Today I Talk Books With Mermaids

Choosing three books that changed my life, even if it’s just for the purposes of a blog tour, is a little like choosing “Three Meals That Helped me Grow Big and Strong.” Sort of. Actually, no one would ever accuse of me of being either big or strong. But you get the idea.

To be clear, I’m not so much talking about books-with-mermaids, but rather I am talking with mermaids about books. In a manner of speaking. Today, on the 2015 Summer-of-Two-Releases Virtual Tour, I visit the Mermaids and Friends site, hosted by, among others,  my dear friend Alethea Kontis. As you might gather from the excerpt above, my post is about three books that changed my life, and the choices might surprise you. You can find the post here.

The Crazed Life of a Writer, Today on the Virtual Tour

“We are, in many respects, the most egotistical people in the world. I mean it; it takes some serious sense of self to be able to say, “I just made up a story, and it’s so fucking good that you should pony up some money to read it. Not only that, but it’s around 500 pages long, but that’s okay, because reading it is the best use of your time I can think of.” Wow. That takes serious nerve. And I should know, because I’ve done it, like, eighteen times.

And yet for all that ego demanded by our profession, we writers are remarkably fragile creatures, subject to the dreaded “impostor syndrome,” and other maladies of mind and spirit.”

That’s an excerpt from today’s post on the 2015 Summer-of-Two-Releases Virtual Tour. I’m back at Magical Words today, talking about the vicissitudes of the writing life. Sure, I’m still promoting Dead Man’s Reach and His Father’s Eyes. But also looking beyond these releases to the next project, whatever that may be.  Check out the post here. And enjoy!

The Blog Tour Today

Interested in seeing how characters might wreak their revenge on the writer who creates them? Then have I got a post for you! The 2015 Summer-of-Two-Releases Virtual Tour makes several stops today, including one at the SciFiChick.com, where I interview Ethan Kaille and Justis Fearsson, the lead characters from the Thieftaker Chronicles and The Case Files of Justis Fearsson. The two of them make it clear to me that they’re not entirely satisfied with how I’ve been running their lives. You can find the post here.

The second post, which was originally supposed to go up yesterday (things don’t always go as they’re supposed to on these virtual tours) can be found at All Things Urban Fantasy. It describes the political transformation of Ethan Kaille through the books of the Thieftaker Chronicles. Ethan started as a Loyalist, an opponent of Samuel Adams and the  Sons of Liberty, something that bothered some of my readers. But his political evolution is a central theme in the series. You can read more about it here.

I am also at the blog of my friend and fellow writer, Bradley Beaulieu. Brad, the author of Twelves Kings in Sharakhai and The Winds of Khalokovo, is a terrific writer in his own right, and has been kind enough to interview for the blog tour. You can find the interview here.

Finally, my friend Karen Miller, a wonderful writer and former bookstore owner, who I first met when I lived in Australia, hosts me for an interview on her blog. You can find the Q&A here.

Two New Posts and a Book Giveaway!

The 2015 Summer-of-Two-Releases Virtual Tour starts back up again today much the way it finished last week. I have two posts going live this morning. The first is at ISmellSheep.com, and it includes a giveaway of a signed hardcover edition of Dead Man’s Reach, the fourth novel in my Thieftaker Chronicles. The post begins as a serious essay, but deteriorates quickly when I am interrupted by none other than Sephira Pryce, Ethan Kaille’s lovely nemesis in the Thieftaker novels. Read the post here.

The second post is up at Literary Escapism.  This post (which I complete without interruption) is called “The Geek in Me,” and it is all about my inner geek and how my two releases this summer, Dead Man’s Reach and His Father’s Eyes, the second volume in The Case Files of Justis Fearsson, feed my geeky passions. You can find the post here.

I hope you enjoy them both, and good luck in the giveaway!

Today on the Blog Tour: A Post and an Interview

The 2015 Summer-of-Two-Releases Virtual Tour winds up a busy week with appearances at the blogs of two of my writing friends. A.M. Dellamonica, author of Blue Magic, Indigo Springs, and Child of a  Hidden Sea, interviews me about Dead Man’s Reach, His Father’s Eyes, and the challenges of writing under two names in two series for two publishers. You can find the interview here.

And Harry Connolly, author of Child of Fire and The Way Into Chaos, is hosting me for a post about the ways in which we writers define success. That’s a more complicated issue than some might imagine, in an industry that imposes its own definitions of what it means to succeed or fail. You can read the post here.

I hope you enjoy both the interview and the post, and I wish you all a wonderful weekend.

 

Blood, Magic, and Giveaways, Today on the Virtual Tour

The 2015 Summer-of-Two-Releases Virtual Tour visits Brandy Schillace today, with a post at her Fiction Reboot blog. The post is called “Blood, Magic, and History,” and it touches on the history behind the narrative of DEAD MAN’S REACH, the fourth novel in the Thieftaker Chronicles, which came out on Tuesday.

Later today, I will be hosting a launch party over at Bitten-By-Books. We’ll be giving away a $40 Amazon.com gift card, and you can increase your chances of winning by RSVPing for the event using this URL: http://bit.ly/1IcDeMm

More Free Fiction, and a Post About Community and Genre

The 2015 Summer-of-Two-Releases Virtual Tour continues today with a couple of posts. One is an essay, the first of two, on Genre and Community. The post appears at SFSignal, and I’m grateful to John DeNardo for hosting me again. You can find the essay here.

I am also back today at the site of my friend Faith Hunter with the second half of the short story we started yesterday. Following up on “Water Witch,” which came out last month, Faith and I have written a quick piece featuring Ethan Kaille, the hero of the Thieftaker books, and Hannah Everhart, an ancestor of Molly Everhart Trueblood, Jane Yellowrock’s closest friend. I hope you enjoy it. The second half can be found here. The first half is here.

Celebrating the Release of DEAD MAN’S REACH!

The 2015 Summer-of-Two-Releases Virtual Tour reaches a milestone today with the first of those releases. Dead Man’s Reach, the fourth and (for now) final installment in the Thieftaker Chronicles is out today from Tor Books. And to mark the occasion I have a lot going on. Over at the site of my dear friend Faith Hunter, you will find a new piece of original short fiction: Following up on “Water Witch,” which came out last month, Faith and I present the first half of another crossover story featuring Ethan Kaille, the hero of the Thieftaker books, and Hannah Everhart, an ancestor of Molly Everhart Trueblood, Jane Yellowrock’s closest friend. (The second half will post tomorrow.) Enjoy!

I share this release day with my friend Max Gladstone, author of the Craft Sequence books. His newest novel, Last First Snow, drops today as well, and so the two of us are featured at the Barnes and Noble Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog. Check it out, and learn about the interesting history Max and I share.

Finally, I have a post up at the Magical Words blog site on the history behind the action in Dead Man’s Reach. Yeah, I know — history is boring. Not this history. The book takes place against the backdrop of the Boston Massacre. Read the post here.

And please, go out and get yourself a copy of Dead Man’s Reach. I think it’s the best work I’ve ever done. I hope you think so, too. Thanks!

A Plea For Calm, Today on the Blog Tour

Today on the 2015 Summer-of-Two-Releases Virtual Tour, I am posting over at Black Gate Magazine. This is a different sort of post for me. I have, thus far, avoided any comment on the Sad/Rabid Puppies-Hugo controversy, believing that I would be best off staying out of it. I write for both Tor Books and Baen Books, two publishers at the center of the matter, and I didn’t want to draw fire from either side. In this post, though, I break my silence. It’s time we recognized that we have far more in common with one another than not. It’s time for an end to this mess. Read the post here.