Monthly Archives: May 2013
Weekend notes
Hitting the road this weekend for a trip up the New Hampshire. Limited internet access, and hopefully a chance to put in some solid work on the Iron Night edits.
Hope everyone has a great few days, and a few last links:
There’s an interview posted today over at SciFiChick.com along with a chance to win a signed copy of Generation V.
Plus a very nice review over at All Things Urban Fantasy — four out of five bats can’t be wrong, people!
So if you’ll have any free time over the weekend, wouldn’t you like to curl up and meet this Fortitude Scott guy that everyone in my links is talking about? Of course you would.
Baby black panther thinks you should buy Generation V. Who can argue with baby black panther?
Generation V out in the world
Ever since Generation V was bought by Roc last year, most of my time (when not focused on work, or during the time when I was writing and polishing the initial draft of Iron Night) and focus was on how to best work on promoting the book before it was published. And now… the book is out. I can visit it any time in the bookstore, and now when I talk to people about it, they can actually order copies on their phones, and have e-copies pretty much immediately.
Which is incredible and amazing… but now I can’t help but wonder, now what?
Oh, don’t get me wrong – I know what I need to be doing. The classes I’m teaching are just going into finals, so there’s a lot of hand-holding and correcting going on there. Plus I received edits back from Anne for Iron Night, and those need to be worked on and finished before June 1. Plus I have the third Fortitude Scott book to plan and write. And I really should mop the floors of my house, because that totally got pushed to the back-burner for a few months when I was crazy busy.
But in a larger sense, regarding Generation V, now what? Worrying about how well it’s selling, or doing research and sending emails to try to get more people to talk about it – that has occupied the majority of my days this week. And I know that with my to-do list of actual writing, that’s going to have to change really soon. Maybe I’ll be able to spend a few hours a week thinking about and working on publicity stuff, but that’s probably it.
I’ve made a deal with myself – I’ll keep focusing on Generation V until the end of the week, but then the shift to Iron Night has to happen. So this is an interesting transition time.
So until the rest of the week to keep obsessing about how awesome Generation V looks on a bookshelf at Barnes & Noble.
It’s like a baby picture that I can’t stop flashing!
Stuff To Check Out!
One of my favorite interviews ever at Yummy Men & Kick Ass Chicks – fantastic and thoughtful questions!
Another great Interview at The Qwillery.
I’m guest posting at Guest post at Michael J. Martinez’s blog & at Smexy Books.
The Supernatural Smackdown is still going on at Dark Faerie Tales, and Fort gets a speed date over at the Book Swarm.
Finally, another really strong review of Generation V by Tori over at Smexy Books. Very thoughtful and great stuff.
And in closing, my usual appeal – wouldn’t you love to own your very own copy of Generation V?
Three out of four baby otters approve of you buying Generation V. The fourth would have approved it, but was too busy snoozing adorably.
Generation V debut — interviews & celebration plans
Here’s the big question everyone is asking me on the release day of my debut book – are you having a big party?
The answer is… sort of.
Firstly, today is a Tuesday. So most people I know are actually at work for most of the day, and then they’ll have to get up tomorrow and go to work again on Wednesday. That cuts out most of the crazy partying options. I’ve actually spent a good part of the morning correcting final essays and submitting college grades – interesting fact, having a book debuting today made me a much more forgiving grader than usual! (example: Oh, student who still can’t figure out the difference between “it’s” and “its” – normally your complete inability to just write the rule down on a post-it and follow accordingly would drive me into a frothing rage, but today I just find it cute. Enjoy your B.)
Oh, and I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon. Yes, what better way to celebrate my success than a trip to the dermatologist? You can see that I truly am living the dream.
But I do have some great plans – after the dermatologist, I’m driving up to meet some friends, and we are heading out to a Barnes & Noble to admire Generation V on the shelf and exchange high fives of congratulation! And then there might be lattes! WOO!
First Season Riker rolls his eyes at me. Sorry, Beardless Riker, we can’t all have orgies on Risa!
There is a lot of other exciting stuff going on today, though, that everyone should check out:
A fantastic interview and review of Generation V on Candace’s Book Blog.
Amazing 5+ star review of Generation V by Julie at Yummy Men & Kick Ass Chicks.
An interview with the Bibliophilic Book Blog.
Interview and giveaway at My Bookish Ways.
And an entry in the Dark Faerie Tales Supernatural Smackdown event. This one is very funny – a lot of other writers are involved, everyone did a guest post from the POV of their main character, and there are even voting buttons so that readers can decide who won the “fight.”
Anyway, thanks to everyone who helped out so much to make this debut day so exciting! Why not buy a copy of Generation V to celebrate?
Sleeping sea otters holding hands think that you should buy a copy of Generation V! Are you going to tell those sleeping sea otters holding hands that they are wrong?
Generation V release day
It’s 12:30am, and it’s the release day of my debut book.
This is a good day. I worked a very long time to make this happen, and it definitely wasn’t easy. I’m hoping a lot of things right now — that the book is well received. That people are excited about my characters. That the book does well financially. I’m thinking about these things, and those thoughts have been present basically since the book found an editor, but most of all today (and it’s still really tonight) I’m feeling really grateful.
I’m grateful to my teachers, who taught me how to hone what was good and cut what was weak.
I’m grateful to my husband and family, who gave me tremendous support.
I’m grateful to my friend Sarah, who was the first person I ever showed the draft of Generation V to. She read about three versions of the book.
I’m grateful to friends who gave me good career advice, and listened to lots of my whining.
I’m grateful to my agent, Colleen Mohyde, who worked so hard for this book.
I’m grateful to my editor, Anne Sowards, who liked the book enough to take a chance on it, and then did so much to help me make it stronger and better.
I’m grateful to all the people at Penguin and Roc who put their time and talents into this book — particularly the cover art team, the copy editor, and Brad from publicity.
I’m grateful to all the friends I made among other writers while I was tweeting and posting while waiting for the book to come out, many who were incredibly generous with their time, advice, and passing the word about this book, especially Michael J. Martinez, Django Wexler, and Barb Hendee.
And I’m so very deeply grateful for all the bloggers and review writers who read the book and got excited about it — Julie from Yummy Men & Kick Ass Chicks, Candace from Candace’s Book Blog, Tori from Smexy Books — and all the other dedicated and wonderful bloggers and reviewers who gave so very generously of their time and platform to help give my book the best possible start — just a few among them are RT Book Reviews, Kirsten at A Book Obsession, Abigail at All Things Urban Fantasy, Sally at The Qwillery, Carolyn at Book Chick City, Kristen at My Bookish Ways, Theresa at Fade Into Fantasy, Star at the Bibliophilic Book Blog, Angela at SciFiChick.com, Kristie at Dark Faerie Tales, Stacy at Urban Fantasy Investigations, and Amy Phelps at News & Sentinel.
Thank you all, so very very much.
You are the cardigan to my shetland pony.
The shetland pony might be able to exist without a cardigan, but the pony will be far, far poorer for its lack.
Five days to go!
Only five days to go, and things are incredibly exciting and busy for me! The very nice publicity rep at Penguin gave me a list of every blog that he’d sent an advance copy of Generation V to, and I contacted a bunch to ask if it would be possible to do an interview, or a giveaway, or some kind of guest post, and everyone has been hugely supportive and wonderful. So I have a lot of stuff coming up the pipeline (including some really fantastic interviews that were so much fun to do) over the next week or so.
Exciting stuff for today:
Check out the Top Ten list I did over at All Things Urban Fantasy. They are also hosting a giveaway, so if you would like to win a free signed copy of Generation V, check it out there!
Everyone should also check out Kirsten’s review of Generation V over at A Book Obsession. Four out of five butterflies can’t be wrong!
I’ll be posting again tomorrow, but for now — wouldn’t you like to pre-order Generation V? You know that you would!
Cross-dressing Data wants you to pre-order Generation V.
And you should.
Because he’s cross-dressing Data.
M. L. Brennan 