About Books

  • Titles, titles everywhere …

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    For the past several days, my editor, agent, and I have been working to come up with a title for Elemental Assassin #4. We’ve tossed around dozens of titles at this point and are still trying to find that magic title that really captures what the book is about and sounds cool at the same time.

    I originally suggested The Silken Noose for the title. Some of the other ones we’ve considered have been Black Widow, Widow’s Web, By a Thread, Tainted Threads, Tangled Web, and Death Weaver.

    There are lots of things to take into consideration when coming up with a title. In the case of the Elemental Assassin books, we’re trying to use a spider-related word in all of the titles, as well as words with an I or O in them, so we can continue to use the spider rune on the cover of the book.

    The title also needs to at least hint a little bit as to what the plot is about (in this case, an assassin coming to Ashland to kill Gin). The title should be catchy, and the publisher’s marketing folks should like it as well (since they’re the ones who will promote the book to various sellers). And, of course, you don’t want your book to have the same title as another book that was recently released or will be released soon. That’s confusing for everyone involved.

    All of which means that we’re having a tough time this go around settling on a title. There’s an old saying about how laws are like sausages, and that it’s better not to see them being made. I think we should add book titles to that list too. Sigh.

    But we need to decide on something soon, so the book can go into production. I’ll keep you posted as to what we come up with …

  • Why does epic fantasy have to be so epic …

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    I love epic fantasy books. Battles, magic, nasty villains, noble heroes. One of the best summers of my life was when I discovered this genre and devoured books by the likes of David Eddings, Terry Brooks, and Robert Jordan. Reading these adventures made me want to write my own epic fantasy books.

    But lately, I’ve been wondering something — why do epic fantasy books have to be so, well, epic?

    Seriously, have you seen The Gathering Storm, the latest book in the Wheel of Time series by the late Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson? It’s 784 pages long and 2.6 inches thick, according to Amazon. You’d have to start lifting weights just to have the arm and wrist strength to hold that sucker in your lap for any length of time. And I don’t even want to imagine how many clicks or scrolls that it would take to get through an e-book version of it. Thousands, probably.

    I used to love the Wheel of Times series. I read the first several books during the course of that magical summer that I mentioned above and eagerly awaited the next installments. But as the years progressed, I started to like the books less and less. Why? Because they were so epic — not in the story that they told but in the hundreds and hundreds of pages that it took to get from the beginning to the end of each book. Everything was described in vivid detail in each book, but I began to feel like not much was actually happening, as far as the action and story arcs went.

    Maybe it’s me, but as I’ve gotten older, I just don’t have the patience or the desire anymore to read pages and pages of world building that do absolutely nothing to move the story along. And I’m not just talking about Robert Jordan here. Lots of fantasy authors are guilty of this, although it seems to happen more in epic fantasy books than in say, urban or young adult fantasy.

    Why? I think it’s because world building is such a big part of what epic fantasy is all about. Readers of the genre expect to be transported to another world full of magic, swords, sorcery, creatures, court intrigue, mythology, demons, or whatever populates an author’s world. It takes time and space to build an intricate world, explain the rules, and fully immerse the reader in the wonder and adventure of it all.

    But when did folks get so long-winded about it?

    Sure, you may have a cast of thousands in your epic fantasy book a la Robert Jordan, but do you really have to tell me every single thing about their appearance, clothes, customs, religion, money, and politics? With no dialogue or action to break up the descriptions? There’s a fine line between world building and info dumps. Sadly, for me, that’s what a lot of epic fantasies have turned into.

    This is why I like books by the likes of Alex Bledsoe, Lisa Shearin, and Scott Lynch so much. Each one of these authors offers the epic fantasy reading experience, but without going overboard on their world building. And they’re doing some different things in the genre too. Bledsoe combines fantasy with a world-weary, film noir-type detective. Shearin is writing female-focused epic fantasy. Lynch incorporates elaborate heists into his books.

    They all help me remember why I fell in love with epic fantasy books in the first place, and I hope to find more authors to read like them, folks who can tell a good story and not get bogged down in the details.

    What about you guys? Are you still digging epic fantasy? Why or why not? What are some of your favorite books in the genre? Share in the comments.

  • E-ARCs and bookmarks policies …

    I’ve posted this on the Extras page, but I thought I would mention it here on the blog as well. I currently have electronic advanced reading copies (e-ARCs) available for both Spider’s Bite and Web of Lies (coming out on May 25)

    The e-ARCs are for librarians, booksellers, and book reviewers for review purposes only. I do ask that folks who request an e-ARC actually review the book in a timely manner — around the release date in other words — as well as send me a link to the book review when it gets posted online. You don’t have to like my books, but I do like to check and make sure that they actually get read/reviewed — that’s the whole point of having e-ARCs in the first place, whether the reviews are good, bad, or indifferent.

    Interested in an e-ARC? Send me an e-mail and include the name of your library/bookstore/review site, as well as which e-ARC that you want.

    Note: Please don’t e-mail me if you don’t have a review site and are just trying to get and read the books for free. If folks start trying to scam me, then I’ll have to rethink my policy.

    Also, I offer free bookmarks to readers. I currently have bookmarks available for Spider’s Bite and Web of Lies and will be getting some made for Venom when the cover art is finalized. These are available to anyone who wants some — librarians, booksellers, book reviewers, readers, and other groups.

    However, I do ask that folks send me a self-addressed stamped envelope to help me cover postage costs. Also, I’ve gotten several requests from overseas readers about getting bookmarks. Overseas postage can be expensive, so I also ask those folks to send me a SASE or international postage coupons to help me out with the cost of mailing the bookmarks back to them.

    Got questions? Ask away in the comments.

  • ·

    Finished … for now …

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    So I finally finished Elemental Assassin #5 and shipped it off to my agent to read. Huzzah! There’s nothing quite so satisfying as finally turning in a complete manuscript.

    Also, a quick update: Some folks have asked, but I don’t have titles for Elemental Assassin #4 or #5 yet or release dates, although I imagine both books will come out in 2011. That’s what I’m hoping for anyway.

    Another quick update: I’ve written two free short stories to go along with Web of Lies, coming out on May 25. I’m going to try to get those posted to the Web site soon. I’ll put up a note here on the blog when they go up.

    That’s it for now. Enjoy your weekend!

  • Buying books everywhere else …

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    I’ve talked about Walmart and Amazon. Now, it’s time to look at all the other places that I buy books — namely Books-A-Million, Barnes & Noble, and eHarlequin.

    My book buying at BAM and B&N is pretty much the same. These are the places where I buy the mass market paperbacks that I’m interested in, mainly because I have a 10 percent discount card at BAM and get e-mail coupons for the same amount from B&N. So whatever store I’m in that day gets my business.

    As you’ve probably guessed by now, I like coupons and discounts and deals. My mama taught me never to settle for buying something at full price unless you absolutely have to.

    That’s one of the reasons that I love eHarlequin so much. The site has some really great deals practically every week –things like free shipping, buy two books, get one free, etc. If you read romance, you should definitely check out eHarlequin. Most of the time, I can get three paperbacks there for around $16-$17, which I think is a pretty awesome bargain.

    And I’ll admit it — I also buy books at my local used bookstore. Every two months or so, I’ll sack up all the books that I’ve read, trade them in for store credit, and come home with half a dozen new books to read. Yeah, I know that authors don’t get royalties on sales from used bookstores, but if I read something, I feature it here on the blog, so I figure that it all evens out in the end.

    What about you guys? Where do you like to buy books and why? Share in the comments.