I’ve been trying to think of something to blog about, but I’ve really got nothing to say tonight. Cassie had her first shots yesterday, and while she took them like a champ, she has been feverish and unpredictable for the last 36 hours or so. Not in a very creative state right not. I guess I’ll have to let my 2-week blogging streak lapse tonight.
Oh, wait… I just posted.
I’ll try not to cheat like this tomorrow.
I’m actually doing “real” writing today, so no time for a formal blog post. Still, I don’t want to ruin my update streak, so here’s a picture of me and my favorite redhead to make the grandparents happy:
If you’ve been reading regularly, you may recall a few days ago that I linked to a review of The Painted Man from an Australian SF site called A Boy Goes On A Journey, which has articles, book reviews, forums and community building for new and budding writers, and a lot more. Check it out.
The reviewer of my book, Nyssa, also took the time to write to my Australian publisher and ask if she could send me some interview questions, which I was happy to answer. Nyssa was delightfully enthusiastic about the book, and very friendly. If you’re interested, you can find the full text of the interview here.
Okay, I know that was a short entry, but I have to head back down into the salt mine. The Desert Spear ain’t gonna write itself!
I think I need an intervention.
I was told that a lot of new authors get addicted to checking their rating on Amazon, which you can find under “Product Details” on the book page, but I didn’t think it would happen to me.
Oh, who am I kidding? Of course I did. But even so, I didn’t think I would become enslaved to it, as I have. #10 in fantasy just now, and I broke into the top 100 bestsellers in straight fiction at #96!
Did you know that the Amazon sales rank updates every hour? I didn’t, but I sure do now. I also know it doesn’t happen right on the hour. No, you have to wait until like 7 minutes past before you can hit “refresh” and get your fix.
I shouldn’t know that. No one should. It’s funny how checking my rank makes me feel like a winner and a total loser at the same time.
In other news, I had a chance at my signing to meet Liz, a friend of my biggest fan in South Africa (or the rest of Africa, for that matter), Dave-Brendon de Burgh. Liz picked up a signed copy for Dave, and snagged one for herself while she was at it. We had a nice little chat, though I was nervous at my first signing and probably came off sounding like I was high. Liz is a real book lover, and maintains a very enjoyable blog called My Favorite Books.
Anyway, Liz sent me a message the other day telling me that she was so involved in reading The Painted Man that she missed her train stop. Really, there are few greater compliments. I mentioned that I missed my stop many times while writing it!
Liz wrote a glowing review on her blog, which you can see here.
Thanks, Liz!
As part of their early promotion for The Painted Man, Voyager had sets of temporary tattoos made, using the wards I had designed for the website, which are also being used on all the international editions of the book, as well as in other places. These were sent out, along with the promotional Advance Read Copies (ARCs) of the book, to various booksellers and buyers to help show Voyager’s excitement about the series.
When Voyager first sent me my ARCs, they included a sheet of the temporary ward tattoos, along with the detail cards that were sent in the promotional package. The cards show what each ward does, and gives some background about the types of demon they affect.
I finally got around to scanning them for the blog. I think they are awesome:
