Stacia Kane

Oh, man. I am sorry I’ve been absent; as you may or may not know, we moved at the end of March–the weekend before SACRIFICIAL MAGIC’s release–and since our “new” house is actually almost two hundred years old we’ve had some issues to deal with. Nothing serious or worrying, just sometimes complex and/or discouraging or whatever else. Plus the longer travel time to the hubs’s work, getting the girls enrolled in new schools, and getting to know the area enough to not be constantly lost and all of that stuff…it’s been a very busy few weeks, and would have been even if I hadn’t been in London for a few days the week before last and had some other social-type stuff to do. And if I hadn’t gotten WAY more entries than I anticipated. And, to be honest, if I hadn’t lost track of the dates, eep!

(And speaking of being away/losing track of dates, since I kinda disappeared for a little bit, I’m extending my Goodreads Q&A time, so do come over and join in; we’re having a lot of fun there!)

(Also, I am doing a different Goodreads chat/Q&A today, here. Come say hi! I’m giving away a signed copy of SACRIFICIAL MAGIC.)

Anyway, enough of that! Without even more blah-blah-blah ado, let me go ahead and announce the winner of the pillbox necklace:

GINNIE TIPTON!

Ginnie, please contact me to give me your address etc.

Also, since it took me so long I’m going to give away a couple of signed books. So DeeAnn Kimbrough and Andra Mary, contact me with your details!

Hope everyone pops over to Goodreads to say hello!

Eight days until release, can you believe it?!

Okay, lots to cover today. First, I want to direct those of you who missed it yesterday to the fact that SACRIFICIAL MAGIC’s first three chapters are available as a PDF download on the book’s page here on the site!

Next, a few new reviews!

From Vampire Book Club (bolding theirs):

Chess will infuriate you. She will break your heart. She will surprise you. And by the end you’ll be both exhausted and sated. Sacrificial Magic is dark, and brings the requisite Downside craziness of sex, drugs and magic, but it’s also the most introspective of the novels to date. Clever plot twists, character surprises and brutally honest writing make Sacrificial Magic a must read.

From The Bookaholic Cat:

Sacrificial Magic not only great addition to a great series, it is Urban Fantasy at its best. I can’t recommend enough this book and this series in general.

From My Bookish Ways:

The author’s trademark tight plotting and prose are on full display here, and the killer in this one will give you chills (the ghost too *shudder*). This is a watershed book for Chess, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for her in the next book!

(And as always, if you’ve written a review, let me know! I like to give you all credit for the hard work you do.)

Okay, moving on…

Tomorrow I start “officially” participating in the Goodreads Q&A Group! There are already some great discussions happening there, and I’d love to see more, so please do sign up and come chat!

Aaaaaaaand…*drumroll*

Our contest is beginning!

It will officially start tomorrow, Tuesday the 20th, and I have a fantastic prize or two in store. Especially the grand prize, which is this:

And THAT is Chess’s pillbox made into a locket, designed by jewelry designer extraordinaire Janet Cadsawan at Cadsawan Jewelry!

The necklace (including 26″ chain) will retail for $45, and pre-orders will open on the Cadsawan website tomorrow (I believe) and start shipping on SACRIFICIAL MAGIC’s release date.

I hope you all love it–like I do, and of course I hope you all order one, but this is your chance to get one for free.

I’ll be doing a random drawing for one on April 3rd; one week after SM’s release date. (I will also give away two signed copies of SM, so there’ll be three winners in all.)

You can enter as many times as you want, and here’s how:

Have you pre-ordered SACRIFICIAL MAGIC, in any format, from any retailer? Forward your receipt to DownsideArmy AT gmail, and you get 2 entries!
Are you planning to buy SACRIFICIAL MAGIC in the first week of release (since that’s when the contest runs)? Do so, and forward the receipt–either by forwarding the email or scanning the actual paper receipt to the DA address, and that is also 2 entries!
Tweet about the book, using the tag #sacrificialmagic: 1 entry per tweet
Blog about the book: 2 entries
Mention the book on Facebook*: 1 entry
Change your Facebook avatar/image to SACRIFICIAL MAGIC’s cover: 1 entry per day the avatar is up*
Change your Twitter Avatar/image to SACRIFICIAL MAGIC’s cover: same, 1 entry per day*

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you’re changing your avatars, please @ me, or send me a link, or comment on one of my Facebook posts, so I know you’ve done it! If you’re tweeting/blogging/FBing and also forwarding me receipts, please include your info (as in Twitter handle etc.) so I know who you are and can keep all of your entries in one place (i.e. if I get a receipt from Jane Doe but Jane tweets as BookLover, I don’t necessarily know you’re the same person)! If you blog about the book please send me a link, or @ me with it or use the tag. I don’t want anyone to miss out on entries. Once I know you’ve changed your av I’ll check your link every day, so you don’t need to update me, but I do need to know you’ve done it.

This contest is WORLDWIDE, although do keep in mind that SM won’t be released in the UK/IRE/AU until May and I’ll be doing another contest at that point, so…

Aaaand, I guess that’s it. I think that’s all I have for today. So:

Reviews!
Q & A Group!
JEWELRY!
CONTEST!

ONLY ONE WEEK TO GO!! EEK!

We have FIVE WEEKS until the release of SACRIFICIAL MAGIC in the US, can you believe it? It’s almost here!

And of course I’m starting the freak-out that will inevitably lead to me spending release day huddled up on the couch puking and crying and whatever else, terrified I’ll have let everyone down. But I’m trying to be optimistic.

Its helping that so far the advance readers seem to be enjoying the book very much. And I link to that page because, if you are a Goodreads member in the US, you can enter a drawing to win your very own copy!

Also lovely are the great reviews so far for HOME, the Heroes & Heartbreakers short. It is a *romance* story; I think it’s probably about as romantic and cheerful as a Downside story can be, really, and I’m thrilled and amazed by how enthusiastic everyone has been/is being about it. Remember, though, it’s only going to be available for a couple more days; after that it will be pulled, and will be “officially” released for sale in April (I believe it’s April), so read it now!

And of course, I’ll be posting some bits and pieces from SACRIFICIAL MAGIC here soon; the first chapter, and the songlist, and probably another excerpt or two (in fact, there’s one at the end of this post!). Deleted scenes etc. will go up one month after release.

I’m looking for someone to perhaps help design a few new t-shirts for the Downside Market (our desktop with the image program is in storage at the moment, so I can’t do them myself just now, which sucks). I can’t really pay money but I *can* promise a free t-shirt, so please let me know if you’re interested.

Additionally, for my artist pals out there…Suvudu is doing an art contest for the Supernatural Cage Match 2012! Details here. As I mention below, Chess will be “competing” in this, and I’d loooove to see not only your vision of her but see one of my readers get exposure like that; a lot of people read Suvudu and especially the Cage Match, and I’d be thrilled to see one or more of you get to participate. (Of course, you don’t just have to draw/create an image of Chess; there are sixty-four characters in the Match!)

AND…I’m thinking contest(s), and I have a couple of GREAT prize ideas, including one I’m really excited about that I can’t discuss quite yet but will be able to soon. But think merchandise you can wear that isn’t clothes. Hee.

So far I’m thinking I’ll run entries the way I did for the Name-a-Character contest I did for the release of CITY OF GHOSTS: you get two entries for pre-ordering the book, two for blogging about the books/series, one for tweeting about it (using, I’m thinking, #sacrificialmagic as a hashtag).

I didn’t do entries for reviewing on Goodreads/LibraryThing/Shelfari/Amazon/B&N for the last books and I’m still not sure how I feel regarding that, so I’m considering it and am open to your thoughts. See, the thing is, I’m very conscious of how it looks to ask for or encourage reviews on those sites and it bothers me personally to do so; I feel it’s unethical. But I also feel like anyone who spreads the word about the books and/or takes the time to write a review deserves some sort of entry for it and I hate to ignore people who don’t have blogs or Twitter or even accounts at various reader sites; if the only place you participate as a reader is Amazon, how is it right or okay for me to tell you that you don’t get to enter, you know? But at the same time, it *is* rewarding reviews on Amazon/B&N and I just think that’s kind of icky, so… Perhaps I’ll just leave it at Goodreads/LT/Shelfari and skip Amazon/B&N, which feels much better to me, because those sites aren’t actual stores where people go to buy books. (There will be a separate contest for the Downside Army, too, so members can enter both.) (Also, did you know you can “Like” books on Amazon? I just realized it, how long has that been going on?)

Speaking of Goodreads, I’m considering doing one of those Author Q&A groups, where you can ask questions and stuff for a set period of time; I was thinking of maybe March 26th–April 17th, which is about a month. Would anyone be interested in that? I’ll be doing a lot of interviews etc. elsewhere, as well; I’m already booked on several sites for the week before and week of release (and if you’re interested in having me as a guest on your site/blog, please do get in touch soon, because my calender is filling), so there will be other chances, but the Goodreads Q&A seems like fun and we can have a special section for spoilers that will ensure no one else is, well, spoiled by the questions/discussion.

Upcoming:

Chess will be “competing” in Suvudu’s big huge Supernatural Cage Match, which will take place throughout March. I know who she’s battling and can’t tell yet, but a big part of the Cage Match is reader participation, and we’re encouraged to urge our readers to go and vote. So look out for that; I’m really excited about this and very hopeful that Chess can advance to the next round!

I’ll be posting my Big Release event schedule soon; a lot of blogs are doing some really cool giveaways you won’t want to miss! And of course I’m trying to think of some more fun stuff to do as well. It’s just crazy that we’re so close!

A little excerpt:

She wasn’t going to run away. From what, a ghost? Some asshole who decided it would be fun to have a little tea party with a ghost? No fucking way.
She pulled her knife out of her pocket and snapped it open, used her left hand to grab a handful of asafetida and graveyard dirt. Let them fucking come. She was ready.
What she wasn’t ready for was the quick, fast whoosh of something flying through the air, or the heavy sharp pain in the back of her skull. The dirt and her knife flew from her hands; the floor flew up to greet her. Painfully.
She barely had a chance to realize what had happened before everything went dark.

A special treat today! You don’t have to read more of my own disjointed ramblings, you get to read an interview with an actual real writer, lol, who makes sense and doesn’t just whine about stuff. Marta Acosta, who in addition to writing her terrifically funny books also runs the very popular Vampire Wire blog, has agreed to grace us all with her presence and show me how real writers behave when being interviewed (I suspect she wasn’t even drunk when she answered these questions!)

An artist’s rendering of Marta:

So Marta, thanks for stopping by today! You’ve written four books in the Casa Dracula series; the new one, HAUNTED HONEYMOON, is the last. Could you give the readers a general idea of what the series is about?

Thanks for having me, Stacia! The Casa Dracula books are romantic comedies about quirky, fun, sexy, and bright Milagro de Los Santos, who gets accidentally infected with vampirism and involved with a pack of snobby vampires. These people claim that they aren’t vampires, but have a genetic condition. During the course of the books, Milagro falls in and out of love, escapes anti-vampire extremists, defeats vampire zealots, tries to earn a living, while finding time for flirting and parties.

Each book is also a step forward as Milagro grows up and finds her place in the world.

Haunted Honeymoon is the final book in the series. Can you give readers a hint of what to expect?

Mil is having a torrid affair with dangerous and secretive Ian Ducharme, a member of the Vampire Council, but she still misses her ex-fiance Oswald Grant. She distrusts Ian and finds him immoral, while she admires Oswald. When Ian’s shenanigans with his seductive neighbor infuriate Mil, she takes off to London for a job assignment and meets a sexy young vamp who’s both a good guy and fun, too.

When she returns home, though, the bodies start piling up and Mil is being set up for murder. She’s basically kidnapped, held, and “harshly” questioned by a nameless organization. She escapes and runs to Oswald’s ranch. An accidental blow to her head results in amnesia and she forgets all about her life with the vampires. She’s got the opportunity for a re-do with Oswald, but she’s also got enemies looking for her. Will she make the same mistakes again?

So what made you want to do more humorous urban fantasy? Did it just come out that way, or did you always want to write funny?

I always wrote funny. I wrote serious too. I studied creative writing at a Fancy University and I wrote really grim, third-person, present tense fiction. However, every now and then I’d crack and turn in a completely inane story with cartoons. I’d read it to the class and everyone would stare at me and I could practically see the little WTF? bubbles over their heads.

It wasn’t my intention to write urban fantasy. When I started my first Casa Dracula book, I hadn’t even heard the term urban fantasy. I was just writing a funny story to amuse myself. I wanted to make spoof cliches about vampires being rich, gorgeous, and accomplished, and that fit well with a comedy-of-manners set up. Toss an aimless, broke, sexy, bright, and snarky girl into the scene and hit the frappe button.

Legend has it that Sir Donald Wolfit’s last words were, “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” Do you agree? And do you think he came up with that line years before and was just waiting to use it?
Read the rest of this entry »

So, I’ve been sick all week, with a stupid cold, and so have mostly been offline completely. You know, I had a lot of episodes of CSI and Cold Case that I’d seen before but needed to see again, and all that.

Plus I’ve been watching a bit of the Olympics, which I’ll discuss in a minute.

First, the winners of the DEMON POSSESSED and UNHOLY MAGIC cover flats! I decided to pick two winners, because why not, right?

Amanda and Ria! Email me your street addresses and I’ll get those out to you asap.

Next, the winner of a free BLACK DRAGON download: Sarah! Email me and let me know what format you prefer!

So, the Olympics. I’ve watched a bit of the skiing and snowboarding, but honestly don’t really care about them at all. I’ve actually only watched them because of the stupid way NBC keeps forcing me to, by airing drips and drabs of figure skating in between so I’m afraid to change the channel.

Not that it matters that much. The figure skating on the whole has been disappointing and the judging more so. Johnny Weir got totally fucking robbed; he should have scored WAY higher than he did. And I’m sorry, I know it’s bad of me but I wanted Plushenko to win. He’s just so mean and cruel and awesome. One of my Twitter followers called him “the Bond villain of figure skating,” and he is. You have to love a guy who refers to his competitors as “enemies.” That’s what figure skating needs, IMO. More mean bad-assness.

Not to mention, men’s figure skating should be just that. MEN’S. They *should* be doing harder moves, and they should be doing those moves to rougher, thumpier music. All that la-la instrumental stuff was really getting on my nerves, to be honest. It was so asexual. Blah! Bring in the drums! Music with a little energy to it, a little threat. The last movement of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, for example. It’s probably been used a ton but it’s just an example. I know there’s stuff like that out there, so why–with the exception of one or two of them–wasn’t it on the rink?

Just very disappointing. Don’t get me wrong. Lysacek did a beautiful routine, and he deserved a medal. But I agree with those who say if he didn’t do the quad he didn’t deserve a gold. And I was disappointed by the way it seems only Plushenko was willing, or wanted, to be masculine on the ice. Sigh.

So, first, a HUGE thank-you to everyone who commented on my “Author Photo” entry. I admit I am totally shocked by your picks; I thought #4 was by far the worst of the bunch, that it made me look moon-faced and elderly. #3 was my favorite by far, followed by 2, then 1, then 4–which I really didn’t like that much at all. So, quite a surprise, indeed. I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do; I keep thinking if we do one more round of photos I might hit The One.

But I will say that after years of hating the way I photographed I was very surprised by how nicely most of the pictures we took came out. And that made me feel pretty good.

Something else that’s been making me feel pretty good lately is my expanding collection of matching bra-and-panty sets. (Yeah, I’m talking about my underwear, so? We’re all adults here.)

Soo, for years I haven’t really owned anything remotely like a matching set. Well, I have, I just never really wore them together. I have a couple of velvet bras the hubs bought me when we were engaged; they came with matching velvet boy-shorts, which were adorable but tended to be too warm under clothes (in South Florida, remember) and also tended to slip cown or bunch unattractively. I also bought myself a few sets, but the panties always seem to get worn out so much faster than the bras, in large part because while panties are washed after one wearing, bras aren’t. (Again, c’mon. I can’t be the only woman in the world who’ll wear the same bra for several days. If I’m doing something where I’m sweaty of course I change it immediately, but for day-to-day use…I dunno, am I disgusting for this? It’s just bras aren’t cheap and I don’t have that many.)

Anyway. Yes, I don’t have many bras. So there’s this new store in Barnstaple called La Senza, and they have really nice, inexpensive stuff. So because I’m low on bras I bought a couple. And because they were half-price and the panties were too, I’ve ended up buying several sets over the last couple of months. With the result that I know own like six matching bra-and-panty sets.

And it’s pretty neat, I have to say. It’s kind of fun to have matching stuff. It makes me feel like a grown-up. And they’re so pretty! I bought this one, for example, which isn’t usually my style but is just so cute. Or this one. And several more that aren’t on the website; a pinstripe set (I love pinstripes); a bright baby blue set, a red satin set with black tulle over it, a red set with black stripes…and all so inexpensive!!

So while I’m not always matching (I still have some older bras I love, that don’t have matching panties) these days I seem to match more often than not. And so I’m wondering. Ladies, do you match? Was I weird for not matching before? Am I weird for matching now? Men, what do you think? I’ve heard that men could care less, is that true?

A few other things:

Urban Fantasy Land is having a “Best of 2008″ poll, with some neat categories, so go on over and vote. I am actually nominated, which is cool as hell, in the “Best Demons/Zombies” category, but as I’m in the running against Mark Henry, Richelle Mead and Jackie Kessler, in addition to Justine Musk (my new Twitter friend, which just about stunned me out of my shoes), Jenna Black, and Kat Richardson, I haven’t the proverbial snowball’s chance. But you know, it really is an honor just to be nominated, so I’m content. Anyway, go on over and vote!! Link to the poll! Let’s get some numbers over there!

And when I say “Go over and vote” I mean vote for whomever. Do not vote for me unless you really are crazy enough to think I deserve to win more than those other great writers. As has been mentioned all over the internet in the last few weeks, the Preditors & Editors poll has begun, and while (again) it is very exciting to see my name in it–although I don’t know if I am this year, I haven’t looked, but I know someone nominated me last year and I actually ended up ranking fairly high–it really doesn’t mean anything at all save who has the most buddies with the most dummy email accounts. I love P&E; I think Dave does great work there.

But the poll…ugh. No offense, but you cannot tell me that award is fair, or that the winners always make sense. I hate polls like that, which are nothing more than popularity contests or seeing who can best game the system. When the top tens are consistenly filled with books, publishers, and authors of whom no one has ever heard, something isn’t right.

Also. Our buddy Psynde has a new pet, a really cool fighting fish whom she has named Terrible, after one of my Unholy Ghosts characters (I let Psynde have a sneaky peeky at the ms). “Stunned” does not begin to describe my reaction, no shit. This is probably the most exciting thing that’s happened to me in my entire career; someone actually liked one of my characters so much they named a pet after him. That shit just doesn’t happen to me.

Anyway, stop on over to Psynde’s blog to take a look at Terrible in all his fishy glory and say hi to Psynde, and let’s keep our fingers crossed that my horrendous luck with fish (every time I try to have one it dies within a few hours) doesn’t extend to Terrible.

And I think that’s it for today.

So. So so so so so.

Finished (almost) line edits for Unholy Ghosts over the long weekend, which was awesome. I love edits; I think they’re so much fun. And it’s made me even more excited aboutthe book than I already was, and I have ohsomany plans for its release (date TBD.)

This sort of (but not really) ties into something else. Well, several things. Almost.

First, I was reading Empire magazine earlier. I hardly ever read Empire anymore. It used to be really good; lately there have been errors galore–shit people writing about movies really should know. Like the time they claimed it was the Jerry O’Connell character in Stand By Me who threw up blueberry pie all over the people at the pie-eating contest, when everybody knows it was Lardass who did the vomiting, in a cunning revenge plan. And you know, a movie magazine should not be making that kind of stupid mistake, especially not when at least two people would have had to read it. There was another one, too, but I don’t remember what it was. I think it might have had to do with The Breakfast Club. Anyway.

They did an article about this new movie with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, which is going to be kind of like Heat but about John Dillinger. And they had some pictures of Depp and Bale and several other men, in costume. Which included hats.

Why, oh why, did men stop wearing hats? They look so good. So sharp and sexy; tough and sophisticated at the same time. But it’s nearly impossible to find a man in a hat these days–and by “hat” I mean a real hat, a fedora or a porkpie or a snap-brim, not some fucking baseball cap. Baseball caps can be just fine, say, on an actual baseball diamond, or when doing work outside in the sun; I will never forget watching the hubs and my roommate (who was my ex) putting up plywood over the windows (hurricane coming) at our house, both wearing baseball caps. It was quite pleasing to see, I admit. Especially since they were both sweating profusely (summer in South Florida, remember.) While I hovered around, bringing drinks and taking advantage of the fact that not only am I a girl, I’m a petite girl, and thus was of no use at all to two men, both of whom stood over six feet (and, uh, still do of course), when it came to drilling holes in the walls and doing heavy lifting and stuff like that.

Sorry, I digressed a little bit there, didn’t I? My point is, I wish men still wore real hats. One of my favorite bits in the book The Way You Wear Your Hat–which is an awesome book, btw–was the discussion of Sinatra’s many hats, and how he loved them.

So I want to do something for hats. I think when I have signings and stuff I’m going to bring along special gifts for men wearing hats. I seriously doubt I’ll get any takers, but it would be cool, wouldn’t it?

This weekend is the formal Xmas party for hubs’s work, so looking forward to that. Last year only one or two other women beside me actually dressed up; I have no idea why, considering that the men were all in tuxedos and it is a black-tie affair. I seriously considered dressing down this year, and possibly wearing something where people could actually see my legs. But my conscience refuses to allow it. If my husband is in a tuxedo it is inappropriate for me to be in a dress I might wear just as easily to the mall or something, and all the Cosmo articles in the world about making accessories “dress up” your look fail. Formal is formal. So I have a skirt (which requires a crinoline–luckily I own several) and a corset with a ruffle at the top, and I am ready to go. (Yes, I will post pics as soon as I have them.)

And there are two other cool bits of news!

First, Mark Henry–my fellow Reluctant Adult and great pal–has unveiled his new website!! MarkHenry.us is a treasure trove of fun stuff, music, little lists and funnies, info about Mrk and his (awesome) books–make sure you check it out, and be ready to spend some time! It’s as full of zombie goodness as an all-night Romero film festival.

AND. This Thursday, December 4th, I’m going to be spending the day over at Bitten By Books, chatting and answering questions and generally having fun. My event starts at 8 am Pacific and runs until the same time the following day (although as I have the party and have to leave my house Friday morning for it, I’ll have to come back to get to any comments I might have missed on Saturday). I’m even giving away a prize–a $25 Amazon gift card. They’re lovely over at BBB, and it should be a good time, so make sure you come by to hang out! (I will post this again on Thursday.)

And that’s pretty much it. Thanksgiving was okay but the turkey was dry; I tried something new and it was Not Good. But we watched our movies and hung out with the kiddies and generally enjoyed ourselves, so it doesn’t matter. And, as I admitted in the comments to my previous post (on blogger), I don’t really like turkey much anyway, so no big loss.

So, to sum up:

1. Empire is not as good as it used to be.
2. Men should wear hats.
3. I am dressing up properly on Friday.
4. Mark Henry’s new site rocks.
5. I am hanging at Bitten By Books on Thursday
6. Cooking the turkey upside down for the first hour or so is the best way to get a juicy turkey.