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Nine days until Tainted Blood!
Just nine more days until you can own all three!
That crept up on me.
Want a sneak peek snippet at Tainted Blood? Check out the Sunday Snippet at That’s What I’m Talking About — they’re doing a double feature of Iron Night and Tainted Blood! Plus, you can enter a giveaway for a signed copy of Iron Night. Check it out, and don’t forget to pre-order Tainted Blood wherever fine books are sold!
Tainted Blood
Soon, precious. Sooon.
Forty-three days until Tainted Blood hits bookshelves, and it just got a fabulous review from Publishers Weekly! Go check it out!
Notable quotes include:
Rapid-fire prose and intimate characterization infuse stock mythic figures with pertinence and attitude. Fortitude is an enthralling good boy going bad, struggling to merge monstrous powers with humility and wisdom.
And:
Self-referential comedy and operatic tragedy make sexy bedmates, enhanced by lush atmosphere and sharp dialogue. Brennan’s smart, sassy, and seductive vampire mythos injects fresh blood into a lethargic subgenre.
Oh, and for those of you who frequent Amazon, the pre-order price on TB is $5.78 for paperback, $5.99 for ebook! How can you resist that?
You can no more resist those low prices than you can resist the adorable golden snub nose monkey!
Iron Night In The World
This action shot of Iron Night is courtesy of Pamela @SkeletonGrrl
So Iron Night is officially out in the world — thanks to everyone who made my book pub day so wonderful, and a special thanks to everyone who pre-ordered or made such an effort (despite arctic temperatures!) to buy Iron Night during its first week on the shelves — those numbers are incredibly important, and I’m really hoping that your efforts help make the difference on whether or not the publishers will greenlight a Fort Scott #4.
Thanks so much to everyone who is spreading the word and posting reviews — Iron Night already has three reviews on Amazon and eleven on Goodreads! That’s so incredible, and so much faster than Generation V did all the way back in May! It’s all very exciting, and I’m so very grateful.
Right now I’m on edits for Fort Scott #3, Tainted Blood, which is scheduled for November 2014, so you guys won’t have to wait another year for more of Fort & Suze (just ten months!). And to everyone who has read Iron Night already, here’s a little something:
Two days until Iron Night
CAN YOU FEEL THE EXCITEMENT?
Two days! Two days! Two days until Iron Night is published!
Listen, I think this book is pretty amazing. But I wrote it, and I have a bit of a stake in people buying it. So here are a few people who AREN’T me talking about it:
@BookwormBlues Dear Species: My bookish wisdom today is to read @BrennanML’s books. I can’t even wrap my head around how much I’m loving IRON NIGHT.
– Sarah of Bookworm Blues, January 2, 2014
Matt of 52 Book Reviews included it among his Most Anticipated Books of 2014 — and there are some REALLY awesome books on that list!
And Melliane of Between Dreams and Reality just posted a new Iron Night review!
If you do not know the series, I can only recommend you to read it. This is a beautiful discovery, a little different from what we can usually read all that with a clumsy hero who has a sense of duty and justice as anyone else. A new great surprise and I’ll eagerly wait for the third volume.
And Mihir put a great pre-review of Iron Night on Goodreads — here’s one of my favorite parts:
This is an excellent sequel that actually builds up on its predecessor and manages to outshine it in almost every department. Firstly kudos to the author for a strange and savage twist on one of fantasy’s most beloved creations. I was very excited to see how the author utilized an excellent murder mystery and then wove plot threads about family and lineage around it.
Two more days!
The State of Monday – July 15
This was my favorite cosplay at ConnectiCon – which, believe me, had some stunning and beautiful cosplay. But look at that – that’s Sherlock Holmes in a bedsheet and Irene Adler in her lingerie. It’s so wickedly clever, and I loved it.
Is great! Seriously, I had a good trip to Newport, and an amazing time at ConnectiCon!
I’ll start with Newport – it was low-key, I was able to get some solid outlining work done, and I took some good reference photos for the books. Great ambiance, pleasure to visit there again, and I had a lot of meals at the Newport Creamery.
Oh, and for anyone who has wondered what Madeline’s mansion looks like, here was what I used as a reference:
That’s Rosecliff. It’s right on one of the main roads, Ocean Drive, but with 30-odd acres, you actually don’t hear the road noise. In my opinion, it’s one of the most beautiful mansions.
I got home on Thursday, meeting up with my good friend John, who was nice enough to agree to ride shotgun on my first convention. Let me tell you – ConnectiCon was a shit-ton of fun. For one thing, this happened at the first panel we attended:
Most impressively? Those guys had not coordinated in advance! The guy who did Torvo was, hands down (hee hee) unbelievably funny.
I ended up being on three panels over the weekend – Worldbuilding 101, Crossgenre Writing, and The Ten Things You Need To Know About Writing (on that last one, I don’t know what our final tally was before we went to questions, but a few people taking notes said that we were about fifteen-ish – even without counting how often we were expanding on what the person before us had just said). Each one was so much fun – the first two I was lucky to be with Michael J. Sullivan, Leona Wisoker, and the incredible Joseph Bruchac. All so lovely. Big kudos to Michael J. Sullivan, who managed to avoid looking horrified the third time I showed up on a panel with him (seriously, he was not only wonderful, but also graciously served as defacto moderator for two of the panels – Leona Wisoker made a heroic moderator stance in the second panel when the topic completely dried up on us). Last panel included Margaret Killjoy, who was such a pleasure to meet, and who very graciously began peppering his speech with profanity to make me feel less conspicuous after I accidentally broke the curse barrier. I am reading through his thoroughly delightful choose-your-own-adventure book What Lies Beneath The Clock Tower and I’m really enjoying the writing, the goblins, and the presence of absinthe.
Very typically me, I had my camera with me at all times, yet never took a picture with my fellow panelists, or even of my fellow panelists. So instead why not enjoy this picture I took of my favorite set of Game of Thrones cosplayers? That Jon Snow is totally killing it.
I also got to meet wonderful people! Rob Durand and Rachel Sasseen were incredibly nice and cool for the whole weekend, and so much fun to hang out with! We talked, we had dinner, we played games, they introduced me to the fantastic Cam Banks, and then they even did me the *huge* solid of helping me with a very inconvenient and stress-inducing box.
Typically, after that great weekend with many a fun laugh, plus a great round of both Gloom and 7 Wonders? This is the closest thing to a photo I took of everyone – yes, that is the trunk of Rob and Rachel’s car.
Oh, and the gaming. Seriously, I had so much fun. I got to play 3-person Puerto Rico (fast, too – John and I played with a guy who apparently plays Puerto Rico in tournaments – and, yeah, I totally tied him on points, but he beat me by three coins), I learned Revolution with John and my husband (thanks Steve Jackson game instructor!), Gloom (which Cam very nicely taught me how to play), and Rob and Rachel taught me and John how to play 7 Wonders, which is so good that I’m probably going to have to buy it now.
Also amazing? The artists’ area. Stunning, stunning artwork – if I was single and I didn’t have to compromise on my choices in wall art, I would’ve come home with so much stuff to frame. But I did pick up a few small things – one whimsical print of sheep having a tea party by Anne Hoffer, and a set of the most glorious postcards by Cari Corene. Yeah, I’m not sending those postcards – I’m going to frame them.
That’s one of the ones I bought by Cari Corene – she draws foxes, people. FOXES. I am helpless before her power. So was everyone else – her booth was *never* empty.
I also was able to hand out a lot of my business cards, talked with many aspiring writers, and hopefully some more people will check out Generation V. And, in Generation V news – I’m up to 25 reviews on Amazon.com, so thanks so much to everyone who has done that! If you haven’t written a review for them yet, please do! I was very lucky to get wonderful coverage by two fantastic bloggers – shewolfreads posted a review and an interview, and Civilian Reader also posted a review and an interview. All are well worth checking out – I really enjoyed these ones!
For this week – just working hard and trying to stay cool in the monstrously hot temperatures.
The wildlife of Newport (ie, the seagull that ate my breakfast leftovers every morning and the idiot rabbit that kept hiding under my car) entreats you to buy Generation V!
The State of Monday – July 1
Welcome to July (also known as, “shit, how is it July already?”)! Last week was pretty good for the writing. I had a very useful phone conversation with my editor (the great and powerful Anne Sowards) in the middle of the week.
Maybe it’s a little bit of a power move that she insists on using this thing whenever she talks with me, but, hey, whatever works.
We talked about where I’m planning on taking Book 3. This was a pretty important phone call, since when Roc bought the three books, the purchases on #2 and #3 were based on a set of proposals, plus an over-series arc document. Iron Night is similar in most major points to its proposal, but the problem is that there are a few really BIG events that were in the Book 3 proposal that I just didn’t feel should happen yet. They needed more prep before I could get to them.
How big are these events? Well, about as big as the giant balloon that Anne Sowards does all of her business travel in. It’s slow, but she gets great mileage.
Anne agreed with me, and I had a really productive week of outlining. I’ve cleared up one of the thornier areas of the main plot, and now I’m just figuring out how some of the ongoing plots will fit in around it. The timing is going really well on this, since on Saturday I’ll be heading down to one of my favorite places in the world for a six-day solo vacation – can you guess the place?
Newport, RI. My family starting going down for a week every summer when I was about 4, and I actually lived there for a full year on my own. Newport is both one of my favorite settings in the Fortitude Scott books and a really important place in its creation. I finished the first draft of Generation V in Newport in the summer of 2011. In the summer of 2012, I’d just sold the series to Roc, and I thrashed out the full outline of Iron Night during my time there. This summer I’m hoping to get a chunk of writing done on Book 3.
Here are two pictures from last summer. Isn’t it great?
My schedule in Newport is pretty basic – I get up in the morning, eat breakfast and read on the porch. Then I come inside and write for a few hours, breaking for lunch. In the early afternoon I take a break and head down to the town – I walk all over, looking in shops, checking out what has changed, until I’m exhausted and sweaty. Early dinner at the Newport Creamery (greasy spoon diner and decent eating for a writer on a budget – plus, Awful Awfuls!), then back to the keyboard. Time out on the porch to enjoy the sunset. Work until I’m tired, then to bed. Repeat until vacation is over.
It’s wonderful – though my brother usually calls me a few times to make sure I haven’t gone all The Shining on my own.
This year I’ll be leaving Newport on a Friday – the same Friday as my first convention! I’m really excited to be attending ConnectiCon – I’m on two panels, plus I’m going to get a chance to sign copies of Generation V! Plus I also get to attend a convention – yay! If you’re planning on attending ConnectiCon, drop me a note so that we can meet up!
So that’s what’s going on with me (and why there won’t be a State of Monday next week), on to the important stuff – what’s going on with the books! Firstly, Generation V is up to 22 reviews over at Amazon. Amazon also has a new format which I’m not especially thrilled about – I find it really visually annoying, and it kind of pisses me off to have to click on something to see basic book info like where something was published. But, hey, I guess when I’m a global conglomerate with billions in assets, I can complain then, right?
Two really great reviews of Generation V – one from Kristin over at My Bookish Ways, and the other that I found over at bookistry. Also, Candace from Candace’s Book Blog is having a guest post and giveaway extravaganza, and she was nice enough to ask me to add a post. I had a lot of fun doing it, so check out My Top Ten Favorite Books So Far This Year — because, really, I’ve never been able to do a Top Ten list of favorite books of all time. I remember getting really frustrated over that once back in 8th grade, and let me tell you, I’ve read a *shit-ton* of books since then. It’s not getting any easier. But favorite books read in a six month period? That I could get a fun handle on. Oh, and you should also check out my list because Candace is running a giveaway of a signed copy of Generation V. So, free stuff!
I’ll be guest blogging tomorrow at That’s What I’m Talking About for their Urban Fantasy Summer Reading Celebration ) — they have a pretty great lineup of books to raffle off, and they’ll also be talking about some of my favorite authors.
Speaking of summer fun – check out the Blogger Summer Circus Giveaway Hop. There are a lot of great blogs involved, but start off at one I like very much – Danielle at Coffee and Characters is the ringmaster, and she also has a lineup of cover reveals, and I’m *very* flattered that she included Iron Night as one that she’s really looking forward to! Believe me, I’m *dying* to find out what people think of it, and January feels like forever and a day, but it’s with the copyeditor now, who will no doubt point out about fifty problems that I was completely unaware of. (last time favorites included the fact that the gun Fort was using held about four more bullets than I thought it did – so the final version ended up with four more shots to explain how he emptied his gun)
Speaking of the Iron Night cover….
…my own… my precious…
…it was included in the All Things Urban Fantasy Cover Art Coverage! They had 36 covers to get through (whoa!) but were nice enough to include Iron Night. The entry is worth checking out on its own (I love reading their cover art posts), but here’s what was said about Iron Night:
Chris says:
The covers for this series suck. A lot. They’re boring as all get out. That’s especially sad since this is a tremendous series.
Did you hear that? Chris says that this is a “tremendous series”! Woo!
Kristina says:
While I will always applaud sensible clothes and just plain clothes on a model this is kind of boring. He looks like he’s just taking a stroll with his gun.
“Taking a stroll with his gun” would be the best kickoff to an animated Disney song EVER! (wait, didn’t that already happen in Pocahontas?) But, yes, I am continually relieved at Fort’s state of dress on these covers – ie, his commitment to wearing shirts. Actually, this cover got even safer, since he now has a tee *and* a long-sleeve shirt! That’s smart layering, Fort!
Jennifer says:
The V in the background is why I’m giving this cover the middle. My interest is peaked by it alone.
I’m a huge fan of that background V. Yes, it has flummoxed a few people, since the official series name is American Vampire, not Generation V, but I was seriously worried around title time that my series didn’t have themed titles, and I think that the artist did a fantastic job of using that V to tie them together. Bravo!
Fun side story – I was on the phone with my brother last night, and I asked what he thought of the new cover. Typical brother, he didn’t even know I *had* a website (right on the book! Argh!), but it turned out to be a win, since then I got to listen in realtime to his cover reaction! (once he scrolled past last week’s fluffy dog – not my cover, btw). It was hysterically funny, and I wrote it down to share with all of you:
My Brother says:
WHAT? He went from film theory geek to Die Hard! And why is he carrying a sawed-off shotgun?!
I’m going to call that a thumbs up.
That’s about it – but remember that tomorrow is the debut of Django Wexler’s The Thousand Names (#5 on my list of books I read this year, btw). According to SF Signal:
I would wholeheartedly recommend The Thousand Names, not only to fans of fantasy but also to fans of military fiction of all types. Fans of Steven Erikson, David Drake, Glen Cook, Naomi Novik, Tom Kratman, Jack Campbell, David Weber, and John Ringo take note – there’s a new military fiction cowboy in town and his name is Django.
Django Wexler. The new military fiction cowboy in town.
And if you’re buying The Thousand Names, why not take the opportunity to pick up Generation V as well?
After all, mine has more cats than Django’s does.
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 