About Books

  • Blogs, blogs, blogs …

    17 Comments

    I like reading about books just as much as I like writing them. Probably more so, since reading books doesn’t come with pesky things like copy edits or deadlines. LOL.

    Today, I wanted to give a shout-out and say thanks to all the book reviewers and bloggers out there. You guys are so instrumental in getting the word out about so many great books, and I thank you for that.

    Book blogs are like my own personal form of crack. I probably look at about 20 book sites a day, not only so I can keep up with what’s going on but just to find new books and authors to add to my TBR pile. So I thought I’d share some cool book blogs with you guys today. Here goes:

    All About Romance

    Babbling About Books, and More

    Bitten by Books

    Fiction Vixen

    Literary Escapsim

    LovLivLife Reviews

    SciFi Guy

    Smexy Books

    Supernatural Snark

    The Book Smugglers

    I could go on all day. There are literally dozens and dozens of great book blogs out there. This is by no means an exhaustive list — just a place for you to get started if you’re hungry for book news like I am. What about you guys? What are some of your favorite book sites? Share in the comments.

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    First Frost e-short story …

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    Well, I’ve turned in the page proofs so I guess I can announce this now: I’m doing an e-short story for the Mythos Academy series.

    The story is called First Frost and is a prequel to Touch of Frost, the first book in the series that’s coming out on July 26 from Kensington. Basically, First Frost fills in some of the details of how and why Gwen winds up going to Mythos Academy and gives folks a sneak peak at the academy and some of the characters there. It’s sort of like the Spider’s Bargain short story that I wrote for the Elemental Assassin series.

    First Frost is about 40 pages long (around 11,000 words), and I believe the plan is to offer the story as a 99-cent download through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. (Although don’t quote me on that just yet.) I’m told that the story will be released in July. I’m assuming early July since Touch of Frost is out on July 26, but I don’t have a firm release date yet or exactly how this is going to work.

    Now, because my publisher is releasing the story as an e-book, that means that I can’t post it here on my website. I’ll probably be able to post the first page or two as a teaser, but that’s it. We haven’t worked out all the details yet.

    I know some folks will be disappointed that the story isn’t available on my site for free. But I thought letting my publisher offer it as a download would be a really good marketing opportunity and hopefully attract some new readers, not only for the Mythos Academy series but for my Elemental Assassin series as well.

    E-books and short e-reads are really taking off right now, and I think offering the story as a download is a smart thing to do. More people visit Amazon, etc. than look at my website. Maybe having a 99-cent download will convince more folks to surf on over here and try my books. I don’t know, but I figured that it was worth a shot.

    Of course, you don’t have to read First Frost to enjoy Touch of Frost, but if you like bonus material, you might enjoy it.

    I’ll post more details, including the cover, when I get them …

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    Letting go …

    18 Comments

    So I’ve been sending out e-ARCs of Tangled Threads to reviewers/bloggers, and a few folks have e-mailed me back letting me know about typos, small mistakes, etc. I’m really grateful for this, and I’ve been able to make some changes based on these e-mails. Even if it’s too late to make changes to the original version, I still pass along the info to my editor so the second and subsequent printings can be corrected (assuming the books go back to press).

    But no matter who it’s from, whenever I get an e-mail pointing out a typo, etc., I always cringe a little inside because I hate, hate, hate that there are mistakes in my books. Argh! It makes me feel like Charlie Brown running up to kick the football and Lucy pulling it away from him at the last minute.

    Believe me, I’ve tried to cut down on the typos and mistakes. I spend days (sometimes weeks) apiece on each round of rough drafts, revisions, copy edits, and page proofs. I probably read through each one of my books at least 10 times (if not more), editing pen in hand every single time. And still at the end when the book goes into print, there are typos and other mistakes that creep in.

    Argh! I feel like I just hit the dirt again, just like poor ole Charlie Brown.

    I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot since I just finished up the page proofs for Touch of Frost and am currently working on copy edits for Spider’s Revenge. I’ve looked at these pages until I can see them in my sleep, but every time I go back through them, I see something else that I could fix or tweak. Sigh.

    I know that I’ve just got to make peace with the fact that my books are never going to be perfect. There’s always going to be some small typo that I don’t catch or a better word that I could have used somewhere — but letting go is never easy.

    I think maybe the next time Lucy pulls the football away from me, I’ll just lay there on the ground awhile and take a nap. At least then, I’ll be well-rested. LOL. Until I get the next round of edits or page proofs, that is …

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    Gin goes international …

    14 Comments

    Gin Blanco is headed overseas.

    I’m happy to report that the first three Elemental Assassin books — Spider’s Bite, Web of Lies, and Venom — will be published in Russia. Spider’s Bite and Web of Lies will be published in France, and Spider’s Bite will be published in Serbia.

    Pretty cool, huh? 😉

    These are the foreign rights that my publisher has sold so far for the series. Now, I have no idea when the books will be released overseas. I’m assuming it will be the usual 12-18 months after the deal is done before the books are released (like it is in the U.S.). The Russian and French deals were done last year; the Serbian deal just happened this February.

    Someone sent me an e-mail saying that Spider’s Bite would be out in France in April, but I don’t really have any way of confirming that. So if you’re an overseas reader and see my books somewhere, please let me know. I’d love to see what the cover art looks like.

    It always amazes me that people here in the U.S. can read my books. But in the next year or so, folks in other countries can read them too, in addition to the ones who already read the English versions. Can world domination be too far behind? LOL.

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    Best urban fantasy …

    2 Comments

    Elemental Assassins Book #3 - VenomI got a cool e-mail over the weekend. The folks over at The Romance Reviews have nominated Venom as one of the Best Urban Fantasy books of 2010. Huzzah!

    They’re holding a big online voting contest to determine the best books of 2010, so go here to vote for your favorite books in a variety of categories.

    I have absolutely no illusions about winning, especially given all the great books and popular authors in my category (like Nalini Singh), but it’s really cool to be nominated.

    Happy voting, everyone! 😉