2013, The Year of Innovation?

I have a weird supersition. For some reason I've decided that however I start the day on New Year's Day will be an indication of how the year will be. Like any supersition, this has its downsides. Last year, I broke a plate, and... well, 2012 had a lot of disappointments.

This upcoming year, if my supersition holds, will be very, very IN-TER-ESTING.

I got up early on New Year's Eve day with the intention of getting started on the sequel to Precinct 13 (which I did, and which I'm eventually hoping to start publishing here and then collecting into an e-book). At any rate, I was feeling pretty prepared because the-day-before I remembered that I was low on coffee and I went out and bought two HUGE bags of the good stuff. I pulled out the old coffee maker, ripped open the first of the bags, and... discovered I had no coffee filters. My brain started spinning. What could I use instead? A paper towel? No, that would melt into goo. Cloth? Too thick, could also plug the works. Then I remembered that I had tea bags--the kind you can use when you make your own tea. They were connected in a row so you could tear each one off individually. I thought, "Ah ha! If I'm careful, I can line the inside of the coffeemaker and this could work." Of course, it could also have been a disaster with grounds gumming everything up.

But... it worked.

It was some of the best coffee I'd made in a long time too. And I had enough of the little tea bag sheets to do it again for a second pot.

So, I'm thinking 2013 = Innovation and Success. Let's hope that's true. I feel like it's off to a good start in the success department, because Cheryl Morgan, my publisher at Wizard's Tower Press, forwarded me this review from SF Signal about the e-book version of Archangel Protocol: http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2013/01/book-review-archangel-protocol-by-lyda-morehouse/

Sweet, huh? Okay, if you didn't zip off to read it, the gist of the thing is this: the book stands the test of time, at least from their p.o.v. That was nice to hear because that's probably one of my biggest concerns. Technology has changed a lot since I wrote it in 1999 (as has the world.) It's nice to know that, even if it's become a bit of a museum piece/alternate history, the characters and the world-building still come through strong enough to carry the book.

And, I'm enjoying the world of Precinct 13 again. It's fun to go back and revisit characters. And, in a weird way, without an editor looking over my shoulder, I'm looking foward to exploring some of the darker parts of that world that I never really touched on. Like, what's up with Devon (the vampire/werewolf) and his "enthrallment" to Spencer Jones (the police captain/fairy prince)? How creepy is that relationship anyway? Well, we may find out!

Big Bummer

So, I was having a pretty good day today because, in my other persona as Lyda Morehouse, I had a really fun interview request from a reviewer in Spain about my Archangel Protocol book, which has recently been re-released in e-book format! 

Then my good feelings came crashing down when I decided that I should probably check my email box as Tate, and I had to tell two fans of PRECINCT 13 that they needed to give up hope for a sequel.  It occurs to me that I should probably take some time to update my website and let people know the sad, sad truth.  Despite being advertised as "the first in a new series" everywhere, PRECINCT 13 is officially a stand-alone, as Penguin USA has decided to pass on the opportunity to publish a sequel. 

I know, right? BUMMER.

I'm especially sad because I loved PRECINCT 13 in a way that I haven't truly loved a series of mine since the first Garnet Lacey book.  I am still seriously considering the possibility of serializing the sequel online with the idea that eventually I would turn the finished project into an e-book.  But, I haven't gotten started on that... perhaps with the New Year? 

Yes.

I think I'll make that my goal.  Starting in the New Year, it will be my resolution to write the sequel to Precinct 13.  I think this is a good plan, because it's sincerely disheartening to have to tell people that no, they can't hope for a new book by me any time soon.....

And I'm determined to make 2013 a good year for Tate!

Interview with Me

If you're looking to find out what's happening next with me, you can check out http://amberkatze.blogspot.co.at/2012/12/author-interivew-with-tate-hallaway.html.  In which I give Amber the sad, sad news that there will be no more books in the PRECINCT 13 universe unless I decide to self-publish.

Several days ago, I came home to discover a request for an interview in my in-box. So I took a few minutes to answer the dozen or so questions and send it back. I got asked that ubiquitous question, "If they ever made a movie of your books, who would you cast...?" Normally, I hate that question because I don't watch enough TV or movies to even have a clue who's the new hottie superstar (and clearly, that's what the answer is supposed to be).

But, I now have a defaut answer! J. Michael Tatum. He is, in fact, the only actor I know. True, he's currently best known as the voice of Sebastian in "Black Butler" and for his work in "Ouran Host Club," but, having met him at Gaylaxicon, I can tell you, he'd make a fine Valentine or Sebastian in live-action. So, ta dah! I finally have a decent answer to that question. Granted, it makes me look perhaps a bit like a super-geek to name an Anime voice actor, but to which I say, "And your point...?"

The fun part of this story was that I was feeling brave so I texted J. Michael himself and told him this (through reasons that still somewhat baffle me, we exchanged phone numbers at the end of Gaylaxicon--apparently I didn't give him the impression I thought I did, which was, "Idiot Squeeing Fan Grrl"), and, anyway, instead of getting back, "And you are...?" He wrote back something very sweet which implied that he remembered me, but also made him seem like possibly the NICEST GUY ON EARTH. It's possible that he stared at his phone and thought, "Who the fuck is this?" but then shrugged and decided, "Well, you know, it never hurts to be nice," and then later went to the Googles to try to remember what possessed him to give his real phone number to someone in Minnesota who wasn't Anton... but, hey, it kind of made my day, regardless.

The NaNoWriMo Problem

Since I'm still an unemployed writer, I've decided to sign up for NaNoWriMo. I've decided to do this under my real name "lydamorehouse," so if you're also doing it and looking for a writing buddy, feel free to connect to me.

I've been told the best way to survive National Novel Writing Month (which, btw, starts in a matter of weeks, beginning in November,) is to do a lot of pre-plotting and outlining before the big event. The idea is that will keep you focused when you're trying to push words out. But, I have a much bigger problem: I'm not sure which project I want to focus on.

At Gaylaxicon, thanks in large part to Kyell's enthusiasm for it, I actually got an offer to publish my gay superhero story, which I read as a work in progress at WorldCON. Being the sort of person I am (*cough*writingwhore*cough*), the idea that there's a built in market for this novel/novella really appeals to me. Plus, the story is a great deal of fun. It would not be the sort of thing that I would find difficult to sit down and plow through for an entire month.

However, the editor who offered kept apologizing for the fact that almost no money would be available, and he encouraged me to try to sell that story elsewhere, should I finish it. At this point in my career, any offer works for me. However, it does put this project on a more even ground with something like writing the next Garnet Lacey and/or Precinct 13 story as an e-book.

I could potentially make some $$ if I self-published a sequel/continuation of one of my existing series as an e-book. Presumably there are fans out there who would want to buy an e-book release. My biggest worry/concern about doing a Tate Hallway e-book is that I'm not quite sure what my rights are in regards to those books. All of the Tate books are still in print, which means they belong to Penguin USA. Technically, my contracts stipulate that the publisher has right of first refusal on all sequels/next works of paranormal romance, but I have no idea if that extends to a project like this. I suppose I should ask my agent. She would know.

The other drawback is one I probably shouldn't admit to in public, but part of me still resists this business model: self-e-publishing. It still feels really labor intensive to me, and I remain unconvinced all that work upfront is worth the supposed eventual paycheck. One of the things I like about having a big, New York publisher is (the advance, but also) that I don't have to mess around with all the formatting details. Plus, I'd suddenly be responsible for the single most critical part of a book's success--the cover art. That, quite frankly, freaks me out. And, I'd need to be super-rigorous about typos. Anyone reading here or my frist-drafty fanfic KNOWS I have a problem with spelling and I have NEVER ACTUALLY mastered the use of the comma in the English language.

On top of those super-appealing options is a third one--all those other stories I said to myself, "damn, if I ever get time I'd like to work on those." The problem, of course, is that I've had time, and nothing has quite grabbed me, alas. But, this feels like the perfect time to take on something that's been a dream project. So, I don't know.

I need to decide soon. With NaNoWriMo approaching, I'm going to need to focus on those outlines. (Another plus in the Hallaway projects column is that all the potential novels is that they come with book proposals/outlines already written.)

Where to Find Me!

I'm going to be one of the guests at this year's Gaylaxicon, which, like, starts tomorrow. Should you be going, you can find me talking about/doing these things:

Friday 4:30 PM Terrace 2 Writing Straight (when you're not)

Friday 9:30 PM Terrace 4 Outer Alliance Podcast

Saturday 2:00 PM Terrace 2 GoH Spotlight: Lyda Morehouse

Saturday 5:00 PM Terrace 2 Remembering the Penis: Queer Women Writing M/M Slash

Saturday 11:00 PM Terrace 3 British TV Invasion

Saturday Midnight Terrace 4 Midnight Slash Reading / Open Mic

Sunday 9:30 AM Terrace 2 Women at Gaylaxicon: Where r u?

Sunday 11:00 AM Terrace 3 Writing Across Fandoms

Sunday 12:30 PM Terrace 2 Superheroes on the Big Screen

Sunday 2:00 PM Terrace 4 Romance Writing

Yes, I talked them into giving a midnight Slash Slam. I have been fretting over which of my 101 peices of fanfic/slash to read. I know, however, that Kyell Gold will be reading his Road Runner/Wiley E. Coyote. Tell me that doesn't sound awesome!

When Kelly Barnhill is RIGHT.

Some time last year, I took part in a panel discussion at the Minnesota Historical Society about writing science fiction/fantasy.  It was me and "the two Kellys," Kelly McCullough and Kelly Barnhill (and moderated by the always-fabulous Jody Wurl).  Jody did her best to tease out more than the usual topics despite the rather broad subject of the panel and we were having a jolly old time talking about all aspects of writing.  Then, someone from the audience asked about the revision process, to which Kelly Barnhill admitted that  her strategy went like this:

"I open up my novel and hit, 'Select-All, Delete.'"

Kelly McCullough and I laughed nervously, and then did a classic double-take, "Wait, what?  SERIOUSLY????"

Yes.

It turns out Kelly Barnhill's method for revision is to completely delete her novel (yes, she means all of it, all 80,000 words) and rewrite it FROM SCRATCH. 

The other Kelly and I sputtered incoherently for several minutes, and number of writers in the audience had a complete heart attack at this thought.  I mean, from the bloodless look on his face, I'm not sure Michael Mirriam will ever quite recover from the shock.

But today, I get it.

I've been banging my head against the keyboard for a week trying to tease out a plot for this military science fiction proposal I'm trying to write, and it's time.

It's time to hit 'Select-All, Delete.'

Okay, so I'm nowhere near as brave as Ms. Barnhill.  I think I will probably secretly save what I've written in under a different name and stash it in the far-corners of my proposals file.  I also am losing less than 2,000 words.  But, the principle is the same.  This is not working.  I need a complete do-over.  I'm dumping the whole thing and trying agian.

So, yeah, there are times when Kelly Barnhill is RIGHT.

Why So Shiny!??

Why is it, that when you finally have some real work you need to do on writing, the whole world looks SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING!?

What's weird to me about this phenomenon is that I'm not usually one of those writers who talks about how hard the process is.  I would never deny that writing is hard.  It is.  But, for me at least, I love it just that much that the pain of revisions or the blank page or whatever is really quite mild in comparison to the sheer joy of getting to make sh*t up all day long.  (Best. Job. Ever.)  The things, instead, that tend to break my heart are the business end of things.  I can (and have recently) get really down about how hard it is to actually make a living as a writer. 

I have an awesome idea for a proposal right now.  It's been kicking around in my head for nearly a week and a half.  I can not. get. out.  I think, actually, my problem is two-fold.  Not only is the Internet really shiny when writing isn't flowing, but I also don't really have a good handle on my plot yet.  I need to figure out what story I want to tell.  I've got this awesome character that I'm really in love with, but I haven't figured out the "what's at stake?" question.  What is it that's going to make her grow and change over the course of 80,000 to 100, 000 words? 

I have some of her character "issues" (she's from a future "visible minority,") but I haven't figured out what about that is going to come to a head--and HOW.  The "how" has been kind of killing me, actually. 

But, I'm determined to have a finished draft of the proposal by Thursday.  Now I just have to not look at all the shiny bits...

Oh!  Squirrel!

Art Imitating Life

Have you ever read the Manga BAKUMAN?  I'm recommending it to everyone I know (even "mundanes") because, even if you only think of Manga as those weird backwards-reading graphic novels with people with giant eyes, BAKUMAN might be a good one to try because, IMHO, it's much more accessible to anyone--though specifically people who want to be writers. 

BAKUMAN starts as the story of two young Japanese middle school boys who dream of publishing their own Manga.  It's a slow enough process that they don't really start to realize this dream until they're graduated from high school.  But, what I love most about the story is how both realistic it is to the publishing industry (with allowances for some cultural/genre differences) and how deeply inspirational it is.

Deeply inspirational.

What's so inspirational about it, you ask?  Well, for one, our heroes get a boatload of rejections.  Every time they get ahead a step they get knocked back two.  They get series placed in Shonen Jump only to watch it fail miserably.  They do this again and again and again and, here's the important bit: THEY NEVER GIVE UP. 

In my opinion, that's the only true way to survive as a working writer.

I got another proposal rejected yesterday. 

I could cry about it, but I'm actually kind of pumped to get back in the saddle and try out another, BETTER idea.  Having that thought made me feel like I was a character in BAKUMAN.  In a very Japanese moment, when I got the rejection notice from my agent, I felt like writing back and hitting the all-caps to shout that I'll "do my best!" (which I swear someone yells in every single Manga I've ever read) on the next attempt. 

So I'm off to DO MY BEST today.  Wish me luck!

The Fraud Phenomenon

I had a very, uh, "interesting" time (as we like to say here in Minnesota) at WorldCON this year.  I spent a lot of the con feeling like a complete fraud, partly because of the nature of being a writer and because of the star-power that WorldCON attracts. 

Many years ago, I was on a panel at a different convention, WisCON, about the phenomenon of "feeling like a fraud" that a surprising number of writers experience at all levels in their careers. 

Of course, there's the "I haven't published anything yet, I feel like a fraud" problem, which I was reminded at this convention because my friend Naomi and I had a terrible Baltimore WorldCON when we were in that position.  It involved always feeling one step behind all the cool kids, and a crazy story in which we were escorted out of the Hugo Losers' Party feeling like the biggest losers on the entire planet (we weren't trying to crash the party, honest!  We were locked in the stair well.)

Then, there's the next step on the fraud ladder: "I've ONLY published [one short story, one small press novel, etc.], I feel like a fraud."  This is also kind of just a stage in your career, but a lot of people have a harder time here than in almost any other.  There's a lot of judging by others at this stage.  You're active enough in the business to get ON panels, but then you have to sit there will people who rattle off a list of accomplishments a mile long and, with each one, you feel smaller and smaller and smaller.  This can actually happen at any stage.  When I'd had my first book out, I had the pleasure/misfortune of being on a panel at CONvergence with Neil Gaiman. It's difficult not to feel like a turd at the foot of a giant in a situation like that.  He, of course (like many other super-pros), was massively gracious.  But, sometimes you run across those who sneer, "Oh, I see, small press..." etc. 

Fraudness continues as you move up, no matter how much you publish or how many awards you win....

In fact, what's tough about the "feeling like a fraud" phenomenon is that Neil Gaiman probably feels it, too, sometimes.  I know that, after fifteen published novels, I really should have no cause to feel like a fraud, but I still do.  This has a lot to do with the nature of our business.  As soon as the contract ends (and often long before the book hits the shelf) a person can feel like an out-of-work layabout.  If, god forbid, the next contract isn't instantly forthcoming it's VERY EASY to imagine that your career is over, if only because there's always someone you know in this business for whom that happened.  Hence, there's this sense that when I'm not actively writing on a project, I'm some how no longer a "real" writer.

The feeling of not being  a "real" writer was intensified for me at WorldCON because all the luminaries of science fiction/fantasy are there (or at least a whole boatlaod of them, at one point, literally--as I was on a boat with a bunch of much more famous writers.)  Plus, it's *just* outside of my Fandom.  Enough of the Chicago concom folks intermingle with the Minnesota concom types that I got on panels, but most of the people I ran into at WorldCON not only didn't know me from Adam, but also didn't know how to pronounce my name (not Tate, the other one.)  That just left me feeling like a complete dope. 

HOWEVER, I did manage to have a good time.  And, there's a weird thing about me, which is, the more under pressure I feel, the more I perform.  So, feeling like a nobody has actually inspired me to get cracking again.

WorldCON

As part of my "wake up and smell the coffee" plan, I am going to be attending WorldCON in Chicago this year.  I may be there as my alter ego much of the time, but, if you happen to go and would like to see me on a panel or get a book autographed or just say "hi," here's where I'll be:

FRIDAY - 3:00 - 4:30pm --Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading

SATURDAY - 10:30am - Noon --Autograph Session
SATURDAY - 16:00 - 17:30 (4:00pm-5:30pm?) --Series: Why Do We Love Them, Why Do we Hate Them? (ooh, I'll have tell Shawn. Jack McDevitt is on the panel with me!)
SATURDAY - 10:30 - 11:00pm (for some reason they switched out of military time) -- Reading: Lyda Morehouse (perhaps Tate wasn't invited? Too bad, I intend to read from Precinct 13.)

SUNDAY - 1:30-3:00pm --Grimm from a Portland Perspective. (A panel I'm probably on because I have Grimm opinions in general, given I don't live in Portland and have no Portland perspectives.)

I am also pleased to say that I will be at several parties, including one that you all are invited to--the Hogwart's Renunion Party.  It's an adult cosplay Harry Potter party, and I dusted off my Slytherin robes and stuffed them into my suitcase.  I'm hoping that will be some fun.  My hair is currently crossplaying Severus Snape, so I guess its geared up, even if I'm still doing the headless chicken thing.

Come on Baby, Light My Fire

I've been absolutely horrible about keeping up here at this blog.  I have to apologize for that.  The truth of the matter is that I've been a bit depressed.  It seems that my publisher isn't interested in more books in the PRECINCT 13 series (or... at least there's been no interest so far.)

In the way of the wheels of publishing, I wrote PRECINCT 13 and turned it in last year.  It came out this August.  Normally, my editor buys the next book almost right away, and I start working on a sequel so that it can come out _next_ year. 

Because my editor hasn't bought the next book, I've actually been "out of work" for almost a year.  I haven't been writing any original fiction at all (I have, alas, written nearly 200,000 words of fan fiction, but that's another story.)  This was a mistake.  It was an honest one, but a mistake all the same.  Had I not trusted that the book contract "would be coming," I could have written and finished any number of dream projects.  But, because I was expecting news of a contract sale "any minute now," I let myself fall into vacation mode.  I doodled around.  I played with fan fic.  I generally didn't do anything to forward my writing career for an entire year. 

I can't afford to do that any more -- not financially, and not emotionally.

So, I'm starting to finally wake up, smell the coffee, and start casting around for various ideas and projects.  One thing I've decided to do is take part in the NaNoWriMo.  I was thinking that one of the things people always say to me is, "Tate, you should write a Garnet Lacey e-book."  I've always sort of nodded politely and not done much about that idea, because I had deadlines to meet.  Also, it's sometimes difficult for me to get excited about something that no publisher is waiting for.  However, it feels like November might be the time to get serious about that.  So, I've officially signed up and am planning to spend that time working on a Garnet Lacey e-book.  I'm going to dust off my proposals and see what looks neat.  I'm thinking of this as an opportunity to do some things that the publisher would never have gone for -- maybe Garnet will have a secret affair with Parrish (maybe there will be a three-way!)  Who knows?  The cool thing is that, for once, there are no limits.  I'm really hoping to enjoy the process and revisiting old friends.  But, if you have anything you'd like to see in an e-book, now is the time to tell me.  I'm going to start jotting down ideas in my NaNoWriMo notebook! 

I am also planning on tracking my progress with this and other projects here on my blog.  So, I hope you'll stop by now and again to cheer me on.  I'm sorry I've been away, but it's good to be back.

Reviews!

Reviews are starting to roll in for PRECINCT 13.

Here's one from Smexy Books: http://smexybooks.com/2012/08/review-precinct-13-by-tate-hallaway.html

And Seeing Night: http://seeingnight.blogspot.com/2012/08/review-of-precinct-13-by-tate-hallaway.html

I was particularly pleased with the second one because it seems clear that the readers are sensing just how much FUN I had writing this book, and it makes me happy.

The Old Becomes New Again

I've been announcing this everywhere, so I figure I should let those who check in at the blog know as well: AngeLINK Series to Come Out in E-Book Format (Finally!) My friend and colleague Cheryl Morgan of Wizard's Tower Press and I just signed a contract to make this possible. I'm SUPER excited, too. Bruce Jensen, the artist of the original covers, has also volunteered their use for the e-reprints and (as a bonus) will be revealing BRAND-NEW, never before seen art for the fourth book in the trilogy, Apocalypse Array.

Pretty (bleeping) awesome, right?

CON This Year

I wrote a condensed con report for CONvergence on my LJ account. But, I know many of you can't access that easily, so I shall reprint it for you in full below.

Also, for this blog, I should add that CONvergence is one of the largest local (St. Paul/Minneapolis) area conventions, and possibly one of the largest anywhere (if you discount media cons like ComiCon).  There were 6,000 people in attendence.  I was also there, officially, as Lyda Morehouse (my alter ego), though Tate Hallway did make several rather memorable appearances....

---------

I can't even begin to express all the amazing that was CON this year. I had So. Much. Fun.

I also think that I may have made a dildo reference with Tamora Pierce, which is just...awkward. In fact, I'm fairly certain that when/if I get the CONvergence DVD, I'm probably going to be pretty horrified by some of the things that came out of my mouth. This is the only drawback to having caffiene as my drug of choice. Too much coffee can make me stupid (usually funny, but sometimes only because I'm willing to say something no one really should have. EVER.) Also, I think this problem can be summed up by the fact that the single most retweeted line of mine involved me saying, "OMG, I got so much money for that short story; wait, let me take my clothes off." (Which makes no sense out of context, but kind of shows you the state of my over-caffinated brain.)

I met some amazing people who talked me into having a fan twitter account, so I now have Yet Another Secret Identity to keep track of, but, much to my complete surprise, I kind of like Twitter in small doses. It's so much easier to follow seven people than seventy.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure I failed the secret pro party. For one, I invited fans. Our squeeling scared off all the boys, but I also feel bad that my friends LJ-naomikritzer and LJ-jiawen probably ended up feeling left out as well. I did have a couple of panels from hell, which I should recount at some point in great and grisly detail but the gist of both of them can be summed up thusly: TOO MUCH TESTOSTERONE and OMG-at-least-read-the-genre-you're-bashing-or-I-will-go-commando-on-your-a$$.

In general, if I had a thinky-thought about CONvergence this year it is to wonder if there was a little blowback (as it were) towards women and womanly-things thanks to the theme, which was "Women of Wonder."

Now, sadly I must return to the Real Life (tm). What a let down! For one, I have no minion (yes, I got a minion as a perk of being of Guest of Honor,) and, thus, no one to fetch me things and/or generally take care of MY needs. I'm now back to caring for others and doing the dishes.

*sigh*

CON Schedule

I will be at CONvergence starting tomorrow.  If you'd like to see me (or witness my strange time-traveling hair), come down and check me out.  My schedule can be found here.

Romantic Times Review

4 STARS!

Hallaway kicks off a fun new series featuring a young woman who learns that, despite what she's been told, she's not crazy. Hallaway is known for combining the weird and wacky with an element of danger -- and this latest offering is no exception. A terrific starting point for a series and a set of characters that promise to be very intreguing.

Yipee!

Boys and Books

Mason is currently reading a book called BLOODY JACK: A Curious Tale of the Adventures of Mary "Jackie" Faber, A Ship's Boy by L.A. Meyer. He's positively giddy about this story which is about a kick-butt, cross-dressing girl in the British navy during the time of pirates. I'm always pleased at the extent to which the gender of the story means absolutely NOTHING to Mason. He'll read any book that interests him, and completely defies that old publishing adage that boys will only read stories with boy heros.

In fact, one of his favorite series was the DEAR DUMB DIARY books which are about a girl, Jamie, who has a whole lot of boy trouble in middle school. Those books are also really hillarious and written, interestingly, by a man.

The one area in which his reading tastes run more "boy" is when it comes down to a preferrence between Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys. We have far more Hardy Boys in the house than Nancy Drew, but, I have a feeling that once he's torn through all those Hardy Boys, Nancy will look a lot more interesting. :-)

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say about this except that I think it's amazingly damaging to keep insisting that boys need boy heros. I'm all for more girl-power books (and if this belief is the only thing fueling all those books, well then I'll put up with it,) but I think that boys will read those too, if given a chance. Certainly my boy will. If the story is good, he's there.

When I mentioned this on Facebook my friend and middle-grade writer Kurtis Scaletta suggested that boys will read books about friendships and romance "in SECRET." I told him that I hope that the e-reader can do for young boys what it's done for erotica and the middle-aged woman, which is to say, make reading whatever the hell they like less "shameful" since no one can judge the e-reader by its cover, as it were.

I'll Be Takin' That All the Way to the Bank, Haters!

Despite my bravado, I was feeling a bit down after reading the hateful review yesterday. Thus, the universe interceeded on my behalf. First, I had a lovely time hanging out at a coffeeshop with a friend in which she nearly convinced me of the merits of writing fanfic in my own universe (it could happen.) Regardless, we had an excellent time chatting about Minicon and fangirliness.

Then a royalty check arrived in the mail.

The very best revenge, my friends, is living well.

The Confidence Game

I've been thinking about amount of sheer chutzpah being a writer requires a lot lately.

First, in my Loft class, I was having a chat (I'm teaching on-line this year, which probably deserves a post all its own,) and one of the students was talking about how difficult it is to work up the courage to send stories to magazines. I get this. In fact, this is one of the reasons I have offered to do this part of the job for several members of the writers' group. Yet, I've never had a lot of trouble with it myself. I have what my martial arts instructors call an indomitable spirit. I don't believe I'm awesome so much as I believe that you can't win if you don't play. I'm always willing to wade in and get knocked out. Then, I get up and do it again. I get pounded a lot, but I've got a smile on my face because, to me, this is part of what it means to be a writer. Being engaged in the business, even if it bloodies your lip.

And it will.

A lot.

Because, even AFTER you've punched your way over the transom and into publication, you still get really nasty reviews. Even ten years after a book comes out, you might stumble across something that points out all the weaknesses you always secretly knew you had.

The hardest is part of being a writer is how utterly vulnerable you have to be willing to be while also maintaining a ridiculously thick skin. It's a really strange requirement, but I think one of the ones we really have to develop if we want to survive.

Once more into the breech! Let us ride out to meet them!

Because it's all about me!

Here's me, on Heidi's "Pick Six" talking about myself and, of course, my latest Anime obsession: http://heidirubymiller.blogspot.com/2012/03/heidis-pick-six-tate-hallaway.html. Enjoy!

The All about Me Show

Here's the link to the .mp3 archived file of my "Write On Radio" show, http://www.kfai.org/node/42318 in which I talk about (and read from) the newest book, ALMOST EVERYTHING, discuss a few plot spoilers, and spend a long time critiquing my response to THE HUNGER GAMES.

"Write On," Baby!

I'll be one of the guests on tomorrow night's (Tuesday, March 6) "Write On! Radio" show on KFAI. You can catch me by tuning into 90.3 FM/Minneapolis or 106.7 FM/St. Paul from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Or, it's available streaming at: http://www.kfai.org/writeonradio.

If you can't catch it live, the show is usually archived within 24 hours. I'll be sure to post a link once it's up.

I'll be talking, among other things, a bit about the newest (and, sadly, last) Ana book, ALMOST FINAL CURTAIN.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. To make my day brighter, Google alerted me to this lovely review of ALMOST EVERYTHING on CA's blog.

Released into the Wild...!

So today is a big day for Ana Parker... the third and final installment of the Vampire Princess of St. Paul book is out! Run and find out what new adventures await her, Elias, Nikolai and all the others!

Weekend Plans?

If you have none, please feel free to stop by Uncle Hugo's from 1:00 - 2:00 pm where I will be signing Tate's newest release, ALMOST EVERYTHING, the last of the Vampire Princess of St. Paul books. If you need more info, please check out http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/index.shtml

Hope to see you there!

Friday Shameless Self-Promotion Cat

Wha...? How did SHE sneak in here!!???

Review!

Fresh Fiction has a review of ALMOST EVERYTHING (the last Ana book) up at their site. Check it out!

My Own Special Weird

One of the things I did over the holiday was read the page proofs for the mass-market paperback edition of Tall, Dark & Dead (my first Garnet Lacey book). My editor sent it as a .pdf, and so I mailed it to my partner's fancy new Kindle Fire, and spent a day reading my book on the Kindle. I found several typos, much to my surprise. The good news is that they'll be corrected in the paperback version. The other thing that was kind of awesome about that is that I discovered that one of my best selling books is also one of my quirkiest.

I don't know if you noticed, but Garnet is kind of a slut. There is a LOT of sex in that book, and sexiness. Sebastian is also surprisingly dark, and Parrish is... a total hustler, like literally, in that book. It's kind of amazing... and Garnet's friends are odd, a lot like my real friends, and the interactions in that books are very *me*.

Thus, one of the things that re-reading that book has done for me is made me a bit more confident about my quirkiness as a writer. You see, in most cases, I had no idea if my personal brand of weirdness was a plus or a minus to sales. The AngeLINK books, which are very *me*, are all out of print.

This "failure" has caused me to believe that maybe I had no idea how to write to a popular market. But, TD&D is going to mass-market. It's the only book I've had that's changing format like that. As a trade-size book, it's well into its sixth or seventh printing. I've easily made as much money in royalties from that book as they paid me in an advance, probably twice as much... if not more.

My point is, I can now say, with confidence, that my quirkiness is _not_ a detriment to sales. IN FACT, a person could make a pretty strong case that... maybe, just MAYBE I know what I'm doing.

Well, we probably shouldn't go THAT far. But, at least, it seems to be true that a book that has a lot of my extra special weirdness smeared all over it isn't automatically headed for the remainder pile.

This was kind of an epiphany... during the Epiphany and everything.

Characters on Board!

My science fiction alter ego was kindly asked to participate in one of SF Signal's Mind Meld questions. This time the question was: "What are the advantages of character driven science fiction stories over stories that emphasize technology and sense of wonder? Can you provide some examples of stories that deliver both in a satisfying way?"

My answer (and those of many other wonderful authors) was....

Order Now!

...and now you can pre-order PRECINCT 13!

Precinct 13... Done (Kinda)

Last night, I typed my two favorite words in the English language: "The END." Of course, at this stage, the book is really not done in the least. My MVBR (most valuable beta reader), Naomi Kritzer, has yet to read and comment on all the stuff I skimmed over, my embarassingly stupid misspellings, the plot holes, and the bits I blatently left out. Naomi is also wicked awesome at uncovering emotional themes that I didn't entirely realize I had going and giving me ways to bring them more to the surface. So, when she's done, I'll have some work to do.

BUT I can haz a working draft. A book what has a beginning, middle and end. For me, the hardest part is over, as I'm one of those writers who really prefers revision to writing (in some ways. It's at least a place I feel a lot less PRESSURE.)

To be fair to this WiP, however,I actually really enjoyed putting words to the page this time around, thanks, in large part, to my mother's advice to simply "embrace the cheese."

I will have to say, however, that I am never again naming any project with a title that includes the number 13. This book has been totally cursed. This morning, I got frantic email from Naomi telling me that the version I emailed her seemed to end in the middle of a scene. I went back to my computer and it looked like I didn't save all the words I'd written that took the story from that scene to "The END." I started to FREAK. Then, I realized that through some really weird accident, the final version of the book got renamed (of all things) "Maybe." (Explain THAT one, Dr. Freud.)

This was not the first computer weirdness I've had since starting the book. I'm seriously looking on-line for an "uninstal gremlins" button for the Toshiba.

Anyway, that's a big YAY. Shawn looked at me this morning and asked, "So what are you going to do with all your free time?"

For one, I need to start writing up ideas for more book proposals. I also have a short story percoloating in the back of my mind that I'd like to get down on paper for an anthology I was considering submitting to.

So... uh, write, I guess. :-)

New Review!

A new review of the first Ana book, ALMOST TO DIE FOR, is up on VampireBooks.ca. Check it out!

Triskaidekaphobia

I'm officially overdue on my WiP (Precinct 13, see amazing cover art below.)

And, I'm beginning to wonder at my wisdom of naming it with such an inauspicious number in the title. After all, there have been a series of unfortunate events that have lead to to this book being late. My father has been ill on and off, quite seriously, which would be trauma enough... BUT, I also had a computer crash (literally, as I dropped the computer on its hard drive) which resulted in a complete loss of everything I'd written on the book to-date.

Coincidence?

OMG! OMG! Best Cover Art EVA

Here's the cover art for PRECINCT 13, my WiP. It's actually a bit overdue at the publisher, but I'm frantically writing and should have done soon. Because, DUDE, I so want to write a book as AWESOME as this cover!!!

What do you think?

MMP for TTD!

Use your decoder rings for the subject line! It means that there will be a mass-market paperback edition of Tall, Dark & Dead coming to a store near you in April of 2012 (or via Amazon.com pre-order today!)

If you're still scratching your head and asking, "Grandma, what's a mass-market paperback?" Well, honey, back in the late Jurassic, when your nana was young, MMPs were pocket-sized books you used to see on newstands. Most of nana's favorite books were mass-market paperbacks. In fact, nana is *so* old, we used to just call them "paperbacks," because there really weren't a heck of a lot of trade paperbacks to confuse them with.

Well, guess what? They still make 'em, and I'm super-psyched to be getting one!! And I hope they sell like HOTCAKES... no, child, I have no idea what a hotcake is or why it sells so well...

Order Early and Often!

Hey, lookie what I found on Amazon...! Almost Everything is ready for pre-order.

Playlist of the Damned

I think blog interviewers can smell fear or dorkiness or something, because, inevitably, they ask me this question: Do you have a play list for each of your novels? If not, can you think of a few relevant songs?

I always FAIL play list.

I haz no play list. In fact, I write all my novels to silence, or at least what passes for silence in a mostly empty house with a few cats, gerbils, and some fish. Sometimes I bust out and write in a place as noisy as a coffee shop, but I almost never consciously listen to whatever is playing on the overhead speakers because my brain wants to either listen to the story of the song, or sing along.

I will, occasionally, plug in my .mp3 play and hit random, but the songs that come up are so incredibly dorky that if I admitted to owning them legions of fans would desert me for the mere fact that I really kind of still dig Mike and the Mechanics....

sigh.

Sad News (Sort of)

I got some bad news from my agent yesterday afternoon. It seems that Peguin is _not_ interested in more stories about Ana Parker, alas. So, ALMOST EVERYTHING will be the final installment.

Luckily, I've been down this road before with the Garnet Lacey series, and I actually wrote ALMOST EVERYTHING as a possible ender for the series. I had HOPED to write another set of books in which Ana is the Queen of the Vampires, and then another triology where she's the Empress, etc., etc. all the way up to Goddess, perhaps!

But, I guess she'll always just be a princess. :-)

The silver lining is that I'm still hard at work on PRECINCT 13, so you can look for more things by me in the near future. I'm planning to propose a sequel to PRECINCT 13, as well as something, as the Monty Python folks would say, completely different. So... fingers crossed.

Lunch Date with Adam

MinnSpec Meetup will be hosting a lunch with the newest Wyrdsmith, Adam Stemple, at the Lund's in Uptown next Sunday, September 18 at noon. Adam Stemple, author of Singer of Souls, Stewart of Song, and other pieces, will speak with the group. Bring your writing related questions for a relaxed Q&A session over lunch. The Meetup page can be found here.

Adam Stemple's website: http://www.adamstemple.com/.

Lund's "Uptown" can be found at 1450 West lake Street, Minneapolis, MN 55408.

How Awesome is He?

Normally, I try to keep the "my son is SOOOOOOOOOO awesome" (how awesome is he!?)" blogs to a minimum, but I have a couple of stories about Mason I just really, really want to share.

In the first story, however, the awesome rightly belongs to Mason's new teacher, Mr. G--. When I picked up Mason at school the other day we had this conversation:

Mason: "Do we have any books at home that contain a lot of information?"

Me: "Sure. We've got the Encycolpedia Britannica." (Brief explaination that we actually have several copies of the 11th edition.) Then, "Why?"

Mason: "So I can get a scholarship to Yale, of course."

This prompted a whole discussion during the rest of the ride about what undergraduate degrees are, graduate school, and Ph.D. programs. I reminded Mason that his grandpa has a Ph.D. and this got Mason even more excited. Plus, he was just about jumping out of his seat at the idea that he could actually get a degree in READING (like me, I told him, as I got a BA in English). He decided that he would get his docorate in "fantasy literature," just like one of his favorite authors J. R. R. Tolkien.

Turns out, Mr. G. had been talking about how a friend of his got a full-ride to Yale and really stressed to the kids that if they wanted to, they could go to one of the best colleges in the world and not pay a dime in tuition.

I LOVE this man.

Then, when I stopped by Mason's class yesterday to talk to Mr. G. about what time he wanted me to come in on Thursdays to do my volunteering, Mr. G. had a couple other funny stories to tell. He had an introduction excercise where he had kids write down "Three things you might not know about me...." He collected everyone's answers and read them in front of the class and had the students try to guess who the answers belonged to. When he got to Mason's he started reading, "I have an EXTENSIVE..." and hands shot up instantly. Just the use of the word "extensive" caused the entire class to guess Mason. (Full answer, even bigger clue: "extensive library at home.")

The second introduction excercise he had them do was bring in pictures of their families doing something they enjoy. Mason brought in a picture of the three of us up at a friend's cabin. But when we were going through pictures with him, he decided that, for fun, he'd bring in this one as well:

Mason, ever the showman, set the picture up by saying, "As you know, one of my favorite things is reading. I also like swimming. But how about combining them?"

One of the other personality plus boys in the class, our friend from kindergarden, yelled out, "That's IMPOSSIBLE!!" (unwittingly playing the perfect straight man.)

Mason said, "Ha! I have photographic evidence!" and showed off the picture. Mr. G. was utterly delighted and has asked permission to put the extra picture up on their board in class.

Awesome.

And it's only the first week... of THIRD GRADE!

Polish Edition

My editor sent me a couple of copies of ALMOST TO DIE FOR's Polish edition. Probably the coolest part of foregin language versions is seeing the acknowledgement page translated, because everyone's names stand out. Normally, they don't get translated or changed at all, but in Polish Shawn became "Shawnowi."

Cool.

Mars!

Discovery News reports that Mars rover "Opportunity" has arrived at Endeavor Crater!

Reality Cooking

My family is very odd, indeed. One of our family traditions lately is to settle down on the couch together on Monday and Tuesday nights to tune into "Master Chef." Master Chef, if you don't watch network TV or reality shows, is about a group of ameteur chefs preparing various dishes, taking on culinary challenges (like cooking for 250 kids at a block party,) and generally attempting to impress three gourmet superstars: Chefs Ramses, Graham, and "Zod."

I can not explain my family's attraction to this show. It really ought to be quite boring, but, of course, the various chef superstars ham it up and, when the contestants's entries suck, they spit out food, gag, and throw things in the bin with much panache. There's a designated villian among the amatuer chefs -- this season, it's the arrogant, potty-mouthed Christian. Likewise, there are good guys to root for: Ben Starr is currently my favorite (because my gaydar goes ding), but there are others I like well enough that I wouldn't be disappointed if they won. It's all very melodramatic and manufactured, but we're hooked none-the-less.

The positive outcome of our obsession, however, is this:

On Saturday morning, before I headed off to the con, I pulled out one of my more favorite blueberry muffin recipies and let him read and follow the directions on his own (with only a few helpful hints from me about measuring and whatnot.) Afterwards, we played Master Chef by pretending to be the various chefs commenting on his offering.

Mason really wanted to wear the apron because one of the shticks in Master Chef is that if you get "voted off the island" you have to surrender your Master Chef apron. Theirs are, alas, notably less frilly, but Mason didn't care as long as it was an apron.

Also, please note the "M" shape of the muffins. Mason has learned that, on Master Chef, "plating" is sometimes as important as taste!

Tonight!

I'll be reading (or taking part in a discussion?) at Dreamhaven Books tonight from 6:30 - 7:30 pm as part of the Speculations Reading Series, along with fellow Diversicon honored guests David Hartwell and John Calvin Rezmerski. Hmmm... I hadn't really read that first bit very carefully. Perhaps I _don't_ need to figure out what I need to read tonight.... Either way, it's bound to be a good time. Please join us!

A better worded plug for Diversicon

It's been pointed out to me that sometimes the way I say things on this blog (and probably in Real Life TM,) come off differently than I intended. For instance when I say that Diversicon is a tiny con, that was NOT meant as a dis in anyway. Small is awesome for many reasons, not the least of which is that a person can have real, meaningful and in-depth conversations in a way that isn't always possible at the bigger cons where there's just so much to do and see.

Some of my fondest con experiences have happened at Diversicon, specifically, and smaller cons in general, and what I was trying to express was great enthusiasm. In all honesty, I absolutely do think MORE people should come to Diversicon because, when they don't, they're missing out.

I really hope you (you know who you are!) will consider coming this year and giving it a try. Eric Heideman is an EXCELLENT program director and I know he also has a very talented staff working with him this year, as every year. You may know some of his programming tracks from CONvergence and/or anywhere Kruschenko's is found. Diversicon, in fact, is kind of like a larger version of Kruschenko's, so if you've enjoyed that, you'll LOVE Diversicon.

I also heard that it's not too late to sign up to attend, and, possibly with some begging, get on a programming panel or two (although don't hold me to that last one, as Diversicon IS next weekend.)

Anyway, I just wanted to make sure that no one read my last post in the wrong light. I adore Diveriscon and I'm extremely honored and grateful to have been given an opportunity to be a guest there, especially when you look at the luminaries attending with me this year, and the caliber of people who have guested in the past. My only fault is that I think it's a shame that more people don't go. So, dang it, come this year! You'll be impressed.

Mark your Calendar!

I don't have my list of appearances yet, but I wanted to remind everyone that Diveriscon (guest of honor, includes among others, *moi*) is NEXT WEEKEND (July 29 - 31).

Also:

On Thursday, July 28, the Speculations Readings Series presents a discussion: “Dark Descents, Ascending Wonders: The Worlds of Speculative Fiction” featuring DAVID G. HARTWELL, LYDA MOREHOUSE, and JOHN CALVIN REZMERSKI. See the Diversicon 19 Guests page for more about these three authors. The event will take place 6:30-7:30pm at DreamHaven Books, 2301 E. 38th St., Minneapolis.

Please, please, please, PLEASE come to Diversicon. It's a tiny little con, and, in all honesty I'm a little worried about being stuck there without someone as cool as YOU to talk to.

Vampires A-Z

B&N sent me this via Twitter: A is for Arterial Spray: Vampires A-Z.

It's illustrated.

Sick Kids and Conventions

Since I was feeling so sick yesterday, I took the day off as a day of rest. I may do the same today because sleeping seems to have done wonders. My nose is still drippy, but I feel quite a bit recovered. Mason is still low energy, which is very disconcerting for a boy who usually talks a mile a minute while dancing the entire time. He's in the other room streaming episodes of "Shaun the Sheep" from Netflix, and he seems to be giggling a bit more like normal, thank goodness.

One thing I managed to do yesterday is talk to the CONvergence folks. I had thought I was going to be out of town this weekend, so I cancelled all my appearances some time ago. I emailed them asking about day passes, and, they very kindly (as I am a confirmed guest for next year) offered to print out a badge for me to pick up at registration any time. They also, quite AMAZINGLY, even said they could find programming for me, if I'd like, but I declined. I mean, CONvergence is seriously imminent and that seemed a bit too demanding diva, even for me. Besides, I'd like the freedom to just come and go as I please. I can't remember the last time I just attended a con, so it might make a nice change.

So maybe I'll see some of you there?

With any luck, I will be a yellow belt when next you see me -- although the test is later in the evening on Saturday, so maybe not.

Stuff to Do!

Just a little self-promotion today. Check out SF Signal's Mind Meld. My alter ego is part of a group discussing "What cultures are neglected by SF/F?" today.

Otherwise, it being Wednesday, is my day to write with Eleanor over at the Coffee Grounds. I've got a ton of things on my plate. I'm super behind on the new Tate novel (the cow mutilation one), I've got a short story that's popping out despite the bigger deadline, AND my agent needs some proposals for new books ASAP.

As Shawn and I like to say: STUFF TO DO!

My only other news is that I submitted a reprint to Fantasy Magazine. I still can not find even a paper copy of "Twelve Traditions" in the basement (did it go to the archive??) so I was forced to send fantasy instead. (The horror!) Anyway, fingers crossed.

Oh, and I almost forgot! I just approved the cover copy to the paperback edition of TALL, DARK & DEAD which will be coming out from Berkley Sensation in April 2012. No word yet if they plan to update the cover. I'm of two minds about this. I think the cartoon image is a little dated, but I've always thought it was very striking, so I can't decide what I'd prefer: new or old? I guess it would depend on what they offer up for new, eh?

Okay, got to go!

Blinded By My Own Awesome

At ten o'clock last night, I sent off my revisions for Ana #3. Despite feeling like my editor was a moron for at least a week, I'm happy to say I'm over that. Her suggestions, I'm forced to admit, very likely made this a much better book.

Now, I SHOULD be working on the book that's due in a matter of weeks. I'm so far behind on that one, though, that I'm going to spend the remainder of the week working on a NEW short story idea that's been kicking around in my head.

The other thing I did last night was throw myself around like a rag doll at the kuk sool wan super seminar, or, as I like to call it, Jedi Academy. We did the MOST awesome thing where we did what I call a flying roll (really just a front roll from a dead run) over a staff, which we picked up on the way over and defended against an instructor weilding a lightsaber, er, I mean, bamboo practice sword.

It was f**king AWESOME.

I have never had so much fun in my life, while in so much pain. (Oh, and Dr. Arugala, my asthma medicine totally works! I took it beforehand and, for the first time since developing exercise induced asthma I had a stitch in my side without a corresponding coughing fit.) Also, I'm ridiculously proud of myself for learning the "flying roll" since at my level (still white belt, yellow stripe) I'm only supposed to know how to do it from a kneeling position. Additionally, I'm pleased that I only managed to screw up on my the very last of my last roll when I forgot to go over my shoulder and totally crunched my neck. I've been stretching the sore muscle and slathering on muscle stuff, and this morning it's stiff but not unbearably messed up. Yay!

I am a Jedi!!!

(Apprentice... but still!)

Dummmy dumb from Dumbville

I need to get to work on my revisions, but first I have to rant about my own stupidity. I was looking at fiction markets for a friend, and I noticed that there were a few that will take reprints and I started thinking, "What do I have that I could consider sending in?" My mind went back to my very first published science fiction story, "Twelve Traditions" which appeared in the May issue of SF AGE (now defunct.) I have about two zillion paper copies of the magazine because, as I mentioned, it was my first EVA professionally published short story (technically I'd sold "Irish Dreams" to Dreams of Decadance, but at the time that mag was considered semi-pro.)

Do I have an electronic copy of that story anywhere?

Oh, sure, one of those little square disk-thingies probably has a version of it, but do I have one on any media I can ACTUALLY READ!!!????

No.

The ironic part of this? I should know better. My partner can laugh right into my face when she reads this. Shawn, if you don't know, is an electronic records specalist (among her many duties at the Minnesota Historical Society) and I've listened to her practice her talks about migration and all the things you need to do in order to keep your files readable in the future.

I should also note that my made-of-awesome archivist partner DOES, in point of fact, have CDs which we can still read on our tower computer that have back-ups of all my writing files from as far back as September 2001. Given that the short story I'm looking for was published in 1999, I had hope that I would have kept an electronic copy of it... but no. So all the blame falls squarely on my shoulder. In fact, I can very easily see me saying to myself, "Well, this is in print now. Why would I ever need another copy of it?"

I have a partial of it on my lyda morehouse website, but not the whole thing. I think one of my weekend projects after I finish my revisions and do some more work on the NEW short story I've been plotting, is to sit down with the magazine and re-key the damn thing.

*sigh*

Skype and the Life

I may have fixed Skype. I need to test it on a real person, however, so I'll wait and see when my dad comes online again today. Of course, I mostly ignored all the wonderful advice everyone gave, and, instead, followed their on-line help instructions. Weirdly, it did seem as though my microphone may have been turned way down (in the control board of my laptop, not, as I had been looking on Skype), or, possibly even completely muted. This does NOT explain why this happened on Shawn's computer, unless somehow her setting got changed, too. So, I may still have to do all the things you folks suggested so I've saved them all in my inbox.

I'll let you all know how it goes.

In the meantime, I've nearly finished my revisions for Ana #3. I just have a bit more to do today, though, of course, what remains are actually the critical final scenes. I probably could have pushed through them last night, but I was tired after a full kuk sul wan class AND Mason's honest to goodness class _assignment_ to go outside and play for at least 20 minutes. We played bat and ball for twice as long as was required, though that was interrupted by meeting our across-the-alley neighbor Ken. He seems nice, though it's always awkward to meet someone for the first time when they're literally half-naked. He's a middle aged white guy with a paunch who was gardening shirtless. :-)

At any rate, I should probably get to it, though, with this weather (cool and breezy) all I really want to do is curl up next to a warm kitty and nap. Ah, the life of writer!

Science and Vampires

Vampire myths debunked.

Gryffindor, You Tease!

I love this summer so far. I managed to miss the 103 degree day, and have been shamelessly enjoying the cool breeze which, for me at least, makes for a good night's sleep. Last night, I opened the window and snuggled under a comforter. It was awesome. Of course, I also dreamed I was Ron Weasley, so that might have contributed to the joy.

I think, btw, that my subconscious is trying to tell me to stop ignoring the truth: I'm probably a Gryffindor, deep in my heart. I'll deny it, you know. Slytherin House needs someone like me. Someone gregarious and likable, heroic, yet deeply ambitious and a little dark. As my astrological chart says of my Mercury in Scorpio, "Your mind is deep, but rarely charitable."

Anyway, today is the day that, hopefully, I finish the revisions on Ana #3 (aka ALMOST EVERYTHING). Once I got over my inital reaction of, "Gah! My editor hates me! She's gutted the book!" (which, I should try to remember, happens to me every time, it's sort of like how I feel every time I get a rejection for a short story,) I discovered that the revisions aren't nearly as major as I feared. Luckily, my family was a bunch of duds last night and went to bed at 8:30 pm, which left me several hours to plow through pages. I got to about 175 or so, which is half way or nearly so. There is going to be more to do the closer I get to "THE END," but I'm hopeful the next several chapters will be as smooth saling as the previous ones.

Speaking of short stories, I've been continuing my podcast kick. I've listened to almost everything Lightspeed currently has on offer that seemed even remotely up my alley, and have moved into Fantasy (though I really prefer SF) as well, as checking out what's on offer over at PodCastle and EscapePod. I think I could listen a story a day for a thousand years, which is kind of nice. That's a bit of an exaggeration, of course, but I *am* seriously pleased how much stuff seems to be out there. Next time you see me at a convention, I'll be full of it. I mean I'll be full of knowledge of the short story field... yeah, that's it. ;-)

Speaking of science fiction, I just tried to Skype my dad. Any of you technically savvy people out there know why it is that my computer isn't transmitting sound?? I can see and hear my dad just great. He can see me, but not hear me. What's really, REALLY weird is that it doesn't seem to matter which computer I use. We have Skype set up on my computer and Shawn's and neither one wants to work, despite the fact that we've used it successfully in the past (I even talked to a friend who is in Korea!) I wonder if it isn't our 4G network. We've had to move it around to try to get a good signal, and maybe it no longer has the juice to connect us... anyway, if any of you folks know what might be up, I'd love a tutorial. It's so much fun to see my dad when I talk. It solves a problem I've always had with the phone, which is I'm not much of a chatter when I don't get visual cues.

Anyway, I should get back to work. I really want to finish up the revisions, because I've been kicking around a short story idea in my head. I've told myself, however, that I can't work on the short story unless I do some novel work first.

Revisions and Life

Now I'm freezing. WTF, Minnesota! Is this the welcome home I get?

Actually, it's perfect. Thank you. I'm enough of a Minnesotan that I'd much rather have cold than hot.

I'm starting _official_ revisions for ALMOST EVERYTHING (aka Ana #3) today. Official in this context means in accordance with the editorial letter sent by Penguin. Along with a letter I get an electronic copy of my manuscript with my editor's comments sprinkled throughout. This is a nice chance from the editorial letters back "in the day" when I got an eleven (or longer) page email with things like, "on page 127, in the sentence that begins 'blah, blah...' please add more information about your economic system" or whatever. I like the new system because there's a lot less hunting and pecking AND my editor will spontaneously also add a comment that says, "Ooh, love this!" or "Great line!" which I almost never saw before because of the effort it took to single those out.

This time I'm struggling a bit because a point I wanted to make about marriage isn't working for my editor. I had written a betrothal between two guy vampires that ends in a very cold, politically arranged marriage. This isn't a gay marriage, because these guys barely know each other. Love isn't a factor, as, I had wanted it pointed out, it rarely was before the modern era. The marriage in my novel was depicted very much as an exchange of property between two kings. Or rather, more accurately, the offer of a military captain's "hand in marriage" in exchange for a peace treaty. The sort of thing that, you know, happened all the time in the past (and probably still happens all around the world today), except with a gender blindness in this case because there's no need for heirs as the two parties are immortal vampires.

I think the problem is that this is a very ALIEN concept to modern readers. It also is really, really hard for romantic readers to even imagine the hero (who has been a love interest for our heroine) agreeing to a loveless union of any sort, even though I tried throughout the manuscript to hammer on his overactive sense of duty and loyal commitment to his king and kingdom.

So I may end up calling their arrangement something other than marriage. Of course, this is going to retrospectively shed some interesting light on the situation Ana thought she was in with the guy _she_ was previously betrothed to (since a futher entanglement is, of course, that this is book #3 and I can hardly go back and search and replace the word "betrothed" in books that have already come out.) It may be kind of interesting to write that scene where she discovers that "betrothal" means something else entirely to vampires and it wasn't nearly as romantic as she thought. Although, she became betrothed under unusual circumstances and I could probably write in a retrofit to explain why her's *is* that romantic and why this other one is not.

It's messy to say the least, and it kind of bums me out because I kind of enjoyed the simplicity of history -- that is to say, I liked the challenge I posed to modern readers having to deal with this cold, ugly marriage that is at the root of what marriage STILL is -- exchange of property and contractual obligations.

Ah well. That was probably too complicated for a teen novel anyway. (WINKING! Yes, I read the WSJ article and I totally agree with Jackie Kessler in this matter.)

Of course, it may just be that I didn't make my point clear enough, which is what my editor is LIKELY complaining about more than anything.

In a few minutes, I need to save my progress and get my haircut. It's gotten incredibly shaggy.

Your Brain On Love

An article about the science of love. It's actually mostly about antidepressents and what they do to people in love, but the _why_ is geekily interesting.

I Must Be Reading the Wrong Books

Now romance novels are, according to this, as addictive as porn. Seriously, kids?

Serious Question

I'm terrible about keeping this blog up-to-date partly because at some point I decided that I should write about things on this site that had MOSTLY to do with writing and/or publishing. Frankly, I find it hard to think about writing that much, uh, especially when I have a lot of writing to do. (hmmmmm.)

But in all seriousness, I'm thinking that I may go back to posting mundane bits about my life here (which may mean a lot of cutting and pasting from my alter ego's LJ, but, which would at least keep this blog current, which is MUCH better than what I have been doing, aka NOTHING.)

But, I've been wondering, in general, do people still blog? Do people still read blogs? I suspect most people are hanging out in various social media, like Twitter and Facebook and foursquare and "whatever it is you kids are into these days."

I hate to ask questions into the void of deafening silence, but: what do you think?

Happy Geek Pride!

According to Wikipedia, today is Geek Pride Day!

So, my friends in geekdom, tell me your plans to get your geek on!

Ana #3 Art!

My Februaruy 2012 release ALMOST EVERYTHING can haz cover art. Check it out:

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The back copy says:

Whoever said vacations were relaxing?

To say half-vampire, half-witch Ana Parker has boy trouble is putting it lightly—something her text messaging bill can attest to. Her rocker ex-boyfriend Nikolai is trying to heat things up again, and high school hockey star Mathew wants her to try out with him for the Renaissance Festival. At least her sort-of boyfriend Elias isn’t hounding her cell—considering the vampire knight is currently living in her basement.

Ever since her father banished Elias and Ana from the court of the Northern vampires, Ana has been trying to live a normal life. But when the Prince of the Southern Region vampires informs Ana that they’re on the brink of war and she accidentally offers up Elias as a peace offering, the princess knows that she’s going to need some help to get out of the situation.

With Ana’s boy drama meter hitting an all time high, summer in St. Paul is heating up for all the wrong reasons…

Ana #3

Just a quick note to let folks know that there will be an Ana #3. It's scheduled to come out in February 2012.

I also can haz back cover copy:

Whoever said vacations were relaxing?

To say half-vampire, half-witch Ana Parker has boy trouble is putting it lightly—something her text messaging bill can attest to. Her rocker ex-boyfriend Nikolai is trying to heat things up again, and high school hockey star Mathew wants her to try out with him for the Renaissance Festival. At least her sort-of boyfriend Elias isn’t hounding her cell—considering the vampire knight is currently living in her basement.

Ever since her father banished Elias and Ana from the court of the Northern vampires, Ana has been trying to live a normal life. But when the Prince of the Southern Region vampires informs Ana that they’re on the brink of war and she accidentally offers up Elias as a peace offering, the princess knows that she’s going to need some help to get out of the situation.

With Ana’s boy drama meter hitting an all time high, summer in St. Paul is heating up for all the wrong reasons…

Toot! Toot!

That's the sound of me tooting my own horn, but I just *had* to. Check out this AWESOME review for my alter-ego's book RESURRECTION CODE on Tor.com (by Alyx Dellamonica): A Necessary Apocalypse.

Wowza.

New E-Book!

Wyrdsmith Naomi Kritzer has published a new collection of her short stories on Kindle. This one, Comrade Grandmother and Other Stories, includes the title story which is one of my personal favorites. It was originally published in Strange Horizons and then was picked up for Year's Best Fantasy.

She's blogged about her process of making this Kindle book on her livejournal, http://naomikritzer.livejournal.com. You can start with this post and go backwards.

Local (and At Large) Signing

If you're in the Twin Cities area, please drop by on Saturday (May 7) to see me at Uncle Hugo's from 1:00 - 2:00 pm.

I'm going to say it again, though I can count how many times I mention this, and people still say, "Sorry! I don't live near you!!" -- Uncle Hugo's does book orders. What this means is, if you want a personalized, signed copy, you can contact them before Saturday and I will sign it FOR YOU and they will send it TO YOU no matter where you live.

Yes, even there!

Why consider placing a mail order? For several reasons. 1) It's nice to support independent, locally-owned, brick and mortar bookstores, generally. Specifically, Uncle Hugo's is one of the oldest science fiction/fantasy specialty bookstores in existence. AND they're always super-duper supportive of me and my work. 2) It will boost my sales at the bookstore and possibly get me on the LOCUS bestseller list. More importantly, it will encourage the fine folks at Uncle Hugo's to invite me back! 3) A signed book is kind of cool. It takes no more time to order from Uncles than it does to order from Amazon.com. 4) I'm not a big star. This means I will NOT be coming to your state any time in the foreseeable future, unless I win the lottery and decide to book the venues MYSELF. So, this is one way to actually get a signed book from me.

Have I convinced you? I hope so!

Shameless Selfless Promotion

Just so's ya know, I might talk smack about my fellow writers, but, at the end of the day, we're the same tribe, dig?

To that end, I'm pleased to announce that my friend and fellow writer, Kelly McCullough's newest series' first book is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. It's called Broken Blade. How shall I describe it? It's awesome, first off, but you should expect that from anything by Kelly. It fantasy, but it's noir, kind of like "Burn Notice" meets Thieves' World... only even better.

So, go bookmark it. I know you spent your money for new books on me yesterday, but you should consder buying it ASAP.

ALMOST #2 Launch!

Today is the official launch date of the second book in my vampire princess of St. Paul series, ALMOST FINAL CURTAIN.

The back cover copy says:

Craving the spotlight is in her blood.

Ever since high school student Anastasija Parker discovered she was vampire royalty, her life has been sort of crazy. The half-vampire- half-witch just wants some normalcy, and trying out for the spring musical seems like the perfect fix.

But when the ancient talisman that stands between vampire freedom and slavery to witches is stolen, Ana has to skip rehearsal and track down the dangerous artifact before someone uses it to make this year's curtain call her last...

And, you can read the first chapter here: www.tatehallaway.com

--- And this just in: an interview with the Booki3

Books and Ducks

I guess that "wild" birdseed really worked, eh?

This morning we woke up to these two visitors to our front yard. I took this picture through the front window, which is why it's a bit blurry. I didn't want to disturb the drake (though you can see how closely he's watching me, anyway.) They may be considering nesting near the nearby Iris Park fountain, though that hasn't been turned on for the season yet. Perhaps they're considering the little pond by the old folks home? Who knows. It's not very usual for us to see ducks in the neighborhood, though a couple (this pair) did stop by several times many years ago to our neighbor's yard, because I think she, too, like us had a mix high in cracked corn, which the ducks seem extraordinarily fond of.

Don't forget to buy ALMOST TO DIE FOR tomorrow, if you're so inclined! My big plan for this gray day is to get started on my next adult novel, PRECINCT 13. Wish me luck.

Interview with Amberkatze

Check out Amberkatze's Book Blog for an interview with me!

And don't forget! On Tuesday Almost Final Curtain officially goes on sale!

Also, I just heard some sort-of bad news from my agent. I turned in three proposals for new Ana books, which my editor had requested. HOWEVER, she's going to sit on her decision about whether to buy more based on how well the early sales of ALMOST FINAL CURTAIN are. The bad news about this is that it means the sales for #1 weren't strong enough to automatically greenlight the continuation of the series. So, if you want more books in the Ana series -- please, please consider buying the book within the first couple weeks of #2's release.

Having been burned by series ending prematurely before, at least I wrapped a tidy bow on #3. So, if that ends up being the last book, should feel intentional.

A Friend's New Book!

A very dear friend and awesome writer, Naomi Kritzer, has a new book out. It's an e-book collection of some of her short stories called: Gift of the Winter King and Other Stories. Currently, it's only available for the Kindle, but she has plans to put it into other e-formats in the near future. I've always been a huge fan of Naomi and her novels, like Fires of the Faithful and Turning the Storm among others, but Naomi is a phenomenal short story writer. You should check out this collection.

Calling All Minnesotan Artsy-Farts

I have always said that Minnesota is one of the most awesome places to be a writer because _so_ many people in this state are engaged in creative expression of one kind or another. Well, the Minnesota State Arts Board is conducting a survey with the intention of figuring out just how creative this state really is! If you are at all involved in the arts, please take a moment to fill out the MN Arts Count.

You do NOT need to be making money in the arts to fill this out. There's one question about how much of your living you make from your creative work, but ZERO is an option. Also, they don't expect you to have only one interest/talent. You can fill in up to six specialities.

It's also super-short. I think there's no more than six or seven questions total.

More about Me

Tracy S. Morris interviews me at her blog: http://tracysmorris.com/

I talk as both my personas, though I start out talking about my alter-ego's newest release.

In other exciting news, I'm just putting the finishing touches on the basically-final draft of Ana #3, which I will be sending off to my publisher on (or before) April 15 (tax day!)

Not to be confused with #2, ALMOST FINAL CURTAIN, which will be coming out in May. #3, ALMOST EVERTHING, will come out in February of 2012. We've got back cover copy for that already, so if you'd like a little teaser, here's what you can expect from #3:

Whoever said vacations were relaxing?

To say half-vampire, half-witch Ana Parker has boy trouble is putting it lightly—something her text messaging bill can attest to. Her rocker ex-boyfriend Nikolai is trying to heat things up again, and high school hockey star Mathew wants her to try out with him for the Renaissance Festival. At least her sort-of boyfriend Elias isn’t hounding her cell—considering the vampire knight is currently living in her basement.

Ever since her father banished Elias and Ana from the court of the Northern vampires, Ana has been trying to live a normal life. But when the Prince of the Southern Region vampires informs Ana that they’re on the brink of war and she accidentally offers up Elias as a peace offering, the princess knows that she’s going to need some help to get out of the situation.

With Ana’s boy drama meter hitting an all time high, summer in St. Paul is heating up for all the wrong reasons…

Revisions!

I am such a weirdo.

I think that pretty sums up everything you might need to know about me, but I was thinking specifically of the fact that, unlike almost every other writer I know, I ADORE the revision process. I think it's the sense of accomplishment I get while I'm going through each page. In front of me today is a big pile of paper. It's a completed (if somewhat flawed) story. I don't have to figure out how it's going to end any more. It's written. I may, in point of fact, need to utterly CHANGE the ending for the novel to actually be any good, but I have a spare, you know?

I like that feeling. A lot.

Even though I know that when I get through this round of revisions another one is on its heels (or waiting in the wings and other such metaphors) -- around and around until publication.

But, you know, I've taken my first stab at it. I hit something. Now I just have to make sure my aim is true and I hit home.

KFAI!

If you missed me last night, check out the "Write On Radio" show last night: http://www.kfai.org/node/35216. I'm actually the first guest for once so you don't have to wait!

I always feel really stupid doing these things, but my partner tells me I came off much smarter than I felt. I do rather focus on Resurrection Code as it's the most recent release, but the host and I get around to talking about vampires and even bring up Whedonistas! the other book project I was involved in through Mad Norwegian Press.

Also, since LJ is Down

I want to post a few pictures of my cute kid at a Hogwarts themed birthday party this weekend. Here's my little wizard on our porch.

Now, he's about to get bespelled by "Hermione" (really our friend Ava):

I went to the party dressed as Tonks. If you don't remember her, she's the Auror who falls in love with the werewolf, Remus Lupin, and who can change her hair color and other facial features. The costume for her was easy, since all I really had to do was spray my hair pink and find my old leather jacket. Coincidentally, the last time I wore that leather jacket we were in London. I found train tickets from Gatwick to Victoria Station in the pocket. Cool, huh?

Radio!

Sorry to be so shameless with my self-promotion, but I would like y'all to know that I'm going to be a guest tomorrow night (Tuesday, April 5) on the "Write On Radio" show on KFAI (90.3 FM Minneapolis/106.7 FM St. Paul) from 7:00 - 8:00 pm Central Time. If you're not local and want to listen as it's happenin', you can stream it at http://www.kfai.org/.

Even if you can't listen in, say, because you might be attending a reading/signing of fellow Wyrdsmith Douglas Hulick at B&N at the same time, you can check out the archives at http://www.kfai.org/archive the next morning. I'll try to remember to post a link here on Wednesday morning.