Kim Harrison's Blog, page 116

Robins!

I was woken this morning by a house wren loudly singing atop the wren box I put up this spring with grand hopes of attracting the tiny little powerhouses.  I'm hoping that they take up residence, especially after being woken up last night to what Guy thinks was owl babies screaming for their dinner.  Me, I'm thinking it was a fox/coyote that had a rabbit he/she was taking back to the den, still alive for training purposes. It went on for a good forty seconds, which is ages when you are laying in bed, hearing something screaming.

But nature isn't always ugly in its drive to survive.  Last Friday, I found a broken egg shell under the nest of robins, so I figured we had nestlings, finally.  They had taken up in a hanging plant, the nest fortunately being built very tall so I can still water the plant and not ruin the nest.  It's to tall for me to see into, even on a chair, but if I stretch, I can aim the bunny cam into in.  A few weeks ago, I had a beautiful shot of four blue eggs.  Then there were two.  Now the eggs are gone, and we have nestlings!  Ugly fuzzy blind nestlings that are growing fast.  That first day, all Mom and Dad Robin brought back were insects, but now

they are dining on big fat worms.  I've only been able to watch them for a few hours while I was outside on the porch this weekend, but it's clear that the parents have a pattern that works for them: one on the nest until the other comes back with food, then they change places, and the other gets off and gathers another beakfull of baby robin yummies.

If you are waiting for Guy to email you about the mugs, he hasn't yet.  Apparently not all those tagged as spam come in within 24 hours, and he was waiting until they were all caught and put in the order that they were time stamped.  You should hear something today.  If you ordered within ten minutes, you probably got a mug.

Mugs!

Those of you who have been haunting my drama box for a while know that I occasionally have little bursts of offers, some free, like the signing freebies, (which are still available for the price of two first-class stamps, by the way) or some not so free, (like manic monday books, where you get a hardcover for the price of shipping it to you.)  Even more rarely, I have signed, limited edition mugs to commemorate the latest book release.  I use this as a way to help offset the cost of producing the freebies for next year's tour, and though we missed last year because we unexpectedly moved, they are back, and better than ever.

As you can see, you actually get a lot more than a mug.  (Two are shown here so you can see the back with my signature.)  A tomato charm, Hollows bus token, and Rachel's conference badge are all included. We would like to limit it to two mugs per address, please, and we can't give a shipping discount if you order more than one since they will be going out in individual packages. (Trust me, it's cheaper this way. Weird but true.)  The signature is not permanent, but it will stand up to an occasional, gentle hand washing.

Cost for a mug with all the trimmings is:

 

Mugs are gone!  Thank you, guys!!!  Guy will be contacting you if you made the cut off in 24 hours.

 

Once you have been notified that you have a mug, you have five days to submit payment, or your order will be canceled and your mug goes to the next person on the list.  (I'm sorry for this, but we've had too many people change their mind and not tell us, which leaves us with homeless mugs.)  If you are paying by check, please tell Guy so he will allow for extra time.

Any questions at all, email Guy, and be sure to include in your correspondence your PayPal email address. I don't want to listen to him complain about John Smith having one name for his street address, going by ThunderGod on his regular email, and TwoCute for his PayPal. It makes for a very stressful day trying to match them up.

You can snail mail monies in as well, but you need to let Guy know that is your method of payment so he allows for extra time and he can give you our postal box.  It has changed.

The signed, numbered mugs tend to go quickly once ordering opens up at noon, EST, so I will repost when they are gone to try to reduce the confusion.

Thursday, the day before Friday

Thursday has always been one of my favorite days.  Still sort of mid-week with lots to do on my desk, but the luster of Friday gleaming, luring me on.  I like my weekends.  I don't have a lot planned for this one.  Maybe make some chess cakes (which are really tarts) for my dad for Father's day, and putts around in the yard.  I've almost got all my rock borders in, and the last few feet seem to take forever.  After that, I'm not sure what I'm going to do.  Maybe mulch something.

Today, though, is still a work day, and though Trent did not see Lucy for the first time, he will today or tomorrow.  It's taking me longer to get to the nursery than I thought.  Good news is that Guy tells me that the cover for the HOLLOWS INSIDER is up at Amazon.  -grin-  Sweet.  I really like it.  It's not your normal cover, per say, and I can't wait until it's really on the shelves.  For you Cincy people, there's no crown building in the shot because the dates in the book put it before it's built, and trust me, we thought about fudging it.  One thing I like is that we're finally starting to see Rachel's face.  I got a sneak peek at the cover for A PERFECT BLOOD yesterday, which totally blew me away, and yes, we see her face in that one, too.  (I'd whine and throw a tantrum at my editor to show it to you, but I know it's far too soon.)

Speaking of faces, we now have a face for Devin Crossman, the narrator for THE HOLLOWS INSIDER!  Congratulations, S. Wilburn!  Your photo was chosen as Devin Crossman's mug shot for the Hollows Gazette!  And thank you everyone else who entered.  The decisions are getting harder as we get to the end, but I should have a winner for Winnie and the fountain today.  (We're checking with production on how well they will reproduce before we make the final pick.)

PS  I was perusing, and I found a cool link for you Kindle/mac/iphone/pad peoples to read the first chapter of SOMETHING DEADLY THIS WAY COMES for free!    I'm going to see if there's something similar for the Nook and Sony e-reader. . . .

Okay, I couldn't find one for the Nook, but if you go to the first page of ONCE DEAD, TWICE SHY you can read the first chapter on your  Kindle edition onKindle, iPhone, iPad,Android, BlackBerry, PCand Mac.

EARLY TO DEATH, EARLY TO RISE, same thing. Read the first chapter on your Kindle edition onKindle, iPhone, iPad,Android, BlackBerry, PCand Mac.

SOMETHING DEADLY THIS WAY COMES  Read the first chapter on your Kindle edition onKindle, iPhone, iPad,Android, BlackBerry, PCand Mac.

I had no idea this was there.  Cool!  If the links don't work, you can reach them directly by going to the book's page at Amazon and look for the little green box on the right side bar.  Enjoy!

One door closes, another contest begins . . .

No, not really.  I'm done with contests for a bit, but I did want to give you the heads up that Guy has some signed, limited edition mugs from the Pale Demon tour that he will be taking orders for on Friday, noon, EST.  (Don't ask him now, he's pulling his hair out over the line jumpers as it is.)  I'll remind you Friday morning, and give you all the ordering info then.

The photo contest for getting your picture into the Hollows Insider is now officially over, and the last of my pics for Cincinnati's fountain in winter, and Whinnie Gradenko, and Devin Crossman, reporter extraordinaire, are all up at the website! I'll have the ultimate winner of all three of the final contests for you soon.

I'm humming along on the Trent/Jenks novella for the upcoming Hollows Anthology for next year.  Chapter three today!  He sees Lucy for the first time.  sigh

Trying to find a summer groove

It's been harder than usual to get moving on my next project, a Trent/Jenks novella.  Today should be better as I'm slowly wedging into this man's head and his reactions begin to come easier.  (Mmmm, I need to capitalize on that feeling . . .  Just got an idea . . . ) Taking a week off to plot out a few non-Hollows ideas that I had previously simply shoved to the back of my head to forget about isn't helping either.  The opportunity to maybe work on them has proven to be more enticing than I gave it credit for, and I'm distracted.  And not in a good way.  I'm making progress, but not as much as I wanted to, and things need to shift or it's going to be a miserable couple of weeks.

So today, I'm shoving said ideas firmly back in the closet until I can truly work on them, and C.O.N.C.E.N.T.R.A.T.E–as I often say to Thing Two as I touch my hand to my forehead, then his, as if we're trying to exchange thoughts but really I'm trying to wedge into his to bring down all his laundry, not just the first layer.

The contest for submissions for the world book Hollows Gazette pictures is done, and I've got a bunch of smiling faces to choose from to give a face to my top two reporters, Devin and Whinney.  This has been wonderful, guys, all the way around, and I have to thank you again.  I'll have my favorite mug shots up at the website tomorrow, and then the winners of that and the fountain shortly after.  It feels like it's wrapping up!

Good news, bad news

Fortunately the bad news isn't anything to do with me.  Alas, when I took a quick photo to see if there were any baby birds in the robin's nest on our front porch, I found that either the nest had been robbed or the mother rolled half the eggs out.  We are down from four eggs to two.  No wonder she kept checking under her when I was on the porch with her over the weekend. On the upside, they look like they are ready to hatch, no longer a perfect blue but darker on one end.

My good news is that you still have a few hours to get your Whinny Gradenko and Devin Crossman "mug shot" photos to me before I call it and the contest is over!  It has to reproduce well, so no pictures taken from your web cam, please.  Rules and how to enter at the website, here.  I'll have my favorites up tomorrow!

This week I'm hoping to get a chunk done on the Trent/Jenks novella.  Friday was soaked up with tying off ends and a list of questions for promotion that quite honestly took four hours to fill out.  Phew!  But today should be clear sailing.

Happy Friday!

Lots of stuff for you today as I head off for a weekend of yard work and family time!  First, we have a winner for the "Kalamack for Mayor!" photo.  Congratulations, JCroteau for her fabulous picture of the Kalamack Campaign Headquarters.  Her photo was selected to be included in the upcoming HOLLOWS INSIDER, and she will receive a signed copy of the same along with her page of choice from the graphic novel, BLOOD WORK.  (wow, lots of links!)

I've also something kind of cool for those of you who get the RT magazine!  I have an article in there this month about BLOOD WORK, touching on what I like about working in the graphic novel medium, some tips for aspiring writers, and a few pages that you might not have seen yet.  (Kisten is in one of them!!)  So look for it on the shelves if you are so inclined.  When and if they put it on line, I will give you the link.   (If you look close, you can see my name on the cover of the magazine  How cool is that!)

And finally, Guy was trolling the net and found this article in Forbes about Top Female E-book Authors from way back in March, it looks like.  Not only am I in the top 20, (third if you only look at sales written by females) but dude, I got an entire paragraph!  (big smile)

Lastly, I'm still taking photos of the Cincinnati fountain and of Hollows Gazette reporters Winifred Gradenko and Devin Crossman until Monday noon.  This is your last chance to be included in the HOLLOWS INSIDER, so don't be shy.  I'm sorry to see the contest end, but deadlines approach.  For rules, exactly what I'm looking for, and how to enter, head to the website.

You like free stuff?

Yep, me too!  I've got something special for you today, a chance to win one of four signed copies of  Something Deadly This Way Comes or the grand prize a signed copy of this novel and a bag of Advance Reader Copies of the paranormal stories that will be part of this fall's Dark Days of Supernatural program!

I have a small commentary piece for Romantic Times on where Madison came from in my imagination, followed by a chance to enter to win the above.  This is being run through Harper Teen, so follow the instructions carefully!  The commentary and chance to win are here.  Kim Harrison on her YA Series–with giveaway!  Check it out!

Me?  I got out on my back porch yesterday in the 90 degree heat, and I loved it, (still being used to the SC heat unlike my MI neighbors.)  I sketched out a novella with Jenks and Trent stealing Lucy, and this, I think, is definitely going to be included in the upcoming Harrison anthology next year.  I'll be writing the first chapter today.  Yay!  I can't wait to get into Trent's head.  This will be the first time I've done anything from his POV, and it should be . . . interesting.

Wash, rinse, repete

So it took a few hours of dinking around, but I finally got myself settled in front of the computer yesterday and hammered out about ten pages of the Hollows novella I'm currently working on.  Chapter one is in the "cabinet of awesomeness."

Some of the procrastination was necessary.  (sun/moon tables for Sacramento and Cincinnati, road maps, etc.) but most of it was me trying to pull myself off my front porch after a week of working out there.  I knew it would happen.  It wasn't unexpected.  Annoying would be the word I'd use.  Today should be easier to focus.

I like my porch, and I recently found out that according to some pictures a neighbor (he's in his 90s) shared with us, the corbels helping to support the roof (cute gingerbread ornamentation) are over a hundred years old.  Dude.  How cool is that?  The local robins like it too, and I shared my week with Ms. Robin, here.  She's not on the nest as much as you might think in this hot weather we've been getting, and yesterday, I figured I could chance a picture without chasing her off for good.  I had no idea what I'd find when I stood on tiptoe, aimed the camera down, and clicked the shutter.  :-)  Fortunately for the plant, her nest is built up high and I can water without ruining her nest.

Kalamack for Mayor!

Submissions are closed for the photos of Kalamack supporters, and you guys came thorough again!  Wow, you never cease to amaze me.  A huge thank you for all who took part.  My favorites are at the website, but it was hard to cut it down to six, and I'm a bit anxious to see which one makes the final cut for inclusion into the Hollows Insider.  ;-)   I'm still taking employee photos for the Hollows Gazette, but this is the last contest.  I can't believe it's almost over!

I'm going to be at my desk today after almost exactly a week of sitting on my porch, couch, deck, or anywhere else the weather was pleasant, clipboard and pencil in hand as I sketched out some ideas for the next couple of years.  I only get to do this once or twice a year, and seldom with ideas that don't revolve around the Hollows.  I had a wonderful week.  The weather was divine as I sat in the shade and planned who I was going to torture, ah, work with for the next couple of years.  Two more Hollows books to go, (one already at rough draft) but my attentions are already turning, turning, turning.  After this Hollows novella, (which is working up to be very cool all on its own and potentially a new series as well,) I will be writing something brand new–and I can't wait.  Grace?  Meg?  One is a gut-wrenching situation that speaks to me personally, the other will stretch my writing in a new direction with a brutal severity.  Either has a delicious appeal.  I'd be happy doing either, and I've got two weeks to figure out who gets their time in the sun first.  Sweet agony.

And then there's this other idea I've been thinking on, one a bit troubling . . .  I don't think I can emotionally write that one quite yet.  Cuts too close to the bone.  It can wait.  Even if it has the potential to be the best thing I've ever written.  It can wait . . .  I don't have everything in my toolbox yet.