Kim Harrison's Blog, page 118
May 20, 2011
Lots of stuff for the weekend!
We've got winners for the second and third photo contest!! CGarcia, and AZiegler! for their deserted mall and mourning vampires! Congratulations both of you, and thank you everyone who entered. This has been so much fun from my end of things, I hope you guys are having fun, too. Garcia and Ziegler will be getting a copy of THE HOLLOWS INSIDER when it comes out, and each of them can choose a print from the BLOOD WORK pages as an extra thank you. (Just let me know which one you want, and I'll set it aside for you.)
I'm still taking photos for protesters and building/bridge /street damage until Monday. I've no shots of protesters yet, so it's wide open. (rules, how to enter, what I'm looking for) Good luck!
Also, if you have a young adult reader in the house, or you're just young at heart yourself, I've got something kind of cool for you today! The dark days of summer has a couple of apps available! I'm not an app person myself, but I took a look at them over at the iTunes store, and it says you can "Browse and read first chapters, connect with the authors through Livestream & Twitter, access tour information, and much more – all for FREE!" Sounds good to me. There's like 13 authors/books involved, so it's a nice package of stuff and might keep your son or daughter reading all summer. Here's the link to check it out.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dark-days-supernatural-summer/id431607848?mt=8&ls=1
This morning, I've got a foggy, foggy sunrise, which doesn't surprise me, seeing as it's rained for the entire week. But I have a feeling that it's going to burn off and I'll have sun the rest of the day. I really need it. I've been working on the last brush through A PERFECT BLOOD's editorial rewrite, and I have to push through the last few chapters today to hit my goal of finishing. 100 pages in a day of "brush-through" is not hard. 100 pages for five days is, and my mind is weary, but the story is strong. (grin) I threw out so much useless crap it was amazing. Most of it was actually needed until I tossed one little element, and then the dross fell away to leave the shine. Looks better, feels better. Still needs tweaking . . . But not until my thoughts have a chance to rest for a bit.
May 19, 2011
And we have a title!
So my inbox has been very busy this week. Lots of meetings in NY (I wasn't there, but I can see the aftermath in my inbox) and me getting ready for my two conferences this year. I'll be at RWA in NY, and Comic Con in San Diego in July, and things are starting to fall into place for them both.
One good thing that came out of the NY meetings was we now have a clear and definite title for book ten! It will be called . . .
Wait for it . .
A Perfect Blood!
This is from the movie "A Perfect World" which was directed by Clint Eastwood as well as a fairly good size part being played by him too. I watched it last night since I'd not seen this one. Kevin Costner was the lead roll, which was a bonus. I always like the characters he plays. Emotionally closed characters are hard to do, and this one had two of them in the car. It worked for me, and I liked it. The only thing I wish they'd spent a little more care on would be at the beginning where they introduced the boy and the rigidity of his life due to his religious beliefs. Although it was highlighted, it was hard to grasp the _depth_ of it, and it wasn't clear why the boy liked his abductor so much until almost the end. But perhaps that was the point and I simply missed it.
Anyhoo . . . I can quit calling it the next Hollows book and call it what it is. A Perfect Blood. The title matches the inside really well for this one . . . :-)
P.S. Guy has asked me to announce that he has gotten all the ordered merchandise out apart from the few things that came in this week, so if you've ordered something and you've not gotten it yet, drop him a line at vampcharms at comporium dot net.
May 18, 2011
One more week till Madison is out!
If you missed the deal last week, The first Madison book, ONCE DEAD, TWICE SHY is available one more week through Amazon, B&N and Borders as an e-book for a drastically reduced price of just under two dollars in celebration of Madison's next release, SOMETHING DEADLY THIS WAY COMES this next Tuesday. If there is someone you are trying to get hooked on reading and he or she isn't quite ready for the Hollows, this might be it. Instead of Werewolves, vampires, and witches, Madison deals with angels, fallen and otherwise, and her world is far closer to our own than Rachel's.
I didn't have much luck last year with my pumpkins, seeing as I got them in the ground way too late (Late June) and in soil that was tired and old. Lots of male flowers, but no female, and not enough time to set fruit even if there was any. This year I amended the soil like crazy and started a bunch from seed just for fun, and they have sprouted nicely! I'm seeing the first true leaves just begin, and it won't be long until they start to look right. They are a bit yellow right now from all the rain we've been getting, and I'll be watching them closely for a few more days until I'm satisfied that there isn't any mold starting. Soon as the nights stay warmer, I'll put them in the ground. I'm thinking Memorial Day. We can still get frost here for a week or two more.
Writing is moving forward nicely. I'm burning through 100 pages a day on my last, current brush-through of the next Hollows book, but I might slow down a bit today as I tweak something I know needs to be tweaked. 100 pages is rather tiring, but I want this off my desk ASAReasonablyP. The entire summer is about to spread before me with new ideas and beautiful, sweet, empty paper. It's going to be a magical summer this year. Just you wait.
Embrace the empty paper. My newest motto.
May 17, 2011
Vampires and Malls
The photo contest of mourning vampires and peaceful mall is over, and wow, did you guys come through for me! I was totally blown away by the inventiveness of some of you. I am SO glad that I don't have to pick the winners, especially in the mourning vampire contest. (phew!) They are all wonderfully Hollows. :-) I've got my favorites up at the website for your viewing pleasure. (Both mourning vampires and mall fronts) Again, thank you all who entered, and good luck to everyone! I should have a winner by next week, I'm thinking, so don't forget to take a look at the signed pages of BLOODWORK that you can choose from in case you win.
It finally stopped raining here, and I'm hoping for some sun by this weekend. We'll see. The last of my daffs have finally given up, and the lilacs are blooming! I am very excited about my lilac tree. I grew up loving them, and when I moved to SC, I missed them awfully. (too hot) Our new house had a very old one, perhaps even a herloom variety. I'm thinking it is at least 20-40 years old since it has a tree shape and was planted under a large maple that might have grown up around it. The maple has since been cut down. (It was in a very bad place and we thought it had a rotten core.) Now the lilac is singing in the sun. I did manage to get a few flowers this year, but it's going to go nuts next after a summer of sun that it's not seen in years.
May 16, 2011
Winners of Boat and Halloween Contest!
And we've got our first two winners in the HOLLOWS INSIDER photo contests! AAvery and JPace have won both a signed copy of the upcoming The Hollows Insider, and a signed, frame-worthy page from the upcoming Blood Work! All I can say is that I'm very glad I did not have to pick the winner. All of the entered photos were wonderful, and I can't thank you guys enough for coming through for me like this. If you didn't win, there are lots of chances yet! I'll be accepting photos for mourning vampires and mall fronts until noon today. What I'm looking for this week is down below. Good luck! And again, I can't say enough how great you guys are. This is wonderful!
New week, new contest! Today, I'm looking for two photos.
Photo five: It's June in San Francisco, and Ku' Sox has been a bad boy, damaging buildings as he ravages the streets calling Rachel out. I am looking for a shot of a broken structure in a city for this one. If your photo is in San Francisco, tell me in your email just as a bonus, but it's not necessary to win. Right now the caption will read "San Francisco building (bridge, whatever) damaged by demon-caused quake." I'll accept a little photoshopping if you want to add some Inderland graffiti or some such. Just as a reminder, this has to be a photo that you took, not lifted from the web.
Photo six: This one is going to require your friends,(the more, the better) and I think it's going to be the toughest photo to come by. If you can't drum up a crowd, I'll also consider a closeup of someone with a protest sign.
It's April, and citizens of Cincinnati are protesting outside the front of a city building. Pre-Turn documents concerning bio-engeneered drugs have been unearthed, and conflict has developed over what to do with them. SGR (safe genetic research) wants to study them to help cure diabetes and leukemia, historians want to put them in a museum, concerned citizens want them destroyed. Caption will read "Protesters at City Hall show their teeth as proponents clash."
That's it! Rules and how to enter are at the website at the contest page. Signed pages from the graphic novel BLOOD WORK up for grabs are at the website here for your perusal. (Soon as I know which pages Avery and Pace choose, I will note that they are taken) I'll have my favorite mall and mourning vampires up for you tomorrow at the website, as well. ;-)
Just as a P.S. my weekend was kind of sucky. Rain all Sunday and most of Saturday kept me inside and out of the dirt. Made pop tarts and truffles, hung up a knife rack in the kitchen, did a bit of shoppin' and organized the laundry room. (pout) I've got some pictures of my pumpkins to show you maybe on Wednesday. I've started them from seed this year, which I've not done in almost 13 years, and they finally sprouted!
May 13, 2011
Friday!
Oh, I'm glad it's Friday. It's been a frustrating week with lots of distractions, revelations, and not as much work passing over my desk as I am happy with, but hopefully today I can hammer out a new concluding chapter and tweak the coda at the end and wrap this baby up. And then turn right back around and go through it again one last time before giving it to my editor. This time, though, it will be a much faster process as I tweak the beginning emotions to better tie in with the end. I can't believe the changes I've made in this one. I would venture to guess that it is one of the most extensive editorial rewrites I've done, but it feels better, and that's the entire point.
I've got absolutely no pictures for vampires sitting around coffee tables yet, so that signed copy of THE HOLLOWS INSIDER is very much up for grabs. I'm hopeful I'll get some this weekend. Remember, less is more. The entire idea behind the Hollows is that the Inderlanders try to look like humans as much as they can, so keep it simple and something that you might see in the newspaper.
Monday I'll have a definitive winner for the Saladan's boat picture and a new contest!
May 12, 2011
Ahhhhh that felt good
Had one of the best day's writing yesterday in probably two weeks. I did the exact same thing I'd been doing for the month, so persistence pays off. A couple of things were influential in my "good day writing" not the least being that the sun was out. It was also one of the warmest days this year so far, and the windows were finally all open and the breeze moved through the house like wind under the trees. I was working on an action scene toward the end of the manuscript, which is always fun–a bit of text that where Rachel finally puts it all together and figures out what's going on. The pacing was good, and the characters were all there. But what made it the best day was that I finally found my happy thought–the singular idea that pulls it all together and sets the tone for the next 400,000 words.
The happy thought is what makes Peter Pan fly, along with some pixy dust. And yesterday, I found mine. It had been eluding me for several books, tantalizingly close, whispering at the edges, always there, but never clear enough to touch and expound upon. Yesterday, it evolved into something I could. And the best part? I think Rachel sees it too.
I'm not saying that it's going to be a fast, quick, furiously wonderful text that's going to come through my keyboard the next couple of months/possibly years, but I know how to fly–if I can just keep my happy thought.
May 11, 2011
Manic Monday? Not quite, but close.
Lately I've been giving away a lot of books for the price of shipping. I'm not actually going to do that today, but if you have an e-reader, I've got something even better for you today! As part of the celebration of the last Madison book, SOMETHING DEADLY THIS WAY COMES, (May 24!!!) Harper has arranged with Amazon, B&N, and Borders to offer the first of Madison's adventures, ONCE DEAD, TWICE SHY for an amazingly low price of $1.99. It's less than you'd pay for
shipping a paper book, and I'm really excited about it!
If you've been trying to get someone you know hooked on Madison, or if you've been looking for an excuse to give Madison a try yourself, this is a great opportunity. As you might expect, this is a very limited time arrangement to celebrate the latest release, and then the price will return to the usual amount.
May 10, 2011
Halloween Pictures are up!
Yes, you read that right. Halloween pictures! The cutoff for entering the contest to win a copy of the HOLLOWS INSIDER and a frame-worthy, signed page from BLOOD WORK is over, and I've got the contenders up at the website. :-)
If you missed out, I've got another contest going this week. See here
Thank you everyone who submitted pictures! It was great seeing them come in.
May 9, 2011
Happy, happy!
It's a new week, and a new contest! I am still taking Halloween photos until this afternoon (see here for info on what I'm looking for) but this week, I'll be looking for two photos. You can enter for both of them.
Picture Three: Get your Inderland garb on, this one is going to be tricky! It's July in the Hollows, and Piscary is dead. Cincinnati is in mourning, and living vampires everywhere are in a state of concerned waiting as they wonder who is going to take his place. The caption under the picture is going to read something like: "Concerned vampires waiting for news at Matt's coffee shop." So grab your friends and your camera, and go have a latte! And have fun!
Picture Four: Something a little easier. I need a picture of the front of a mall, busy or deserted, it doesn't matter. The caption will read: Mall where Were brawl occurred last night, now peaceful. If you get inventive and want to take a picture of you toting your boyfriend out of the mall in cuffs, I'd go for that, too, and change the caption. (laugh)
Before sending me pictures, please go to the main web pages where I have the rules and official information on how to enter. Winners of each individual contest get a signed, frame-worthy page from the upcoming graphic novel, BLOOD WORK. and a signed copy of THE HOLLOWS INSIDER when it hits the shelves.
Tomorrow, I'll have my favorite 4-5 Halloween pictures up, so if you've not sent me yours yet, you have a bit of time left.
Outside of the contest, I've been working on the editorial rewrite for the next Hollows book, making good progress. I have high hopes for this week, and it started off great as the first thing I saw out my office window this morning was a hummer. The hummers are back, and I couldn't be more excited. My mom first saw one last week, which got me scurrying to put up my own feeder, and this morning, I saw one! I swear it was a female, which is not what I would expect, but closer investigation will tell me if it is, or if it was just the angle of the sun.
Thing Two asked me why I got so excited, and it took me few minutes to figure out why, but I think it's because I try so hard to reduce my "human footprint" (as opposed to my carbon footprint) and seeing hummers at my feeder is a sign that I'm making inroads. I plant bushes, leave dead wood standing when I can, and have water available to encourage small wildlife. I try to bring in native species of plants instead of sterile imports from other countries. Anything to try to bring about a better balance. I think it's working in a grand scale, and my small efforts make a small difference. Last night, I saw a fox hunting moles. This morning, a hummer at my feeder. Yesterday, I heard sandhill cranes courting, coming back stronger every year after we nearly wiped them out from this area.
So I smile at my hummer feeder, and settle in for a long day at my desk, content.
