Devon Monk's Blog, page 39

Those Three Magic Words…

[image error]I fell out of love with my book yesterday.  I wasn't really surprised. This happens with every book I write.

At first it's the newness of the relationship that makes me excited to meet the book over coffee every morning.  Every spare moment I have, I spend dreaming about the book: what it's thinking, where it's going, what it might say the next time we meet. I love it, and what we might be together.

Then, after awhile, I begin to notice the flaws.  It promised me it would be exciting and take m...

Good-bye Borders

[image error]Last week, a friend mentioned she had gone out to Borders in her hometown to look around.  She said she felt bad picking over the bones of a dying business, but mentioned that everything was for sale, including the shelves.

I've  been dreading, and wanting, to go to Borders before it closed the doors for good.  So I drove out to the store in my town and took a look around.

Going into the store was strange.  First, there were a lot of people there for a Wednesday afternoon.  A lot of people.  E...

Blam! Wonder Woman Gloves

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This is what I felt like at the beginning of the project

Sometime last…oh, I don't know, maybe April, I was reading my Twitter feed and the lovely Karen Mahoney (a fellow Deadline Dame) was tweeting about a very cool pair of Wonder Woman fingerless gloves someone had knit. She teased that maybe I'd knit her a pair.  Since I love knitting fingerless gloves, and have a certain fondness for Karen, I said I'd love to.

I checked out the Wonder Woman gloves other knitters had posted and liked them a ...

We Have a Title!

I can officially announce the title to DEAD IRON's sequel.  Are you ready?

TIN SWIFT

I actually love this title, but then I (presumably) know what the book is about and why it makes a cool title.   What do you think?

DEAD IRON

TIN SWIFT

How's that look for books 1 and 2 of the series?

What else is going on besides a cool new title?  I have had a cover consultation for TIN SWIFT. From what my editor tells me they talked about and asked the artist to do, I am SO freaking excited to see what the...

Weekend Wandering Allie Beckstrom Style

POWELLS SIGNING…

….was awesome!  Thank you to everyone who came out for the event.  I had a great time meeting new readers, and seeing familiar readers, and generally chatting like crazy.  One person even brought a knitted Stone the gargoyle to the signing!  He's the first Stone I've seen in the wild and he was adorable.

Peter and the rest of the Powells staff once again pulled off a wonderful event.  If you've never been to a book signing before and you're in the Portland area, give Powells...

Q&A

Yesterday I worked on catching up on emails (still have a few to answer, but I'm getting there) and there were a couple questions that kept popping up.  I thought I'd answer them here.

1. How many books will there be in the Allie Beckstrom series?  Nine.  The most recent is MAGIC ON THE HUNT which came out in April of this year, and the next book, MAGIC ON THE LINE will be out November 1, 2011.  After that, we'll have MAGIC WITHOUT MERCY in April of 2012, and the final book in the series will ...

Signing – Dead Iron

This is a friendly reminder that I will be signing DEAD IRON (or, indeed, any of my other books) at the Beaverton, Oregon Powell's Books TOMORROW, Tuesday August 2 at 7pm.

Can't make it?  Powells WILL MAIL you a signed book–personalized if you want–anywhere in the world!

So if you need a little break from the warm weather, come on in!  I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to hang out and talk.

I was considering wearing my steampunk outfit…but there are an awful lot of layers and wool involved.  H...

Steampunk Man In Black

While researching old trench digging machines (and oh, my gawd, the things people came up with!) I stumbled across this photo.

Why have I never seen this?  My life simply would not have been complete without it.  Let me share the official awesome that it is.

Johnny Cash at a 1986 steam expo:

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You're welcome.

GEAR Con Mini Report

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend GEAR Con on Friday.  On arriving at the event, I was immediately invited onto a panel with Irene Radford and Andrew P. Mayer, who were explaining the hows and tos of world building. (I admitted to my post-it note and back-of envelope note-keeping affliction.)

The next talk was with Shanna Germain, myself, and Andrew Mayer.  I believe we talked about our cross-genreness and steampunk's general proclivity for the same.

After a quick break, we three...

Upcoming Events & Thank You!

This weekend the first ever, G.aslight E.xplorers, A.dventurers & R.omantics Convetion=GEAR Con will be taking place in Portland, Oregon!

I had hoped to spend a good deal of my weekend at the event, but it's looking more and more like I might only be able to attend on Friday, July 22nd.  I'm hoping I can juggle in more time but my visit may be all too brief.

I will be sure to bring my camera and take loads of pictures, and give a full report.  If you are thinking about going to this event...