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Born out of a random Twitter quip from earlier this afternoon…

Post-Release Nap Time

Yesterday was exciting, overwhelming, draining, marvelous, exhausting, and gratifying. Thank you so much to everyone for your support, support that came across in so many ways. There were several times yesterday I actually got choked up reading some of the things people were saying and doing.

Like Mindy Klasky‘s comment that, “The final chapter of CODEX (no, I’m not going to spoil it for you) actually left me with a real, physical chill.” Or everyone who came out to Schuler Books last night for the launch. Or friends who loaned me their blog platforms to talk about the book.

I’m happy and a little dazed today, but there are some things I needed to share.

BOOK GIVEAWAYS:

Two wonderful friends are hosting contests to win an autographed, personalized copy of Codex Born [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy].

  1. Seanan McGuire – Leave a comment naming the first book that changed your life, and you’re entered to win.
  2. Elizabeth Bear – Create a humorous book macro about either my books or hers. (I really want to see what people come up with for this one!)

KINDLE AVAILABILITY:

Some people noted that the e-books weren’t available outside the U.S. Unfortunately, this is not something I have control over. It’s a territorial issue, meaning the e-books are only available to U.S. mailing addresses.

The U.K. edition of Libriomancer will be coming out in two weeks, so that e-book should be available then.

As much as I’d love for everyone, everywhere to be able to give me money buy the books, I’m afraid this one is out of my hands.

That said, the U.S. e-book of Libriomancer has dropped to $7.99 to match the mass market paperback price.

VIDEO SILLINESS:

Over on Facebook, DAW has posted two videos I did when I was in New  York earlier this year.

  • Video One: In which I chat about Codex Born.
  • Video Two: Talking about cover poses.
  • Video Three: I don’t know, but I’m told it will be very silly, and may include random comments about Anton Strout. This one will be posted once Video Two gets 200 likes on Facebook.
  • Romantic Times also did a video interview with me at BEA, which was a lot of fun.

I’m sure there’s more I should be mentioning, but this is all my brain had room for.

And don’t worry. As I get through this week, the blog will shift back to its normal routine of randomly yelling at clouds.

Codex Born is Out Today

Today marks the official release date for Codex Born and the mass market paperback of Libriomancer!

Codex is my ninth fantasy novel with DAW, so being an experienced, even jaded author, I am naturally not going to be spending the entire day freaking out and checking Amazon rankings and bouncing uncontrollably and flailing about like a muppet in a paint-mixing machine. (And if you believe that…)

My thanks to everyone who read and reviewed the first book, who pre-ordered this one, who offered support and encouragement, spread the word about the books, and just generally made my world a better place.

I’ve got two events scheduled for this week if you’re interested.

  • Tonight (August 6), I’m at Schuler Books in Eastwood from 7 – 8:30.
  • Saturday (August 10), I’ll be at Kazoo Books (Parkview Location) in Kalamazoo starting at 2 p.m.

BLURB OF AWESOMENESS: You know, a number of people have gotten blurbs from bestselling author and former SFWA president John Scalzi. But how many authors can boast something like THIS?

“This is the perfect follow up to Libriomancer. It has more magic, more action and more backstory.  And I love love love the Lena diaries!!!”

-Kristine Scalzi

VIDEO JIM: When I was in New York earlier this year, we filmed a promotional video at the Penguin/DAW offices. They’ve posted the first video over on the DAW Books Facebook page, along with a note that if it gets 100 likes, they’ll move on to videos 2 and 3, which get a bit … sillier.

LINKS TO STUFF:

  • The Big Idea – A guest post at John Scalzi’s place, talking about the character of Lena Greenwood.
  • My Favorite Bit – In which Mary Robinette Kowal lets me share a bit more about Lena, including one of my favorite pieces from Lena’s backstory snippets.
  • Tell Me – A guest post at Jennifer Brozek’s blog, talking about Isaac’s love of books and magic.
  • Literary Escapism has an exclusive excerpt from the book, showcasing one of the odder fight scenes 🙂

BUY STUFF (If you’re so inclined…)

Libriomancer

Codex Born

OTHER STUFF:

Carrie S. at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has a lovely new review of Codex Born.

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Stay tuned for more, including a few book giveaways!

#SFWApro

Other August Books

In an effort to stop obsessing over my own book coming out tomorrow, I wanted to point out a few of the other books showing up in August. (I’ll add sales links for Kane and Klasky when they become available tomorrow.)

Wrong Ways Down [Amazon], by Stacia Kane. (August 6) For fans of Kane’s Downside series, I’ll just mention that this story is from Terrible’s point of view, which is something I suspect many of you will appreciate.

Dragonwriter: A Tribute to Anne McCaffrey and Pern [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy], edited by Todd McCaffrey. (August 6) A collection of memories, essays, and insights about the creator of Pern.

Possession [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy], by Kat Richardson. (August 6) Tor.com has an excerpt from Richardson’s latest Greywalker book here.

Single Witch’s Survival Guide, by Mindy Klasky. (August 13) This is the first volume of Klasky’s Jane Madison Academy series, where her librarian-witch opens a school for witches. Go Team Librarian! The first chapter is posted here.

Velveteen vs. The Multiverse, by Seanan McGuire. (Mid-August) I wrote the introduction for McGuire’s first delightful Velveteen collection, and I’m very excited to see the second coming out! Preorder from ISFiC Press here.

What are you looking forward to reading this month?

 

A Peek at Draft One of Codex Born

Three days until Codex Born [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy]. I thought today I’d share the first page or two of the very first draft of the book from January of 2012. There are no spoilers here, because things changed an awful lot between this and the final version. I’ve got nine different drafts of this sucker, though not all of them are complete and some required more major revisions than others.

Originally, I intended to tell this story from Lena’s point of view. To my tremendous frustration, it wasn’t working. There are elements of these opening pages I really like, and Lena absolutely deserves her own books, but as I progressed, it simply didn’t feel right. The tone, the voice … so eventually I flipped back to Isaac’s PoV, but inserted snippets of flashback and backstory from Lena’s at the start of each chapter.

Also, my first drafts tend to be very rough indeed, so please be gentle.

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Pics from the Land of the Libriomancer

With five days left until Codex Born [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] comes out, this is the time when I’m supposed to be doing frantic self-promotion. The trick is to do it without looking like I’m self-promoting. Which is harder than it sounds. So I asked for advice on Twitter.

Kate K. F. suggested pictures of Michigan looking pretty, which sounded like a good way to go. Especially if those pictures tied into the Magic ex Libris series, which is primarily set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula 🙂  (Spoiler: Not all of the pics connect to the series…)

Larger versions of the pics are posted on Flickr, for anyone who’s interested.

Luna Moth. Because they’re cool-looking, and they hang out up north. Also, I believe there’s a reference to Smudge the fire-spider trying to eat one at some point. (If that reference isn’t in the books, it’s only because it got edited out in revisions. Which just means I’ll have to put it back in a future book!)

The Mackinac Bridge. Isaac hates driving over this thing. He’s uncomfortable with heights, and the center lanes are metal grating instead of pavement, meaning the air comes up through the center, and the feel of the tires on the road is very different. When I was driving home last week, it kept feeling like the car was trying to pull off to one side or the other.

Also, there used to be a colony of lake trolls living at the base of the bridge, but the Porters relocated them back in 1971.

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One Week to Codex Born, and an Announcement

Exactly seven days from now, I’ll be at Schuler Books in Lansing, celebrating the release of Codex Born [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy]. And also the mass market paperback of Libriomancer [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy].

Normally, this would be a good time to do some sort of contest, and maybe give away the one copy of Codex Born I managed to snag at ALA this year. The problem is that as soon as I got home, my wife snatched it away from me. After grumbling at me for costing her a few nights’ sleep (and telling me it was even better than the first one – yay!), she passed it along to her mother. While we were up north. Which means, as far as I know, the book may still be at the tip of the Upper Peninsula.

But have no fear! I have alternate plans for free bookses next week.

To be honest, things have been so busy lately that I haven’t had time for my full pre-book freak-out ritual, which is probably a good thing…

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In the meantime, how about an alternate announcement? Coinciding with my Guest of Honor gig at Windycon this November, ISFiC Press will be releasing The Goblin Master’s Grimoire, a hardcover collection of my short fiction.

More details as they appear. I’m particularly geeked about the cover art concept we talked about, but we’ll have to wait and see what actually happens there.

In the meantime though, I’ll be doing a weary-but-excited happy dance 🙂

UK Cover and Libriomancer Winners

In the UK, Amazon has posted the Del Rey UK cover art for Codex Born, which comes out over there in November of this year. It doesn’t have Lena Greenwood, which is disappointing, but I love the artwork.

Author Steven Schend offered the following caption over on Facebook:

“I’m Isaac Vanio. I’m here to kick ass and read books…and I’ve finished all my books.”

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Thanks to the several hundred people who entered the Libriomancer giveaway from last week! The Random Number Generator of Randomness has spoken, placing its blessing upon:

  • Nathan McB (U.K. Edition)
  • Rustifer (U.S. Edition)

To those who didn’t win, fear not! With the new book only eight days away, plans are already underway to give away more free stuff…

Home Again, Home Again

One of the obnoxious things about vacation is that the rest of the world doesn’t seem to care. Email, bills, day-job, it all keeps piling up. It’s quite rude. I’m thinking maybe the world needs to try to coordinate a little better.

Anyway, I’m back from the U.P. It was fun, relaxing, and far too short.

One of the first emails I got was confirmation that I could announce the sale of my story “Chupacabra’s Song” to Kaleidoscope, a YA anthology edited by Julia Rios and Alisa Krasnostein. This is the story I asked for help with a little while back, about Nicola Pallas (from the Libriomancer books) as a teenager, and her first encounter with chupacabras. My thanks to everyone who read the story and offered their thoughts about my portrayal of Nicola’s autism.

I also read Lisa Shearin’s forthcoming book The Grendel Affair [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy], which was tremendous fun, and started in on Beth Bernobich’s forthcoming book Allegiance [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy], which is drawing me in nicely. (Related: The first book in Bernobich’s series, Passion Play, is currently on sale for $2.99.)

I got just under 10,000 words written on Unbound, which is less than I had hoped, but I’m not going to complain. I also spent a fair amount of time doing research reading, and that counts too, right?

I took a picture of the Milky Way. Due to the light distortion in the lower left, I have now declared war against the full moon. I’m still quite happy with the picture, though. I think I may have also gotten a shot of a meteor. Or maybe a satellite. I’m not sure how to tell. The verdict is satellite.

We also took a boat tour of Pictured Rocks and climbed Sugarloaf Mountain. (I’m not so sure about calling it a “mountain,” but I guess for Michigan it qualifies.)

I’ve got a few more pictures posted at Flickr.

And now is the time when Jim tries to catch up on everything from the past week. Whee…

Giving Away a Pair of Libriomancers

Both DAW and Del Rey UK sent me author copies of Libriomancer [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] this week, which is a wonderful thing. Except now I find myself with more books taking up space. I figure the best thing to do is get rid of a couple, and I was hoping y’all could help me out with that!

I’ll be heading off for vacation next week, but when I get back, I’ll give away one each of the UK edition (trade paperback) and the DAW mass market release. Crocheted Smudge will be keeping guard over the books in the meantime.

If you’re interested, leave a comment telling me where you’d go on vacation if you could go absolutely anywhere, real or imagined. Narnia, Neverland, North Dakota, it doesn’t matter.

When I get home, I’ll pick two commenters at random and mail each of them an autographed copy of the book.

Anyone can enter. One entry per person, etc, etc. I’ll grab comments off of the blog, LJ, Goodreads, and the rest of the places this thing is mirrored.

Three weeks and counting until Book Day! #SFWApro

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