We’re not done discussing writer/reader relationships, I don’t think, but for today there’s some other stuff to talk about, including something I’m really, really excited about.
First, a couple of links. My pal Mario Acevedo, he of the fun books and incredibly dirty mouth, is doing a contest and chat over at Bitten by Books today, so head on over and enter to win some of his awesome work. And, you know, to taunt him and stuff.
Second, I’m not sure how many of you are aware of This Week’s Amazon Controversy. In a nutshell, this weekend Amazon listed a bunch of very expensive graphic novels at bargain basement prices. The pricing info was picked up by Rich Johnston over at Bleeding Cool–he’s @BleedingCool on Twitter as well, and you should follow him, especially if you’re the sort of geek who reads comics or has any interest in comics or movies or whatever, or who, oh, dreams about Batman, or who downloaded “Voodoo Child” by the Rogue Traders and plays it in her car and then pretends that she is married to The Master, and then we make the Doctor my sex slave…oh, um, I mean, if you were that sort of geek, which of course I am not. Ha, ha! No, not me! Um. Anyway, Bleeding Cool is a great site.
So Rich picked up the story, and lots of people–including the hubs–flocked to Amazon to order books. (In fact, if you checked the top Amazon sellers on Sunday morning they were all hardcover graphic novels, which was quite cool). Then Amazon started processing some orders, and sending out emails saying that if you ordered more than one copy of a book your duplicate orders were canceled, but they would otherwise honor the price at which you purchased the books. Which is great, right? Except that now they’re just canceling people’s orders altogether, without notifying them, or with a rather short email that basically says, “Yeah, too bad.” So some people got their books at the advertised price, but most are being told Tough Luck. Rich discusses the emails and the reactions of disappointed readers here.
BUT. Here’s the big news, which I really hope you guys will be excited about. I’m sure many of you know who James D. MacDonald is, and how much he’s done for writers everywhere. And, if you haven’t read any of his books you totally need to.
Anyway. Jim periodically looks into self-publishing methods, to help out writers who choose to go that route for whatever reason. A few weeks ago he asked if anyone had anything they wanted made into a book, and, since I’d been planning/attempting for ages to put the Strumpet series together and set it up as a book, I offered it to him. I wrote a new little intro, and he wrote some back-cover copy for me, and there you go.
So for all of you who’ve asked me to do this, there you go. Have fun!
(Note: Yes, the series is still available on the blog here, and will continue to be. You do not need to buy the ebook or paperback to still access the series; I wrote it as a free blog series and it will remain so. This is just for those of you who wanted it to download all as one document for easy navigation, or so you don’t have to keep visiting my site to read it, or who like having a paperback, or whatever. Also, no, it is not available on Amazon or as a Kindle download; in the interests of keeping costs down we opted not to buy an ISBN, which means it won’t be listed in those places.)
So that’s it for today. We’re rather content-light, but given how Very Serious we were last week, and given how excited I am to finally have the Strumpet series out there in book form (It’s Alf! He’s back. In pog form), and given that I’m up to my knees in a new project…well. We’ll see how it goes the rest of the week.
What Stace had to say on Monday, February 15th, 2010
(In honor of this I’m doing a little contest, details at the end.)
So…let’s hop in the time machine, shall we? All the way back to September of 2007. I’d sold the second romance novel I ever wrote (after extensive edits and cleaning up and all of that stuff), a medieval non-erotic romance called The Black Dragon, to an epublisher called Triskelion Publishing, which later went belly-up. Thankfully I’d gotten my rights back and sold them to Cerridwen Press, Ellora’s Cave’s non-erotic imprint, before that happened, but I’m going to talk about that a bit more near the end of the post.
The Black Dragon was a big deal to me. It was, at the time, my favorite thing I’d written, in large part because when I wrote it I was thinking of all those great “old-school” style romances I read as a kid. I wanted to do an homage to them, a sort of throwback type of story. So it was written in a specific voice and with, I hoped, a specific sort of feel. I was inordinately fond of the story, and still am, to be honest, because I think I managed to at least somewhat capture that feeling I remembered from those old-school romances.
Anyway. The other day some of my fellow Reluctant Adults and I were talking about covers, and some of the covers we’d had throughout our careers, and linking to them and showing them. I happened to toss in the cover triskelion gave The Black Dragon, and Mario Acevedo–that scamp!–mentioned how much better it might be if Mark Henry’s face was on it rather than the original model.
This is the original cover (Cerridwen, of course, gave it a new cover, which I adored, and will post at the end as well):
What Stace had to say on Friday, February 12th, 2010
Okay, this is a *very* photo-heavy post, so be warned.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to the local Target Optical to get an eye exam–my first in almost five years. As predicted, my eyes got worse. Sigh. But, I got new contacts, and I ordered new glasses, which is a huge deal, since I hadn’t gotten new glasses in about twelve years. See, the last time I got glasses my prescription was like a -8.5 or something. And the optician or optometrist or whatever ordered my glasses in a -8, because he claimed “glasses correct your vision better than contacts.” Which is utter crap. I have no idea what he was thinking there. So the upshot was I had glasses that really didn’t correct my vision enough, so I hardly wore them. besides, they weren’t the kinds of frames I wanted anyway.
I’ve worn glasses pretty much all my life, starting in kindergarten. And I always dreamed of having a pair of black horn-rimmed glasses, even as a little kid. My parents wouldn’t let me. Because my mom usually picked my frames–and, in her defense, because it was the 80’s–I always ended up with these horrible, enormous pastel-colored frames that covered half my face and made me look like a small blonde insect. As I got older, I still dreamed of getting black frames but nobody made them, or my mom wouldn’t let me.
They make them now. So I don’t care how hipster they’ve become or whatever. I’ve wanted them forever, and I finally got them. Yay me!
Cut to a few days ago, when I decided it would be really fun to buy a wig. Because I like to experiment with hair colors etc. but it’s a lot of effort and if it doesn’t work out, well, you’re stuck. So I hopped over to Voguewigs.com, and ordered me some wigs. Two of them came yesterday.
So without further ado, here we have Stacia’s wigs-n-glasses expo/fashion show (No, that isn’t a backdrop, it is the view out that window):
What Stace had to say on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Lookie what I got! The UK/Australian covers for the Downside books, and man are they stunning! HarperVoyager has given them a very distinct, very (unexpectedly) sexy look, and I’m really pleased:
Whoo! Such a different look, but I really do love them.
What Stace had to say on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
I have decided to put together your week’s book shopping list for you. No, no, don’t thank me. I do it because I care. I am just that generous. I have undertaken all of the heavy lifting, so to speak, in telling you how to spend your book-buying money this week. And in return, all I ask is that you, y’know, buy the books. Especially because, in addition to the pure-A awesomess of them, there just might be something in it for you.
First, take Mark Henry. Please! Ba-dum-bum. No, seriously, take him. Or rather, take his book. Well, don’t take it, as in steal it, you understand. Take it as in to-the-register. Mark’s awesome, amazing first book in his completely hilarious Amanda Feral series–called HAPPY HOUR OF THE DAMNED–has been re-released in mass market paperback today, and you need to get that bitch on your shelf, foreals. It’s a mass market paperback! What could be better? Only $7, and that perfect mmp size. (I love mass market paperbacks. They’re my faaavorite.)
See, here’s the thing. The Amanda Feral books are so funny and awesome. They’re not strictly urban fantasy. They’re like Christopher Moore mixed with Anna Wintour, if Anna Wintour lived on Soylent Green. (Which, who knows? I’m not saying she does or doesn’t. Hey, it’s not for me to judge, right?) But for some reason, some reason I cannot fathom, the books didn’t quite catch on the way they should have, the way those of us who’ve read them thought they absolutely should. I know most of you who read here know Mark, and how awesome he is. I know most of you probably read my initial review of this book on its trade paperback release, in which I confessed the deep jealousy the book inspired in me because I could never in a million years be that funny and original.
The point is, the books are awesome. And WE NEED THEM. We need books like this, so sharp and different. Books that cast such a clear and sarcastic light on our world. We need this kind of mean-spirited but good-hearted fun. But we might not get more, if this mmp re-release doesn’t sell well. (Mark explains it here.)
So go and get it. Head for your local bookstore. Or get it online, even. Mark explains here, with links, how you can even get your copy personalized, by him.
Now. I happen to have in my possession cover flats for DEMON POSSESSED and UNHOLY MAGIC, the second Downside book. (No, I don’t have any for UNHOLY GHOSTS.) The UNHOLY MAGIC flats have the book’s blurb on them. I have not released the blurb yet, and didn’t plan to for several months, because…well, because I think it’s more fun that way. BUT. If you buy the mmp of HAPPY HOUR between today and…hmm…let’s say Feb. 16th (which gives you two weeks), and let me know you’ve bought it (either through commenting here or emailing me), I will enter you in a drawing to win both cover flats (which I will sign, if you like). In fact, I may very well pick more than one winner.
Okay? So get to buying!! Amanda feral needs you, and not just for dinner.
Okay. Other books you can put on your list. First is ACCIDENTALLY DEMONIC by Dakota Cassidy, who is awesome and funny and warm and smart and cruel, in the way only a former beauty queen can be. Although you probably don’t need me to tell you that, since everyone knows and loves Dakota and her books.
Last, and certainly not least, is SHADOW BLADE by Seressia Glass. Okay, here’s the thing. I love this book for a number of reasons, mostly just because it’s awesome. I’ve always thought Seressia was a great writer and a very cool girl. And really, that’s why you need to buy the book. I’m only on page 85 so far and had to force myself to put it down in order to write this post.
But there is one other reason as well. The main character, Kira Solomon, is a beautiful, strong, funny, smart African-American woman (as is Seressia herself). I’m not saying buy the book because it has black characters or was written by a black author. But I am saying, I’d love to see more racial and ethnic diversity in the UF world, and publishers will produce what readers buy and support. So show them that we’ll all buy and read and love books with MCs of color; books with those characters on the cover, too. Seriously, this book is so good. Really cool. Go get it.
(Oh, and while you’re at it, should any of you feel the need to pre-order any of MY books, that would of course be fine too. Just in case you thought I might not want you to or anything like that. It’s okay with me, I swear.)
And now, something that I am betting money Mark henry will figure out how to fit into a book. An inventor has created the world’s first talking sex robot. And to me, at least, it looks a little bit like Catherine Tate. Apparently it has a kind of voice-recognition software that is like artificial intelligence, it not only makes orgasmic sounds but vibrates to “simulate” orgasm, and it will “respond” when you speak. My guess is the responses will be things like:
“You’re so smart!”
“You’re so funny!”
“Won’t you please have sex with me now? I’m tired of talking.”
“You’re my hero.”
“Wow, how is it that you’re always right?”
“You’re amazing!”
“Your cock is so big it scares me!”
…but those are just my guesses. Anyway, it’s seven grand, which it seems to me for that price you could pay a hooker to come by a couple of times a week to laugh at your jokes and fake an orgasm, but, again, who am I to judge, right?
And I’m going to stop talking now, because it’s far more important that you all run out to the bookstore or get to online orderin’. Go do that, and remember, I’m giving away signed cover flats!!
What Stace had to say on Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Hey all!
Today is the official release date of Undead Much?, the second novel in my great friend Stacey Jay’s Megan Berry, Zombie Settler series.
I LOVE this series; it is so much fun, and scary, and awesome. Here’s the blurb:
Q: How many guys does it take to make your boyfriend wild with jealousy?
A: Only one, if he’s UNDEAD.
Megan Berry had a perfectly average new-sundress-and-boy-obsessed life–until her power to settle the Undead returned. Oh, and then her best friend tried to kill her–and ruin homecoming–with a bunch of black magically raised zombies. At least she got a spot on the pom squad and a smokin’ boyfriend (Ethan). But now Megan is in deep fertilizer all over again.
Why? Well, let’s see…
· Feral new super-strong zombies? Check.
· Cheerleader vs. pom squad turf war threatening half time as they know it? Check.
· An Undead psychic hottie (Cliff) who’s predicting a zombie apocalypse–and doing his best to tempt Megan away from Ethan? Yum. I mean, Check.
· Earth-shattering secrets that could land Megan in Settler prison for life? Um, IT WASN’T ME!!!
Everyone thinks Megan’s at fault for the new uber-zombie uprising. Looks like she’ll need the help of both Cliff and Ethan if she’s going to prove her innocence before it’s too late…
Stacey’s made this fun little commercial/teaser video, too, so check it out:
What Stace had to say on Friday, December 11th, 2009
(A side note: I was supposed to post Simon Wood’s second guest post yesterday, but the day got away from me. Sorry. It’ll go up Monday. Also, sorry this is so late. I slept until almost one o’clock this afternoon; hubs has been out of town for ten days (he got back last night) and I don’t think I slept more than five hours a night the whole time he was gone, including weekends, so I was totally exhausted). Anyway,
Today is Agent Appreciation Day, in which we writers blog and tweet about how much we love our agents, in an effort to make up for not giving them Christmas presents. (Ha, actually that isn’t true. I sent my agent a present last week, and I’m sure most of us send gifts anyway. But still.)
I talk about my agent a lot here, I know. So I actually debated whether or not I even should post anything today. But then I decided, why not. It’s fun to talk about him, and it’s fun to be involved in something like this.
My agent is Chris Lotts from Ralph Vicinanza Ltd., and we’ve been together (in the working sense, of course) for almost two years, which is kind of weird to think about. I queried Chris with UNHOLY GHOSTS on a Monday, and signed with him two days later on Wednesday, which still amazes me. To be honest, I queried him thinking I didn’t have a chance in hell of even getting a partial request, considering how highly regarded he and the agency are; the idea that he would want to work with me and my creepy little “junkies and ghosts” book seemed like a total impossibility.
But I sent the query anyway, because as I said a while ago, “either you think the book is publishable or you don’t.” I did, and I sent the query, and I have never stopped being thankful that I did. In the almost-two-years we’ve been working together he’s sold UNHOLY GHOSTS to Del Rey (US), HarperVoyager (UK), Egmont Lyx (Germany), Amber Publishing (Poland), and Blackstone Audio (audio rights US). He also handled the contracts for DEMON INSIDE and sold the third Demons book, DEMON POSSESSED, to Juno/Pocket. I think it’s safe to say he’s an awesome and very effective agent.
So, to celebrate this most important of Important Literary Holidays, here are the top five things I love about my agent, Chris Lotts:
1. He’s always there. He always takes my phone calls, on the rare occasions I do call (I prefer email). Not only does he take the calls, he’s actually happy to hear from me! He tells me he’s glad I called. He calls me, too. He emails me, and replies to my emails. I once had a problem pop up on a day he’d taken off work. He still saw my email and got involved.
2. He knows how to talk to me. Okay, this one sounds a little weird, so I better explain. It’s not that I need some sort of special white-gloves treatment or anything; if I did he probably wouldn’t be so happy when I call him. But he knows how to calm me down when something upsets me and I decide my career is over. He knows that when I send him a proposal or an idea for a new project, and he hates it (okay, I can hear him in my head right now saying, “I don’t hate it!”, so read that as “he doesn’t think it’s as marketable as some” or whatever) he can come right out and tell me; he doesn’t have to beat around the bush. He knows I can take a joke and that I’m annoyed by hesitation and wishy-washiness. And when I ask questions, even questions that feel to me like they’re probably kind of stupid questions, he answers them and tells me they’re not stupid questions.
3. He’s willing to step in and handle stuff I don’t wanna handle. He stays on top of things like payments I’m supposed to get. He offers me advice, thoughts and opinions. It’s all very professional and makes me feel well taken care of. Which is nice.
4. The agenting stuff itself. Aside from all the personality things and the warm fuzzies and whatnot, he knows how to sell my work. He knows how to get me the best deal possible. He knows what editors are looking for, and when we talk and brainstorm on the phone (yep, see, there’s that talking thing again!) he has great ideas and advice. It’s very cool. It’s nice to feel that through him I’m connected to the industry, and to learn more about it.
5. In April hubs and I went to the Mai Kai in Ft. Lauderdale (this huge, awesome Polynesian restaurant where we used to go all the time when we lived there). The Mai Kai has a gift shop, and in that gift shop I saw two little Hawaiian/Polynesian dolls; you know, the tacky plastic ones with the really big eyes, where the girl is in a grass skirt and the guy in short or something, and they’re both wearing leis? Anyway. I saw these and purely on impulse bought them for him and sent them up, hoping he would get the joke. He did. Not only did he get the joke, he told me he was putting them on his desk. Seriously, how awesome is that?
Of course there are a lot more reasons. But what it boils down to is I like the man, and I like working with him, and I think he likes working with me. I have compete trust in him, and that’s hugely important.
I know discussions pop up from time to time on the internet about the role of the agent. I know there are discussions about what the relationship should be. I know there are people who feel that the agent works for the writer, and so the process of getting a agent shouldn’t be so hard and agents “shouldn’t have so much power” and blah blah blah.
To me the writer/agent relationship is more of a partnership. When looking for a partner in anything, whether it’s business or a work project or your love life or whatever, you don’t just grab somebody and say, “You’ll do,” and get down to business. You get to know them. You talk. You see how it feels, if you click. You can’t just grab any agent and “hire” them, and if you could I don’t think that would be a good thing. Because the relationship is about so much more than “Here’s my book. Go sell it,” or “Go write this book, and by the way you’re not allowed to do X, Y, or Z.” Chris and I discuss things. We plan things. I tell him how I feel about things and he tells me what his feelings are on it, and I usually take his advice not because I feel like if I don’t he won’t like me anymore but because he’s the one with the experience.
To put it bluntly, I pay him (in commissions) to sell my work, and to give me the benefit of his expertise. Why in the world would I pay him for his advice and then refuse to take it? That’s like hiring, I don’t know, a very famous, very expensive interior decorator, then handing them the paint, wallpaper, and furniture you want him to use and telling him to get to work. You know what I mean? What’s the point in getting an expert if you’re going to ignore everything they say?
This is turning into a longish rant, and I only meant it to be short. Oops. So anyway. My agent. He’s awesome, and I appreciate him.
(For a long list of other writers participating in Agent Appreciation Day, go here.
“I was fortunate enough to get an ARC of Stacia Kane’s forthcoming Unholy Ghosts after I met her at DragonCon. Unfortunately, this novel won’t be out until May. You should put it on your calendars NOW. The world-building is unexpected and complex, the characters are alive, and the protagonist Chess is a treasure. I have a very hard time reading a book with an alcoholic or drug-addicted hero, and in fact I almost closed the book after the first chapter. I’m so glad I didn’t. The characters are complex and indelible, the plot is fascinating, and I can hardly wait for another book, months before this one will be out.”
Second, I got word this morning that Karen Marie Moning, awesome NYT Bestseller that she is, also read and loved all three books in the Dowside series, and said:
“Expect the unexpected. Kane delivers dark, sexy urban fantasy at its finest. I couldn’t put it down!”
Which is totally cool. And was a great way to start my day.
What Stace had to say on Friday, August 14th, 2009
This article originally appeared, in a slightly different form, over at Emily Veinglory’s EREC blog. Then last summer it was published in the September issue of Lady Jaided, the Ellora’s Cave online magazine. But it occurred to me this evening that I’m quite proud of this little piece, and it should be on my site. So here it is. Read the rest of this entry »
Well, here we are. My first blog post in my new home. I hope it works. Have you all seen StaciaKane.net? Staciakane.com should lead to it too (waiting for the nameservers to change over) as well as decemberquinn.com. I love the site; it’s better than I could possible have hoped. The fabulous Frauke at Croco Designs did it for me; she literally took my logo and my few vague thoughts (”I like skulls and black and white” is basically everything I gave her, no shit) and created the most gorgeous site ever. So go check it out. And yes, there are still some lurking typos; we’re working on it, I swear.
Sorry I wasn’t here yesterday. It was the hubs’ birthday, which of course I forgot when I did my Monday post, as we actually did most of our celebrating on Tuesday; dinner at Trader Vic’s downtown and a night at the Hilton (so we could both drink, y’see, and not have to drive home. And boy, did we drink. Mmm…tiki drinks.)
Anyway. So that deadline I had? Yes. I am very pleased to announce that DEMON POSSESSED, the third Megan Chase novel, was turned in at about 4:30 am Tuesday morning. Overall I’m pretty happy with it. I didn’t get as much editing as I would have liked, but my editor will be sending it back with her comments next week, I believe, so I can fix whatever little issues there may still be then. But I certainly think I’ve managed to up the stakes exponentially in this one, and the main conflict of the book came off pretty much exactly as I’d hoped and had been planning since I wrote the first one. So we’ll see.
This is the main problem, for me. When I start I’m all excited and think the book will be fantastic. It never lives up to what I had in mind. I can only hope it comes close. I could tinker with a book forever. FOREVER. At some point I have to force myself to stop–or well, now my editors force me to stop–and release it into the wild like an orphaned baby animal who can now hopefully fend for itself. And hope it gets a decent reception.
The first book in a compelling new urban fantasy series, The Downside Ghosts. Murderous spirits and ruthless drug dealers combine to create serious problems for fiercely independent heroine, Chess, in these fast-paced, sexy and addictive novels – fitting for a witch with a serious drug problem.
Cessaria – or ‘Chess’ – Putnam is a troubled young witch who hunts down and banishes angry spirits (there aren’t any other kind). Her tools are few: magical tattoos that alert her to their presence, an arcane powder or two, grave dirt and her devious imagination. Chess’ employer is the only powerful institution left in the world: the Church of Truth. After the dead rose, twenty-three years ago, to slake their thirst for blood, governments and religious institutions fell, and the Church of Truth took their place. They harnessed the supernatural and saved the remaining population. The Church has been training witches ever since. Chess lost her family during Haunted week and grew up in a succession of abusive childrens’ homes and foster families until the Church recognised her talent and took her in. But she’s still haunted by those memories, and has developed a ’small’ drug problem in order to stifle them; a problem that could see her lose everything if it were uncovered, and one that frequently gets in her way. Not only is she caught between her addiction and Church rules, she is also exploited by her dealers, who see her as their own personal banisher; juggling her commitments has never been more difficult, especially when someone summons a Dream Thief: a dark force so powerful and malevolent that it even frightens the dead.
I notice they’re calling it the “Downside Ghosts” series, which is also pretty cool. I’ve been (as you know) calling it the Downside series; I’ve seen it referred to as the Chess Putnam series and assumed that was how Del Rey would refer to it. But whatever.
Anyway. Monday we start our Summer Series on critiques and critique partners. And I am going to try to figure out how to do lj-cuts at WordPress and start tagging all the old entries.
Have you all seen 
