Hope is Cassie’s Middle Name
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Been very busy lately trying to finish the first draft of The Desert Spear. It’s close. I can smell it.
I can also smell baby formula. That stuff stinks, and it clings to everything. Yuck.
Anyway, a lot of topics I’ve been saving for blog posts have been piling up, and while some of them, like what it’s like to have a 10pm – 4am writing schedule, can wait, I figured I’d knock a few things out quickly while I have a second.
First off, I have made some additions to the News page, including a little navigation menu at the top and permanenet links to all the web interviews I have done to date. The latest interview was posted today on a new website called Number One Novels, where Rebecca Chastain interviews debut authors on their books. It’s a quick read, and I encourage you to check it out.
My next task on the News page will be adding in links to all my reviews, but that is a much more daunting task, and will probably be done in pieces.
The third and final installment of the Japanese translation of The Painted Man goes on sale January 23! I have really enjoyed the Japanese editions, even though I can’t read a word of them. The cover art has been fabulous, as well as the internal illustrations of the characters. I also like the manga-sized editions that are easily carried for reading on those ridiculously clean subways they supposedly have in Japan.
My Japanese translator is also incredibly nice, and uses slang from the book in her e-mails to me. That is so awesome.
To the Left you can see a thumbnail of the cover for book three, which shows the Painted Man looking all awesome and badass on Twilight Dancer with Rojer and Leesha in profile portrait to either side. I haven’t seen the image full sized yet, but I will post it once I get a hold of it.
Now that the advance read editions are out in the market at last and the pub date (March 10, 2009!) is drawing night, more and more reviews of The Warded Man are popping up:
- Here’s a great review on Reading is My Superpower. I will be doing an interview for the Superfast Reader herself sometime in the very near future. This review made me gleeful.
- Patrick at Mysterious Galaxy Books wrote a stellar review, and even loved the book enough to request that I autograph all their stock of The Warded Man before it goes on sale. So if you’re in the market for a signed copy, that’s your place to go.
- Another great interview on Fantasy Book Critic. Technically it’s a “Painted Man” review, but they use both covers, so it counts. It’s the same book on the inside, anyway, unless you’re really particular about whether there should be a “u” in “color”.
- Starred review on Library Journal! You have to scroll a bit to find it, but it’s a great, concise little capsule review.
- Publisher’s Weekly got in on the action! Again, you have to scroll and the review is only a paragraph, but who cares? Publisher’s Weekly liked my book!
- Nice Warded Man review on Scooter Chronicles. One of the rare long reviews that doesn’t give away half the plot.
- Meri Greenleaf at Elbit blog wrote a really great review, too. I read it whenever I’m in a bad mood.
- This review is for part I the Polish edition, Malowany Czloweik, which covers the first half of the book. You can read the Google Translated version here (always fun), or check it out in its original Polish.
- Lastly, Harriet Klausner wrote a review which has popped up all over the web. It’s positive, which is great, though a bit more spoiler-laden than I would prefer. Might not be the best choice to read it if you haven’t already read the book. Review here.
In other link love, Poetswarn says he wants to make a Painted Man/Warded Man RPG on his journal. Cooool.
Also, did I mention this?
No?
Okay, remind me later.
What We Did Today
Since I started a 10pm – 4am writing schedule (the only quiet time in the house), I have some more time during the day to spend with Cassie. Who needs sleep, after all? It’s overrated.
Today was an exciting day. Cassie’s first attempt at eating cereal:
NY ComicCon
I love ComicCon.
I started out by going to the San Diego con, which became an annual trip with my and my evil twin/partner in crime Jay, and sometimes the lovely ladies in our lives. I was on the ground floor when ComicCon came to NYC, caught up in the ridiculous lines and fire-hazard overflowing room capacities of the first couple of years, and then the slightly more comfortable scene last year.
I’ve been a comic book and fantasy fan my whole life, and was going to conventions even as a kid, where it was often the only place where you could hunt down obscure back issues of books if they weren’t in the bins of your local store, because the internet hadn’t been invented yet. I loved going to see my favorite authors and artists speak, getting signed books and sketches, and seeing people dressed up as my favorite heroes. I have had some really good times at comic conventions in general, and ComicCon in particular, as my blog archives can attest.
But this year, man. This is going to be the BEST. CON. EVER!
Why? Because this year, I’m not going as a fanboy. This year, I’m going because it’s my job.
How fucking cool is THAT?! I get to talk on panels, give away free books, sign autographs, and say “See ya, suckas!” to the chumps on the main line as I sneak in the side door reserved for presenters.
And not only is it my job to go and promote my new book, but I discovered yesterday that in some ways, I will be the belle of the ball.
You see, I ordered a weekend pass to the con for my wife, and it arrived in the mail yesterday. It looked like this:
I was confused at first. Was this a special badge for me from my publisher? Why was it addressed to my wife?
Then it hit me. The badge wasn’t personalized.
I called my publisher, freaking out, and found out that sure enough, they had paid for 50% of the badges at the con to be Warded Man badges, and the other 50% to be for Richard Morgan’s The Steel Remains.
Now, last year’s ComicCon had somewhere in the vicinity of 30,000 attendees, and this year is supposed to be bigger still. Every year the attendance has gone up considerably.
Can you imagine somewhere between 15 and 20 THOUSAND people wearing ID badges with my name and book title on them? I keep trying to, but my brain keeps shorting out. It’s incredible. A little boy’s dream come true.
And did I mention ComicCon is falling on my birthday this year? And that we will be giving away hundreds of free signed copies of The Warded Man, and thousands of free temporary ward tattoos? And that I will be speaking on author roundtable panels and the like?
Just when I thought I was dreaming and needed a pinch, I got a MMS message on my phone from my friend Jon, who had gotten his passes in the mail. He enclosed a picture:
Awesome.
So if you were on the fence about attending this year’s con, get off the bench and into the game by ordering tickets now! There are only three days left to order and have them sent to you in the mail. After that, you will need to pick them up at the door, and I assure you, you do NOT want to wait in that line, if you can avoid it.
Hope to see you all there!
P.S.
If anyone else sends me pictures of them with their badges, I will happily post them!
Leesha Fix
I don’t know if there’s anyone out there that loves Leesha Paper as much as I do, but if there is, and you want a quick Leesha fix to help tide you over to The Desert Spear, then look no further than my new Excisions page.
As I’ve hinted for many months, there was a Leesha scene deleted from The Painted Man / The Warded Man that I was really fond of, and I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to share it with people.
Well, the wait is over. Here is the never-before-seen, 3000 word Leesha side story that, for reasons explained in the introduction, never made it into the final draft. Let me know what you think.