TRAVERSING Z

Vacui Magia

Catching up

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I’ve been there and back again – to Florida and back, that is, where I celebrated my father’s birthday. While I was gone Leviathan finished its introductory sale and Vacui Magia was featured by Bookbub, all of which made for a week that went by far too fast. The only downside was the last night, when I had my first encounter with the terribly-named noseeum (seriously, can you imagine using such a name in a story) and apparently I’ll have the joy of their lingering nibbles for another week or so. Send aloe vera, please.

Other things that happened this past week or so:

  • Marie Blanchet reviewed Leviathan and I squeed for ages. 😀
  • I was interviewed by the delightful hosts of Dissecting Dragons, for which I was incredibly nervous AND just wanting to listen to Jules and Madeleine chat, their chemistry is so very good. It was also remarkable as it’s the first time I’ve uttered a word about my novel project in public, so yeah, there’s that. Describing WIPs aloud always makes them both smaller and much more real. Eep.
    (The novel project, that is, not the standalone that I’ve been toying with for about a decade or so. Ahem. Because it’s important to clarify which massive unfinished WIP I’m referring to.)
  • “Properties of Obligate Pearls” went live on Podcastle, and wow, I can still feel that one.
  • I will be at Worldcon 76 in San Jose! My books will be for sale at the Broad Universe table, and I’ll be manning it for part of the weekend, so stay tuned for that schedule.
  • Not specifically my writing, but it feels important to tell you all that while I was away I started back down the rabbit hole of Lois McMaster Bujold, so between that re-read, my own projects, and some much-needed freelance work, I’m anticipating a very quiet July ’round these parts.

 

a sale, an interview, a book, a planner

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Right now Vacui Magia is on sale at Kobo for 99 cents. If you’ve been thinking of checking it out, perhaps now is the time?

I was interviewed by the excellent Tim Jeffreys over at Dark Lane Books, about process, short fiction, and that endless struggle to balance paying-work and writing-work.

In other news …

Leviathan is in layout, so ARCs are coming soooooon!

I’ve been trying to finish a line edit on novel #1 so I can finally send it to a few people who were kind enough to show interest. It’s kind of now or never, because starting in mid-May I have a chain of (much needed) freelance projects coming in, and that’s pretty much me done for the summer. I have some shorts to finish and larger things to mull over, but there won’t be any all-day writing or editing sessions for many weeks.

A smaller excitement, but stationery fanatics will understand: I have a new planner coming. I haven’t been this excited over an object in ages. I’ve been using Plum Paper planners for the last couple years; they worked well for organizing but they’re heavy, and I hate the waste of all that coated paper and plastic. So I’m switching to a traveler’s notebook, with an eye towards recycled paper inserts that I can swap in and out, and a vegan leather cover (that’s the parcel currently crawling towards me). Gimme gimme gimme. This will also let me combine a Plot Your Work project planner with a calendar and a journal all in one little book-unit—knock wood, I’ll no longer have to carry two or three notebooks with me. I’ll miss spiral bindings, but that’s the only downside so far. Once or twice a year I feel like I make these little jumps forward in managing myself and my writing; this is one of those jumps. So freakin’ excited!!

World Fantasy and Harkworth Hall

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As I write this, Harkworth Hall is uploading to Kobo, iBooks, B&N, and Gumroad, and I believe the price has already dropped at Amazon. Because that’s right, it’s a sale, to celebrate the fact that I am still getting on a plane for San Antonio tomorrow despite all that 2017 could throw at me. Grab it by Monday!

So yes, I will be at WFC! Look for me at the mass signing on Friday night, where I’ll have copies of Vacui Magia and Harkworth Hall for sale, and again on Sunday morning for a reading/hanging out time at 10:30. There may be pastries. There may be a special guest reader, a dear friend of mine, who will read for a few minutes before me. I will be reading part of “Vacui Magia” and maybe another little something depending on the time. So sweet, sweet, and bittersweet, which feels to me the theme of this weekend: how sweet to be there, to be nominated; how bittersweet the road to this point.