C.S. Harris's Blog, page 2

Some Updates

First, an update on Peanut: She's still with us, and while I don't want to jinx anything, she seems to have turned a corner. She's now eating on her own and is bathing herself, and we've been able to stop the subcutaneous fluids. It's been a hard (and expensive!!!) two weeks, and we're still not relaxing entirely, but we're hopeful. She also now officially hates my guts.
And here's a lovely review of my new standalone historical, Good Time Coming, from the Historical Novel Society:
https://historicalnovelsociety.org/th...

Release Day!

Today is the U.S. publication date for GOOD TIME COMING, my standalone historical, that should now be available everywhere in all formats.

I'd planned to do all sorts of promotional things for this book, but they all collapsed in the face of the awful year that has been 2016. At the moment we're fighting to keep alive our little Peanut, the runt of the litter my daughter rescued just seven years ago. So I will post links here to two interviews I've done in which I talk about the book and my writing. The interviewers asked some great questions and are well worth the read.

The first is with Layered Pages at:
https://layeredpages.com/2016/12/01/i...

The second is here:
https://nicoleevelina.com/2016/11/28/...

More soon, hopefully. I just want this year to end.

PW's Review of GOOD TIME COMINGhttp://csharris.blogspot.com/

My new standalone historical, GOOD TIME COMING, has received a wonderful review from Publishers Weekly. Here are a few excerpts (I'm not printing the entire thing because I thought it gave away a bit too much of the story):
In a distinct departure from her popular Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series, Harris tells a powerful story of war's destruction of property, people, hopes and morals during the Civil War in Louisiana. This is top-notch historical fiction, thoroughly researched and vividly presented, revealing the Civil War in all its brutality. . . 
. . . an excellent story, full of suspense and historical detail.
I've also received a starred review from Booklist, but I can't put that up until it's officially out on November 15.
AND while I'm still waiting for final approval from New York, I think I may have a title of Sebastian #13: Why Not the Innocent?

Fall!

When I was a kid, my favorite time of year was always summer. It was a no brainer: no school, and long days spent playing outside in the sun or reading, reading, reading. As the mother of young children I still loved summer, spent largely at the beach or exploring the Adelaide Hills with my girls. Then I moved to New Orleans. Summers here are brutal and endless, and my heat tolerance seems to have gone away. So my new favorite season is autumn, when the mornings are actually cool and I can work out in the garden without suffering heat stroke. It's wonderful.

I'm still chugging away at my next Sebastian book, #13, which still has no title (yeah, I'm starting to panic about that). It should be finished by now, but I am having a hard time concentrating thanks to the election. (I will be so glad when it is over!) I've also been doing the research for the World War II novella I'll be writing. Research is always fun, and it's the one thing that can distract me from obsessively reading about the you-know-what.

My new standalone historical, GOOD TIME COMING, has received some wonderful reviews, including a starred review from Booklist. I hope to get those up next week. In other news, Steve is gradually improving, but my son-in-law had surgery last week and we're waiting on test results. Scary times. On a lighter note, here's a picture my daughter sent me of Maddie, who's growing up fast. She and Zydeco may be coming to stay with us again. More soon.

Lots of Stuff

Yeah, I know I've been MIA again. So, THINGS:

First of all, I've spent the last few weeks going over the galleys for WHERE THE DEAD LIE, coming in April 2017. This is always exciting because it means the book is that much closer to going into production. I've also been correcting the galleys for the paperback version of WHEN FALCONS FALL. Penguin has decided to shift the paperback releases from mass market size to trade. Some people love trade paperbacks, some people hate them. (And others with my OCD tendencies will no doubt object to their collection of the series now being in different sizes--grrr.) The rationale for the change is that outlets such as Target prefer trades and others such as Barnes and Noble keep trades in the store longer than mm. My mm sales have always been sluggish since my readers tend to buy my books when they first come out in either hardcover or ebook.  So basically they are looking for new readers who typically buy trade paperbacks. Anyway, here's the cover for the new trade reprint. I asked them to put more of the original blue and green coloration back in the painting, and they sorta did.


Bouchercon was fun but a bit hectic, and marred by the fact that the hotel had a bad case of mold in their ventilation system. Katrina left me with mold-agrevated adult-onset asthma, so that's part of why I've been missing the last few weeks. Anyway, my panel was great, and Andrew Grant proved to be a fantastic moderator. But what I want to know is, Why do I look like a little kid in this picture? Am I really this short?! Or was everyone else on that panel tall?



And now for the big reveal: I am taking part in a new historical mystery anthology with Susanna Kearsley, Anna Lee Huber, and Christine Trent. Currently titled THE JACOBITE'S WATCH and pitched as in the tradition of The Red Violin, this collection of four novellas will range from the mid-1700s until World War II and tell the story of an infamous pocket watch that wrecks havoc in the lives of those who seek to contain its mysterious force. My novella will be the final one, set in World War II in Kent. The anthology is scheduled to be published sometime in 2018, and should be a lot of fun. So more on this to come.

And, finally, thanks to everyone for your kind thoughts on our recent troubles. My son-in-law is improving daily (although a diagnosis as to what caused his near-death experiences is frighteningly still elusive . . .) Steve has his cast off and is slowly regaining strength in his leg; I've now hurt MY leg and can barely walk. (I'm beginning to think it's a curse . . . ) Fortunately, I no longer have the dog to exercise, although Steve and I both miss Maddie and Zydeco desperately. We're looking forward to them coming to visit at Christmas. (Oh, yeah, my daughter and s-i-l will be coming, too!)

Bouchercon

Bouchercon, the premier mystery convention, is happening this week in New Orleans, and yes I will be there, if not exactly with bells on. 
I'll be on a panel at 9:30 am Friday in Mardi Gras Room D. Also on Friday I'll be doing a Sebastian St. Cyr book signing at 2:40 in the Bookworm. AND I'll be signing Good Time Coming at 12:40 on Thursday in the Bookworm. This standalone historical isn't officially released in the States until December, but they will have copies there for sale. 

In other news, I took Zydeco and Maddie back to San Antonio this past weekend, which was an extraordinarily hard thing to do. One can grow enormously attached to furry little guys in six weeks. But my son-in-law is slowly improving, and he really wanted his friends back to cuddle while he convalesces. Plus, with the convention coming up, I would have needed to board Zydeco for five days and that would not have been good for his psyche. We were hoping Steve would be walking well enough by this week to take over while I was gone, but a few weeks ago he tried to do too much, fell, and broke his right leg (yes; really). So now he's in a cast. Thankfully it isn't a bad break.

But I really missed my tail-wagging companion on my walk this morning. And sitting down to write without little missy's help is just wrenching. On the other hand, Angel is very glad to have his house and people back to himself.

More on GOOD TIME COMING

Here is the cover copy!
I killed a man the summer I turned thirteen . . .
Thus begins C. S. Harris’s haunting, lyrically beautiful tale of coming of age in Civil War-torn Louisiana. Eleven-year-old Amrie St. Pierre is catching tadpoles with her friend Finn O’Reilly when the Federal fleet first steams up the Mississippi River in the spring of 1862. With the surrender of New Orleans, Amrie’s sleepy little village of St. Francisville – strategically located between the last river outposts of Vicksburg and Port Hudson – is now frighteningly vulnerable. As the roar of canons inches ever closer and food, shoes, and life-giving medicines become increasingly scarce, Amrie is forced to grow up fast. But it is her own fateful encounter with a tall, golden-haired Union captain named Gabriel that threatens to destroy everything and everyone she holds most dear.

Told with rare compassion and insight, this is a gripping, heart-wrenching story of loss and survival; of the bonds that form amongst women and children left alone to face the hardships, depravations, and dangers of war; and of one unforgettable girl’s slow and painful recognition of the good and evil that exists within us all.

On a related note, there's been some confusion about pub dates here and overseas, as well as ebook sales and preorder dates, but I think I now have them figured out. Sort of.
The hardcover version of the book is currently available for preorder both here and overseas. It will go on sale in Britain and related countries at the end of August and in the US and Canada at the beginning of December. The ebook will not be available in Britain until it is available here in December (weird, I know, and I don't have a clue why). The ebook will not be available any where for preorder until six weeks before it goes on sale in the States, so  that means preorders should be available in mid-October. Again, I don't quite understand the delay, but that's the way it's set up. 

A Book Giveaway

So here's something a little different . . .

I've teamed up with eight other mystery writers to create a Round Robin Mystery Giveaway. Here's how it works: visit an author's website and enter for a chance to win a book (not that author's book; one of the other participating authors' book). You also get an entry in the grand prize giveaway, which is a complete set of all nine books. If you enter all nine contests, you'll get nine entries for the grand prize. In other words, nine readers will win one book each, and one reader will win a set of all nine books.

Interested? Here'a a list of the books you can win, with links to each of the nine participating authors' websites:

WHO BURIES THE DEAD by C.S. Harris

BOOKS OF A FEATHER by Kate Carlisle 

WHAT YOU SEE by Hank Phillippi Ryan 

THE LAST GOOD PLACE by Robin Burcell 

DEATH IN THE OFF-SEASON by Francine Mathews 

KNIT TO BE TIED by Maggie Sefton 

DEAD MAN'S SWITCH by Tammy Kaehler 

WINTER'S CHILD by Margaret Coel 

BLOOD DEFENSE by Marcia Clark 

You can follow the link to begin on my website, then simply follow the other links to enter each of the next author's giveaway. Accumulate up to nine entries for the grand prize. But hurry: winners will be notified on August 23. START HERE

Good luck! 

Good Time Coming

Almost every writer I know has what we call a "book of the heart." It's a story idea that grabs our imagination and won't let go even though we know there's something about the story that will make it really, really hard to sell to New York. Sometimes that "hard sell" aspect is setting (Outer Mongolia, anyone?); sometimes it's subject matter (say, American atrocities in WWII).

The book of my heart is called GOOD TIME COMING. It's a story idea that possessed me way back in 2001, when I was writing my Civil War mystery, Midnight Confessions. As I did the research for that novel, I found I wanted to write a different book: the story of the war in Louisiana as seen through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old girl. I wanted to write about the war the women and children lived; how they survived increasing hardship and danger, and how it changed them.

I started reading diaries and letters and memoirs by the hundreds: I visited Civil War battle sites like Port Hudson, Bayou Sara, and Camp Moore. And then, in the autumn of 2012 when I finished Why Kings Confess comfortably ahead of deadline, I seized the moment. In a white heat of 18+ hour days, seven days a week, I wrote GOOD TIME COMING.

I'd never written anything like it before and I was more than a bit worried about my ability to pull it off. But I can honestly say the manuscript exceeded my wildest expectations. I sent it to my agent, and she was over the moon. It quickly found several editors who waxed poetical about it. One called it "a women's Red Badge of Courage"; another said it was like To Kill a Mockingbird meets Cold Mountain. But in the end, no New York publishing house would buy it.

Why? Because of the subject matter. The Civil War in Louisiana was not pretty. U.S. soldiers did terrible things here, things that most Americans would rather not know about. At the same time, Southerners did things their descendants would rather forget. Look at those days through the unblinkingly honest eyes of a thirteen-year-old, and you have a story that terrifies New York.

For three years that manuscript languished in my cupboard. To say I was heartbroken would be a massive understatement--I mean, this was the book of my heart, right? But I can now tell you that the book no American house had the courage to print has finally found a publisher--a British publisher. It will be released in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa in September, and in the U.S. in December.

I've been sitting on this news for a while now and I've been about to burst. The last time I felt this giddy was back in 1997, when I sold my very first novel.  I am really, really proud of this book, so you'll be hearing more about it soon.

Ch-ch-changes

It was a busy weekend. It started off on Friday with this thrilling moment: my younger daughter going through the graduation ceremony for her PhD.


I'll freely admit that I cried all through Pomp and Circumstance. I kept thinking how proud my father would have been if he could have been there, for she is our third generation PhD. (My older daughter says she's the black sheep of the family because she got an MD.)


And then Saturday I drove over to San Antonio to pick up my older daughter's dog and new kitten. Her husband has been dangerously ill for weeks now, and she was spending so much time at the hospital, plus half-killing herself driving back and forth to take care of the animals, that I volunteered to go pick them up and bring them home. If Steve had been well, I'd have just gone and stayed there to help, but I could only leave because Danielle was here over the weekend to stay with him.

One of the last things my son-in-law did before almost dying was to pick up this little cutie in a vast Target parking lot, where someone had abandoned her on a scorching hot Texas afternoon. So she is very dear to us all.


But the upshot is I have now added a dog and a holy terror of a twelve-week kitten to our menagerie. Angel is having a fit (this could never have happened if Huck were still here, because he not only really, really hated dogs, but would attack them--and any tiny kitten that came near him.) We're hoping my son-in-law will be well enough in a few months that their babies can go home. But as of now, we have a full house and a lot of unhappy critters.