlight, but I hope to have it wrapped up this weekend. Here's an excerpt from the story to give those of you who are interested a little preview.

For those who have been trying to bribe me for a look at Dreamveil, you might stop by the group blog tomorrow morning and see what I have posted there for my turn at Genreality Sneak Peek Saturday.

Now I'm off to write, edit, publish,...

The Times Pool

As you are by now doubtless exhausted of hearing, the first novel in my new Darkyn spin-off Kyndred series, Shadowlight, is due to be released next week. Okay, for all intents and purposes, it has been released, but next week's sales are what will determine if/where the book appears on the Times or any other lists.

I think Shadowlight has a decent shot at making the USA Today list; the last seven Lynn Viehl novels I've written have all made it there. But the New York Times bestseller list? ...

Uncertainty

Guess who volunteeted to schedule today's post to automatically publish, and then forgot? Yep. Sorry, Tom.

Dreamveil, the second Kyndred novel and Rowan's story is off to production, and while I refuse to jinx it by talking about it too much, it's definitely one of the strongest books I've written in a few years.

My editor didn't think I could pull off Rowan's book, but after reading the manuscript she didn't request any changes except some technical corrections and some additional clarificat...

What Goes Around

A Timeline of Publisher Evolution

1450: Gutenberg invents movable type, which allows the Holy Bible to be massed produced in Germany. Jesus heard weeping.

1834: The world's oldest continuously published magazine releases its first issue, which contains the first hatchet job of The Pilgrims of the Rhine by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

1864: The telegraph is used to send out unsolicited SPAM for the first time, reported to be an ardent plea for the public to buy Jules Verne's latest novel or the author ...

This Little Writer Went to Market

I am bailing on you guys today to sell some books and earn my keep. All good thoughts sent my way will be much appreciated.

So that your visit was not entirely wasted, here is a PBW triple gold star heads-up on Rob Thurman's newest release, Trick of the Light. It is urban fantasy, set in the same universe as the author's Cal and Niko Leandros novels, but with an entirely new cast and a terrific premise. It's got Vegas, angels, demons, and a hunt for a mysterious artifact that by compariso...

Shadowlight E-xperiment Update

While dodging work taking a break from my latest round of edits on two novels, I thought I'd do a new update on the Shadowlight e-ARC experiment.

Silver of Silver's Book Reviews coaxed me into doing an interview at her place as well as posting a review of Shadowlight here. She makes me sound a lot more interesting than I am, btw.

More on the latest reviews I've read:

B&N.com reviews/Nemhain ~ harstan ~ Zeek319 ~ lxz ~ CatsMeowAZ ~ Chad ~ Pandababy

Blogging by Liza/Liza

Chocolate Reality/Steena...

Contract No-Nos

Ten Things You Probably Shouldn't Ask for During Contract Negotiations

Advance Check -- you're not going to see this until after the contract is signed, sent to legal to be checked, lost for a week, reviewed by the senior editor, lost for three weeks, signed by the executive editor, shuffled into the wrong pile, accidentally filed by an intern, found after seven phone calls from your agent, sent to accounting, used as a coffee coaster for another four weeks and then flagged for a notation erro...

Off to Negotiate

Sorry I'm a bit late posting today. I'm unplugging to consider a new offer that came in yesterday, and to put together some notes for contract negotiations next week. So far it looks good, and if all goes well I will be adding a new genre to the five over there on the sidebar and a new series to my repertoire. I can't share too many details until things are finalized, but this one will be a lot of fun, I promise.

A lot of you have e-mailed to let me know that Shadowlight is out in the stores...

Winners

Reading about the various authors you all have discovered online was fun. I know the internet has introduced me to dozens of writers whom I might never have found while browsing the shelves on my own at the local brick-and-mortar stores. If that had happened I would have missed out on some amazing books.

We revved up the magic hat, and the winners of the From Here to Print giveaway are:

Tamara/Tammy, whose comment began with I loves me some horror.

Cats Meow

NinaP

Michael Bracken

Kathleen, whose ...

NaNoNotes

Barring domestic disasters and other other acts of divine interference, I will be (unofficially) participating in this year's National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, which starts November 1st. Along with writing a NaNo novel I'm planning to do some posts here at the blog to help other NaNo'ers.

If you've always wanted to write a novel but have never tried, NaNoWriMo is a great time to give it a shot. You've got thirty days to produce a 50K first draft, and if you can work daily on it tha...