Blair MacGregor's Blog, page 15
September 1, 2014
And Now, For Something Pretty and Calming
Every now and then, I detour a couple miles out of my way when I drive to town. It’s so worth it.
That’s a little old house in the distance, now used by a group of trail riders as a meeting house in the warm-weather season. Wind-blown soybeans are in the foreground.
Just a couple days ago, huge hay rounds dotted this field. I missed them, but the pic is still pretty, especially with the stormclouds moving in.
The yellow sign in this one says “NARROW BRIDGE.” They aren’t kidding. It’s one of thos...
August 27, 2014
New Bits On SAND OF BONE
At last!
Sand of Bone is available for Nook through Barnes & Noble.
There’s also a great review by Sherwood Smith at Goodreads. (Cool news about her upcoming release can be found here.)
My favorite thing about the review? She discusses her grimdark limits as a reader and where Sand of Bone falls on that continuum — information so important to readers choosing their story experience.
I want the folks who buy Sand of Bone to be GLAD they did so. I don’t want readers surprised by a book that’s darke...
August 25, 2014
The Things You Learn About Family
Earlier this year, I’d sorted through nearly all the boxes I’d had in some sort of storage for about five years. Then my folks moved and, by February, I had acquired at least as many boxes of stuff as I’d sorted before. Some of it was mine. Some of it was just stuff my folks didn’t want but didn’t want to “just give away.” Some of it, I discovered today, was family memorabilia.
One huge bulging envelope was covered, side to side and top to bottom, with my father’s crisp engineer lettering. Ins...
August 21, 2014
What the Reader Expects
Once a storyteller hits a certain level of competency, much of her reader’s investment comes down to how well expectations are established and met. I’m not talking about genre tropes a writer uses and a reader expects. Rather, I mean those methods of storytelling that convey, build, and sustain emotional investment.
It’s been twenty-mumble years since I first decided I wanted to write novels. I sucked at it. I sucked hard. I mean, a lifetime of theater and reading had given me an internalized...
August 19, 2014
New Release: SAND OF BONE
Here it is! At last!
“Searingly vivid, and grittily realistic, Sand of Bone slams the reader into a harsh desert world full of complex people, tense moral dilemmas, and an exhilarating jet of the weird. Do not start this one late at night!” — Sherwood Smith
Coming Soon: Barnes & Noble Kobo
Syrina – descendent of the gods, one of the Velshaan who rule the deserts and deltas, cast out by her bloodkin for daring to reject their intrigues.
They thought exile to Salt Hold –...
August 14, 2014
The “I Can’t Make It To Worldcon!” Sale
Maybe you can’t make it to Worldcon, but you can meet a new author or spend some time with a favorite one, without spending too much money.
Starting today, August 14, you can pick up any of the titles below at special staying-home prices. Sword and Chant is included at the sale price of $1.99 for Kindle and Nook .
The sale ends August 20, so pick them up now, let your friends know,and enjoy!
All is Silence
Robert L. Slater
What if death forgot you?
Lizzie, suicidal teen, searches for reasons to liv...
August 13, 2014
Breaking Rules For Principles
Honestly – I don’t go around looking for rules to break. I don’t get my kicks and giggles from bucking conventional wisdom. It just… happens. I didn’t like the education opportunities others had created, so I’ve homeschooled my son for nearly nine years. I don’t like standard workweek obligations and expectations, so I contract and freelance all over the place. I didn’t like driving slowly on mountain roads, so I drove my ’66 Mustang around hairpin curves while stepping on the gas and—
Wait. N...
August 11, 2014
SAND OF BONE Snippet
No, this is not the first chapter — that’ll be up later in the week — but I really wanted to share a sample of what’s to come.Just a little taste…
Syrina pulled a chunk of sandstone from the small pile of rocks beneath her cot and set it in the brazier, then pressed her left hand against the stone wall and spread her fingers wide. Her right hand she clenched into a fist over her heart. After a last anxious look at him, she closed her eyes.
Nothing happened. Pyrius began to wonder if Dumak had b...
August 8, 2014
More of What Ends Up In the Book
Once upon a time, I lived near deserts and I loved them. It was natural, then, that deserts became the living and breathing setting for Sand of Bone.
When I was a kid, my grandparents owned a piece of desert property outfitted with a one-room cabin outside Apple Valley, California, on the edge of the Mojave Desert. Apple Valley was a little tiny place at the time – less than a tenth of the population it is now – and for a kid raised in the suburbs of Orange County, it was about as middle-of-no...
August 4, 2014
SAND OF BONE Cover Reveal!
It’s absolutely awesome!
I love the colors, the images, the grab it makes for your attention. I love it so much, Ego-Blair decided she wanted a poster of it to go on her wall.
And when can that attention be turned into reading excitement? In less than three weeks.
Newsletter subscribers get first dibs!
Cover design by The Cabil Creative Services.
Tagged: cover, Sand of Bone, writing
