Kelly McCullough's Blog, page 49

Broken Blade preview

Heyo folks.

If you're interested in what I've been doing since SpellCrash, toddle on over to me website and read the preview chapter from the first book in my new series, Broken Blade.

Triskaidekaphobia

I'm officially overdue on my WiP (Precinct 13, see amazing cover art below.)

And, I'm beginning to wonder at my wisdom of naming it with such an inauspicious number in the title. After all, there have been a series of unfortunate events that have lead to to this book being late. My father has been ill on and off, quite seriously, which would be trauma enough... BUT, I also had a computer crash (literally, as I dropped the computer on its hard drive) which resulted in a complete loss of everything I'd written on the book to-date.

Coincidence?

:-)

Me, Blogging Elsewhere

I commit guest bloggery over at The Night Bazaar today. The topic? "Duos & Ensembles"

I like to think I took it in a direction less expected. Check it out!

Friday Cat Blogging Flat Cats in the Sun

Three flat cats in the sun.



One in a ball.



One in a sprawl.



And one melted all down the wall.



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Speaking of ball shaped cats…



Bonus Princess in the sun.

OMG! OMG! Sooooo Awesome!

Here's the cover art for PRECINCT 13, my WiP. It's actually a bit overdue at the publisher, but I'm frantically writing and should have done soon. Because, DUDE, I so want to write a book as AWESOME as this cover!!!

What do you think?

MMP for TDD

Use your decoder rings for the subject line! It means that there will be a mass-market paperback edition of Tall, Dark & Dead coming to a store near you in April of 2012 (or via Amazon.com pre-order today!)

If you're still scratching your head and asking, "Grandma, what's a mass-market paperback?" Well, honey, back in the late Jurassic, when your nana was young, MMPs were pocket-sized books you used to see on newstands. Most of nana's favorite books were mass-market paperbacks. In fact, nana is *so* old, we used to just call them "paperbacks," because there really weren't a heck of a lot of trade paperbacks to confuse them with.

Well, guess what? They still make 'em, and I'm super-psyched to be getting one!! And I hope they sell like HOTCAKES... no, child, I have no idea what a hotcake is or why they sell so well...

Writing A Series Description

So, one of the things that they don't tell you about in author school is that you are very likely to be spending good bits of your life writing things that look nothing like fiction. Bios, synopses, blurbs for other people's books, book and series descriptions for cover or marketing or bookstores, opinion pieces, essays on various writing and marketing topics, introductions, and on and on and on.

Today, a bookseller asked me where she might find a good series description for Fallen Blade. Unfortunately, I couldn't point her to one because, to the best of my knowledge no one has yet written one beyond the basic pitch-style one sentence version I've been using while answering fan mail and the like.

That goes a little like this: Fallen Blade is a high fantasy/detective noir hybrid. Which is true enough, but hardly adequate. Especially since I've now written a couple of the books and things change as you write.

So here's my attempt, let me know what you think…

Fallen Blade:

The Fallen Blade series is fantasy-noir set in a world that never was.

Fallen Blade follows the adventures of Aral Kingslayer and his living shadow familiar, Triss. Aral Kingslayer was a sorcerer and assassin once upon a time, perhaps the best in the world, one of the fabled Blades of Namara, Goddess of Justice. With Triss at his side, he killed the kings and generals that the law couldn't touch.

That was before. Before they murdered his goddess and burned her temple to the ground. Before they outlawed his kind. Before the wanted posters and the death sentence and the whiskey bottle. Now, Aral's living on the edge of disaster in the city of Tien, a jack of the shadow trades, working in the darkness while he tries to find his way back to the light. The series begins with Broken Blade, in 2011 with Bared Blade and Crossed Blades following in 2012.

Alternatively:

The Fallen Blade series is a noir-inflected traditional fantasy set in a darkened world of the mythical past.

What do you do when your goddess is murdered? If you're a former temple assassin with a huge price on your head, like Aral Kingslayer, you go into the shadow jack business, solving problems and doing odd jobs on the fringes of the underworld in the ancient city of Tien. It's a long step down from killing kings for the Goddess of Justice, but at least it provides Aral and Triss, the living shadow who is his secret partner and familiar, with a reason to keep going.

The Fallen Blade books follow Aral's adventures as he and Triss try to find a new cause. The series begins with Broken Blade, in 2011 with Bared Blade and Crossed Blades following in 2012.

And Breaking News

As @neilhimself tweeted, a University of Wisconsin-Stout theatre professor has gotten in trouble for having Firefly and Anti-Fascism posters on his wall.

I would have directed you to the link Neil offered, but he seems to have broken the Internet again.

Because I Know You Count On Me...

Because I know you count on me to keep you up-to-date on all the Internet explosions, I give you The DC Reboot: The Big Sexy Problem.

I found out about this from an incredibly thoughtful response on Ms. Snarky's Awesometastic Comic's Blog (via Michael Mirrim on FB).

Women have always struggled particularly in comic fandom. I agree that it seems silly/offensive to imagine that by driving them away, DC can sell more titles.

Lookie, Lookie!

Look what I just found available for pre-order on Amazon! Why it's my February release and final book in the vampire princess of St. Paul series, ALMOST EVERYTHING. If you TRULY love me, you will order early and often!