Kim Harrison's Blog, page 128

Making the list!

A spot of good news today!  The mass market of Black Magic Sanction, which was released  the Tuesday before last, has made the New York Time's Bestseller list!  I am totally excited about it!  (And feeling kind of dopey, 'cause when my editor phoned to tell me, I know there was this long bit of silence where I pulled myself out of rough draft mode and remembered that, oh yes, I did write a book called that.)  -rolls eyes-

I never wait for the mass markets to make the lists because so many of you just go for the hard cover, so when they do, it's a bolt from the blue and sets me to dancing.  ;-)

So I thank you! Thank you for patiently waiting for the mass market, and thank you, guys, who bought both versions, one to keep and one to share. (?)

I found some tacks

It took a while, but I found some tacks, and I finally got Guy's dad's chair finished.  (purchased at an estate sale back in the 70s.) I think it turned out quite nice compared to the orange leather it had on it.  I can see a few things I'd do differently already, and where I can improve, but it is/was a practice piece that will get some occasional use, and it is what it is.  Much of what I'm fighting isn't just developing my skill, but a degrading of the piece itself, but I suppose working around that is a skill in itself.

Next project is the monstrosity of color that Guy and I picked up this summer at the antique fair.  It looks far worse in person.  I'm guessing that this was done in the 7os.  I won't be taking this on down to the bare bones since once I got the fabric off, the padding looked fairly new.  This is something I intend to use every day, so I'm going a lot slower.

On the work front, I got through another chapter yesterday and am pushing forward on rough draft.  I got the pages back from the HOLLOWS INSIDER, so I'll be working on that sometime this week.  I can't wait to get back into it.  I should have some interesting news about content before too long.  I have some blank pictures I might need some help filling . . .

Chapter Two, Pale Demon

Chapter Two

Trent rose to his feet, stupidly staring at the tree and the foaming yellow mass of magic.

"Get down!" I shouted as I yanked him off balance. He started to fall, and still sitting, I pulled him toward me, bracing myself and levering his weight over me and to the patio on my far side. He hit the hard pavers with a gasp, eyes wide and hair askew. I was already reaching a quick thought out to the ley line in the backyard. Power flowed in, familiar but painful in my rush, and before Trent had tossed the hair from his eyes, the word rhombus whispered through my mind. In an instant, I relived the five-minute process to make a protection circle.

The semi-invisible barrier sprang up around us, me at its center as in all undrawn circles. Trent sat up, his head even with my shoulder. "Stay down!" I hissed, and we both jerked as two more splats hit my circle, their magic making little dimples of color on my black-and-gold aura. Beyond it, the pixies were moving in the graveyard, and I cursed my stupidity. I'd told Jenks to keep his kids centralized, effectively shutting down our first line of defense.

"Jenks!" I shouted as I stood, my circle inches from the top of my head, and reached for my robe, jamming my arms into the sleeves.

More . . .

And in case you missed it, the link to Chapter One

2010 Drama Box in review

I wanted to share my year-end stats with you, seeing as you're the reason that it works.  ;-)  Thanks for such a great year!  I can't help but look forward to 2011, knowing that I have four releases coming up.  (No wonder I'm busy!)  Pale Demon in Feb, Something Deadly This Way Comes, in May, Blood Work in July, and The Hollows Insider (world book) in November, I believe.  Wow.  All I can say is thanks, guys, and I'm looking forward to this year!

Also, If you are in the area of Borders outside of Ann Arbor at Lohr Rd, I left a bunch of signed mass markets yesterday.  I saw them all in a row while shopping, and I couldn't resist.  ;-)

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 490,000 times in 2010. If it were an exhibit at The Louvre Museum, it would take 21 days for that many people to see it.

In 2010, there were 245 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 384 posts. There were 177 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 90mb. That's about 3 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was August 23rd with 4,797 views. The most popular post that day was Cover Art and Classes.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were kimharrison.net, facebook.com, goodreads.com, en.wordpress.com, and twitter.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for kim harrison, black magic sanction, pale demon, kim harrison pale demon, and kim harrison blog.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Cover Art and Classes August 2010

139 comments and 3 Likes on WordPress.com

2

Kim answers Black Magic Sanction Spoilers March 2010

266 comments

3

Ask Kim a question April 2010

212 comments

4

A Black Magic Spoiler Page chapters 8 to the end February 2010

466 comments

5

A Black Magic Sanction Spoiler Page chapters 1-7 February 2010

179 comments

Have a great New Year celebration!

My phone is out, my internet is too.  My editor told me to take a break.  I had a terrible time yesterday keeping my fingers on the keyboard with Guy fighting the new modem three feet from my desk and me knowing Thing One was coming in for an extended leave.  (Still got an amazing number of pages done.)  I think I'm going to call it early this week, and maybe take the rest of the day off to clean and move the furniture in my office around.

I love shifting my environs until I'm absolutely satisfied that there is no better way to arrange everything.  My mom can attest that this has been a lifelong obsession.  I have vivid memories of, at least once or twice a year for no reason at all, hauling every scrap of furniture apart from the bed and dresser outside my room and putting it on the lawn.

Why the lawn?  I have no idea.  I really don't.  But she let me do it since I always hauled it back in again, up the three cement steps and down the hall.  Sometimes I shifted things around, sometimes I kept everything exactly the same.  Maybe she was taking the opportunity to get the dust bunnies out from behind the toy box when I wasn't looking.  -laugh-  I'm just glad I can now point to feng shui and nod knowingly.  See, I wasn't already crazy at the tender age of ten, I was feng shui-ing.

PS.  Just found out my editor made the list at io9 of the top 20 people who rocked sf and fantasy in 2010.  Didn't I tell you she was fab?  Huh?  Didn't I?  -grin-  The Power List Dude, look who she's rubbing shoulders with!

Smack Head Here

Hee, hee.  Sorry people.  I got ahead of myself this week, and chapter two isn't going to be released until next Tuesday, not this Tuesday.  I knew this–really I did–but failed to check my schedule before I got excited about it.  I know you've been waiting for it, but I do have some good news in that we are scheduled to release five chapters before Pale Demon actually comes out.  My apologies for any gnashing of teeth.

Progress is moving forward on rough draft.  I worked through the plotting issue I had early Monday and somehow got my pages done.  Tuesday was kind of sticky until Trent showed up unexpectedly, and well . . . you know how much I like him, so I burned through another chapter.  Yesterday was not that bad, actually, and what I thought was going to be a transitional, ho-hum chunk of pages turned out to be thought provoking as I took the opportunity to develop a relationship that was begging to move forward.

Today I'm going to be making a foray into the ever-after, and I expect that it's going to be full of surprises and revelations as I work with Al.  He's gotten himself into a bit of an unusual spot . . .and Rachel is finding out she wants to help him.  I never expected that, and it should be fun watching his face as it all falls together.

A little snow?

Ah, we might be a little late in getting chapter two of Pale Demon out.  More as I know it.  -grin-

By the way, I don't know whose car this is.  I scavenged it off the net for illustrative purposes.

Paperback of BLACK MAGIC SANCTION is out!

It's been an agonizing wait for some of you, but the mass market of Black Magic Sanction is being released today!  You should find it on the shelves as you trudge through the stores and malls, returning the slippers that were two sizes too large and the skinny jeans that were a bit too skinny.  -laugh-  We had a bit of a longer wait this year as they slid my mass market release closer to the industry standard, but with a brand new cover featuring Rachel and Bis, here it is!

Because it's a mass market, it does not have a drop-date, meaning you might have to ask the store to actually put it out on the shelf if they haven't gotten around to it yet, but if you've been waiting all year for it, then ask!  I've been hearing from a lot of readers that they're finding my work shelved in horror, so if you don't see it, check out that section as well as SF/Fantasy or Fiction.  (The anthologies are usually in romance, and Madison books are in Young Adult.  Oh!  And the Dawn Cook titles would be in SF/Fantasy.)  Enjoy!

I hope to have the second chapter of Pale Demon up for you before the end of the day.  Fingers crossed!

Dude, I ate too much

Ow.  I ate too much, but chicken with potatoes and gravy is one of my weaknesses, and I've been eating it for the last three days.  yum!  (but now it's gone, and I'm going to have to cook again.)

I'll be sporadic with the posts between now and next week, but I will let you know when very cool things come through, like tomorrow's (hopefully) addition to the sneak peek of Pale Demon when the second chapter becomes available.  Tomorrow is also the release date of the mass market of Black Magic Sanction!  Whoo-hoo!

But today, I'm back at my desk, trying to put this plot back together.  I thought I had it, but realized I was being too complicated, and when I simplified it, it fell apart.  I've been doing a lot of handwriting-scratch on my clipboard last week.  It's looking good, but I'm not . . . quite . . . happy with it.

 

'Twas the Night of The Solstice . . .

'Twas the week before Christmas, and up in the Hollows,

Solstice bonfires were burning, to toast the marshmallows.

The pixies were snug in their stump, even Jenks,

Who claimed he was tired, and needed some winks.

So I in my parka, and Ivy in her boots,

Were toasting the season, with thirty-year hooch.

When out in the street, there came such a crash,

I thought that it had to be 'coons in our trash.

Away to the gate, I trudged through the snow,

While Ivy just said, "If it's Kist, say hello."

I lifted the latch, and peered to the street,

My face went quite cold.  We were in it thigh deep.

'Twas a demon, who stood in the headlamps quite bright,

With his coat of green velvet, and his uncommon height.

His eyes, how they glittered, his teeth how they gnashed,

His voice, how he bellowed, his tongue, how it lashed.

The street wasn't holy, so on Big Al came,

As he bellowed, and shouted, and called me by name.

"Morgan, you witch.  You're a pain in my side.

"Get out of your church.  There's no place to hide!"

Like hell's fury unleashed, he strode to my door,

Where he hammered and cursed, like a cheap jilted whore.

But Ivy and I, we circled round back,

To stand in the street and prepare for attack.

"You loser," I shouted.  "I'm waiting for you."

And the demon, he spun, taking on a red hue.

Ivy stood ready, and I whispered, "Okay . . .

"If he wants to get rough, I'm ready to play."

With nary a word, us two girls got to work,

Putting foot into gut, of the soul-sucking jerk.

I circled him quick, with a few words of Latin,

While Ivy distracted him with lots of good wackin'

"Get back!" I yelled out when my trap was complete,

And Ivy somersaulted right over the creep.

My circle sprang up, entrapping him surely,

Al fussed and he fumed, like a demonic fury.

The neighbors all cheered, and came out of their houses,

Where they'd watched the whole thing, like little house mouses.

So Ivy and I, we both bowed real low,

Then banished Big Al, in an overdone show.

But I heard Al exclaim, 'ere he poofed from our sight

"You won this time witch, but I'll get you one night!"

Kim Harrison

December 14th, 2005

Kim and Guy wish you and yours all the best of the holiday season and a glowing new year.