My podcast interview with Kelley Armstrong!!

I know, I know - two posts in two day - what? Is it the apocalypse?

No no...

I just wanted to let everyone know that a podcast interview I was lucky enough to get with the wonderful Kelley Armstrong talking about her new YA Urban Fantasy, THE SUMMONING, is now up at genre-tastic website Hardcore Nerdity!!

Please come check it out - Kelly was lovely to interview and has some really interesting things to say about this first book in her new series.

It's podcast # 9 (You'll see the link right above a picture of special effects make-up guru, Allan Cooke - whom HCN also features in this episode - showing off a rather nasty head-wound! *grin*)

That happy music? Three beats to the bar?

That's the sound that a third-book deal makes!!

That's right, the lovely people at Harper Collins have seen fit to officially make me the author of a TRILOGY! At least... I will be. Once I'm done writing Books 2 and (hee!) 3...

Doesn't that word just roll the off tongue? Trill-oh-gee...

See? These THREE ladies are so happy, they're dancing to the music!



WHEEE!!! (which, of course, rhymes with THREE!)

(And yes, SmartyPants, I know that it wound up being weeks instead of days between posts. What can I say - I had a helluva time gettin those pages out from under the dang cat!)

The Proof is in the Pudding...

Or, in this case, the proofs are under the puddin-tat.

Those are my Page Proofs for WONDROUS STRANGE.

And, as you can see, those would be chapters 1 - 33 of my Page Proofs that Jack is making a comfy comfy pillow out of...

This pass through the manuscript will be the last bit of input I have on this book before it goes to print and that makes going through every single page with a meticuolous proofreading eye somehow slightly nerve-wracking.

Except of course, for Jack's soft, squishy, ever-purring presence and relaxed attitude, which effectively renders the task somewhat less-arduous.

Until I try to get the pages out from under him, that is. Then... it becomes a pointy, grumpy, uncooperative, fairly-arduous task.

But - hey - look! Lookee there, my eagle-eyed blog-readin' buddies!

You can just make out my heretofore-mentioned SWWOOOOSH!! on the first page of Chapter 34!...

Right. Back at it then. Move over Jack. Er... please?

(And hey! stay tuned!... I shall have much cool news in the days to come! Yes. I said days. Not weeks or months, SmartyPants.)

Victory!!

Or, in the venacular, "Boo-Yah! I win!" Swoosh...

Laura, my editor at Harper Collins, in all her awesome-osity, sent me sample interior pages of WONDROUS STRANGE last week. These are like previews of what the actual pages of the actual book will look like. The margins, fonts, layout, spacing, all appear pretty much how they are going to appear when the thing is done and bound and shiny and flying off shelves into the grasping fingers of my - absolutely no doubt wonderful - soon-to-be readership.

And - can I just say? - the pages are beautiful. The designers at HC took my words and made them pretty. Not just pretty to read, but pretty to look at while reading!

The font is elegant and hip at the same time! Each chapter starts with a large capital letter in the same font as the title on the cover! And then... there is the swoosh! Oh... the swoosh. The swoosh (as I call it - I'm not even sure if there's a technical term) is this cool, arresting yet subtle, graphic on the opening page of each chapter. It. Is. Perfect. The goddess, my editor, tells me she went through several iterations before she said "That's it!!" And it is.

Like nike, the shoe, I now have my very own swoosh!
Like Nike, the ancient greek Goddess of Victory, I win!!

Now, sure... fonts and margins might seem like kind of a... what's the word - oh yeah - dorky thing to get all giggly and excited about. I assure you - it is NOT! Seeing my sample pages for the first time, I really felt rather like some sort of warrior victorious - having just won the Battle of Fontastica, entering the Captial City, held high on the backs of my loyal Garamondiers... oh, okay. It's a little dorky. But - so am I! And I still have the best swoosh ever!!

"My porkchop!"

Hmm. Well, I suppose it's nice to know the neighbourhood rodentia still consider the backyard a five-star eatery, even if they occsionally bring their own take-out. Just as well, I suppose. Would have been a bummer if I'd planted those garlic chives for nuthin'...

See - last year, I wrote about a certain seeming Cajun-cookin'-luvin' denizen of the backyard that was running amok amongst my flower beds, no matter how much cayenne pepper I doused the joint with. The top-soil was angry red with it - to no discernible adverse affect on the varmint.

Well, it seems the wee furball is back this spring. With an increased appetite.

And he's kind of... scary.

See - I just got chased out of my own dang garden by a squirrel. He was halfway up a tree and he started making these... noises at me. Not like - *chitter*chitter* "I'm a cute little squirrely-squirrel" *chitter*chitter*. Nope. He growled at me. Little squirrely-teeth bared and everything. It was disconcerting.

What was more disconcerting was that, in between his little, bared, squirrely-teeth, he was holding what, I swear, was a porkchop. A whole porkchop - almost as big as he was. Maybe he growled at me because he thought I wanted the porkchop - I didn't - but there was no way I was gonna fight him for it. I suspect I would have lost.

Maybe all that cayenne pepper last year somehow mutated the local fauna. Or maybe I should just start laying out table cloths and tiny menus.

*scritch*

Anybody got one of those little extendable salad-forky-back-scratcher thingies? Seriously. I could use one.

Y'see, Wondrous Strange went to page proofs a couple of weeks ago, so the majority of my work on the manuscript is essentially done (for now), and I find myself at an interesting stage of the whole publishing process.

Feeling kinda... itchy. If you know what I mean.

Because, well, the book's pretty much outta my hands, now. Which is fine. But everything else feels all sort of 'fledgling-poised for flight... almost'.

Like:

I now have (eeeee!!) draft cover art for WS (it's SOOOOOOO GORGEOUS). But it's not 100% final yet, so I can't share.

Also? I now have a title for the second book (which I adore). But it's not 100% final yet, so I can't share.

Also? I have now see draft copy for Wondrous Strange for the Canadian version of the Harper Collins Catalogue (it's awesome). But - you guessed it - I can't share that either.

So yeah. Itchy.

Hence this post full of (not) sharing.

*scritch-scritch-scritch*

Hardcore Nerdity!!

It's alive!!!!!!!!!!


Yes it is time for the great unveiling! May I present to you all:

The Ultimate Destination for all your Nerd Needs.

Your mission – should you choose to accept it – is to get with our Nerd Herd as we dig down deep into the world of genre to bring you exclusive insights, interviews, scoops, reviews and rumors, along with some of the coolest behind-the-scenes tidbits and unexpected treasures unearthed from the deepest darkest corners of the SF/F jungle. We cover genre from all angles – from ink on a page to pixels on a screen and all that’s in-between – and we back it up with input from entertainment-industry professionals with seriously authentic geek cred.Check out the Escape Pod, our weekly podcast hosted by Mr. Jonathan Llyr, with Rob Salem and Simon Evans. This week he talks with screenwriter David Hayter who gives us the skinny on the highly anticipated film Watchmen.Don't forget to also visit the awesome bio page, where we fab contributors are displayed in our comic book glory!

Good!

I am feeling all sorts 'legit' these days, let me tell ya!

First of all...

I'm OFFICIALLY a professionally published author!!

April first saw the launch of the DAW anthology Misspelled, edited by the fabulous Julie E. Czerneda, wherein I have a short story called 'Trippingly off the Tongue' - see? Pretty Cover. Ooh. Shiny...

The anthology launched over the weekend at the Ad Astra Literary Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention and I was there and I got to - WHEE! - sign books! Bakka Phoenix bookstore has copies signed by all the contributing authors available now while supplies last! Go! Run! Buy!!

So. That made me feel pretty much like a real writer-girl.

Also - spending the weekend hanging out with all of my writer pals, old and new, like (prepare for all sorts of name-droppy clicky-linky goodness here):

Jim C. Hines - he of the hilarious Goblin Trilogy, book 3 of which also launched at Ad Astra (YAY Jim!) and who blogs about the con here (and who also has a fantastic story in Misspelled).

There was, of course, my good pal and fab writer-girl, herself, Adrienne Kress - who blogged about the con here and here (so I mostly don't have to - heh).

I met Rebecca Moesta, with whom Adrienne and Julie and I shared a panel on Writing for Young Adults. It was very cool and she is a total pro. Lots of good info.

Then there was just a whole lot of general shenanigans and silliness and hanging out with a whole host of awesome spec-fic reader- and writer-folk, including Scott Bakker, Douglas Smith, Caitlin Sweet (who really is my *Star Trek Geek Alert* binar twin), Steve Perry and his wife Pen, Karin Lowachee, Robert J. Sawyer and a whole lot of other folk I'm probably forgetting just at the moment 'cause... er... it was a long weekend and I have yet to fully recover. That's it.

Adrienne and I donned evening gowns and threatened and cajoled folks into bidding on cool stuff at the Sunburst Awards Auction.

My guy, Jonathan Llyr was there with Chris and Nadine, the crew from Angry Robot, interviewing all the cool cats for an upcoming launch of an amazing new venture - Hardcore Nerdity - that you will be hearing a lot about in the very near future (click over to Adrienne's con-rep for more on that!) and I had the pleasure of interviewing the afore-mentioned Doug Smith for them. He's real smart.

More legit writer-stuff? Er... how 'bout...

Finally getting my fully-executed contract sent back to me in the mail by my FANTASTIC agent... and realizing that it just happened to be accompanied by my advance cheque. *blink blink* (at which point, I started to wonder when people will realize that they are actually paying me to have the most fun I've ever had with just my brain - HEE!)

Having to do one last round of edits on a chapter that tied both me and my AWESOME editor in knots (at which point, I start to realize that danged if they aren't gonna make me work to have all that brain-fun - heh!)

Finally getting that chapter right (or so my AWESOME editor tells me...)

Having my AWESOME editor sprinkle tantalizing cover-design hints all around me like pixie-dust...

Finding out that my copy-edits (which I'm on an uber-tight deadline to receive-complete-return) are, in fact, in Halifax.

Realizing that I am, distinctly, NOT in Halifax.

Finally getting my copy-edits (by way of Halifax, apparently) and staring at them for a long moment thinking to myself "I have never seen so many sticky-notes in one place at the same time in all my life"...

Realizing that my copy-editor is, rather like my AWESOME editor, also awesome. And that they're both smarter than me. By - like - a mile. Which is the most reassuring thing I, as a writer, can think of. They have my back.

Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is that all of these things went a long way to reminding me that this - this writing stuff? - this is what I actually do. As a writer, you spend so much time concentrating on getting there that sometimes it takes you a second or two to realize it when you are there. And that, in fact, there are more that one 'there's and that you've likely been there more than once already. It's just that it all passes in a weird blur - much like the landscape through the windshield on a cross-country road-trip. I guess this weekend I got out of the car to stretch my legs. And take a deep breath. And enjoy the scenery.

And you know what? It's real pretty.

Bad.

Naughty. Fiendish. Nefarious. Positively villainous...

In other words - er, word - wicked.

As in "No rest for the ______"

I have been wicked. That is the obvious explanation.

Wicked BAD. Ergo - no rest.

I love my editor. I love her to BITS! Teeny tiny ones. Which is good! Especially for moments like when, say, oh, the DAY after I e-mailed her the final draft of the manuscript for Wondrous Strange and she sends me a note indicating joy and satisfaction with my promptitude and, then, she slips in a sly little "by the way, the design department is wondering... heh... er... say... what's book two about, Lesley? Just because, you know, they're brainstorming both cover concepts at the same time to get a kind of thematic/ stylistic matching thing..."

Normally, the very mention of cover design sends me into warm-fuzziness and daydreams.

Under these circumstances...

I started to giggle. A bit hysterically.

...and then I started writing Book 2.

Good thing my mom had a birthday this year (she only gets one every four - it's a Leap-Year-y thing), 'cause I just got back from Vancouver Island where I had a lovely relaxing mom-birthday visit with trees and flowers and deer and eagles in the sky and NO FRICKIN' SNOW *mutter* and a nice long plane-ride to and fro in which to noodle away on my WS-2 file. I am rested (HA!), rejuvenated (delusional) and ready to dive head-first into the 'continuing adventures of' (someone please fill the pool with water...)

*giggle giggle giggle*

Er... aliens?

Time to fess up.

Time to explain my protracted absences and heretofore shameless lack of post-y goodness.

Aliens!

Okay okay. There were no aliens.

It was the Fairies.

I'm serious! I didn't change my blog header on a whim, ya know. (Actually, I did...)

NEVERTHELESS! (That word looks funny when it's in all-caps. Stop distracting me brain - I'm explaining my strange drawn-out absences. Pff. I'll be over here if anyone needs me. I don't expect so... Quiet, you.)

So. Faeries.

It was a good old fashion Otherworld abduction, I tells ya.

They chained me in a tiny room hidden away from the rest of the world, gave me naught but brackish water and mushrooms for sustenance, set slavering faerie beasts to harrass and torment me, and made me slave over their infernal magical machines, where I wept bitter tears and my fingers bled as, day and night, I turned sawdust and wilted cabbage leaves into delicate golden threads.

Or... you retreated to the study (admittedly not particularily large), a place where there is no internet access (so you could actually - ya know - get something done), John cooked awesome meals and brought them to you so you wouldn't have to haul yer sorry butt downstairs, the cats tried to jump on your lap (which was occasionally annoying - but also pretty darn cute), and you finished drafting and editing your manuscript (sans both tears and blood, it should be noted - although there were a few moments of panicky-idiot mindless jibbering...). Does that sound slightly more familiar?

I hate my brain.

But, dang it all, I made my deadlines.

And the book really is about Faeries, so that part wasn't a complete fabrication.