Hypnerotomachiapet

I'm over on Tim Marquitz's blog today, going on about "Brutal Light and my Path to Dark Fantasy. Essentially it's my longform answer to the question of what drew me to write dark fantasy fiction in the first place. Stop by and say hi!

Today is publication day for Brutal Light, and I'm going on a virtual book tour! Which is just like a real tour, except I don't have to wear sanitary plastic gloves, or one of those little white breathing mask things. Or pants.

Here's the list of everywhere I'll be over the next ten days. Please re-order your lives accordingly.

The tour has already kicked off! I'm over on Haunting Blue author RJ Sullivan's blog today, nattering on about the story behind how Brutal Light came to be. Do stop by and natter at us!

Oh, and in case I haven't been larding on the self-promotion too thickly of late (I try not to, I really do, but some days...), here are two links that lead directly to where you can buy Brutal Light. One is for the Kindle version, direct from Amazon.com, and the other is for my publisher, Damnation Books, which sells the e-books in .mobi, .pdf, .epub, and .pdb formats. There will be a print (trade paperback) edition, available from Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, and special ordering from bookstores; I'll post when those are available.

'Light Thursday' is coming in 8 days!

Check this page on a daily... no, hourly... basis for the latest info on where Brutal Light is available for sale! In fact, you know what, just keep hitting the refresh button after you get there.

It's been a busy couple of months since I last posted a real update here. Of course, if you've been reading here, you've already seen the cover art for my book, and the trailer for it. But I've also been doing other stuff, such as participating in panels at ConClave 2011 and preparing essays and interview answers for the virtual blog tour that will start in December when Brutal Light is published.

I've also, on my writerly blog, hosted a guest blog with Kathryn Meyer Griffith on her book Egyptian Heart, along with three reviews (of Bernie Mojzes's The Evil Gazebo, Micheal Grin's Princess Nonomi, and Greg R. Fishbone's Galaxy Games: The Challengers), a couple bag-o-links posts (such as this and today's entry), plus a longer entry considering the future of e-books vs. paper books.

(Note: I've been kind of playing it low-key with linking to my writerly blog from here, but I'll be switching to same-day or next-day linking of individual posts from here on in... if ony because it takes forever to do these roundups.)

Outside of writing... I'm still taking things day to day. I've done a bit of present-shopping, done a bit of gaming (including a 1980s Doctor Who roleplaying game played with some friends I just met at ConClave), and have otherwise just tried to stay on top of things. I've started reading books on bugs, both in science and folklore, in anticipation of my next work, and have been outlining and writing new stuff when I can chisel out the time for it. If it seems from this post that the book is occupying a large portion of my conscious mind away from my day job... well, it is, and I expect it to stay that way for the next two-to-three months. It comes with the territory. When it comes time to do it all over again for my next book, I'll hopefully have learned enough from this experience to manage it better, though for a first-timer I think I'm doing okay.

(click on the image for the larger version)

This incredible cover is by Dawné Dominique. I love it!

Also, I now have the schedule for the panels I will be on at Conclave. I posted it on my writerly blog here. Hope to see you there!

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July and August have been strange months for me, choc-a-bloc with writing-and-live-thwarting happenings. Primary among them have been vacations -- a couple weeks at a beachfront house on Lake Huron rented by my in-laws, a weekend getaway to my aunt and uncle's cottage on Torch Lake, plus a day trip to several wineries in southwestern Michigan. Yes, I can just hear your tiny violins playing now. But it did manage to put me off my game for most of the summer, and I'm just now getting on track for my fall plans.

I have managed to do some things, though, most of which are detailed on my writerly blog. I've been working on a book trailer for Brutal Light, messing about with the Joomla template for (and otherwise fussin' around on) my site, as detailed in this blog post and later updated and corrected in this one. I posted some short reviews of recent books I've liked -- James L. Grant's Velan the Reticent, Tim Marquitz's Armageddon Bound, and Naomi Clark's Wild. And I submitted a couple short stories to different markets. So I haven't been completely sloth-like, see.

On the homefront, I've been helping out my wife with the charitable event, Showcase 4 Sudan, an art exhibit/sale at Madonna University with all proceeds going to Bridges for Sudan. If you're an artist and want to donate a piece (painting, sketch, or other created item -- it doesn't have to be related to Sudan) to be displayed/sold, she's accepting them up through September 24th. If you're in the area (Livonia, Michigan) on October 1st, please stop in and see the art, view the showing of Guisma's Story, maybe buy an art piece, or just donate to the cause. (Questions? Send them to her at showcase4sudan (at) earthlink (dot) net, or directly to her on Facebook.)

Back to my plans. Who all is going to Conclave in October? I'll be there (as an attendee, and depositor of fliers promoting the novel)... my real name will be on my badge, so if you see me, make happy welcome noises!

Also, I'm on Google+ now, for those who want to encircle me. (And I have invites, for those of you not on who want on.) And apparently I'm still on Orkut. I'd forgotten that even existed... and I'm going to go back to forgetting, starting... now.

Aside from that... it's just been day-to-day for me. Watchin' movies, spoiling the kitty, keeping up with the exercise, losing some weight, reflecting on how politics these days is increasingly looking and sounding like Tom Waits's 'In the Colosseum'. How's by you?