The Girdle of Melian

ots of upcoming events in October! Jennifer Hendren's By The Pale Moonlight has an awesomesauce book trailer (ask me why I like that word, awesomesauce . I don't know, but the fact that Lord John Grey has been called such on the Writers Forum might be a reason). The Fourth Round of A Round of Words in 80 Days starts on Sunday, and on Wednesday, there will be a party! "For all the participants who just finished Round 3 of ROW80, anyone who plans to post their goals and dive into Round 4, and the amazing people who supported the ROW80 writers throughout the year (y'all REALLY deserve a drink!)." Join the #ROW80 party on your blog or on Twitter . There will be music and jello shots! Wednesday is going to be busy for two other reasons: First, it's the second month of the Insecure Writer's Support Group , hosted by Alex Cavanaugh. "Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your strugg...

. J. Bracegirdle 's last book in The Joy of Spooking series, Sinister Scenes , is out! I haven't read it yet, for I've just finished the second book, Unearthly Asylum . "With Fiendish Deeds , the first book of The Joy of Spooking trilogy, I wanted to kick off a quirky, comedic mystery that packed some serious chills. I loved the idea of a young heroine who revels in how the worn-out relics of the past still echo with secrets and stories—and that's what I found in Joy Wells. To set the stage for her, I took a lot of inspiration from classic literary figures such as Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. ... This trilogy itself however would be set in the modern day ... For that reason I needed a distinctively modern villain, someone both a product and a victim of these times. Someone selfish, greedy, and egotistical in the extreme. ... That character soon developed into Octavio Phipps, a failed musician who now works as assistant to the mayor of a neighboring subu...

ait Nolan's Red is out! Have you read it yet? No? What are you waiting for? Here's a little bit of what the story's about: "Elodie Rose has a secret. Any day, she'll become a wolf and succumb to the violence that's cursed her family for centuries. For seventeen years she's hidden who and what she is. But now someone knows the truth and is determined to exterminate her family line. Living on borrowed time in the midst of this dangerous game of hide and seek, the last thing Elodie needs to do is fall in love. But Sawyer is determined to protect her, and the brooding, angry boy is more than what he seems. Can they outsmart a madman? And if they survive, will they find a way to beat the curse for good?" You know what? I think Kait 's the first modern (published only in the 21st Century) author, and first indie-published author, whose books I pick up as soon as they're released. As someone who normally reads novels and poems by authors lon...

leased to present Alberta, who's on a book tour to promote the Sefuty Chronicles , an intriguing mix of fantasy and romance. She's currently posting the first chapter of Ellen's Tale in installments on her blog - go check it out! Alberta's wonderful at making a dystopian world seem real (when was the last time you really thought about what 'real' food tastes and feels like? Or how affected you are by the size of the space around you?), and you can feel the romantic tension between Bix and Ellen from the start. Welcome, Alberta! Hallo Deniz. After so many comments on various challenges we finally meet. Thank you for having me on your site and, as promised, Ill tell you a little of how the Sefuty Chronicles evolved. You're in the process yourself and may tut or grin at my haphazard start to being an author. I have commented before how it began as a homework practice piece for a short story. I struggled with the format in class. Usually I could produc...

eading author = happy author. Author reading good books = happy and relaxed author, which is infinitely helpful for both my creativity and willpower (when it comes to Butt in Chair editing. More on that at the end of this post). I've been very lucky with all the reading I've done since returning from vacation – not a single book has disappointed. First there was Talli Roland's Watching Willow Watts (so sweet and funny!), then there was Joanna Bourne's The Black Hawk (romance! mystery! brilliant writing!) and now I'm in the middle of Kait Nolan 's Red , which I'll review next week (but don't wait for me - go get it and read it now!). I've just finished Susan Bischoff 's Heroes 'Til Curfew , the second book in the Talent Chronicles, and I must talk about it. "All Joss wants is to be left alone -- with Dylan. But as more Talents are imprisoned by the government, everyone's looking for a leader. Some look to Joss, some to Ma...

drian's coming! For those of you who've read The Spymaster's Lady , and watched Annique and Grey deal with a wounded Adrian, Joanna Bourne 's latest book explains the backstory - and then some. The Black Hawk is Adrian and Justine's tale and is coming out 1 November. "When veteran spy, Justine DeCabrillac, is attacked on a rainy London street, she knows only one man can save her: Adrian Hawkhurst, her oldest friend... her oldest enemy. London's crawling with hidden assassins and someone is out to frame Hawker for her murder. The two spies must work together to find out who wants to destroy them." Here's an excerpt from the beginning of The Black Hawk . And here's an excerpt from somewhat later: ""My lover is an Englishman. This cannot continue." Her bed was so full of Hawker. His body disconcerted her, always, with its fierce energies concentrated inside his skin. He lay on his back, half naked, his head turned towar...

hat do you think the future of publishing involves? Lots more e-books? The demise of further booksellers? Apparently, there's an expo focused on this very question, the FutureBook Expo , and they're looking for respondents for a survey. I decided that I found it too hard to predict - I don't want to see traditional books fade away any time soon, and am all for secondhand book shops with resident cats. Neither do I want eBooks to be a mere fad; I think they're opening up wonderful opportunities for authors. Who knows what we'll see 10, 15, 20 years from now? Thank you to Susan for the Versatile Blogger award! And thanks to Trisha for tagging me in a meme! Based on which I looked up meme in the OED: "meme, n. Pronunciation: Brit. /miːm/ , U.S. /mim/ Etymology: Shortened < mimeme(see quot. 19761) < ancient Greek μίμημαthat which is imitated ( < μιμεῖσθαιto imitate: see mimesis n.), after gene n.2... Biol. A cultural element or behavioural trai...

It's release day for Talli Roland 's Watching Willow Watts ! Talli's hosting an online 'If I Could Be Anyone, I'd Be...' party! "Come dressed as that one person you've always admired, longed to impersonate, or just plain envied. Now is your chance to make your superhero, film-star, or Rock God fantasies comes true (okay, maybe not all your fantasies...). If you have a blog and you'd like to take part, all you need to do is post a photo of your chosen one (dead or alive) along with an explanation why you've picked that person." Here's my dilemma. I don't really want to impersonate or be anyone else. I'd love to dress up in all kinds of period costumes, like a gown from Renaissance Italy or some sort of elaborate Restoration England affair. But I couldn't even put on a toga properly at Colchester Castle a couple of weeks ago: I'll hide behind my character, Rosa, from Out of the Water . Just came across this phot...

uery. No, don't run screaming for the hills - not you, me. Query letter time is fast approaching. I've still got to enter all the changes I've been scribbling all over the MS (and if you think your editing life is frantic, check out Diana Gabaldon's current schedule ), and I've got reams of advice, including some from Joanna Bourne , to plough through and distil, and then I've got to polish the letter. Then it's agent selection and query time. The September Literary Resolution comes at just the right month: "Submit. Submit to your dream of being a writer. Submit your work to a contest, a local newspaper, a literary journal." Here're the paragraphs I've got so far: Exiled from her Spanish homeland by the Inquisition and separated from her family as they flee their home, 18 year old Rosa must place her life in the hands of a stranger from the Ottoman Empire. Baha, estranged from his own father and returning to his homeland after t...

irst Challenge of the Third Writers' Platform Building Campaign is here! Right off, here's my entry, tweaked from my novel Out of the Water : The door swung open. Her hands shook, though she could not tell if it was anticipation or apprehension. There was a narrow atrium, and beyond that another doorway. She advanced a step, and a shadow filled the arch. A tall shadow with broad shoulders. Her heart tripped faster, and she knew it was anticipation. "Peri?" A whisper in the dark. She barrelled forward as he strode towards her and they crashed together in the centre of the atrium, his arms wrapping tightly about her. He did not stop, but circled around with her in his arms, nudging her through the archway, repeating her name over and over, until her knees buckled against the side of a divan and he fell on top of her across the cushions. There was a hunger in his expression she had not seen before, his dark eyes burning with need, the future in their de...

o I was on vacation. Three weeks, in which I logged on to the internet for maybe half an hour every three days, just to watch my lovely, pre-scheduled blog posts go up. Oh, how lazy I was. The only bit of work I did was editing Out of the Water . And wow, did that thing need editing. It's the first time since I finished drafts 1 through 4 (or whatever number I might be at by now) that I'd read the whole thing straight through. Not that I'm done, by any means. Working during a vacation - especially when there's sunshine and sand and sea involved - does not come easily. Drinks by the water? I'm there! I've got roughly 50 pages left to go, and then comes Part Two: Entering the Scribbles. A lot of it, thankfully, is pure deletion. Yay for a descending word count! All that being said, please, everyone, while you're keeping your Butt in Chair, heed Claire LeGrand's advice: Remember to Shower . Huge congratulations and confetti rains go to Kristen C...

Yes, that's right, it's a photo blog today! What about your ROW80 goals, I hear you ask. What about your August goals on the Forum ? Hmm, yes. I was supposed to edit the novel while I was on vacation, wasn't I? Editing, yes, yes... [insert wise authorly chin stroking] Out of 276 manuscript pages of Out of the Water , I have a little less than 100 left to fix/slash/change. Better than nothing, no? Editing on the plane is a lot harder than I thought (planes make author sleepy. Hey look, free drinks!). Forget that, let's move on to the photos! And thank you to everyone who commented on my blog posts while I was away; I promise to come around and visit all of you! Where Rosa lands at Scala Nuova... Sunset as they leave... Trying to capture an authentic photo without any anachronistic cruise ships in the shot... The Galata/Genoese Tower. Rosa lives in this neighbourhood. Brother Arcturus' church in the Galata neighbourhood. This really is a 15th cent...

rom Entangled Publishing comes a new sci fi romance by Aubrie Dionne ! Aubrie's been holding a virtual blog tour all month to celebrate her new release. Aries has lived her entire life aboard mankind's last hope, the New Dawn, a spaceship traveling toward a planet where humanity can begin anew — a planet that won't be reached in Aries' lifetime. As one of the last genetically desirable women in the universe, she must marry her designated genetic match and produce the next generation for this centuries-long voyage. But Aries has other plans. When her desperate escape from the New Dawn strands her on a desert planet, Aries discovers the rumors about pirates — humans who escaped Earth before its demise — are true. Handsome, genetically imperfect Striker possesses the freedom Aries envies, and the two connect on a level she never thought possible. But pursued by her match from above and hunted by the planet's native inhabitants, Aries quickly learns her freedom wi...