Kevin Hearne's Blog, page 16

I got to say thanks

You may have noticed by now that in addition to being a writer I’m rather a fan of other writers. I really dig stories; regardless of whether they entertain me or make me weep or resolve to have the courage that the hero(ine) has, stories are vital to my life and make it better. So when I get a chance to meet someone who wrote one of those stories, it’s really important to me to say thanks. That was the best part of WorldCon for me.

I got to meet Charlaine Harris and thank her for Sookie.

I got to meet Carrie Vaughn and thank her for Kitty Norville.

I got to meet Gail Carriger and thank her for Alexia Tarabotti.

I got to meet Chuck Wendig and thank him for Miriam Black and Mookie Pearl and his blog and his tweets and for being the coolest mofo ever.

I got to meet Kim Stanley Robinson and thank him for the Mars trilogy that I read like five times when I was in high school and college. Devi Pillai, an Orbit editor who apparently wished me to die of surprise, brought him by unexpectedly and I nearly shat kine. If I hadn’t been sitting down already I would have fallen down. So grateful I got to do that and not pee from excitement. I owe Devi a bottle of whiskey.

Rationally I can see that my need to say thank you is a bit silly and won’t even begin to balance the scale; the stories always do far more for me than my thanks do for their authors. But I feel so much better afterward, like it’s a debt that needs to be repaid, and I have found that, on the whole, authors are pretty receptive when I tell them they’re awesome. It’s a huge relief when I get to say thanks.

But I think I had some extraordinary access by dint of being an author myself. If I had been attending WorldCon as a reader only—that is, without the “in” of being a published author who can sit down in the bar and have Kim Stanley Robinson show up at your elbow because you know an editor—I doubt I would have had a chance at meeting some of them, let alone chatting for a few minutes. See, there were plenty of authors at WorldCon—myself among them—who weren’t included on a single panel and weren’t given a signing time. So how would I, as a reader, find authors easily if they weren’t included in the program anywhere and I wasn’t following them on Twitter—assuming that the authors I wanted to see even had a Twitter thingie? Would I even know that they were there?

Myke Cole and Justin Landon put together this cool event called Drinks with Authors precisely for that reason—a big ol’ party in a bar near the convention hotel so that people could meet authors who weren’t otherwise easily accessible at the Con. I went for a while and met someone who (I think) felt about me the way I felt about meeting Kim Stanley Robinson. She wanted me to sign a book, and when I asked her who I should make the book out to, she froze and her eyes grew wide with panic. She’d forgotten her own name for a few seconds because she was thinking about saying something else to me and I threw her off. And then she was embarrassed, but she didn’t need to be. I totally get that, because I’ve been there. A lot. I practically slobbered on Patrick Rothfuss the first time I met him, poor guy. I can talk to him now without losing my mind because I’ve told him how much I love the Kingkiller Chronicles and thanked him for writing it. And the same thing was true for this spiffy reader: Once she told me she loved the series and thanked me for writing, she relaxed and we took a picture and gabbed, and we both parted as very happy humans.

But that experience made me a little sad later as I thought about it. Not about our meeting—that was awesome! I was sad about other meetings that maybe never happened because so many authors were left out. I hope that spiffy reader got to meet everyone else that she wanted to at WorldCon. I hope everyone who wanted to meet me did so, but I think maybe I missed some people, judging by some tweets I received—and by a couple of sisters who spotted me in the hotel lobby as they were on their way out to catch a taxi to the airport. They were like YAY WE WERE BUMMED WE DIDN’T SEE YOU BEFORE AND NOW WE SAW YOU GOTTA GO BYE.

I worked around it as best I could. I had a ninja signing in the bar with Chuck Wendig on Saturday that we tweeted and some fabulous people came by to talk to us. But wow, I wonder which other writing hero(in)es of mine were at WorldCon that I missed seeing. And I wonder who else missed out on seeing some author they really dig because of whatever happened with the scheduling.

Ah, well. Hopefully I’ll meet up with those authors I haven’t met yet at some shiny shindig in the future. And if you happened to be looking for me in San Antonio and never found me, or never even knew I was there, I’m truly very sorry. I’ll try to get back to Texas again someday.

And because it can never be said enough: Thank you very much for reading.

When finished isn’t finished

Last night I finished revisions on SHATTERED. YAY!!! However, that doesn’t mean the book is finished and will be released in a couple months. Far from it!

I never understood the process behind getting a book to the shelf before I went through it myself, and there are still parts of the process I don’t understand because they don’t involve me at all, but maybe I can crack open the blinds a wee bit and shed some metaphorical light on the subject…

SHATTERED has been delivered at this point but not accepted. That means I’m whipping the book into better shape with the guidance of my editors. This could go on for a while and it’s a good thing. You want a well-edited book, believe me. I usually do two to five revisions before a book is accepted and I’ve just finished my first one. So yeah, “finishing” revisions really just means I’ve taken a step forward and we’re not even close to publishing. It takes some time for me to write the revisions, of course, and time for my editors to read ‘em and get back to me…you get the idea.

A note on my process as a writer: I always add words in revisions because one of my peculiarities is that I forget to describe people; for me, character is revealed more in actions and words than in what they’re wearing or how their hair looks. I’ve tried to get better at that, but I always forget something and my editors have to go, Kev, is this character MALE or FEMALE and DO THEY HAVE EYES and all that. So there’s always a certain amount of that physical stuff I need to add. But sometimes I have to add entire chapters, chop others, and expand plot elements, etc. This was a pretty significant revision for me. I delivered the book at 91,500 words. The revision I just turned in was 104,898 words. Oh, and I cut about 5,000 at the outset. So I wrote a net 18,400 words for this bad boy. If I don’t cut a whole bunch on the next revision, then this will be my longest book so far (and may get longer depending on the notes I get back on the revision).

So can we publish soon after it gets accepted? Heck no! Next we have copy edits, and that takes a couple of months. Then it goes to typesetting, which is another 3-5 weeks, and then we need time for me to approve galleys and spend sleepless nights worrying about commas. After the galleys are approved and fixed, then it goes to a proofreader or two, and then we’re finished with the text. But that still doesn’t mean we’re ready to publish right away!

The non-writing part of the process is a bit more hazy for me because it’s not really my bag of chips, but I can give you broad outlines. In a way, this part of the business determines the release date of a book more than the date the author completes writing it. Weird, huh? It’s because everybody has budgets and they need to plan how to spend them. I’m not talking just about publishers—I’m talking about bookstores and libraries. The publisher has to allocate resources surrounding the marketing of the book and allow time for reviewers to grab early copies and get some buzz going. They also have a sales team that goes out and tries to get your book on shelves around the country. There’s limited shelf space, after all, and whether your book gets there and how many copies get there is determined by this sales team. And they do this by seasons. They’ll go to a bookstore and say, “Okay, Spiffy Booksellers, here’s what we have coming out in the summer of next year. Please buy a gazillion copies of them all.” The bookstores pick what they want on their shelves in accordance with their budget for next summer, and it’s always less than a gazillion. And the same goes for libraries. They have very tight budgets and can’t buy copies of every book that comes out. But they still need to make plans based on seasonal releases, and once they make those plans, it’s tough for them to shift gears quickly for a sudden release. If my publisher said now, “Hey Spiffy Booksellers, we can have Kevin’s book ready by October,” the bookstores and libraries would be like, WHUT. Sorry, we’ve already allocated our funds for October. We won’t be buying any copies. And then I would be doomed. So that’s why the publishers pick release dates so far out from actual completion of the writing—it’s all about giving everybody enough time to get their financial ducks in a row and give the books their best chance for success. Publicity! Reviews! All the things!

Can the publishers move faster if they really, really have to? Yes. It can be done. It just usually isn’t. The example I’m thinking of is Jim Butcher’s last book, Cold Days. He delivered in September and they got it published in November. That’s super fast. But they already had cover art ready, already had a lot of things prepared, and were able to chug through the editorial process quickly because Jim’s awesome and so is his editor. And it’s not insignificant that Jim’s a sure-fire bestseller, so bookstores were willing to make an exception on the normal lead time for ordering. It’s definitely a rare case. Most of the time you pick the release date even before the book is finished, stick to it so everyone’s accountants are happy, and then count on the book getting done in time.

So: SHATTERED is slated for release next summer. The book will be finished before then, but not ready, if that makes sense. There’s a ton of work to be done to make sure that when the release date arrives and you walk into the bookstore or library to pick up a copy, there will actually be a copy there for you to pick up. :) While I’m sorry you have to wait, keep in mind that we’ve been doing this consistently; I finished HUNTED at this time last year and it just came out in June of this year. Most books operate on that schedule—there are 10 to 12 months in between delivery and appearance on the shelf. While you will occasionally run across books that are rushed to the shelf, the vast majority adhere to this kind of scheduling. Hope that helps you understand why there’s a wait between an author saying “I’m finished with these edit thingies!” to being able to buy it.

Happy reading in the meantime, and thanks very much for the kind words regarding HUNTED. Glad you guys liked it!

Atticus and Oberon’s Elevator Ride

Need to thank Houston yet again for being such awesome hosts! Had a great time at Murder by the Book with Jaye Wells, Nicole Peeler, Mark Henry, Delilah S. Dawson, and Liliana Hart! If you’re near Austin, you can catch them Monday night on the Carniepunk tour at BookPeople!

But I cannot rest! I get to go to San Diego next, and if you’ve somehow missed this before, here we go: I have two events in San Diego, one on Tuesday, the 30th, and one on Wednesday, the 31st.

The first one (Tuesday) is a joint appearance with Jason M. Hough at Mysterious Galaxy in SD to launch his debut novel, THE DARWIN ELEVATOR. It’s open to the public and if you are in SoCal and missed me earlier, this is your last chance to catch me this year. I won’t be back until next Comic Con!

Jason’s book is utterly awesome. Best sci-fi I’ve read in a long time, fabulous pacing, character-driven, and thank all the gods, never straying into that condescending professorial tone that sounds like LET ME EXPLAIN SCIENCE TO YOU NOW. In fact, I wrote a blurb for it and you’ll see the short version of it on the front cover. Here’s the long version: ”The best part about alien stories is their mystery, and Jason M. Hough understands that like no other. Full of compelling characters and thick with tension, The Darwin Elevator delivers both despair and hope along with a gigantic dose of wonder. It’s a brilliant debut and Hough can take my money whenever he writes anything from now on.”

You know what’s cool? Jason’s second and third books will come out in August and September. It’s that same bam-bam-bam release I had with my series. That tells you that the publisher believes in his books like they believed in mine. You guys are going to dig it!

So I hope to see you at Mysterious Galaxy at 7pm on Tuesday! Come meet Jason on his debut day and shake his hand before he’s über-famous! And of course I’d be delighted to sign any (or all) of my books for you as well! If you can’t make it to San Diego on Tuesday but would like to get a first-edition signed copy of THE DARWIN ELEVATOR, you can probably just give Mysterious Galaxy a call and they’ll take care of it for you, shipping it out as soon as they can!

On Wednesday, July 31, Jason and I are having a ticketed event called Atticus n’ Oberon’s Elevator Ride. Tickets are all sold out and I’m looking forward to it—it’ll be all tacos and tequila and spiffy readers who get things like limited-edition pint glasses with Oberon on it and other goodies.

After that I’ll be disappearing from the Internet(s) for a couple weeks and returning August 14. Thank you all again for reading and for spreading the word! Hope I get to see you at some point down the road!

 

The Carnival is in town

Just had a completely glorious time at San Diego Comic Con. Met many spiffy readers, including one who looked like Granuaile come to life, and lots of wonderful writers, which makes the fanboy in me go squee.

I met Max Gladstone (Three Parts Dead), Wes Chu (The Lives of Tao), and Liesel Schwarz (Conspiracy of Alchemists) for the first time, and they were all lovely people. Got to spend lots of time with Diana Rowland, whose White Trash Zombie series is one of my favorites, and her friend, Roman White (a director) was highly amusing as well. I met Ty Franck (who loves tequila) and Daniel Abraham (who does not), who together form the super-writing duo known as James S.A. Corey, and let them know that I absolutely dig The Expanse series. Got to spend some time with Jason Hough, on whose debut, The Darwin Elevator, I have had much to say and will say some more soon.

BUT TODAY IS A DIFFERENT THINGIE ALTOGETHER.

See, I have a book coming out tomorrow, the 23rd o’ July. It’s called CARNIEPUNK, an urban fantasy anthology full o’ stories about spooky midways and dangerous doings amongst the carnies. It’s available for pre-order (or outright order, depending on when you read this) wherever you snag your books, and it looks like this:

And heck yes, there’s an audio version!

The lineup of authors is pretty freakin’ awesome. In fact, lookit: Whilst at SDCC I got to sign some advance copies with none other than Rachel Caine, celebrated author and awesome person! My complete shock at being in such august company should be clear from this picture:

My story is an Iron Druid tale called “The Demon Barker of Wheat Street” (Did you see what I did there?) and it’s set two weeks after the events of the novella Two Ravens and One Crow. Atticus, Granuaile, and Oberon visit Granuaile’s hometown in Kansas and run into a rather ghoulish operation amidst Oberon’s dreams of a poodle named Noche, and I hope you find it entertaining.

It’s also my fervent hope that you’ll discover some new writers to enjoy in this anthology. That’s always the attraction of anthologies to me: I know I’m going to love the stuff by authors I already know and I get excited about discovering some new ones. Here’s the full lineup, presented in the order they appear in the book:

Rob Thurman ~ “Painted Love”

Delilah S. Dawson ~ “The Three Lives of Lydia”

Kevin Hearne  ~ “The Demon Barker of Wheat Street”

Mark Henry ~ “The Sweeter the Juice”

Jaye Wells ~ “The Werewife”

Rachel Caine ~ “The Cold Girl”

Allison Pang ~ “A Duet with Darkness”

Hillary Jacques ~ “Recession of the Divine”

Jennifer Estep ~ “Parlor Tricks”

Kelly Meding ~ “Freak House”

Nicole Peeler ~ “The Inside Man”

Jackie Kessler ~ “A Chance in Hell”

Kelly Gay ~ “Hell’s Menagerie”

Seanan McGuire ~ “Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea”

As always, thank you so much for reading and for spreading the word to your friends! Happy tales!

Granuaile’s tattoos

The world needs Granuaile cosplayers too. :)

I’ve had Phil Balsman, the illustrator who did the tattoos for Atticus, whip up the shape-shifting forms for Granuaile. Now you can use these to cosplay Granuaile or get ‘em done for reals or whatever. You can mix-and-match with Atticus’s animals or you can use these as inspiration and have an artist do a set of animals that speak to you. If you’d like to hire Phil, he’s at Ballsy Art and you can contact him using the info on that link.

The rest of the tattoos—the plane-shifting band and the healing triskele on the back of the palm—are of course in the previous post featuring Atticus, complete with a schematic of how they’re laid out.

So here’s a jpeg of the tattoos, and below that you’ll find a PDF to download that you can print out using that temporary tattoo paper.

Isn’t this spiffy? Here’s the PDF.

Bands_final_Zoomorphic_2

I’ve had a few requests to do the full body but I probably won’t be doing that. Professional illustrators don’t work for free (nor should they!) and there is little need to do the whole thing when for cosplay purposes (and most real tattoo purposes) the arm is all you need. If you’re determined to see it all, then please hire Phil to do the rest. :) He’d be happy to do it and he has my instructions on what they look like.

Have fun, you guys! If you cosplay Atticus or Granuaile, please send me pictures! I’ll post ‘em! I probably need to get a drawing of Granuaile’s weapon, Scáthmhaide, made up, but in basic terms it’s a quarterstaff with Celtic knotwork on it, which you can approximate (or not) as you wish. Granuaile would also have throwing knives if she’s going to lay down the hurt on someone, but I imagine those wouldn’t be a good idea to bring to a Comic Con. I think Granuaile’s iconic look will eventually be what she’s wearing in chapter 2 of the next book, SHATTERED, and omg I cannot wait to see someone do that, but for now dress her up as you wish, keeping in mind she’s usually wearing jeans (any color is fine) and a kinda tight but otherwise modest girls-cut T-shirt (she never does low-cut stuff).

Druids would make a great costume idea for Samhain (Halloween), don’t you think? :)

Audiobook Month

Image from APA (www.audiopub.org)

June is Audiobook month (JIAM 2013). The audiobook community is giving back by teaming with the Going Public Project by offering a serialized audio story collection. All proceeds will go to Reach Out and Read literacy advocacy organization. Throughout June, 1-2 stories will be released each day on the Going Public blog and on author/book blogs. The story will be free (online only – no downloads) for one week. In collaboration with Blackstone Audio, all the stories will be available for download via Downpour. The full compilation will be ready June 30th.

The full schedule of the story release dates and narrators are at Going Public. Engineering and Mastering are provided by Jeffrey Kafer and SpringBrook Audio. Graphic design provided by f power design and published by Blackstone Audio. Project coordination and executive production by Xe Sands. (written by Mary Freeman)

I am so pleased to welcome Luke Daniels to the blog! Many of you already know Luke as the voice of the Iron Druid Chronicles and you’ve told me how much you enjoy his work. I’m fantastically lucky to have him narrating the series.

Hailing from a family of performers, Luke Daniels is an audiobook narrator with close to 200 books recorded. In 2012, Audible named Luke Narrator of the Year. He has been Audie nominated twice and won several Earphones Awards. Luke is also a classically trained actor and has performed professionally for theatres throughout the US, As well as in many television, radio, and film roles.

Luke’s free story and my interview with him are below, and there’s a whole bunch of other great stuff for you to explore during Audiobook Month. I mean lookit: Yesterday there was this spiffy story over at Devourer of Books and tomorrow there will be two spiffy things out there on the Interwebs, one at Bermuda Onion and another at Lakeside Musing. And Luke, the man himself, has a post up at the Going Public site.

Luke recorded a fairy tale of about forty minutes in length that you can stream for free here for a week!

If you’d like to download that fabulous story instead of stream it and at the same time support the childhood literacy charity Reach Out and Read, please purchase it from Downpour here.

 

And so we begin…
KH: First—thank you, Luke, for doing such an excellent job bringing the Iron Druid Chronicles to life. I feel tremendously fortunate to have you behind the microphone, and I have to tell you that you have a lot of fans out there. They don’t have an easy way to reach you so they let me know how much they’ve enjoyed your work, and I just wanted to pass that on. You’re awesome. In fact, I think it’s safe to say, in the parlance of the 90s, you are the shiznit.

 

LD: Well, well, well if it isn’t the mastermind himself!! The world builder! The IDC Braintrust! Bacon privateer and all around dude-lee-ness…. K-Rock. The Hearne-Burn. Kevin “sausage ambassador” Hearne!!!! Seriously, dude. You are my fave. For reals. I have such a blast reading your stuff it’s a little scary. Like we were both forged from the same primordial bacon fat. Like broth-ahs from anudda mudda. Oh boy. So…. What was the question? Hold on while I re-read it…Ok. I’m Back. Soooooo, long story short. There wasn’t really a question so I’ll sayyyyyy….. THANK YOU! Seriously, I am incredibly fortunate to get to bring my small part to this world of yours. Whatevs you need to keep on rockin and crankin these stories out, you let me know. Daddy will provide. :D

 

KH: How long does it take you to record one of my books—it’s longer than the actual recording time, right? Multiple takes and pauses for drinks and lavish luncheons of boar sausage and kielbasa?

 

LD: Ahhhhhh…. Lets see. Well, ya wanna know a secret? I don’t really eat any more while I record. I find it keeps my focus sharper. When I eat during a recording session I get kinda logy*, and well, burpy. *editor’s note: did you know this word is pronounced “low-gee.” I always said “lah-gee.” Until I started narrating that is. You would be AMAZED how many words I’ve discovered I pronounced incorrectly all my life. Editor’s note, out. Shoot. While writing the editor’s note (spoiler alert! Yes! I am the aforementioned “editor!”) I forgot the question. Bear with me… Ok. I’m back. Sooooo… It takes about three grueling, mind numbing days… Just kidding… About it being grueling… Not about the three days. I usually start about 8:30. Record a couple of hours. Take a fifteen. Then another couple hours. Then I drink some juice for lunch.* *editor’s note: I should be clear. I have gotten into juicing. (The kind with fruits and veggies. Not tiny wieners.) So I will juice a bunch of stuff in the morning then drink that throughout the day to keep my energy up and to dampen any rumbly empty tummy noises. Editor’s note, out. After lunch I record another couple of hours. Take a break. Then usually another hour and a half to two hours and I. am. done-zo. And then… Well, I eat my weight in whatever I can find…

KH: What’s your prep like before you go in to narrate a book? And when you begin recording, do you have a script marked up with notes or what?

 

LD: Thank you techno gods for the all mighty IPad! It has made my life soooooo much easier. Before I used have to carry this with me wherever I went.

Now, using the iPad, I read and mark-up a digital script ahead of time; then narrate from the iPad in the studio. (We used to have to try and mask the noise of turning pages while recording. Now there’s a lost art!) When I mark up a script beforehand I am looking at characters and trying to get a feel for tone and the writer’s rhythm, or voice. I find yours very easy to slip into. Your writing flows well which makes a book much easier to narrate. Now pardon me while I wipe this brown shmutz off my nose…..

KH: Heh! Do you have secret recipes for voice-soothing teas that you drink to preserve your voice? How about exotic salves or unguents that you apply each night to your throat? Maybe a dodgy ritual involving honey and eucalyptus? Burnt offerings of chamomile to a stone idol?

LD: Whiskey. Whiskey. And whiskey… Seriously I only narrate when I’m completely knackered. And naked, for that matter. Yeah it’s messy, but whatever gets the job done, right!? Ok so to seriously answer your question. Neti Pots are fab if I’m coming down with something. I live in Michigan and during our nine-month long winters I have to work hard not to get colds, cause they can really make recording difficult, if not impossible. Other than that I like hot water with lemon and honey. Simple. Good.

KH: Have you ever ululated? I’ve always wanted to ask you that. If so, what effect did it have on those around you? Were they frightened? Uplifted? Stricken by a sense of existential despair because they can’t ululate as well as you?

LD: Great big bears! I just listened to this lady do it on YouTube and my dog about pooped his pants. (Yeah he wears pants! He’s not a savage! sheesh.) That lady was freakin loud! Umm..so, I actually have done this. Or a version of it. I went to grad school for theatre and performance, so lets just say our voice classes were FULL of not just ululating, but undulating, convulsing, and all manner of vocal AND physical quivering. Yeah. Grad school was awesome.

KH: Do you have a dream project or five—some work you’d like to have a crack at narrating?

LD: I would love to record some Shakespeare. Both with a full cast and solo. His language is so aural it really translates well to an audio based medium. That’s why I relish Leif and Atticus’ Shakespearean jousting. I did some Cliffs Notes audiobooks and a few of them were Shakespeare. Lets just say, I’m pretty sure whenever they included a direct quote from the text I shmacted the hell out of it. Other than the bard, I’d like to do more full-cast recordings and radio plays. I would loooooove to revive The Shadow series. (Minus the incredibly racist overtones.) I would like to do a podcast. Omg! What about an IDC podcast!? Then special “wacky” guests can visit! Genius! My five-year old self is all about it. And since that 5 year old self is really my everyday self, I say let’s do it!

KH: You give distinct voices to quite a few characters in my series, and some of them have specific accents. Lots of people are interested in how you develop those. Are these accents coming naturally to you, or are you coaching yourself somehow, and if so, how?

LD: I’m lucky that I have a good ear for them. It’s also something I’ve always been interested in. As a kid I was always doing voices and coming up with characters. Some that I still use in books today. I remember I used to record my own radio shows at home with different “wacky” guests. I also used to fall asleep at night listening on my Walkman to old radio dramas like The Shadow and Superman. I’m pretty sure that had a big effect on me as well. Even now I’m constantly listening to people’s voices and trying to mimic them. Try this, next time you’re watching TV close your eyes and just listen to the voices. You’ll be surprised. A lot of people sound more different than you think. A lot of people sound like Muppets. But when I’m coming up with characters for a book I’m trying to find a natural tone that will support the character the author has established. A lot of it is playing intention too. If you discover what the character wants, what they are trying to do in the scene, it will naturally inform your voice. Plus, good writers, yes K-Hernia I’m including you in that statement, write dialogue that suits the particular character speaking it. Again, I thank you for making my job EZ

KH: Do you read the story in sequence, switching back and forth between the voices, or do you read in pieces and then splice it together?

LD: Sequence. Start to finish. Cover to cover, so to speak. I actually really enjoy the switching back and forth in the moment. I think it speaks to my, shall we say… Diverse mercurial nature? (that’s a euphemism for multiple personality disorder.)

KH: What character from IDC is the most difficult to voice? What character is the most fun for you to narrate?

LD: Sometimes the Morrigan could strain the ol’ vocal chords a bit. But I tried to create her sound from a looseness in my throat, as opposed to tension and clamping down on things, because that can lead to strain and damage. As for the character that is the most fun? Really, Special-K? Ya gotta ask!? I think we alllllllllll know that our big, furry friend gives me a particularly potent delight. But I will say, even though there hasn’t been much of him, yet, I looooooooove monsieur Loki. I think the IDCers need to demand an Oberon novella, AND I would like a Loki novella. In first person. Holy shnikes! Do you know how awesome that would be!? So there ya go. More work for you. You’re welcome.

KH: You narrate other work, of course, besides the IDC. What’s coming up for you soon? What should people look for?

LD: Ooooooooooo! Lots of goodies! I’ve got a Lauren D Estleman novel coming out called THE CONFESSIONS OF AL CAPONE. Fabulous book! Plus I get to play an aging, syphillitic Al Capone, as well as narrate several chapters from his perspective! So there’s that. Lets see, there’s a lil’ book called HUNTED… OH! And I’ve got a Dean Koontz kids’ book called Oddkins coming out! That one was a blast and I’m particularly proud of the voices. Think Toy Story meets The Fantastic Mr.Fox. I’m also getting ready to record a new zombie series called Rise of the Horde by Devan Sagliani. Aaaaaaand there’s another couple cool series I do in addition to IDC if ya wants some fun summer listening and ya hate having to wait for more Atticus and Oberon. Speaking of Atticus, I do the Atticus Fish series by Sean Morey, starting with Wahoo Rhapsody, which I won an Earphones Award for. And the Edward series from Craig Lancaster starting with 600 hours of Edward, which I won an Earphones Award for. I also did a collection of Kurt Vonnegut’s unpublished short stories, for which I won an Earphones Award, as well. (Can you sense my head swelling to ridiculous proportions?) If you like mystery there’s the Mathew Hope series by Ed McBain. Now that dude could write. If you like Sci-Fi I’ve done a bunch of PK Dick, but my fave was DEUS IRAE which he wrote with Roger Zelazny. Oh! and I can’t forget the Jason Kolarich series by David Ellis. Just finished recording his latest and it may be my favorite so far. There’s the Mongoliad series with many different “sidequests” (which are novellas within the mongoliad universe). The Dead Man series is good, gritty horror. Plus I like that they are short story collections cause you get a lot of different great authors in one package. I’ll be recording volume 5 in July. (I especially like them because my brother James Daniels wrote a couple, AND he narrates them. So you can hear both of us on the same audiobook!) Oh I could go on and on… Is anyone even still reading at this point!? Kevin! Hey, Kevin!! Put down those boar sausages! We’re trying to do an interview here!

KH: Sausages down. Cool! And will you tell us a bit about this short you’ve recorded for Audiobook Month?

LD: Undoubtedly! It’s for a great cause! Child literacy! Going Public in Shorts is the brainchild of Xe Sands, a fabulous narrator and producer. I am very lucky to be invited in with so much incredible talent. All the narrators involved were asked to pick a short story from the public domain and produce it. Then it will be released as a collection and all proceeds go to Reach Out and Read. For my story, I picked a kewl fairy tale from Andrew Lang’s Orange Fairy book. Complete with talking toads, lion fairies, a dashing prince, a cunning princess, a noble queen, sea serpents, Magic and some pretty trippy locales. Enjoy!

KH: Thanks again, Luke. Looking forward to your future work!

LD: Let me just say… Thank you, Kevin. You really are a rare and fantastic author. I am honored to work with you. Now c’mon over here an give Oberon a big sloppy kiss!

KH: DOG PILE!

Beer and Book winners

You guys are, once again, amazingly spiffy people. I loved all the entries! Thank you for having fun with this!

I wish I could afford to give you all a book for taking the trouble to enter, but alas! We have to limit things. First, the random winners as chosen by Random.org—I just assigned entries a number, 1-172, and then Random.org sequenced them. I used the top 3 numbers it gave me: 90, 123, 129. Those numbers belong to Beth Romero, Ian Akers, and Kevin Heaton! Congratulations! Please email me your address and I’ll send you a signed copy of HUNTED!

I said in the rules I’d pick two winners myself, but I couldn’t help it—I picked three. I love these so much…and I suppose the common theme is that they’re all set outdoors. Go figure, right? But they’re also very well composed and shot…just really good photography here. As with the random winners, if you’re one of the chosen winners, email me your address and I’ll send you a signed copy of HUNTED! The first winner actually came in the first batch of entries. Congratulations to Sam Pennell for this gem with an eBook o’ Butcher:

Next up is Jill Baum’s beautiful Still Life with Kim Harrison’s work:

And this is just brilliant stuff by Theresa Brundage, giving us a themed Still Life with LAMB, an apple, and a serpent in the garden…

There were some other very clever themed shoots—the zombie one was great, and then there were some awesome shrines to Jim Butcher and Anne McCaffrey and so on. Congrats and many thanks again to everyone who participated! Woohoo!

summer traveling

I like meeting people and seeing the country, so having a book come out is a great excuse to do both. When HUNTED is released later this month, I’ll be touring the west coast and a bit of Colorado. Why there? Because I haven’t been to the west coast yet. Last summer I did the south and I’ve been back east a few times, but I haven’t visited the west coast at all except for San Diego Comic Con, and that’s a tough ticket to snag for most people.

If you don’t see a town near you listed below, I’m very sorry! It’s not that I don’t want to see you, it’s that there is only so much time I can take off from writing and I don’t have an infinite bank account. Touring isn’t cheap and in fact is usually a net loss for almost everyone except the readers—and that, after all, is why we do it: to thank the readers. I wrote a couple of  blog posts on the economics of tours, so please read this one and this one before kindly suggesting that I come to your town. While I dearly wish I could see everyone, it’s just not possible.

But getting a signed copy of any of my books is possible for everyone! You can even get a signed copy of HUNTED the week it releases! An independent bookstore near me—The Poisoned Pen—will ship signed copies anywhere in the world. They are taking orders now and I will sign your copy before I leave on tour. Get clicky on this link and you’re on your way. (Signed copies make great gifts for the Oberon fan in your life, by the way…)

Arizona peeps can get HUNTED two days early! Yep. It’s a special event approved by Del Rey. Gotta show up in person, but there will be booze and books and awww yeeeaah.

Sunday, June 23, 5 PM: Pre-release party at Nando’s Hideaway! 6715 E. McDowell Rd in Mesa. No reservations or tickets needed! Just show up! $15 gets you a book and a drink (draft, bottle, or house margarita, or soda or tea), tax and gratuity included. I’ll sign your book(s), chat, and get my drank on. You are, of course, welcome to hang around, have dinner, more drinks, etc. Once I’ve signed stuff I can give you a heads-up on what’s coming next.

Tuesday, June 25, 7:30 PM: Mysterious Galaxy in Redondo Beach. 2810 Artesia Blvd, Redondo Beach, CA, 90278.

Wednesday, June 26, 7:30 PM: Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park. 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA 94025.

Thursday, June 27, 7 PM: Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma. 140 Kentucky Street, Petaluma, CA 94952.

Friday, June 28, 7:30 PM: The Avid Reader in Davis. 617 Second St. Davis, CA 95616

Sunday, June 30, 4 PM: Escape Fiction Books, in Salem, OR. 3240 Triangle Dr. SE, 97302.

Monday, July 1, 7 PM: Powell’s Books, Cedar Hills Crossing in Beaverton (near Portland). 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd. Beaverton, OR 97005

Tuesday, July 2, 7 pm: University Bookstore in Seattle. 4326 University Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98105.

I’m going to disappear for the days surrounding the 4th o’ July, huggin’ the everlovin’ shit out of some trees, but I’ll have three appearances afterward:

Sunday, July 7, 6 pm: Montana Brewing Company in Billings, MT. 113 N Broadway Billings, MT 59101. This is an informal get-together because I couldn’t find a bookstore to host me. So: I’ll be having a beer in the bar. You’re welcome to come on by and hang out. If you want anything signed, I’ll be happy to do so, but please bring it with you because I won’t be selling anything, just visiting and chatting. Please help me surprise the hell out of the bar and bring everyone you know.

Monday, July 8, 6:30 pm: Old Firehouse Books in Ft. Collins, CO. 232 Walnut St., Fort Collins, CO 80524.

Wednesday, July 10, 7 pm: Broadway Book Mall, 200 S. Broadway, Denver, CO 80209

So that’s the official tour, but not the end of opportunities to see me! I can has conventions and other stuffs…

July 18-21, San Diego Comic Con! 

Saturday, July 27, 4:30 pm: Murder by the Book in Houston, Texas! I’ll be signing the CARNIEPUNK anthology with fellow contributors Jaye Wells, Nicole Peeler, Delilah S. Dawson, and Mark Henry!

Tuesday, July 30, 7 pm: Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego! 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Suite #302, San Diego, 92111. I will be appearing jointly with Jason Hough, a new sci-fi genius whose debut, THE DARWIN ELEVATOR, simply blew my shit up. I got to read it early; this is his release day, so it will be your first chance to have your shit blown up too. If you have to miss me at Comic Con, please come to this, say hi, and meet Jason before he’s so famous you have to buy tickets to see him. I will, of course, be signing HUNTED and anything else you’d like.

August 29-September 2: WorldCon in San Antonio! Also known as LoneStar Con 3. Dudes, I have never been to one of these. Mostly I will be wandering around being starstruck. I don’t think I’m on any panels or anything. I’ll probably be hanging out in the bar a lot. And you can stalk me on Twitter. I’ll be the guy taking pictures of author Chuck Wendig and tweeting LOOK I FOUND CHUCK WENDIG IN THE WILD.

Dearly hope to see you and all the people you can drag along with you. And if I’m not in your neighborhood this year, I hope I’ll get somewhere nearby eventually when circumstances allow. Thank you so much for reading!

Iron Druid Tattoos!

I’ve had a fair number of requests to provide a detailed design for the Iron Druid tattoos, not only for cosplay but for people who might consider getting them for real. Well, here you go! Many thanks to Phil Balsman at Odin Star Industries for drawing these up.

We don’t have the full body design here, but we have the arm stuff, which is what most people would see and cosplay. I do have a schematic for the whole body where there is a different sequence of knotwork for all the stuff a Druid can do, but getting it done would be costly and time-consuming when very few people would actually use it. I have high hopes, however, that I’ll see some of this in cosplay at conventions in the future. :)

You are free to print out and use the designs below however you wish. If you print them out on temporary tattoo paper you’ll be all set. I’ve provided the shapeshifting forms for Atticus only, and if there is significant demand I might provide the forms for Granuaile as well. If you’re so inclined, now that you’ve seen the style you can of course design your own zoomorphic forms to suit you.

I will place smaller jpegs below, but for printing purposes, please download this PDF file.

First, here’s a diagram showing how the tattoos should be placed:

Next, we have the strip falling down from the top of the shoulder and the transition curve to the shape-shifting bands that wrap around the biceps:

Here’s all the fun: The shape-shifting bands. This will require some adjustment depending on the diameter of your arm. However, we’ve included another band of the default shapeshifting pattern to fill in as needed. When you first transition from the shoulder you’ll probably find that the human form kind of disappears into your armpit, but hopefully you can work things so that the four animals appear on the outside of the arm. Use that extra default pattern to fill in!

Lastly, you have the planeshifting knots down the forearm and the healing triskele on the back of the hand. The transition curve from shapeshifting to planeshifting can be found on the first page of designs. We have two strips of the planeshifting knotwork to allow for shorter or longer forearms. And then we’ve provided the triskele by itself and with the transition to the planeshifting knots.

Happy cosplay!

Still Life with Beer and Book

This is a fun contest thingie. :) The prize is a signed early copy of HUNTED. I have five o’ those to give away and it’s an international contest. I’ll send you a signed Oberon bookmark too!

Photo contests are spiffy because everybody likes looking at the entries afterward. We’ve done the Iron Pet contest and Nerdscapes and we even did this one where we took pictures of sausage, but I don’t want to repeat myself so we gotta do something else. I’ll give you one guess what we’ll do. But first I will point you to the blog post title.

The Rules:

1) You’re required to have fun!

2) Send your entry as a jpeg to kevin@kevinhearne.com. Entries sent via Twitter or Facebook will not be counted. Include your name in your email. If you want me to call you Sparkly Puffypants that’s fine, I just want to give credit for the photo so that in case you win I can say HEY SPARKLY PUFFYPANTS, YOU WON!

3) Your still life must have a beer and a book. Anything else is a bonus.

a) Wine doesn’t count. Nor do wine coolers or harrrrrd likker! or whatever. This is a Beer & Book still life.

b) Yeah, you should probably be 21 to enter. Because you might have to acquire beer.

c) This isn’t about beer snobbery, though! If you have a Pabst or whatever that’s totally cool. This is about art and life and enjoying them. Don’t feel like you have to find the One True Beer or anything. (On the other hand, a quest for the One True Beer sounds pretty fun.)

c) The book must NOT be one of mine. I already know you read my books or you would have no interest in entering this contest. I—and everyone else—would really like to see what’s your top recommendation right now outside of Atticus n’ Oberon. :)

d) You can use a hardcover, paperback, or ebook. If the latter, then please set your ereader screen to the cover of the book so we can clearly see what you’re reading. The cover/title/author need to be visible.

e) Totally cool to have other books in there besides the one you’re focusing on, but again, please, no Iron Druid stuff. Seriously. And of course you can have dogs and lizards and weeping angels and whatnot.

Ready for my examples, which often pale compared to the entries you guys send in…? Here’s the first one:

That’s Jamaica Red Ale with The Darwin Elevator by Jason M. Hough. Also my Twenty-Sided Dice Fez and a bottle opener from Ommegang Brewery in New York. Can’t recommend Jason’s work enough; in fact, if you look closely, you’ll see I wrote the blurb at the top of the cover. It comes out July 30, so I’d say pre-order that puppy now and prepare to have your shit blown up. Greatest sci-fi I’ve read in years!

Okay, here’s one with my ereader. I rock a Nook SimpleTouch.

That’s Oberon Ale from Bell’s Brewery in Comstock, Michigan. There’s also something cute and fluffy there and IT’S SO FLUFFY but I can’t for the life of me explain why it’s in my house. The book is Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig. I’m about to dive into that because I read his first book starring Miriam Black (called Blackbirds) and really liked it. Chuck’s a lot of fun to follow on Twitter if you’re not already doing so (@ChuckWendig) and his blog is balls rad too.

Deadline for entries is Sunday, June 9. I’ll post ‘em all up on my Facebook page each day as they come in and you can like the heck out of ‘em and get giant lists of beer and books to try out. And maybe win stuff. :)

I’ll pick two winners by somewhat arbitrary standards of coolness but generally skewing toward photographic quality. Between my two example pics, the second one would win in my eyes because it’s in a bit sharper focus. I’ll also pick three winners randomly, so you have a chance of winning no matter what. I’ll announce winners on June 10.

I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with! And as always, thanks for reading!