#18

I’m on the road today, so this is just a quick post to say that Kitty Rocks the House landed at #18 on the NYT Mass Market bestseller list.  A huge thanks to all of you who are so excited about the series.  I appreciate your support.

upcoming appearances

A couple of things coming up.

Here’s an essay I wrote about vampires.  Crazy, I know!

This Saturday! Tomorrow!  April 6, 1 pm: I’ll be signing at PageOne Books in Albuquerque, NM.  I’m looking forward to hanging out with my New Mexico peeps.

And later in the month:

April 19-21:  Starfest, Denver’s media SF&F convention. Most of my programming will be with the HorrorFest folks, as usual.

April 28 3pm: I’ll be signing at the Broadway Book Mall in Denver.

We’re kind of adding things scattershot throughout the year.  I know I’ve got a number of events lined up for August, and I’ll announce those when the details get hammered out.  Another busy year!

Also, I’d never really seen all the books lined up together.  They all kind of live in boxes and stacks and clumps on my shelves.  So I lined them all up:

That’s…that’s a lotta books.  No wonder I’ve been so busy!

Kitty in the Underworld — July 30

Here it is:

I just wrapped up the copyedits on this one, so it seems like a good time to post the cover.  The art is once again by the excellent Craig White.  What else can I say about it?  Yes, there is a were-lioness in the story.  Which made it extra cool when the editor asked, “Hey, is it okay if we put a lion on the cover this time?”  I said, “Make it a girl lion and it’s all good!”  So, yay!

The release date is July 30.

Now I gotta get the website updated, post the cover everywhere I can, and gear up for the next round.  Excelsior!

appearances

Book day + one!  It’s out, and I can breathe a sigh of relief.  At least until next time.

I’ve got a few appearances lined up.  This afternoon, I’ll be doing an event for teens from 2-4 at the Loveland Public Library.

This weekend is AnomalyCon in Denver.  I’ll be there with bells on.  Maybe literally. (Still getting my outfits together.)

April 6, 1 pm: I’ll be signing at PageOne Books in Albuquerque, NM.

April 19-21:  Starfest, Denver’s media SF&F convention.

April 28 3pm: I’ll be signing at the Broadway Book Mall in Denver.

Full moon tonight!  Get out and do some howling!

tomorrow!

Kitty Rocks the House is due out tomorrow!

And it’s a full moon on Wednesday!  This is auspicious, I think.

What can I tell you about the book without edging into spoiler territory?  Well, for anyone who’s been wanting to see more of Kitty’s pack and the gang back in Denver — this is it.  Here’s a post about some of the local research I did for the book.

Only one more day to wait, and the first reviews and reactions are starting to trickle in.  So far so good!  Tonight is dinner and TV with friends night, and I think I will call it a celebration.

This will be my fifteenth published novel.  It’s still nerve wracking and exciting.

And now I have to get back to work on the next one…

 

11 days til Kitty Rocks the House

It’s just over a week until Kitty Rocks the House is out!  Wooooooohoooooo!  It always seems to take forever, that last week until release day.  While we’re waiting, have some sneak peeks of the playlist:

 

 

 

upcoming events

I have a book coming out in ONE MONTH!  Kitty Rocks the House will arrive very soon, now.  Want a signed book?  Want to know where I’ll be celebrating?  Here you go:

March 27, 2-4 pm: I’m having an event for teens at the Loveland Public Library.

March 29-31:  AnomalyCon!  Readings, panels, and Terry Kroenung talked me into helping demonstrate bartitsu, the art of Victorian self defense.  What could possibly go wrong?

April 6, 1 pm:  I’ll be signing at PageOne Books in Albuquerque, NM.

April 19-21:  Starfest in Denver.  I’ll probably only be there Sat-Sun.

April 28 3pm:  I’ll be signing at the Broadway Book Mall in Denver.

And I think that’s it for the next couple of months.

I’m making slow but steady progress on various projects.  The skirt on the gown is cut out and I’m about to start cartridge pleating.  And the current work in progress, the Cormac novel, is past 19,000 words, which is when things really start feeling novel-like.  Onward!

update on forthcoming books and stories

The year is starting to shape up.  I’m scheduling appearances, signings.  Check on the page for what’s coming up, and for updates.  Many more releases than I expected will be happening this year.  I always forget just how productive I actually am until I line it all up, and so far I’ve got at least two novels and half a dozen stories coming out this year.  WHEW!  Here’s a rundown.

February

Two, count them TWO, Harry and Marlowe stories this month.  “Harry and Marlowe Escape the Mechanical Siege of Paris” tells how the two adventurers met, and will be out on Lightspeed later this month.

“Harry and Marlowe Meet the Founder of the Aetherian Revolution” is out RIGHT NOW! in the Mad Scientists Guide to World Domination.  I know, because I just got my contributor copies!

March

Kitty Rocks the House.  The eleventh novel in the series.  Kitty and Ben are back home, dealing with the aftermath of the London trip — and trouble at home.

May

“Game of Chance” in the anthology Unfettered, edited by Shawn Speakman.

July

“The Art of Homecoming” in Asimov’s Science Fiction.

Kitty in the Underworld.  This is the big news:  the twelfth Kitty novel is available for preorder.  It’s coming fast on the heels of the previous book, making this a two-novel year.  Excellent, no?

Future

Plus, I have a couple of Wild Cards stories in the work, at least three more stories that I don’t have release dates for yet, and Dreams of the Golden Age, which is now totally revised and turned in.

And I’m now full speed ahead working on the next Kitty novel, which is actually a Cormac novel.  I’m trying something a bit new with this one, working up a more formal three-act outline than I usually do.  Trying to solve some of the plotting problems before I start writing, rather than in revision.  We’ll see how that goes!

Bonus content:  here’s an interview with Jim and Jamie Dutcher, authors and producers of the book/documentary The Secret Life of Wolves.  They discuss social behavior and hierarchies in wolf packs.  These relationships are more complicated than most people realize.  “Alpha male” doesn’t mean what most people think it means.  Also, wolf howls!

two months ’til book release day!

The next book is due out March 26.  JUST TWO MORE MONTHS!

I posted the first chapter over on Genreality a while back.  Enjoy!

happy Friday!

Gene Wolfe has been named a SFWA Grandmaster.  Here’s a story I haven’t told often:  right after the first Kitty story ran in Weird Tales, the magazine got a letter asking for another Kitty story — from Gene Wolfe.  I already knew I wanted to write more Kitty stories, but I hesitated, because I wasn’t sure anyone would want to read them.  I didn’t know if the first one was any good or not, or if it was worth my time writing any more about this character.  But if Gene Wolfe wants a story, you write him a story.  So I wrote the next Kitty story.  And the next.  And the novel.  And, well, you know the rest of it.  I was at the World Fantasy Convention the year Kitty and The Midnight Hour came out, and I got to personally thank Gene then for the blurb he gave the novel, and for the much-needed encouragement.

What I’ve been working on for the last two months:

• Finished and turned in the first draft of the After the Golden Age sequel.  The title is no longer Age of Tin, it looks like it’s going to be called Dreams of the Golden Age.
• Started work on a short story that’s due in January.
• Wrote up pitches for two new projects I’ll start work on just as soon as I can.
• Revising Kitty in the Underworld.  This ended up being a big job.  I added a couple of scenes, moved around a couple of scenes, rewrote a couple of scenes.  The changes ripple through the whole manuscript.  I set myself a couple of big challenges with this book, and I want to make sure all you readers get what I’m trying to do with it.  I’ll warn you, this is kind of an odd book.  I hope you like it.
• Miscellaneous.  I’ve been making a lot of notes for the Cormac novel, and future Harry and Marlowe stories.

The plan is to go see The Hobbit this afternoon.  I’ll report back my findings, of course, probably Monday.  Stay tuned.