shadow bound » scribbling damselfly

it's not unlike organising your own public flogging

In pondering the finer details of the Shadow Bound launch, there were some ideas that seemed OMG genius! on the face of it but which … didn't quite work out according to plan. In the interests of entertaining you, I thought I might share a couple of them with you.

One was that, in an attempt to decorate the room, I thought I might draw some golem characters. Good idea, no? Clay plays a pretty key role in Shadow Queen, after all, and there are even more golems in Shadow Bound, and I could draw a range of comic, cute and choleric golem faces to leer down at us from the walls.

And then I remembered … I can't really draw.

No, really. I'm not being humble. I have some rudimentary, grade-school skill, but it's simply not up to anything more than entertaining my brain during office meetings. My first attempt at drawing Clay's face made him, um, a girl. Oops? My second and third and fourth attempts did not produce any great leaps of artistic progress. If I had a good few years of daily practice between now and the book launch, I might have some hope of delivering hand-drawn golems for your entertainment, but as it is … yeah. Not so much.

So instead I'll be relying on the redoubtable Les Petersen's book covers to prettify the room. You can all thank me later.

The other idea — which would totally be genius, if we had the time to make it work, and if the Melbourne Convention Centre wasn't imposing a ban on the bringing-in of food they didn't supply, was to bake an enormous golem 'biscuit'.

This story I'll relate to you as it was related to me: in text message form. With photos.

Adorable. Yet horrific.

He fell over in the heat. He's weeping butter. This is…not really working.

I have no way of knowing if his bowels are cooked. This operation? Total buttergeddon.

So sadly there won't be an enormous golem 'biscuit' which I can use to inflict death-by-butter on you all

26 August 2010 @ 21:00 | 5 Comments

WorldCon Schedule including (oh yes) a certain book launch

So, AussieCon is fast approaching, so fast that this weekend saw the preliminary program issued. And, since it's not only in Australia but in my new hometown I, like others of far more important note, shall be there.

Not just wandering the corridors, wearing an expression somewhere between bewildered and panicked (depending upon how recently I've eaten and how confusing or maze-like the convention centre proves to be), but doing, you know, authorly things.

Saturday, 3:00pm (Room 203): Shadow Bound book launch
Come along and see the little book be officially set free. The ever-gracious Sean Williams will be launching the book, there will be food (and since Matilde spends an inordinate amount of time cooking and describing food in both Shadow Queen and Shadow Bound, I'm thinking of trying to pick catering options that are in keeping with her world), and I'm bending my mind to coming up with some kind of lucky door prize into the bargain.

For catering purposes, I need some indication of numbers planning on attending, so if you think that includes you, please let me know, either here or by email.

Note for non-convention-goers: Since the book launch is going to be held as part of the convention, you would normally need to purchase an attending membership, or a day membership. However, there is some provision for allowing non-convention members to attend book launch events. If you live in Melbourne, or will be in Melbourne on Saturday 4 September 2010, and would like to attend the book launch without purchasing a membership, please contact me, either through the blog or by email, as I may be able to get your name on the door. The amount of names I get on the door in this fashion will be limited, so if you're interested, speak up!

Saturday, 4:00pm (Room 204): Finding the right voice: accents and speech patterns
When representing different accents and ways of speaking in fiction, some authors choose to add the occasional slang term or flourish while others go to the lengths of writing entire novels in a vernacular accent. How much is too much? Is it worth sacrificing readability for authenticity? Tips, strategies and techniques for accurately representing speech in fiction.

I don't know that I'm an expert on this, and I don't know what in the way of trips, strategies or techniques I'll be able to offer you, but I promise to at least THINK about the subject between now and the con, so that when I ramble on at you all on the day it'll be in a considered way. Or something.

Sunday, 2:00pm (Room 201): Kaffeklatsch
This is your chance to come and meet me, and chat to me, in a small group. I've never done one of these before, so I have no idea what goes down, but as far as I understand it's just a casual chat. So if you've always wanted to ask me something, or perhaps yell at me for the ending of Shadow Queen that left you hanging for a year, waiting to find out what happened, this is your chance!

Sunday, 3:00pm (Room 201):Signing
This one pretty much speaks for itself. I'll be signing. It's probably best if you bring along copies of books I've written, or to which I've contributed a story, but heck if you want me to sign something else who am I to quibble?

Sunday, 4:00pm (Room 207): Reading
Me. Some of my work (I'm not sure which work, exactly, yet). My (hopefully not quaking with terror) voice. And an audience (that would be you).

Time of the Season (The Zombies — Odessey and Oracle)

23 August 2010 @ 20:44 | 3 Comments

ebooks and excerpts, oh my

FIRST

You do all realise there will be random and intermittent Mongolia stories for some time to come, right? Never fear, they won't be your typical I did such and such, saw such and such, and am now cramming seven gazillion photos and details into one drawn out day type posts, mainly because I'll bore myself shitless if I even so much as tried that.

However, tonight I have other news, writing-ish news, which I should impart first. This brings me to:

THIRDLY

The PodCastle contract for "The Wages of Salt" has been signed and returned. I'll let you know the date it's podcast when I know it. I must admit, this being the first audio version of one of my stories, I'm eager to hear it read aloud.

In other short fiction news, ASIM #45 didn't go live while I was away, as far as I can see. In case you were trying to keep an eye out. Again, more when I know it.

SIXTH AND LASTLY

Here's something I didn't know before now, but might come in handy for you: there's an ebook version of Shadow Queen available!

Apologies for not alerting you all to this sooner, but I only found out because I had need to visit the A&U website today and noticed a new link.

So I guess that means you international types now have an easier way of accessing the book than wrangling with postage rates.

AND, TO CONCLUDE…

For all of you eagerly waiting to find out how Matilde's story ends, courtesy of the good folks at A&U you can now read the first two chapters of Shadow Bound online (or download a PDF for reading later).

The hardcopy version should start appearing on shelves in bricks and mortar stores any time from now on, so get out there and get hunting!

24 June 2010 @ 21:01 |

cover art and review copies and photos, oh my!

Let me state for the record that a "windproof" umbrella is simply a lightning rod that is just as likely to turn inside out and nine times as likely to stab you in the eye with a prong as it pretends to valiantly not turn inside out. There's no win here.

But! On to more important matters. Namely, the cover art for Shadow Bound, in proper-sized glory!

If you look closely (click the pic to enlarge) you'll see that the back of Matilde's dress features Matilde in a couple of other poses — those poses being the proposed covers for the first book, which I think is a neat trick for tying the covers together.

Also, after a quick chat to Allen & Unwin people today, there should also be a giveaway in the offing around publication date, so if you're interested in scoring a free copy, stay tuned.

And finally for today, I've had a few requests lately regarding getting a hold of a review copy of Shadow Bound. An early copy? I hear you ask. DEB, HOW CAN I GET AN EARLY COPY?

Let me tell you!

First, I, being the author, am not the best person to contact — Allen & Unwin have control and final say over review copies. So if you have a book blog, for example, or you review books in some other format, you should contact Allen & Unwin directly with your request.

Now, I can't promise that asking will automatically guarantee you a copy. Your best bet is to give them some evidence of the reach and/or potential impact on the market your review can have. I will say that A&U are a lovely and accommodating bunch of people, so you just might get lucky.

And people, did I mention that the light this morning was absolutely breathtaking? I didn't? Here, let me show you:

4 May 2010 @ 18:30 | 6 Comments

bye, little book

This afternoon, I lugged to the post office a ream of paper otherwise known as the proofs of Shadow Bound, and sent them on their merry way to Allen & Unwin. The proofs are dead, long live the proofs!

It's actually kinda sad, in a way, because this is the last I'll see of this book. It's now officially all grown up (or as grown up as it will ever be under my care) and now I'm shoving it out the door to face the big bad world. Here's hoping I taught her how to swing a punch and speak politely (not necessarily in that order) well enough to survive out there.

One of my last tasks was to come up with a glossary of all the characters. SQ and SB aren't that character-packed, but they are quite political books, and the shifting relationships between the characters inform a lot of the plot. So a glossary for the back of SB seemed a good idea, a handy index for readers who haven't (re-)devoured SQ immediately prior to getting their hands on SB.

Only every time I tried to construct the glossary, each and every entry turned out to be rife with spoilers. I kid you not. At one point, this was my glossary (spoilers redacted):

Matilde: Protagonist. Daughter of Luitger (deceased) and Laleh (deceased), grand-daughter of Beata. Much-put-upon.
Beata: Matilde's paternal grandmother; also has the memories of Matilde's maternal grandmother (Shadi) in her head. By SB she SLIGHT SPOILER.
Dieter: Husband of Matilde because SPOILER. Smug.
Helena: Daughter of Beata, sister of Luitger, and thus Matilde's aunt. She SPOILER.
Renatas: Son of Helena (deceased), and thus Matilde's cousin. Right annoying prat. He SPOILER.
Sidonius: Ilthean general and SPOILER.
Amalia: Dieter's younger sister. Passionate and SPOILER.
Roshi: Matilde's Skythe cousin on her mother's side. In SQ she SPOILER, and SPOILER, and SPOILER; in SB she SPOILER.

Isn't that the most helpful glossary ever?

I settled for a family tree instead. It seemed less fraught.

19 April 2010 @ 18:14 | 2 Comments

pretty sure the stuff in my kitchen sink has achieved sentience

Deb vs Proofs, so far:

One (1) paper ~~cut~~ gash, to Deb's right index finger
Several (5+) stubs to Deb's big right toe, because she keeps catching it on the chair or the corner of the desk when turning to check something on one of the stacks of paper on the floor
Three (3) separate instances of Deb being caught muttering to herself on public transport, causing irreparable damage to her facade of being (relatively) sane
One (1) moment of soul-crushing despair, on discovering a seemingly unsolvable plot snarl
Seven (7) nights of sleep deprivation, due to racing thoughts and the fact that proofs are, bet you didn't realise this, some kind of Lovecraftian horror what eats your brain
ZERO (0) instances of seagull-singing!
473 pages full of little fixes: VANQUISHED

Huzzah! I think, technically speaking, the proofs are still ahead, given all the casualties they've inflicted on me. But I have slashed their innards with green ink, so at least I went down fighting.

There are still the big fixes to go, and when I mean big I mean like last night's effort — which involved 3 hours to fix a grand total of 5 pages. Oof. Word and page counts make fine and dandy targets, but they do not accurately reflect the thinking time that went into them. But I have all weekend to tackle said big fixes, which feels like glorious, copious quantities of time, so I'm quietly hopeful that I can do it without feeling too pressed by the deadline.

Now, did I miss anything interesting while I was buried in all those stacks of paper?

15 April 2010 @ 19:46 | 6 Comments

seagull singing status: not yet

So far, the proofs have taught me three things (or at least, three things which come immediately to mind).

First, a "brace" is a pair of something. Did you all know this? I did not. I was in fact under the impression that it denoted decidedly more than two. Dear proof-reader, thank you for questioning.

Second, enjoy those easy pages which have no mark-up, because sooner or later you're going to hit a page with one tiny little question that makes you realise you have previously farked up the plot in a rather horrifying way, and fixing it elegantly (which you must do, it being proofs stage and nobody therefore wanting to add too much more bulk to the book) takes a good four hours. To produce a paragraph. Oy vey. (I fixed it. But now I am not ahead on my target. Boo.)

Third, I do NOT, resolutely NOT, need a smaller desk. In fact, I may well need a much, much larger desk.

I have this pine monstrosity I've been thinking of getting rid of, it being too high for a short person such as myself, and I admit I've been toying with the thought of going all minimalist. A just-barely-enough work surface, which I would naturally keep sparse and clean. But the proofs have reminded me that such a wish is utter, utter folly.

Any desk I own will need to have a work surface large enough to contain the laptop, lamp and scanner (its normal accessories), plus room for the stack of pages I'm working on, the stack of pages I'm yet to go through, the stack of pages I've been through but may need to go back to or at least refer to, a notepad for "thinking out loud" or experimenting with the words I want before committing them to the page in question, and somewhere to put the scads of reference material such as maps, lists of names, issues to fix, &c. That's a whole lot of stacks of paper, and my pine desk is, despite being to my mind too large, not up to the task. I currently have drawers pulled open on either side of me acting as ad-hoc surfaces for supporting the reference material.

On the plus side, this means I don't have to find money for a new teeny desk any time soon. (And a new larger desk is not going to happen. If I have to I'll resort to the floor.)

I'm planning on putting that money I just "saved" towards the purchase of a new camera, so I can taunt you with pictures of Mongolia.

11 April 2010 @ 19:25 |

and they're all (well, mostly all) cousins

The proofs for Shadow Bound landed today. The fourteen-day forecast is therefore for sudden squalls of insanity, the occasional seagull impersonation, an inability to discuss any topic that does not immediately relate to (for example) the placement of commas, and a general air of abstraction and sleeplessness.

Although, the proof reader has won my undying love for the following comment in her cover letter:

This was a thoroughly absorbing read. Lots of urst (please cast Viggo Mortensen or Hugh Jackman as Dieter), tension and complexities.

Heh. Heheh. I think it was only a couple of months ago I finally figured out what URST stood for,¹ and now apparently I've written a book with sufficient URST to make at least one person think of Viggo.

I can live with that.

This evening, along with getting started on the proofs, I also wrote up the dedication and acknowledgements. My next task, concurrent with the edits, is to whip up some kind of character/house/tribe glossary — which I think is no bad idea, given that no less than 40-odd character and house names are mentioned in the first 60 pages. And this is a novel with actually not that many characters!

It's all starting to take shape people. Book!

I'm slow on the uptake. But I know there's at least one person who also doesn't know what it means, so just for you, Mum: UnResolved Sexual Tension. [↩]

7 April 2010 @ 22:04 | 7 Comments

she has a face!

Yesterday I suffered from sponge-brain caused by a criminal lack of sleep which, I don't mind telling you, is entirely Tripod's fault, for scheduling their show so late.¹ (Although when I pointed this out to them, what did they go and do but thank me for making the effort to turn up! Who thanks people for being a teasing jerk? The boys from Tripod, obviously. Sorry, Mum — their mums obviously did a better job at instilling polite behaviour.)

(Also, said show was fantastic. I realise the comedy festival has only just started, and it's a big call to make so early on, but this is my favourite show so far and may well turn out to be my favourite show of the festival. A lot of this has to do with Tripod, who are, of course, we all recognise this, brilliant. It also has to do with their special guest star, Elana Stone, whose voice in the first dragon song utterly slayed the entire audience. I do love me a strong female vocalist.)

And today ~~Reliably Absent~~ Yarra Trams sabotaged my attempt at a social life.

But it doesn't matter! Why, you ask? Because Allen & Unwin have released their July 2010 catalogue!

Er, yeah, that's great, Deb, I hear you say. But what does this, yanno, mean?

Well, for all of you oh so patiently waiting for Shadow Bound to become a real grown-up book, this means you are now in possession of a firm publication date² AND, as a bonus, a first glimpse of the cover art.

Is it not pretty? And shiny?

Yes, okay, I know it's not particularly large, but I don't have a large version to hand to show you, on account of the large version not being actually finalised yet. Once I do, you can bet I'll be slapping it up on the blog for you all to ogle and admire.

Oh, okay, ~~Meandering~~ Yarra Trams probably has some share of culpability as well. [↩]
Note: due to the vagaries of the industry, a publication date of July 2010 means the book should start appearing in stores sometime in June 2010. [↩]

1 April 2010 @ 17:43 | 6 Comments

shadow bound, the wordle

So, it's probably a touch mean of me to tease you all with a wordle of Shadow Bound, since it won't be published and available to read until much closer to the middle of the year.

But I'm going to do precisely that.

Gee, can you guess which two characters get mentioned an awful lot?

23 January 2010 @ 19:37 | 6 Comments

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