Kim Harrison's Blog, page 108

Putting the lax into relaxing

Had a great weekend this go around, avoiding the "homework" I gave myself Friday to dig up some Latin phrases, so I know what I'll be doing this morning.  Sigh.  Still working on the rewrite . . .

The weekend, thought, was wonderful.  I've been wanting to try my hand at felting, so I started a potholder/oven mitt project.  (Thanks to my mom checking out a book at the library for me.)  Friday we went yarn shopping, Saturday I knitted a pot holder, and Sunday I felted it.  I made it double layered for better protection, but that means I need to make the oven mitt double layered, too.  Double layer pot holders are easy, but mittens on double-pointed needles so there are no seams?  I've not knitted double layer thickness (two layers at the same time) since making mittens for my boys.  That would be about fifteen years ago.  I know I should be making that inner layer a stitch or two smaller, but I figure since it's an oven mitt and not a mitten, and I'm going to felt it, I can just follow the pattern and stretch the outer layer a bit more.  I'll show you when it's done.  I've got just the spot for them in my kitchen.

I got a little work done outside, too, dismantling a wall I built around my air conditioner this summer of free-standing stone.  I want to put up a more formal wall of uniform rock so it can be higher and I'm not risking it falling apart thanks to the chipmunks.  We had a beautiful weekend for working outside, and it was awkward with not much to do.  Too many leaves on the tree to rake the yard yet, not enough things dying to cut them down to the ground, a smidgen too early to plant bulbs . . . So I went for a bike ride instead to enjoy the colors.  Beautiful!!

Cover of A Perfect Blood

It has been out for a while, but this is my official release of the U.S. cover for A PERFECT BLOOD.  Isn't it beautiful?  I love it!

I'm not really sure who the mysterious man is in the background.  He could be any number of people from the book itself, but that is clearly Rachel in the front.  -grin-  So far, we are seeing her face clearly for the first time on a U.S. cover, and I kind of like it.  Now that I know the colors and feel of the cover for sure, I can start to think about Tour T's . . .

Happy Friday.  Enjoy the weekend!  I'm thinking I'm going to make something crafty since I jumped the gun and got my curtain up over the week.

If you can make it there . . .

I'll be singing this under my breath next Thursday, believe you me, when I sign for the first time in New York outside of a conference event.  Yikes!  It was very much a spur of the moment thing, and I don't know how my PR person managed it, but I will be at the NYU bookstore on 726 Broadway (at Astor Place) a week from today at 6:30 pm for Q&A and a signing.  This is not associated with comic con, so you don't need a ticket to join in.

Unfortunately we were not able to swing an early release of the HOLLOWS INSIDER here, but they will be taking count of who promises to come back and get it when it is released, and I will sign stock before I leave on Sunday so you can get one with my signature on it when the time comes.  I have a feeling that there are not going to be too many of these signed, first-edition, glow in the dark copies floating around, and I am excited to be able to get a few more of them out there.

This is my first time signing in NY, and though I would love to imagine that there are going to be scads of people, I'm pretty sure that with only a week to get the word out (and an understandably limited tour since it's not a regular book) there's a good probability that this is going to be one of those relaxed, take your time, sign all your copies kind of event that is nice once in a while.  So if you're in the area, stop in and see me!  I'll have my signing pen and answers to all your Hollows questions.  :-)

Forgot about this . . .

I am occasionally asked if the short stories originally published at the end of the mass market releases of the first few hardcovers will ever be available, and up until now my answer has been to mention the upcoming short story/novella collection that I'm guessing is going to come out sometime late next year.   I totally forgot that my agent came to me a while back with the chance to get THE BESPELLED out there ahead of that.  THE BESPELLED, which is from Al's point of view, tells of his luring of Ceri into his service.  Al's blue butterflies, which are starting to crop up more and more, are first mentioned here.  It's not very long, but it is in there!   DEMONS just came out, so it is probably still on the shelves.

It burns us, yes it does, my precious

We have had sun for two days now, and I don't know what to do with myself.  Seriously.  That low system that had parked itself over and around Michigan for the last week or so is still reaching out trying to give us rain, but it just missed us yesterday, and I hope that's the end of it for a while.  I'm not complaining–much–about the rain.  I had three new, very large plants in the ground that probably really appreciated it.  And I'm sure that new patch of lawn I put in mid September did as well.

The sad thing is it's only Tuesday and I'm already starting to plan out my weekend.  -laugh-  I've got a couple of new curtains I want to put up, one might make a real difference in the temperature of my office in the morning, so I may bump that one up in my schedule.  I'm still not happy with the mounting hardware.  If I can change the color of the pole, I'm going to head back to the home improvement center and swap it out.  Or maybe just go to a different store for a new pole. . .  Decisions, decisions.

So this week at my desk, I'm planning on making a very large push to get through the last of it.  I want one more light brush through before I call it good, so I need to work up some time to allow for it.  I've been doing a lot of pre-planning in my thoughts in my downtime as far as what I want to do with this last third, and I think I'm ready to rock all over this manuscript.  We'll see.  If I can get through this last chapter, it will be all down hill.  That's usually when I hit a tree.

 

Manic Monday-Madison

This week's manic Monday is the third book in the Madison series, SOMETHING DEADLY THIS WAY COMES.  The first fourteen people will also get (at no extra charge) the first book, ONCE DEAD, TWICE SHY.   We have about 75 copies of SDTWC to move out, so I'm expecting that we won't run out for at least several hours.  I will repost here when they are gone, so unless you see big red letters saying they are gone, they are not.

Here is how you get yours.

Guy will begin taking orders at noon today, EST.  (Don't email him now.  Wait for noon.)  One book per person, please.  The cost covers the shipping and handling.  USA shipments will take two weeks from when we ship, international will be a bit longer as there are forms to fill out and longer shipping times.

Shipping and Handling is $6.78 in the US, $10.87 to Canada, and $17.78 everywhere else.  We can't ship to Germany as everything gets hung up in customs.  To make this as painless as possible for Guy, we are taking Pay Pal only.  Unfortunately we can't combine any other merchandise in with this, but you will get a collector card that is promoting both THE HOLLOWS INSIDER and A PERFECT BLOOD (It's got the cover on it.  Bea-u-tiful!)  Domestic will come Media Mail, everything else will come first class US postal service.

If you are interested, at noon, EST today, (no earlier) send an email to Guy at vampcharms@comporium.net with the words third madison in the subject line.  If you are among the first seventy five, he will send you an invoice, so please include your shipping address in your initial email.  If you do not include your shipping address in the initial email, he can not ship you your book(s), and your order will not be acted on.  PayPal doesn't always put the address in, and it's frustrating.  We don't do anything with your address but ship you your book(s).  We don't have the time to do anything wicked, and I hate it when people sell mine, so . . .

We have a lot of these, so I'm I'm thinking the window will be a few hours, and as usual, I'll update this post when they are gone to help avoid confusion.  If you miss out, I'll be having more shipping and handling give aways.  We also still have the Pale Demon Freebies available for the price of two stamps, which are also going out with the S&H books.

Friday!

It's definitely a TGIF day here.  The week has been rainy, cold, and damp.  I'm afraid it has seeped into my work, but since it takes place in March, rainy, cold, and damp fits in there, too.

Yesterday's work went pretty well.  I didn't end up writing that new chapter after all.  Five minutes into looking at my work, I realized that the following chapter (that was mostly fine as it was) would fit better before Ivy showed up, so I worked on a new transition and shifted it forward.  It works so much better now, and it was an easy fix.  I did manage to break into the new material I was hoping to work on yesterday, but obviously it's not done.  So today I'm working with Ivy.  She always tires me out mentally, so Friday is a good day to do this.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do this weekend.  There's a meet to go to, and more apple cider/doughnuts to get.  I've already got tapioca soaking, and a new pie tin that is dying to be used. (We'll see.  I'm not keen on pie just yet.)  The fireplace has been on, which means I've pulled my yarn back out.  I've stopped making knitted veggies and started on a new scarf.  I've not had a new one in about four years.  It's a series of interlocking circles, and I'm designing it myself–no pattern.  It's coming along pretty well, but it doesn't quite have the look I was going for.  I'll finish it, but I'll probably make another one using a different technique.

Guy promises me we will have a manic Monday on Monday.  He's up there right now getting shipping prices and counting boxes.  I'm thinking it's going to be books this time.  Lots of books.

Ready, set, whoa

It's been ready, set, whoa all week so far, and much of the last, as I tried to push forward in this rewrite and had to stop to work multiple issues out.  I've hammered through changing some of the characters around, and even pushed through some emotional stuff I wasn't expecting.  I've said good-bye to some things that I loved, threw out the kitchen-sex scene as gratuitous, (which might show up at a later date, so keep your fingers crossed) and shifted Rachel's mindset around a few new realizations.  I've even managed to trim a lot of dross away to make the plot simpler (thank goodness) which really slowed me down Monday and Tuesday.  My own mindset has been thunked out of fix-and-repair and into rough-draft, brand-new chapters which is where it needs to be the next couple of days while I use the middle to end ground before everything hits the fan to get a few thoughts moving in the direction that I want.  More Ivy.  Less complication.

So today I'm writing a chapter of rough draft, which will be slow, but I will get a chapter done today and move forward.  It's almost the end of September.  I wanted to be done with this by then, but I have to the end of October without cramping my schedule too badly.   And the days just keep plunking onto the other side of the calendar . . .

short and sweet

Short post today.  There is NOTHING that I can bring to the drama box this morning aside from the fact that I found a beautiful silver white strand of hair yesterday on my keyboard that was eleven and a quarter inches long.  How long that has been growing is kind of scary.

All kidding aside, I like the silver hair that's been showing up lately.  Life is a series of changes, (obviously) but until recently, the physical changes have all been pretty good, positive things like bumps and curves, such as they are.  (laugh)  Lately, though, they are somewhat distressing and require the instigation of long-term maintenance and/or replacement parts.  (I'm sooooo not complaining, hang with me until I get to the point.)  Silvery gray hair is the first change in a long while that doesn't make me ache or need fixing, and I welcome it with a wry smile and a desire to celebrate it–a physical sign that I'm still changing, growing, becoming.  Now, the wrinkles on the other hand . . .

Comic Con NY update

I've got that updated Comic Con schedule that I've been promising you, updated with the locations and times for the poster giveaway, the graphic novel signing, and the early release and purchase of THE HOLLOWS INSIDER.  Yay!!!

Friday: 4:00 PM Kim Harrison, HOLLOWS INSIDER Comic Con Commemorative Poster Signing at the Harper Booth.#944. (free)

6:00 – 7:00 PM, Kim Harrison, BLOOD WORK signing at Random House booth, #1040.

8:45-9:45 P.M.DEMONIC HOTSPOTS, INFERNAL PIT STOPS, AND THE BADLANDS: THE GREAT AMERICAN ROAD TRIP TO HELL panel. Room 1A15 :Kim Harrison, Patricia Briggs, Anton Strout and Edward Lazellari, Rachel Caine , Christina Henry, Duane Swierczynski.

Saturday: 12:00 noon, Kim Harrison, HOLLOWS INSIDER (ticketed signing; early/pre-onsale release of new book at the Harper booth, #944. (Get tickets at the booth?)

Sunday: WE'RE NO ANGELS: The Leading Ladies of SF/F Sunday, October 16 : 2:30pm-3:30pm : Room 1A23 : Patricia Briggs; Alison Goodman, Kim Harrison; Jeaniene Frost; Marjorie M. Liu, Sabrina Benulis and Kristen Painter.

I do believe that the tickets/purchase for the HOLLOWS INSIDER are going to be handled at the Harper booth, which is #944, so get yourself over there when you can.  I looked it up, and it's right at the entrance if I'm looking at the map correctly.  We've got a limited number of these, and you never know.  We might run out on Friday, or they might go begging all the way to the signing event.  :-) Today I'm pushing forward into the next chapter of the pre-editorial rewrite of the next Hollows book.  I do believe I've got most of the large changes behind me apart from some emotional issues, so it should be a fast week.  I'll be spending my downtime thinking about that last chapter, though.  The current ending is not going to work.  I've got some ideas already, and I need to think about how I'm going to get all of the threads tied off in this new location . . .