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California Bones – Cover and Copy and Quotes and Things

Oh, hey, now, California Bones, the first in my urban fantasy trilogy slated for a June 10, 2014 release, is listed in my publisher’s catalog, which means now I can slather things like the cover and the flap copy and quotes from fabulous authors all over the social media. I will start here!

First, a link to the relevant catalog page!

Next, the publisher’s summary/description:

A novel of magic, a heist, and the unexpected things that change your life.

When Daniel Blackland was six, he ingested his first bone fragment, a bit of kraken spine plucked out of the sand during a visit with his demanding, brilliant, and powerful magician father, Sebastian. Then, when Daniel was twelve, he watched Sebastian die at the hands of the Hierarch of Southern California, devoured for the heightened magic layered deep within his bones.

Now thirty, Daniel is a petty thief with a forged identity. Hiding amid the crowds in Los Angeles—the capital of the Kingdom of Southern California—he is trying to go straight. But his crime-boss uncle has a heist for Daniel to undertake: break into the the Hierarch’s storehouse of magical artifacts and retrieve Sebastian’s sword, an object of untold power.

Daniel assembles a trustworthy team of his closest friends from the criminal world. Moth, who can take a bullet and heal in mere minutes. Jo Morales, illusionist. The multitalented Cassandra, Daniel’s ex. And, new to them all, the enigmatic, knowledgeable Emma, with her British accent and her own grudge against the powers-that-be. The stakes are high, and the stage is set for a showdown that might just break the magic that protects a long-corrupt regime.

Extravagant, inventive, and shot through with moments of intensity as bright as the California sun, Daniel’s story is an epic adventure set in a city of canals and secrets and casual brutality—different from the world we know, and yet also familiar and true.

I think they make my book sound even more better than it actually is, only I’d never say that in public!

And now, some of the nice things other authors have said about California Bones:

“I both love and am terrified by Greg Van Eekhout’s vision of Los Angeles. I already want to go back.” —John Scalzi

“Great story, great characters, and a truly cool/creepy alternate Los Angeles built on magic, blood, and bone. This took me to places I didn’t expect. I like books that do that, and you will too.”

—Steven Brust, New York Times bestselling author of the Dragaera series

And, the one featured on the cover, by the amazing Steven Gould:

“L.A. noir as dark as La Brea tar meets magic drawn from ancient bones.”

—Steven Gould, author of Jumper

I saw another quote that’s not in the catalog, but if I can reveal it, I will, because it’s an awfully nice quote by one of my literary heroes.

And, finally, take a look at my cover (and as soon as I learn the name of the obviously very talented artist, I will add it here).

I am excite!!!

California Bones, available for pre-order

If you are the sort of person who enjoys pre-ordering things, you can pre-order my next novel, CALIFORNIA BONES, from your favorite independent (such as my favorite, Mysterious Galaxy) or Amazon, and no doubt other places as the June 2014 publication date draws closer.

Signing, Sat. August 3, Oceanside Barnes & Noble

I’m not listed on the website for the event, but I’ll be signing with some other San Diego authors at the Oceanside Barnes & Noble this Saturday (8/3/13) from 1 till a couple of hours later:

El Camino North Shopping Center

2615 Vista Way

Oceanside, CA 92054

760-529-0106

California Bones release date

Just got clearance to share release dates of my next books, which are ostensibly for an adult audience and are about wizards in a fantastical version of Los Angeles who gain their powers by consuming the remains of extinct magical creatures from the La Brea Tar Pits and other places, and also eat one another. These books are basically heist/caper novels with  magic and griffin skeletons and cannibals. I hope you like that sort of thing.

(Note that these dates are subject to change, just because the world in general is mutable.)

California Bones – May 14, 2014

Book 2 – Jan. 15, 2015

Book 3 – Sept. 15, 2015

These are hardcover releases, presumably with simultaneous ebook release, with softcovers to follow.

 

 

Update on future projects

Hello, people who would like to know about things. I believe there are a few of you, because you’ve tweeted @ me and/or emailed me, and the things you would like to know are this:

1. When is California Bones coming out? That is your question. My answer is, like, Spring 2014. The book is written and edited and is currently with my publisher, Tor Books, who are transforming it from a story and a manuscript to an actual book with an awesome cover and a sales/marketing plan and all that good stuff.

2. What’s next after California Bones? That is your question. My answer is, Book 2 of the California Bones trilogy. There’s been some discussion of a fast-release schedule, so rather than the fairly customary year between books, it might be less. Maybe six months? I’m not sure, things could change, but that would be cool, wouldn’t it? And then, after Book 2, Book 3 will follow.

3. Any plans for a Boy at the End of the World sequel? This is actually the question I get most often from readers. The only thing I can say to this is that, yes, in some form, at some time, the story of Fisher and Protein the mammoth and the weaponized prairie dogs will continue, along with new characters, such as Hunter and Guide. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

4. What else are you working on? There’s another middle-grade thing that I’m working on, when I’m not working on other things. I’m adding just a few paragraphs to it every day, but if I keep doing that with consistency, I could possibly have a first draft by the end of summer. I will tell you that it involves robots.

Thanks sincerely for your interest. Readers who are actually interested in my future projects are very much appreciated, and not something I’ll never take for granted. Anything else you want to know?

 

 

 

Comic-Con International San Diego’s harassment policy

Just as an FYI, here’s Comic-Con International San Diego’s harassment policy, as of 2012. I wish it were on their website, but since it’s not, here you go:

“Attendees must respect commonsense rules for public behavior, personal interaction, common courtesy, and respect for private property. Harassing or offensive behavior will not be tolerated. Comic-Con reserves the right to revoke, without refund, the membership and pass of any attendee not in compliance with this policy. Persons finding themselves in a situation where they feel their safety is at risk or who become aware of an attendee not in compliance with this policy should immediately locate a member of security or a staff member, so that the matter can be handled in an expeditious manner.”

(Thanks to Lea Hernandez for providing a photo of the page from last year’s Comic-Con events guide, where this text appears.)

It’s my stuff, too.

A little background: Diverse Energies is a young-adult anthology of dystopian stories featuring racially, ethnically, and internationally diverse heroes. My story, “Gods of the Dimming Light,” is about an American kid of Indonesian descent caught up in the apocalyptic events of Ragnarok. Ragnarok is an account from Norse mythology of how the world ends. Right?

In the course of ceaselessly scouring the internet for the tiniest crumb of a mention of my name, I came across a review of Diverse Energies. The reviewer didn’t like my story much at all, which is perfectly fine. Okay, well, it’s not perfectly fine, because I want every single human on Earth to love every single thing that I do, but it’s okay if they don’t, honestly.

What I am not okay with is this part of the review:

“…  if we’re going to use mythology in a story featuring a non-white protagonist, does it need to default to a Western one?”

I didn’t “default” to anything. Instead, I made a deliberate choice to play with Norse mythology. Why? Because I wanted to. Because I dig Norse mythology. Because I think the ideas and characters and stories and aesthetic of Norse mythology contain a whole big box of fun and interesting stuff, and I enjoy playing with that stuff.

My protagonist in “Gods of the Dimming Light” is an American kid, born and raised in San Diego, California. His parents are from Indonesia. By unlikely coincidence, I’m an American guy, born and raised in Los Angeles, California. My parents are from Indonesia. I’m quite proud of my Indonesian heritage. I’m a little indifferent toward my Dutch heritage. I am critical of America in many ways, but I’m also extremely happy to be an American and very grateful to the country that gave my family a home. None of these feelings contradicts the others.

My skin is brown and my parents weren’t born here and I love a good nasi kuning, but why shouldn’t I play with Western culture? I’m a product of it. I grew up watching American television, reading American books, going to American schools, dropping tokens in American video games in American arcades in American malls. If Norse gods and myths can find a place in American stories, then those are my stories, too. To insist otherwise is to make me a mere spectator to my own culture. It means an Indonesian-American kid can’t pretend to be the cowboy. It means she can’t imagine herself as an elf in a Tolkien-ish fantasy. It means Idris Elba can’t play Heimdall in Thor. The push for diversity should not preclude an Indonesian-American kid playing in the Western sandbox that he grew up in.

Not for a second do I believe that this is what the reviewer was trying to do. Based on the whole of their review, I do think they want more diverse characters and settings. As do I. And, as a guy whose parents are from Indonesia, I think imagining myself in the stories of Western culture is one of many ways to embrace diversity.

 

 

Hey, there, The Boy at the End of the World is today’s Am...

Hey, there, The Boy at the End of the World is today’s Amazon Kindle Kid’s Daily Deal. What does that mean? Well, it’s good for me because it means today Amazon splashes it all over social media. And it’s good for you if you want inexpensive ebooks, because it’s discounted to $1.99. So, good thing, right?

Should you wish to purchase it at the aforementioned low, low price, you can do so right here.

A note on a sequel to The Boy at the End of the World

I absolutely love getting mail from readers. Sincerely, I do. If something I wrote moved a reader enough that they want to share something about their reading experience with me, I’m happier than the proverbial gull in an eel barrel.

Lately, most of the mail I get is in regard to my most recent published novel, The Boy at the End of the World. And the one question I get asked almost every time is if there’s going to be a sequel. While I truly believe the novel tells a complete tale with a proper conclusion, I did intentionally end the book by tossing a narrative thread out there in case I wanted to continue the story. But since my writing schedule is kind of booked for the next couple of years with the osteomancy series,  a sequel novel to The Boy at the End of the World not in the cards for the foreseeable future.

But maybe a novella? Maybe a short story? Something in an ebook-only format that I could control and publish myself and sell for cheap online? I think such a thing might be a good opportunity to start easing myself into being a hybrid author (an author whose DNA is part human and part ocelot, no, not really, I kid and josh, an author whose work is sold and distributed both by traditional publishers and through self-publishing).

Anyway,  if you’re one of those readers who wants more about Fisher and Protein and the other character I’m not naming in case you haven’t read The Boy at the End of the World, watch this space. Something might happen this year.

Also, I actually don’t know any proverb concerning a gull and an eel barrel. I totally made that up. It’s what I do.

California Bones on the Tor/Forge blog

Hey, it’s the first official mention of my next book, California Bones, over at the Tor/Forge blog.

“A heist novel set in a grisly and fantastic alternate Los Angeles in which magical power is derived from what — or who — you eat … “

That’s a pretty good squib. The idea is that large parts of the world are controlled by osteomancers, sorcerers who gain abilities by consuming the remains of magical creatures. Los Angeles osteomancers benefit in particular from the La Brea Tar Pits, a rich source of fossils from mammoths, saber tooth tigers, griffins, dragons, and suchlike. But what happens when these magical resources start to dwindle? I’LL TELL YOU WHAT, CANNIBALISM, THAT’S WHAT.

California Bones isn’t one of my middle-grade novels. Ostensibly, it’s for adults. Not that kids won’t like it. But their parents might not.

No official release date yet, but I’ll be sure to scream it out when I have one.