Asphodel #1

My pal Celina Summer's book The Reckoning of Asphodel JUST WENT TO NUMBER ONE on the Fictionwise Fantasy bestseller list.
You can get your copy by clicking here.
Wow!



*psst! Did I mention she is my pal?

"Who Comes for the Mother's Fruit"

Just heard from Jordan Lapp:

"We are pleased to tell you that we have decided to publish your story,
"Who Comes for the Mother's Fruit" in Every Day Fiction."

This Manthycore flash will run on the release date of The Servant of the Manthycore --- I had a lot of fun writing it, and I hope you will enjoy reading it. If you haven't already, slide on over to Every Day Fiction and sign up. It is easy, free, and will reduce your cavities at your next check-up by an average of 22%.

Portrait of the artist as a (very) young man

Ann Scarborough thinks I will sell more books if my picture on the back looks like this :)

Scriptorious Rex

Welcome vistors from Jeff Draper's blog, Scriptorius Rex!
We have a special introductory offer for you! For those who came here from there, all free content on this site is now half price! :)

...and boy are my arms tired.

Back from Vegas. We had lots of fun, attended some pretty good seminars, got to meet Howard Dean, slept too little, ate too much.
The mysterious hum story will have to wait--- Joe Denfar's next case will be in Vegas at a casino that is about to be torn down. It is roughed in my mind pretty clearly, and if there is a place in the world that would make poor Joe twitch at its overdone poor taste, where ever came in second would be a far distant to LV. :)

A "Servant" flash

"Who Comes for the Mother's Fruit" went out today to Every Day Fiction. I promised Jordan Lapp I would send him a story first opportunity. A cool idea presented itself, and I ran with it. Hope he likes it!

Strange moment

There are some experiences that words simply cannot capture. I just had one of those.
A few moments ago, Rachel Marks sent me one of the first preliminary sketches for the interior illustrations for The Servant of the Manthycore.
I wrote the first draft of "Voice of the Spoiler" over 12 years ago. The character has haunted me, in more ways than one, ever since. Now that the book will be out soon, I have more than ever been living with her as a constant, though surly, companion.
Opening that file was seeing her face for the very first time. Rachel was concerned that she get it right-- judging by the butterflies doing gymnastics in my mid-section right now, I'd say she did.
You are really going to like the interiors of this book!

Lester Dent: Pulp Master from Missouri

A little something for my fellow pulp fans!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbBH4WE2wEg

Servant's sword

The good folks at Albion Swords made this quite wonderful bronze sword, which is close to the description in the stories. It is unfinished, but I will be doing some work, hilting and maybe engraving.

Finished

The new novella for the middle of "The Servant of the Manthycore" book is finished--- I typed the last word around 2:30 AM. It finished up at a little less than 14k words, which means the book total will be well over 40k-- short by contemprary novel standards, but novel-length nontheless. The folks who buy this book will certainly get their money's worth, with the interior illustrations by Rachel Marks, the beautiful cover, and an introduction by Sword and Sorcery legend...
No, not yet! There is a BIG surprise attached to this project. By September, when everything is in place, you won't be able to get me to shut up about it, but for now, shhhhhhhh.
In the meantime, I can tell you this. The new story takes place immediately after the events of "Weaving Spiders Come Not Here," which is up right now at The Sword Review, and is part of the new adopted daughter arc. It has mystery, ancient ruins, monsters, a Biblical Patriarch, a Babylonian goddess, murder, betrayal and death--- you know, a love story.

Would you believe...

August must be the book month. I know it is hard to believe, but I am claiming yet another friend with a book. Elizabeth Ann Scarborough was the first guest at our new house a couple of months ago, where I treated her to burnt chicken and overdone burgers. Here is the latest installment of her collaberation with Anne McCaffrey, Acorna's Children, Third Watch. You know you want to buy it. You know you do!

Poltergeist

*UPDATE* Welcome readers who got here by mistake, by clicking on that wonderful image above! While you are here why not visit the latest posts, or even take a chance and check out my book, The Servant of the Manthycore. For reviews and info at Amazon click here!


And my other good friend Kat Richardson (I know, hard to believe I'd have two!) has a new book, too. This is the second in her Harper Blaine Greywalker series, and from early reviews it is even better than the first one.

Check out this book!

My good friend Celina has a great new book, The Reckoning of Asphodel, full of magic and wry observation as only she can concoct. Check it out!

Canfield speaks, you listen

An awesome rant from Mike Canfield about... well about just about everything that is wrong with our genre.

As I say, it's mostly the non-Hero's non-journey of no Plan with a capital Pee for me. I like to read working-stiff fantasy. You can keep your Frodos, your Bilbos: significant Hobbits of Destiny. Give me Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser any day and every day of the week: a couple of guys trying to make a dishonest buck, and hoping to avoid getting turned into turtles by the local Wizard-King. Sure, Fritz Leiber is known only to approximately one one-millionth of Tolkien or Lucas fans: but that is their loss, the loss of the millions, the multitudes loss. Not mine.

Absolutely hilarious

--This is the funniest thing I have seen all week. It runs as a series of .gifs--

Weaving Spiders Come Not Here

The latest "Servant of the Manthycore" story is up right now at The Sword Review. This story starts a story arc that I think you will enjoy, with new characters, challenges great and small, and a new source of hope for the poor immortal swordswoman. Check it out!
Next month The Sword Review will feature "Nothing but Our Tears", and in October the series will wrap up with "The Scarlet Colored Beast".

"Servant" project update

The plan as it stands right now for the "Servant" book is that it will have enough new stuff in it to make it appealing to everyone, including the fans who have read the short stories. To this end there will be one longish new short story that my beta readers have unamimously declared the best so far, and a novella length story that I think is turning out to be even better. "Novella" means at least 17,500 words, which is okay because I am guessing the final count on this story to be 18,000-20,000. I have co-opted the premise and the title from the started-on novel--- "The Tears of Ishtar" are the McGuffin here as well as the title. Bill Snodgrass made a couple of suggestions that really started the juices flowing, and now I am typing just as fast as I can to get it all out.
The word count stands at bedtime tonight at a little over 5700, which puts me nearly a third of the way done, which is the place I am at story-wise as well. If this rate continues the story may be ready for beta readers as soon as the end of next weekend.
I am really having fun with this, by the way. The new direction has really opened the floodgates, and I am writing stuff that seems quite vibrant and alive to me, almost like I was watching an old movie that somehow perfectly captured the end of the bronze age in rich and interesting detail. It is a good feeling!

Book news

Had a very busy and exciting week in discussion with the publisher and the artist for the "Servant" book. Wow, I am stoked!
Beautiful artwork, both for the cover and the commissioned interior illustrations... yes I did say interior illustrations, done by Rachel Marks, who is one of my favorites--- planned at this point as 7 full page charcoal drawings. This will be a book that will be nice to hold, and beautiful to read. Hopefully the readers enjoy the words as much as the package!
No official time-line yet, other than "soon". I have a few thousand works of "filling out" to finish. One thing I can promise is that the book will take the Servant to places the reader may never have expected, and she will meet with even more exciting and terrifying adventures!
For those of you who have been following her saga, The Sword Review has reprinted the first two stories in June and July, and will have three more in the following months. The book will have two more previously unpublished stories of pretty substantial length, bringing the tale together and making it an episodic novel rather than a collection of short stories. There will be lots to love!