Welcome Back to the Void!

It's that time again.

Release day. I can't describe how it feels to be here again on the release of a second book. Part of me feels like it isn't happening. Part of me fears it will be the last time. And a much larger section of the J-brain wonders whether people will like it or not. In a way, the shipdate for a new novel is like sending your kid off for the first day at school. As an author, I've done all that I can for little ReVamped. There are always little sections I feel like I might have gotten just right if I'd had a few more revisions, tiny tweaks which have gone unmade because if I don't stop tweaking then the book will never be done and out for people to read.

True, I can do my best to make sure people know how fun little ReVamped is and shout about it in interviews, podcasts, or blogs. I can go to conventions and show off ReVamped and its older sibling, Staked. But in many ways the magic has been worked and now ReVamped's future is in the hands of the buyers, sellers, reviewers, and fans.

The funniest thing of all, is that ReVamped has actually been on the shelves for several days at this point. Some of the people that pre-ordered copies of ReVamped got the book as early as February 27th. It began showing up on the shelves of bookstores around Birmingham last week. But the "official release day" still feels special and today is the first day the novel is available for folks who use the Kindle (Hi, Jerry) or other eBook readers.

With the book release comes the temptation to ego surf for reactions to ReVamped, but I'll try to hold off and let my Google Alerts bring those to me. After all, I'm still working on book three and I need to get it all nice and shiny if I'm to expect anyone to purchase it... so that I can start the rollercoaster all over again.

Here's hoping you enjoy your second trip to Void City and many more to come. Feel free to drop by (via comment or email) and let me know how you're enjoying the book. If you're reading Staked for the first time I'd be glad to hear from you as well.

Best,

Jeremy

It's Dream Given Form Time Again

Please pardon my Babylon 5 reference...

I sent the page proofs for ReVamped off today via next day UPS goodness so it will be in the hands of my editor by the deadline. Yay! Meeting deadline = good. :) It took longer than intended for me to get through the page proofs because a bizarre combination of bronchitis and a small cut in my ear canal. For several days, the ear canal injury was worse than the bronchitis, but the coughing and wheezing has finally overcome the ear issue. Only two more weeks of antibiotics and inhalers to go! Woo-hoo!

Which kind of makes me a bit:

But not no worries, because I *did* meet the dealine, so, to reward myself, I watched The Incredible Hulk (the new one not the hideous one from a few years ago). They had me at "Hulk Smash!" That's really all I can say about the movie. It's not as awesome as Iron Man, but it's sooo much better than the Hulk's previous movie outing that I can go watch Ang Lee's really cool martial arts films again with out cringing because of Hulk aftertaste.

I've also been listening to plenty of Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas music (I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I'm doing it anyway - MWAHAHAHA!) and I even got to watch the Iron Chef America Thanksgiving episode. All of which has left me much more:


(A quick note to all the WebKinz owners who see Percy at zero Happiness and wonder what I did to my poor little WebKin to make him so unhappy: I wasn't me. It was the ghost. 'Nuff said.)

Coming up soon-ish: An updated publication journey to publication timeline as we near the publication of ReVamped. Soon it will be a real physical object! Squee!

Free Fiction from Phaedra Weldon Over At The League

I know I already mentioned the Halloween fun we're having over at the League of Reluctant Adults this week, but I want to call special attention to Phaedra Weldon's contribution (because I'm the one that asked her for it and it's pretty much the bee's knees.)

She's wrote us a short story called Ghoul that touches on what vampires are like in the world of her Zoe Martinique Investigation series. She's also giving a copy of Spectre (book two in the series) to one lucky commenter, so check out the cool free vampire story here and then comment on the post (the one with the short story, not this one) to have your shot at free paranormal investigatory goodness.

If you like what you read, make sure to grab a copy of Wraith and Spectre and be sure to swing by Phaedra's home page for all the newest info about Phaedra's upcomming books like... oh, I don't know... Phantasm (due out in June 2009).

Fresh from the "How Cool is That Department"

I'm in My Hometown Newspaper!

The article is available online, too. Here's a link.

And Now... We Wait

In case you were wondering, that nervous "I hope this is as good as I think it is" feeling you get (or *I* get anyway) when submitting the revised novel manuscript to your editor is exactly the same the second time around. The novel grew by about 18,000 words (lots of which were new Talbot scenes) and it's a better novel for having undergone the process.

My favorite addition to the revised manuscript for ReVamped? Getting to show Talbot in full "supernatural combat mode" a book earlier than I had originally intended... though the Eric and Talbot buddy scene near the end was fun to write, too.

The weirdest thing about this set of revisions? They were much harder. I was stuck for several weeks on how to accomplish a requested change and I'm not exactly certain why. I was much busier this time around - running to cons and such - which may account for part of it... and I did have to make a substantial change to the way I did edits for STAKED, but when it clicked, I had the exact same "I'm an idiot! All I need to do is roll these four fixes together, insert these six scenes, revise these three scenes, and it fixes X,Y, AND Z while paralleling Q!"

In any case, the revised manuscript was sent out in a timely fashion... slightly before the deadline. Yay, team!