Allison Hurd's Blog, page 17

New Book and New Book Deal

Hi all!

Sacrifice is out today! It is radiant like the stars! It's funny like whoa! The paperback will be out soon, but here's the e-copy!


And, Feeding Frenzy is on sale! Get it while it's hot! I mean, I guess it's always hot, but you know. Hot like stolen, maybe? Because it's a steal?

Whatever. I got better jokes. Go read 'em, funny guy.

December 1: Sacrifice All My Time

Just a reminder that you now have three-ish days to read Feeding Frenzy and review it to get a FREE copy of Sacrifice! Why three days? Well, that’s when this beaut’ hits virtual shelves. It’s mm-mm good! December 1. Mark your calendars!

So go here if you want Feeding Frenzy, and here if you wanna read the first chapter of Sacrifice.

What’s next? Expect the short story Just A Taste in the next year, and book three Blood And Bone early 2018!

Sacrifice Is Coming To Town

Yes! Yes!! It’s coming out December 1!

First, HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THIS AMAZING COVER!

Drool, amirite? Mm, mm, mm. It just looks better the more I look at it.  Dave outdid himself. Everyone thank Dave for changing the  blurb no less than eighty trillion times and still talking to me. Best, thank Dave by paying him to read through your hundreds of emails and then make you something that blows your gorram mind. Do that here.

Secondly, Sacrifice is up for pre-order! Out December 1, 2016! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!! I can’t believe it’s already here! Go order it now! It’s a much fuller book, in that it is longer, and has more things in it. This is my technical analysis.

It also is demonstrating some of those book-like qualities here, in the excerpt, so you can get a little taste. A little tease. Who doesn’t like a little light teasing?

And finally, this means this is the last week to participate in my “follow me, review a book, get a free book” promotion! What’s that, you ask? Well, it’s simple! Review Feeding Frenzy honestly on Amazon, follow me on Facebook or Goodreads (or here, I suppose! I’ll count it!), and I’ll send you a free e-copy of Sacrifice. Maybe teasing isn’t your style, but a two-for-one is, right?

No, that came out wrong again. You know what I mean!

Whew! That was a lot of things. That was Sacrifice: all the things. I hope you feel sufficiently Sacrifice-d.

Next publication will be a short story called Just A Taste and will involve the frozen north! Next full  book is called Blood And Bone and will probably be out early 2018. I’m already almost done with the first chapter though, ’cause apparently that’s how I do, so we’ll see!

Go forth! Drool over book covers! Catch up on Feeding Frenzy! Remind me how relaxing works! Be awesome in general!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello! Let me first say I’m so thankful for all of you. I’ve been blogging for a year! How cool is that? Thank you for being with me on this journey! Over that year, I’ve published a book, a short story, and am so freakin’  close to being finished with a third book , it’s killing me.

I (probably) won’t ever do that again. Three projects a year is too many projects.

But hey it happened! Wanna see it?

I thought you might.

Here’s the first chapter of Sacrifice. Expect the cover reveal and publication date next week! Aaaahhh!!

And, above all, use this week to love the people in your lives, reflect on your blessings, and plan a way to share the wealth that is your goodness with others. I’m so happy to have you, and I can’t wait to celebrate all of our victories together.

Big Damn Heroes-In-Training

 

In Feeding Frenzy there comes a point where Summer and Lia have to leave their inclinations and preferences behind, get past their prejudices and listen to the person they think needs saving. They don’t agree with her, but you know what? What grown, competent people need isn’t up to us. It’s up to them. Even if we don’t like it.

Please listen to each other. Not just to the feelings their words inspire in you, but their actual words, and the ideas they are clumsily trying to capture. Think about it. Wrestle with it. See if there’s space there for compromise, or entertaining new ideas.

That is, of course, unless their ideas have a strong likelihood of causing someone imminent bodily harm. When we see hateful speech, or violence, silence is tacit approval. Be a big damn hero. The battle won’t look like a demon, most likely. It will look like a friend on social media, or an old lady on a bus. And you will not have a sword of righteousness. You are armed with compassion, and a plan. Here is my humble suggestion for everything from saving people getting chatted up in bars to watching unbridled xenophobia on Twitter:

When interceding on someone’s behalf, they are the priority. Check in with them first. When someone has an invective thrown at them, ask them if they are okay. Ask if they feel safe or need help.
Their safety remains priority. If they say they are fine, stay nearby. Strike up banal conversation if it’s appropriate to both show that you disapprove of the attacker, and to make space for the person attacked. If they are not fine, ask if you can help them. Walk them into a public space or police station. Physically put yourself between them and their attacker. Offer to help them get an Uber wherever they’re going, or wait with them until a friend shows up. Surround them in that chitchat, even if it’s one-sided, to block out the attacker’s words.
Stay with them after the attacker is gone. See if they need to call anyone, if they need water or a statement for the police. Most people who feel unsafe will get a surge of adrenaline which keeps them from processing the event as it’s happening. Allow them to process (as in “cut unwanted chitchat at this point”).
Avoid physical altercations whenever possible. Do not address the attacker directly unless you have to do so to stop them from physically harming their intended victim–yelling at them may feel good, but it does nothing for the victim, and will likely only escalate the level of violence. Do not wade into fights if you don’t know how to de-escalate them. That is a great way to end up in a hospital and in court. Repeat it again: The victim is the priority.
This is important. You will not “win” against the attacker. You are not there to crush them. You are there for who? You got it. The victim. Call the cops. Film. Comfort the person who was attacked. Live to fight another day. You’ve made your point even if it doesn’t feel like it was anywhere near enough. God, do I know those feels.

 

Stay strong, stay safe. If you have the ability, build doors when you see walls. Tag someone else in when you’re tired. Summer and Lia don’t work as a team for nothin’. It’s good to remember we’re not alone. You’re not alone. I see you, and I care about you. I swear to banish monsters as they appear.

Democracy Soon!

Hi, my name is Allison, and I am an American.

This is normally inconsequential.  The second home to my heart is Quebec; I’d move to Paris in a heartbeat, and have friends on every continent, at a quick estimation.

I don’t mean to brag, I mean to say I love my planet, and its people, but it’s just easier as a matter of my birth to be American, and also I have a greater magnitude of people I love on this continent, so I would be sad to see it suffer.

Most of my readers are American. If you’re not American, you’ve probably asked “WTF” several times at our politics lately.  Hell, probably if you’re American, too.  It’s the most WTF-ish election season since…since…maybe since our second election, if the musical Hamilton can be trusted.  Actually, you don’t need to listen to my post anymore, you can just go listen to Hamilton star Daveed Diggs break it down for us.

 

YES.  We’ve managed to pit a woman with an unfaithful husband and a frustrating-seeming email thing happening against a man accused of election fraud, child rape, and fraudulent business practices who is himself an unfaithful husband, as well as a racist, a misogynist and a xenophobe.  And he has a chance of winning.  I’ve stuck my hand in an electrical socket, and been less shocked.

He said what?!

I am extremely privileged.  If this election ends up in Dante’s Inferno, I’ll personally probably be safe enough.  Except I won’t, because in my family and friend group, white, wealthy, straight, natural citizens are a vast minority.  Most of my people are not-straight, trans, non-binary, people of color, or immigrants.  And I freaking love them with all my heart.  So, when they are threatened, it is like my own person is threatened and I am compelled to respond.  You don’t come to my house and tell me some people aren’t people enough to deserve freedom.

So, this particular election is really fucking important.

In real problems, Hillary is hawkish, and has managed to hurt a lot of brown people in other countries and here with her warlike ways.  But she’s also pretty honest? And has said she’s kinda sick of war–with Syria and in South America.  In fake problems, get over it.  Yes, she’s a super qualified woman who could kick the shit out of her man-baby opponent but instead laughs in his face, unperturbed by his looming mass, and subtly pulling his every string, like the political master she is.  And she’s gonna be our president.

I get why man-babies are scared.  When a group you’ve stomped on for a very long time gets into a position of power over you, it’s natural to assume they’ll do to you what you did to them.  But she ain’t petty.  She ain’t never been petty.  So just say sorry if you can or ignore it if you can’t, and let’s not start the apocalypse, shall we?

God DAMMIT, Sammy!

“Why are you talking about this on your book blog, Allison? I trusted you!”

Yeah, I’m sorry.  This is just a big deal.  See, if I have to go to fight for the freedoms of my gender and my friends again, I won’t have very much time to write.  And, in the context of my writing, Lia, Nisha, Joon, James, RJ, and many more would be heartbroken and either removed, incarcerated, or functionally executed under Clinton’s opponent.  I know you haven’t met them all yet, but I have, and it’s hard to look at them and say this world is safe for them, or the people I love who have inspired them.

Names have power. We shall not invoke the radiant orange darkness here.

My books are about monsters, yes, but ultimately the things that wreak the most havoc are this fragile thing called humanity.  The Summoner Sisters is about saving humans from humans and this is a key example.

If you’re American, I hope you do the right thing.  If you’re not, please know that most of us tried really hard.

See you on the other side.

Ode to Beta Readers

How in the world would an author survive

Without the benevolence of this mind-hive?

You’re the best best that could ever be best.

The kindly friends who read in advance

All the terrible words we thought, perchance

May  somehow a story derive.

Oh with such patience they read through our prose!

And gently all the plot holes help us to close

With a generous reading of our every word

Nary a complaint to be seen or heard

As they love our hero and their foes.

What? No, you fools! Are you f***cking blind?

I couldn’t in a million years cut that line!

Sure, to you it doesn’t  make sense

Or is it just me? Just me?

And sure, it might certainly read as quite dense

But I assure you that was by design.

No, don’t you see why I need this part?

It’s where the hero unburdens his heart!

Speaking of which, I think mine is breaking

Each red-line remark a part of me taking

Indeed, I’m coming apart.

FINE, I guess what you said’s kinda true

I guess I just needed another point of view

And I guess this joke’s kinda funnier  now

And the pacing is sharper–holy cow

Okay! Go on! You do you!

Say what? You liked it! Oh, thank God!

I thought for sure you thought me a clod.

No, you were right, darling, of course

No one wanted seven pages of discourse

On the exact implications of a nod.

Beta readers! Healers, and sowers of strife!

You hone our thoughts like a stone does a knife

Even though your words render us low

So, too, do they cause us upwards to grow

Bringing our stories to life.

Like staring into the sun that warms us.❤

 

 

 

Artists: Keep Arting!

It’s really easy to feel like scarcity rules. You’re a new, upstart artist, in a world that glorifies the JK Rowlings, the Thomas Kincaids, the Ansel Adams of the world, and everyone else in the field is that thing people think they maybe saw something about in a coffee shop, once.

It can be demoralizing. Damn it all, after all!, you say. Did you not hustle? Did you not write strings of words that painted murals, and paint pictures that explained psychology better than any text book?

And it then becomes easy to look at everyone else in the field like they’re the ones stealing your greatness.   But it isn’t them.  How many paintings have you viewed in your life? How many books have you read, how many new bands have you “discovered” that made you wax rhapsodic to your uninterested friends?  Or, perhaps your politely interested friends, bless their hearts.

How many songs do I have to listen to before I can smother her?

There’s room for us.  Our species consumes at a prodigious rate.  I think one survey had that most romance readers can get through two books a week, easy.  The upper limit was around one a day.  Now, granted, that’s not my niche, but I think most of us tend to be consuming constantly, if in smaller bites.  So don’t despair!  Keep hustling and maybe we’ll be household names, too.

In the meantime, let’s not let a fear of obscurity cause us to condemn those along side us.  Jessica Woodard, who did a guest blog here, just released this charming collection of short stories, Of Mistling Magics.  If you haven’t had the joy of diving into her world, may I suggest starting with Before The Midnight Bells? Delightful, for you romance readers.

Romance not your thing? K.B. Spangler is the tremendously talented webcomic artist and writer for A Girl And Her Fed and we await her latest short story, which she teases may be sooner than later.  While you’re waiting, check out her comic if you like ghosts, technology, sassy badass ladies, and lecherous koalas.

Copyright K.B. Spangler

Indie artists, I think you’re just the best, and I wish you the appropriate amount of fame for whatever dreams and anxiety issues you have!  Everyone, keep creating, keep telling your story. The world is better for your voice.

“SILENCE, MINIONS” & Other Terms of Endearment

Let’s all recall how I’ve said before that I’m married to a real life human who is totally not imaginary or Canadian. Okay? Are you remembering that?  Good. It’s confession time.

OKAY, fine, you caught me. Here is my Canadian boyfriend.

I am not good on a natural, instinctive level, at writing about the bizarre waltz that is the human courtship.  Indeed, I believe can’t write about ship like that, period.

You’d think, being a human myself, and married, as I’ve said, to another human, with memories of how that  all went down, I’d be able to reconstruct something honest.  But I am just so unsure how people do this to themselves again and again, and also it was a long time ago since I had to worry about things like whether when he said “see ya”it meant “goodbye, colloquially” or “I am planning with all my heart to see your face again.”

Let’s blame how long ago it was for why I suck at this.

I can name all the chemicals that create lust and love (they are different!) but I am out of words for that feeling in your palms, and the butterflies that alternate from just below your stomach to just underneath your heart, and the slow progression of finding someone  to be pretty, to finding them interesting, to finding them wonderful.

Okay, that wasn’t so bad. But you can’t be like “Here’s this character! Now the main character’s palms ache! And now she likes his laugh! And now she’s impressed with his mental fortitude! NOW she wants to put her face on his face!”

That actually may  be better than my first draft.*

I am fortunate to have a family of chemists who don’t actually see a problem with using phenylethylamine in a work of fiction about two people who like each other, and also professional romance authors for friends  who, for whatever reason, think I’m funny and not an ongoing disaster.  I think between these two attitudes, I’ll be able to wrangle something that sounds like a thing that happens onto a page.

If not, I’ll just talk about what actually happens, and we’ll all learn so much about hormones and neural receptors! Doesn’t that sound…cozy?

Does it um, does it look like something else to you? It’ll come to me eventually.

PS: Remember that there’s still time to get a free copy of Sacrifice! But not much. The wagons are circling!

*Sacrifice isn’t a romance, but neither of my characters happen to be completely a-romantic, either, and there are some fine lookin’ people out in the world, with things like radio voices, and golden retrievers. These things happen.

It’s A Process

I’m in full on editing mode. So, while I hope you’re in full on free-book-getting mode, I am reminding myself of the rules for that/which, removing dangling prepositions, and generally wondering why, God, why, did English have to be my native tongue?

Also, this is where I like to condense all of my crippling self-doubt.  Like it says on the tin:  it’s a process.

Since I like lists, I assume you do, too, and this one’s a good ‘un.  Here’s how I tend to edit:

Get stuck when you’re writing and go  back, read through, rewrite chunks, and generally raise Hell until you find Your Groove
Get to the end of the damn manuscript
Rewrite the parts you tacked on there just so you could say the first draft was done.
Read through it all to make sure it all sounds like Your Groove
Take a blunt instrument to several unwieldy paragraphs until they are doughy
Roll them out like you’re making pie crust
Make your favorite batch of cookies now that you’ve worked for days on your metaphorical pie crust, and can’t stop thinking about dessert
Read through  for flow
Read through for grammar
Read through to make sure none of the sentences are longer than necessary
Send to beta reader group one
Panic that other humans are basically seeing what your mind looks like
Bemoan your incompetence to your very supportive, patient partner
Read through again for anything that stands out as foolish now that you’ve let people into your mind palace
Make all the corrections that make sense from the beta reader group
Prepare beta reader group two
Realize you’ve written everything wrong, frantically find something you can polish in the manuscript
Repeat steps 8-10
And then repeat steps 12-15
Do steps 18 and 19 until you’re out of beta readers and can recite your book line by line.  For me, this is after about 100 read-throughs.
Panic while staring at the submit/publish button, so read through one more time and count things like quotation marks and the number of times you say “lanky.”
YOU’RE DONE!

Boy, Step 22 is a great moment.  A super great, super terrifying moment. So don’t let the doubt win.  Remember: