C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 112

Old Races story collection answers

I should have been smart enough to answer these without having to be asked, but somehow I wasn’t. :)

There will be 3 Old Races collections coming out in epub this summer.

The first, OLD RACES: ORIGINS, will contain five of the Old Races Short Story Project stories, all set long before the Negotiator Trilogy:

» Salt Water Stains the Sand, a story of the djinn which is also available as a free read on my website;

» The Death of Him, a story of the selkies;

» Falling, a story of the gargoyles;

» St. George & the Dragons, a story of the dragons;

and

» Legacy, a story of the humans

and may or may not have a 6th brand new story depending on how much I get done before the cover art comes in.

The second, YEAR OF MIRACLES, is the novella that tells the story of Sarah Hopkins, the human woman that Janx and Daisani both fell in love with in the Year of Miracles–the year London burned.

The third, OLD RACES : AFTERMATH, will contain at least four stories all set after the Negotiator trilogy, and will include

» Awakening, a story of the vampires

» Perchance to Dream, a Janx story reprint (the original publication was in DRAGON’S LURE)

» Aftermath, a Margrit Knight story included in the ORSSP for those who bought in before June 1, 2011

and at least one other brand-new story to fill the collection out.

In theory these collections will be released in May, June and July, but that really depends on when I get the cover art.

If you haven’t read the Negotiator Trilogy already, I would humbly submit you read it first, ’cause these collections are backstory and history (and what happens next) for stuff you learn in those books, and of course as the author I think you’ll get the most impact from reading them in publication order. The Negotiator Trilogy, in order, is HEART OF STONE, HOUSE OF CARDS, and HANDS OF FLAME,

Print edition: Don’t hold your breath. It may eventually happen, but it’s not a near-term thing, and frankly, it probably depends on how well BABA YAGA’S DAUGHTER does from Subterranean Press, so if you haven’t pre-ordered that yet…do!

ORSSP patrons: I will be getting epub/mobi/pdf files to you, complete with the shiny new cover art, by the end of April. Thank you for your patience. O.O

THE OLD RACES : AFTERMATH

Margrit Knight has broken the long-held covenants of the Old Races. Ancient rivals are scattered, friendships are broken, and the dragons, djinn, selkies, vampires and gargoyles are beginning to step out of the shadows and into the light.

But the new world may not be what they expect. Dragonlord Janx faces more than he bargained for when human magic interferes with his own. Half-vampire Ursula Hopkins is only starting to understand what she may have unleashed by awakening her brethren, and Margrit Knight herself still has debts to pay after the death of a djinn…

Watch the new world unfold in these four new stories of the Old Races…

Coming soon to an e-store near you!

Cover art by Tara O’Shea. IS IT NOT AWESOME?!?!?!?!

Collaboration Ahoy!

I have a collaborative project with my long-term writing partner, SL Gray/. Sarah and I have written (quite literally: I counted once) millions of words together, and this particular project has been in the works for, heavens forfend, well over a decade now. It was originally conceived as a TV show, back when we were both living in California (and before, even) and had dreams of breaking into that industry.

It took us something like a decade to think of presenting it in a different format. Time, tide and … trousers … (o.O) have kept us from really doing much with it. But a while ago we shook the dust off and decided to give it a go as a fiction project. Sarah’s just sent me the second chapter, and I am full of excited squeaks about the idea of getting this story some air time.

I’ll talk more about it as we get our feet more solidly under us, but I can just about guarantee that this will be a Kickstarter project. And I mean, holy crap, people, when we get it going? You’re going to be blown away. We’ve got a fifty page bible for this project which I’m sure will end up as part of the long term reward structure, we’ve got world development out the wazoo, we’ve just got ALL KINDS of good stuff, and I cannot wait to share it with you. Cannot. WAIT.

*squeak squeak squeak*

NO DOMINION

NO DOMINION has been delivered to the Kickstarter patrons. If you are one and haven’t gotten your copy, please email me (cemurphyauthor AT gmail DOT com) and let me know what format you need it in, Kindle, Sony/Nook/Epub, or PDF.

I tell you what, the NO DOMINION response is really making me want to do something else to share with you guys. This has been wonderful.

I mean, realistically, Not Right Now, because I’ve got the Dinocalypse book (you’ve bought in, right? 7 e-books for $10, how can you POSSIBLY go wrong with that?) coming up to write, and the Walker Papers to finish, and a bunch of other stuff, but still!

For me, it turns out there’s an energy to direct market writing that’s different from traditional publishing–the whole sense of us all being in it together, among other things. Also, of course, the instant feedback–I mean, I’ve also just finished MOUNTAIN ECHOES, but it’ll be another 9 months or so before readers get that, whereas NO DOMINION is in their hands already. There are no doubt other things as well, but those are two of the most obvious ones. It’s pretty cool.

That said, I really haven’t a clue when I’ll run another one, certainly not when I’ll run another solo project. I mean, right now I’m involved with Dinocalypse, there’s still ElectriCity pending, and there are at least two other potential collaborative projects on the plate. And those ideas excite me, because I think collaboration may be one of the real boons of Kickstarter–reaching different audiences by bringing in different people for different aspects of the project. Over time, it may be one of the ways to work past the problem of being unable to expand one’s own audience sufficiently.

As for running a solo project, well, it’s not that I lack the ideas or desire–or indeed, it seems, the audience–just the time. Where’s a TARDIS when you need one?

In other news (sort of), there’s a Walker Papers group over on Goodreads (and has a spoiler-ok area for discussing NO DOMINION, if you want to). Someone over there just asked if I was going to write the Irish Mage books. The funny thing is that just a few weeks ago Ted and I figured out what that story would be. It would only be a trilogy, but I know how it would end and everything. The last book would be FATEFUL HOUR, and those of you who recognize the title source and have read RAVEN CALLS can probably figure out what would happen in that book. :)

NO DOMINION revisions

Got through the first pass of NO DOMINION revisions yesterday, and caused myself to burst into tears near the end. I hope that's a sign of the book doing what it should rather than me desperately needing more sleep. :)

To answer the most-oft asked NO DOMINION question: yes, it will eventually be made available to a wider audience than just the Kickstarter patrons. But I don't know when or how yet, so I'll keep you posted when I do.

Today I have to rewrite a few scenes, add a few clarifications, and figure out where to put chapter breaks in the, er, second half of the manuscript, because they somehow…stopped appearing. And if I'm lucky that'll be the heavy lifting done and it'll all be spellchecks and copy edits from there on out. Because it's due SUNDAY. O.O

RECENT READS: A Catch-Up Post

I've actually been reading, which is wonderful and amazing. I haven't, however, been doing a very good job of blogging about it, so a quick rundown:

ULTIMATE COMICS THOR: Pretty good graphic novel more or less setting up the history of the Ultimates Thor to be in line with the history of the Marvel Movie Universe Thor. Worth reading, if you like that kind of thing.

CAST IN CHAOS: 8th, I think, in Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra. Hands down my favorite of the series so far, which is saying something, because I pretty much love the books. Wonderful wonderful stuff with a nameless faceless evil that isn't quite what it appears to be. Really good.

Kathy Reichs: DEATH DU JOUR and MONDAY MOURNING. These are the books the TV show "Bones" is ever, ever so loosely based on. The main character is much more appealing in the books, but the books are quite a lot grimmer than the show. I'd read more if I was stuck in an airport and needed something reliable from the shelves to tide me over, but not my very favorite books ever.

Dick Francis: SHATTERED and SMOKESCREEN. The man can do no wrong. Thank goodness he wrote 40 or so novels: I still have 30+ to read!

NO DOMINION acknowledgements

Today I'm going to start NO DOMINION revisions, and also doing busywork stuff for the epub like putting the (FOUR PAGE!) acknowledgements list together. o.O

If you are a NO DOMINION subscriber, and have not filled out the survey which asks for addresses, names, and other moderately important things, you should go check the Kickstarter page to see if the survey link is there in your upper left hand corner, because the emails apparently didn't all go through, and some 75 people haven't answered yet.

I can't believe the ebook is due to subscribers in barely more than a week. Where did the time go? (Answer: into writing MOUNTAIN ECHOES.)

It's my hope to finish the other short stories due to subscribers this month. We'll see.

I'm also eyeing the HEAVEN CAN WAIT teaser chapters, and finding myself a little tempted to–well, to essentially offer HEAVEN CAN WAIT to the NO DOMINION subscribers as a proposal package. Write the chapters, write a synopsis, and let subscribers read the whole package as if they were the publisher making a decision on whether to buy the book/series.

The idea is mostly prompted by how much people seemed to enjoy the blog I kept while writing NO DOMINION, and by the supposition that people might therefore find it entertaining to be walked through the *entire* book-creation process, starting from proposal and going all the way through to edits, cover copy, covers, etc, all of it. I mean, I suppose that would mean running a Kickstarter for that project at some point, but the proposition isn't that fully fleshed yet. :)

Anyway. Random meanderings, mostly. But if you're a subscriber and haven't filled out the NO DOMINION survey, please do go do that!

Anthologies: DON'T READ THIS BOOK

*squeaks*!

I am so excited about this book. O.O

It's the anthology tie-in to DON'T REST YOUR HEAD, the award-winning horror RPG (now available on Kindle & Nook!) from Evil Hat Productions. I would be excited about it even if I weren't part of the lineup, because it's really Evil Hat's first foray into fiction, and these guys have been my friends for like, ever, so: yes. I would be excited anyway.

But I am sort of beside myself because I don't normally write horror, and Fred knew he was pushing me outside of my comfort zone when he asked me to be one of the anthology participants. And because once I got my head around what I wanted to do, I wanted to do something really specific, and from Fred and Chuck's commentary I nailed it. So I'm actually really proud of my story in there, which is nice not just because I like to do my job well but because it's *specifically* nice to feel I've done well for something on a friend's project.

Also, the cover rocks. OMG. And the contributer line-up is amazing. I mean, if you'd asked, "Gosh, Catie, think you'll ever be in an anthology with ROBIN D FREAKING LAWS?" the answer would have been "Er, no, I'm just not awesome enough to hang with that crowd." Only it turns out I am. *beams* (Or that I have friends who are, anyway. :)) And also, may I say that I'm really pleased that four of the contributers are women? This is an RPG tie-in. It would have been really, really easy to hit the gender blind spot on that one, although I would not *expect* EHP to do that. And they didn't, and that makes me happy too.

Seriously. DON'T READ THIS BOOK is just full of win, and it is coming to e-pub and shortly thereafter physical manifestation soon! With the next 3 months! And you will want to read it! You WILL! EVEN IF IT SAYS NOT TO! :)

Writing: A Personal Best

Several years ago I had a month where I thought I really hadn't written much of anything, and, depressed, went to look at my wordcount. It turned out I had written 83K in that month, and I still don't know how I'd concluded I'd done no work worth mentioning in that time.

I've just obliterated that record. I've done 91,000 words in 19 days. I have written a book in 19 days: I have just finished MOUNTAIN ECHOES, Book 8 of the Walker Papers. It was 10,500 words long when I sat down to start writing on the morning of March 12. Now it is 101,200 words long, and I…

…am freaking awesome, actually, thank you for asking. :)

It's become increasingly clear to me over the years that the more detailed an outline I have the more quickly I can write a book, and noticing I had no plot in place for MOUNTAIN ECHOES did sort of make it necessary to hammer out a thorough outline. Three weeks is still massively faster than anything else I've ever done–I've done two 70K novels in 4 weeks each, previously, but this is a full-length 100K book. My attention span for a book, as my husband pointed out years ago, is about 6 weeks–after that I want to go do something else. Writing one in 3 weeks is…actually probably kind of ideal, although not practical, as it does become my total and sole focus.

Holy crap. Wow. I was aiming to have this thing done by the 5th, which would still have been Very Fast Indeed, but *damn*, sistah. 19 days. *Damn*!

Excuse me while I go pat myself on the back, okay? :)

and now holy *beans* there is only one book left in the walker papers! eek! eek! EEEEEK!!!!!

Writing Retreat Contest!

Just hit 50K on MOUNTAIN ECHOES, the 8th Walker Papers novel. I'm now heading out for a long weekend writing retreat. Post your guess as to my total wordcount by Monday evening, and I'll send a book to the closest guess!

If you cannot guess here–I can't remember how I've got the darned comments set up right now–you can post your guess at Facebook, at Twitter under the hashtag #WalkerPapers8, and at Livejournal, where you can log in with a variety of different options or comment anonymously.