Rob Thurman's Blog: The Reaver Report, page 19
May 19, 2011
Conventions: SDCC & DRAGON*CON
This year I'll be going to San Diego Comic Con in July, but won't be appearing on any panels or doing any signings as I didn't know I was going until it was too late and by then no spots were left for me. If enough fans want books signed, I'll arrange to meet them at someplace in the Gaslamp…Starbucks…whatever, if enough people are interested in fighting through the zombie horde to cross the street (I am massively over the zombie horde blocking the goddamn street.) I will also be at Dragon*Con as a guest (which is supposed to guarantee me 4 panels and 2 signings, but how that information is passed along, I don't know. I know I don't have it yet or know how to get it….so…if you can't find me at those, I will be in Booth 100-102 in the Marriott Marquis Ballroom–selling all my books and happy as a frigging clam to sign whatever you want (that can be legally exposed in a public place.) I will not be at the booth I was last year, no reason to look for me there. Go to 100-102, twice the size, *and* the debut of the Godzilla 'Guns Don't Kill People. Ferrets Kill People' free buttons! Whoo hoo! I might even cosplay–for the fourth time, but probably not as the last costume had me falling down stairs giving me permanent arthritis from a hairline fracture…and I'm too damn young to have arthritis. PS BASILISK (sequel to the book I love the most, CHIMERA) will be released Sept. 2nd *at* Dragon*Con…again Booth 100-102. And Michael is a bad bad boy. Don't miss it!
April 13, 2011
CAL & co have been SNUBBED!
REAVERS! Look at this shit! Best sidekick list and Niko the ninja who can kill you with a tube sock didn't make it. Robin Goodfellow (used car salesman and Totally Puckable ) didn't make it. Nor did the 7 lb mummified cat Salome who has the arguably highest kill count in the series. Reavers…throw the blood on the ships, grab your best human skin kilt and RIGHT THIS WRONG: http://tinyurl.com/3spspgl We are not taking this sitting down…unless we're sitting on the soft, comfy BODIES OF OUR ENEMIES! GO!
March 28, 2011
More Cal & crew and, believe it or not, Trickster, too!
Cal and the gang have been contracted for two more books, Cal 8 and 9 (I'm currently writing Cal 7). That means Cal 7 March 2012, Cal 8 March 2013, Cal 9 March 2014 (damn, that seems like a long ass time. Of course, this is assuming the Mayans weren't right…sooner or later *some* conspiracy has to be right. Come on! Y2K was so disappointing.)
And, to continue, *one* more Trickster Novel has been contracted (which means if you haven't been buying them…better bust your butt and scoop them up. Don't blow their last chance), but before the Trixa and Leo lovers, the Zeke fan club–he has one all to himself as he's such an entertaining sociopath, and the Zeke/ Griffin fans get too excited just yet…be patient. It won't be out until 2013. I can only write three books a year (actually *have* to write three books a year–a book every four months, people–to survive as a full time writer with questionable healthcare insurance) and I still have my main stream thriller to finish in between all this. So…go on! Let's rock on with our bad selves! More monster and demon/angel ass kicking for a few years to come!
Celebrate…good times, come on! Celebrate!
March 27, 2011
Giving away everything but the kitchen sink! No, that too!
Please join me (well, not me personally as I can't chat on dial up and the Christian coffee house closes on the Sabbath, depriving me of WiFi…how Christian is that?) and dozens of your favorite authors at the 2011 Spring Fling at Writerspace on Sunday, March 27th from 8pm ET to 11pm ET. Authors will be dropping in to chat all during the evening and we will be giving away 100s of new books (and some are mine! You know you want them…neeeeeed them) and other fantastic prizes — 2 Kindles, autographed, hard-to-find, advance copies plus special treats like gift cards and more. We hope to see you Sunday night! You don't have to be present to win, but you must be registered. To register, and for details on all participating authors and the prizes they're giving away, visit http://www.writerspace.com/springfling
March 25, 2011
FORK ME!
My best bud send me a celebration present as she does for every book release (for Chimera she gave me a stuffed ferret. For other books she sent me slightly more evil things) For this Cal book: BLACKOUT…if you don't know the fork story within BLACKOUT, too late for you. I'm spoilin' and t'aint no one can stop me. She sent me five forks with engraving on them. I wanted to send a picture but no matter what light you use (natural or flash) you just can't see more than a third of the engraving. So I will describe.
The first says: A fork in a puck is worth two in a hand and has a tiny fist clutching a fork with a drop of blood
#2: Forks don't kill people…unless you're Cal
#3: Niko could kill you with a *spoon*
#4: Who needs a Glock when you have flatware?
#5: WMD (a rocket) weapon of mass dining (and a picture of a nuclear explosion)
River, you are the best friend who never stabbed me with a fork. Daryl thanks for the engraving.
March 24, 2011
March 21, 2011
Con & Conjure Contest
Two years ago, an author popped up out of the blue. She showed me where to get cheap bookmarks and promo items. She offered to throw my new release a contest on her website and she's been nothing but the most kind and gracious and kick-ass friend since. Now her new book Con and Conjure is being released Tuesday the 29th and we want to get those engines revving!
Con & Conjure is the latest in the Raine Benares series and I'm sure carries on the tradition of hilarity and action and sensitive goblin ears. I'm including some snippets of Con & Conjure here and if you wish to see sample chapters of the previous four books go here: http://www.lisashearin.com/books/
I'll be running the contest until date of release (again, Tuesday the 29th – if you can, please help Lisa out and wait until the official date of release or that first week to buy. It helps authors tremendously with our rankings and sometimes, baby, rankings is all we have!)
Lisa will be giving out two full sets of the previous four books to two lucky readers as well as promo items (Lisa has great promo items. You never know what you're likely to get…signed bookmark, refrigerator magnet, mousepad…there's no telling–which is half the fun.) So to enter the contest, leave a comment…me like read, me like stroke hot goblin ears, me like free stuff. Whatever.
Now check out the snippets and the sample chapters and see what you've been missing!
CON & CONJURE snippet #1
Once again, I'd ended up in a cat house.
The suite Madam Camille had given us to spy on Rache was clearly meant for activities other than eavesdropping on the man in the next room, though I imagine it'd been used for that purpose before, too.
Red satin and black leather pretty much summed up the decor. Most of the leather covered the room's furniture, but there was a table with leather . . . accoutrements. I only recognized a few of them, and didn't want to know about the others.
Rache Kai was most definitely in the next room.
Mago knew Rache, so he could identify Rache if he were talking.
I knew Rache in an entirely different way. I could identify him based on what he was doing right now.
Mago and I were sitting on the bed, facing the wall our room shared with Rache's, waiting for him to finish.
It was taking much longer than I remembered.
It was damned awkward and borderline embarrassing. Especially with Mago sitting on the bed next to me—the man who'd introduced me to Rache and had regretted it ever since.
I'd debated just barging in, but seeing that the goal was to persuade Rache not to kill Mychael, Chigaru, or me—interrupting him at that particular moment would go beyond rude straight into suicidal. But sitting there listening while my ex-fiance did what he used to do with me with another woman who looked like me, while I was sitting on a bed with my cousin next to a tableful of accoutrements?
Definitely awkward and embarrassing.
I was sitting on the edge of the bed, swinging my legs, and trying to look anywhere but at my cousin while the headboard thumped against the wall in the next room. There were other sounds as well, but I was doing my best to ignore them.
CON & CONJURE snippet #2
"Drop. The daggers."
I dropped them and rethought my strategy, such that it was.
The thief kicked my daggers across the room to the base of the stairs, keeping the gun aimed at me the entire time. "I didn't think I'd get the chance to take you alive. Put your hands behind your head and stand against the wall."
Like hell anyone was putting manacles on me again. I began to circle him. When in an impossible situation, keep your goals simple. Circle until I reach my daggers. Get them without being shot. Simple. Right.
"Come with me without any trouble and you need not die." The thief started circling me with a saunter as if he had all the time in the world. "My employers would rather have you alive, but they'll be fine with dead."
I kept my eyes on his, my peripheral vision on that gun. I didn't need to look at the stairs, not yet. I knew where they were. "Yeah, Sarad Nukpana would be an extra happy psycho if he could kill me on a Khrynsani altar."
I had only a few minutes to prevent that from happening.
The thief drew a dagger—long, thin, with a needle-sharp tip.
I kept circling. "Let me guess. Poisoned."
"You don't have to find out." His voice became low, coaxing. "Come now, little elf. Let's not make this hurt any more than it has to."
He didn't want to kill me, but I didn't care what I had to do to him. Problem was, if I didn't do it quietly, I'd have to do it three more times to the Khrynsani who'd come running down those stairs.
There were no winners in a knife fight. This was especially true when your opponent was wearing armor and had a poisoned dagger. He didn't need to stab me; a scratch could kill me just as dead. Either I won or Sarad Nukpana won me, and I got a long and painful death, followed by the destruction of civilization as we knew it.
No pressure.
Nukpana could feed the rock just fine without me. All he'd have to do is sacrifice victims so that their blood fell on the Saghred. The rock would take the sacrifices, and I would feel every last one of them; it didn't matter if I was in the same room or hundreds of miles away. I'd taken one mage already and he hadn't even been murdered first. I'd be stark raving loony within the first hour.
"Though you may welcome death," the thief said. "If I don't kill you now, you'll beg for it later—or do it yourself."
My mind was racing even faster than my feet. Okay, Raine. He was a thief, a thief who could make himself look like someone else. Big freaking deal. That was all the magic he had. If he'd had any more he'd have used it by now. The only advantage he had was that he was bigger than me. You've dealt with that before and come out on top. Literally. Come on, girl, time for some ugly.
I darted my eyes to the right like I was going to make a run for the stairs.
He bought it.
I ran straight at him, driving my shoulder into his midsection. The impact with that armor hurt like hell. Better to hurt like hell than to be dragged there. The gun fired, the dart went wide, and we hit the floor together. His head and hands were the only parts of him without armor. I sank my teeth into the wrist of his dagger hand. He swore, but held onto that dagger. Dammit. I didn't kid myself into thinking that I could reach anything vital, but I knew extreme pain made me drop my glamours. If it didn't work on him, at least I'd go down biting.
A thief and a glamourer did his job by hiding and sneaking, not direct confrontation.
My fist directly confronted his temple.
The thief dropped the dagger—and his glamour.
He had the high-cheekbones and fine, straight nose of a pure-blood goblin. He wouldn't have either for long, if my fists had their way. His armor vanished with the glamour, leaving the goblin wearing his own clothes with leather armor covering only the most vital of areas. Hurt a man badly enough in a non-vital area and it'd turn vital real quick.
He was bigger and stronger. I was desperate and terrified and exhausted. But desperation trumped terror and exhaustion every time. It had to. The thief pivoted his body, trying to pin my arms, my legs, pin anything he could to get me to stop kicking and punching. I didn't have long nails, but I used what I had on the upswept tip of one ear and sank my teeth into the other.
He screamed. I snarled.
Next to nuts, the tips of a goblin's ears were one of their most sensitive parts.
I growled and shook my head like a terrier with a rat. I didn't have much, but I used what I had. It was an ugly fight, but I wasn't in it to make it pretty. I was in it to win, or at least survive. I used every trick in the book and wrote a couple of new pages right there on the spot.
March 1, 2011
February 28, 2011
BLACKOUT CONTEST Now Extended!
BLACKOUT: CAL LEANDROS, Book 6
Hey Everyone, it's Time for BLACKOUT! To celebrate release week, I've extended the contest through March 6th! So get your "comment-on" and increase your chances to win right here…
As my blog fiends and reavers, you will always get the early scoop on contests, announcements and news, so here's one for you – I've changed my contest just a bit to make it more intriguing. For those who have already entered – no problem, you are still officially included and can even enter again with a MANTRA if you like – up your chances. Either way, you are entered – so here's the new twist:
I will be throwing a BLACKOUT contest starting FEBRUARY 16th (you might have already known that.)
Why so early you say…as BLACKOUT's official release date isn't until March 1st?
Well…let me be very "Niko" for a moment and give you the whole story. Official release dates and actual release dates often aren't what we authors think they'll be. So there's a chance BLACKOUT may appear in stores a week or two before March 1st. Of course, rabid Leandros fans will want to snatch it up immediately, and who can blame 'em? I mean…Cal in a gingham apron…who wouldn't want to snatch that? But this is the thing…when people buy books before the "official" release dates, it doesn't count on the biggest rankings (the best time for BLACKOUT would be March 1st – March 6th). Rankings are damn important as it's one of the best ways for readers to know that CAL LEANDROS is a series worth buying. Cal & Niko in front of more eyes = more Cal & Niko books to come. That's what great rankings do: they keep Cal & Niko alive!
So! IF you were planning on buying BLACKOUT, to help the Leandros brothers kick supernatural ass in the rankings, it would be extremely faithfully bad-ass of you if you waited until 3/1-3/6 to do so.
And that's where this newest part of the contest comes in.
I think that Cal and Niko need a 3/1 release week mantra. A motto, a slogan, something that spreads the word about BLACKOUT: 3/1 in one small sentence (ignore Niko's usual mantra of "I will not kill my brother. I will not kill my brother.") For all you creative minds out there, comment on this blog entry with a Cal Leandros/BLACKOUT 3/1 Release Week Mantra/Motto. If you're lazy like Cal or don't have Niko's patience to create a mantra, just comment and tell me how freaking excited you are about BLACKOUT: 03.01.11. If you're new here and new to my books, just comment "Best Wishes and shake your bootie for BLACKOUT release week!"
When you comment here with any of the above ideas, you will automatically be entered to win a butt-load of cool stuff, and the best mantras (chosen by me) will also become part of the "quote rotator" on this web site's BLACKOUT page sidebar.
Win This Kickass Poster! - Click for Larger Image
What You Will Be Entered to Win:
-A $50.00 Gift Certificate from Barnes & Noble or Amazon (your choice)
-SEVEN of my books, your choice (with the exception of the WOLFSBANE & MISTLETOE Anthology)
-A poster from Dragon*Con
-An art print of TRICK OF THE LIGHT
-An art print of MADHOUSE
-And, donated by superfan Ariel (who won them in a costume contest at a SUPERNATURAL convention dressed as the Trickster/Gabriel), four SUPERNATURAL shot glasses, AND Dean's Necklace! (We knew Sammy fished it out of the garbage. No way that didn't happen).
So sign up here from now through March 6th by commenting with a BLACKOUT: 3/1 mantra, OR a comment about how you're looking forward to the 3/1 release, OR by just introducing yourself if you're new to my books. You will then be entered to win the above prizes (seriously, who doesn't *want* those prizes?)
As always, thanks so much for all the support. You are my guys, my fans, my reavers, and I wouldn't be anywhere without the damn lot of you. You are AMAZING! And you and I working together, we can keep Cal around. Right?
Oh, and one more thing! During the 3/1 BLACKOUT release week, come on back here to RobThurman.net to see a CAL VIDEO… (Subscribe to my RSS feed so you'll know the moment it's posted).
February 21, 2011
BORDERS and new release BLACKOUT
New release of BLACKOUT (3/1) and Borders: I am unsure what to do at this point or to advise my fans, so I asked my agency and their response was this – they don't know where Borders are getting their books at this point. As far as they know, most publishers have stopped shipping to them. I checked the Borders website and BLACKOUT isn't available in their remaining stores, only online (and if my publisher isn't shipping books to the stores, I'm not sure from where the online books are coming.) The publishers/authors are unsure where the money is going to…us? Elsewhere? I hate to tell people to not order BLACKOUT at Borders with their already precarious situation, but as authors are dependent on royalties, it might be much safer to buy BLACKOUT at Barnes & Noble (but if you pre-order they will pre-deliver), Books-a-million, Indiebound, Amazon.com or any of the other bookstores out there to be certain payments are getting where they should go. I feel nothing but sympathy for Borders (especially as I have many fans who *work* at Borders and have always been gracious and extremely helpful), but I have to eat, go to the doctor, pay the mortgage, vet bills, etc. as well. I need to know if my books are sold, I'll see the money from that sale. It's a sad situation for all.
