C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 112

RAVEN CALLS arrives!

This part never gets old. :)

A particularly handsome model displays the new book. :)

I'll pick 3 random commenters to send a copy of RAVEN CALLS to. That's 3 on mizkit.com & 3 on mizkit.livejournal.com, just so that's clear. :) And hell, I'll be doing this on cemurphy.net, Twitter, Facebook and G+, too, so if you're very thorough you can have up to 6 chances to win a book, I suppose. :)

And oh, the spot varnish on this one is AWESOME. AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!

Recent Reads: HEAT WAVE

The preposterously silly HEAT WAVE, by Richard Castle, is precisely what you think it will be. Rick Castle, if you don't know, is the crime novelist played by Nathan Fillion on the TV show "Castle". HEAT WAVE stars Nikki Heat, the character Castle has based on Kate Beckett, the "real life" police detective he's following around and studying for his next series. You get the idea. :)

There are two splendid things about this book. One is that it reads very much like an episode of Castle, with very similar interactions between the characters, who are all obviously (and deliberately obviously) based on the TV show characters.

The other utterly great thing, though, is that HEAT WAVE is *exactly* the kind of book that Richard Castle the character would write. Everything about it is exactly what you'd expect from Castle, which I think takes a rather deft (ghost-writing) hand. I'll have to read the next one, because that was just pure silly fun. :)

Recent Reads: The Crossroads Trilogy

(This post was written over the course of a few weeks.)

I read Kate Elliott's SPIRIT GATE a few years ago when it first came out, and have had the sequels sitting on my shelf for over a year, unread because (as I may have mentioned previously) being a full-time writer (and Mommy!) really cuts into your reading time. So I wanted to re-read SPIRIT GATE before tackling the other two, 'cause I barely remembered what had happened in it.

I liked it even better the second time through, which seems to be something of a trend for me and epic fantasy. I suspect I read too fast to appreciate all the nuances and story developments the first time through, and that I catch them more solidly the second time, even if it's been a long time since I've read it.

What I particularly noted this time through was Kate's descriptive abilities. I honestly have no idea how she does it, even when I'm sitting there reading and trying to analyze it. Someday in my copious free time I'm going to have to try my hand at real epic fantasy, and go beg her for help. :) Anyway, as usual with Kate's work, it's a great solid book of good characters, alarming encounters, desperate measures and inevitable conclusions. If you like epic fantasy and haven't read it, do. :)

SHADOW GATE: The second book in the Crossroads trilogy is stronger than the first, I think, and that's even with enjoying the first very much. I've been friends with Kate a while now and it's really interesting to see what she talks about in her blog posts being reflected in her stories–things I wouldn't necessarily have noticed actively on my own. There's a *lot* of (not just women, but very often women) playing the hand they're dealt, no matter how dreadful that hand might be, and it's making for astonishingly good characterization. As a reader I completely understand where each of the characters is coming from (even if I don't necessarily like the character very much), and that's pure gold both from a reader's and a writer's perspective.

Also, holy crap, someone I totally didn't expect to died and I'm still a bit O.O over it. Actually, two people, though the second one I probably should have seen coming because it's going to totally cause everything to go to hell (and also probably maneuver a major character into the position that appeared to be inevitable when I began reading the trilogy. But maybe not, so I'm all eager to find out!), whereas the first one is sheerly "BUT HEY WAIT NO I LIKED THAT ONE WAIT STOP ACK!" O.O

Cannot. Wait. To read the third book! Eee!

TRAITORS' GATE: The inevitable totally failed to happen, and something else obvious and yet completely surprising happened instead. This is the strongest book of the trilogy, and it ends beautifully, although my instant reaction was NEXT BOOK PLEASE AGGHGLGL! Somewhere in the last third of the book, when it became clear what had been going to happen all along even though I had utterly, completely not seen it coming, I started panicking: how were they going to get out of this? And then: Oh, crap, they're not AGHGLGLGH NEXT BOOK PLEASE! Furthermore, it became increasingly apparent that Kate Elliott has subscribed to the GRRM School of Epic Fantasy*, where nobody is safe, and I really had no idea who was going to come out of it alive, which was terrific. I love that palpable sense of distress as a reader, watching the tragic inevitabilities unfold and wondering how it'll affect the characters. And there are highs to meet the lows, love stories that are not romantic or which break the rules of the societies the characters come from, so it's a beautiful, satisfying ending to a whacking big epic fantasy.

Looking back at the trilogy, it's…it's epic fantasy on a personal scale. I mean, epic fantasy has to be or you'd just be listening to someone narrate "And then this happened, then this happened, then that happened." But the Crossroads Trilogy dives into the hearts and stories of individuals in a way I've rarely encountered. One set of major characters, the reeves, who fly with giant eagles, can literally see it all from above, but despite that, the story is very much told from the ground level. There are battles, but at most we get glimpses of them from an eagle-eye view; mostly we see them from the points of view of soldiers and slaves, from people who have lost everything to the war and from those who, having lost everything, are willing to sacrifice the last thing they have to end or profit from: themselves.

The pacing is therefore…not, perhaps, what one would expect from epic fantasy. There are tangents, stories told not precisely because they drive the main thrust of the books, but because they reflect the world as a whole, and how it's being changed, and how the people in it are being changed, and the choices they have to make and live with. If I had written this (nevermind Kate Elliott's descriptive abilities, which far outshine my own), it wouldn't have delved into so many characters so deeply, telling their stories alongside the main thread. It wouldn't have really occurred to me to do that, even though I've enjoyed other writers who've done the same kinds of things. The worldbuilding here is astonishing and deep, and I would happily, happily spend many more books in the Hundreds. Hell, despite its problems, I'd be pretty happy to spend some real time in the Hundreds, and I feel like I'd even have a fair grasp of the customs and behaviors expected of me, which is quite something for a purely fantasy world.

*She may have subscribed to this a long time ago. I'm afraid it's been so long since I've read Jaran or the King's Dog books that I simply can't remember anymore. :)

Easy Pickings now available on Amazon & B&N!

You now have three very exciting options for buying "Easy Pickings", the Jane Yellowrock/Joanne Walker crossover novella written by Faith Hunter and myself!

1: You can buy it here on CEMurphy.Net (or on Faith's site) for $2.99. The download will give you an epub, a mobi, and a PDF file, so any type of e-reader you have will be able to read it. This, frankly, is our favorite way for you to buy it, because we get about $2.75 off that sale, rather than $2 from the other sites. :)

That said, I'm really quite okay with you buying it at one of the following sites, because that raises its profile there, and we need that!

2. You can buy it here on Amazon if you have a Kindle and only want the Kindle file. It'll still cost you $2.99, though.

3. You can buy it here on B&N.com if you have a Nook and only want the epub file. Still $2.99. :)

(Really, if you're at my website, I expect you'll probably buy it here. It's the folks who don't hang out here who *really* need it at B&N and Amazon!)

Two heroines. Two magics.

One world.

There's nowhere in America like the Big Easy. Just ask Jane Yellowrock, shapeshifting vampire killer, whose hunting grounds run the length and breadth of the Bayou.

Just ask Joanne Walker, whose shamanic magic has drawn her to the heart of American Weird.

But it's not Joanne's world, and it isn't Jane's either. In a New Orleans where Katrina never hit and supposedly-dead vampires stalk the streets, Jane and Jo have to find and defeat the magic that brought them there–or they just might find themselves…

EASY PICKINGS

fan fiction by the authors themselves!

Read the teaser and

PLEASE NOTE: You will be given the option to "return to open at mizkit dot com" once you've paid! Click through on that, because that's what will bring you to the download page! So don't skip out of Paypal until you do so through that link! Otherwise you won't get your story, and I won't know that! I'll think you're out there happy as a fish in water, reading all about Jane and Jo's adventures, when instead you'll be sniffling in your tea! Don't let that happen!

RAVEN CALLS teaser posted!

RAVEN CALLS, book 7 of the Walker Papers, is due out in March! I've finally posted a lil' teaser for it, so here you go! Enjoy!

-Catie

SUNDAY, MARCH 19, 9:53 A.M.

The werewolf bite on my forearm itched.

Itching was wrong. It wasn't old enough to itch. It should hurt like the dickens, because I'd obtained it maybe six hours earlier. Instead it itched like it was a two-week-old injury, well on the way to healing.

Only I was quite sure it wasn't healing. For one thing, I kept peeking at it, and it was still a big nasty slashy bite that oozed blood when the bandages were loosened. For another thing, my stock in trade was healing. Fourteen months, two weeks and three days ago—but who was counting—I had been stabbed through the chest. A smart-ass coyote—kinda my spirit guide—had given me a choice between dying or becoming a shaman. Even for someone with no use for the esoteric, like I'd been, it hadn't been much of a choice. So now, nearly fifteen months on, a bite on my forearm was something I really should be able to deal with.

And it wasn't that I hadn't tried healing it, because I had. Magic slid off like oil and water, or possibly more like oil and gashed flesh, if oil slid off gashed flesh, which I assumed it did but didn't want to actually find out. Either way, the magic wasn't working. Normally that would be a bad sign, but my talent had taken both a beating and a boosting in the past twenty-four hours, and wasn't behaving. It reacted explosively when I tried using it, and I didn't want to explode my arm. So I was getting on a plane with absolutely no notice and flying to Ireland, because I'd had a vision of the woman who had turned werewolves from slavering beasties 100% of the time into part-time monsters, and in my vision, she'd been in Ireland. I figured if anybody could keep me human, it had to be the woman who'd bound the wolves to the moon's cycle.

That's what I was telling myself, anyway, because it was slightly better than a full-on panic attack in the middle of the Seattle-Tacoma Airport.

Read more!

Crowdfunding: Old Races Short Story Project

This is the landing page for my second major crowdfunding project of 2011, the Old Races Short Story Project. I'm posting it here and now because The Rose & Bay Crowdfunding Award is open for nominations, but it's also a really good way to do a year-end round-up and look at what I've accomplished in non-traditional publishing methods over the past 12 months.

So on to the ORSSP write-up!

Project Proposal: I set out with a goal to to write 6 short stories set in my Old Races universe, to create content for a possible future print publication collection of Old Races stories. I had in mind a financial goal of $3,000 ($500/story), but the especially important aspect to me was obtaining an audience for the stories to make certain I wrote them.

Project Conclusion: Over 180 patrons donated over $4,000 toward the ORSSP, making it not only a success in terms of getting me to write the stories, but also a clear financial success in and of itself.

Proof of Fiction Committed: There are teasers available for five of the six stories. For the sixth, my patrons have generously agreed to let me post the entire story publicly.

"Salt Water Stains the Sand", a tale of the djinn, is available here.

Teasers for the other stories are available here:

The Death of Him, a story of the selkies

Awakening, a story of the vampires (set after the Negotiator Trilogy)

Falling, a story of the gargoyles

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

and

Legacy, a story of the humans

Really, it went so well I'm more than half tempted to do it again this year, except I already have a great deal on my plate in 2012. :)

Crowdfunding: "No Dominion"

It's that time of year again: The Rose & Bay Crowdfunding Award is open for nominations, and part of the process is making certain nominees have a landing page for people to go read about their crowdfunding efforts in 2011. I'll be doing two landing pages for 2011: the "No Dominion" Kickstarter campaign, and the Old Races Short Story Project.

First up: "No Dominion"!

Project Proposal: I set out with a goal to raise $4000 through Kickstarter.com to fund the writing of a Walker Papers tie-in novella about Gary Muldoon, Joanne Walker's septuagenarian sidekick:

Recently widowed after nearly fifty years of marriage, Gary Muldoon had given up on adventure. Then shaman Joanne Walker climbed into the back seat of his cab, and since then, Gary has trifled with gods, met mystics, slain zombies and ridden with the Wild Hunt.

But now he must leave Joanne's side to face a battle only he can win. Because as their long battle against a dark magic-user races toward its climax, it becomes clear that it was not illness that took Annie's life, but their enemy's long and deadly touch.

Though lovers be lost, love shall not…

     …AND DEATH SHALL HAVE NO DOMINION.

Project Conclusion: Over 500 patrons contributed over $20,500 to the "No Dominion" campaign, earning them the following:

3 novellas

5 short stories

3 chapters of a book that doesn't exist

& 1 CE Murphy photographic calendar

…which, frankly, was rather more than I expected. :)

Proof of Fiction Committed: There are two pieces of free fiction associated with the "No Dominion" campaign. Neither is actually from the "No Dominion" novella, because that novella begins in the middle of RAVEN CALLS, the 7th book of the Walker Papers series, which isn't due out until March 2012, and I didn't want to spoil anything. Instead, I'm offering up the following:

Magic Hath An Element, the first chapters of URBAN SHAMAN, as seen through Gary's eyes instead of Joanne's, and Forgotten But By A Few, the first "No Dominion" campaign short story.

Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

Cover Reveal: BABA YAGA'S DAUGHTER!

Ancient rivals, best of friends, worst of enemies: dragonlord Janx and master vampire Eliseo Daisani are the threads upon which a tapestry of lives and loves are woven across the centuries. From the coldest Russian nights to the heat of Chicago's greatest fire, nothing brings the immortal adversaries together–or tears them apart–like a woman.

And there is always a woman.

Vanessa Grey has been at Daisani's side for decades, but the secrets borne by a witch may be her undoing. Baba Yaga's daughter has plots that are decades in the hatching, but they may only succeed if Margrit Knight, named "the Negotiator" by Daisani and Janx themselves, will work with her. And there are others: the greatest vampire hunter mankind has ever known, and a woman for whom the Old Races are a wonder to walk away from.

Revisit C.E. Murphy's world of the Old Races with eight stories that delve into the past and future of the two most beloved characters from her urban fantasy trilogy The Negotiator!

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ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG *SQUEE*! THOMAS CANTY COVER! SO PRETTY! SO EXCITED!!! ZOMG EEEEEEEE!

BABA YAGA'S DAUGHTER should be be available for pre-order later this month (or early in February) so I'll be doing this all over again then, but SQUEE! I'm really, really excited about this book. It's going to be SO beautiful, and I'm very pleased with the stories in it, so holy beans, I hope you guys will like it too. EEEEEEEEE!

V. large full cover behind the cut! Worth clicking through! I PROMISE!

SQUEEEEE!

Happy New Year!

Today is Gary Muldoon's 80th birthday. Kyle Cassidy and "No Dominion" cover model Charles "The Hunk" Summerfield had such a great time with the "No Dominion" cover shoot that they stole off to get another couple pictures of Gary on Christmas Eve:

Happy Birthday, Gary, and Happy New Year to the world!