ebooks and excerpts, oh my

 announcements, journal, shadow bound, shadow queen, shaping lily, the wages of salt  Comments Off
Jun 242010
 

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!

i swear to you, there are no big words in this book

 journal, shadow queen, writing life  10 Responses »
Jan 172009
 

Today I come bearing gifts: an excerpt of Shadow Queen!

Thanks to Allen & Unwin, if you want to try before you buy, without all the inconvenience of trudging into a brick and mortar store, now you can read the first chapter online, or download it for reading later. (Those of you who download will get the extra special glimpse of the book's layout and font-design, since the PDF is a true representation of the finished book.)

As a bonus fun-fact, consider when reading that this first chapter is in fact one-fifth of what in my head I still call the first chapter. Yes, when I say the chapters in the original manuscript were LONG, I'm not exaggerating.

For those of you who've already read the book, I give you instead the feedback from friends and family who have actually finished reading it:

P, on starting the book: "I think she went a little too hard too early on the big words — I don't think she'll be able to keep it up."

P, on finishing the book: "Er, I take that back. She did keep it up."

N: "Oh my God, I'm going to need a dictionary to read this thing!"1

B:2 "Tricksy. Very tricksy."

S: "Is this the sort of stuff you were thinking about while you were at work? Because the majority of what I think about is what to cook for dinner, and there you were all this time, pondering the ways to kill people? I think I'm a little bit scared now."

And, the overwhelming response from pretty much everyone: "What the…? Cliffhanger! I have to wait HOW LONG for the next part? AGH!"

So, people, consider yourselves warned.

  1. Honestly, I thought I took all the really hard and obscure big words out. Honestly! But, er, apparently not. [↩]
  2. Somewhat paraphrased [↩]