New book news – with actual titles!
August 18, 2013 • 17 Comments
So it’s been a little while since Frostbound was released, and readers have been asking what I’m up to. First off, all four volumes of the Dark Forgotten series are still available in ebook form from all the usual suspects. Second, my contemporary paranormal work has found a new and very welcoming home!
Some of you know that I am now signed with Harlequin and have a new paranormal romance series for their Nocturne line. They’re James Bond-style vampire spies (and a werewolf) saving the world one hot but enormously gifted and independent babe at a time. These are very fun books, with plenty of danger, humour, sexy interludes and all the features that make paranormal romance a good time. As usual, there’s a dollop of fantasy involved because fae are like that.
The titles of the first two Nocturnes are Possessed by a Warrior and Possessed by an Immortal and they are set to release in the spring of 2014. The question of who is exactly possessing whom is, of course, an open question throughout the stories.
In addition, I’m doing some novellas for Harlequin’s Cravings ebooks (dragons!).
And finally, you may notice that my web site has a new look. A while back I asked for some feedback on what web designs work for readers and I passed those comments back to my designer. I think she’s done a fabulous job!
Of arrivals and chocolate locomotives
July 22, 2013 • 2 Comments
Mid July finds me wishing for a fainting couch and an anxious throng of domestic staff. To be clear, I always want the domestic staff, but not necessarily the couch. However, I have fallen into a boneless heap. Bring on the lavender water restorative cordials.
The third Baskerville book has been editorially blessed and has wafted over to the copyeditors for their attention—though I’m not sure a book with that many pages can actually waft. It probably rolled down the hallway on logs like a building block for an ancient pyramid, a few editorial interns puffing as they haul its juggernaut weight. No doubt some innocent mailroom clerk shall blunder into its path and be crushed. (Yes, I know it’s all done digitally but that’s not nearly as entertaining an image.)
In the meantime, I’ve been blessed with some shorts to copyedit. Yes, readers, there shall be bonbons.
And in honour of all things steampunk and bonbon-ish (for what point are life’s landmarks without treats), here is a video dedicated to the world’s longest vintage steam train chocolate structure, displayed in Belgium: Belgian chocolate locomotive
Absinthe Martini
July 18, 2013 • No Comments
With thanks to a brilliant co-worker who provided this recipe. I haven’t tried it so I don’t know what it tastes like, but I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of absinthe. Click the image to get a version big enough to read.
Tape Measure Clock
June 4, 2013 • 3 Comments
I do love interesting junk, which is clearly evident if you look around my house. Note that I say “look around” as opposed to “walk through” because all that interesting junk has a way of piling up and challenging my already feeble housekeeping instincts.
Anyway, a recent addition to the funky item collection is this critter. I was innocently walking by a collectibles store not that long ago and it was sitting all forlorn on the table outside. Of course it followed me home, because I have always loved timepieces and this one was unlike anything I’d encountered before. It’s a rotary clock called a “tape measure clock” (you set the time by twisting the top around until the pointer indicates the hour on the tape measure). These were made by Lux around the 1930s and this one still keeps perfect time. No plastic in this puppy. Unfortunately, it has a huge tick—kind of apocalyptic, actually—so I don’t wind it often.
In which Miss Emma lectures on female education
June 1, 2013 • 2 Comments
I recall my undergraduate days in the manner I suspect most people do: fondly, with exasperation, and accompanied by many lingering questions. Will I ever voluntarily read anything by Dryden again? What was I thinking when I specialized in the Romantic poets? And what was in that orange stuff they served in the cafeteria? Did it emerge from the applied sciences or fine arts department to quiver upon our plates?
However, at least I—though a lowly female—got to go to university and get a bachelor’s degree of my choice. I was able to compete on equal terms for whatever fame and fortune accrue to undergrad English lit students (ha!). In other words, when it comes to education, women are very lucky to live here and now.
In researching A Study in Ashes, I had a look at the world of co-education in the Victorian era, both in the US and UK. Though my protagonist is in London, I set up my fictional collegiate university with features from several historical examples. Even though the school is only one setting in the book, it’s worth taking advantage of real life insanity.
Overall, the circumstances of women’s education were pretty much what one would expect: not every place offered the full meal deal to the girls. They got shorted on science and engineering and were offered floriculture and elocution instead. Academic terms were shorter, they couldn’t always access the same classes, and not every institution awarded them equivalent bachelor degrees. It goes on and on with the sort of hair-curling examples that make me realize just how far we’ve come in the last century and a half.
I would like to say that female education eventually came to be on equal footing with male schooling through the inexorable forces of social enlightenment. Um, well, I’m sure that had some effect but, as always, economic practicalities had a role to play as well. At first, many courses were segregated and professors had to teach the male students in one location and then trek out to another site to give their lecture (or a diluted version thereof) to the female class. Needless to say, efficiency won out and bit by bit the two groups became amalgamated. Another factor was, of course, the lure of commerce. Women were paying customers, and the revenue stream from their tuition was nothing to sneeze at, especially for the up-and-coming universities in America.
My source for much of this is University Coeducation in the Victorian Era by Christine D. Myers, which goes into detail about both the educational and social aspects of early co-education. It’s an academic study, but it’s good reading for anyone interested in the realities of the period.
A minor update
May 20, 2013 • No Comments
Subscribing to the boomerang theory of manuscript submission – book 3 went in and came back again, landing on my desk with a wet plop. Revision time! But at least the page proofs for book 2 are done, waiting like an eager puppy for the courier to take them back to New York. I’m rather glad to be focussed on the third volume now–I knew it needed more attention, and now I have the clear desk to give it the attention it needs.
The primary objective: more battle scenes. I think I need some of those toy armies, except maybe with giant steam-powered armadillos. Or dinosaurs.
Where, oh where has Miss Emma gone?
May 8, 2013 • No Comments
One may ask why I have been so desultory in terms of social media over the last few months. The answer is simple, dear reader. Before gamboling about the aether talking about my projects, there were dues to be paid, pages to be covered, and words to be slung. In other words, book first, schmooze later. Plus, I can’t think of anything an editor would find more annoying than hearing from me how I couldn’t possibly make my deadline while it was clearly evident that I’d been all over Facebook.
But turning in book 3 means that I’ve touched the end of this trilogy, even if it was just a brief brush with finality prior to editing. After plunging headlong into this writing project, it felt strange and terrible to think of coming up for air. I got up from the computer for a breather and found myself feeling terribly solemn about the whole thing.
Another milestone
May 7, 2013 • No Comments
Turned in the first iteration of book 3 in one of those last moment, race to the finish scenarios. Thanks go to the Beta Crew, Captain Cat in particular for the real-time editing.
I know there is a lot more work to come, but I love the ending, if I do say so myself.
Project round-up is:
- Book 1 – done
- Book 2 – waiting for page proofs
- Book 3 – waiting for round 1 edits
Progress Report
February 24, 2013 • No Comments
So much to do, so much to do. The cover copy for all 3 books is up now (yay!). Plus, I’ve been getting some very nice blurbs in from other authors. To say that I am so very grateful is a vast understatement, and I’ll be unrolling those as things go along.
Here is where we are:
Book One: in the page proofs stage. That is, me proofreading the typesetter’s work. They’ve done a few interesting things with the interior design, which is cool.
Book Two: in the second round of edits, which must be done today Or Else.
Book Three: on the workbench. I am loving the opening which, of course, may or may not end up as the actual opening.
There are also related shorts coming out, and three out of four are complete. Only one is what I would legitimately call short, though. I write long, and short stories always end up like puppies with big feet–they keep growing and growing in the most alarming way.
Dating!
December 18, 2012 • No Comments
There is nothing quite so motivating as a goal post, and now I have actual release dates for the books. Yippee! and Yikes!
In other news, my second short story is accepted and the third begun. These are meant to be promo pieces for ebook extras, but they’re turning into actual incidents in the overall plot arc, so we’ll see how that works out. This is the down side of having a lot of interesting secondary characters…given half a chance, they seize the limelight. I thought the short story idea was perfect for giving them their fifteen minutes, but noooooo–they have to take over the whole freaking storyline and then hand it back all rumpled when they’re done.