The first three chapters of UNHOLY MAGIC will be up on the book’s page by Monday, but until then I thought it would be fun to post a special sneak-peek excerpt.
Keep in mind that although the excerpt isn’t continuity-spoilery, it is a bit plot-spoilery, pretty much by definition. But I didn’t want to post something from the first three chapters, because then this wouldn’t be special, would it?
This is a Sneak Peek excerpt, so I will probably delete it first thing Tuesday morning. Enjoy!
First, yesterday was the official release day for UNHOLY GHOSTS in Poland!
Witamy polskich czytelników! I z pewno?ci? nadziej?, ?e jeste? korzystaj?cych NIESWIETE DUCHY! Przykro mi, ale nie w j?zyku polskim, ale robi? mój najlepszy z t?umaczy online.
Nie wiem od daty dopuszczenia do NIESWIETE MAGIA (My?l?, ?e), ale mam nadziej?, wynika, USA / Wielka Brytania dat, które b?d? na pocz?tku lipca.
Jestem zachwycony które zostan? opublikowane w Polska!
And I certainly hope that looks okay and I don’t get dinged by WordPress for all of the Polish letters.
Of course, I HAD a blog topic, and it was a good one, too, but I can’t for the life of me remember now what it was. I hate it when that happens. Oh! POV, that was it.
On Tuesday I went to a couple of bookstores in the area; three, actually. And I got to chatting at my local B&N with a bookseller I hadn’t met before about urban fantasy in general and POV in particular, because he shares my preference for third person POV, especially a tight, deep third. (Because most men love tight, deep things, you know. Ba-dum-bum. Oh, the hilarity never stops here!)
Anyway. We both felt the same way about first-person, which is that it’s distancing. And I know that sort of goes against the popular perception of it; I think most first fans–at least the ones I’ve spoken to–feel that it puts them closer to the action.
For me, reading a book written in first person doesn’t feel like I’m experiencing it. It feels like I’m sitting in a restaurant or something, listening to someone tell me a story that happened to them. Do you know what I mean? I feel a step further removed from the action, like I’m somewhere safe and I’m just being told a story.
Yesterday I saw a reader comment somewhere–can’t remember where–that they have a hard time truly feeling suspense with a first POV book, because obviously the narrator survived. I don’t necessarily disagree with this, but I don’t necessarily agree either; yes, we know they’re telling us the story, but for all we know they’re dead and telling us from the afterlife, right?
And of course it depends on the story and character and writer. I generally don’t like books written in present tense at all, and have sadly put down a few books I really, really wanted to read and love because I just couldn’t get past the present tense. But then there are books like Angela Huth’s WIVES OF THE FISHERMEN, which I absolutely adore, and which I honestly didn’t even realize was written in present tense until I was over halfway through it. Yes, it’s possible that this is in part due to the fact that the book contains a lot of flashback/memory scenes, which are in past tense, but it’s also because it’s just such a great book and so perfectly written.
Anyway. With a tight third I feel like I’m actually in the story, in the character’s head. I’m not being told a story, I’m seeing it. That’s why I like to read third best, and why I like to write third best. How about you?
The pace of the book was wonderful and the story gripped me ASAP and didn’t let me go till the last word. I loved how Ms. Kane shows us that looks are deceiving and we should never judge a person just with taking one glance at him or her. A highly recommended read not only for Urban Fantasy lovers, but for anyone who likes a good story.
Finished Stacia Kane’s Unholy Ghosts today, her debut in her new series and it was seriously a wild ride! It was dark, gritty, edgy and enthralling from the first chapter!
This weekend I plan to get the PDF of the first three chapter of UNHOLY MAGIC up on the site; I’m doing some general site updates as well (or rather, the fabulous Frauke at Croco Designs is, and those should be completed soon; UNHOLY MAGIC will finally get its own page, with the back cover copy and everything, I’ll finally get my sidebar links updated (there are several things I was able to figure out how to do on my own here but the sidebar links seem to be in a separate file or something, I don’t know, but I need help, lol), we’re going to add some more fun stuff to, well, the Fun Stuff page, and maybe a few other things here and there.
Which is another question. What sorts of things would you guys like to see? The recipe downloads are pretty popular (now that they’re working, lol, because apparently they weren’t for a while), and I plan to add a few more, but of course there’s no cooking in the Downside books the way there is in the Demons books.
So what do you think is fun extra content? Or do you really not care?
Have a great weekend everyone; it’s a long weekend, isn’t it?
I may post an UNHOLY MAGIC excerpt here on the blog later…
For me, Stacia Kane brought UF back to its gritty, noir-ish roots where the city and the world is as much a character as the protagonist…In sum, UNHOLY GHOSTS is part creepy horror, part old-school urban fantasy, and completely awesome. I say go out and buy it if it sounds interesting to you, because it’s not like anything you’ve read in a while. Trust me.
Unholy Ghosts is the first book in Stacia Kane’s new series and absolutely full of win! From the very start, Kane just draws the reader in effortlessly. Chess is unlike any other heroine you’ll ever read about… While I loved Chess, Terrible just stole the show for me. He was my favorite and no matter how much I loved the other characters, I lived for his parts.
Another thing that made Unholy Ghosts a book of never-ending awesomeness for me was the pace… There’s no awkward pauses or drawn-out monologue and that to me is brilliant. I don’t want to have to sigh in boredom or feel like the action overshadows everything else and in this book, neither happens. Unholy Ghosts is the beginning of a new Urban Fantasy series that I think it will be a huge hit. The characters are kick ass and the plot will have you on the edge of your seat. I absolutely recommend it!
Also, I’m very excited to tell you that the book soundtracks are up on iTunes!
See, for those who aren’t aware, music plays a fairly big part in Downside, and in the world of the book in general; punk rock, mostly, which as those of you who’ve been around for a while know was a big part of my life and is still what I generally listen to. Anyway, I mention several bands in the books, and since not all of it is going to be familiar to readers I thought it would be fun to create playlists and put them up, so if anyone wants to they can go ahead and download them.
The playlists for all three of the books are up, but I’m just going to link to the UNHOLY GHOSTS list at the moment, and to the other two as the books are released (but if you can’t wait, of course, feel free to click “other playlists by this user” or whatever the button is).
(And yes, ultimately I want to load all of this and more to Radio Downside, but that is unfortunately going to have to wait until I can afford to set up Radio Downside, which I’d hoped to be able to do back in december but things have just sort of happened. None of that is your problem or concern, of course, as I’ve said before; I’m just explaining why it’s taking so long.)
1. SKULLS by the Misfits.
2. ALTERNATIVE ULSTER by Stiff Little Fingers.
3. BLAST OFF by The Sonics
4. 354 by the Devil Dogs
5. I’M TALKING ABOUT YOU by Chuck Berry*
6. COME ON by Chuck Berry*
7. I WANNA BE YOUR DOG by The Stooges
8. KILL THE POOR by the Dead Kennedys
* The Chuck Berry songs are listed on iTunes as being from an album called “The Definitive Collection.” We had to change the album listing to get iTunes to recognize the songs as songs it sells and therefore allow us to upload them, but both songs were in fact ripped from one of the greatest albums of all time, The Great Twenty-Eight. Out of print, sadly, but I got a used copy on Amazon a few years back and cherish it like the precious bundle of awesomeness it is. I love Chuck Berry. No matter what he does with poop.
Anyway, there you go. I’m still hoping to find a way to get these loaded onto Canadian, Australian and UK/Eire iTunes so I can do giveaways for readers there, because I know you guys tend to get screwed a bit when it comes to contests from US authors so I’d like to at least do *something.* (So if you can help with that, please contact me.)
I’m sure you’re probably getting sick of seeing my reviews, but I do have another quick one to share. From WickedlilPixie at Writings of a Wicked Book Addict:
Unholy Ghosts is the first book in Stacia Kane’s Downside Series & it was phenomenal! It is one of the most grittiest, in your face Urban Fantasies I’ve ever read & I loved it…If you read one new Urban Fantasy series, make it Unholy Ghosts.
So something I’ve been thinking about for a while, as you guys know, is what urban fantasy truly is as a genre, and where it’s going, and how my books fit into it. (Remember the The Books Are Out There post?
And of course we’re now exactly one week away from the official release date of UNHOLY GHOSTS. And I’m wondering how people will respond to it, whether they’ll love it or hate it, whether the darkness will be too much for them, whether they’ll accept a drug addict as a heroine, all of those things that I worried and wondered about even as I wrote it.
But here’s the thing. I feel like urban fantasy has, as a genre, been somehow relegated to the “Girl” section. It’s been dismissed as “Girl books.” And many guys really do seem to think this way. I’ve seen a lot of them in various places referring to UF as “just paranormal romance with a little more action,” or “hot girl in leather solves mystery, sleeps with paranormal creatures.”
And honestly? I think to some extent that’s true. No, hear me out. Other worlds and paranormal creatures do tend to be a big part of urban fantasy. The heroines often have sex (mine certainly do) and it’s often with paranormal creatures (Megan sleeps with a demon, for example, but in Chess’s world the only paranormal creatures are ghosts, and they don’t really make good bed partners, what with the trying to kill you and all). Read the rest of this entry »
Okay. I’ll be doing a regular blog post tomorrow, but I wanted to quickly post these videos. They’re both from Dragon*Con 2009; the first is me reading Chapter Two of UNHOLY GHOSTS, and the second is me discussing how “Downspeech” came about.
The first video is about 20 minutes long, so just be aware! (The second is only a couple of minutes.) I hope you enjoy them both; and since I hate the way I photograph and especially how I look on video, please be kind!
I’d planned to post about something else today (Amber Publishing, who are publishing the Downside books in Poland, have posted the cover and blurb on their site, in Polish [of course], which is totally cool), but that, along with the online translation of it, will have to wait. Because I’ve had this post in mind for like a month now, and I want to get it out there. Settle in, guys, this is a long one.
You may have heard of Young Adult Authors Against Bullying, a Facebook group made up of–as the name implies–YA authors who disapprove of bullying. I’m not technically a YA author but I’ve joined, as have a lot of others. And a few weeks ago many writers posted their bullying stories on their blogs. I didn’t; not because I don’t have bullying stories or wasn’t bullied as a child/preteen/teen (believe me, I was, horribly) but because I didn’t learn about it until it was already in progress and I already had this post sort of planned, as I said above.
A lot of this is in reaction to the death of Phoebe Prince, a high-school girl driven to suicide by a gang of less-than-human teenage shitweeds who decided she deserved to be mocked, bullied, teased, insulted, and otherwise abused because she *gasp* dated a guy who used to date one of the aforementioned shitweeds (and the guy later joined in, which just makes me lose hope in the future of humanity, but then, this whole story does).
It reminds me a bit of the Megan Meier case, in which a girl was cyber-bullied not just by kids her own age, but by the mother of one of her acquaintances. A grown fucking woman, who thought it was a good idea to harass and play tricks on a young girl online.
First of all, oops. Remember how Ann Aguirre came and did that awesome guest post, with a contest? Well, see, I thought Ann was going to pick the winners, and Ann (quite reasonably) thought I would. So she emailed me the other day to ask who her winner was, and I of course felt stupid. Anyway. Again using my tried-and-tested-very-scientific-method of having my child pick a random number, I have now selected a winner, and I apologize to Ann and to all of you for the delay. The winner is: Commenter #26, Caitlin U!!
Caitlin, please email me your info, and I’ll forward it on to Ann ASAP.
Now, do I have something cool to show you guys!! HarperVoyager, who are publishing the Downside books in the UK and Australia, have put together a promotional video to celebrate their fifteen years of publishing the best fantasy/urban fantasy/all things kickass. (And seriously, they do; I have shelves of Voyager books from when we lived there.)
This video is AWESOME, guys. Seriously. I was all excited and giggly when I saw it, especially the bit with My Books. So check it out; it’s not superlong but it is supercool:
So earlier today I happened to see something online about the KFC “Double Down” sandwich, which made me immediately think of the Luther Burger, although the version I’d always heard of the Luther Burger involved two jelly donuts used as buns, not grilled glazed donuts, but whatever. The point is, the Double Down sort of resembles the Luther Burger, in that it is disgustingly fatty and is probably delicious if you like that sort of thing; it’s bacon and cheese between two fried chicken fillets.
Anyway, while I have no desire to try to Double Down, reading about it did sort of make me want to have KFC for dinner, simply because why not, it’s been months and months. Hubs opted for Arby’s instead, which was right nearby; he went through the drive-thru there after dropping me off at the KFC to order for me and the kiddies.
Aaanyway. I guess we got there right after the dinner rush or something, because I had to wait a while after I ordered. No problem, I don’t mind. So I got the drinks (remember when you weren’t expected to fill your own cups at the soda dispensers? And how nice that was? I mean, I know fast food is cheap, but really, if I’m expected to work for my food it should be even cheaper. Sorry if that’s whiney; I’ve worked in fast food and I know how shitty it is, but seriously. It’s just weird to be handed an empty cup. Like I’m being told to get it my damn self if I want a damn drink so bad.)
So I get the drinks and stand at the counter, watching the two or three KFC employees racing around trying to fill orders. There was one guy who ordered before me, and then a Boy Scout troop leader who I guess also ordered before me but had wandered off to do something else. He appeared at the counter beside me, in his little Boy Scout outfit, complete with stupid just-below-the-knee shorts. Seriously, men? Stop wearing those fucking things, you look ridiculous in them. It does not, as you may imagine, provide you with some sort of Devil-May-Care insouciance. It makes you look like some creepy serial killer whose Mommy raised him as a girl. Plus, they make you look short and fat. ALL of you. Those things would make Ryan Reynolds look short and fat, and we all know Ryan Reynolds is built like a god or something. A God of sexy-body-ness:
Ugh, I spent the whole weekend feeling lousy, holed up with a migraine and icky tummy and watching TV. So to anyone who went to Frolicon hoping to see me, I apologize.
But! Today I have a fun guest post here! As I promised last week, Ann Aguirre has popped by to chitty-chat with all of you and even give away a book or two. Ann is a great writer and and very cool person and is responsible for giving UNHOLY GHOSTS my favorite blurb ever in the world (“the ultimate bible of badassery.” How awesome is that?) So without further still-trying-to-feel-better blabber from me…
The Great Divide
When I have a new book out, I often do a few guest posts to raise my profile. But I hate writing about the work itself. In my opinion, it should stand on its own… or not. There’s nothing I can say that will make anyone like my writing more—and in fact, I’ve found that trying to talk yourself up just leaves people thinking you’re a douche and not wanting to buy your books anyway. So I don’t do that.
Which often leaves me scrambling for a topic. Today, I’m writing about what’s on my mind—the idea that authors can’t be reviewers or readers. I had a conversation on Twitter about this with KatieBabs, MCVane, and CranberryTarts. If there were others involved, I apologize. Feel free to chime in here on this post and remind me what you said.
I think there does come a point where you have to choose your hat. Before I sold, I reviewed. This was mostly to get free books because I live in Mexico, and getting new fiction in English is a pain in the ass. But I did it honestly; I tried to explain why things didn’t work for me. Granted, mine is only one opinion—and it doesn’t weigh more heavily than anyone else’s. So my reviews were not of great moment. I hurt a few feelings, I am sure. That was never my intention, but it happens.
However, as my career took off, I decided I was an author first. And part of that means not slagging off my colleagues because honesty aside, there is always the “competition” factor. People read your nasty review and think, damn, she’s just jealous that X is doing so much better than she is. It makes you come across as petty, even if you just genuinely didn’t like the book. MCVane said something that stuck with me, and made me go, yes, that. “Reviewers ‘sell’ their credibility. Authors ‘sell’ their personas & books.” I find this absolutely true, which means there is something of a conflict of interest going on there. It just makes good business sense not to alienate your colleagues, no matter how you feel about their work. If you hate a book, tell your friends; don’t tell the whole internet.
That leaves the author and reader hat. I am, by choice, an author first, but I love books. I still love to read. I’m always bemused when I read authors saying they don’t read. I’m like, then why are you writing? Loving someone else’s work first is what made me want to do this in the first place. Books have always been there for me, even when life was so bad I had no other comfort, nobody else to turn to. But I could always get lost in a book and forget my own pain. As a kid, that meant walking on the highway, age at ten, two miles to the library in town, and one day, a guy in a green El Camino stopped to show me his junk. I ran into the fields and hid until he went away. But even that didn’t stop me from making my weekly trek because books were my world. That kind of lifelong commitment doesn’t go away because I’m writing my own stories now.
And that’s why I’m so puzzled when readers act like I’m not one of them. Like there is some great divide between us. I love words. I love pages. I love the smell of a book. I miss so much being able to go into an all-English bookstore and just stand there, totally surrounded by what I love. I may be a writer, but I am still one of you. I don’t slag my colleagues, but I don’t slag readers either. I respect you because you share my greatest love.
I am grateful when someone buys my books. I am grateful when they tell me I moved or entertained them. That’s so much more than I ever could’ve imagined, as that chunky ten-year-old girl trudging down the gravel shoulder of the highway, carrying a faded Jabberjaw backpack.
Feel free to disagree with me, if you think authors are no longer readers, or if you think authors should be writing fiery, controversial reviews. A random commenter will receive Blue Diablo (if they haven’t read it) and Hell Fire.
What Stace had to say on Saturday, March 27th, 2010
Since I’m just in the mood, I decided to post a new Sneak Peek from UNHOLY GHOSTS. We’re juuuust about 8 weeks away from release day, can you believe it?
The back cover copy:
THE DEPARTED HAVE ARRIVED.
The world is not the way it was. The dead have risen and constantly attack the living. The powerful Church of Real Truth, in charge since the government fell, has sworn to reimburse citizens being harassed by the deceased. Consequently, there are many false claims of hauntings from those hoping to profit. Enter Chess Putnam, a fully-tattooed witch and freewheeling Debunker and ghost hunter. She’s got a real talent for nailing the human liars or banishing the wicked dead. But she’s keeping a dark secret from the Church: a little drug problem that’s landed her in hot and dangerous water.
Chess owes a murderous drug lord named Bump a lot of money. And Bump wants immediate payback. All Chess has to do is dispatch a very nasty species of undead from an old airport. But the job involves black magic, human sacrifice, a nefarious demonic creature, and crossing swords with enough wicked energy to wipe out a city of souls. Toss in lust with a rival gang leader and a dangerous attraction to Bump’s ruthless enforcer, and Chess begins to wonder if the rush is really worth it. Hell, yeah.
This is from Chapter Six, and it’s Chess’s initial visit to a family whose haunting she’ll be Debunking.
