Writer's Grove

Mental Flotsam Purge #2

I have been graced with my first pro review of Hounded! It’s from John Ottinger, who gives it five stars (squee!). “A must read for fans of Celtic and urban fantasy. Hilarious and fun!” He says he’ll have a full review up on his blog in March—which I can’t wait to see—but what he wrote in January sure did make my day. Very grateful!

In pursuit of our own happiness, a modest proposal: Let the pizza delivery guys deliver beer. The happiness this will bring to me and all like-minded Americans should be one of those famously self-evident truths. But there’s an economic reason to do it, too—there might be a state budget crisis or two we can solve here! Beer delivery equals more tax revenue, guaranteed, without raising taxes. How? Well, pizza joints jack up the price of beverages anyway. If a six-pack costs them $7, they’ll charge $10-12 (or more) to deliver it. 9% of $12 is more than 9% of $7—boom, you just increased revenue without raising taxes. And people will pay it—yes, I will pay it! Because $2 a bottle is still cheaper than what I’d pay at the ballpark or in any bar, and the convenience is simply awesome. You can curtail abuse of this in the statute—food must be ordered, for example, or only one six-pack per customer. I don’t see a downside here—pizza companies will enjoy more profits; states will enjoy increased revenue; people who run out of beer in the middle of a game won’t be out driving to get more at halftime, and people who are drinking at home are obviously not out on the road after drinking at the sports bar. I’m not a legislator (thank goodness), but surely this can be crafted to work for everyone’s profit and public safety. Who will lead the way? I am fairly certain it won’t be my state…damn it.

Got some work done on my epic this weekend (see the progress bar on the right; it was at 5430 but I scrapped that and started over, so I wrote 7K), and I’ve finally come up with a name that I like, but I think I’ll keep it a secret for now…we’ll see if anyone wants to publish it before I trumpet its nimi (that’s Finnish for name—I keep coming up with excuses to use Google Translate).

My tree has been getting lots of hugs on behalf of people who have pre-ordered Hounded, and I’ve mailed off quite a few signed bookplates. If you’d like to get in on this deal (there’s one place in the UK selling the whole series for $5.99 each and FREE shipping to the US), then head on over to the HOUNDED page, click on any red link you like, pre-order and send me an email! Part of this deal is that my dogs get hugged when you pre-order. It’s in the contract. Have you seen my dogs?

That’s Sophie on the left and Manley on the right (named after the British poet Gerard Manley Hopkins). They are regularly loved and petted, but they are delighted by the BONUS love they’re getting as a result of all these pre-orders. (I think I may have given them an extra snack or five as well in the fulsomeness of my joy.)

I have cats too. Their names are Huckleberry and Lucky (Lucky because we saved him from CERTAIN DEATH), but they are quite adamant on the point that they not be photographed. Or maybe it’s just that the dogs follow me around and thus they keep hiding from me. The cats will only be hugged by your special request, because it takes some effort to chase them down.

After hearing about it for years, I have finally given myself the gift that is The Big Bang Theory. Nerds are so awesome—but especially Dr. Sheldon Cooper.

Currently I’m hammering out details for a couple of appearances. One will be the launch party for Hounded at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe on April 19—the date is pretty solid since that’s my release day, but I’m still working on the times. I will also be at San Diego Comic Con in July—specific time and location to be determined. Soonish, I’ll have an extra page up on the site called Events & Appearances, and I’ll update that every time something concrete comes in.

I just saw Black Swan and oh my goodness. It’s not a movie to see with your parents, but if you’re a creative person and you have little creative neuroses (or big ones) it’s a powerful, moving film full of questions for artists of all kinds. Natalie Portman definitely deserves the Oscar for this one. And my flotsam is hereby purged…