Kim Harrison's Blog, page 61

EWWBD read-along, The boat explosion

Remember Kisten exploding Lee’s gambling boat, not knowing Rachel was on it at the time? Remember how she saved Trent, and then Trent saved her right back? And how Jon wanted to just slip her back in the water? Or Ellasbeth finding Rachel in her tub? And then both Trent and Rachel working together to get Ellasbeth to leave so they could have waffles for dinner? Yeah, Good times. (laugh)

Mmmm, can you tell waffles are one of my favorite dinners? At lease once a month, and yes, Guy splurges for real maple syrup, boiled down from trees not twenty miles from my house. A little bit of heaven.

The boat and following waffle scene is one of of my favorites, not for the waffles, but because they were about Rachel finding out she could work with Trent. They were about Trent finding out he enjoyed Rachel being snarky with him and not letting him get away with anything. It was about Rachel showing her mettle, that she would risk her life to save someone who was in her care, that Trent was a tiny bit afraid of her and her magic–that she worked with demons–but that he could trust.

And then there was Ellasbeth. Oh man, I really wanted her to be a walk-on, walk-off character, but her personality was so strong that I had to give her more. I’m trying hard now not to give spoilers for the last two books, but life is weird, and the best fiction mirrors that. Especially when children are involved.

I’d forgotten that Trent was against Rachel accompanying him in the beginning. I’d forgotten Randy, and the “enough gold to make false teeth for a horse” jewelry. And I’d forgotten that Rachel wasn’t impressed by it.

I’d like to think that Trent noticed that Rachel wasn’t shaken by the show of his wealth and that this was the beginning of him losing the limos and shifting to his sports cars and a more independent nature.

I’m glad he became his own person, and I’d like to think that Rachel was a part of that.

[ Take part of the conversation over at Goodreads ]

And while you’re there, vote for your Can’t wait for books of 2014.

Cornucopia of overflowing goodness (and I’ll share)

I’ve got a lot of stuff going on right now, and thought a post that brings them all together might be in order. First, Chapter one of The Undead Pool is at the website. I’m really excited about this release, so I’m happy chapter one is out so soon. Look for chapter two around December, February?, or if you can’t wait, it’s being tucked into the back of a lot of the e-books as they go on sale. You can sometimes see it in an existing e-book in your library by updating to the latest version, but you will lose your highlights and notes.

Click image to read The Undead Pool, or to go to the e-book on sale in U.S. markets. Dead Witch Walking and Holidays Are Hell might drop out ASAP, but they were on sale when I wrote this. (Quick like bunnies on fire!)

 

Ever After just hit the stands in mass market form, which means the e-book has dropped in price to the cost of the mass market. (U.S.) As a special thank you for those who waited, the Trent/Rachel short, TROUBLE ON RESEVE has been included in the back.This is the short originally released with the Sony reading app. It’s short enough you can stand in the aisle and read it if you already have a copy. Offering it in the back of a mass market was not my original intention, and I’m sorry if some of you are upset, but I lost the ability to offer it alone, and this is the best I can do.

The first of two Harper Sweeps is still going on. The first five titles in the series are signed and will be sent to the winners along with whatever swag they might have about the office. This is going to run for a few more weeks, but don’t wait to the last moment.

I’ll be having another 24 hour, flash give away myself on Monday, featuring Every Which Way but Dead, Into the Woods, and the Saladan poker chip freebie. Entry is really simple, and you can see what we did for GBU here. This has been really fun for me, and you don’t have to be taking part in the Hollows Read-along to take advantage of the chance to win some stuff!

The give-aways are part of the read along, where I’m reading the books along with those of you who do a re-read in prep for the new book–or to pick up readers who we lost along with a certain sexy hunk of vampire. I know it’s slow for some people, and too fast for others, but I’m taking about two weeks per book, and my give-aways mark the end of one and the beginning of the next. And again, you don’t have to be reading along with me to take part in the conversations going on here at the drama box, or over at Goodreads where the conversations are threaded and easy to find. We’re just finishing up Every Which Way but Dead.

And speaking of Goodreads! Ever After is a nominee in their reader choice awards! I am so jazzed about this as the readers are so very important to me, (even when we disagree over certain deaths or romantic paths.) There will be three tiers of voting, the first is going on now. I’ll let you know if Ever After makes it to the next round and you can vote again. Vote for EVER AFTER, vote for someone else, but vote. I’ve got a lot of friends in there, and it’s all good! (EVER AFTER is in the Paranormal Fantasy section.)

If you’ve never tried Goodreads, give it a go. I like it because everyone there loves books, and the reviews and conversations show it.

As for the tour this late February. We have the kick-off store settled. The rest should be coming in soon, and I’ll let you know when I do. But for now, there’s just the one at the Event’s Page.

Orders for Tour T’s are being taken for the pre-Christmas print run. We do these on demand in two print runs, so please don’t expect your shirt in 10 days. They aren’t even printed yet, but if you don’t order now, you won’t get one for Christmas. They come with a FV pin, as well. I really like them this year, but I say that every year. It features the graffiti Free Vampire symbol that comes into play in the book.

Phew! I’m sure I forgot something, but that’s it for now. And don’t forget. Monday. Flash give away. Right here.

Goodreads Readers Choice Award Nominee (yay!)

I am absolutely thrilled this morning to tell my dramabox readers that Ever After is one of the nominees for Goodreads Readers Choice Award in Paranormal Fantasy. A readers choice has always meant more to me than just about any other award out there, and rubbing shoulders with so many authors I admire, some of them my friends, is gratifying to say the least.

I actually got a letter urging me to promote the heck out of this and send readers to the goodread pages to show their support by voting in all three rounds. Vote for Ever After, vote for someone else, I don’t care. Like I said, my friends are in there.

But do vote. (I think this is also one of Goodreads outreaches for new users, and if you’ve never been a part of Goodreads, give it a try. The reviews are honest and the discussions civil because everyone there loves books.)

First round voting is to Saturday the 9th. Second round runs from Monday to Saturday the 16th, and the final voting is the 18 to the 25th. Wish me luck! I’m in the paranormal fantasy category.

[ click to vote ] If you are not already a member of Goodreads, it may ask you to join.

I’m up to about chapter 24 in the read along in Every Which Way but Dead, and man, Al is ticked. He’s tried twice now to bind Rachel to him as his familiar, successful both times. The first, in chapter one where she slipped him by her earlier agreement that she get to keep her soul and is his familiar voluntarily, and then again when Al makes the familiar bond go both ways in an effort to use her through the ley lines with the same curse Rachel used to bind Nick to her by accident. Two good things from this: one, it didn’t work, and two, it broke the familiar bond between Rachel and Nick, because what’s a better familiar than a demon.

If you don’t remember, Al immediately broke the bond, knocking Rachel out at the end and removing the memory of how to do it. He’s jealous with his skills at this point, and really, really mad.   . . . . But he’s tasted her blood and knows what she is.

Moving my weekends indoors

Had a productive weekend getting my bedroom curtains cut down and back up on the wall. Sewing involves watching moves, and this time, it was Lost Boys.  Four curtains, two hours, mindless entertainment. Works for me.

I made pretzels as well because both boys were not working, and there’s nothing better than a homemade pretzel right out of the oven. OMGosh, it was my best batch yet. I’m getting really good at it, if I say so myself, and it takes less than two hours. Again, movies are involved. Seeing a pattern here?

Yep, I like my movies, and I’ve not had the chance to watch them all summer as my weekends are spent outside until it gets cold.

My pond fish are enjoying the winter inside with me this year. I’ve got them in my office in an attempt to up the humidly. From the picture it looks like I’ve overcrowded them, but the reality is they have equated me with food, and they are all up to the front of the glass, begging.

Shelli Stevenson, check your email. I just sent you an email about the GBU prize pack that went unclaimed. If I don’t hear from you by Friday, I’m giving it away to someone else. [GBU give-away]

I’ll have another give away for Every Which Way but Dead on the 11th as we move forward in the read-along to A Fistful of Charms. [take part at goodreads]

Skimmer (and winners of the ever-after e-books)

I’ll be honest. I really like Skimmer and the emotional dilemma that she brought between Rachel, Ivy, and herself. Did I see her ultimate action when I first introduced her in Ivy’s parent’s house? No way! But I thought it was important at that time to settle very clearly that Ivy was bi. I also thought it was important that the reader know Rachel was okay with that, even if she was a little uneasy that blood mixed with sex in Ivy’s mind.

Though I’ll probably never write a stand-alone with Skimmer, I really respect her character. She’s smart, good at her job, and knows how to present herself. She also knows her needs and wants. What more could you ask for?

Oh, little known fact: Skimmer was named after a pool net, the ones that you use to skim the leaves from the surface? Guy and I had one of those temporary snap-set pools the summer that I was writing the rough draft of EVERY WHICH WAY BUT DEAD, and we were floating around one evening while I was talking plots with him. Ivy’s old girlfriend didn’t have a name at that point, and I fastened on the first thing I saw just to make our conversation easier. But I liked it, and it stuck.

The winners of Harper’s 31 signed e-books have been chosen, and they are listed at the original link to enter. I’ve already sent them out, so if your name is on the list, check your email, then check your spam email! This was in celebration of the mass market of EVER AFTER finally hitting the shelves. The paper version has that short story, TROUBLE ON RESERVE in it, but it’s short enough you can read it standing in the asile. I’ve also heard that it’s in the back of EVERY WHICH WAY BUT DEAD, which is on sale right now in U.S. markets for 1.99 in conjunction with the read along. [sale]  [read along]

As for the pumpkin? Someone sent me a link on FB to a sweet fairy hut, and I couldn’t resist trying my hand. Yay Halloween!

Rachel’s evolving wardrobe (Happy Halloween!)

I got up to chapter twelve in the EWWBD read-along, falling in love with Kisten all over again. Dude. Why did I kill him? But really, I know why, and it’s bitter sweet. He was a savage gentleman, the perfect vampire, aggressive and mostly safe. But those who live by blood, die by blood. Sometimes, it hurts to stay true to the world you built. I’m always honored when frustrated readers will trust the storyteller to find a way, but seeing him take care of Rachel when she accidentally got bloodsugared, that he made sure she was okay as he took care of business, then didn’t take advantage of her? sigh . . . Just sigh.

I owe Kisten, and not just for showing Rachel she could love fully without fear. He’s the one that first lit the thought in Rachel that she could be elegant and sophisticated, finding clothes in the back of her closet and mixing them up in a new way to give herself a new, more professional look.

I’ve enjoyed watching Rachel’s attire shift through the books, mirroring her evolution from black and white to shades of gray.

Oh, and yesterday’s pumpkins? Mine is the Easter Island head. Guy’s is the smiling face, my mom’s is the middle one, and Thing One and Two have the Pony and fanged pumpkin.

 

Traditions

I think I’ve got a new tradition for the Harrison household, one that’s low stress and creative for me, and involves food for Guy and the boys. Carving pumpkins is not new, but the boys have been too old to be excited about it for a long time, and after ten years of seeing it slip away in a start-and-stop motion, I was loath to see the “last pumpkin picture.” Don’t get me wrong. I love seeing my boys being their own people, and I’m not clinging to their shoelaces, trying to make them stay or relive the days they were cute in their costumes and I could raid their candy bag. But hey, it’s Halloween! Time to adapt to a new, more grownup tradition.

So last week, I gave them both a mission to find a pumpkin as they traveled about being their own people, then set a date for a big dinner and carving marathon with cool tools and techniques. We already had a fading pattern of carving pumpkins, but it had been awhile, and they were game, and it happened. I was a happy mom. My mom was a happy mom (since we did it over at their house and made it a generational thing.) And with two happy moms in the same house . . . well, if mom is happy, the world is happy.

I’m hopeful that this is low stress and easy enough that it will last and grow when Thanksgiving and Christmas finds them pulled in different ways. We’ll see. You gotta plan for happiness. It just doesn’t happen, you know.

Kim’s family’s pumpkins. Can you guess which one is Guys? Mine?

I’m up to chapter six in the read along with EVERY WHICH WAY BUT DEAD, and I’m amazed at how complicated Rachel’s life is already. Outwitted Al and the promise to be his familiar. Rescued Ceri and got her settled at Keasley’s. Ran into Nick twice, the second time when he was on his way out of the city, unable to take the power she’d been pulling through him. In a way, I can’t blame him, but it takes two to make a wrong thing right, and neither one is being open with the other. Sometimes I wonder what might have happened if they had sat down and really talked about it. A darker ending, probably?

But my favorite part, even beating out the ride in Takata’s limo)  is page 53 when Jenks flies the Bite-me-Betty doll to the counter where Rachel is buying Ceri some clothes, making that fake blood squish out in a sad arc of red, not once, but twice, and his delight at wanting to get it for Ivy. “It looks just like her!”

I’ve got threaded conversations going on over at Goodreads if you want to take part in the read-along, or you can just take part here at the blog, too.

Trick-or-Treat raffle for one of 31 signed e-books is still going on until noon, EST Halloween. And then I’ll sign and and send the winners their signed e-book. Yep, we can do that now. [sign up to take part] You can enter through fb or twitter as well as just giving them your address (to send your book to you) It’s a pleasant way for Harper to increase my contact list as well as teach me how to do this for RT, and you don’t have to surrender your FB friend list to enter.

Happy Publication day, EVER AFTER

It’s the last Tuesday in October, and that means the mass market of Ever After has finally reached the shelves! Yay! So for everyone who has been avoiding spoilers until the price drops (in the e-book, too.) or who just wanted their copies to all be mass market (I’m funny like that, as well.) the wait is over.

This one has the Rachel and Trent short Trouble on Reserve  at the back. This is the one that was originally released in the Sony reading app, and I’m soooo glad it’s finally out for a wider consumption. If you already have a copy of Ever After, it’s short enough to read standing in the aisle, and I’ve heard that if you update your electronic copy (especially Kindle) that it will pop in there as well. (If you do, I’ve heard you’ll loose all your notes, highlights, and such, so just be aware.)

If you don’t have your copy of Ever After yet, I’m giving away 31 signed, (yes, signed) e-books on Halloween. To enter, follow the rafflecopter link to enter as many times as you like. It’s basically a fun way for Harper to teach me a new trick–signing ebooks–and increase my mailing list through twitter, FB, and the like. You don’t have to surrender your FB friend list if you don’t want. I’ll be signing and sending the copies out on Halloween night. International is okay, too. It’s all treat, and no trick!

The Good, The Bad, and The Undead Give-Away

It’s the second of my give-aways in conjunction with the Hollows Read Along. I think GBU is still on sale today, or we might have clicked over to the next book on the list, Every Which Way but Dead. [click for links to multiple platforms]

To enter the contest for the prize pack, all you have to do is drop down to the comment box at the end of the page here and tell me when you figured out what Trent was. Before Rachel? The same time? What clued you in? (If you’ve not read the book, then tell me what you think of the cover.) Your post is your entry into the random drawing, so please comment only once–on your honor!

Prize pack contains a signed cover flat for Ever After, a hard cover copy of The Good, The Bad, and The Undead, a hard cover copy of Into the Woods, a bunny pin, bus token, and one of the very last of the handcuffs that Harper gave away for the original release. (very hard to find now) One of the prize packs will be getting a book club hard cover of GBU, the rest will be regular release.

Rules and Regs. I will open the page for comments Monday, 9:00 a.m. EST, and close it Tuesday 9:00 A.M. EST. I will then use a random number generator to choose the four winning comments.

Stuff to know before commenting:

Guy will ship overseas, so international is okay.

Chances of winning are dependent on how many enter.

My decision is final, even if you quibble over it.

I will contact the winners Tuesday afternoon using the email address they used to comment with, so please check it in the next day or so. If you don’t respond to me by email by Friday, I’m giving the prize pack to the runner up, also chosen by the random number generator.

Few other things since I’ve got your ear.

The first of Harper’s sweepstakes where they’re giving away signed copes of the first five books is still going on. Enter here.

And I’m right in the middle of a Trick-or-Treat give-away that will take place on Halloween. I’m learning how to work a new app to sign e-books for when I go to RT, so you guys win out as Harper and I give away 31 signed e-books on Halloween. To put yourself in the running, follow the link and enter how you will. You don’t have to give up your friend list to enter through FB, and if even that makes you uncomfortable, there are other ways to enter. Harper is trying to build up my contact list with the readers, and this is a fun way to do it.  31 lucky people will get a free signed e-book, Ever After. [click image to go to contest]

I’m starting Every Which Way but Dead tonight. You can take part here at the drama box, or at Goodreads where the threads of conversation tend to hang around a little longer. [click image to go to goodreads]

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P.P.S. If you’ve not seen it, The Undead Pool has gone up for pre-order! Yay! Amazon Barnes & Noble Books-A-Million (ship date is wrong) IndieBound

Tour T-shirts are now available for order as well

Trick-or-Treat! 31 signed e-books (yes, signed!)

Trick-or-Treat: Kim Harrison & Harper Voyager Giveaway Signed E-Book Editions of Ever AfterFor Halloween

It’s the week of All Hallows Eve—a high holiday in the world of the Hollows, and definite holy day for Kim Harrison & Harper Voyager. This year, Harper Voyager and I are teaming up to bring you a witchy trick-or-treat gift—Rachel Morgan style. Starting 10/25, we’ll run a contest wherein 31 lucky winners will be chosen at random to receive a *signed* e-book edition of Kim Harrison’s explosively awesome 11th Hollows book, Ever After—to be delivered directly to your e-reader, computer, smartphone, or tablet by midnight (the witching hour!) of Halloween 2013! (Note: this is a complimentary e-book edition of Ever After, and is compatible with any device that doesn’t use e-ink. Remember, if all else fails, reading on your phone or your computer is always an option! This should work internationally, too).

Contrary to what you might expect from a giveaway for a book about a witch, winners will not be chosen by drawing names out of a creepy cauldron; just click on the Rafflecopter widget below, and enter by following Kim Harrison and / or Harper Voyager US on twitter and/ or Facebook, or by tweeting about this contest (follow the Rafflecopter giveaway link for more details). Each different form of entry counts as one more chance for you to win your treat! Winners will be announced by 12PM on 10/31. And as for trick? We’ll have Jenks pix you. Just kidding! (Maybe).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also, if you haven’t entered Harper’s five signed books giveaway, it’s still going on at the Harper Pages. [Harper Sweepstakes]