Gail Carriger

Due to much recent upheaval in my life, Gentle Reader, I have been in a cleaning frenzy. Moving is imminent come January and I am a Collector of Stuff. Realizing I may have to store most of it, has me running about like the proverbial chicken.

Such a flurry of activity does not simply involve reorganizing bookshelves, pairing down the DVDs, and sorting through my wardrobe. Oh no, certain other things also come under attack. Like my computer, which I have been intending to purge of unnecessary build up for a while. The mending pile, really why keep those clothes if I'm not going to wear them because they need repairs? And other weird tasks, like the photos from high school and college I keep meaning to scan, digitalize, and put on CD so I can stop lugging around a bin of photo albums everywhere I go.

But the computer purging is by far the hardest. My life is on my little PowerBook G4. Really, my whole life. Trashing double programs, movie files, users guides, and strange other things is emotionally trying. And, of course, I make mistakes. Recently, I opened up Word to find I no longer had a spell checker. And if you know me, you know this is a crisis of epic proportions. However, two days and a whole lot of MP3 files later (bye bye music) I have ¼ of my memory freed up. I'm feeling both abject fear and imminent liberation, which seams to be a kind of life mantra right now.

Next up, pictures. Wish me luck.



Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:
My new favorite stationary store, Paper Relics

Your Tisane of Smart:
Ancient pond remains found in Japan
Your Writerly Tinctures:
Grammar Girl goes to town

CAKE in Space: Back from agent, but now I don't have time for it.
Mela Lyn says: "As my sister said, this is one of those books you keep nearby so you can read it over and over and over again."
SPOILER ALERT! Amazon has posted Changeless cover along with blurb. Blurb gives bits of Soulless away so don't read if you haven't read the first book!
Blameless: Back from editor with edits to do.

Quote of the Day:
"Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done."
~ Andy Rooney

So much to tell about World Fantasy. Usually, I try to blog during a con but this one hit me broadside. I spent the days madly editing the Third Book and the evenings swanning about the parties. I shall try to relay all relevant details, so much as my brain, fogged with four days of booze, minimal sleep, and small talk can recall. Please be patient with me, I'm not as young as I once was.

Wednesday morning I scooped up the lovely Ken Scholes from the airport. He landed early and shamed me by working on his book before I even got there (we both had #3 due at World Fantasy) ~ an industrious gentleman our Mr. Scholes. We headed off for breakfast and then hit the shopping big time ~ I had a massive list for the party on Saturday. Ken, I would just like to say, is a booze-finding machine.

We returned around tea time, changed, switched cars, and headed into San Francisco early for the Borderlands authorfest signing. "Early" because I was afraid there would be Bay Bridge fall out. The fall out happened to be that no one else was driving in that part of SF, so we arrived very early. Valencia Street was playing host not only to our little event but to a TV shoot and a suicide attempt. It was swarming with constabulary. (Not because of the SF/F authors mind you. Can you just picture that? Oh no! Borderlands will be lousy with fantasy authors ~ quick call the SFPD!) We consumed some delightful Thai food and then joined the madness of multiple authors and wine. I stuck a tiny drinks parasol in my hair and it was all downhill from there.

Next morning I hit the keypad and finished the third book, emailed it off to my editor without a final proof. (Very, very risky given my spelling propensities). Then headed in for a TV interview with Kimball Johnson of Pixel Media for a possible program. Francesca Myman from Locus and the infamous Jeff VanderMeer met me, we signed obscure paperwork, and then sat and chatted in front of cameras. After that I caffeinated myself at the bar and met first Travis Heermann & then John Grace of Brilliance Audio. John distinguished himself as my first pro fan! Unfortunately, I had to dash off to Blake's reading, after which he and I meandered around together gossiping.

Bar seemed slammed and so I nipped home to eat, watch Project Runway, and change, because one pair of stilettos was paining me and I needed a different pair, which meant had to alter the whole outfit to match. I returned to the convention with all intentions of hitting the party floor, only to run into the rowdy Jabberwocky crowd at the bar (Eddie may just possibly be the most adorable agent in NY). Briefly met Brent Weeks (more on that good gentleman later), got stalled there talking to Peter V. Brett, and ended up being harassed by the Coast Guard.


Look at me, I'm hating life.

Escaped evil clutches of Jabberwocky for the party floor, where Blake and I made the rounds and finished the evening sitting on the couch in the Con Suite with two TOR editors at our feet ~ can't ask more than that.



Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:
WF Thursday Night Parties

Your Tisane of Smart:
Lady of Pacopampa: A woman born to rule in Peru
Your Writerly Tinctures:
All about bizarre love triangles.

CAKE in Space: Back from agent, but now I don't have time for it.
Lovely little review from Dargie. "It's a well-balanced story that never takes itself too awfully seriously."
SPOILER ALERT! Amazon has posted Changeless cover along with blurb. Blurb gives bits of Soulless away so don't read if you haven't read the first book!
Blameless: Handed in!

Quote of the Day:
"There's no such thing as writer's block. That was invented by people in California who couldn't write."
~ Terry Pratchett

Gentle Reader, please pardon the blog lags. I'm still coping with post too much booze, too little sleep, too much shop talk, and too little exercise ~ AKA World Fantasy Fall Out.

Soulless makes Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2009!



But, for a quick catch up, I have finished and turned in the third book! It was dodgy going there for a while, then Ken Scholes came into town with his third book due the same day and the two of us had a mini-competition which did the trick and got me in on time. The man is also, for an ex-Baptist minister, one dab hand down the liquor store.

Also I have been made a winner of the One Lovely Blog Award from Ooh Books. So nice, thank you.
I am supposed to pass it on to 15 other people, yes 15, but I'm lazy so my loveliness stops here.

In other news, I'm an Apple App!

More on World Fantasy the rest of this week.



Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:
Irregular Choice Shoes


Your Tisane of Smart:
Uncanny Archaeology
Your Writerly Tinctures:
Top Independent Bookstores on Twitter

CAKE in Space: Back from agent, but now I don't have time for it.
More reviews on Librarything.
SPOILER ALERT! Amazon has posted Changeless cover along with blurb. Blurb gives bits of Soulless away so don't read if you haven't read the first book.
Blameless: Handed in!

Quote of the Day:
"Sometimes you have to go on when you don't feel like it, and sometimes you're doing good work when it feels like all you're managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position."
~ Stephen King

I'm being interviewed today, Gentle Reader, over on Juiciliciouss Reviews mostly about the writing process.

Meanwhile, I am being a good little writer beast and nosing down into the proofs for Book the Second, before jumping into the edits for Book the Third. Everything is due the same weekend as my book launch party at the World Fantasy Convention. I've said it before and I'll say in again, the publishing industry has a fiber issue: everything is either clogged up or due all at once.

And with that charming metaphor, I leave you with your regularly scheduled programming.



Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:
Some very Ivy-esk hats


Your Tisane of Smart:
Frieze dated from 5,000 years ago found in Peru
Your Writerly Tinctures:
The future of publishing?

CAKE in Space: Back from agent, but now I don't have time for it.
I Read Romance really likes it. "Wow! That’s about the only thing I can say about this book is…well, wow."
SPOILER ALERT! Amazon has posted Changeless cover along with blurb. Blurb gives bits of Soulless away so don't read if you haven't read the first book!
Blameless: Now back with many edits & freaking me out.

Quote of the Day:
"What is wrong with evil weregoats in the third book. They can't be all that baaaaaaad..."
~ Zombie_Joe (twitter)

I'm so darn busy, Gentle Reader, for the next few weeks I'm wondering how I will find time for tea! No, seriously.

However, my virtual self has managed to get ahead of myself, as it were. I'm guest blogging at VampChix. Here's a sample:
Vampires are awkward. No really, they are. Let me try to explain what I mean. I'm sure you are all used to thinking of vampires as dark, handsome, swaggering, sexy, mysterious, and sometimes sparkly. But really, in the end, they're kind of the socially challenged of the supernatural world.

Now I'm sure you are all wondering about the contest. I promise I will pull the winner today and post it tomorrow. Check back then!



Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:
Home movie shot at Disney Land in 1956.
Your Tisane of Smart:
A 200,000-Year-Old Cut of Meat
Your Writerly Tinctures:
StoryCorps Podcast 135: Page Turners, two short stories about the power of librarians. Fabulous.

CAKE in Space: Back from agent, but now I don't have time for it.
DearAuthor gives me a B-. Still, not unkind. "The worldbuilding was extremely robust and given in small, telling details as well as broader strokes."
SPOILER ALERT! Amazon has posted Changeless cover along with blurb. Blurb gives bits of Soulless away so don't read if you haven't read the first book!
Blameless: Now with third beta.

Quote of the Day:
"It's a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word."
~ Andrew Jackson

Before I tell you the story, Gentle Reader, one last reminder I'm running a contest to win much cool loot. It ends this Sunday. And now, on to The Call.

I'd written two and a half books in a YA fantasy trilogy and had been trying to sell the first for about six years. There'd been a little traction here and there, mostly from publishers (as opposed to agents), but hope was slim. I'd sold two small education fiction readers to the Australian market in the meantime, the second of which went south in such a way as to make me Very Very Wary of the publishing industry. And a small handful of shorts had found homes in varying markets with varying success.

Essentially, I was still waiting for that Call, but I hadn't any hope. So I gave myself six months to switch gears, write something completely different, and send it out. Told my friends I was breaking the rules, I was writing for the market as I saw it in two years multi-genre including steampunk, and if it worked I'd turn myself from artist to artisan. Soulless was the result. I sent it out as a stand alone in its fourth draft (usually nothing of mine sees the light of day until after draft ten at least) I figured it might as well work for me while I worked on it. I expected to wait. I expected to wait a long, long time.

An editor called me within two months (2!) and left a voicemail on my repulsive little cell phone. Two months Soulless had been floating the black hole before getting scooped out of slush, after ten years of waiting.

I was sitting in my favorite coffee house. They'd seen me through a lot – mostly caffeinated beverages, frustrated silences, and mountains of student essays. They are the kind of coffee house that boasts vegan cupcakes, uncomfortable chairs, and pierced baristas with sour expressions. They knew my name but they always said it as though they were doing me a favor. But after two years in Italy I don't care about attitude if the coffee is good, and by good I mean Italian, none of that French burn-the-beans-into-submission mumbo-jumbo.

My voicemail buzzed at me. My repulsive phone has a will of its own on the subject of whether it will ring, or just send calls to voicemail and notify me a few hours or days later.

I listened. The editor was the senior editor at big house, an sf/f house, a house that published most of my favorite fantasy. The editor called Soulless charming. (This is a word I was to become very familiar with.) I went white as a sheet. I walked out of the back of the coffee house and bounced around. A lot. There might have been squealing but I refuse to admit to it. I took a number of deep breaths. And then I started to panic.

Two months later I had an agent, a negotiation, and a treatment for a second book. It would be over a year before I signed an actual book contract, but that's a whole other story.



Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:
New nail style I love.

Your Tisane of Smart:
Threadbanger has a pretty cool tutorial on how to make your own top hat. In this case, it's intended for a Mad Hatter Halloween costume, but I was thinking it could be adapted easily for steampunk.

Your Writerly Tinctures:
FTC is now telling Amateur Bloggers to disclose that they’ve gotten free review copies or ARCs or face fines.

CAKE in Space: Back from agent, but now I don't have time for it.
On the nightstand review. I don’t really think I’ve ever come across a book quite as quotable as Soulless, and right from the start it had me in a combination of giggles and 'oh, I’m so going to have to remember that line."
SPOILER ALERT! Amazon has posted Changeless cover along with blurb. Blurb gives bits of Soulless away so don't read if you haven't read the first book!
Blameless: Now with third beta.

Quote of the Day:
"People on the outside think there's something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn't like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that's all there is to it."
~ Harlan Ellison

This American Life recently had a podcast on The Book That Changed Your Life. I realized that I had one of those, or more properly, a series that changed my life. In my case it was The Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce, one of the only series for which I have hard-back first editions (which I keep at my Mum's house for safety) and pocket paperbacks (initially to travel around to various academic institutions with me, now just to read). As a general rule I'm not a collector, I don't care about the edition, and I loathe hard-back. I was eight when I read the first book and it changed my mentality, the very I idea that a young girl could be the central character and really kick some proverbial arse, but that wasn't how it changed my life – that came six years later.



Picture a small town girl, 13 people in her eighth grade class, tried everything she could not to go to gangland public high. Luckily, she managed to slide into a private prep school (and while there was a scholarship, we aren't going to talk about what the parentals had to do to afford it, not to mention make the drive every morning). So, there I was in Freshman English class and this adorable sweet-tempered other-worldly young lady and I start gravitating towards each other. However it wasn't until after class, at lunch, that Tamora Pierce came up in conversation.

Turns out we were both rabid fans. No really. And then, as you do with books, we started sharing the other ones we really loved, and she told me ones I should read, and I told her ones she should read. And by the end of that lunch, we were rabid friends. And that, as they say, was that.

Going on almost 20 years now, Phran and I have played writer's hopscotch with each other. She got her first short story published in MZB's Sword & Sorceress when we were 15. Took me 3 years to catch up. She dragged me to my first science fiction convention (BayCon '95). Significant others have come and gone, but it's Phran and I who go to the book parties together, who make the trek to WorldCon, and who, more often than not, are each others plus one. She's my favorite traveling companion (which is saying allot for an archaeologist, we travel all the time). She's gone on to work for Locus, and I've gone on to write books. Throughout it all, Phran has read my scribbles. In fact, she's reading the third book in the Parasol Protectorate series right now.



Not only that, it was through Phran I met the Iz, who is my most vicious red penner (believe me, I need it) and with whom I have gotten up to more trouble than I care to admit. And through Iz I met Sarah, and through Sarah I met Willow and Rachel and . . .

It's these friends who turned up at my reading last Sunday, and these friends who'll be cooking, and cleaning, and decorating for my book launch party. Some people are defined by their family, or their partnership, or their children - I'm defined by my friends. I moved back to California because of them. When something wonderful happens, I call them. When I sold Soulless: Phran screamed, Iz said "well, of course," and Willow cried.

And all of it started because of Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness Quartet.

So that's how a book changed my life.

Please don't forget my big fat contest this week for lots of cool stuff. (You know that Rachel I mentioned above? She made the pins). Hope you participate.



Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:

Your Tisane of Smart:
Maya calendar app.
Your Writerly Tinctures:
What Do Publishers Bring to the Table when you are a debut author.

CAKE in Space: Back from agent, but now I don't have time for it.
So very perfectly on point, Reflection's Edge totally gets it! Soulless is fluff of the highest order, with the sole mission of being fun. Reading this book will impress no one, but all of your friends will ask to borrow it. It’s a welcome addition to the lighter side of dark fantasy, and one which feels as though it’s been there all along.
SPOILER ALERT! Amazon has posted Changeless cover along with blurb. Blurb gives bits of Soulless away so don't read if you haven't read the first book!
Blameless: Now with third beta.

Quote of the Day:
"The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it."
~ James Bryce

So, my book Soulless is due on the shelves in 6 days, Amazon ships in 4 (there is a kindle edition), and a few brick & mortars around the world have already pipped the post!

I'm hoping to tap into my friends for a little assistance launching my chosen career. Remember, I'll never be asking for baby shower gifts, you could consider Soulless my first child - and cheap at the price!

If you'd like to help here are some options . . .

* Within the next 6 days you could mention Soulless in your blog, on facebook, twitter, or elsewhere. If you haven't read it, that's OK, just a nod to its release helps.

* If you have read it, please review it on Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Powells, Borders, Shelfari, WeRead, facebook book reviews, and the like. Some of these do not allow reviews until after the launch date. Detail and honesty are much appreciated, even a bad review is better than no review. For those of you who wrote a review in the past for your blog, just a cut and paste to a second location would do wonders.

* Interview me or host me for a guest blog?

* If you are planning to purchase online, please, please, please try to buy the book on Amazon the first day it's on sale (September 29, 2009) this will up me in their rankings. If you can't do that, or aren't willing to support Amazon, going into a brick & mortar store, or buying online from an independent bookstore on the Big Day, October 1, would also be very much appreciated.


Thanks to everyone for their help and support. This will be cross-posted. I will also post a reminder about online purchasing on September 29, and on brick & mortar purchasing on October 1.



Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:
Steampunk (or dieselpunk) motorcycle.
Your Tisane of Smart:

Your Writerly Tinctures:
Call for submissions in this month's SFWA Bulletin for a M/M and Ménage Steampunk Anthology. Title TBA. Published by Phaze Books. I so can't write this kind of thing but I also so can't wait to read it!

CAKE in Space: With agent.
Soulless: King of the Nerds has a review up! "It is something decidedly different from everything else on the market today and does a remarkable wonderful job blending a variety of genres into easily-digestible package."
Changeless Release date currently April 2010. Copy edits are in.
Blameless: Still with first beta.

Quote of the Day:
"Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him out to the public."
~ Winston Churchill

My bed mid copy edit . . .


See above: two black Notebooks of Doom (one for Soulless, one for Changeless & Blameless), query list from copy editor, the manuscript in various mounds, Orbit's house style sheet, a copy of Soulless (for referencing), my list of copy edit codes, reference book (for ze spelling of ze French fashions), scissors and tape (for pasting a copy of the Changeless terms sheet into appropriate Notebook of Doom), highlighter (for highlighting very important instructions), and eraser and pencil - since I'm not allowed to use pen. Gasp. Wheeze.



Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:
Your Brass Needles photos, sorry I am late



Peru report, scond installment photos. 1. scarves, sox and mitties with various variations on the norm that I thought might inspire. 2. One of the yarn stores, you have to go hunting into the local market areas to find yarn in Peru. If you want anything earlier along the knitting line, like roving, you need to get into the outlands and find a fiber village. 3. A spindle made of iron and decorating the side of a building in Cuzco. 4 Lastly there a loom weight from Inka times dug up on my archaeological site, along with some other pottery fragments. I know it's not knitting but I figured fiber artists might still find it fun to see.
Your Tisane of Smart:
Tiny ancient shells point to earliest fashion trend
Your Writerly Tinctures:
The Agony and the Ecstasy of a Book Release

CAKE in Space: With agent.
Soulless: Book Babe's Blog gives me a nice little review. "I had so much fun reading this book."
Changeless: Working on copyedit. Release date currently April 2010.
Blameless: Gone off to betas.

Quote of the Day:
"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein."
~ Red Smith

I'm at the end of this draft of Book the Third, Gentle Reader. From here on out it goes its merry way through three betas, one more set of revisions, and then off to my editor. What this really means is that Blameless is now gone away from me for a full month at least. I find, and this has never happened to me before, that I am in a mild state of panic for I have no writing project planned next.

Since I go back to teaching this fall, this is probably a good thing. But still, nothing to write – it is almost as though I have no purpose in life. Ever since I sold Soulless two years ago, I've always had something on my plate. I feel feckless and rudderless.

Oh no, what do I do?

Meh, it's just end-of-project-itis.



Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:
There is a vampire convention happening in Hollywood this weekend (August 14-16). I'm still out of the country but it sure looks like fun.
Your Tisane of Smart:
Awesome old school medical tools.

A Skull Saw (1830s-60s)
This hand-cranked saw's blades were used to cut through sections of the skull, allowing for access by other instruments.
Your Writerly Tinctures:
Hillarious summation of WorldCon

CAKE in Space: With agent.
Soulless: In which Rosefox takes me to task for caricatures and craves slash. Strangely, or perhaps not, she articulates all the things I upend in the second book. (Insert evil laugh here.) Here's the bit I love. "Glorious glorious slashiness." And then after some insider slash-terminology I don't understand, "This book is patently intended to be a fanfic goldmine and I can't wait." To which I take the 5th for contractual reasons. But say, quite stealthily, that one of my mile markers for making it as an author is M/M slash.
Changeless: Awaiting copyedit. Release date currently April 2010. Got cover (everyone say "ooooo").
Blameless Gone off to betas.

Quotes of the Day:
"I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within."
~ Gustave Flaubert
(Now, I've read Flaubert and I must admit to beign a bit irritated by his writing too.)

Lets talk . . . characters.

I have this little problem, Gentle Reader, I fall in love with my second string characters. It's not that I don't like the hero and heroine but there is just something about the supporting actors that is terribly hard resist. I have this difficulty in movies as well. And other people's books. Let us call this little foible of mine: an obsession with sidekicks.

The thing is, I have always been a sidekick woman. Call me crazy, but the hero never really does it for me. There is something about the man at his side, the man providing the laughs, the man who doesn’t get the girl in the end, that is far more appealing than the classic perfectness of the beefed-up lead.

Take Batman and Robin as prime examples. Batman has his dark good looks, aura of power, control over all situations, and conquering of the Bad. Batman lives the male fantasy: wealth, power, and respect by day, costumed play-acting with fancy gadgets and cool cars by night. Leaves me stone cold. But Robin on the other hand . . . There is something about his boyishness, his goofiness, his lack of perfection that is ten times more appealing. Especially when compared to Batman’s, well, Batmanness.

Lord of the Rings? I'm all about Merry (yay, Dominic Monaghan!). You can have your Aragorns and your Legolasses I'm taking the lesser-known hobbits home, thank you very much.

Sometimes a sidekick can save a film. Take Val Kilmer’s Doc Holiday in “Tombstone.” The height of horrible western movies and yet this gun toting, sickly, drunken character somehow makes it all worthwhile. He has all the good lines, too. Wyatt Erp, star and stud, pales by comparison.

There are some who will never understand the appeal. But I suspect more than a few share my obsession. We’re the ones who choose Dr. Watson over Sherlock Holmes, Porthos over Athos, and Little John over Robin Hood, because they never take themselves, or the hero, too seriously. The hero might be good in bed, but the sidekick will make you laugh for a lifetime, and that’s sex appeal.

So what if he is slightly silly looking, clowns around too much, and makes mistakes? That is a vital part of the appeal. You see, sidekicks have this wonderful awkward charm. They are appealing because of their humanness, because of their imperfections. They are quirky and approachable.



Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:
Dorian Gray comes 09.09.09 . . . to England of course. Sigh.

Your Tisane of Smart:
The BS Historian on Vampire Killing Kits and also Dracula.
Your Writerly Tinctures:
Some very good advice on managing your money as a writer. Strangely enough it's almost EXACTLY like a conversation I had over lunch with my . . . hay!

CAKE in Space: With agent.
Soulless: New review over on Angieville. "Soulless spans several genres (urban fantasy, historical, steampunk, comedy of manners, romance) and it makes fun of and love to them all."
Changeless: Awaiting copyedit. Release date currently April 2010. Got cover (everyone say "ooooo")
Blameless First Draft, done. Editing second draft, sample pages turned in for Bk 2. (pages not words)

Quotes of the Day:
"Holy Captain Nemo, Batman!"
~ Robin

"Never rub another man's rhubarb."
~ Joker

"It's sometimes difficult to think clearly when you're strapped to a printing press."
~ Batman

Well, Gentle Reader here are my 12 Favorite Podcast Articles on Publishing & Writing Related Topics

Author Marketing & Publicity Related

• Marketing 101 for Creators (Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells) Writing Excuses Podcast
• Marketing 201, Branding for Authors (Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells) Writing Excuses Podcast
• Marketing & Promotion with Jason Stoddard (Shaun Farrell) Adventures in SciFi Publishing Podcast
• Reviews (Tee Morris) The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy Podcast
• Bookstore Signings - Presskit (Tee Morris) The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy Podcast
• Agent of Trust: Social Media Tools (rob@burstmarketing.com) BookExpoCast
• Twitter for Book Industry Dummies (rob@burstmarketing.com) BookExpoCast
• Google Book Search Settlement (rob@burstmarketing.com) BookExpoCast
• Tim Holman on ebooks (Michael R. Mennenga, Summer Brooks, Michael A. Stackpole) The Dragon Page: Cover to Cover Podcast

Writing Tips

• Humor in Speculative Fiction with Craig Shaw Gardner (Craig Shaw Gardner) Odyssey SF/F Writing Workshop Podcast
• Writing Fight Scenes (Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells) Writing Excuses Podcast

Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:
All hail the great evil tuba army, yay!

Your Tisane of Smart:
Story of my academic life.

Your Writerly Tinctures:
The Steampunk Scholar's List of Steampunk Books

CAKE in Space: With agent.
Soulless: Back cover getting a bit of a rework before release but I haven't seen it.
Changeless: Awaiting copyedit. Release date currently April 2010.
Blameless First Draft, done. Editing for second draft and sample pages due for Bk 2. (pages not words)

Quote of the Day:
"The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with."
~ William Faulkner

Today I was derailed with a barrage of errands and interviews. No complaints, as it is you my Gentle Reader, who must bear up under the lack.

Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:
My secret yearning, to shelve by color over on design mom.
Your Tisane of Smart:
Jewelry made of expired birth control pills. Recycle recycle!
Your Writerly Tinctures:
The last leg of the book process the sale of books from publisher to book store to consumer.

CAKE in Space: With agent.
Soulless: I'm working on September guest blogs and interviews.
Changeless: Awaiting copyedit. Release date currently April 2010.
Blameless: Rough draft done! Editing & expanding First Draft. (pages not words - I'm on the first read through)

Quote of the Day:
"Only ambitious nonentities and hearty mediocrities exhibit their rough drafts. It's like passing around samples of sputum."
~ Vladimir Nabokov

Are there any more satisfying words to type in the English language than "THE END"? I doubt it. (And yes I still type them in all caps because of my old short story days when that was What You Did.)

And I, Gentle Reader, have just typed them. Of course, in my case "the end" rather translates into "the middle." I'm a big rewrite, over-write, and edit girl. I spend as much time editing as I do the initial writing, but that's fine because editing is my favorite part. So this week I do a quick read trough, fill in all those bits and bobs I jumped over because I didn't want to deal with them, or need to change because of surprise plot twists that happened as I was typing along. Then I print out the whole darn thing for the Red Pen Extravaganza to take place as I fly south of the equator. I can hardly contain myself, this is going to be such fun!

Gail's Daily Dose

Some Things I Love About Writing

• Editing ~ no really, it's my favorite part
• Ellipses ~ nuff said
• The Oxford comma ~ beautiful, elegant, tidy, and necessary
• Action scenes & snappy dialogue
• Being god

Some Things I Hate About Writing

• Double-spaced formatting ~ never type it, hate converting it, not enough information on the screen at one time
• Double spaces after a period ~ just annoying
• The semi colon ~ it's not its fault that no one knows how to apply it (speaking of it's & its...)
• Nookie scenes & romance
• Realizing that god makes far too many consistency errors

Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:
Steampunk Office

Your Tisane of Smart:
Scotland yard testing new police headcams, burst into flames. "We're not against it," said Smyth. "But a couple of them have caught fire, which isn't ideal." Gotta love that British gift for understatement.Your Writerly Tinctures:
All about character naming via the smartbitches . Those who know me well know that this is an aspect of writing that runs very close to my heart. These days I simply will not read books with boring character names, I figure the author lacks imagination.

CAKE in Space: With agent.
Soulless: More librarian compliments to make me blush.
Changeless: Awaiting copyedit. Release date currently April 2010.
Blameless rough draft: That's my minimum met, but the story itself isn't quite done yet, so I'm still plugging away.

Quote of the Day:
"Life is what happens to a writer between drafts."
~ Dennis R. Miller

Busy today, my dear Gentle Reader, so here is just the Daily dose...


Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:

Your Tisane of Smart:
Chewing Gum Sculpture.

Your Writerly Tinctures:
This is what I was afraid of: Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters. It's basically the publishing version of Hollywood's reboot ridiculousness.

CAKE in Space: With agent.
Soulless: Got email from another librarian liking the book. Yay libraries!
Changeless: working on corrected draft for copyedit. Release date currently April 2010.
Blameless rough draft:

Quote of the Day:
"All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives lies a mystery. Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand."
~ George Orwell (who has his own blog at orwell_diaries )

All apologies, Gentle Reader, for this shockingly disorientated post. Book the Third is nearing completion, and, as is often the case, this means lots of fisticuffs and pithy dialogue (inside the book mind you, not in reality), which in turn means the fierce clicky-clacking of Writer Beast Action. It also colors my daily off-computer life with odd silences, leaps in conversational topic, and the occasional wave of a hushing hand while I madly scribble down an idea of such utter brilliance the force of the scribble renders it intelligible several hours later.

In addition to this End of Project Insanity, I leave for foreign climes soon, a fact that keeps startling me awake in the middle of the night with "don't forget to pack" moments. Combined with the new car, the advent of inadvertent academics (I return to teaching this fall, pity the students, no really, pity them), and the impending book launch of doom, I have reached a state that is almost, but not quite entirely like, one of those small fluffy dogs running through a car wash.

Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:
More Inspiration from 1930's fashion

Your Tisane of Smart:
White resin pillow planters.

Your Writerly Tinctures:
Excellent journal on one published author dealing with one unpublished git he's a lot nicer than I would have been.

CAKE in Space: With agent.
Soulless: Look Soulless is being used in an academic essay! As an example of misrepresentation of Americans no less. How shockingly British of me.
Changeless: working on corrected draft for copyedit. Release date currently April 2010.
Blameless:

Quote of the Day:
"A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it to be God."
~ Sidney Sheldon

I have finally returned from a peaceful jaunt out into the wilds of coastal California where I enjoyed a week of lumpy mattresses, tea, and much writing. I dragged Chris Lester of the Metamor City Podcast along with me, I thought a week of watching all 6 foot plus of him cope with a Tee Morris-sized (read: hobbit) living environment might keep me entertained. (Answer, yes it did. Fancy that.) But the real joy of lounging about with another writer for long hours on end is discussing world-building concepts. Ah the immense detail that never ever makes it into any book, but nevertheless simply must be figured out in its entirety, usually late at night after consumption of inebriatory beverages. Any author's sanity depends upon such all-inclusive understanding of their imaginary universe, and any book's consistency dissolves without it. The reader will know if the author doesn't know her own world, and so the author must know everything. Having to talk about, and defend, one's imaginary universe has the benefit of forcing one to face down any evil gaps or flaws. Much good has been done for my cohesiveness as a writer by a friend or fellow author who looked me straight on and uttered those fateful three words: "Yes, but how?"

I have just had seven days of "Yes, but how?"s and think I can faithfully say that I, if no one else, perfectly understand the order and chaos of my little corner of the Victorian universe. Within the story? Well, Alexia's not doing so well, and Lord Maccon, poor man, is entirely befuddled. Lyall may figure things out, and Lord Akeldama probably knows more about it than I do, but the point is, I know enough to make sense of it all, and (insert dramatic pause here) Book the Third has . . . an . . . ending.


Gail's Daily Dose (all writing related this week)
Your Infusion of Cute:
The Significant Other's Guide to Dating a Science Fiction/Fantasy Writer by Chloe Neill
Your Tisane of Smart:
A buyer discusses Random House's lists
Your Writerly Tinctures:
Wanna beat the odds? Well here they are Jack Barbosa discusses the statistics behind getting published.

CAKE in Space: With agent.
Soulless: An embarrassingly awesome review, over on Rob Will Review. I'm humbled. I swear we have never met and we are not related.
Changeless: Gone poof. Starting to gather corrections. Release date currently April 2010.
Blameless:

Quote of the Day:
"Giving up creativity for immortality? I don't know if it's worth it."
"That would be the question."
"So what exactly is the soul in your world?"
"That would be the other question."
~ Self & Chris solving the problems of my universe

Warning, this post, may, or may not, be considered explicit. Judge for yourself, you poodle-faker!

I don't know what it says about me as an author, Gentle Reader, but as I move along through this series, I seem to find myself in need of more and more swear words. (And, before you ask, no that does not mean Alexia has suddenly taken to canoodling with the blowhards down dockside.) The fun of this is, of course, that the Victorians had such delicious profanity: like pea-brain, lack-wit, and ninny-hammer. (What exactly, one wonders idly, is a ninny-hammer? Perhaps better not to ask.) Or, if you are Miss Alexia Tarabotti, you might get overly enthusiastic and use all three at once: "You pea-brained lack-witted ninny-hammer!"

My research has shown (don't ask) that many of the slightly less common, but still repulsive, short-syllable expletives of the current day were in use during Victorian times as well. (Oh, all right, I'll tell you: court records from the seedier end of town faithfully record the sailor and soldier lingo as hurled at some poor bobby from the dock.) But what is fun, is finding the ones that will past muster in printed matter under the eagle eye of my editor, and, it-goes-without-saying, also not lower the tenor of the book – like poodle-faker. (Yes poodle-faker – a young man too much given to taking tea with ladies.)

The thing is (and there's always a thing) the English language is peculiarly rich with luscious words: like kafuffle, tatterdemalion, curdle, spelunking, frippet, pollock, macerate, waddle, shenanigans, plonker, booby, and kumquat. I wonder often about other linguistic cultures: do they have equally satisfying words? Do they enjoying saying them the way we do? Or is it just us, with our eccentric enthusiasm for alliteration and ruthless penchant for scrumping words from other cultures, who can take satisfaction from the mere word itself? (Speaking of which, whoever could possibly have thought "vacuum" a good idea?) Or am I being linguistically superior and speaking nothing more than preposterous twaddle?

Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:
1930's fashion that look remarkably similar to certain Oscar dresses of recent times.

Your Tisane of Smart:
Car Talk's green car buying guide.
Your Writerly Tinctures:
Sherwood Smith rackets into the Paranormal argument.

CAKE in Space: With agent.
Soulless: Nothing new today.
Changeless: Gone poof. Starting to gather corrections. Release date unknown.
Blameless: Yeah, I know, I didn't write yesterday. There was unavoidable, uh, stuff.

Quote of the Day:
"For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word."
~ Catherine Drinker Bowen

I'm off for a writing retreat for the next week, I will be mostly offline but this is a good thing!

I recently pulled out my 1891 Baedeker's Northern Italy, as Alexia and cohorts are currently traipsing about Florence. Unfortunately, I don't have an earlier version, and a lot changed in Italy over the 20 years between Alexia's time and this edition of the travel guide (a complete rail system magically appeared, for example). Nevertheless, a 1891 Baedeker's is still better than my unreliable memories of the city (from when I was excavating near there some ten or more years ago). As I was reading along, in the wee hours of the night, muttering to myself about all the things I would now have to go back and adjust in Blameless, I encountered an unintentionally hilarious section. Essentially, intended as a food guide, it was really Italian cuisine as defined by the Victorian British pallet. Here are a few choice morsels for your amusement:

• Antipasti: relishes taken as whets
• Risotto: a kind of rice pudding (rich)
• Salami: banger
• Potaggio di pollo: chicken-fricassee
• Funghi: mushrooms (often too rich)
• Polenta: boiled maize
• Gnocchi: small puddings

That last is my personal favorite. I can just see Alexia, wafting into some Italian cafe and demanding a dish of those "delightful green covered tiny puddings." You see how easily I amuse myself? This is one of the great pleasures of writing alternative history, I get to expound on the absurdity of the Victorian British abroad, but also use them as a vehicle through which I can expound on the absurdity of other cultures as well. As bad as Alexia can be about alien cuisine (she has much to say on the vileness of coffee, I must point out) you should see how she describes foreign mannerisms. The Italian language, for example, she cannot help but notice seems to be mainly comprised of "extravagant hand gestures." And, with that, I had best get back to it.



Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:

Your Tisane of Smart:
Go librarians, go, rah rah rah!
Your Writerly Tinctures:
One of my favorite talks from BEA was Becoming an Agent of Trust: Publisher and Retailer Strategies for Harnessing New Social Media Tools to Grow Communities, it doesn't sound like it is aimed at authors but BOY was it interesting.

CAKE in Space: With agent.
Soulless: Still getting some lovely initial reviews but none of these will be posted until September or so.
Changeless: Gone poof. Starting to gather corrections. Release date unknown.
Blameless:

Quote of the Day:
"Heaven is where the police are British, the chefs Italian, the mechanics German, the lovers French, and it's all organized by the Swiss. Hell is where the police are German, the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, and it is all organized by the Italians."
~ An oldie but a goodie