My editor, Anne Sowards, had this news to share about Dead Sexy... [I'd told her that I'd noticed DS was #9 on the B&N contemporary paranormal romance bestseller list on-line]....
"Thanks for passing it on! DEAD SEXY is also doing nicely at the B&N physical stores--it debuted at #7 on their romance trade bestseller list, and moved to #8 the second week. It's #11 on Bookscan's Romance trade bestseller list."
While at Como Zoo yesterday, Mason and I spotted a new license plate. This one is Nova Scotia (Canada)! Cool beans!
Mason really wants to see a license plate from Antarctica now. I'll bet you didn't even know they had them there...
Oh, and if you're keeping track, we still haven't seen West Virginia yet.
Note the large amount of copy I got in this review of Many Bloody Returns. You can't even tell whether or not he liked my piece.
from Don D'Ammassa's Critical Mass...
Many Bloody Returns edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner, Ace, 9/07, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-441-01522-1
"Theme anthologies continue to get more and more specific. This one is a collection of vampire stories, but they all take place at birthday celebrations. What’s next? Left handed vampires with dolphin tattoos who knit for a hobby? Anyway, I only read a story or two a day to avoid overload, and on balance it's a pretty good collection if you're not already terminally overdosed on the undead. And while I'm including this under Horror fiction, most of the stories are anything but, ranging from mystery to humor to puzzle story to mild romance. The opening story by Charlaine Harris features her recurring character, Sookie Stackhouse, the waitress who gets involved with good and evil vampires in each of her novels. This time she meets and unmasks a Dracula impostor in a brief, well written but pretty minor story. It does have one good line. “If experience has taught me anything, it’s to dispose instantly of bloodstained clothing.” Christopher Golden follows with a far more substantial piece, and a different variety of vampire, a coming of age story like you’ve never read before. Bill Crider contributes a humorous take on the teenaged undead in “I Was a Teenage Vampire”, followed by Kelley Armstrong’s “Twilight”, which was a bit too long for its story.
Jim Butcher has a very long Harry Dresden story, in which his quest to find a missing vampire on his birthday turns into a mystery and near disaster. I thought this one was better than some of the Dresden novels, avoiding some of the formulaic aspects of that series. P.N. Elrod provides a pretty good short adventure of her popular vampire hero, Jack Fleming, and Rachel Caine draws on her new Morganville Vampire series for her contribution. Jeanne Stein, author of a couple of vampire novels, has one of the better stories with "The Witch and the Wicked", wherein a witch caters a vampire birthday party, incinerates the host, and ends up with his consciousness inhabiting her body. Tanya Huff also has an above average story, "Blood Wrapped", featuring her undead romance novelist.
Carolyn Haines adds a well written, tragic, but relatively slight story, and Tate Hallaway follows up with a romantic interlude. Elaine Viets' "Vampire Hours" is an interesting, semi-mystery involving murder and a nicely nasty bit of revenge. Last up is co-editor Kelner's "How Stella Got Her Grave Back", the best title in the collection. It opens with a nice image, a vampire visiting her grave on her birthday. There's a good deal of humor in this one; vampires are apparently fond of practical jokes. It's a clever story, but about as far from horrific as you can get and still have vampires. 5/9/07
An interesting article in the New York Times today about Wiccans. Check out "Wiccan's Keep the Faith with Religion Under Wraps."
Arrgh! I'm getting such mean, snarky reviews on Amazon.com. If anyone out there loved (or even liked) my newest book PLEASE post a nicer (notice you don't have to be nice, just nic_er_) review.
Pretty please. With sugar on top?
Having turned in book three of the Garnet Lacey series, I’m starting to think about what’s the next writing project. Of course, I’m planning on proposing a fourth book in the series, but I’m also wondering about whether or not I should consider what to do if my editor says she’s not interested because the vampire romance genre is in a slump (I don’t KNOW that it is, by the way, but anecdotal evidences suggests it might be.)
One thought is to transform Garnet Lacey into more of a paranormal romance/urban fantasy and less of a strictly vampire thing. It could be quite easily done given that Garnet is a witch. There could be any number of adventures involving the more occult aspects of her life. Book three has a hint of that when Garnet meets someone who may or may not be a werewolf.
The other thought is to consider abandoning Garnet completely in favor of another paranormal/urban fantasy heroine. I have any number of ideas, of course. I started a couple things that I’ve never pursued that I liked – one is about a detective in the Metahuman Special Unit (MSU). I envisioned this as a kind of police procedural, ala CSI, except with paranormal elements. The other is the one I’ve talked about on the Wyrdsmiths blog about an apocalyptic chick-lit, in which our heroine is told by a hottie angel that she is supposed to be the second coming.
I think this week I’ll write up a couple of proposals: the continuation of Garnet and one of these other two.
It feels weird not to be writing... and even weird to be in between contracts.
