Devon Monk's Blog, page 17

Looking Back at 2013

Here’s how 2013 shook out for me:

Writing

Books written: 3 — Hell Bent, Stone Cold, House Immortal

Short stories written: 2 — Life Between Dreams, The Lost The Found

Books revised: 2 — Hell Bent, Stone Cold

Books copy edited: 3 — Cold Copper, Hell Bent, Stone Cold

Books proofed: 5 –Dead Iron (mmpb release), Cold Copper, Hell Bent, Tin Swift (mmpb release), Stone Cold

Other books worked on: 2

I also tried my first self epublishing and released a Kindle edition of my short story, HANG FIRE, which takes...

Holiday Happiness

I always say I will shop, clean, decorate, bake, make, and otherwise indulge in holiday joy early every year.

Did I get everything done early this year?

Not even close.

My son, the smart guy that he is, went “first minute shopping” as he called it, and got gifts taken care of in the first week of December. I, on the other hand, was strolling the shops on Christmas eve morning. (Side note: a shop keeper saw me staring longingly at a $700 Victrola and offered to wind it up and play it for me. He a...

This, That, and Other Things

This:

In case you missed it on Twitter and Facebook, I just finished my first felting project! I used stash wool, but some of the yarn wasn’t 100% wool so not everything felted. Oops! However, I still kind of adore this patchwork Wizard’s hat:

Specifics: I used Anne Carroll Glimour’s “The Enchanting and Magical Witch Hat” pattern, on size US 11 needles with worsted weight yarn. I knit the adult non-slouchy hat, but added an extra row after each decrease.

That:

I just turned in proofs for TIN SWI...

Catching up with Devon

I blog every third Monday over at the Deadline Dames, and today, I thought I’d share that post here too.

Where did November go? I swear, I blinked and the month was gone! And yet here we are, in the last month of 2013, just a few short weeks away from starting a new year.

Pretty soon those of us who make resolutions, or affirmations, or goals will be busy deciding just what exactly we hope to add or subtract from our year to come.

But before we get there, I thought I’d look back over November...

Orycon & Powell’s Books

I promised I’d talk a little more in depth about the panels at Orycon and the big Sci-Fi Authorfest at Powell’s Books. Here goes (with links!):

Orycon:

I was on four panels this weekend, and enjoyed them very much! My fellow panelists were Craig English, David F. Walker, Sheila Simonson, J.A. Pitts, Ken Scholes, Stephen Couchman, Adrian Phoenix, Renee Stern, William F. Nolan, Jennifer Brozek, Rhiannon Held, Anne Bishop and Patricia Briggs.

It was terrifically fun to listen to all these amazing p...

Catching up a bit

I’ve been a little blog silent the last week or so. The reason for the silence is that I had a deadline for a first book in a series and a release date for another first book in another series land in the same week.

In case you’ve never experienced this yourself, both events call up a collision of emotions, expectations, worries and tasks that must be dealt with Right. Now. Both events at the same time create a sort of chaos that steals time, devours sleep, and blowtorches the crap out of your...

Hell Bent is Here!

HELL BENT, book #1 of the Broken Magic series (spinoff books from my Allie Beckstrom series) is out today!

Confetti!!! It’s a parade!! I’m so excited to share Shame and Terric’s story!

In case you missed Tiffany Rose’s fabulous graphics for the Shame and Terric countdown, here they are:

“How about you drink this?” Terric said.

I turned. He held the coffee out. “Why? Did you poison it?”

That, finally, got a dazzler of a smile out of him. “And ruin a good dark roast? Please.”

And finally:

Tiffany dese...

Hell Bent – More Pics & Review

We’re still counting down to Hell Bent‘s release on Tuesday November 5th! The amazing Tiffany Rose has been knocking it out of the park with these graphics! What do you think about this picture of Shame she posted yesterday?

And how about this picture of Terric, posted today?

I LOVE having pictures of the boys, and can’t thank her enough for making and sharing these!

You know what else I love? Getting an awesome review from Julie at Yummy Men and Kick Ass Chicks.

She gave HELL BENT 5+ stars! Her...

Hell Bent – Countdown

HELL BENT, the first book in the spinoff series from the Allie Beckstrom books is out in just 8 days! Which means I’m doing my deep breathing to keep the release day panic at bay.

However, the amazing Tiffany Rose at Art Over Chaos is doing something way cooler than deep breathing. She’s doing a countdown until release day!

Once a day, until November 5th, she will post a picture, quote, or thought about the book. Here is the first pic she posted a couple days ago:

How awesome is that? There ar...

Zombie Hat – Knit

The first book in my new urban fantasy spinoff series, HELL BENT will be out soon (November 5th!) I always get nervous before a book release, so I’ve been doing some stress-knitting.

When I stress knit, I tend to knit Very Dorky Things. Often Very Dorky hats.

This time, I might have outdone myself.

I knit this:

This is a Plants vs. Zombie hat. It is the Conehead Zombie from that game, which is a fun game I have played many times.

Here I am wearing the Conehead Zombie hat:

Sorry, Conehead Zombie–no...