But It's a Dry Heat

Archive for the ‘Decadent Publishing’ Category

Win a Free Copy of The Music of Chaos!

Win a free copy of my quirky urban fantasy, The Music of Chaos.  In addition to a free book, the winner of the contest will also get free “arts” by me (Small Kokopelli or angel wall art).

It’s easy. Just click this link to go my contest page over on Romance Junkies. There, you’ll see the following question:

“What is the name of … ‘the brave soul who had dared the displeasure of my company’?”

The answer can easily be found in Chapter One of The Music of Chaos. (Seriously, you can just skim through the text. He is the only other person in the scene.)

The contest runs through August 31, 2011, so you have time to enter multiple times. While you’re there, check out some of the other authors/books that are participating in this contest.

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“Blind dates are always a train wreck.”
By day, Regan O’Connell is a highly respected project manager. By night, she’s a Wolfe, a paranormal agent working for a vampire syndicate.

Her two worlds collide when a co-worker sets her up with tall, dark and sexy Jason Lake. Jason is a Holder, a member of an ancient, all-human organization dedicated to policing the activities of things that go bump in the night. Things like half-vampire Regan.

Falling for the wrong guy is the least of Regan’s problems. There’s a murderer on the loose, and his favorite weapon is chaotic magic, an erratic force with the power to rip holes in the fabric of the universe. And the best way to catch the killer is to get close to Jason, the man who is not only her enemy, but her prime suspect.

The Music of Chaos, Now in Print!

Buy a book or the cute greyhound will have to go back to a miserable life of racing, stuck in a tiny crate all day, fed horrible food, abused.  You wouldn’t want that to happen, would you?

Then buy a book, save a puppy dog.

Shorter sales pitch: The dead tree version of The Music of Chaos is now available!

There they are. Some of my author copies of The Music of Chaos, my debut novel.  I tried to enlist the Wonder Horse‘s help in selling, but his version of marketing involved chomping his big, yellow teeth on the books. (Everybody’s a critic.)

My author’s copies arrived yesterday.  Prompting the immediate response of, “Oh, crap. Now I’ve got to sell my book in two formats!”

I love the idea of an ebook. But there’s something about holding your book in your hands, the smell of ink and glue, that makes any writer all … giggly.  Like a schoolgirl. Titter.

Here’s the short version of the book blurb:

“Blind dates are always a train wreck.”

By day, Regan O’Connell is a highly respected project manager.  By night, she’s a Wolfe, a paranormal agent working for a vampire syndicate.

Her two worlds collide when a co-worker sets her up with tall, dark and sexy Jason Lake.  Jason is a Holder, a member of an ancient, all-human organization dedicated to policing the activities of things that go bump in the night. Things like half-vampire Regan.

Falling for the wrong guy is the least of Regan’s problems. There’s a murderer on the loose, and his favorite weapon is chaotic magic, an erratic force with the power to rip holes in the fabric of the universe. And the best way to catch the killer is to get close to Jason, the man who is not only her enemy, but her prime suspect.

Buy it now (please) at Decadent Publishing or Amazon.

For those who want instant gratification, you can download the ebook version: Decadent Publishing, Amazon/Kindle, and B&N/Nook.

Or you can sample a chapter–FREE.

 

A Taste of the Chaos

Once upon a time, for a short while, The Music of Chaos was a webcomic. Because nobody (not even Edward of Twilight) does moping and angst like I do, I decided I would never, evah get the manuscript published.  In a fit of pathos, I turned it into a graphic novel.

About 90 pages in, I came to my senses and went back to trying to sell the story to publishers.

Over at Romance Writer’s Revenge blog, I was asked to tell my story of the Call with The Music of Chaos.  This is where most authors get to describe the giddy excitement, the celebration, that came with signing the contract and publishing their book.

My version of the story, at least with the final acceptance that led to publication, could be summed up as “a shrug.” The Music of Chaos has had a total of four acceptances. (Plus a NY editor who loved the early chapters. Story for ‘nother time.)

Two of the publishers, I turned down.  One because the publisher had (and to this day still has), butt-ugly Poser-generated covers. Another, because the publisher had the contract from hell.  Secondary rights were mis-identified as primary rights; it was riddled with contradictions; and it took all rights including a merchandising clause that gave them rights to the webcomic.  Actually, it even gave them rights to artwork (not created by me) in an illustrated anthology.

Did I mention this was a little known, epublisher who has about as much chance of selling TMOC merchandise as I have for winning American Idol? Yeah.  Ridiculous.

Anyway, poor Decadent Publishing got TMOC when my enthusiasm for publishing was running on fumes.  But they’ve proven, so far, to be a good home for the story that wouldn’t give up (even if its author did).  My book was edited, edited, and just when I thought it was safe to open my email– “It’s back!” –edited some more. Which is, as Martha Stewart would say, “…a good thing.”

Wanna read a sample?  Chapter One can be read in its entirety, here.

It’s Free, It’s for Me, Gimme Three!

Well, just one.  Just today, March 18th, 2011, I’m over at Romance Writer’s Revenge.  One commenter will win a free copy of my ebook, The Music of Chaos.  Stop by.

It’s a really fun blog.  I recommend visiting regularly.

Stroking the Ego

Bad reviews are inevitable, but good reviews  soothe some of the other anxieties that go with this biz.

Yesterday–Monday, blargh–I cautiously opened my email.  Lately, I’ve been approaching my email account as though it were an angry cobra.

The reason? I’ve got a novel in submission and it’s been out long enough to possibly be due for a response.  My last sub to this particular market scored a rejection after a quick month. Having passed the month goalpost a while back, I’m now torturing myself with the possibilities.  Like…they are actually considering it;  or, maybe it’ll score a revise and resubmit;  or, it’s sitting, ignored, in an editor’s mailbox; and worst of all, that my rejection went out weeks ago and was lost in e-space.

And then my head exploded.

I was therefore, delighted to find a link to another good review for The Music of Chaos in my email.

I found this bit especially nice:

The plot of this story is exciting and has many layers, the detail is extraordinary, and I was unable to put this book down until I got to the last page, and I didn’t want to put it down even then. Hopefully there will be another Regan O’Connell story soon; I can never get too much of my new favorite anti-hero Breas.

Yeah. I’m fond of Breas, too. Breas has absolutely no tact.  So he’s a hella lot of fun to write because he can say all the horrible things that decent people can only think. The review in its entirety can be found here.

As for the sequel…I’m workin’ on it.

The Music of Chaos, Now Available!

I spent the weekend on yet another home improvement project.  Some people tithe at their local house of worship.

We tithe at Home Depot and Lowes.

Anyway, come Monday morning, I find that my debut novel, The Music of Chaos is now available from Decadent Publishing.

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Here’s the blurb:

Regan O’Connell seems to have it all. She has a PhD and a good paying job as a project manager with a consulting company. Unbeknownst to her co-workers, she’s a one hundred and thirty-year-old demi-human, with a magical pedigree that includes vampires and elven royalty.

Harnessing her magical ability has never been easy. Immature by the standards of immortals, she has little-to-no control over the magic that simmers in her blood. For more than a century, she has worked as a secret operative for the vampire syndicate the Grey Brethren. For just as long, she has hidden her magical disability, struggling with one paranormal misadventure after another. Tired of her shenanigans, the Grey Brethren station her in Albuquerque, far out-of-the-way by paranormal standards.

The arrival of a mysterious user of chaotic magic—a world destroying power—spells the end of Regan’s trouble-free existence. Soon after, her vampire employers issue an ultimatum: find and neutralize the chaotic magic user or find a new job. To make matters worse, she has inadvertently started a war and developed a surprising attraction to a human. Sorting the mess out will require a little help from her friends, some growing up, and acceptance that she will never be a practitioner of conventional magic.

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It is available from Decadent Publishing and in Kindle format over at Amazon.  You can also get it at Smashwords.  (Hint: It’s about a buck cheaper if you buy it directly from the publisher.)

The Well-Adjusted Vampire

Coming at the end of October January 2011…The Music of Chaos, my urban fantasy novel, from Decadent Publishing. With all the usual urban fantasy elements–ass-kicking heroine, magic, snappy dialogue, and cheese enchiladas–and absolutely no whiny, schmopey, mopey vampires.

My vampires like being vampires. No “Woe is me, I’m a beautiful immortal with superpowers on an all-liquid diet. I haaate myself” nonsense.

My eyebrows crawled upward. “You realize you just made a movie reference. I am rubbing off on you.”

“Yeah. Like ringworm.”

~Regan O’Connell, the protagonist, and Breas Montrose, vampire, having a warm fuzzy moment.

The Music of Chaos Finds a Home

After an assortment of misadventures, my first novel, The Music of Chaos, has found a home.  I have contracted to publish it with Decadent Publishing, a really new publisher.

And by misadventures, I mean publishers going out of business before the ink is dry on the contract, and, most recently, a publisher with a train wreck of a contract that glommed onto every right in existence.  Uh, yeah.  I turned that contract down.

This is my first post in my new, improved, fuzzy wuzzy (like kittens), and usually PG-rated blog. (As opposed to the more caustic blog, where politics, religion and any number of controversial subjects have been, and still will be, ranted about.)

Cheers, and happy Labor Day Weekend!