And here's the final cover for Demon's Fall. I'm pretty much in awe of Frauke of Croco Designs, the artist. She somehow took the vagueness of my character and story descriptions and rendered it into something beautiful.
Copyright © 2010 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited. Cover Art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited. ® and TM are trademarks owned by Harlequin Enterprises Limited or its affiliated companies, used under license.
I was taken with the concept of Drollerie Press's double anthology Trafficking in Magic/Magicking in Traffic, and it provided the last oomph necessary to finish up "Unsilenced" — a story about the different prices people will pay for power. One is an empress who seeks even more; one is a madwoman who has all of it anyone could dream of.
I can finally announce that it's been accepted! And I'm actually looking forward almost as much to seeing what other stories will be alongside mine.
I got the countersigned contract back from Carina Press for Gutter-wing -- renamed to Demon's Fall -- so it's all official! The executive editor was kind enough to actually call me about the acquisition, which was an exciting first for me. Things moved along at a steady clip from there:
Revisions are already done, and I'm quite happy with them. (I've been lucky with my editors so far, across all three publishers.) It does seem to be a struggle for me to give the heroine's arc proper weight and curvature when I write from the hero's POV. The cover art request is also in, and I'm quite curious how that'll turn out. And while there isn't a firm release date yet, I've got an idea-seed for a connected short story I'd like to post at the same time. Now to find the time to write it while navigating the new job...
Drollerie Press has released my story "Sea Gifts" in an ebook collection with the same title. I'm particularly proud of this one. I wrote the beginning--The sea brought gifts to the isle-witch--then went on to find out that a dragon's skeleton was among those gifts. Korean folktales are rife with mention of the Dragon King who rules the seas, so I borrowed him, and gave him a human shape and a taste for revenge...and human cooking.
It was probably also inspired (in a backbrain sort of way) by Patricia McKillip's Changeling Sea, which also deals with dragons from the sea and unwise sorceries. It's a lush tale with wry moments, short and sweet and a little wistful.
In any case, you can get "Sea Gifts" from Drollerie here.
It's been a crazy week — NaNoWriMo, the Project of Doom at work, apartment maintenance needs suddenly popping up — and yet I've got a grin on my face. My first book is out! Happiness is seeing your cover smack on the homepage of the publisher's website.
At the same time, some writerly part of me has moved on already and it's asking, "What? That old thing?" And this is even with the accelerated electronic publishing schedule, on a scale of months instead of years. Since Summer-set was accepted, I've finished a handful of short stories and another novella, and my brain is thoroughly occupied with what I hope will be a novel by November 30th. Because it's the reader's job to fall in love with the words (or I hope that's what the reader's doing). It's the writer's job to love creating the words, and that means coming up with new stories, always moving, always dreaming of the next tale.
I'm incredibly behind on emails, even to the point where I only just remembered to send out an announcement to my mailing list members. (I sent them an extra treat as an apology.) In the future, I must remember to actually let people know about these exciting occasions — and yes, there will be future releases.
Despite my resolution to get this one in early, I finished up the submission package for "Gutter-wing" just today. It actually came out to be longer than the minimum length, which makes me think I'm getting the hang of this novella thing.
I had fun with this setting, probably because it was so different for me — I don't think I would've tried it at all if the anthology description hadn't sparked a wayward neuron. Thankfully I'm not tempted by any of Samhain's other anthology calls at the moment, so I should be all good to go for NaNoWriMo.
It's up on Samhain's "Coming soon" pages as to be released on November 10, 2009!
I'm excited, but this is a (self-imposed) deadline as much as a day to count down to — I am determined to have another novella done and submitted before the first one's published. If I can write just a little faster, I might be able to manage two releases a year, and it does seem like speed matters in an e-published writer's career.
I somehow managed to be lucky enough to have the wondrously talented Kanaxa create Summer-set's cover:
I'm not a visual person, so it was a struggle to come up with ideas for the cover. What Kanaxa came up with is gorgeous and fits the feel of the story perfectly. I'm thrilled, and I keep peeking looks at it when I should be doing other things.
Just printed out "The Factory of Hearts and Other Moving Parts: A Graveside Romance" in submission format. I adore the speed and convenience of electronic submissions, but this is the way I did things when I first started submitting stories, and it's somehow nostalgic to be using Courier and to be prepping an SASE.
Fingers crossed, as this is a stretch market. But I know to which two markets to send it next if this one doesn't pan out; it's nice to know exactly where to ricochet it next if it should come back, so that I won't have time to dwell on rejection.
Aileen Harkwood keeps a finger on the pulse of the romance ebook world at Kindling Romance — do follow her blog, as she highlights new releases, industry trends, contests, submission calls, and basically all your electronic romance needs. She was kind enough to interview me about my experiences on the road to becoming a published author.
And my feet are all the more firmly set on that road since I signed a contract with Drollerie Press to publish "Sea Gifts"! Romantic fantasy novelettes have few potential markets, but I'm delighted at having found a home for this one at Drollerie. The first paragraph, for a taste:
The sea brought gifts to the isle-witch: coral necklaces, shell flutes, glass roses. Once it brought the bones of some great beast that she fit into a skeleton of sleek body and reptilian head, while a pod of curious dolphins visiting her cove looked on. They left the day Rhis finished, as though to spread the news.
