Mantissa Etherbright's Blog: Mayhem and Angst, page 2

Where in the World is Mantissa?

Where indeed? She's near Greenpoot Village again, of course!

Today my latest story-in-progress passed the 10,000 word mark. This is much longer that I'd originally intended it to be, when I put together the simple outline. So now I'm not sure where I am. It was supposed to be my tiny little "who the hell has time for NaNoWriMo?" story, begun on November 29. Now it's after Christmas.

Today I've been bushwhacking my way through the middle part of the outline, and it's going rather well. At this rate, I may reach Shangri La after all. And I hope I didn't jinx it by saying that out loud.

The Maiden Comes Closer...!

This morning I was really excited to learn that proof files of my new book, The Maiden Who Turned to Water have been sent off to the printer. The interior ended up being somewhat longer than originally planned: it's now 106 pages. And thanks to dear friends, it contains 6 interior images (black-and-white).






Oh, the cover has also been re-designed as well, and it now looks like this.

Untitled #50327

Tomorrow morning, my beloved,
I will kiss the spot
below your left ear lobe
and then the blue veined spot
inside your right elbow
and then an inch below your navel,
and then atop your Venusian mound,
thus tying them all together for eternity
with the threaded spittle of my love.
Whenever after I embrace you,
I know you'll fold up neatly
like a paperback copy of a
Picasso cubist painted woman
in two dimensions,
so I can carry you eternally in my
left breast pocket
nearest my heart.

A Cozy Concerto of Crickets in August

The word on the street these days is: The cover of my first prose book, The Maiden Who Turned to Water will soon be revealed because... [And you may now hit the cymbal...] Electronic Advanced Reading Copies (e-ARCs) of the book are now available to qualified persons over the age of twenty-one. All you have to do is figure out how to e-mail me, or the Head Rodent at SROP if you want one. The cover will be lovely, and I can hardly wait to have a real paper copy in hand.

Sneaking Out to the Woodshed

Amazing and mysterious things continue to happen in Santa Banana! The furry-faced folks at Smashed-Rat-on-Press have done it again... Underwhelmed the world, I mean.

My first collection of poetry was released today with about as much fanfare as two naughty girls sneaking out to the woodshed for a "smoke". For those who are paying attention to release schedules: this is a full two months earlier than planned. The cover has been upgraded, too, and is rather cute, I think.

The Rodent says the first three people over the age of twenty-one who figure out how to send me (Mantissa) their North American mailing address can get a free copy of the little book on paper, or as an electron burst, direct from the printer... Reader's choice of formats.

Just about everyone else on the planet will probably have to wait until the ordering URL is published, someday. Maybe never. Who knows. Rodents are inscrutible and shy.

An Imminent Burst of Electrons

The word on the street among all hip felines in Santa Banana is that Alpha ARCs of Squeezing Persephone's Pomegranates are available for free to qualified persons of terrestrial origin. Apparently, assuming you're of terrestrial origin, you just have to speak up at the SROP Speakeasy and a burst of electrons will be sent your way for "evaluation".

Hello World and Others

Hi everyone. About the title of my blog... Mayhem and Angst were the names of my pet goldfish in fourth grade. (No, I didn't name them myself; I had help.) The little fishies didn't last long, but their legacy lingers on, and their minerals are now part of Grandma's herb garden. Eventually, they'll be part of something else in the universe.

Meanwhile, here at Rancho Mañana de California, tomorrow came and I actually pulled together a bunch of poetry, had Sanguinity read it over because she's very kind and gentle in her criticism, and finally sent it all to the furry faced folks at Smashed-Rat-on-Press, who were evidently happy to accept what I self-described as the amateur work of a local girl. (I don't know if I had them at "girl" or "local", or just because they want to beef up their poetical offerings beyond Shenanigan Cheesefield.)

The dear rodents have even revealed the tentative front cover, but things being what they are in the cut-throat world of big-time publishing, the actual stuff between the covers will take longer to pull together. The expected release date is early August. (I only mostly trust these guys because they paid me a hundred dollars up front when nobody else would pay me anything. I mean, poetry is traditionally a cheap commodity, right?)

The first edition is slated to be a limited print run of twenty-five autographed copies, although apparently because the world supply of electrons is pretty vast and unlikely to be overfished, they've also agreed to publish a more unlimited e-book version, possibly at the same time, but we'll see.

As Ms Fernández taught me to say on my first retail job: Have a great day! And don't forget your change, it's the only thing you can really hang onto!