Kim Harrison's Blog, page 119

Woke to the sound of rain

It's finally springy!  And though I've been in the yard already, now the ground is workable for plants, even with the rain we got this morning.  I'm looking forward to a few hours out in the yard this weekend, and then, I'm going to make cake!  -laugh-

I still have a few hosta to move/rescue, and a bit of hardscape to put in, and maybe a few new plants.  You've gotta love a yard that's been ignored for fifty years.  Perennials are hands-down my favorites, but I've not gotten many in the last couple of years as I concentrate on the woody plants that need to go in first.  This year, I find I'm finally starting to at least leaf through the perennial pages in the garden catalogs.  It's almost time to explode this garden in a big way.

Work went not-bad this week, and I'm confident that by this time next week, I will have made all the major changes that my editor and I have been talking about on the next Hollows book.  I still want to go through it again to tweak the emotional responses, but the really hard stuff is almost done, and I'm pleased.  Things are still changing, though.  Just this morning, I had a new scene float up in my head, something that hadn't occurred to me before and will serve two purposes.  Double whammy content.  That's the best kind.

I'm still taking pictures for Halloween until Monday.  Grab your friends and cameras, and have fun!

More Madison stuff!

It's Madison's turn to shine, and I've got the stuff!  HarperTeen also made up a book trailer just for Madison, so if you have anyone in your family who might be interested, pass it on!

The Dark Days tour also has it's own FB page: Dark Days

It's own website where they have give-aways and contests: Web site

And if you tweet, check it out! tweetscapes  They're having a tweetscapes!

The Dark Days of Summer

It's May!  And that means that the last Madison book is about ready to hit the shelves. (May 24)  This is the third in the series about a young woman who dies on her prom night, fights for her existence, winds up stealing an amulet from a reaper, and becomes the new dark time keeper, in charge of heaven's hit squad and fighting it all the way.  I gave out a bunch of Madison books for Manic Monday not too long ago, and I'm really excited about its release!  So is Harper teen.  Check out the video they made for all the books.  :-)

The books of the Dark Days of Summer

Saladan Boat Pictures

You guys really came through for me, and I've got a bunch of boat pictures to show you!  Thank you everyone who sent me photos.  It was exciting to see them come in and what my "Gazette Staff Photographers" came up with.  -grin-

I only have one here to wet your appetite.  My favorite five are at the web site here.

I'm still taking photos of Halloween parties.  I'm getting lots of pictures of kids posing for grandma.  They are cute and all, but not what I'm really looking for.  Save those for my annual Halloween costume contest where I give away half a dozen ARCs of the next Hollows book.  :-)

Call for Halloween Pictures for HOLLOWS INSIDER

The photo contest to win signed copies of THE HOLLOWS INSIDER and a signed page from the upcoming BLOOD WORK graphic novel is well underway.  Today is the cut off for Saladan's boat pictures, and I'll have my favorites up for you tomorrow at the website.  Today, I'm asking for something a bit less complicated.

Second Photo: It's Halloween in the Hollows, and I need a picture of people doing something at a party: bobbing for apples (tomatoes), dancing the limbo, jumping out of a coffin and scaring people, anything other than poising for a picture.  If your picture includes tomatoes, that's a plus.  If it's clearly a staged photo to show off costumes, it will not make the cut.  The caption is going to read, "Partygoers at the 2005 Festival, bobbing for tomatoes, enjoying the day, watching the parade, or whatever you're doing in the picture.  If it's taken in the day on the street, even better. The idea here is to show Inderlanders having fun doing something at a party.

I will accept photographs of the Halloween hijinks until Monday noon, EST (May 10th)  I'll post my 3-5 favorite pics at the website so you'll know if you're in the running.  Prizes, rules, and how to enter are at the website: www.kimharrison.net

On a more personal note, two days plus no rain, multiplied by the weekend equals yard work!  And Guy and I rocked!  Ow.  My hands hurt from the shovel, my arms hurt from the rocks, and my shoulders hurt from the raking, but the yard looks great.  I even got a couple of plants in the ground.  If I hadn't been conditioning up since last October, I would be half dead, but as it is, I'm still functioning, even if I'm going to be content to sit on my butt for the next five days and exercise my mind instead.

Good news for German readers!

Dead Witch Walking (Witch in Trouble)

I heard from my foreign rights people yesterday, not once, but twice!  And I've got some good news for my German readers.  THE HOLLOWS INSIDER is scheduled to be reprinted in the German language.  I don't have a date, so I can't tell you when, but it looks good to go, and I couldn't be more thrilled.

The contract with our Portuguese publisher has been extended as well, and the books are scheduled to be reprinted up to The Outlaw Demon Wails.  I'm sure the rest will follow.  :-)  Now all I need to do is find the covers . . .

I am so ready for this weekend.  We finally have some leaves beginning to show, and with a little warmth, we're going to go green here very fast.  I might have a Trillium flower to show you Monday.  Fingers crossed!

Black Magic Sanction up for an Audie

I've got some great news for you today.  I found out late yesterday that Black Magic Sanction, read by Marguerite Gavin, is up for an Audie in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category!

The Audies  reviews of all the books

Fingers crossed!

I'm still working on editorial rewrite today, but have crept into new material, so it should be a fun day of work.  The weekend was looking mighty attractive all the way from Wednesday.  It's going to look downright sexy from Thursday.

Found my second wind

It took a while, and the weekend slowed me down, but I'm finally starting to make faster progress in the rough draft.  I worked with new stuff yesterday and have passed the halfway mark.  The sweeping changes I'm making feel natural, which means that they were good ideas.  I should be good for another 60-100 pages, and then I'm going to have to do some major rewriting again.  It's not going to be anything like the first draft I showed my editor, and it's still going to need some tweaking, I think, but the direction that it's taken pleases me immensely.  I'm not adverse to sweeping, major changes in the editorial rewrite.  That's where we lost Kisten.  It's not over until we hit copy edit.

Last night, I bugged out of the office before the sun went down and got my hands dirty.  A line of storms was supposed to be going through, but all we got was a changing air pressure and some wind.  People were coming out of their houses all over the neighborhood, energized.  So Guy took out a piece of fence we'd been meaning to take out, and I scraped the mulch up and removed the rocks outlining the bed around it.  Visually, the yard looks bigger.  It was a quick, easy project that took about an hour, maybe a little more.  Ahhhh, spring.  I am so ready to plant, but alas, the ground it too wet.

P.S. One of my apple trees is starting to leaf out.  Yay!

Graphic Novel Pages are up!

Not sure, exactly, if I'm working hard, or hardly working.  I did finally get through that chapter that I'd been working on since Thursday, but I also found out that my mom had been over to my house, said hi to the puppies, and then left, all without me knowing.  Mmmmm, not sure what to think of my mom stopping at the house, cracking open the back door, petting the dogs, and then leaving.  –laugh-  In all honesty, she did shout hello through the house.  I just didn't hear her.

I'm working on putting up the prize pages from the upcoming BLOOD WORK this morning. I'll update the page here when I have a link.  These are the "page proof" pages that I will sign and send to the winners of the photography contests that I have going.  Winner's choice, so take a look!

HOLLOWS INSIDER Photo Contest, 2011

I teased you Thursday with me being excited about my first glimpse of the HOLLOWS INSIDER, which, if you missed it, is the Hollows world guide, the definitive source for all things Hollows, with spells, character descriptions, species descriptions, interoffice memos, murder and mayhem.  The last two were kind of accidental as I slipped a story line in among the dry facts.  It's not necessary to read it to enjoy the regular Hollows books, but much like the novellas and shorts, it expands your understanding of the characters and world tremendously.  It was also a chance for me to cut loose and develop all sorts of tantalizing tidbits like what an After Hours Runner Pass looks like.

Needless to say, it's illustration rich, with all of the photos for the newspaper articles coming from you, the readers–I hope.  This is your chance to be a part of the Hollows in a very real and public way.  Those chosen will not only get a signed copy of the finished product, but also a full-color, signed page (I'd call it a page proof) of the upcoming Hollows graphic novel, BLOOD WORK, due out July 12, just as a second thank you.  Here's how you participate:

Over the next couple of months, I will be coming to you with a visual description of a photograph that will be featured in the HOLLOWS INSIDER, more specifically, a newspaper article.  You recreate the photo with your friends, send it to me, and then do what I do a lot of–wait.  (grin)  At the end of the week, I'll pick out three to five of my favorites, post them on my webpages for you all to see, and send them to my publisher.  My editor will pick the final winner. (This is where the real wait comes in.  Months and months, probably.)

The winner will be the one who matches my description the best.  I will be leaning toward upfront and real photographs that look like newspaper photographs–no brandished wands, no pointy hats, no photoshopping pixies in.  I would love to see a hint of paranormal elements if it fits easily, but it has to be subtile, looking as natural as earbuds in a teenager's ear.  (Err on the side of caution with this.  Less if more.  Maybe take one with the paranormal stuff, and one without.)  Before your photo can be included into the HOLLOWS INSIDER, there will be a standard release form to be signed that grants my publisher all rights to the photograph and assures them that you took the photo and that everyone in the photograph agrees it can be printed.  The only thing you're going to get out of this is a signed copy of the book, a signed page proof from BLOOD WORK, my undying gratitude, and bragging rights into perpetuity. -grin-

I need about a dozen photographs, and I'd like to run each contest for a week to give you a chance to plan and take them, (or find them in your photo archives) but I might double up once I get a good system for you to submit them to me.  And again, winners will be those who pay attention to what I'm looking for and match it.

To Enter: Photographs are to be submitted to watchdogs@comporium.net   I would prefer you to submit  a lower resolution photo that fits within 640 by 480 pixels, but keep your high resolution copy in case you win.  If you crash my inbox by sending me huge pictures, it won't make me feel all warm and fuzzy.  You can send me two photographs of the same subject matter per contest.  Submit them using an email address that will be good through October so I can get back in touch with you.  The contests are open to US residents only, and there's no cash value for the prizes.  Odds of winning depend upon how many people enter.  The winners will be chosen by me and my publisher on the basis of how well they fit the specified criteria, and is contingent upon signing release forms.  I can't think of anything else except to please be sure that you own the rights to the photographs before you submit them. (i.e., take the pictures on your camera, don't lift them from the web.)  Pictures that you have taken in the past are okay.

First Photograph!  Something easy for this first one.  I'm looking for a picture of a casino boat at the quay.  Ideally it will be cold, as the paper runs in December, and I'll let a bit of photoshopping slide if you want to get creative and get Saladan's name on the boat somewhere.  The caption under the photograph is going to read "Saladan's floating casino before it exploded." This can be taken at night or day, close or distant to show the Cincy skyline if you you are lucky enough to live there.  Perhaps one taken inside the boat.  Be creative!  And no worries!  If you don't have access to a floating paddle boat to take a picture of, I'm going to have lots of other opportunities that are not so location specific.

I will accept photographs of the casino boat until Monday noon, EST (May 3rd)  I'll post my 3-5 favorite pics on Tuesday so you'll know if you're in the running or not.

Have fun!