Shameless Self-Promotion to Follow...

A bit redundant, as this is my blog, and it's all about ME ME ME!!!!!! (Okay, not really. It's only mostly about me. :-P )

Since this whole publishing thing-a-ma-jobbie is all new and shiny to me, I choose to operate under the assumption (assumption / delusion - meh, whatever) that everyone else gets as excited about the milestones as I do. So, it's with much happy dancing that I announce:

ARCLIGHT IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!!! 

It's all shiny and official with a sales rank and everything. (btw, writers, if you want to drive yourself insane and waste valuable writing time, discover that your as yet unpublished book has a sales rank and then obsess about watching it yo-yo throughout the day)

Here it is on Amazon: LINK

Here it is on Barnes & Noble: LINK

I haven't seen it on Indie Bound, yet, but I'll add it to the sidebar as soon as it shows up.

The links take you to the hardback, but both have a click-over link to the ebook.

Also, it's here, which is the HarperCollins catalog for next summer. Take a minute and browse their upcoming titles; there's a lot of good stuff coming up.

/sales pitch

Arclight cover -- FOR REAL

For those of you who missed it, yesterday, and for those who didn't want to click to another site, here's the cover for ARCLIGHT:



You can't really tell from the JPEG, but it's very (VERY) shiny, and the title and all those rays are embossed.

Arclight Cover Reveal!!!

I'm not putting it here today, as the reveal's being handled by the awesome Kat and Stephanie over at Cuddlebuggery, but the cover is officially able to be viewed by someone without access to my hard drive.

Go check it out here.

 (Would you click if I told you Robert Downey, Jr. was there? He is. I promise.)

If you don't already follow Cuddlebuggery's book blog, you might want to consider it. It's a no holds barred, no feelings spared, very honest and in-depth review blog.

First Lines

When you have a novel, the cover is what attracts a potential reader's attention, but what keeps it is usually a combination of the back cover copy and the first lines of the text itself. Of those three things, only one is in the author's direct control - which is why those first lines are so desperately important.

Even before a novel is published, the first lines need to shine. They're an agent's first taste of a writer's style and voice if you go the commercial publishing route. If you choose to self-publish, then it's those lines that will be showcased in the "Look Inside" feature to allow readers to decide if they want to read any further.

It shouldn't take more than a page, and ideally no more than a couple of sentences, to establish the age group and genre a novel is targeted for. To that end, I've pulled the following lines out of my WIP folder. They each come from a different novel. Some are MG, some YA. Some are 1st person, some are 3rd. Some are contemporary and some are fantasy or sci-fi. I've decided to put the first line theory to the test.

Can you tell, from just these opening lines, and without the context of a title or cover image, which of these are MG and which are YA?

1. The whole thing began rather simply, as is often the case in bizarre or fantastic circumstances.
2. The voices of the dead never truly leave - they become the wind, and roam the barren places of the world seeking solace. 
3. It's said that the children of Rhin are born with bells  in their hair.
4. A storm was raging, and for this O'Keefe Sinclair was grateful.
5. Some say you can tell when a person died by the color of their soul.
6. I suppose it's no one's fault, but I choose to blame the boys.
7. Micah was already running when the building exploded.
8. It takes 1800 mg of Ketamine to knock out a draft horse.
9. The snow came down in a swirl of rain and ash and blood, and in the distance, the Golden City burned.
10. "It's like life, only more exciting, with better clothes, and a nicer car.
11. No matter you may have heard, it was not Tanner's idea to fly Bobby Steiner's jersey from the flagpole with Bobby still inside it.

What's it like?

It's a dreaded question if you write sci-fi or fantasy, because what you want to say is "It's like nothing you've seen before."  And that's just not a very good answer. People usually want something familiar, or at least tangible, that they can connect to - even in a setting that's totally different from what they're used to. You need a sort of touchstone to ground your readers in the world you've created. But, if you've created a new world, then how do you give them that?

If you're lucky, you go trawling on Deviant Art and find something that fits your creation so perfectly that you're compelled to share it. To that end, I give you this: 



This is an image called "My Immortal" by bottomofastairwell (LINK) who was gracious enough to give me permission to repost the image here.

This image IS Arclight, guys. It just is. The clothes are wrong, but the effect on the guy's back... so perfect you won't even understand why until you read the novel. (You ARE planning on reading the novel, yes? Good, then we can still be friend and I won't have to write unpleasant demises for any of you into upcoming novel-things.) The girl, to a certain extent, is even perfect.

I saw this picture and actually emailed it to my editor. It's that accurate.

Just stare at it for a while and know that in a few months, you get to read this picture... I mean Arclight. :-P

And for those of you who've asked, later this month I'll be showing off the shiny (very shiny) cover for Arclight. I'm not sure the exact date I'm allowed to post it here, but it should be in a couple of weeks.