"Scorpion" just around the corner

It's real and becomes more and more real now. I have a cover, so the time of denial is over. "Scorpion" is coming out. (Yeah, books are real while being written and then when they are coming on - in between they fall in a state of "not quite real", when I tend to forget all about them.)

Anyway, the amazingly talented Reese Dante has created no less than 8 covers, three of which were totally different drafts and the others were variations on those.

I'm very happy with what she's come up with (go, have a look).

It's spot-on. My cover spec (always an exercise in helpless frustration about trying to translate an emotion into an image... I'm not a very descriptive writer) told Reese that Kendras was black and big and has blue eyes (that's what Jaishani look like in that world). And that he looks like a "mean motherfucker". Yup, exactly the words I used.

So, we can all agree that Kendras on the cover looks like a mean motherfucker. Or, as one reader put it: "Wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley, but happy to meet him in a hotel room."

Hah. EXACTLY.

In my "real life", I've come out to my team in the bank. They were great about it (*waves in case they are reading*). Even offered feedback on the eight version of the "Scorpion" cover. I think that calls for a mini office celebration on release day. :)

Also, my eyes are fine. After LASIK, I have to admit that I didn't like reading and pretty much avoided it where I could. After editing 8 hrs/day in the day job, my eyes felt tired, worn out, and I had lots of blurriness at the short distance which made reading actually hard work - like consciously focusing on words. So I stayed away from reading. Thought and watched and observed during my commute rather than read. (Hence no book reviews and a huge pile of work I need to get through becouse I promised - sorry guys, I literally didn't see this situation coming).

I noticed these issues less and less, though, so I'll go back to reading. It's three weeks after LASIK, and my eyes are doing really well. Sometimes a bit of a dry/blurry feeling early in the mornings, but far less issues with near-vision blurriness. Thanks for bearing with me while I was healing.

Now back to work.

Oy, where's my week?

This week just zipped past. I was busy. I went to press meetings. I'm writing a little, editing a little, teaching a little. Slowly moving along. Real life - lots of stuff to learn, I'll do public speaking and have been learning just what bastards (most) bankers are. You don't have a clue unless you're in the industry. Maybe I'll write about it one day, it's certainly sobering and begins to turn me into a bit of an economic Communist/Socialist. I want a state-owned bank that handles people's savings, mortgages and credit cards - the rest of the financial industry can go to hell and gamble with Satan for all I care.

Now let's talk good books: Erekos is moving closer to publication. Check out a sample here. I think Erekos will be my favourite fantasy book ever, right next to "The Last Unicorn" by Peter Beagle. The author is one of my co-writers, an all-round gifted, giving, generous, smart and caring person, one of the best I know. Go check out the book. You'll be amazed.

I've lured another unsuspecting Russian into beta-ing Russian stuff for me, so that day's a win.

I'm writing a little bit, 200 words at a time. Some readers will be hopping with rage if this comes out, so I'm keeping it under wraps until it's done. I don't want to have to explain and get emails like "how could you!" (they will happen, I know it). Fact is, though, re-visiting an old idea and playing it out differently is legit. Many ideas have more than one book in them.

Seeing how my job develops (I'll be in Russia in October, helping run a conference), I might hibernate between the release of "First Blood" in September and the end of the year, and do, as Brits like saying "fuck-all." That would be nice.

Before that, I have to wrap up some things, but right now it's not easy keeping up with emails and promoting and gods know what. But it's all good at the moment. I'm in a good place, I'm just busy learning my new job. But it's awesome. Infuriating, but awesome.

Cover - Lion of Kent

Hope it's OK to show this - the cover for Kate Cotoner & my "Lion of Kent" out soon from Carina Press. I think it looks like a movie poster. :)

Two days to go

Two days left at this job, three days until Turkey, eleven days until new job.

Stuff happened yesterday - I got the cover for "Lion of Kent", which is pretty damn impressive (despite the minor niggle that the armour on the picture is more than hundred years 'too young', but it's a minor niggle and mostly due to the fact that I simply cannot switch off the historian in me). I keep looking at it and the more I look at it, the more I like it.

That's the funny thing with covers. Sometimes they hit you in the face with a "WOW" ("Clean Slate" was one of those), sometimes they look great but aren't what you had in mind, but the more you work to get into the head of the cover artist (who tends to not read the story), the closer the two visions move together and eventually overlap. All this is totally independent of whether it's a good cover.

As a rule, I don't publish with publishers who have bad covers. It's my name on there, and I have a pretty strong need for good/appropriate visuals. Cheap Poserware and badly rendered anatomical monstrosities slapped together in 30 minutes aren't worthy to be put on months of bleeding hard work; bad/cheap covers feel like a slap to the face and I'm simply not having it. And with e-readers getting better screens and the all-singing, all-dancing (and pretty frivolous)iPad and all the clones that will follow, e-books will have to be pretty.

So, "Lion of Kent" looks like a movie poster. I really like it, even though it looks nothing like I imagined. But that's OK, because I'm not visually inclined that way. I'm not a visual designer, even though I'm a visual writer, so I'm leaving that aspect to the pros, and they do a great job. Hope to show it to you guys soon.

Then scenes from "Lion of Kent 2" hit me square in the face this morning. Some of that is really painful to "watch", in a way, because we're dealing with death and loss again, and, let's say, I have to open my own scars to get to the blood to write with. In some weird way, every dead major character is my mother. "Lion2" will be historical rather than romance. It's great that Carina supports us that way and allows us to write a series where part 1 and 3 are historical romances and part 2 is a purebred historical. It makes writing this so much easier.

I'm looking forward to getting the edits for "First Blood", too, so we can get that on the way before things get really hairy.

Writing yesterday didn't happen, but I made some progress reading. Tonight I'll do some more work in the old flat, and then that chapter's closed, too. I put a bookshelf up, too, and am now in the process of putting my remaining books on the shelves, which should keep me busy today and tomorrow. Saturday morning we're off to Turkey and I'll be incommunicado for a week (I really can't afford the roaming charges this time round and there's no internet cafe where we're going).

I expect to get a lot of writing/editing/planning done while in Turkey... that's the expressed reason for the trip. Sitting at the pool, reading, sleeping, eating, writing. Just resting up from the stress of the last 6 weeks and getting lots of rest and catch-up before the new job. I think it'll be exactly what I need.