Vicki Pettersson's Blog, page 4

First interview re. The Given

So the release for the final book in the Celestial Blues trilogy is nigh — only two weeks to go now. I need to start chatting with you about my tour dates, especially my release date party signing in Las Vegas on the 27th. Should we do cake again this year, or should ... Read More

Saying goodbye to Celestial Blues

As my beloved para-noir trilogy comes to an end (in less than three weeks now), I thought the now-popular #throwbackthursday was a good day to begin a few light posts on how it all started, and give a little insight into what was going on with me as I journeyed along with my gruff ... Read More

Read THE GIVEN early — Goodreads giveaway

Happy Monday, friendlies! Some fun news to start off the week: my publisher has teamed up with the good folks at Goodreads for a week-long giveaway of next month’s release, The Given, the final book in my Celestial Blues trilogy. If you’d like an advanced copy and just can’t wait ... Read More

Spring! New beginnings! Gratitude! Exclamation points!!!

Over the years I’ve received some pretty amazing and touching gifts from my readers – all of them a delightful surprise because I never expect anything more from a reader than to, yanno, read. Even the notes and letters to tell me that they, you, have enjoyed my books feel like a gift because that, too, is unexpected. The real exchange goes on in the mind. You meet me halfway on the page, I provide the story, but your imagination does the heavy lifting. That connection is what I live for – and what a gift.

Yet I do receive posts and letters and gifts, amazing ones, and here’s one that I couldn’t let pass without mention. It just blew me away. This is from Chelle, who has been a vocal supporter of my work – and actually created a street team for me before I even knew what a street team was (aside: I still don’t really get it. What do I do with them?). Anyway, Chelle has a busy and full life—and through our friendship on Facebook, I’ve learned that she has some not so pleasant things on her plate – but she took the time to commission this and send it to me:

 

I mean, are you kidding me?

Now I just need to find the perfect purpose for it. Of course it’s going with me on tour later this spring, but what to put in it?

Please note the spring flower next to it, too. I’ve waited a bit to post that because I wanted the rest of the country to catch up to Vegas, weather-wise. (I didn’t want to give you the jellies.) Isn’t it pretty?

Yeah, that’s already dead.

But the rest of spring is in full effect. The sparrows are being total *ssholes in my yard and a dumber-than-rocks quail walked into my house yesterday, only to freak out once he realized, yanno, that it was occupied.

But spring is great because — after your taxes are all done — it actually feels like a new beginning, yanno? You begin to think crazy things like, maybe I’ll fit into that bikini by the beginning of summer. You begin to do crazy things like start a new series and build a new world. Maybe you pick up a new habit, like starting a gratitude jar. Here’s mind, all pimped out for spring. I’ve only a few notes in it because I’m not a very grateful person.

Kidding. It’s because I just began, and though I started out on the right track, just tearing off slips of paper, capturing moments, I can’t help but be a little wacky with it, because I’m most grateful for the surprising – like that anyone would send me a gift when it’s not my birthday – and the absurd…like the following sentiment that was recently uttered by a girl friend of mine whom I used to work with in the Folies.  I was perched in her bathroom, she was doing my hair, and we were talking about a new variety show that just popped up in Vegas. Can you read it?

 

And I howled – and had to capture it for my gratitude jar – because, I mean, how often do you get to hear something like that? Chelle’s in my gratitude jar, too. So are all of you. Because I am grateful, and I really do feel like I’m sitting on top of a new beginning.

And that’s my spring for you. How’s yours going?

PW gives The Given a starred review!

I can’t thank the good reviewers at Publisher’s Weekly enough. They have taken note of my little para-noir trilogy right from the beginning, and to say that this is the perfect way to end it is an understatement. A starred review, and my first for The Given:

 

You can pre-order your copy at Amazon, B&N, or Apple.

Meanwhile, as I said in my last post I’ll be hitting Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas and Houston to meet readers and sign books in person, and I hope to see some familiar faces in those places. I’ll need someone to hold my hand as I say goodbye to Kit and Grif, after all!

Tour time!

(My tour mates … life is hard.)

Tour Time!

As you know, the final book in my Celestial Blues Trilogy, The Given, comes out on May 27th and I finally have a tour schedule to post. Here are the dates and places, with more info to come on each (and I’m hoping to add an informal coffee klatch thingy in Dallas later, maybe c. the 27-28 for those who can’t make the Boas event … given enough interest, of course.) — but this is where we are as of today:

May 27 – Las Vegas, Nv. – B&N/Rainbow (shall we have cake again, my friends?)

June 6-8 – Phoenix, Az. – Phoenix Comic Con (my only con of the year and my first comic-con in a few. I look forward to letting my geek flag fly — there haven’t been enough superheroes in my life lately!)

June 14 – Dallas, Tx – Boas&Tiaras (w/Fresh Fiction, the greatest book club in the world)

June – Houston – Murder by the Book – (joint event w/THE Megan Abbott! She’ll have a new book out which means I get to *finally* fawn over, er, accost meet her in person. If you don’t already know, she’s one of my very favorite crime writers (Megan, Gillian Flynn, Theresa Schwegel, Dennis Lehane, and Taylor Stevens are kinda all I need in life, really) so it’ll be a great event.

So mark your calenders and let me know … will I be seeing any of you soon?

What a bore. A craft discussion.

Good news! For those who saw yesterday’s Facebook post on how truly boring I am, or felt myself to be, I am at least 20% less boring today than yesterday! (I made that number up. I could be only 5% less boring but I’m assuming in my favor.) However, lest you think I’m just fishing (phishing?) for compliments, I assure you I am not too bothered by being such a bore. My opposing state is frenzied mania, so it’s actually a nice change of pace. I also realized *why* I’m so dull these days. I’ve become obsessed with my current work-in-progress. I’m working on the second draft, entering the third and final act, and I’ve cut 20,000 words and rewritten every remaining one. This draft has been about focusing on showing vs. telling (something I get lazy about in my first draft), creating an edge-of-the-seat feeling in the reader, and giving my main protag more agency. Now I’m drilling deeper and trying to make subtext do more of the work, too. Sometimes it looks and feels like I’m just rearranging words but I tell myself I’m angling for precision. See? Obsessive.

So boredom has its gifts, and the bigger worry now is that I’m no longer trusting myself enough with the work. I have to tell myself that I *chose* this story, I’ve spent months on it, I’ve written a draft and a half, I can do this. But how to carve it into its ideal shape without cutting too close to the bone? How to say what I mean with robust precision? How to balancing between knowing that it’s not quite there and knowing exactly what needs to change and why vs. trusting that I *can* do this? The last week has shown me that when I’m not being too precious about it, when I’m slashing-and-burning and moving fast, deleting without worry over the disappearing words — that’s when I’m at my best. Yet to move that fluidly, to call upon nine books and eighteen years of experience, to be able to drill down deeply enough to see what this story really wants to be, I need to focus. And that requires being boring. So it’s okay.

Last night I had a taco.

The Given

Obviously the big news around here last week was my cover reveal for THE GIVEN (and thanks again to Shelly for helping me out with that):

 

And here’s what it’s about:

After learning that his wife, Evelyn, survived the attack that killed him fifty years earlier, angel/PI Griffin Shaw will risk everything to find her—an obsession that comes with a price. Grif has had to forsake his new love, journalist, Katherine “Kit” Craig—the woman who made his life worth living again—to find a woman he may not even recognize.

Yet when Kit is attacked again, it becomes clear that there are forces in both the mortal and heavenly realm determined to protect dark secrets buried in the past. To survive, Grif must convince Kit to put aside her personal hurt and help him discover the truth—a dangerous journey that will put them in the crosshairs of enemies both old and new . . . and test the limits of what one angel will sacrifice for love.

 

 

 And that, my Peeps, concludes this trilogy:

    

I’m so proud of this series, I’m thankful to those of you who’ve joined Kit and Grif — and me — on this journey about a 50′s PI-turned-angel and his modern day love. I’ve had so much fun melding the classic detective story with enough paranormal elements to create a new world … and a new way of looking at this ol’ world.

THE GIVEN drops in May, and you can preorder it here. Also, check back in here on Tuesday or add me to your RSS feed for news of a great deal regarding this series on Tuesday. Or you can sign up for my newsletter and it’ll automatically come to you. That’s where you’ll get all the news regarding my upcoming releases and news, too.

 

The Given Cover

So about a week ago I’m minding my own business, procrastinating on Twitter, when up pops a direct message from a blogger I know from over the years, Shelly at Gizmo Reviews. She was contacting me to let me know she had seen the cover for THE GIVEN, the third and final installment in the Celestial Blues Trilogy. She was going to post it on her site, but she noted that I hadn’t said anything about it yet, and didn’t want to spoil the big reveal for me.

Now, guys, as someone who has been beaten to sharing my own cover for, oh, at least the last four books, I can’t tell you how sweet and refreshing I found this to be. I don’t think anyone else has intentionally usurped me in the past, and I choose to believe it’s pure enthusiasm for the covers and the series that’s led to the slights, but after working for a full year on a book it’s nice to be able to do it yourself, you know?

I was so grateful to Shelly for DM-ing me (and, seriously guys, you can do that. You talk, I talk back. It’s like dancing but without the squished toes and onion breath) that I asked if she’d like to team up for the cover reveal. That’s why you need to click on one little extra link to see it. I’ll post it on my site and networks in a couple of days, but for now it’s Shelly’s.

And mine.

And yours.

So without further ado (adoo? Doesn’t it look like it should be spelled adoo? *shakes head* Anyhoo…) the cover for The Given can be found here.

What do you think? And which is your favorite of the three?

I gotta say, I’m loving this one, but I’m hesitant to commit because I say that with each new cover in this series. At any rate, they’re a gorgeous package, I couldn’t be happier, and I think Harper and the cover artist, Larry Rostant, absolutely nailed it. Thanks to all!

Believe.

 

Love isn’t just worth remembering and saving. True love is what saves us all.

                               — Griffin Shaw/The Given.

Context is everything.

It is the Christmas season, and I am currently wrapping up a trilogy about an angel who escorts the newly deceased to the Everlast, so I know exactly what I see when I look at these two photos.

But imagine being graveside on a devastating weekend sporting a thoughtless blue sky. You’re burying your wife, your love, and the mother of your child. A friend points his camera at that deceptive blue sky. This is what he captures.

As this is a season of belief* I do hope that whatever you believe in leaves room for the possible, the potential, and yes, the incredible. Close out 2013 with gratitude, and begin 2014 with hope.

Know that someone who loves you is watching over you still.

(Thank you, Tony, for allowing me to post these most intimate, glorious photos.)

** The Season of Belief. There’s a spectacular book title, no?