a glimpse of banality

 journal, shadow bound, shadow queen, writing life  7 Responses »
Dec 152008
 

As a brief addendum on the when can I buy it? issue, I am reliably informed at least one store is talking about December 19 as the on-shelf date. Make of this information what you will.

I have spent most of the weekend pondering the pc vs mac dilemma, and am no closer to an answer. I suspect I desire a MacBook for three very important reasons: the pretty, the Scrivener, and the avoidance of Vista. But are these enough to make the switch? H'mm… I have researched the word processing options available on the Mac, and am not thrilled with iWork's Pages inability to save in rich text format as a default option. Exporting a file all the time? Bugger that for an idea, if you'll excuse the vernacular.

Anyway. While I'm sure the inner workings of my mind, and my inability to make a snap decision, are of the utmost interest to you all, perhaps I'd best move right along, eh?

Unfortunately for the lot of you, there's very little to move on to, my free time at the moment being entirely consumed by the novel revisions, so I will leave you with an absolute corker of a malapropism I discovered today (but cannot find again now to link to or take a snapshot of) buried in the reviews of apple's time capsule:

It's an ascetically pleasing addition…

but when can i buy it?

 journal, shadow queen, writing life  1 Response »
Dec 122008
 

As the official publication date draws nearer, the question is arising more frequently:

When will it actually be on the shelves in my local bookstore?

The short and apparently-contradictory answer is: 1) 1 January 2009 and 2) I don't know.1

The longer answer is that the official publication date is 1 January 2009. This is the date that the publisher promises the book will be available, on shelves, in all the bookstores which happened to purchase copies for retail sale. In order to fulfil this promise, it gets shipped to the bookstores ahead of this date. So when it appears on the shelves depends on whether your local bookstore has ordered any copies, and whether they've unpacked the box they received from the publisher yet.

I'm not expecting copies to be on shelves quite this soon (it's more likely to appear closer to Christmas Day), but if you want to know whether it will appear in your local bookstore, the quickest way to find out is to ask the staff at said local bookstore. They'll be able to tell you whether the store has ordered any copies, and when they expect it to arrive. If they haven't ordered any copies, and you want them to, that's your cue!

If you missed yesterday's post, there's books being given away

  1. This presumes your local bookstore is located in Australia or New Zealand. If it's anywhere else, then you're out of luck, at least in the short term, although you can always buy online through an Australian store. You'll find links on the Shadow Queen bibliography. [↩]

free books!

 journal, shadow queen  9 Responses »
Dec 112008
 

My author copies of Shadow Queen have arrived, so that means … it's time for a giveaway.

If you would like your very own signed copy of Shadow Queen for free, gratis and nada, leave a comment on this post and you'll be entered into the draw.

There'll be one copy of the book available for the Aus/NZ market, and one copy for the rest of the world — so make sure you mention somewhere in your comment whether you belong to Aus/NZ or the rest of the world. (I realise, based on population, that splitting the world up in this fashion is somewhat lopsided, to say the least, but I only have two books at my disposal and it seemed the most appropriate, given my current publishing contracts ;) )

While we're on the topic of giveaways, something else I've done is to come up with a Shadow Queen wallpaper, since I think the cover art is made of awesome. You'll find it, in various sizes, at the newly-minted Downloads page. If a wallpaper for your desktop size isn't listed and you don't want to feel left out, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

17/12/08 ETA: Comments are now closed! If you missed out on the free book, sorry! Copies should be available in store sooner rather than later, or check your local library to see if they've ordered any copies.

just when you think the day can't get any worse…

 journal, shadow queen, writing life  8 Responses »
Nov 142008
 

…it gets inestimably better.

Today, after a day at the dayjob which could be best described as ugly, I arrived home to a package. Two, actually. One was the new DAAS DVD (which, let's face it, you all knew I was going to shell out for, didn't you?), and the other… well, I'll give you a clue.

It's printed. It's bound. It has my name on it. And lo, it is SHINY.

Let the record show that these sorts of surprises are excellent. I approve.

Since my ever-thoughtful editor also included a cover flat for me, this means I can belatedly deliver on my promise to reveal the cover. (Click to see it larger!)

Oh dear lord, people. It's a book.

one year on

 shadow queen  7 Responses »
Oct 302008
 

This time last year, I could not shut up about how a Real Live Editor had contacted me, and liked my book, and might even buy it. My wondrous friends and family bore with me without a single complaint, without even a single snide, "Yes, Deb, WE KNOW."

Frightened of jinxing myself, I didn't actually talk about it on the blog overmuch. The clues were there, just sorta buried. For instance, here I mention the phone call, and here I talk about how bad I am at waiting, and do you notice how in both instances I'm implying it's all to do with the new bed? Oh, I was lying, lying through my electronic teeth. A fortnight later, I fessed up to signing with my agent, but it wasn't until the ink was dry on the A&U contract that I confessed the book deal proper. Because although it was becoming increasingly remote, there was still the possibility that I was making the whole thing up.1

Last night, I wrote my acknowledgments, and tomorrow the book is going to print.

Which means this little beast is now truly out of my hands.

Do you know, I think I might celebrate. Drinks all round!

  1. It is worth noting that, although the cheque for the advance didn't convince me it was all real, the editorial process did. No one is that thorough on a manuscript that isn't going to print. [↩]

it's the end of the world as we know it

 shadow bound, shadow queen, writing life  5 Responses »
Oct 222008
 

My editor sent back the proofs with a few queries and additional suggested changes, so I spent yesterday slicing and dicing words and chapters.

LOTS of markup. To my surprise, however, this was a quick page to get through. Go figure.

LOTS of markup. To my surprise, however, this was a quick page to get through. Go figure.

Some I've-lost-count-pages later, it is done and all the chapters are of much less variable proportions. Subconsciously I must have known what I was doing, since I didn't have to chop any scenes to get the chapters to line up, but consciously I suspect my chapter formation process is along the lines of "How many pages since I last inserted a page break? Can't remember. This'll do. What do you mean I can't have a 300 page chapter followed by a 3 page chapter? The 300 page chapter has scene breaks, after all…"1

Thank the lord for editors, is all I can say!

Today, my brain feels like mush, but it's straight back to revisions on the sequel for me. I am having a dreadful time resisting the urge to start the revisions again from the first page each time I do an edit-pass on Shadow Queen and figure out some new writerly tic I need to eradicate. For example, I suspect I have an aversion to joining words so deep-seated it makes my eternally patient editors and proofreaders weep with frustration. Um…oops?

  1. Some authorial exaggeration is to be expected here. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story is what I say. [↩]

could it be…?

 journal, shadow queen  3 Responses »
Oct 152008
 

October has come along and plumped itself on the couch and has been watching TV solidly for days, and where is the cover art I promised you, you might be wondering?

The answer is: I don't yet have the green light to post it.

However, if you were so inclined, you could wander over to the galleries of the fantabulous Les Petersen, where you would find a picture titled Shadow Queen which, yes, would be the artwork forming the basis of the cover. In fact, this way, you get to see the artwork without all those distracting things like names and titles ;)

I have spent today launching a retaliative catch-up strike on the novel, and at last feel like I'm making some headway. Here's hoping it continues apace, and I don't get stuck again!

colour me boggled

 journal, shadow queen, writing life  5 Responses »
Oct 032008
 

Google Alerts had a lovely surprise for me this morning: Infinitas is listing my novel as available for pre-order!

Of course I couldn't resist a quick search of the other Australian bookstores, which turned up a pre-order page on the Dymocks site, and a pre-order page on Booktopia as well.1

I would like to claim I have been calm and unaffected by this news, but I would be lying like a lying thing.

In other news, don't be alarmed if the blog lapses into quietness for the next little while. I have a friend visiting this weekend, and then I am hieing myself out of town for a week in an attempt to get some serious writing done.

See you on the other side!

  1. ETA: The Booktopia page appears to have vanished, for reasons unknown. Oh well. [↩]

if i had a tardis, i would've written it by now

 journal, shadow bound, shadow queen, writing life  Comments Off
Sep 202008
 

Belated apologies for my silence over the past couple of days. Somehow (it might, I dunno, just maybe, have something to do with the increased connection speed I am currently enjoying) I managed to exceed my internet plan's quota, which means every extra byte is costing ludicrous amounts of money. Oops.

You might think that having no internet would allow me to be more productive, but alas, you would be wrong. Procrastination always finds a way. I did manage to mail the Shadow Queen proofs back to the publisher, which has left my desk startlingly clear. Seriously. Two stacks of paper each 400 odd pages deep takes up a lot of room. I'd forgotten the top of my desk was that colour.

With the proofs gone, I'm now free to start concentrating on the revisions to the sequel, which have been languishing unloved and unattended for far too long. And by "far too long", I naturally mean "this book was due in June 08".

Oops.

On the upside, I am promised sunshine and lots of it today, so I think I shall enjoy the benefits of laptop ownership (can you believe the burglar missed the laptop?!) and work outside. Huzzah!

sometimes i find myself alone at night

 journal, shadow queen  6 Responses »
Sep 162008
 

The proofread is done, long live the proofread.

Technically I shouldn't celebrate quite yet, since my editor hasn't told me there's nothing else I need to look at and please send it all back now, but that stack of tagged and tricksome pages has been systematically slashed through with red pen and denuded of tags, which makes me happy. Not to mention a little giddy.

And very, very conscious that the stories next in line to work on have no outline. I've been revising for so long, it's a little daunting to contemplate going back to writing without knowing what happens next.

In the department of "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means", I discovered a fantastic thesaurus program the other day: TheSage.

Since I'm reaching the end of my input on Shadow Queen, it's probably an appropriate time to post the playlist I used to listen to while writing this novel. Continue reading »

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