What is Midlist?

The ever thoughtful Jim C. Hines has another excellent post over on his livejournal. Today, he's wondering what does it mean to be mid-list?

I think most of us think of ourselves as mid-list, even though it's a term that's very nebulous and has never been defined for me by any professional, like my editor. We writers tend to talk to ourselves about such things, and make a lot of educated guesses. I think as long as I'm not, as Jim echoes, not J.K. Rowling, Stephen King or other obvious multi-millionaire type writers, I'll probably think of myself as mid-list, right or wrong.

Goodbye?

It's time for me to leave the coffee shop and go home. I have a synopsis for the third book in the vampire princess of St. Paul to finish writing.

I've been struggling writing this synopsis for several months now. I finally realized that one of the reasons may be because I've become very once-bitten-twice-shy about the last book on a contract. When I sold ALMOST TO DIE for, the publisher bought three books. Now that I'm sitting down to plan out the third, I find myself wondering: should I prepare for "goodbye"?

I was very casual about Garnet, and that ended up leaving me in the lurch... with a lot of unfinished business for her character. So I'm thinking that for this last contracted book, maybe I should assume the worst and tie up loose ends JUST IN CASE.

That makes it slightly more difficult to plan, however. Because I don't want to imply to the editor that I'm done and that they should feel free to terminate this series, you know? So, I need to tread carefully. Wrap stuff up, but also leave a new storyline open so if they think I've been selling well enough, they can go for another book or two.

Sigh.

Wish me luck!

Green Man Review

Green Man Review has an AWESOME review of Almost to Die For here, which includes a very funny (and, believe it or not, favorable) line about gouging one's eyes out with a dull spoon.

Oh noz!

My beloved planet Gilese 581g might not exist! Man, this depresses me BEYOND words.... it's like, like someone decided Pluto wasn't a planet! Oh, wait. Dang.

A new gig and a delivery!

My alter ego got a new volunteer gig reviewing graphic novels, comic books and more over at the Science Fiction and Other ODDyesseys! Check out her first review! Angels and demons and superheroes! It couldn't get any better than that, if you know anything about what my alter ego writes....

In news about ME, I am happy to report that I delivered my revised manuscript to my editor for ALMOST FINAL CURTAIN (the second book in the vampire princess of St. Paul series.)

WTF??

....We were JUST missed by an asteroid this morning!* Apparently, TD54 came within 28,000 miles of us.

Um, eek?

*Unnerving knowledge brought to my attention thanks to an SF Signals tweet.

Harris Poll

A new Harris poll shows that of the people who read fiction, a surprising percent (surprising to me, anyway,) read science fiction. Maybe there's hope for my alter ego's comeback, after all!

Royalties and Backlist*

Over on his blog, Jim C. Hines analyzes his royalty statement. The charts and his discussion are plenty interesting all by themselves, but he just casually says a couple of things in his blog that really resonate with my experience.

First of all, I have to say that I'm impressed that Hines has so many books that have earned out. It apparently takes me a lot longer to do that (perhaps I'm slightly better paid). However, I'm only JUST NOW getting royalties for my second book, Dead Sexy, which was originally published in 2007 (and had a Romance and Science Fiction Bookclub h/c edition.) So, of five books, two of them now earn royalties.

But, on the flip side (and knocking liberally on wood) at least all of my books are still IN print, which by five years into Lyda Morehouse's career all her books were out of print.

Which is why I agree that having in-print back list is really important. It's tough to encourage readers to pick up book #4 in a series (even if you wrote each to stand alone) when #2 is already out of print, which happened to me as Lyda.

Secondly, Hines says, "Some authors who get that bajillion-dollar advance for their first book. I’m not one of them. The slower but steady approach seems to be working for me though, at least so far."

This is something I think about a lot. I have had fits of absolute jealousy over other authors' advances, but one thing I try to keep in mind is that it's much harder to earn out a "bajillion" dollars than it is ten thousand. And, while a bajillion dollars would be nice to have in pocket, I have to imagine that unless you happen to actually be the one-in-a-million that actually earns out the bajillion, your editor/publisher will have to be disappointed in your sales figures. Whereas, if you at least break even for them, they might be more likely to keep hiring you for those midlist jobs that someone's got to fill, right?

Though I still dream of a bajillion dollar advance, I think I'd continue to trade it in for a long and glorious career.

* X-posted from Wyrdsmiths blog.

Howling Hiakus

Okay, this is too cool not to pass on... if I were more creative in the poetry department, I'd totally enter this: Werewolf Hiaku Contest over at Bite Club Blog.

What I've been reading...

I've been working steadily on my editorial revisions for the second vampire princess of St. Paul book, ALMOST TO DIE FOR, and doing a lot of cold-weather reading. You know what I mean by cold-weather reading, right? It's the kind of reading that involves a couch, cats (if you have them,) a roaring fire (if you have one), and a lot of blankets.

What I've been snuggling up with has been a wide range. I read CATCHING FIRE by Suzanne Collins, the sequel to HUNGER GAMES (which I loved). I ran out and bought MOCKINGJAY, but things were left in such a depressing place that I found I bounced out of the book almost as soon as I sat down to read it. So my restless fingers lighted on one of the books in our bathroom bookshelf. We intentionally keep a lot of cheesy classics in the bathroom just for those moments when you want to read a chapter or two of something you don't necessarily need to finish. So I picked up TARNSMAN OF GOR.

There are slave girls and manly men and... well, if you don't take it too seriously, a great deal of adventure.

What about you? What are you reading?

Interview with Me

An interview with me appears today over at Booksnob. Enjoy.

Vampire Dreams

This morning, I found an invitation to submit to an anthology called Crimson Dreams in my inbox. I would _LOVE_ to write for this, but vampires aren't the subject of my nightmares, _ever_.

I had a very memorable dream about a vampire once, though. There was some dreamscape plot that involved the FBI, I no longer remember the details, but at some point someone needed pushing around. I used my super-vampire strength and tossed them into a wall. I woke up from the dream with a smile on my face. I was thinking, "Yeah, that would be AWESOME."

But that's the extent of my vampire dreams. Do you dream about vampires? Have nightmares about them?

Listen to Me!

MANY BLOODY RETURNS is now available as an audio book from Audiobook Stand.com. My short story "Fire and Ice and Linguine for Two" is collected therein. The theme of the anthology is vampires and birthdays, so my story involves Garnet and Sebastian's wacky attempt to celebrate his birthday one Christmas. For those of you who have read HONEYMOON OF THE DEAD, this story is actually the first appearace of Fonn, the Frost Giant.

I've pointed you to the .mp3 version, but it's also available as a CD. I might have to order both, since the CD will fit nicely on my bookshelf of achievements, and I can actually listen to the .mp3.

I'm psyched about this because I've NEVER had anything of mine appear in audio format before. It's going to be weird/cool to hear someone ELSE read my words.

Fighting Oil with Ink

My alter ego donated a short story reprint to the anthology, BREAKING WAVES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF GULF COAST RELIEF. This is an e-book available in a number of formats from Book View Cafe. 100% of the proceeds go to the Gulf Coast Relief Fund. Contributors include Ursula K. LeGuin, Vonda McIntyre, David D. Levine, Sarah Monette, David B. Coe, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and many more.

The theme is ecological disasters with hopeful endings (preferably involving the ocean.) Mine is "Indigo Bunting," which is a strange coming of age story in a recovering post-nuclear winter Yellowstone National Park.

Writing and Telepathy

In Stephen King's ON WRITING, he has this great little bit about how writing is awesome because it's like time-traveling telepathy. I read his example, and I thought, yeah. He's nailed it, that's pretty much how it is. I'm thinking it now; you're reading it later. Cool.

Except, when I get my revisions from my editor, it hits me. You can only read my mind if I actually tell you what I'm thinking. And, depending on who you are, I might even have to spell out things that I don't bother thinking because they seem so patently OBVIOUS to me.

Telepathy: Fail.

I think, too, this is why a lot of authors think their editors are morons. We utterly fail to spell out critical details (which seem so CLEAR in our own minds,) and they write to say they didn't see it coming. And, my first response is: "What, are you some kind of idiot!? I clearly... oh, wait. I didn't actually SAY that anywhere in the text. I just knew it to be true, so I thought you would too. Um."

But, on the flipside (and to be fair to both sides of telepathy: fail), it can be irritating when you, the writer, feel like all the subtlety is being lost because you're writing in 2 x 4s for every ah-ha character moment, etc. because the editor doesn't share your brain cells. Especially when your writers' group had no problem with said issue(s), which only exaserbates the sensation that your editor is a complete dolt.

Alas, my editor is not a dolt, or a moron, or an idiot. I only feel like she is because, in reality, I'm the moron, and she only managed to quite astutely noticed all the missing bits in my thought process.

*sigh*

Modern-Day Revisions

A lot of people have been writing me to ask when the next book in the vampire princess of St. Paul series will be coming out. Answer: I still don't know exactly. It's on my contract somewhere, but I have no idea where my contract is right now other than "in the house." (My filing system leaves a lot to be desired.)

But I do know that the second book is coming along. On Friday, I got what used to be the "editorial letter." Now, it's an email that has a couple of macro comments as well as the manuscript marked up (line by line) by my editor.

Way back in the early 90s when I started my life as a professional writer, I used to get an email with notes like "pg. 145, second paragraph, which begins 'Once upon a time...' change to be less cliche?" Having the actual manuscript with the comments function turned on makes the process more convenient and, strangely, a heckuva lot more work.

I'm sure it wouldn't seem like more work to a writer who has never experienced any other method, but I find that I tend to feel compelled to respond to the comments. I end up doing it, because it's a simple click and type, and, suddenly, end up writing a mini-thesis on my word choice decisions, characterization, etc. In short, I'm a much bigger diva thanks to the convenience of technology.

It the early days, I would grumble quietly to myself and either make (or not) the changes while going over the entire novel.

Now, I find I flit right to the next comment and not re-read the whole thing. (I tend to skim the bits that aren't marked-up.) That targeted revision is the quicker, more convenient part, at least. But, as you can tell, I worry that I'm not nearly as thorough as I used to be.

Technology is a weird thing. It's such a lie that it makes our lives easier. Busier, yes, but easier? I'm not convinced.

Shameless Self-Promotion

A short story of my alter ego's appears in Northern Lights: 20 MinnSpec Tales edited by Michael Mirriam which is now available for purchase through Genre Mall (Sam's Dot Publishing). Her story, "Bright, Bright City Lights," has never before appeared in print, and was my attempt to deal with the death of Senator Paul Wellstone with... magic and the Irish Republican Army. Anyway, even if you find the conceit of my story to be a bit weird, surely you will find something to enjoy given the list of talented Minnesota writers involved in this anthology, which includes:

Jaye Lawrence, Catherine Lundoff, Haddayr Copley-Woods, Jason D. Wittman, David Steffen, Kelly Barnhill, Damian Sheridan, R. Scott McCoy, Terry Faust, Lyda Morehouse, Carrie Devall, Michael Merriam, Patrick Sullivan, Roy C. Booth, Britt Aamodt, Sharon Boerbon Hanson, Joel Arnold, Abra Staffin-Wiebe, Maggie Della Rocca and Hilary Moon Murphy.

Alter Ego News

My alter ego needs to take over this space for a moment to announce that her science fiction novel, RESURRECTION CODE, is now avaliable for pre-order on Amazon.com.

This book, which will be coming out from Mad Norwegian Press officially on March 15, 2011, is both a sequel and a prequel to her other books (Archangel Protocol, Fallen Host, Messiah Node, and Apocaypse Array.)

The back cover blurb goes something like this:

Where were you the day the Aswan dams broke? It’s the question that defines my generation. Me, I was stuck in British School al-Rehab hundreds of kilometers from the destruction that plunged North Africa into darkness and drowned twenty million people as massive floods reclaimed the ancient Nile valley. We watched the privileged and the sane abandon Egypt to the criminals, prostitutes, and a mysterious murderous cult of Osiris known as the Deadboys. Not much of the capitol remained, and my life really went to hell.

But that’s not where my story really starts.

My story starts the day I, Christian El-Aref, distinguished myself from the thousands of Cairo street rats and became the Mouse. And I had that dead UN soldier whose body that I, quite literally, stumbled over to thank for it all. Now, if only I can keep myself from getting murdered…

British Edition of MBR and German Garnet

I just got the cover art for the British edition for Many Bloody Returns, in which my short story about Sebastian and Garnet, "Fire and Ice and Linguine for Two," appears.

It's not much to look at, but, hey, I'll be appearing in ENGLISH. Whoot!

And below we have Dead Sexy, which became BEISS NOCH EINMAL MIT GEFUEHL....

... and Romancing the Dead, which became VAMPIR SEIN IST ALLES.

Reviews of ALMOST and more

Here's a very nice review of Almost to Die For for that's found on "Fragment of Life".

Paranormal Reads isn't sure what to think of Tall, Dark & Dead.