Kim Harrison's Blog, page 24

On The Cutting Room Floor/last day

We’re stitching the dragon together today. Videos at the website! Also, today is the last day to order a signed and personalized copy from Nicola’s Books and get in on that first week of shipment. ( I begged for an extension, and this is it!) They’re going to try to get it to you as soon as possible, but those who are ordered first have the best shot of hitting the drop date. International is okay, too. More info Seriously, this is it. If you want a personalized to you, pearlized first-edition copy and can’t make it to a signing, it’s your only easy option. I can’t ask the staff at Nicola’s to extend the cut off again.

But I mentioned an excerpt of The Drafter. As in any endeavor, there are pieces that unexpectedly find their way into the text, and others that for one reason or another find their way out. Below is such a chunk. Just five or so pages, it was removed at the editorial edit stage to quicken the overall pace.

Unlike most deletions, this one was hard for me to let go as it was the first time we see Peri begin to break her Opti conditioning and take direct action. If you have already read The Drafter, you can easily spot where it was lifted out, and from a technical standpoint, it fits right back in fairly well apart from a few continuity glitches.

 Set up: Peri and Silas at Peri’s comic book apartment, having decided to go back to the drafter bar and try to render a memory from what is there. But they have to shake Opti first.

 

      Breathless, Peri peeked through the blinds: People walking, cars driving. The raggedy man on the corner playing music—a black car parked illegally at the curb. They’d found me? “I need to render something, or I’m going to go crazy and you won’t get your damned list.”

     “I’m not worried about the list. I’m worried about you!” Silas said.

     “Well, we can’t stay here. Opti’s at the front door.”

     “What!” Silas pushed close behind her, the warmth of his body real and obvious. Focus blurring, she breathed in his scent, feeling herself come alive with adrenaline. Silas’s scent wound through it all, binding it. “Howard and Taf,” he whispered as he dropped back, his head down over his phone.

     “They’re okay. The car wasn’t there when they left. Text them, but we have to go.”

     “Go? Go where?” Silas said, eyes widening hen she gave him a where-do-you-think look. “Overdraft?” he blurted. “Now? Are you crazy?”

      Did it make a difference? “We have five minutes before reinforcements show once they know for sure we’re still here. Bring what you want. We’re not coming back.”

Click for the rest

If you missed the real teaser of how Silas and Peri met, you can still pick it up from Amazon or B&N. This is a .99 cent novelette of about 50 pages with the first chapter of The Drafter tacked onto the end, and you don’t have to have a Nook or Kindle to read it.

Click for more info

Click for more info

 

Every dragon has a tummy

Dragon tummies and back ridges. I’ve got the instructions for both at the website today. I’m out of the office for a few days eating fudge, riding bikes, and seeing NO cars whatsoever once I get there. Any guess where I am? (grin)

Dragon instructions

Wednesday is Dragon Day!

I’ve got great news if you missed out on the signed/personalized first edition copies of The Drafter from Nicolas. I talked to them, and they agreed to extend the cut off for signed with a note copies to August 17th. They’re going to try their best to get them to you at or around the drop date, but if the volume is too high for them to handle, your book might be a little late. If you’re at the West Coast, this or B&N might be your only shot at a signed first edition.

I don’t know if you saw my response yesterday to seeing these beautiful babies for the first time, but this has GOT to be the most elaborate cover I’ve ever had. It’s been pearlized, so it has depth and almost glows. I can’t imagine anything other than the first editions are going to get this treatment, so you’ll know it if you see it. ( To order from Nicolas. ) ( To order signed copy from B&N )

Dude. Pull yourself together.

If you’re keeping up with the knit along, your dragon should be looking like an eviscerated animal. But that’s okay!

Today I’m giving you just the instructions for the head over at the website, but I’ll give you the tummy panel and the back ridge tomorrow and Friday, which means Monday . . . we begin to stitch it all together. We can have this thing done by Tuesday. I’m so hoping to see some dragons on tour to take pictures with. I’m going to bring my dragon along as well, and if you’ve not heard yet, I’ll be giving him away at the end of the tour. (Keep your Drafter receipts!!)

I do believe we’ll need a contest to name him, yes?

 

Also, I’d like to thank everyone who picked up Sideswiped for their kindle or nook the past couple of days. I don’t know if it’s still there, but it was number one at Amazon for short reads in the two-hour mystery, thriller category. Wow. What a great place to be.

And thank you everyone who put up a review. That is a true compliment. I was so worried that Silas would come off wrong, but I seem to have found the words to make him as real to you as to me.

 

 

Click for more info

Click for more info

 

I saw it

And I touched it, too. Last night, I went in to Nicolas to sign/personalize the pre-ordered copies. It was the first time I’d seen a real copy of the book, and I was totally floored. There is no way anything other than the first edition is going to get this treatment because it is pearlized, raised, and absolutely a delight to touch. Seriously, they almost glow with depth, and for someone who lives for texture, color, and balance, it is fabulous.

I got to sign a bunch of them.

I asked if Nicolas might extend the deadline for ordering these and getting in on the “ship to reach you by the drop date week.” The more orders they get over the next few days, the more likely they will stretch it out, and I don’t mind going in and signing again. But regardless, you can still order one if you don’t mind possibly getting it after the first week it’s out. It will be signed to you if you like.

And it will shine.

 

 

Click to order

Sideswiped out today

 

Every hero, even the accidental ones, have a beginning.

Silas’s radical theory that drafters are not replaying time as much as they are temporarily sliding into an alternate universe has never been well-received, but the darling of Opti’s research has enough clout not to care, until a professor with a grudge tries to put a permanent end to it.

Love can’t alter time, and sometimes, even being able to rub out a single mistake isn’t enough.

Today is the day! Sideswiped is out, and with it is the first few pages of The Drafter.

 

Click for more info

Click for more info

 

 

 

 

 

If you were pulling your hair out this weekend trying to get those back legs attached, you have my apologies. I only meant to post the instructions up to the hips. I had a very helpful video on how to actually attach them sitting on my desktop to go with the printed instructions. Ah, they are now up and online. I’m so sorry. It was mean of me to have given you the printed instructions without the video, but I didn’t cut them off at the right spot and I gave you more than I realized.

For the updated instructions and ALL the videos, check out the link to the website.

Why I need tour shirts-Because I have a tour bus!

Okay, how totally cool is this? Look for this baby tooling down the road the first week in September as you head to your Labor Day vacation spot. I’ll be in it, headed for an event. (grin)

I’m hoping that we can take our traditional family photo at each stop with the tour T’s in front of it. I’m not sure how this is going to play out, but if we get a large group, I’m going to insist.

I think Tim is even happier than me. He hates flying. The nice thing about the bus is that I can work while traveling. Not that I couldn’t work in the airports, but try to get a good signal with a hundred other iphones within touching distance. I can also bring my milkweed pods to give away. Yay!

Here’s a link to my event’s page to see if I’m coming within striking distance. Stores and times are listed as well.

Click to go to event’s page for stores/times

I hope to have the chance to take a few pictures with my dragon and yours before I give him away at the end of the tour. (Save your Drafter receipts!)

Working on your dragon? Here’s the instructions for the tail and hips. I’ll start you on attaching the legs on Monday, and it’s fast from there on out!. We’re starting the body now, and it will come together fast! That’s the nice thing about small pieces. (Don’t let the number of needles scare you! They go away fast.)

 

Goodread’s giveaway in last two days.

It seems FB delivers posts to a tiny fraction when I give FB a link to a website I’ve already posted about. Which puts me in a bind when I’m trying to promote the give-away of 30 DRAFTERs on Goodreads. (Ends in two days) So to try to boost FB deliveries, I’m putting the link on my blog, and directing you here from FB to there. Last time, it went to 980 peeps out of 89,000. I’m very curious how many it will go to with this method, using a new address.

To enter, follow this link:

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/enter_choose_address/148184-the-drafter

Success!

It was a good day yesterday, the culmination of three friggin’ years of hoping, and wishing, and trying, and fixing. A small victory, but one that means a lot to me.

See, I grew up with a mom who would take me out hunting for monarch caterpillars,  combing stands of milkweed for yellow, white, and black larva. We’d carefully bring them home with a fresh leaf or two, putting them in mayo jars with holes punched in the lids. They would dutifully eat their way through the fresh milkweed every day, then pupate into little green and gold purses that would turn black just before they hatch.

After they hatched, we’d let them go.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I found out that the monarchs we hatched were actually the last generation of a 3000 mile migration, running from Mexico where they overwinter, (like the fairies of the Hollows) all the way up the heart of the U.S. and into Canada and back. It takes four generations of them to make the journey to Canada, and it’s that last one that flies all the way back to Mexico, waiting the winter out before traveling up into the U.S. again to lay the first generation of the cycle again.

I’m not alone in my childhood remembrances, and I’m seeing what everyone else is–fewer butterflies every year. I’m guessing it’s due to their food plant being poisoned by insecticide-laten corn pollen. I’ve heard weather being blamed as well, but come on. If you genetically engineer your corn to kill insects, it’s going to kill insects, and milkweed grows at the edge of the corn.

But I said success, and there is some. The governments of three countries are working together to make flyways. What makes me feel as if it might work is that I’ve been seeing personal stands of milkweed in yards and gardens around town. And finally, after three years, I found “Larry” on the milkweed stand that I started from a pod of seeds Tim brought back for me. It took a year before I got any plants. Two years before they flowered. Year three brought me a reasonable stand of them, lots of flowers . . . and Larry.

If you came to last year’s final tour event, you might remember I gave away a few pods of seeds to readers who had been following my monarch drama that year. This summer was kind to my milkweed, and I’ve got pods ripening up all over my yard. If they are ready, I’ll be bringing them on tour to give away to readers who come out to see me. Larry needs a way back to Mexico.

The Drafter  Tour stops/times

9/1 Detroit Ann Arbor, Mi – Nicola’s

9/2 Cincinnati, OH – Joseph-Beth

9/3 Lexington, KY – Joseph-Beth

9/4 Raleigh, NC – Quail Ridge Books

9/5 Charlotte, NC – Park Road Books

9/5 Atlanta, GA – Barnes & Noble

9/6 Birmingham, AL – Books-a-Million

9/6 Nashville, TN – Barnes & Noble

 
More info on Monarchs
 

I’ve also got the instructions for the dragon’s back legs at the website today. I won’t be giving you anything more until Friday. I’m sorry this is so fast, but I want to finish up before I go on the road.

 

Frog Pond

Yesterday was pretty much the first time in twenty years that I woke up on a Monday and wasn’t ready to write. Oh, I’ve got stuff I could do, but every time I sit down, I get ugly and bad-tempered. I worked all of last year with a stress headache caused by the uncertainty of changing publishers, and I’m not going to do it again. So I spent my day making a frog pond instead.

Today I’m not enthused about working either, apart from the gottas that come with a book coming out in less than a month–so I’m going to put in the plants I bought over the weekend, a fern-buying spree spurred on by spotting the tadpoles in a garden center’s pond plant display. (They gave me some! How nice is that?)

I’m concerned the area might get too much sun as one of our trees is eventually coming down, probably on top of our neighbor’s car as well as taking out the electrical pole the city just replaced. (The city said they’d take it down this spring, but they lost interest. Funny how that works.) And when the tree goes, the pond will get six hours of hot afternoon sun instead of three hours of it. Good for the pond, bad for the ferns. I’m trying to plant accordingly.

It’s hard to see, but it’s only about five inches deep, so it should warm up nicely and get those tadpoles to frogs in no time. I’ve got lettuce in there for them since it’s a new system and there is nothing decaying for them to eat, and when they come out, if they don’t roam too far, they get to live in a pesticide free garden.

The liner itself I got at a home improvement store, cheap and easy, being one of those shallow liners you put in a half whisky barrel. Putting it in was even easier since I’d had a pond there before. It feels good having water over there again. But no fish. This one is for the frogs alone–though on second thought, I might put in some minnows to eat the mosquito larva.

Click to order

Just so you know, tomorrow is the last day to order a signed/ personalized Drafter from Nicola’s and get in on that September 1st shippment. You can still order after that date, but I might not be in again before I go on tour to sign them, and you’ll have to wait till I get back. (Shirts are nearing a cut-off as well.)

Click to order

Or, you can order from B&N and get a pre signed book that way. Either one works.

 

 

 

Don’t knit, want a dragon?

I’ve got the instructions for knitting your dragon’s front legs over at the website today. (link is on the leg picture) I’ll give you the how-to for the back legs on Wednesday, and then we start the body over the weekend. I’ve been seeing some of  your wings on instagram, FB, and twitter at #KHDragon. They are all looking so great! I can’t explain to you how many wings I’ve done, and to see other people’s wings is a very good feeling.

Also, I’ve been chatting with my publisher, and there might be a way for you non-knitters to win the dragon that I’m knitting. Save your receipts for The Drafter. It might come in handy. ;-)

We are getting very close to the cut-off for getting in on the first signed/personalized shipment from Nicolas. They are going to do their best to get them to you at the drop date of September 1st, but to even have a hope, you have to order NOW! I’ll be going in soon to start signing them, and they have to be packaged and addressed, and you can imagine that calling up on week before and trying to get a book on drop-week. Cut off is August 5th to get in on the Sep 1st shipment.

If you can’t make it to a signing, this is probably the only way to get one personalized to you.

Click to order