About Books

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    Sold, baby!

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    You know that major good news I teased you guys about earlier this week? Well, I’ve finally gotten the greenlight to announce that … drumroll please … the Assassin series has sold! Huzzah! 😎

    My wonderful agent has brokered a three-book deal with Pocket (which is part of Simon & Schuster). The first book is tentatively titled Gin on the Rocks and will (hopefully) come out in fall 2009. The books will debut in trade paperback, then get re-released in mass market.

    At this point, a lot of stuff is still up in the air. I’m not sure if we’re calling it the Elemental Assassin series, the Gin Blanco series, or just the Assassin series. The title might change too, and I’ll let you guys know when I get a specific release date.

    The books will be a little different from my Bigtime series. The Assassin books are urban fantasy, instead of paranormal romance, and follow one character. Since the books are UF, they are quite a bit darker and grittier than the Bigtime books. Lots of people die in some fairly gruesome ways, and the language is much harsher. But at their heart, the Assassin books are still fun, sexy, action-packed fantasies.

    The main character/narrator is Gin Blanco, who runs a barbecue restaurant by day and assassinates people by night. Gin is an elemental who has the magical ability to create, control, and manipulate ice and stone (the other two elements are fire and air). There are also vampires and giants and dwarves galore, and the book is set in the fictional southern metropolis of Ashland.

    Anyway, much more to come. Right now, it’s happy dance time! :ww:

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    Some final thoughts on RAW …

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    I should add that I had every intention of taking some pictures at RAW … until I realized about 50 miles up the interstate that I’d left my camera at home. Dumb, Jen, really dumb. :rolleyes:

    So, unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures to share. Maybe next year.

    I think the thing I like most about conferences is just meeting so many other people who love books. Everywhere you go, from standing in line at the buffet to riding up in the elevator, you can strike up a conversation with someone about who they’re reading, who they want to meet, who their favorite author is … it’s just awesome.

    The bad thing about conferences is that I’m terribly with names. Seriously. Terribly. I remember people’s faces, but not their names. I also have a weird tendency to remember conversations about books and who people like to read. You’d think that would help me remember names … but not so much. So if we’ve met at a conference before and run into each other again, please remind me where we met and what kind of books we talked about. Then, perhaps the lightbulb will turn on.

    Also, it can be disconcerting to have people stare at your chest to get a glimpse of your nametag. But you get used to it after a while.

    Of course, there were more things I wished I’d been able to do at RAW. Talk to more of the authors, meet more readers, talk more about books. This is true of any conference I go to. But hey — a gal needs her beauty sleep.

    So this is my wrap-up of RAW. Overall, a great conference for readers and authors. A big thumbs up. 😎

    What about you guys? What are some of your favorite book conferences or fantasy cons? Share in the comments.

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    More on RAW …

    5 Comments

    So I thought I’d share a little more about the RAW event. I’d never been to Huntington before, and I thought it was a cool college town. There’s lots of Marshall green everywhere.

    After checking into the hotel, Wheezly and I walked around for a bit and got something to eat. The hotel is on the main downtown street, and there were lots of shops and restaurants within walking distance (i.e., right across the street), which was really convenient. Seriously, I thought the location could not have been better.

    After that, I went down to the ballroom for that night’s dinner/mixer. Over the weekend, I talked to some folks I knew like Tina, a bookseller who now works for Sherrilyn Kenyon, Krista, a reader that I met at another event last year, and lots of other people I’ve seen at various events. I also met a lot of new people, including some folks who’d driven down from Toronto for the event.

    Among the authors I got to talk to was Nalini Singh, who flew in from New Zealand and has a gorgeous accent. If you like a healthy dose of sci-fi in your romance, you should check out Nalini’s Psy-Changeling series. She’s also writing a new urban fantasy series and had some excerpt booklets at RAW. I picked up one of those and am looking forward to reading that. And that was about it for Friday night.

    Saturday, of course, was the big booksigning. It was crazy, but in a good way. I don’t know how many books were sold at RAW, but I’m willing to bet it was up in the hundreds. J.R. Ward was there for the Saturday signing, and her line was looong. (I wanted to meet her, but it just didn’t happen). So were the lines for Lora Leigh and Jacquelyn Frank. Eventually, the three lines intersected in the middle of the room, forming a mass of readers.

    Of course, my line was not nearly as long, but traffic was pretty steady. Lots of folks had me sign trade copies of Karma Girl and Hot Mama, and lots of other folks told me they were looking forward to trying the Bigtime books. So it was all good. 😎

    Things finally started slowing down around 2:30/3 p.m., so I was able to go around and talk to some of the other authors, like Shirley Damsgaard, a very funny lady I met at an event last year. Shirley writes the Ophelia and Abby mysteries. I was also sitting next to Delilah Devlin, who writes westerns. I love me some westerns, and I’m definitely going to have to check out her books.

    After the Saturday booksigning, there was a masquerade party/dinner. More food, more drinks, more conversation, more fun. Sunday was a bit quiet. Lots of folks left Sunday morning. I stuck around for part of the booksigning that afternoon and signed some more Bigtime books, including one for a lady who works with my aunt and was up in the area visiting friends/family. So that was nice that she came to the signing to get the latest Bigtime book. 

    And that was a wrap for RAW. Overall, a very fun event with lots of folks who just love books and reading. I definitely plan to go back. :ww: