Tag Archives: Hammered

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Ski Mask Shenanigans

As one might imagine, whenever I get together with my editors, we tend to Plot Shenanigans of a Sordid Nature. Raucously. Drunkenly. Boorishly, even. Peppered with Evil Sniggers. And we leave our servers wondering how we ever managed to get ourselves Gainfully Employed. More on this below…

The first thing I did when I entered the Random House building on July 5, the release day for HAMMERED, was thank the nice security lady who saved my life the previous year from the dangerous vagaries of their turnstile system. She did not remember me. She saves lives EVERY DAY, so I was just another face in the crowd for her. But she was special to me, and I let her know.

Next I got to jump up and down and squee with my editor, Tricia, because HAMMERED was already doing well on Amazon and had gotten some kind reviews. And then we went down to see the Beast of the East, Viking Mike, and deliver a comic I drew of him and Atticus O’Sullivan slaying demons together. Here it is—you can click to enlarge:

I want you all to know that my representation of Mike is only slightly exaggerated. Random House policy prohibits him from wearing a horned helmet and bringing a double-bladed axe to work, but otherwise you see him in his daily costume: a kilt and giant nipple ring. He is a hardcore badass, and he brings that ruthless energy to his editing.

Next we traveled down a couple of floors (we were on the 24th, but we went down to 22) and warmed ourselves in the cozy glow of the giant fire pit where they burn unsolicited manuscripts. The blaze is watched over by a nervous intern and the smoke is carried out through one of those giant industrial vents you see on cooking shows. On that floor I had the great pleasure of meeting Gina and April, so shout-outs to both of them!

Mike, Tricia, and I took off to a neat place nearby for lunch called The Three Monkeys. (Mike put on a shirt for this.) They had some ridiculously good food and beer there. My first inkling that this could be a very good lunch was provided by the variety of taps:

I ordered a German hefeweizen with the long name on the glass. They claim to be the world’s oldest brewery, but we know that’s not true. That would be Goibhniu’s brewery in Tír na nÓg. Anyway, it tasted of bananas and cloves, people. Delicious.

Oberon would have been overjoyed by the Chicken Truffle Sausage, served with grilled onions and mashed potatoes. Proof:

We then began to Plot Shenanigans of a Sordid Nature, so we had to don ski masks to preserve our anonymity in case anything was overheard. And of course, because we were celebrating the release of HAMMERED, and Atticus does an Irish Car Bomb with Jesus in Chapter 11, we had to do an Irish Car Bomb ourselves. Ever had one? You take half a pint of Guinness, drop in a shot that’s part whiskey and part Bailey’s Irish Cream, then chug it fast before the Bailey’s curdles. If you do it right, it tastes like chocolate milk. Nom nom nom! Here is what they look like before you chug ’em:

Isn’t that one of the prettiest pictures you’ve ever seen? Here are We Three Conspirators preparing to pound ’em down—I’m the one in the mask:

That’s something you don’t see every day. And it’s probably best for your sanity, to be truthful.

What did we plot? Well, the possibility of a short story coming out sometime before the release of TRICKED to tide you over until April 2012. The possibility of getting the same cover model for the next three books and casually inquiring whether he’s single, because everyone wants to know. And since construction of our dragon ship  is nearly finished, we made preliminary plans for pillaging the coast of Nova Scotia.

I had an utterly lovely time at Posman Books in Grand Central Terminal (‘Sup, Stacey?) later that night, and then I went out with my agent to drink some more at an amazing place called The Ginger Man. We toasted and caroused and talked beer with the very knowledgable bartender, Nikki. She knew her stuff!

Anyway. Today I’m back on a plane for Arizona. I have a book to finish and lots of packages to mail and stuff like that. Want to thank all of you for your enthusiasm for the series; I’m sincerely grateful and so glad I get to write more!

Next up: San Diego Comic Con! I’ll be on a panel at 8 pm on Friday with Harry Turtledove and Kim Harrison! Woohoo! :) See my Events & Appearances page for other goodies! Peace.

 

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Ready to get Hammered?

I’m pretty honkin’ excited about Tuesday, because that’s when everyone can get HAMMERED! I’ll be in NYC with my editors and agent and even my mom celebrating the release of the Iron Druid’s third adventure, where he trades in Arizona for Asgard. Would you like to take a sneak peek for the holiday weekend? The first four chapters has Odin, the Norns, the Valkyries, Imaginary Spock, and more! Here you go, provided I embedded the sucker correctly:

[scribd id=58992141 key=key-2e319kdhajlh1fdaj4xk mode=list]

Hope you enjoy! Peace, love, and sausage!

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New York state o’ mind

‘Tis time to visit the in-laws, and they live in upstate New York. My tree, my house, and my doggies will be left in capable hands while I schmooze lots of trees and much bigger doggies at someone else’s house. And I ain’t kiddin’ about the bigger doggies. They have a Newfoundland and he’s a slobberbucket.

While I’m in New York, I’ve arranged a couple of book-related appearances. The first one will be at Ole Sal’s Cafe and Creamery in Little Falls, NY, on Saturday, June 25, from 3-5 pm. There will be some books for sale there—Hounded and Hexed— but you’re welcome to bring your own too and hang out! The ice cream is nomnomnom and they make great coffee too. Old wood floor in the building, makes you feel important when you walk on it because it makes such great sound. If you’re from anywhere around there and you feel like a nice weekend drive, hope you’ll make the trip, maybe take a ride down the Erie Canal.

July 5!

The second appearance will be in New York, NY on July 5, the release day for HAMMERED! I’ll be at Posman Books in Grand Central Terminal at 6 pm. If you can’t make it there or send a minion at that time, then please contact Posman and special order ahead of time and I’ll sign your book for you to pick up later!

OK, can I just geek out for a second about HAMMERED?

It has a MAP in it and I MADE IT!! I still can’t believe they let me do it all by myself. And it’s a MAP OF ASGARD! They had to print it pretty darn tiny to make it fit on a paperback page so some of the architectural details of Valhalla, etc. are a bit indistinct, but it still looks turbo cool! I will post a larger version of the map here a few weeks after the release so you can make fun of it. :)

The other thing I’m geeking out about are the chapters narrated by other characters, who all share a decided dislike for Thor. They get told sorta like The Canterbury Tales, and there are FIVE of them. You’ll finally get to learn why Leif Helgarson holds such a grudge against Thor, and that, as you might expect, is called The Vampire’s Tale. After each tale there’s a cool little Celtic doggie thingie that’s called a “dingbat” in typography, which signals that we’re switching from the guest narrator back to Atticus. I love the doggies!

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! If you happen to buy the eBook version of HAMMERED—doesn’t matter which device you’re using—then you’ll get a bonus short story called “A Test of Mettle.” It’s told from Granuaile’s point of view, and it lets you know what she and Oberon are up to while Atticus is off doing his thing in Asgard. OK, geek out finished. :)

Comin’ up on the blog, a look at all the amazin’ stuff The League of Reluctant Adults is cookin’ up, instructions on how to make an Atticus omelet, and Documented Shenanigans with my editors in New York! Peace out!

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Release dates all settled now

Quick update: As expected, the release date for Hammered has been moved back as well, to July 5. I’m very sorry to delay the story a bit for everyone, but the reason for it is to help introduce Atticus to the widest possible audience. Barnes & Noble will have spiffy little cardboard display thingies (Alas! They are properly called book dumps) for each book now.

Apologies to book bloggers and readers who have been following along and waiting so patiently! The final, settled release dates are May 3 for Hounded, June 7 for Hexed, and July 5 for Hammered.

I first learned that Hounded‘s release date would be moved on February 23. A couple of weeks later I learned about Hexed. And now, on March 30, I learn about Hammered. I am not sure why it seems to take two weeks to make these moves, but I’m kind of enjoying not knowing. It is a delicious mystery that allows me to craft dramatic explanations. I imagine people in trench coats and pork pie hats making deals in posh restaurants, trading code phrases and surreptitiously handing over briefcases full of non-sequential unmarked bills. I tend to dwell on the code phrases.

“The carpet is smoother under the refrigerator,” one trench coat says. The reply is quick and biting.

“It’s shag carpet, you dumbass. There’s nothing smooth about shag carpeting.”

The identity of his contact thus confirmed, the first trench coat nods and says, “Right. So there’s this guy who wrote some books about a Druid living in modern-day Tempe. Can we get him a spiffy cardboard display thingie?”

Second trench coat replies, “We call them book dumps. But let’s order a bottle of something French and pretentious and have them slaughter a hog for us before we talk business.”

You can see why it might take two weeks in a situation like that. If I got to wear a trench coat and order pretentious French things at lunch, I’d take my time too. :)

I’m sure the truth is much more prosaic and entirely safe for hogs. It probably involves polite emails and contracts. Contracts make everything last longer, including gum, which is why I always chew a contract along with my Juicy Fruit.

Anyway, if you’ve pre-ordered any of the books, those are the real release dates now. Some booksellers are better than others about updating their sites to reflect this. Thanks again for your patience n’ understanding!

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Release Date Moved!

Lots o’ book news today, but here’s the big one first: Hounded will now be released on May 3 instead of April 19! Sorry to make you wait a wee bit longer—but it’s only two weeks! I promise this has nothing to do with things like last minute revisions or printer problems or anything like that. No, this has everything to do with cardboard—and it’s a good thing!

You know those little cardboard towers/doodads/thingies you see sometimes in bookstores and they’re all full of one particular book and you kinda can’t miss ’em because they’re often in your way? Well, they’re going to put up one of those for Hounded in fine Barnes & Noble stores across the country! That is spectacular news if you normally shop at Barnes & Noble: It means that you will have zero problems finding my book, because my display will practically tackle you and demand that you purchase a copy forthwith! The admitted downside here is that you will have to wait an extra two weeks to be tackled.

Release dates for the sequels remain unchanged: Hexed will still come out on May 24, and Hammered releases on June 28. Three books out in two months. Crrrrazy!

But wait! There’s more! If any of you are up Chicago way, turns out that Del Rey (my spiffy publisher) is going to be an exhibitor at C2E2 for the first time! And they’re GIVING AWAY copies of Hounded! Like, MORE THAN TWO COPIES. Closer to TWO HUNDRED. It’s March 18-20, so if you haven’t made plans to go yet, why not? Besides scoring a free copy of my debut, you could meet Chris Hemsworth, the guy playing Thor, because he’ll be there in all his bronzed, muscled glory! (Somewhere on the east coast, Amalia just swooned.) And Garth Ennis will be there (talented comic dude)! And Sam Trammell, Kristen Bauer, and Brit Morgan from True Blood! It’s a good time!

Oh no, I ain’t done yet. There is MORE. There will be a couple o’ freebies packaged with the e-book version of Hounded—whether you get that from Kindle, Nook, or whatever. Two short stories, both of them featuring Atticus n’ Oberon, will be bundled with that particular e-book purchase. One is “Clan Rathskeller,” which I already have up for free on my site, but the e-book version will be slightly revised; and another is called “Kaibab Unbound,” which will be available exclusively with the digital copy of the book. “Kaibab Unbound” takes place two weeks before the events of Hounded, and gives you a glimpse at the lives of Atticus n’ Oberon before everything goes kablooey. Warning: Contains Witches.

MEANWHILE! The lovely people at Brilliance Audio are gearing up to start recording Hexed. The extremely talented Luke Daniels has finished lending his voice to Hounded and soon there will be samples to enjoy! If you’re an audiobook fan, all three books will be released simultaneously with the print versions, and they’re available now for pre-order.

Whew. That’s all for now. :)

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Still Life with Fantasy and Fruit #8

I’m on my October break—which means a week off from school—and having a WHOLE! WEEK! to read and write and run errands during normal business hours sounds like a swim in milk chocolate right now.

My copy edits for Hammered are going to arrive today, so of course I’ll be diving into that, and I’m hoping to finish up my outline for book six this week, which is currently wearing the tentative title of Hunted.

My outlines are about 10-15 pages. I’m making them longer and more detailed than I used to because I saw the advantage of it while writing Hexed; the detailed notes I’d written on Hexed allowed me to crank it out in five months, and it was also far easier to edit/prettify than Hounded or Hammered, neither of which had detailed outlines. So I’ve learned quite a bit about myself as a writer—I can write as a pantser and as a plotter as well—but wow, the job sure gets done more efficiently when I plot. That doesn’t mean I slavishly follow the outline, either—I change things as I go, especially the order of events. I’ll probably post my Hexed outline after the book comes out so people can compare what I’d planned against what actually got written.

Here’s what I plan to read this week:

Still Life with Fantasy and Fruit #8

We have three miniature fruits here alongside a giant variation of another. Miniature Clementine oranges, a wee watermelon, and a petite pumpkin frame Scott Westerfeld’s dieselpunk Behemoth, while huge table grapes called Pristines nestle against the steampunk succulence of Cherie Priest’s Dreadnought.

I loved both Leviathan (Westerfeld) and Boneshaker (Priest), so these sequels are going to be delightful returns to worlds I enjoyed on my first visit. I especially love that Dreadnought is printed in brown ink like Boneshaker was.

In other news, Suvudu is starting their Villain Cage Match! TODAY! You can go vote now for who should fill in the last few slots in the bracket here.

And when the first round starts, one of the matchups will be introduced by Yours Truly! The bracket is public now, so I’m not going to be spoiling anything with this: I’ve written up the White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia (Seed #5) vs. Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica (Seed #28)! I hope you’ll follow along and join in the fun by voting! These Cage Matches are the coolest thing ever…it’s a chance to feed the Nerd Inside. So say we all.

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A bulleted list of updates

•I have publication dates for all three books now:
HOUNDED, April 26, 2011
HEXED, May 24, 2011
HAMMERED, June 28, 2011

•In super-duper-happy-mega-big-jumbo news, I’m getting ultra-spiffy, full-color, finished-art ARE’s (Advanced Reader Editions)! Normally ARE’s are sent out with generic covers on them; they say the author’s name, the title of the book, and then there’s a nice houndstooth pattern or some diamonds or whatnot to look at, nothing more. Full-bore ARE’s are supposed to indicate the publisher is really behind the book, thinks it will do well, etc. so I’m extremely grateful and lucky to have the coolest editor evah. But it also means I’ll get to see some cover art a bit sooner than I thought! If you cannot feel my excitement pouring through the pixels at your eyeballs right now, then you are extraordinarily stable to the point of Stoicism! Squeeee! There. That did it. You’re excited now too!

•Whoa! I got my first fan mail! A relative of my alpha reader wrote me a very nice note after he finished reading HEXED. Completely made my week. Here’s a snippet:

The last fight scene was epic! I could picture it exactly–it was very easy to follow what was happening…I’ve read other books where I just get lost in the various battle sequences and I just end up skipping pages.  Boo to them.  You, sir, know what you’re doing.  Kudos.

Wasn’t that sweet? He said a lot of very nice things, but that bit made me all warm and fuzzy inside because fight scenes are extremely difficult for me to write. I count that as  high praise indeed. Thanks, Mike R!

•Possessed by whimsy, a couple of my friends are doing a parody of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” video with me. We are all giant men. We won’t be wearing spandex or leotards because we’re trying to induce laughter rather than vomiting. Can’t wait to get it all shot and edited…we did the first part today, and it was quite a hoot!

•Getting into The Scarlet Letter with the kids at school. The Romantic writing style is a bear, but the story is first-class soap opera, man. And Roger Chillingworth is the most cold-blooded villain ever. Dude  creeps me out. I’ve had nightmares, because he just never gives up. And it’s funny how some adults have heard we’re reading it and they’re instantly down on it. “HATED IT!” they say. Well, it’s only because they’re still having nightmares about Roger F-ing Chillingworth. I mean, if you give Darth Vader, Freddy Kreuger, and Roger Chillingworth each a planet of people to make miserable, first one to make ’em all go insane wins, Roger F-ing Chillingworth will win. He is a master of mental torture. Puritan Guilt: It’s What’s For Dinner!

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One Hundred Plus Three

Not sure if there’s some sort of numerological significance to this, but today marks my one hundredth blog post and my third novel accepted by Del Rey!

I have been smiling so much about that last bit that people have begun to fear me. They swerve out of my path and refuse to make eye contact, frightened that I might be happy at them.

I’m incapable of turning down the wattage, however, because at this time last year I didn’t even have a book deal yet (The deal happened on Sep. 25, 2009), and now—11 months later—Del Rey has accepted HOUNDED, HEXED, and HAMMERED!

And starting about eight months from now—April 26, 2011—people will finally get to read my books! The trick, I am told, is to make them aware of my existence between now and then. I hope I can manage somehow.

My release schedule—April, May, and June of next year—means readers will get to sink their mental teeth deep into the series right away. It also means I’m in a really weird place right now…the sort of place they never tell you about, and by they I mean all those people who write about the writing life…you know: writers. I’ve written three urban fantasies, but I’m still a few months away from having a cover or early reviews or any of those other shiny things writers like to gush about. And don’t get me wrong—I’m going to gush about my cover(s) and my (hopefully kind) early reviews, etc.—but in the meantime I’m a writer without any books to point at. It’s a funky state of being; I should probably take notes.

The reason they never told me about this place is that there truly aren’t many writers who have debuted in this fashion. From what I understand, I’m only the third to do so for Del Rey. I don’t know if other publishers do this or not…so maybe I’m the third, period. Naomi Novik began her wonderful Temeraire series this way, and Stacia Kane just got finished releasing her first three Downside novels last month.

I’ve been told my blog posts will start poppin’ up on Suvudu. Maybe it will even be this one—if so, hello there, nice person who clicked on a curious link! I should probably warn you that I will not simply be writing about my books. I tend to write about beer and miniature dwarfs and things of importance to nerds, and I do my best to post twice a week. I also like to interview other authors because I’m sort of a fanboy and easily impressed by smart people (my interview with Gail Carriger will go live a week from today, August 31). Browse through my archives to get a sense for it—I have 99 other posts here to enjoy! And if you say hi in the comments to let me know that you’re now aware of my existence, I’ll repay you by introducing you to Sigurd Kneecapper on Saturday—plus an awesome microbrew! :)

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Upcoming Stuff

Well, this is weird…I’m going to blog about stuff I’m not currently blogging about. It’s not terribly brilliant as far as posts go, but school starts tomorrow and I must obsess about that for a bit. So here are some things to which we may all look forward:

1. On August 31 there will be the special treat of my latest 3:2 Interview with the amazing Gail Carriger, author of Soulless, Changeless, and the upcoming Blameless!
2. Sometime soon I might get to see some preliminary cover art for my books! I don’t know when I’ll get to share that with you all, probably deep into the fall sometime, but I have it on good authority that someone is working on it.
3. Also in the works for later is a full-on website—that definitely won’t go live before I get my cover art, though. I’m planning on uploading some sound files of the foreign-language passages in my books, especially the Polish and German in HEXED and the Hebrew in HAMMERED—the Icelandic, too, if I can find someone to do it for me. And there will be pictures of my character sketches, early attempts at a map for Asgard, and other goodies.
4. Speaking of sound files, don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but there will be unabridged audio versions of all three books from Brilliance. I cannot WAIT to hear who they get to do these books! Besides speaking English with the western American accent, he’ll have to pull off passable versions of Irish, Tamil, Polish, Icelandic, and Russian accents as well, then actually speak several passages in Irish, Polish, German, Icelandic, Hebrew, and Russian like a native speaker. Whoever does it will probably  hate me by the time he’s through. But I will make it all better by soothing his sore vocal cords with beer.
5. Speaking of beer (because you should whenever you can), there are more Still Lifes with Dwarfs and Beer ahead. I think I may have found that Smoked Porter Hillary was telling me about, cannot wait to try it…but I have to wait until the weekend.
6. On October 9, if anybody can make it to Payson, Arizona, I’ll be speaking at 10 am on genre fiction, how to break into the biz, that sort of thing. It’s targeted toward aspiring writers and I’m excited that I might be able to help—because I was an aspiring writer too, until just recently. Don’t have a venue quite yet, but I’ll post it as soon as I know.

Hope everyone is doing well!

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Glimmerglass & Cooperstown

Sigh. Today’s my last day in NY. Heading back to the dry heat tomorrow and trees with many thorns instead of leaves.

But I visited a couple of cool breweries down near Cooperstown I wanted to talk about for a bit. One is called Ommegang, and they have a beer there called Three Philosopher’s Ale that they sell for $3.50 a bottle. Yeah, that’s a 12-oz. bottle. They age it in a cellar like wine. It’s unusual stuff—might not be for everyone—but I know that some people find it to be divine, and I give it a free cameo appearance in Hammered in a scene featuring Atticus, Gunnar, and Leif. You can find Ommegang’s beers in some stores back east and finer liquor establishments all over. The tour of the brewery is cool and the grounds are immaculate. They have a really large grassy area behind the brewery suitable for concerts, so they occasionally have concerts there since they’re cool like that.

That’s my cute kid and my sister in-law around the Ommegang fire pit. The tree-lined grassy area extends (quite extensively, natch) to both the left and right of this picture. Very pretty.
We also visited another brewery in the area called Cooperstown Brewing, which is actually located in nearby Milford. Here are their beers, from light to dark: 

I like the Nine Man Ale, a very clean pilsner. That Back Yard IPA is kind of neat because they grow the hops to finish it right on the property. Here’s their hop vines:

Yesterday we went to Glimmerglass State Park, which is really Otsego Lake that James Fenimore Cooper called “Glimmerglass” in his books. It’s a glacial lake fed by springs beneath the surface. When you go swimming in there you can sort of feel where the springs are, because there are colder patches of water. The swimming area is lovely and so are the grounds around the lake, with lots of benches and trails and remarkably friendly trees.

Yeah, I’m going to be leaving all that and return to this:
That’s a creosote bush, by the way, for those of you who have never seen one before. They’re the dominant desert scrub, and they give the whole valley its distinctive smell when it rains. I happen to love the smell, but I know some people don’t dig it. These things can grow forever, cloning themselves. There’s one that’s dang near 12,000 years old. Anyway, they can grow pretty close together at times and they provide quite a bit of shelter to plenty of desert animals. I mention them a couple of times in Hounded, so I thought I’d provide the picture here to aid the imagination. :)
Working through my TBR pile and fiddling around with outlines for book four and an epic fantasy trilogy while I wait for my editors to take a look at Hammered. Life is good.