Synaptic Misfires

So, my dog was lost. We let her into the backyard and it turns out *somebody* hadn't shut the gate and I'm not saying it was anybody. But that gate was WFO. Hours pass, she doesn't come home and my kids are crying and I'm damn near crying because I love that frickin' dog. So I'm getting desperate and when I'm agitato, I have to DO SOMETHING so I make a lost dog poster and I'm about to go back to the office to print it out when I thought I'd post it to Twitter and Bookface just on the off chance someone there might've be able to help.

Not three minutes later someone RTs at me a Humane Society of Pulaski County tweet, in which Cookie is mentioned.

Now the Cookster is home and all is well though I did have to take some time to explain to my wife how Twitter works so she could understand how I found the dog.

Ah, the power of social media.

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Hey, if you didn't already know, I have a pre-order page on Amazon now for Southern Gods. If you want to pre-order a copy, you can go ahead and order one now. Much obliged.

Also, there's an author's page there too. And the audiobooks are up and ready for pre-order.

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If you come here with any regularity you'll know I haven't been blogging much of late. Some of that is because I've joined a group author's blog called The Night Bazaar and write a post for it every week. It seems that I'm just a one blog post a week kinda guy, maybe.

Thing is I've been been busy finishing up The Incorruptibles. First draft is complete and I was very lucky to get my awesome agent to read it and give me editorial feedback. So now I'm working on the second draft.

And the last stone on the cairn of my embloggerous pursuits is that my life is pretty dull. If I blogged more frequently than I do currently, it would only be to ask you for recipes or request your opinions on the fluff I've pulled from my navel. A waste of both your and my time.

So I'll focus on my work-work, my kids, finding lost dogs, and making my novels into things that you'll want to read, hopefully.

News, of course, will be posted here.

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My thanks to all the folks on Twitter and Bookface who assisted in finding Cookie.

Look at this dog. Is she not a marvelous bitch? Gods how I love her.

Refridgonia: A Photo Journal

So I have a daughter. She's ten. And she's very, very bright and sometimes has impulse control issues. She always into something - which is a good thing. The challenge for us, as parents, is to keep her amazing imagination alive and well while getting her to buckle down and focus. On things like spelling and penmanship.

So, my wife was spearheading a fundraiser for the school this weekend and was busy. And I might've left my eldest short one alone for a while. Here's what I found when I came back.

Under the Radar: Platform vs. Prescence

Stacia Decker of DMLA opines on social marketing/media and dragon/muscle car pr0n.

Her name will forever be linked to dragon pr0n thanks to search engine indexing.

Wait. I guess mine will be too.

Drats.

Go to the Night Bazaar and see what I'm talking about.

Leave a comment for me and I'll love you for it. Love you long time.

Brilliance Audio

I love audiobooks. When I lived in Dallas and courted my wife, who lived in Little Rock, I drove back and forth two or three times a month, 4.5 hours one way. This was before iPods and while mp3s were known, digital audio wasn't ubiquitous.

If it wasn't for a little place called An Earful of Books in Dallas - an audiobook rental place - I don't think our relationship would've survived. Weird, but sometimes, I would arrive in LR and sit in the car, even after five hours, just to hear the rest of the books.

So, that being said, I'm so freakin' stoked to announce that Brilliance Audio will be producing an audiobook of SOUTHERN GODS (Night Shade, August 2011).

This development makes me so very happy, it's hard to express.

That is all.

Worldbuilding and Revolution World

Over at the Night Bazaar, we're all celebrating the release of Katy Stauber‘s REVOLUTION WORLD. And Katy is giving out two copies of REVOLUTION WORLD to folks who qualify. How do you qualify, you ask? You comment on a blog post there. Preferably mine, but any blog will do. Make yourself heard. For more info on Katy and REVOLUTION WORLD, go to her profile page here, and make clicky on her various links.

Also, if you care, I have generated some blather on worldbuilding and cartography. Go there and check it out.

Click here to read my post "Worldbuilding is Research."

Epiphany

So I'm standing at the stove, cooking the family dinner. The wife is on the phone discussing the fundraiser for the kid's school, Helen, my youngest, is listening to Stephen Fry read another Harry Potter book, and Lily is in her room, plotting world-domination and scribbling the plans in her journal with the little heart-shaped lock.

There I am, tongs in hand, cooking pork-chops and kinda turning over where I need to go with the WIP in my mind as I turn over the chops. Examining the characters and pieces in the puzzle.

And then it hits me. The end to The Incorruptibles.

Never before have I NOT had an ending in mind before starting a novel. I've always written to an ending.

Wow. I didn't know not having my ending firmed up was so stressful.

But now? I'm gonna knock the rest of this bastard out. Week, maybe. Two.

That is all.