And here’s the cover to go with the blurb! Isn’t it so pretty? (note that I have different bloodstains on my covers–you can now collect them all *g*).

Coming January 2011 in the UK/Australia and February 2011 in the US/RoW. With star demons, conniving high priests and generalised political plotting. Oh, and more ahuizotls, because fingernail-eating monsters always make everything better.

Pre-order on Amazon.co.uk|Amazon.com|Barnes and Noble|Book Depository|Amazon.fr

And while I’m at it, another (very nice) review of Servant of the Underworld at Cold Iron and Rowan-Wood.

Lookie lookie, I found this awesome illustration for my Xuya continuity story “Fleeing Tezcatlipoca” (out now in Space and Time Magazine), courtesy of Alan F. Beck.

Remember that character I mentioned, way back when I was writing Harbinger? The one to whom I gave a long and complicated name, figuring we’d never see him again, and who ended up playing a major part in Harbinger?

Well, it turns out he’s going to play a major part in book 3, too. And I’m still stuck with him…

*sigh*

PS: in case you’ve read Servant of the Underworld and are wondering… It’s Acamapichtli, the disagreeable High Priest of the Rain God. He turns out to be still disagreeable, but way too useful for plot purposes.

No cover art yet (though that is being designed, I know for sure), but hey, there’s a blurb on amazon.co.uk:

The year is Two House and the Mexica Empire teeters on the brink of destruction, lying vulnerable to the flesh-eating star-demons – and to the return of their creator, a malevolent goddess only held in check by the Protector God’s power.

The council is convening to choose a new emperor, but when a councilman is found dead, only Acatl, High Priest of the Dead, can solve the mystery.

When he hears rumours of a sinister cabal of sorcerors he must face up to demons, not all of them his own.

FILE UNDER: Modern Fantasy [Aztec Gods / Star Demons / Secret Sorcery / Blood Rituals]

Shiny..

So, about that sekrit project I mentioned way back in April? Looks like it’s gone public: my non-fiction piece, “The View from the Other Side”, about non-Western/non-Anglophone SF, will appear in the September issue of Asimov’s.

First time I have non-fiction in a major venue, on a fairly controversial topic. Should be fun…

So, it looks like I have about half an outline for book 3. Missing: any kind of sense, and a number of plot elements which come in way too late. Slowly chipping away at it…

Also, I’m sitting on a piece of good news I’m dying to share, but can’t right now (and nope, it’s not the one in the next post). Stay tuned for an update (I hope soonish, but you never know in this crazy environment…)

And finally, I’ve started learning Vietnamese. Currently struggling a lot with a number of wrong-footed instincts (tonal languages are %% counter intuitive when you’ve never learnt one, and I’m mixing up a lot of the many many vowels as well. On the plus side, the alphabet’s mostly recognisable)…

PS: and here’s an obligatory short reminder that you can win a pretty anthology, simply by leaving a comment in this post until next Wednesday.

Writing is by nature a solitary activity; and writing in a language that’s not your own in a country where it’s barely spoken is pretty much as solitary as it gets. Living in Paris, writing in English, I knew I wasn’t going to have a face-to-face workshop (no critical mass), and I speedily turned online, to big places like Hatrack, Critters and OWW. The trouble is that people outgrow them, move on, and that after a year or so your crit partners might have radically changed (assuming you ever had them in the first place). I was lucky to find some awesome people there (rcloenen-ruiz, to mention only one), but they never had the tightness and cohesiveness I was looking for.

Then I got an invitation from writing buddy T.L. Morganfield to join Written in Blood, a new group with the avowed aim to keep its members together and committed through thick and thin. Three years later, we’re still here, still going strong. We have critted a dozen novels and a host of short stories. Members have had pro sales, been nominated for awards, published novels–and even, in founder Dario’s case, started up a small press, Panverse Publishing. We figured it was time to celebrate our achievements, and to do what writers do, which is put some of our fiction out there. Accordingly, here is our first anthology, Eight Against Reality:

Stories run the gamut from humorous SF to mythical fantasy. Some have been published in pro and semi-pro markets; some are all-new, but they’re all fantastic.

If you like the excerpts below, you can order a copy here. Or… you can win one.

Dario very kindly provided us with two contributors’ copies, and, like fellow WIB Janice Hardy, I’m throwing it into the pot. Leave a comment here, at my website or on LJ (anything that’s clearly not spam will do, like “I want a copy” :D), and you can get a copy (signed and personalised if you feel like it). The offer is good wherever you live in the world; you have a week from now (until the 6th of July). [*]

Afterwards, I’ll put together my best impersonation of a pseudo-random algorithm and pick a name out of the metaphorical hat.

And here are the shiny excerpts:
Continue reading →

Because I promised pics:

Yesterday, the BF and I tied the knot at the Town Hall of the 15eme Arrondissement in Paris. Well, sort of. France is a bit centralised when it comes to wedding: you have to get married at the Town Hall before you can get married in church. The big ceremony and banquet and so on is in August at the church wedding, but this was the bit where we got married for the Republic 🙂

It’s not every day that I find a very long and loving blog post dissecting a short story I’ve written (in this case, “Memories in Bronze, Feathers and Blood”, my latest at BCS), and calling it the best of 2010 so far…

I need a liedown, but the universe being what it is, I will go and look for supplies instead.

So, I am back from Villa Diodati 6. No volcanoes were spotted during the making of this workshop, which was all to the good. (Stephen Gaskell and I did have a bit of a communication problem because my phone insisted on sending text messages to his phone in binary, but that was sorted out really fast–I stopped sending texts and used the good old-fashioned voice method).

We did the usual crit mornings, the afternoon sessions being devoted to writing questions for Saturday, and a buck-your-habits workshop for Sunday (the goal of the latter being to write an exercise completely at odds with the rest of your writing. If you really want to know what I had to do–I was supposed to write from the point of view of a white angry male. I failed.)

Also, there was gorgeous food: chicken enchiladas, spaghetti bolognese, curry, orange-and-chocolate scones, and Mexican brunch. Mmmm. I always eat too much at those things. I’ll post the recipe for the scones later on (gotta save stuff for another post 🙂 )

Didn’t write much, though I did solve one important plot point for book 3, and discussed a variety of marketing tactics. Also watched way too much soccer (the Brazil-Ivory Coast match was priceless. Only game I’ve seen where it looked like there would be a riot on the pitch). Soccer isn’t really a sport I enjoy, for a variety of reasons–the first and foremost being that I don’t like the rules (the “no touching another player” combined with the lack of video replay means it encourages players to simulate wounds and damage, which is a disgrace).

Came home refreshed, though that feeling lasted about 1 hour–the time it took me to get my luggage back and exit the airport. Ah, France…

Pictures:

The house

Our crit circle, complete with baby

Group shot: from left to right and top to bottom, Stephen Gaskell, Ralan Conley, Ruth Nestvold, Nancy Fulda, Sara Genge and me.

More pictures here.