The First Time She Lied

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I thought I’d share with you all a little sample of Tyche’s Flight ? This is first draft stuff, real rough? Let me know what you think ? He would always remember the first time she lied to him. Nate was sitting in a spacer bar — not that it had signs up saying Spacer Bar or Drunk Crew Welcome. It was the way it smelled more than anything, old engine oil overlaid with that unmistakable tang of ozone that came from working heavy machines or plasma cannons. Beer, vat-grown because out here that was the best way to get good results; you never knew what strain of modified soy was being used on-planet for your drink. The smell of sweat, and sometimes, of anger. That last was typical. Drunk Crew Welcome wasn’t always a good thing. “Captain Chevell,” said the man across from Read More …

More Space Opera

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This is an archive copy of one of my world-famous email campaigns, sent 28 June 2017. Click to view the PDF, because the copy-paste below leaves a lot to be desired. My God, It’s Full of Stars I’m busy working on the results of my reader survey, but the One Thing section responses gave me some really interesting stuff. It’s prompted me to look at some mor interaction with y’all. This week, we’ve got: Questions, and how to ask ’em. More space opera! A reminder on the Urban Fantasy promo that ends in two days. Onward, friend. How to ask me a question I’ve created this thing: Put Me To The Question It’s a simple web form that will allow you to ask me a question. Anonymously, if you so desire; while a bunch of you write to me, a bunch Read More …

OVERTURE

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People are telling me they like the way Night’s End starts, so I thought I’d share it outside of the book because I’m fueled by positive praise. You can get Night’s End on Kindle, iBooks, and Kobo here: https://www.books2read.com/NightsEnd. The Russian stood in front of him like this kind of thing happened every day. Like being in front of a vampire was a thing that a man could get used to. Like he didn’t really care how this turned out — maybe they could hit the bars after, shoot some pool, but they’d need to agree on what kind of drinking they’d be doing. Dragomir liked that about him. Of course, drinking could come later. Right now, they were in a shack, tucked between two warehouses. The lighting outside was poor, which was the idea, and the lighting inside wasn’t Read More …

Jessica Chastain is a Real Life Hero

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I watched Jessica Chastain today speaking truth to power. Yeah, I’m a bit late to the party – it’s been a busy past couple weeks. Me seeing it late is not the important thing here 🙂 The important thing is her message. In case, like me, you’ve been living under a rock, here’s the relevant bit: Say that, @jes_chastain. https://t.co/H7QHnEE5JA — Ava DuVernay (@ava) May 29, 2017 “The one thing that I really took away from this experience is how the world views women … when we include more female storytellers, we will have more of the women that I recognize in my day to day life. Ones that are more proactive, have their own agency … their own point of view.” This is important to me, because when we’re not equal it’s just not fair. I was raised with Read More …

Behind every favorite song is an untold story

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This is an archive copy of one of my world-famous email campaigns, sent 17 May 2017. Click to view the PDF, because the copy-paste below leaves a lot to be desired. I have been spending more time than is probably healthy considering creativity and how it works. Does it come from a muse? The bottom of a bottle? Life experiences? Probably all of those contribute, but in my case, a great chunk of it comes from music. I have different types of music I listen to when writing different types of things — I tend to like rock music for action scenes, for example*. * This means there’s a lot of rock music in my writing life. The Music of Night’s Champion When writing the books of the Night’s Champion I tried to listen to music with a certain theme. Read More …

The Fucking Patriarchy

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A friend and I (hey Cassie!) have been talking a little about how women should, or could, be represented in media. Getting this right is *important*, not just because “girl power” or whatever, but because it’s the right thing to do. Our conversation has ranged a little more broadly into the territory about how you would write characters that are outside your spectrum of experience (e.g., different races, or sexualities). It’s a complicated issue. I’d like there to be a good and easy solution to it, but I think the best thing we can do is to keep talking to each other and our kids about it. And, maybe maybe, listening to women on how they’d like to be represented. I … feel like it might be rude of me to have an opinion on this either way, because I’m Read More …

The Editing Process

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This is an archive copy of one of my world-famous email campaigns, sent 27 April 2017. Click to view the PDF, because the copy-paste below leaves a lot to be desired. It involves a lot more alcohol than you might think You may or may not be aware, but I’m in the middle of the editing cycle for Night’s End. I find editing a bit of an interesting thing, and by interesting I actually mean soul destroying. There’s a lot of did-I-completely-screw-it-up going on. People often ask me what writing is like, so — here we are. I figured I’d share the editing process, or pain, or whatever it is — with you. Blah blah many words, scroll to the end for a chance to win an astonishing number of actual books, printed on genuine Earth paper. The system I Read More …

Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise

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This is an archive copy of one of my world-famous email campaigns, sent 27 April 2017. Click to view the PDF, because the copy-paste below leaves a lot to be desired. Well, One Out of Three Ain’t Bad. Blah blah too much text: scroll to the end for links to free books. Many people think a day-in-the-life of a writer looks like this: 1000 wake up 1030 get out of bed 1045 pre-breakfast gin and tonic 1100 cooked breakfast 1130 angst and agony 1330 write 500 words, worry they’re not good enough 1430 still worrying 1500 pre-dinner beer 1515 second beer 1545 third beer 1600 lose track of time … 2000 bedtime My actual day doesn’t look much like this, except for the angst and agony part (all the voices in my head talk about me a lot behind my Read More …

Sir Julius Vogel Finalists – 2017 Edition

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You’re looking at one 2017’s Sir Julius Vogel Awards finalists. Thank you for all the nominations — you fucking rock. I wouldn’t be here without the rest of you telling a group of strangers how much you loved my book. The SJV team have made me a finalist in two categories — Best Novel (for Night’s Fall) and Best New Talent. Being nominated is big. Being a finalist is hyooooge. Especially when you consider the people I’m rubbing shoulders with (http://www.sffanz.org.nz/sjv/sjvNominations-2017.html). Lee Murray’s Into the Mist. I loved this one. Sarah Feyermann’s Innocents. Juliet Marillier’s Den of Wolves. Kirian Oliver’s Daybreak Rising. The odds of me winning when stacked against that list is tiny, but leave me with my dreams, just for today. Best new talent has me stacked against Eileen Mueller (https://www.facebook.com/EileenMuellerauthor/), Laya Rose (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16113376.Laya_Mutton_Rogers), and Darian Smith (http://darian-smith.com/). I don’t Read More …

How About a Cover Reveal?

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This is an archive copy of one of my world-famous email campaigns, sent 3 April 2017. Click to view the PDF, because the copy-paste below leaves a lot to be desired. Yeah, I’ve been a bit quiet recently – finishing the first draft of Night’s End*. Now it’s done, I’m up to my elbows in edits. Today, well. Today saw me add in 2,000 more words, and leave 5,000 other words on the cutting room floor. It would suck to be one of my manuscripts. I thought you might like to check out the first chapter of Night’s End, along with the cover. Aside from people who make covers, you’re the first to see this. Let me know what you think! I really hope you don’t run away crying. * Night’s End is the third book in the Night’s Champion trilogy. Read More …