Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler

Jackie Morse Kessler's YA first YA novel HUNGER is out this week.

The product description:

"Thou art the Black Rider. Go thee out unto the world."

Lisabeth Lewis has a black steed, a set of scales, and a new job: she’s been appointed Famine. How will an anorexic seventeen-year-old girl from the suburbs fare as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

Traveling the world on her steed gives Lisa freedom from her troubles at home—her constant battle with hunger, and her struggle to hide it from the people who care about her. But being Famine forces her to go places where hunger is a painful part of everyday life, and to face the horrifying effects of her phenomenal power. Can Lisa find a way to harness that power—and the courage to fight her own inner demons?

A wildly original approach to the issue of eating disorders, Hunger is about the struggle to find balance in a world of extremes, and uses fantastic tropes to explore a difficult topic that touches the lives of many teens.

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In the Void City series, we really don't explore the dangers of a human with an eating disorder. Eric makes a throw away line about "never turn a vampire with an eating disorder" and that's about it. Greta's eating disorder does make her very scary, but when it comes right down to it, her problems make her more of a danger to others than to herself. In a way, she's empowered by her human flaws.

In Hunger, despite the paranormal element, Lisa's problem seems all too real and I found the resolution to that portion of the novel to be particularly satisfying. That's not to say that you won't find action, adventure, and some genuine sweetness, but anorexia is almost like it's own character. "The thin voice" in Lisa's head and is more frightening than any of the other horsemen of the apocalypse with whom Lisa deals.

A portion of the proceeds go to the National Eating Disorders Association, so go ahead and buy your copy. Not only is it a good read, but it's for a great cause.

T-shirt Contest

It's J's blogjacking wife again. I am a very brave person. I just woke up a sleeping author and had him draw a folded up sticky note out of a cup. (Don't worry, he went right back to sleep.)

So... I can now announce that the winner of last week's T-shirt contest is... drumroll... Miss Arrogant. She won randomly (and not for her awesome comments) but I also love what she said: "Void City is fantastic and full of complex and witty characters. Eric is an easy favorite for his downright refusal to be the romantic vampire we've been getting an eyeful of lately. The lore of this world is fascinating and well-written. And Greta is frickin' awesome." Miss Arrogant, please send an email to janet@authoratlarge.com and let me know what size T-shirt you would like (subject to availability) and where I should send it. You are going to *love* CROSSED- it has lots of great Greta scenes. :) It'll be out in January.

That was fun! Let's do it again! In fact, I think I'll give away a T-shirt every week for the rest of October! To enter, please comment on this post and let me know 1) your favorite character from the Void City series 2) your choice of a theme song for your favorite character and 3) why you think that song fits that character. You've got all week to decide! We'll close the contest at 11:59 PM on Saturday, October 23. The winner will be random, but J does listen to music while he writes- he might just add your suggestion to his playlist.

Don't forget to bounce over to Pocket After Dark and give five stars to J's latest blog, which includes the fantastic short story "For Want of Chocolate".

FREE CHOCOLATE!!!

As I just posted over at The League:

Trick or Frick'n Treat!

Pocket After Dark has STAKED free to read online for the next 30 days, and a preview sample of ReVAMPED, and... I just posted a free short story about Vampires and Chocolate.

It's all here.

Spread the word and enjoy! :)

Blogjacked!

Mwahaha! Jeremy's work schedule and writing schedule have kept him so busy for so long that I've obtained permission to blogjack Write the Fantastic for a while. J will still be "guest blogging" on his own official blog, but in between his all-too-infrequent posts, I'll be around to let you know what the author is up to. (Up to what the author is?)

Since I'm logged in as J right now, I'm anonymous. (You can probably guess, though.)

So... what has author J.F. Lewis been doing with his time? For the past two weeks, he's been going through the copy-edits of CROSSED very, very carefully. Those went into the mail yesterday. He's been working on a web comic (about which I am not allowed to say more)- although I suppose I could mention that I've seen the first few finished pages and it looks awesome! He's also going through revisions, edits, and rewrites on an epic sword and sorcery project. I think the next step for that is to send it back through the writers' group for final edits and comments. Last (but never least), J is also working on Void City Book Four.

Now, then... to celebrate my blogjacking, I'd like to give away ONE of the remaining Welcome to the VOID T-shirts (which we no longer sell). I know where he keeps them. To enter, comment on this post and let me know your favorite thing about the VOID CITY series. (Winner will be randomly selected from all those who comment by 12:00 midnight on Saturday, October 16.)

PS: To anyone who has been waiting for something that Jeremy was supposed to mail (cover flats, for example)... I'll get a list of those things and send them out as well. (In his defense, he has been *really* busy!)

Cover Time

It feels strange to be talking about the cover of Crossed (now officially called Crossed, A Void City Novel) before the mass market paperback for ReVamped hits the shelves next month, but like a kid with a new favorite t-shirt, I have to show it off.

This is not the final cover. Quotes and such may change, but I think the artwork side of things is going to remain the same. Gene did a great job of capturing Greta's look. I asked if he could be sure and make Greta look like she might actually kill something (given that she's hands down the character most likely to to go on a killing spree) and since I'm not allowed to have Eric (the male protagonist) on the cover, it was cool that they let my evil flesh-eating Mustang be on the cover again. He even worked in the bowling alley and Greta's pet skull!

You can look for this one on the shelves late January 2011, but ReVamped will hit stores in late September 2010 (just in time for Halloween!) and it will have a preview of the first chapter of Crossed. Here's a hint: They let me start it with a sex scene. It's even plot important! :)

Sneak Peek At Concept Art 1

I can't give you all the details yet, but the Top Secret Web Comic Project is coming along nicely. All I can say right now is that I'm writing it and it's set in the universe of a very cool up and coming roleplaying game.

I just got the first concept sketches for one of the main characters. I won't tell you the character's name yet, but she's cool and a very powerful magic user.

The artwork was done by Laura Sloan ( http://bumberparty.blogspot.com/ )and though she will not be doing the artwork in the comic, I just had to share her cool concept art. No sketches of the steam punk robot yet, but when I get them (and get permission to post them) you'll see them. :) The concept she was given was: part Egyptian Mau, part Red-tailed Hawk, and part Wolverine. I think she did a wonderful job.

So what do you think?

Muse-day Tuesday: ConCarolinas 2010

Long time no blog?

What's up with that? Well, I could make excuses and talk about being under the weather (*cough* still am... don't this letter seem a little hoarse to you?), or about three cons in four weeks... or about page proofs (which are on the way back to my editor even as I type), but instead...

A ConCarolinas Report!!!

This is always a fun con for me. Rob, Dan, and Karen from the WTF always ride down with me (or more accurately are nice enough to let me ride down with them) and I get to see some authors I usually don't get to hang out with much at larger cons, because they are so weighed down by fans they can't even walk down the hallway without the police being called in to direct traffic (okay, that might be a slight exaggeration).

A short, but not complete list: Gail Z. Martin, David B. Coe, A.J. Hartley, Misty Massey, Edmund Schubert, James Maxey, Sabrina Luna... and the list goes on... and on... and on, but I have to be up REALLY frick'n early in the morning (Eldest has to have his adenoids out tomorrow), so I won't whip out my guest list and type in everyone's name.... or even spell check this post.

Gah! Look at it in all its incorrectitude!

What else goes in a con report?

I was on some panels, but do to mucho sinus and cold meds, I think I was a little goofy in most of them. I wonder who won the Deep South Con bid for next year?

Not sure if I'll have a new Werewolf VS Vampire up tomorrow, but if not, I promise a funny post about how long my protagonist has been trying to find a pair on pants in my current WIP.