ROGUE'S PAWN, Rights Reversion, Hybrid Authors, Dear Hollywood and Gateway Drugs

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Things have been busy in my part of the world...

So much so that I missed posting for the last two weeks - and I'm posting late in the day today. Madness!

This is my brilliant (one hopes) catch-up post. 

In book news, I got the rights reverted on the ten (10!) books I did for Carina Press. I started with my first dark fantasy romance trilogy, Covenant of Thorns, which meant new covers and new back cover copy (BCC). Done and done, times three. (What about the other seven books, you ask? I'M WORKING ON IT, OKAY?) I'll be re-releasing these three books over the next several months. 

Here's for Book #1, ROGUE'S PAWN:

Be careful what you wish for…

When I walked out on my awful boyfriend, wishing to be somewhere—anywhere—else, I never expected to wake up in Faerie. And, as a scientist, I find it even harder to believe that I now seem to be a sorceress.

A pretty crappy sorceress, it turns out, because every thought that crosses my mind becomes suddenly and frighteningly real—including the black dog that has long haunted my nightmares.

Now I’m a captive, a pawn for the fae lord, Rogue, and the feral and treacherous Faerie court, all vying to control me and the vast powers I don’t understand. Worse, Rogue, the closest thing I have to a friend in this place, is intent on seducing me. He’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen, enthralling, tempting, and lethally dangerous. He’s as devastatingly clever as he is alluring, and he tricks me into promising him my firstborn child, which he intends to sire…

I don’t dare give into him. I may not have the willpower to resist him. He’s my only protection against those who would destroy me

Unless I can learn to use my magic.

Exciting milestone, to be re-releasing these!

As for the actual topics I'm supposed to address:

What do you see in your crystal ball for publishing? Will the Big 5 become the Big 4 and what would that trickle down cause throughout the industry?

I doubt that the merger that would make the Big 5 become the Big 4 will be approved. Even if it does, there are still other publishing houses that aren't the "big" ones. Also, traditional publishing is only one part of the market and one that's no longer at the forefront of everything. I think there's value to trad publishing still, but I also think most authors will become hybrid, since we want to be able to pay our bills.

Dear Hollywood: Which of your works would you most like to see made into a movie or miniseries What makes it stand out above the rest?

My Twelve Kingdoms and Uncharted Realms series. I really want to see these books as an ongoing miniseries, primarily because I'd love to write the other POVs that are going on simultaneously with the 1st Person POV of these books.

Your gateway drug: the book that made you love SFF

DRAGONSONG by Anne McCaffrey. I found it in my school library in 5th grade and it opened up a whole new world to me. Possibly also the first time I glommed an author's backlist. 

What Was the First Book You Ever Bought?

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is the first book bought with your own money.

I usually look at the topic a few days ahead, to put in the back of my mind and mull. So I've been thinking about this question for a few days. And, really, I have NO IDEA.

There were a *lot* of books in my youth. My mom and I visited the library every Wednesday afternoon, where I was allowed to select five books and no more. Sometimes I ran out before the next Wednesday arrived. But even then I had books in reserve on my shelves - ones I had already read and ones I hadn't - because people gave me books as gifts. And there were always my mom's books to get into.

I read an awful lot of books that I didn't love, simply because I had nothing else to read. Back then I had no concept that maybe I wouldn't like a book, or that a book might be beyond me at that point in time. Some of the gifted books, while well-intentioned, had likely been bought on bookseller recommendations. You know the "well, she likes fantasy" and so someone gave me the box set of Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant when I was WAY too young to understand it. I can't tell you how many times I started Lord Foul's Bane and bounced off. Same with Tolkein's The Silmarillion. I don't think anyone realized the vast distance between reading The Hobbit and that.

I started earning my own money when I was... seven? Eight? I think it was after my mom remarried (my father had died several year previous) and my stepdad believed in giving an allowance and assigning chores. I received $5/week, but I don't recall what I spent it on. Maybe I was older? I know I started babysitting when I was twelve, and that's when I had actual pocket money that I saved up. I remember saving up to buy this crystal bird on a brass hoop for something outrageous like $75. (I still have it!)

And I have a very clear memory of buying Anne McCaffrey's DRAGONFLIGHT. The book was first published in 1968, but I definitely bought this edition. (That pic is an actual scan of the book, which I also still have.) That edition came out in 1979, according to Goodreads, which would have meant I was likely twelve. I do know I spotted it on the mass-market paperback display at mall bookstore - probably a B.Dalton - and feeling that rush of sheer astonishment and joy.

See, I'd read DRAGONSONG in my elementary school library when I was ten, and loved loved loved it. I had no idea that there might be *other* books by the same author, and in the same world! Back then the world of books and series was much more opaque. Whatever was on the bookstore or library shelf was all that existed, so far as readers knew. There really wasn't much of a way to find out more. You could ask booksellers and librarians, but they only had limited means to look stuff up.

Amazing how that's changed.

Anyway, reader, I bought the book. For $1.95 - a substantial dent in my weekly allowance, but I paid it gladly. And I bought the sequels. And related books. I cheerfully spent most of my allowance on books, then threw myself into babysitting with enthusiasm so I could continue to afford the habit.

A habit that continues to this day. I very much believe in buying books. I figure what goes around comes around, and if I want people to buy my books, I should buy their books. It's always entertaining when tax time rolls around and I add it all up. I spend easily a couple of thousand dollars each year on books.

Money well spent. My twelve year old self would approve.

Three Books I'm Buying My Grandkids

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is three books from our childhood that we still remember fondly and why. This is funny, because I recently brought up the above book - THE ABANDONED by Paul Gallico - as a book I've never forgotten, and that I think I might be the only kid on the planet who read it. (Although the Goodreads listing argues otherwise!)

Then I went and bought it to give my granddaughter for Christmas. (Don't worry - she's too young to follow my blog. I'm pretty sure...) This is the perfect book for her because she's cat crazy. And this is about a little boy who becomes a cat. It contains the mantra for the ages: When in doubt, wash. It's a haunting story about being other and about finding self.

I might have to give it a reread before I wrap it up.

Because this is a blog of fantasy and science fiction writers, I feel I must mention my gateway drug to both: DRAGONSONG by Anne McCaffrey. I feel that I should mention that this book has more than 40K ratings on Goodreads, as opposed to ~1,100 for THE ABANDONED. So, relatively speaking, I am about the only person who read the latter, compared to the former. DRAGONSONG is well loved and rightly so. It's the story of a young girl on the planet Pern, and how she tames fire lizards and finds her place in the world as a musician. This book lit me up to the possibilities of fantasy and I really never looked back.

There are many books to choose from, of course, but in the SFF realm, it's sad for me how few have held up over time. I loved Susan Cooper's Dark Is Rising books, but the worldbuilding underpinnings don't work for me. And not just now - I went back and reread to fill in some pieces and they simply aren't there. Other books I loved turned out to have religious agendas, alas.

But one that has withstood the test of time - and has arguably grown richer for it - is A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L'Engle. And with the movie version finally coming out (after, lo, these 40+ years), this is the time to reread, and get your younger peeps to read, before the movie comes out, as we all know the book is inevitably better.

That said, the movie comes out on March 9, which is my mom's birthday. I'm thinking we should maybe go see it together, to celebrate our history with this book, this author, and all things mother/daughter. Take a look at that incredible trailer! FANTASTIC, in all the best senses of the word.

Books make great gifts! Just saying :D

In other news, I'm participating in Patrick Rothfuss's Worldbuilders fundraiser. You can bid to win a critique from me or a Tuckerization in my new series! But there's only 9 hours left in the auctions as of this posting, so hasten thee over!