Judith Graves's Blog, page 9

Library Technicians ROCK…in the mountains

This weekend I’ll be sipping tea while staring up at the snow-capped Rocky Mountains surrounding Canmore, Alberta for the 38th Annual Alberta Association of Library Technicians Conference, aptly themed “Achieving Balance”. For there’s a lot on the plates of library staff these days – with fewer forks to go around.

So we’re out there digging into the meat and potatoes aspects of our jobs: cataloguing, processing, shelving, circulation, as well as the rich desserts: readers advisory, fostering the love of reading and information literacy, inquiry-based research, literature searches, database and website maintenance, Twitter, Facebook, author visits, book fairs, special events, purchasing, collection development – all the while struggling to increase awareness of our skills, finding new ways to work with teachers, doctors, lawyers, and other professionals to make sure they can do their jobs efficiently.

Balance. Yup, it’s a tricky thing.

Which is why conferences like this are so important. Library types can hang out (we don’t even shush each other), share resources, brain pick, and have some pretty cool “ah-ha” moments – and enjoy the glory that is nature. The trails, lakes, forests, wild life.

I can’t wait to attend the fantastic workshops I’ve registered for, catch up with my library friends, as well as present my own take on Virtual Author Visits to DIE For. My session will feature a pre-recorded message from the very cool YA steampunk author, Arthur Slade and a live Skype visit by the great YA paranormal fiction author, Shannon Delany.

Bring. It. On.

Love Is Murder

As a member of the International Thriller Writers (ITW), I’m…uh…thrilled to spread the word about a new anthology set to grab you by the throat on May 29th – LOVE IS MURDER. This is an adult fiction collection that will “…leave you breathless.” Karin Slaughter, #1 Internationally bestselling author.

Go on vacation with Allison Brennan’s Lucy Kincaid, where she saves a man from drowning, only to discover he is in far greater danger on land. Meet Roxanne St. Claire’s “bullet catcher”–bodyguard Donovan Rush–who may have met his match in the sexually charged “Diamond Drop.” Debut authorWilliam Simon shows us what happens when the granddaughter of the president of the United States is kidnapped. And Lee Child’s pitch-perfect “I Heard a Romantic Story” puts a whole new spin on Love Is Murder.

Bodyguards, vigilantes, stalkers, serial killers, women (and men!) in jeopardy, cops, thieves, PIs, killers–these all-new stories will keep you thrilled and chilled late into the night.

With original short stories from Lori Armstrong, Jeff Ayers, Beverly Barton, William Bernhardt, Allison Brennan, Robert Browne, Pamela Callow, Toni McGee Causey, Lee Child, JT Ellison, Bill Floyd, Cindy Gerard, Heather Graham, Laura Griffin, Vicki Hinze, Andrea Kane, Julie Kenner, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Dianna Love, Jon Land, D.P. Lyle, James Macomber, Carla Neggers, Brenda Novak, Patricia Rosemoor, William Simon, Alexandra Sokoloff, Roxanne St. Claire, Mariah Stewart, and Debra Webb, you won’t want to miss this!

Here’s a link to the ITW page for the anthology for more info and pre-orders: http://tinyurl.com/6wucqoq

April…the month of Titanic launches

And thankfully, none of my launches this month…sunk. The last few weeks have been an organizational deluge as I embarked on a double book launch party here in my home town of Cold Lake, as well as a separate book launch in Edmonton with two other lovely authors. Stressful? A smidge, but, so much fun. Thankfully I had an amazing crew of friends and family to help see these events come together.

First up was the double launch and Gothic Tea party celebrating the release of Second Skin and SPIRITED. From the amazing boys of the Fort Kent Band, to Mr. Ryan Bailey – MC extraordinaire – complete with historically accurate “porkchops”, Mr. Graves for being a sport and sporting a top hat with goggles, a ray gun and a pipe, the owners of our local indie bookstore, Lots-A-Books, in costume, the tea dueling, and the great turn out of people into the SKINNED series. Bonus – the arrival of fellow SPIRITED contributor, Dawn Dalton to help me sign copies!

The karaoke after party for those old enough to attend was the stuff of legend, my friends.

If that amazing night wasn’t enough to give any author a rush – last night we (and by “we” I mean Dawn Dalton and another SPIRITED contributor, Halli Dee Lilburn) had the Edmonton book launch party for SPIRITED at the very cool Happy Harbor Comics with live tunes by CALISTA. This event was a fundraiser for WordsWorth, a youth writing camp facilitated by the Writer’s Guild of Alberta.

Freaking wowza! The tunes, the people, the atmosphere, the zombies, skulls – the BOOKS and COMICS! Highlights were drop ins from some old friends (of the librarian kind), as well as Alberta poet, Alexis Kienlen (who will be one of the instructors at WordsWorth this summer), and THE Andrew Foley, co-writer of the graphic novel-turned film, Cowboys and Aliens - you know, the film with HARRISON FORD and that other guy, DANIEL CRAIG.

Special thanks go out to Dawn’s amazing hubbie, Jeff, who supplied our macabre decor and kept us on track, as well as to the talented illustrator turned-MC-at-the-last-minute-and-kicked-ass, James, CALISTA for rocking so hard, and Jay at Happy Harbor for being such a gracious host.

Indie bookstores, cafes, comic shops. These are the businesses who support artists and build communities. I love them all. Here’s hoping we can do it all again next year for the launch of Skin of My Teeth.

Kool 101.3 Radio Interview

Whoot, had a wonderful time hanging out with the crew at Kool 101.3. I only blanked out once during the interview…gack…nothing like dead air on live radio. o.O But otherwise, the banter was witty and I think I managed to impart all the important details. The Fort Kent Band, who will be performing at the Gothic Tea / Book Launch Party TOMORROW night, joined us and cranked out a tune.

LISTEN to the full interview and performance HERE! (Thanks to Kool for providing the clip.)

Here’s a pic of the FKB boys in the studio:

Radio Interview

I'll be live at Kool 101.3 80′s 90′s and NOW this morning to promote tomorrow's GOTHIC TEA AND BOOK LAUNCH PARTY with guests, the FORT KENT BAND, from, you know….Fort Kent. Have a listen: http://www.1013koolfm.com/

Can't believe the launch party is FRIDAY!

Monstrously Poetic April

This month, my good friend and writing partner, Dawn Dalton, and I are featuring 26 beasties over 26 days on our Most-Wanted Monsters blog. It's part of the A-Z Blogging Challenge in which over 1000 bloggers are posting alphabetically all month long. Of course, we luvs themes, and since there are so many monsters to cover, we came up with one for each letter. And believe me, some of them were a challenge.

Oh, and to further the awesome, we've given a nod to April being Poetry Month and tossed in an ode to each monster, each day. Dawn is actually braver than I – she's even doing a separate A-Z on her own blog – 26 young adult book reviews, as well as on her OTHER blog under the name, Dawn Ius with the wonderful Jessica Bell – 26 different songs/musicians they love. Oy! You won't want to miss out on any of this alphabetical madness.

But we didn't stop there, no sir! Each Friday on MWM we're giving away an ebook edition of SPIRITED: 13 Haunting Tales. So get on over to the Most-Wanted Monsters blog, comment on the posts, and be entered to win!

Second Skin Blog Tour WINNER(S)

Okay – it's time to announce the GRAND PRIZE winner – and this is no April Fools. I tracked down all the comments from my blog, as well as participating authors and bloggers sites, compiled them into a list and used a random number generator to select the winner.

The Second Skin Blog Tour GRAND PRIZE goes to "Jenny" - who commented on this post at the Book Swarm blog. JENNY, please email me with your mailing address and I'll send out the package ASAP.

Because there were so many great comments, I decided to do two more "runner up" prizes.

1st Runner up is "Missie" who commented on this post on the Bewitched Bookworms blog.

2nd is "Donnas" who faithfully commented on as many posts as she could.

Both Missie and Donnas win the ebook editions of UNDER MY SKIN and SECOND SKIN – just have to fire me your emails, guys and I'll send them your way via Amazon's "Buy for a Friend" feature.

THANKS again to EVERYONE who helped celebrate Second Skin's book launch.

 

Last chance to enter!

For the Second Skin Blog Tour grand prize – which is this big bad, wonderful, SWAG package:

Just comment on any (or all) of the tour posts to enter. The more times you comment, the more your name is entered in the draw. I'll announce the winner on APRIL 1ST. Seriously.

In other news, I'm thrilled to announce UNDER MY SKIN has made it to the top 100 Kindle sales in the horror genre for the last few days. Nice. And SECOND SKIN is now available via Kindle and Nook. Enjoy!

Don't forget, if you like the SKINNED series, please consider posting a review to your blog, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, Chapters – or talking it up on your social media sites. In this industry YOU have the power to drive interest in the books you enjoy. Each shout out helps the series reach more readers.

Thanks to EVERYONE who participated in the tour! Can't wait for the live launch par-tay here in my home town. Here's an AUDIO CLIP of the promo our local radio station whipped up for the event. Thanks Kool! And check out the talented, Fort Kent Band who will be performing that night. The boys will be joining me on Kool 101.3 for a live interview / performance on April 12th.

 

Last day of the SS blog tour!

Wowza – this month has skipped along much faster than I expected. Many thanks to everyone who participated in the Second Skin blog tour and helped me celebrate the launch of my second novel. Kind of a special thing which proves to an author that they weren't flukie in pulling off the first.

Thanks again to all my author friends who joined me: Shari Maurer, Jennifer R Hubbard, Heather McCorkle, Dawn Dalton, Denise Jaden, Joy Preble, and Janet Fox. When I list them like that – I'm amazed at the talented people I'm proud to call friends. And virtual boxes of chocolates to the wonderful bloggers willing to host / feature Second Skin, some of them have been supportive since the launch of Under My Skin, as well as participants in the Crossroads Blog Tour (which will be gearing up again in July. If you're a blogger interested in joining this mulit-author, multi-blog paranormal feast of awesome, fire me an email).

Speaking of amazing bloggers, I'm blown away with the fantastic graphics the Bewitched Bookworms created for this final Second Skin tour post – a snipet I wrote of Eryn and Alec's initial meeting – told in Alec's point of view. Hope you enjoy it!

I'll be compiling all the entries and announcing the grand prize winner on April 1st. Anyone who has comment on my blog posts for the tour, or on any of the other participating blogs / author websites is automatically a contender. The more you comment, the more times your name is entered. Good luck!

Second Skin Blog Tour. Guest Post Exchange: Janet Fox

Janet Fox, yet another of my 2k10 classmates, writes historical fiction with rich detail, unique characters, and compelling plotlines. I fell in love with Janet's writing in her grand tale, Faithful, a standalone novel with an epic, saga-like feel. I'm looking forward to her newest project, "middle grade fantasy series, with talking animals, angels, demons, and one young boy who sells his soul to save his sister". She's got me hooked.

Today Janet and I are doing a guest post exchange, sharing our thoughts on What Scares Us As Writers. If you jaunt over to Janet's blog to read my guest post, you'll see we have similar fears in terms of our writerly lives. Without further ado…I give you Janet Fox….

____

The book I just finished in first draft begins with my character having a dream that through the course of the novel morphs into a recurring nightmare. That's what I think nightmares represent: dreams gone bad. Hopes gone sour. Wishes unfulfilled.

My own personal nightmare is what happens if my greatest wish is unfulfilled; and my greatest wish? To be a storyteller.

My nightmare is that something will prevent me from getting my ideas down on paper.

A lot of authors I know fear the blank page. Not me. I'm like a stopped-up bottle of fizzy water. Maybe that's because I started my writing career relatively late, having detoured through several other careers first, plus taking on a stint at mommyhood. Once I began writing I discovered that I have so many stories flying around in my head I can't physically write fast enough to get them out.

Other author friends fear the critical reviews. Sure, I want readers to read and love my books; but negative reviews won't stop me from writing, because these stories inside? I need to write them down. I'll learn from my mistakes and hopefully each of my books is better than the last, but criticism and even lack of publication will not stop me from writing. I must write these stories. No matter what.

I feel like I'm racing against the clock. I'm pushing against the glacial pace of publication. My desire to improve my skill set wrestles with my vision – how do I learn writing skills fast enough to bring them to the page right now? And I worry that some physical impairment will get in the way of my ability to work.

It's a weird nightmare, and it keeps me up at night (literally). The only way I can get some rest is to lie in the dark, working through plot points or character twists until sleep comes again. And during my daylight writing time I often move from project to project because I feel that at least some part of the story I have to tell will be on paper before…

Oh, let's not go there. That's the dark cellar where the skeleton lurks. The deep well in which lies the monster. Instead, I'll turn this nightmare into a dream.

I dream of writing the next story and the next and the next…

___