lauraanne_gilman | Entries tagged with books

You know, if you have a desire for such a thing.

He has been taken. And you are his only chance."

That wasn't something Jan expected to hear-especially from strangers who'd just rescued her from some mysterious and ferocious creatures. And she really hadn't expected her rescuers to be shape-shifters....

Now it turns out her boyfriend, Tyler, hasn't gone missing, he's been stolen-and Jan's the only one who might be able to get him back.

From Elfland.

Yeah, Jan's pretty sure the entire world's gone crazy. Even if the shifters claim that the naturals (like her) and the supernaturals (like them) belong in this world...but the preternaturals, what humans call elves, don't. And the preters have found a portal into our world. A doorway they can use to infiltrate, to take, to conquer.

Jan's not just Ty's only hope - she's got to rescue humanity, as well....

Heart of Briar

July 30, 2013

$7.99 paper/digital

"Do you believe in magic? You will when Gilman's done with you." -- New York Times bestselling author Dana Stabenow

At Amazon

At Barnes & Noble

At Powell's

At Mysterious Galaxy

Via IndieBound

Those of you who are sharp-eyed will have noted the price, and the format. That's right: HEART OF BRIAR is a paperback original.

I know that for a lot of writers, trade or - better yet - hardcover is where it's at. And yeah, the more expensive, more durable format is nice. But I remember being a teenager and going into a bookstore with my allowance -and later, my wee teenaged summer camp counselor paycheck - and trying to buy as many books as I could with the money I had. Paperbacks - the lower price point - allowed me to do that.

As much as I love trade paperbacks and hardcovers, I flinch when I see the prices, and think about the books I wouldn't be able to buy. So yeah, when Harlequin said "we're thinking about publishing this duology in paperback first..." I leapt on it with both hands and some unabashed glee.

I hope y'all feel the same. :-)

6:00: wake up, not willingly.
6:30: feed cats, start coffee.
7:00: Start typing.
8:45: knock off half my to-do list, feel Virtuous.
12:15: nail 2/3 of my to-do list to the wall.
12:30: nap!
1:30: phone call from agent. Some cautious good news, some argh-causing news (to be dealt with off-stage by madame agent), some industry gossip. Hang up phone, stare at schedule, mutter dire things, go make more coffee.
4:30: knock everything except one item (awaiting further info) off my to-do list. Have a cookie.
5:15: doorbell rings. FedEx brings awesomeness. for the days you just can't get up to speed... Thanks, JC!
5:45: start to think about dinner. Keep typing.
6:45: have soup.
7:00: feed cats. Call it a day.

Total new words for the day: 2,010. Some of them may not make the final cut, but they're on the page for now.
Now I am going to go do something that Doesn't Involve Typing. Or being on the phone.

Oh, and for those haven't yet heard, Random House is giving away free e-books!. Go check out a new favorite....

and for the Trek fan who has everything... Smell Like Spock!

Current Mood: tired

Woke this morning to overcast skies. By the time I went out to fetch the bagels, it was snowing, lightly, but with a certain tone to it. Just as there are different types of snow, there are different types of snowfall. This one was saying, calmly and quietly, "I'm not friendly. I'm not playing around. There will be accumulation." We'll see it it backs up its claim. Welcome to March.

Keeping to my new year's goal, I finished two books this month, although not the ones I'd planned to read:

King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard. Yeah, I finally read this. Slowly, because there's only so much of the rather dated POV this meerkat can handle, but when it's not making me want to slap the Great White Hunter upside his khakis for period-appropriate but still annoying bigotry and cultural assumptionism, it's quite entertaining, and occasionally beautifully written.

Thirteenth Child -- Patricia Wrede. A new YA novel from Patricia that I got my hands on in galley form, and promptly lost an entire day's worth of work to, because I had to keep reading. Magical Frontier Americana, following the life of a young girl whose twin brother is the 7th son of a 7th son -- but she is the 13th child of her generation, and therefore as unlucky as he is lucky.

There were a few 'this is not our world' details that annoyed me because they seemed to serve no other purpose that to hammer the point home, but as this is YA and sometimes historical hammering is needed at that age, I didn't mark down too much, because the rest of the worldbuilding was brilliant, and the day after I finished the book I wanted to go back to that world, and find out what was happening. It's out in April, and if this is your cuppa, you'll want a copy for yourself.

(note: if you like this sort of thing, you will also love Kathi Kimbriel's "Alfreda" stories, which are similar but published for the adult audience)

EtA: and bonus Amusing Photo from NYC:

( behind the cut for politeness )

Current Mood: busy

It has been a very long day, and I am too wiped out to do more than skim e-mail, but a wee note caught my eye, and I thought "this is worth blogging about."

Bear with me, first, while I take you on a quick history recap.

The year is 1991. I am a baby Assistant at Ace/Berkley, dutifully skimming the slush pile. And a manuscript catches my eye. SF, Heinleinish adventure with a female protag. It's not brilliant, but I think it's pretty damn good. So I take it to my boss, and make the pitch why I think we should buy it. She reads some of the manuscript, looks at the schedule, looks at the budget, and tells me to go make an offer. Baby Editor's First Phone Call!

The book got solid reviews and meh sales. The second book did pretty much the same. But the author and I got along well, and I knew she had a lot of talent, not to mention stubborn determination.

About this time, the female-featured mystery series was really starting to heat up, and we were told "look for more of this." So when the author mentioned that she had a mystery she'd written sitting on her hard drive (this was after hard drives, but only just) I told her to send it.

She did. We bought it, and two others ("I don't know if I can write two more," she said. "Shut up and take the deal," I said. "We'll worry about that later.")

That book was A COLD DAY FOR MURDER. The author was Dana Stabenow. It won the Edgar for best paperback original mystery, and cemented a damn good author/editor relationship, if I do say so myself. Leaving her to another editor when I went to NAL was one of the hardest parts of the job change. Dana parted ways with Berkley a few years later, and went to St. Martin's, who has published her since then.

And now, with WHISPER TO THE BLOOD, the 16th Kate Shugak book, she is a New York Times* bestseller.

16 books into a series. Two publishers, two agents, and several editors later.

Talent. And a stubborn determination.

*raises glass* Mazel tov, my friend. I may have set you on this path, but you're the one who walked it. Well done. Well done indeed.

Let this be a lesson and an inspiration to all of us who are looking down that road, and wondering if there's anything worth walking to....

*okay, extended list. NYT, baby!

Current Mood: kvelling

I got two offerings for ya, for two very different reading-moods:

First, happy Book-Launch day to Catherynne Valente! Her new novel, Palimpsest, is out today, and it is very much a fascinating book, with praise most authors would die or kill for:

"Gorgeously written and deliriously imaginative, Palimpsest is the book for those who love old maps and grow wistful at the sound of a night train. A modern masterpiece in Valente's unique voice and singular sensibility."—Ekaterina Sedia, author of The Alchemy of Stone

“Catherynne Valente has once again proved her mastery of the fantastic. Full to the brim with beautiful images and gorgeous prose, Palimpsest belongs on the same shelf with Calvino's Invisible Cities and Winterson's The Passion. Valente is writing the smartest, gentlest, deepest work in the field, and she's good enough to do it. I remain in awe.”—Daniel Abraham, author of The Long Price Quartet

Still not decided? Here's a taste, via the story that inspired the book....
----------------
And on the other side of the bookshelf, Anton Strout's Deader Still, the follow up to Dead to Me, is also on-sale this week. Wheee!

"It’s hard to defeat evil on a budget. Just ask Simon Canderous.

It’s been 737 days since the Department of Extraordinary Affairs’ last vampire incursion, but that streak appears to have ended when a boat full of dead lawyers is found in the Hudson River. Using the power of psychometry—the ability to divine the history of an object by touching it—agent Simon Canderous discovers that the booze cruise was crashed by something that sucked all the blood out of the litigators. Now, his workday may never end—until his life does."

And really, all I can do is quote Charlaine Harris: "Following Simon's adventures is like being the pinball in an especially antic game."

Current Mood: awake

Om nom nom. That short rib recipe? The leftovers, when reheated in a skillet with some of the sauce and wrapped in a tortilla, makes for a ymnmy -- and messy -- meal. If I had whiskers I'd be licking them, now.

Achievements of the day:
The cats have been brushed and clipped.
The kitchen is clean.
The last of the laundry is sorted and folded.
I have a new, ergonomic keyboard that is making me much happier.
I have been writing, and improvising yet another application of forensic magic.

I am debating if tonight's Sci-Fi channel offering [a very bad remake of Journey to the Center of the Earth] is worth mocking, or if I should give it a pass...

For anyone curious, the month's results of my sole new year's resolution to do more pleasure reading:

January:
Morning Child & Other Stories by Gardner Dozois
- I've known Gardner for umpteen years now, and while I know he's a smart editor and a good dinner companion, I sometimes forget how amazingly talented a writer of short fiction he is, too. Smart but not offputtingly Lookit-Me-Clever, thoughtful without being precious, and so well-crafted you can see exactly what he's doing but be damned if you can tell how. Not every story is perfect, but they're all damned good. If you read short fiction, or write short fiction, you probably should have this on your shelf.

The Black Tower by Louis Bayard
- historical police procedural, set in 1818 France. The tone is nearly perfect for the period, the details are wonderful, the story fascinating... and yet I found it slow reading, mainly because the POV character was not a good storyteller. Stylistic choice on the part of the author, but I think it as a mistake. Then again, he's a national bestseller with reviews from the NYT Book Review, so what do I know?

I never did finish KOP, despite it being on my bedside table for several months now. I may give it one more try, but....

Have started Peter Robinson's Friend of the Devil, while Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu by Lawernce Bergreen is now on the nightstand. Eclectic r meerkats.

Current Mood: content

Back on the pony officially this morning, a day or two later than the rest of the world (although I did get work done while I was away, so I don't feel too bad). Coffee brewing, to-do list forming, and a second list of people I have to call/call back/await calls from today.

2009 is supposed to be my Year of Planning Seriously. Yeah, because all my plans previous have been frivolous little fluffs of things, I know....

And I discover that AVG is not accepting my renewal code. I think that goes to the top of the to-do list.

Oh, and to finish up my reading-on-vacation list: For a complete change of pace after THE DEVIL YOU KNOW, I read Georgette Heyers' THESE OLD SHADES, which I'd somehow never gotten to before, and then James Lee Burke's story collection JESUS OUT TO SEA. Beautiful writing, but too many of the stories left me meh. That made me sad, as I'd wanted him to kick my ass instead of numbing it. I know I won't maintain this madcap pace of two novels and a story collection every week, but I'm going to try really hard to keep up with my reading-for-pleasure. Because, y'know, pleasure. That's sorta important.

Oh, and for those of you who live in the EU, I am informed that it's time to register with Public Lending Rights for your pinch of the public library funds... http://www.plr.uk.com/registrationservice/forms/einfo.pdf Never turn down money you've earned!

Current Mood: awake

New Mary Russell book! *makes like total fangrrl* The Language of Bees, April 28th.

You know how Rowling fans got when a new Harry Potter book was announced? Yes. That.

*squees and drools and whinges because it's not out until April and I want it NOW.*

Current Mood: dorky

How cold is it outside? 17 degrees at 7:30am. A man standing in Smoker's Purgatory last night was overheard yelling into the skies "At least, damn it, send snow!" It's cold, yeah. With a bitter, bitter wind. I'm staying home today.

in vague order of importance..

1. Three more stories are up at Anthology Builder:
- "Site 14." An alternative look at our future past, if we'd gone 'down' into space, rather than 'up.'
- "Harvey & Fifth." written before 9/11, a story about the ghosts of tragedy, and how we live with them. The title comes from a street corner in Oklahoma City.
- "Blow Job Red." -- Yes, I wrote a hookers-in-space story. But the further out you travel, the more familiar things get....

2. Spent Sunday afternoon visiting a museum I didn't even know existed: the Neue Galerie for German and Austrian Arts. It's small but lovely (and OMG the cafe!) but of especial note is the temporary exhibit of the drawings of Alfred Kubin. The brochures ends with the line "He transforms neurotic terror into aesthetic achievement," and while brochures are mostly marketing hyperbole, in this case it's a fair assessment. If you're in NYC, it's worth an hour out of your day to check it out.

3. And then from high culture to cultured cheese.... "The Librarian 3" was good fun, if not quite cracktastic. But oh my... "Leverage?" May be my new addiction. Cracktastic caper cheese that's oh so very pretty without being plastic (yeah, the plot holes are swiss, but the taste is finestkind stilton).

4. and while we're talking cheese: For Harlequin's 60th anniversary, they've put together a calendar of "vintage covers" with titles like "Love me and Die!" and "I'll Bury my Dead." Pulp noir romance. Gotta love it! (seriously, these covers would have worked for any Mickey Spillane novel, too). And then there's the classic "Island Hospital" (nurse romances, oldie but goody) and "Nine to Five: the private affairs of not-too-private secretaries." It's nice to know, no matter how highbrow any genre tries to get, we all go back to very very pulpy roots...

5. Books Read: A HARD TICKET HOME by David Housewright. wealthy ex-cop do-gooder caught up in missing child case that turns out to have some ugly complications. A decent read (author is an Edgar-winner and has a slew of good reviews) but I kept thinking I was reading a John Sanford wannabe, and when I want John Sandford I read John Sandford. Still, I might get his earlier book, Penance, out of the library. About halfway through KOP, which is also good-but-familiar. But will reserve judgment until the denouement.

Recap of weekend posts:

Thannks to everyone who helped out, Vera's home is safe -- but we're still raising funds to give her a small cushion, and take care of a septic tank problem. If you've participated, thank you. If you haven't, there's still time to get on Santa's 'good' list...

And hey, don't forget my Holiday Book Giveaway. Remember to leave your mailing address!

I managed to keep from working on anything all weekend. I feel kinda ill, now. Need to go pound at the keyboard for a few hours...

Current Mood: cold

oh, almost forgot:
------------------

Because hey, I'm in the middle of wrapping presents anyway...

If you have someone you think would enjoy a copy of either THE NIGHT SERPENT or CURSE THE DARK for the holidays, tell me who/why in comments, and we'll see what we can do to make it happen.... [please remember to leave a mailing address in your comment!]

[offer open until 19 December]

[EtA: ooops, my bad. comments are now screened]

*crossposted to http://cosanostradamus.blogspot.com/*

Current Mood: calm

Have made an offer over on The Cosa Nostradamus on-line that might make your gift-giving a bit easier this season. Or not. Up to you to decide...

Did my bit for the publishing economy yesterday at B&N, including getting a membership card (I've already made back $5 of the $25 fee). Was somewhat dismayed to stand in front of the racks of books and realize that there were very few books I really wanted to buy... not because they weren't good, but because I'm burnt out on all my favorite genres. So I did what I always do in those situations -- I bought in different genres. In this case, hard SF and non-fiction.

If all goes well and chaos doesn't laugh, I'm going to use the last two weeks of the year to curl up and make a dent in my TBR cache. Mmmm. Pleasure-reading.

So, anyone want to suggest something Good that's not any flavor of fantasy? Just keep in mind that 'cozy' or 'cute' mysteries tend to make my teeth itch...

Cats have come out to join me at the desk, and the coffee's ready. Guess that means the day's begun.

Current Mood: tired

Work progresses. With everything else that's going on [oy, don't ask], I'm only 'requiring' 500 words a day. So far I'm averaging about 900. That'll do, especially since a lot of the descriptions are "fill in once I've seen it" and "need to test this against X wine." Yes, really. Weaving some traditional High Fantasy Tropes around quirkier bits, and trying to determine exactly how much is too much detail for people getting et....

Also finding time to do some reading. For reasons that are politic, I only blog about the stuff I enjoyed.

Lynn Flewelling's Shadows Return. (Disclaimer: I'm a fangirl. Worse, I'm a fangirl with direct phone access so I can call her up and bug her about when the next book is coming out. *heee*) After finally acquiring a copy, I sat down just to read a little bit during a break. Ended up losing the entire damn day to finish it. Is it a perfect book? Nope -- you can tell it's been a while for author and readers alike, returning to this world, and there were some bits I thought weren't needed and some bits I would have liked to see more done... but it still sucked me in and reminded me why I love these characters, and feel for them and came to the end of the book thinking "more please, ma'am, now?" (it's a cliffhanger, but a natural cliffhanger, and so long as we do get the next book on schedule I won't cry foul)

John Scalzi's Old Man's War. I now know why it sat on my TBR shelf for so long -- a very good book in a style that I admire more than I enjoy. Heinlein-style space opera without the sexism but with the self-aware stylistic twitches that made me keep thinking "this isn't military, this is Hollywood with accurate technical details." because, really, that level of snark to a superior officer, no matter how brave or useful they may think you are? Will not be rewarded. Also, the main character felt like a bit of a Marty-Stu [brave, strong, smart, loyal, loving, witty, even though he wasn't as handsome as the rest of his cohort, he was still a Damn Good Looking Man with no known flaws, etc etc.] and I wanted to kick him to see if any actual flaws or hang-ups fell out. And yet, I kept reading all the way to the end. Final decision: was satisfied, but in no rush to read the next one.

Still working my way through Decantations by Frank Prial and Tasting Pleasure by Jancis Robinson. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the wine industry, rather than 'just' wine iteself (one of my favorite bits from Decantations: "A typical wine writer was once described as someone with a typewriter who was looking for his name in print, a free lunch, and a way to write off his wine cellar. It's a dated view. Wine writers now use computers.")

And now, off to the post awful, and maybe a walk around the neighborhood to masquerade as actual exercise...

Current Mood: workin'

Had a pretty good, if exhausting lesson today and came out of the ring feeling reasonably competent...and saw Co-Owner of Stable riding Pop Art in the outside ring. As Co-Owner and Pop Art are off the the Olympics next week, you can imagine that said riding was...impressive. Even if you didn't know what Dressage was, you'd know.

It took nothing away from my accomplishments. But lord, did it remind me of how long a road I've to go!

Will be offline for most of the weekend, so will take this opportunity to wish everyone in the US (and our expats) a good and safe Independence Day. Celebrate Appropriately-- Speak Your Mind!
-------------------------
And for those of you with a hankering for Stuff To Read, from

wheatland_press:

From now until Monday July 7 (at midnight Pacific Time), if you buy any two Wheatland Press titles at the regular price, you'll get one copy of any volume of Polyphony free.

Just order as usual using Paypal and in the comment box of the order form for the second title, indicate which volume of Polyphony you would like to receive.

http://www.wheatlandpress.com

I might add, in passing, that while P1-5 are excellent volumes, Polyphony 6 has my story "Fire Rising in the Moon," as well as a bunch of other nifty and cool stories, and I won't be at all offended if you get it for free.... ;-)

Current Mood: OMG tired

Riffing off a thought in comments earlier, I hereby pronounce this Bring a Book to the Infidels Month.

Take a genre book you love (could be mine, that would be very nice, but it's not at all required). Pass it along to someone you know who is not a regular reader of SF/F (or has evinced hesitation to try "that stuff.") Cajole them into trying just a bite, because it's great summer reading/won't hurt/will make you happy/whatever works.

Who knows? They may discover they like it after all, and then you can start borrowing books off of them!

(report back on your attempts, if so inclined....)

Wow. I look away for a bit, and a whole bunch of new peoples appear! Welcome, new peoples! Feel free to step forward and introduce yourself -- this is, ideally, an interactive journal, not just me nattering on to myself (no matter how much it seems, some days).

Thanks to my mother graciously gifting me with her Mother's Day Cold from Hell (thanks, mom!) I was all "oh hai! Haz sick. Cannot brain." So I took the last 48 hours to sleep, drink wonton soup, sleep some more, and catch up with my movie-watching.

( and, on that topic, some thoughts about SciFi's Never Cry Werewolf )

Also managed some reading, while my headache would allow. Some time ago

ellen_datlow gave me a copy of the reissue of Black Thorn, White Rose, one of their Fairy Tale anthologies (originally published in 1994, but don't let that freak you out). Some stories I loved, some I really disliked, and some I just went 'huh' over, but taken as a whole this is a really good sampler of how to take old material and make it -- if not new, then your own.

I'm also reading Set the Seas on Fire by Chris Roberson. It's one of those books I really, really want to enjoy, because I can tell it's well-written and interesting, and should be hitting all my buttons...but just isn't. Sorry, Chris. If you like sea-faring adventure mixed in with some subtle horror, though, you might want to give it a try.

And, although I read it some time before, I just got my copy of Jeri Smith-Ready's Wicked Game. Do not let the somewhat cliched cover fool you -- yes, it's OMG More Angsty Vampires, but this book also made me laugh in sheer readerly joy at parts, and the entire thing pleased even me, the vamp-jaded.

And now, with brain mostly-restored, I have to get back to that Life-and-Deadlines thing. Feline and Equine picspam to come. Don't say you weren't warned!

Current Mood: busy

Mostly these days I'm reading non-fiction of the historical and geologic sort, but I finally finished gods behaving badly, by Marie Pillips. It had been recommended to me, but despite a strong first chapter, I found it difficult slogging for the next 1/4 of the book -- I'm not a fan of comedies based on character awkwardness/humiliation, which is why I mostly don't watch sitcoms -- but I pushed through and in the end found it charming and quite well-written, straddling literary and genre ground without any apparent pretentiousness or apology.

Short version: Greek gods, living in London as their powers fade away, squabble and screw like the cast of Eastenders (and if you get that reference, you'll have no trouble with this book) until two mortals get tangled up in their games, and the world goes to hell... somewhat literally.

Not so much a beach read as a curl-up-in-a-sunbeam read, and highly recommended for commuters, as you can read a chapter at a time without problem.

Current Mood: calm

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The Official Website of Laura Anne Gilman

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Page Summary

Heart of Briar is up for pre-order!
Autopsy of a Day
rabbit rabbit white rabbit and February's Book Report
in which the meerkat is pleased and proud and inspired....
looking for something a little different, a little wild?
That was the day that was...what?
The Work Week Begins, if foreshortened....
SQUEE! FANNISH SQUEE!
'Cold, no snow,' reports various and sundry, with 5 things and a recap
December Giveaway
when a 20 pound cat sits on your chest at 4am -- might as well go to work
Various writes, sundry reads...
ego come, ego go...
June is Bring a Book to the Infidels Month
slowly, it stirs....
a rare book report

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A Meerkat's Bolthole

where personal and professional lives collide

Entries tagged with books

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Heart of Briar is up for pre-order!

Autopsy of a Day

rabbit rabbit white rabbit and February's Book Report

in which the meerkat is pleased and proud and inspired....

looking for something a little different, a little wild?

That was the day that was...what?

The Work Week Begins, if foreshortened....

SQUEE! FANNISH SQUEE!

'Cold, no snow,' reports various and sundry, with 5 things and a recap

December Giveaway

when a 20 pound cat sits on your chest at 4am -- might as well go to work

Various writes, sundry reads...

ego come, ego go...

June is Bring a Book to the Infidels Month

slowly, it stirs....

a rare book report