Patrice Sarath's Blog, page 30
June 21, 2012
ApolloCon programming schedule
Quick drive-by post. Here’s my schedule for this weekend at ApolloCon. I’m looking forward to the convention. If you are planning to be there, don’t forget to drop by and say hi.
Friday 6PM Scottsdale I Don’t Think I Bend That Way
Speculative Fiction art, including comic books and book covers, often
portrays our heroes and heroines in battle poses that emphasize their
sex appeal instead of any practical battle use. Panelists discuss and
demonstrate the impractical and impossible poses we put our characters
through. Osborne, Sarath, Pace
Friday 8PM Seattle I Of Blood Spatters and Fingerprints
No one wants to guess the end of the story after the first few pages.
A satisfying mystery gives you clues that are insightful but not
overly obvious. Logical, but still fantastical enough to thrill the
reader. Our panelists discuss how to walk the fine line between
believability and predictability. Sarath (M), Wells, Crider, Ramirez
Saturday 10am Seattle I Fairest of Them All: The Enduring Allure of Snow White
Lips as red as blood, hair as black as coal, skin as white as snow.
She has graced movie and television screens for decades, and is as
popular as ever, with a television show and not one but two movies
this year alone. Our panelists discuss the draw of Snow White, and
why her legacy has stayed so popular.
Huff(M), Sheridan-Rose, Sarath, Jones
Saturday 2pm Autograph Patrice Sarath, Rosemary Clement-Moore
Saturday 4pm Rm 720 Reading: Patrice Sarath, Rosemary Clement-Moore
Saturday 5pm Seattle I If I Were a Rich Fan
There are thousands of ideas out there, ideas that would revolutionize
our world, which only lack funding. If you were one of the Warren
Buffets, Elon Musks, or Tony Starks of the world, with access to vast
resources, how would you prioritize your funding: helping humanity or
finally getting that flying car? Sarath (M) Dyson, Hale, Simpson
Sunday 10am Seattle II Someone Else’s Sandbox
Panelists discuss the draw of fanfiction as both a desire to explore
more of their favorite fandoms and as a place to hone their writing
skills. Sarath (M), Sheridan-Rose, Eudaly
Sunday noon Scottsdale Best YA You Aren’t Reading
The YA world is full of books and series that at times seem to be
nothing more than clones of one another. But there are also tons of
gems that may not be as easy to find in that sea of sameness. Our
panelists discuss the YA novels that stand out in the crowd, both in
quality and in uniqueness.
Sarath, Hale, Clement-Moore (M)
June 20, 2012
Storm tree
Austin didn’t get rain this time around. It moved to the east of the city from south to north. But in the early morning the storm clouds and the sunlight conspired to light up the sycamore behind us until it glowed white against the clouds.
I grew up in the north, where rain meant greenery and mud. Here, rain means blue and bone. I don’t know what those colors signify, but no one told me, before I moved to Texas, that rains meant the sycamores glow with an unearthly light.
June 18, 2012
ApolloCon June 22-24
Just a reminder that I will be at ApolloCon in Houston this weekend, where I will be reading and signing copies of The Crow God’s Girl, The Unexpected Miss Bennet, and any of the Gordath novels, which should all be available in the dealer’s room. I don’t have my schedule yet, but as it is finalized I’ll post it here.
There are some interesting panel topics on the menu as you can see on the programming page. I hope to see you there. And seriously, I intend to fangirl as best I know how over Tanya Huff.
(I don’t know if anyone should warn Tanya or not.)
June 14, 2012
Riding lessons — Frisbee
This is the way I looked when I left the house today:
This is the way I looked when I got home:
All images metaphorical. I don’t ride in full dressage kit, but I was looking particularly spiffy in a white tank top, gray breeches, and cowboy boots. When I finished I had been stepped on (ow ow ow ow OW! GET OFF HORSE!), pushed around, then covered with dust, red gatorade, and horse sweat.
God, I love this sport.
June 12, 2012
A box of books
All together now, ooooh….
I will bring copies with me to ApolloCon and you will be able to purchase books at a significant discount (passing along the author discount to you.)
In other news, the Kindle version of The Crow God’s Girl is now available for Amazon customers.
In fact, here are all the ways you can get The Crow God’s Girl:
On Amazon
On Smashwords
On Lulu
Author’s request: If you purchase The Crow God’s Girl and you enjoy it, please consider writing a review and recommending it to friends. You can loan out the e-editions too as well as pushing the hard copy. Boosting the signal is so important in this day and age. I would be so grateful.
Stay tuned for more news.
June 9, 2012
Portraits of Austen?
According to The Guardian, an old portrait belonging to the Rice family, descendants of Jane Austen’s family, has finally been validated as that of the author at thirteen. It’s a lovely portrait, and she looks so sweet and pretty and exactly like one of the other portraits that I’ve seen. However, some doubts remain, and I don’t know if wishful thinking is at play here. Read the article and see for yourself. It looks very like the portrait I link to here, but not very like another candidate, in which Jane looks very stern and forbidding and has an entirely different nose and face. And it does look very like the portrait by Cassandra, her sister, found here:
From The Guardian:
Using digital photographic tools analysis has revealed writing on a long-disputed oil painting that its owners claim shows Jane Austen as a teenage girl. No other professional likeness of the writer exists.
The discovered words appear to include not only the novelist’s name, but also that of the suspected artist.
There are a couple of things — Jane Austen’s family, while respectable, were not rich. She did have wealthy relatives, and the portrait was supposedly made at her great-uncle’s house. How common was this? Did someone just say, hey we should have a formal portrait made of our young niece? Family history has long asserted that the portrait is of Jane, and while family lore is famously flexible (my brother in particular has never let the facts get in the way of a good anecdote), it seems this time the family is on to something.
I say it’s a portrait of the artist as a young woman, and another fascinating glimpse into the life of a genius.
June 4, 2012
This is the dress…
That I wear to work, or out to dinner at a fancy restaurant. I wear it almost every weekend all summer long, slipping it on after an early morning workout and shower, when it is the coolest, most comfortable piece of clothing imaginable.
This is the dress that looks amazing on me even when I gain a few pounds, and makes me look like a sylph when I haven’t. This is the dress that I have worn for ten years. Grocery shopping, at work, out to dinner, for a meeting with teachers, writing novels.
This dress has done everything a dress should do — makes me look my best, makes me happy to wear it, all the while requiring minimal care. Into the wash, the dryer, shake it out, hang it up. This dress turned me into a woman who wears dresses, not a woman who slops around in a T shirt and shorts. This dress converted me.
I love this dress. But — it’s faded. A little stained. The slit up the side is torn just a bit, which I can mend. However, I know from long experience that once I start mending, it’s never the same. The dress is no longer magic. It becomes just a garment. I’ve been looking for its replacement, for a dress I can fall in love with. I might have found it but I’m not sure yet. (Target, purple tie-dye, long, slightly Grecian in the bodice). It’s not love at first sight, it’s love after a long acquaintance, when the dress becomes a staple in my wardrobe.
I’m not ready to give up this dress though. I’m just thinking ahead, because there will be a time when this dress will finally have to go. And I will miss it.
What’s your dress?
June 3, 2012
The Crow God’s Girl soft launch and FAQ
For those of you with e-readers, The Crow God’s Girl is available now from Smashwords. ETA on availability of paperback is still roughly mid-June.
The Crow God’s Girl
Fiction » Fantasy » General
Fiction » Young adult or teen » Fantasy
By Patrice Sarath
Rating: Not yet rated.
Published: June 02, 2012
Words: 94405 (approximate)
Language: English
Short description
In this standalone novel of the Gordath Wood series by Patrice Sarath, a 21st century teen navigates the dangers of a treacherous fantasy world.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FAQ on The Crow God’s Girl
Is this the third book in the Gordath Wood trilogy?
It’s the third book in the series but it is a standalone novel, not the conclusion of a trilogy. Readers can start with The Crow God’s Girl and then go read the other two books for the rest of the story. Since this book follows Kate Mossland and Colar Terrick, it begins its own sequence. Basically, it’s a reboot.
Will there be more books in the series?
Yes. Kate has a big story to tell with lots of adventures. So the series will continue.
What about Lynn and Joe? And Captain Crae? You haven’t abandoned them, have you?
Captain Crae plays a huge part in The Crow God’s Girl. As for Lynn and Joe, I will be checking back in with them in in later books.
Why did you self-publish The Crow God’s Girl?
Ace opted not to publish this book. This is sad — believe me, I shed many a tear — but in this day and age, it’s not the end of the world. I had a story to tell, and the way to get the story out to readers was through self-publishing. In the process I learned exactly why publishers sell books for the price they sell them for. I am fortunate in that I write and edit for a living. I know how to proofread and copy edit. And it was still the most time-consuming and stressful part of the process. I was committed to bringing to readers a book of the highest quality, and I know you will find typos despite the three or four passes I made over the manuscript, and believe me, it’s haunting me already (pre-haunting?).
What if I find a typo (or several hundred)?
*whimper.* Let me know so I can fix it in the electronic edition.
What is the most important thing a reader can do to help support a series they like?
Reviews. Get the word out. If you enjoyed the Gordath Wood series and you enjoy The Crow God’s Girl, please take the time to tell people.
May 30, 2012
The Crow God’s Girl — an update
Print book file: Complete.
Updated cover w/ updated bar code: on the verge of completion.
Smashwords file for ebook: Almost complete.
Book production is long, painstaking work. The proof copy had a lot of piddling little typographical errors, like reversed quotes, double dashes instead of m-dashes, etc. But otherwise, the proof looks good. The book itself — there is nothing like holding one’s book in one’s hand. It’s such a pretty book. And it looks just right next to the other two books in the series.
I’m planning some mega giveaways and celebrations for The Crow God’s Girl. Right now, ETA for the official debut is mid-June, and I expect the book to be widely available in all formats not long after.
I’m so pleased with how it came out. I think readers will be too.
Here’s an excerpt:
Twigs snatched at her, her breath came hard, and she heard Arrim’s futile bellowing behind her. She closed her eyes and ran, crashing through the underbrush, and when her toe caught underneath a root she went sprawling with such force she got the wind knocked out of her. Kate stretched out her full length on the muddy forest floor, her ears ringing.
She sucked for air, until with a whoosh, she could breathe again. As she struggled to her hands and knees, she looked up and froze.
She looked into the gordath, the blackness between worlds. Gone was the portal through which a person could look from one world to another. This was not the gateway. This was death, obscurity. She remembered a year ago the hapless soldier falling between the worlds, and knowing then, as she knew now, that he was consumed.
She had run to it with her eyes closed. She saw herself plunging forward, her momentum carrying her into oblivion. “Crow god,” she breathed, only half aware that she invoked that god.
May 20, 2012
Austen in Austin event
Had a wonderful time at the Austen in Austin event. Margie Longoria asked great questions and we — Jennifer, Alyssa, and I– got to talk about how we wrote our books, who our influences are, and what we are working on next. Jennifer, a YA author, pointed out that Jane Austen could be considered YA, which is true, since she writes about young people on the cusp of their adult lives, when they leave home and make their way in the world.
Margie asked us which Austen heroes we loved the best — and it was interesting that none of us said Darcy. For me it has always been Captain Wentworth, for Alyssa it’s Mr. Knightley, and for Jennifer, Col. Brandon. And that says so much about each of us. As I pointed out, Captain Wentworth’s letter to Anne Eliot is the most romantic letter in the English language. It just doesn’t get any more swoonworthy.
“I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in F. W.
“I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father’s house this evening or never.”
Sailors are so romantic.
Thanks to everyone who joined us for an enjoyable afternoon. 
