I get it.  It’s been a while.

Lots of silence on the blog.  Tumbleweeds, if that’s your thing.  The reasons are numerous, some good, some bad.  Let’s get on to it.

The Vogels

There Can Be Only One

The 8th of March was a day different to many others.  It was a Saturday — not in itself terribly unusual, but!  It’s the annual day for International Women’s Day, and this year’s theme was, “Equality for Women is Progress for All.”  It was the day that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing on its way to Beijing.  Winterwell, acclaimed creators of immersive parties, held a post-apocalyptic party in the depths of the tunnels and vaults of Waterloo — they called it Beyond the Thunderdome.  Also, I got this in my inbox:

"On behalf of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand Inc. we write to advise that you have been successful in getting onto the final ballot for the 2014 Sir Julius Vogel Awards for Best Novel: Night's Favour."

Holy shitballs.  The SJVs (that’s the gansta short form)  are a Big Deal™ around here.  You probably remember me prattling on about them late last year — it turns out, quite a few of you felt strongly enough about that to write in, to nominate me.  You’re awesome.  It feels heady, being nominated — just check out the people I’m rubbing shoulders with for Best Novel:

• Heartwood, Freya Robertson’s ambitious epic fantasy;
• Journey of Shadows, from slugger Sam Charlton;
• A Cold Day In Hell, with Sharon Hannaford giving us more Hellcat;
• Crystal Venom, Steve Wheeler bringing us space adventure;
• And finally, The Wind City, by the excessively talented Summer Wigmore.

Seriously: if you’re out of things to read, that list up there is a good place to start.  It’s a list of quality, and I don’t envy the judges having to make a balanced call with the variety of genres and styles.  For my part, I reckon Summer’s going to take it, and deservedly so: her prose is magical.  Note: I didn’t finish her book, because the story’s not my thing, but if I had an ounce of her writing talent I could rule the world.  Stephen’s got himself another top-flight talent there.  Sometimes I hate that guy.

Imma be honest with you guys: when put up in lights next to that list, my little Night’s Favour doesn’t seem so little at all.  Maybe it’s the cheapest house in the richest street, whatever, but I feel awesome to be playing in the same ballpark with those guys.  I wish all of them the best of fortune: whichever one of us wins (I don’t resent you yet, Summer, not quite yet), well, it’s been awesome to have my name next to yours.

On a side note, I didn’t make the list for best new talent.  I might need to look into changing my cologne.

Road Trip

Hackberry, Route 66, Arizona

Next month (that’s April, for those of you without a functioning brain) I’m going on a book tour.  I’ll have a few more details to share as we get closer, but I think it’ll kick off in just a couple weeks.

This has kept me a little busy doing interviews, guest posts, that sort of thing.  It’ll be something like 60 or 70 stops over a couple months, and I’m really looking forward to it.  This, people, is marketing.

Night’s Favour has been a real experiment for me: write a book, try and make it not suck.  I think I’ve got there, but it’s been without much marketing (aside from a couple interviews).  Zero dollars spent on promotions — now that Night’s Favour’s been out in the wild for a while, I want to see what happens with targeted publicity increase.  I’ll share more details as I know ’em.

I promise you: you will be sick of hearing me bleat by the end of it.  Fun times.