Kinds Words and Interesting Topics

Colin Harvey was nice enough to review Staked over at Suite101.com and he's given me permission to quote a portion of the review:

"This debut novel is chock full of vampires, werewolves and witches in an imaginary city but the style and characterization set it apart from lesser competitors."

- Colin Harvey, Suite101.com

If you'd like to read the whole review, you'll have to jump on over here. He has some very kind things to say and he also calls 'em like he sees 'em. Colin takes me to task for an infodump at one point in the novel and he mentions some disatisfaction with Staked's ending, but all in all, I'd call it a good review and he obviously enjoyed the book.

A few days later, he made a very interesting post about "Cliffhangers vs Open Ended Books" which hits so close to the mark its scary on what I intended when I wrote Staked.
{Spoiler Alert: Some (okay almost every single person who has read the book) have interpretted the ending as a cliffhanger. I didn't intend it to be one, but I certainly understand that point of view.}

When I sold Staked, it was a one book deal. I wanted there to be more books about Eric, Tabitha, and Void City (and fortunately that dream comes true in March with the release of ReVamped... though Amazon is already shipping it) but I also wanted it to be able to stand alone if that dream never materialized... which brings me to a question: If you've already read Staked, how did you interpret the ending? Cliffhanger or Not.

I'd be interested to know. :)

Note: If you enjoy Colin's articles, you'll want to check out some of his fiction. I've linked to his website here.

Podcasting with Gail Z. Martin

Gail Z. Martin is the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series. She also does a podcast called Ghost in the Machine where she talks to other authors about all sorts of things. You can find the episode we did together (we talked about vampires - gee, I wonder why? ::GRIN::) here. And you can find the main podcast page: here.

Guess Who's Coming to Birmingham?

So last year we had a con in Birmingham, AL. It was a first year con with around three thousand attendees (which is pretty much unheard of for a first year con). This year, Birmingham has a new con (ImagiCon) and it's been put together by a bunch of great folks who want to make sure Birmingham has its own convention... which... since I *live* in Birmingham, I am all about, too. :)

They almost skipped a year and launched the con in 2010, but even with the short turnaround, they have some cool people coming:

On the Lit Track: Sherrilyn Kenyon will be back (WOOT!), as will Christina Barber, Alan Gilbreath, M.B. Weston, The Wandering Men (I still need to blog about those guys) and yours truly. Debut authors Jeannie Holmes and Stephanie Osborn will also be there along with short story writer (and aspiring novelist) Shelly Li.

There are other guests on the list and you can find them here or you can just go to http://imagicon.org and check out all the guests and events these guys have planned.

So if you're in Birmingham March 27-29, 2009. Come on by and see us. There will be copies of ReVamped in the dealer's rooom and I might be convinced to read a short story or... even an excerpt from the current draft of book 3.

Who knows?

The Jesus Geeks Podcast talks about Staked

Chris and Cliff over at the Jesus Geeks podcast talk about the controversy that sprang up around Staked, the first novel in my Void City series. I was tempted to provide a link here with the statement:

Jesus Geeks Approve Staked:

"This book is pure entertainment... It was a very good first novel."

Chris Martins, The Jesus Geeks Podcast

That's a bit disingenuous though. Chris did say he enjoyed the book and in fact he did make both of the above statements about Staked, but both Chris (of the Jesus Geeks) and John (of jesusgeek.info) had issues with the book, particularly the sexual content.

If you'd like to hear what they had to say, go take a listen: here.

One of the biggest things I took issue with was John's description of the sex scenes as pornographic. They clearly aren't. I left a few comments via voice mail explaining my position on the sexuality depicted in Staked on the Jesus Geeks comment line and Chris says he'll be playing them in a few weeks on a follow up episode.

I have to say that I truly appreciate Chris and John taking the time to read the book beforing commenting on it. Their comments, even the negative ones, were made in a respectful good-natured manner. Kudos, gentlemen! I appreciate it.

Forums and Free Books and Mario... Oh my!

We have a new look over at the League of Reluctant Adults. The new look comes with new Leaguers, too... like Mario Acevedo, Michele Bardsley, Dakota Cassidy, Molly Harper, Kelly Meding, Richelle Mead, Nicole Peeler, Cherie Priest, Jennifer Rardin, Michelle Rowen, and Jeanne Stein.

As if that wasn't enough, all your favorite Leaguers from way back in last week are still there: Mark Henry, Stacia Kane, Jackie Kessler, Caitlin Kittredge, J. F. Lewis (Hey, that's me!), Anton Strout, and Jaye Wells.

But I said contests didn't I? I'm giving away a signed ARC of ReVamped (or a can of SpaghettiOs... depending on preference). You can comment here to participate.

And there are other contests, too. Like oh... an ARC of Red-headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells.

And did I mention we have forums now? Come on over and check out the new site!