Kalayna Price's Blog, page 17

Around the Web

I'm very pleased to announce that I've joined the amazing authors over at Fangs, Fur, and Fey. If you're not familiar with FFF, it is a live journal community of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance authors. I will be blogging in the community hopefully in something akin to a regular basis--probably, just like here, disappearing randomly when deadlines get tight. If you're a fan of UF and PR and you've never checked out the community before, you really should. There are posts there for reade...

Catch them with a Hook

Some would argue that the only line in a book more important than the first is the very last line. I'm not sure I would go that far, but as a reader, I know I've been sold by an opening line in the past. I discussed hooklines about two years ago, but it is a fun subject I'd like to expand upon.

When I'm in a bookstore, browsing, the very first thing that draws me to a book is the cover. They always say not to judge a book by its cover, but marketers aren't stupid so different genres tend to h...

Let's talk eReader Applications.

Yesterday I blogged about my growing tolerance for reading electronically. I've only read a handful of eBooks, and all of those on my iPad. I'd like to play with one of the readers with eInk, just to see the difference, but I'm not sure I could justify a dedicated reading device at this point. After all, my iPad also plays movies, games, and can use a number of somewhat productive apps. Also, as I'm not ready to give up my dead tree books yet, a dedicated device might be wasted on me. Curren...

On eBooks and iPads

Recently there has been a ton of chatter about eBooks. With Amazon going to war with publishers over pricing, the release of the Nook--the first major competitor of the Kindle (not that there haven't been other eReaders, but just like Harry becoming the chosen one because Voldemort decided the prophecy referred to him, Amazon singled the Nook out as THE competitor) and then, of course, there was the stir over the introduction of iBooks. My observation has been that over the last year or two e...

On dreams and writing

As the TriMu blog is currently on hiatus, I'm going to steal some of the questions which were asked for our "Mailbag Monday" posts and answer them here. You guys won't object to that, right?

Back in February Heather Y asked: Do you ever dream about your characters after you've written their story?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: (come on, you knew that one was coming.) Not that I remember once I wake up in the morning. Once I start writing a character they seem pretty content to live on the page...

Back from ConCarolinas 2010

I spent this past weekend in Charlotte, NC at the wonderful little Sci fi/Fantasy convention, ConCarolinas. Unlike Steampunk World's Fair which was more of a vacation trip with light networking, ConCarolinas was a working convention for me.  I spoke on eight or so panels over the course of the weekend and typically sat at my book table when I wasn't at a panel. I reconnected with a couple writers and readers I'd met at previous events, met a good dozen writers for the first time, and I had th...

My ConCarolinas Schedule

I know I've promised a post full of pictures and recaps from the Steampunk World's Fair convention I recently attended, but sorry, this isn't that post. That post is coming, so check back.  In the meantime, I just learned that my ConCarolinas schedule is up and realized the convention is only thirteen days away, so I'm diverting from the blog silence to post my schedule here for you.

For those of you unfamiliar with ConCarolinas, it is a great little scifi/fantasy con held annually in Charl...

A quick Sneak-Peek of GRAVE WITCH and the KISS of DEATH winner!

Well, you've been asking for it, and I have permission, so I am now releasing the first sneak-peek of Grave Witch. The book is still a little over five months from release date, so I only have permission to release a very short except, but I hope you enjoy this quick preview of the book. Closer to the release date I should be uploading a longer excerpt (hopefully I will get permission to release the entire first chapter). By the way, if you will be at ComicCon 2010, you will be among the fir...

RavenCon recap part 2

If you haven't entered to win a copy of Rachel Caine's KISS OF DEATH, scroll down.

Several people have asked for more information about the actual panels I sat on at RavenCon, so I thought I'd expand on a couple here.

As I mentioned previously, I was on roughly a dozen panels during RavenCon. I'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite, though a couple stick out, so I'll highlight some of the discussions here.

The Future of Urban Fantasy: This was a delightful panel I shared with Mike Allen, Rachel...

RavenCon recap part 1, and a giveaway!

Echo . . . echo . . . echo . . .

Ahm. Yes, the silence here on the blog hasn't been broken in a couple weeks. Sorry about that. I have been juggling projects, deadlines, travel, and a hoop dance performance. Blogging fell to the bottom of the list, but I should be back now.

I have several topics I want to talk about, not the least of which is a recap of the marvelous time I had at RavenCon, but I don't want to overwhelm everyone, so I'll be breaking the posts down to manageable chunks.

I spent...