Elsewhere

Today I am also guest blogging again, this time over at Word Nerd, where I'll be talking about that little line from Frostfire that spooked me so much. My very kind hosts are also giving away this lovely Kyndred gift basket filled with a signed set of all three Kyndred novels, a mug, hot cocoa, teas, and nibblies:



Stop in if you have a chance and say hi.

Hot Spots

I followed a link over on Gerard's Presurfer blog and found a new and very interesting online generator, described on the site as:

"Feng-GUI simulates human vision during the first 5 seconds of exposure to visuals, and creates heatmaps based on an algorithm that predicts what a real human would be most likely to look at. This offers designers, advertisers and creatives, a Pre-testing technology that predicts performance of an image, by analyzing levels of attention, brand effectiveness and placement, as well as breaking down the Flow of Attention."

To test drive the service, I uploaded my latest cover art into the online generator (which you can use for free, but only once every five hours, btw. Also, they seem to save a copy of whatever you upload, at least temporarily, so I wouldn't upload anything you don't want the world to see.)

Here's the heatmap I got in return:



According to the site, the heatmap information should be interpreted as follows:

"Heatmap color - The more intense the color (from blue to red), the more interest the viewer is. * Hotspots - Fixations - Regions of interest. The circles represent the focal points and their size.

Hotspots Order - The number next to the circle, represent the order in which the eyes move.

Gaze Saccades - The lines represent the movements of the eyes between hotspots.
Which areas are being ignored. If there is no color or circle in an area, that section has no interest."

I'm glad to know that my title and byline were the first thing the simulator looked at; that's a little reassuring. Not that I mind it then looking at the nice young man on the cover; kind of difficult to ignore him.

I don't know how accurate the results are, but this might be an interesting generator to try if you're putting together your own cover art or web page design and want to see what it thinks your hottest spots are.

Haunting

After I got hooked on author Douglas Clegg's online difference game for his new novel, Isis, I had to buy the book. Knowing Doug, I had the feeling it would be the perfect read for Halloween week, and sure enough, it was.

After her British father goes off on a war assignment, Iris Villiers and her family move from America to the Villers ancestral home in Cornwall, where they deal with a crazy grandfather, old spooky local legends and a seriously scary family burial ground called The Tombs. While Iris finds plenty to love and hate about her new home, she's also curious about the ghost stories, fantastic myths and stern warnings issued by the locals, particularly about the terrible things that have happened at The Tombs. Real life turns out to be far more grim for Iris, however, when a terrible accident changes everything and gives her the ability to speak with the dead.

I love Doug Clegg's work, and Isis is one of his more haunting tales of the supernatural. Glenn Chadbourne's superb illustrations mesh perfectly with Doug's beautiful writing, and the result is a story that resonates with secrets, sorrow and spine-shivering tragedy.

But as always, you don't have to take my word for it. In comments to this post, name a scary, spooky or supernatural book that you love to read at Halloween (or if you spend your night trick-or-treating, just toss your name in the hat) by midnight EST on Saturday, October 31, 2009. I'll draw five names at random from everyone who participates and send the winners an unsigned hardcover copy of Isis by Douglas Clegg along with a signed copy of my latest paperback release, Shadowlight. This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.

Updates

According to my SF editor, Dream Called Time, the tenth and final StarDoc novel, will be released in August 2010.

The pitch for my third Kyndred book (title pending approval) has been accepted, and it will be a crossover Kyndred/Darkyn novel (and to avoid spoilers that's all I'm going to say about it for now), tentatively scheduled for release in late 2010.

Last but not least, I feel that the Shadowlight e-ARC experiment was a great success. I've never had a book place so high on the Times list, and I'm sure a nice chunk of my sales were due to the immediate response from my visitors and their help spreading the word about the book, which was simply outstanding. Here is the last round of reviews and write-ups that were sent in to me:

Amazon.com reviews: Margaret Fisk ~ Zeek ~ Nina Paules ~ C. Stone ~ C. Vandehey ~ Harriet Klausner

Amazon.com.uk/Margaret, also on The Book Depository

B&N.com reviews (the ones I could view): Margaet Fisk ~ Npaules ~ 4kidsmom ~ Debra_ Saturday ~ Nemhain ~ harstan ~ Zeek319 ~ lxz ~ CatsMeowAZ ~ Chad ~ Pandababy ~ Madonna_lily

The Drabbler/Robin

Erotic Horizon, also on Goodreads

Literaturely Speaking/Breia

Shiloh Walker

The Writing Playground/Danniele Worsham

The Times Pool Winner

I should really name this post The Surreality of a New York Times Bestseller because of the rather spooky results from the
Times Pool contest. For those of you who missed it, I had a contest post and asked people to guess whether or not Shadowlight would make the Times bestseller list, and if they thought it would to also pick what position on the list it would debut.

I was surprised to see so many "yes" entries, and such optimistic and flattering predictions as to the spot it would take on the list. And honestly, I thought you all were being very nice, but I expected if I were exceptionally lucky that the book might show at the end of the extended list, somewhere between #25-#30.

The one funny thing I did notice was how many people chose #17 (and many mentioned that it was the first thing that came to mind.) In fact, #17 was guessed more often than any other position number in the contest. Which I thought was weird because the only Lynn Viehl novel I've ever had rank in the top twenty portion of the list barely squeaked on at #19. My last LV release, that pink one I never want to talk about, hit at #27. So why pick #17? Odds were definitely against it. But now I know you guys picked #17 because . . . you're all psychic.

Yep.

I found out today that Shadowlight will debut on the Times bestseller list at #17.

As promised if there were multiple correct guesses, I put the names of everyone who chose #17 into the magic hat, had Kat pick one at random for a little extra good luck, and the winner of the Times pool is:

JulieB, who wrote: I don't know why, and I realize other people have said this too, but the number that came to mind was 17, immediately.

Julie, when you have a chance, please send your BookWish and ship-to info to me at LynnViehl@aol.com -- and please, use e-mail, not your psychic power.

Thanks to everyone who joined in the pool, gave me so many votes of confidence, bought the book, reviewed the e-ARC, blogged about it, spread the word, shared in the fun and collectively made Shadowlight a top twenty Times bestseller. You guys are the best, and you have definitely got the power.

Shadowlight Arrives

Shadowlight, my first Kyndred novel, officially lands on the shelves today. An excerpt from my upcoming June '10 release, Dreamveil, is included in the back pages.

I'll spare you guys the usual "Buy my book" post; by now most of you have heard it a couple dozen times. I've had a lot of help getting the word out on this one (your fault) and really, what more can a writer ask? All right, if everyone wants to support PBW and/or insure my future employment, I suppose you can go out this week and buy a copy, or request it from your local public library. But I'm guessing most of you already have, and I thank you for investing and requesting.

I've been brooding for some time about something veteran literary agent Georges Borchardt said in his interview with Poets & Writers:

The pub date used to mean the author would get a bouquet of roses or there would be a party. There was practically always a party for the author. The birth of the book was something to be celebrated. Now it's just the question of "Do we admit to the author that the actual printing is only one-fourth of the announced printing?"

I didn't know that releasing a book used to be such an event. Maybe back in the day publishers could afford to throw a party because there weren't that many books being published, so they didn't have to do it very often. Now release day for most authors seems to be focused on exhausting varieties self-promo, checking to see if blog ads and book videos go live, waiting for the lists and not much else. Publishers are never involved, and I think that's pretty sad.

I seriously doubt anyone in the biz will ever throw a party for me (maybe one to celebrate the day I retire, or whenever I drop dead), but I've always spent my pub dates with my family. We're pretty tame, so our idea of fun is going out to dinner or spending the evening with a big bowl of popcorn and a new movie, but we have fun together, and the gift they've given me is ten years filled with happy memories on release days. Publishing can never top that.

I hope you writers out there don't forget to take a little time off from the endless promoing to party on your pub date. Whether it's the release of your first or your forty-fourth, a new book should always be something wonderful in your life. When it arrives, do something special to celebrate it.

E-xperiment Ten

Ten Things About the Shadowlight E-xperiment

Amelie Markirk's Blog/Amelie (off topic note -- Amelie's review of Rob Thurman's Trick of the Light proves I'm not the only one who was floored by this book.)

New B&N.com reviews ~ Npaules ~ 4kidsmom ~ Debra_ Saturday

BlogCritics/Robin Kavanagh

Book Crazy Scrapbook Mama/Pamk

Dreaming in Rhyme/Joely Sue Burkhart (Joely wrote a very cool poem about the story.)

From This Day/Rhienelleth

It's My Blog -- It's My Opinion/MarnieColette, also on Facebook and MySpace and in a discussion on amazon.com's Shadowlight sales page

Raine's Secret Garden/Raine Weaver

Web Petals/Marjorie M. Liu -- Marjorie not only says many kind things I don't deserve, but she's also giving away three copies of Shadowlight and three copies of a surprise Darkyn novel. Stop by her blog today and leave a comment to have a chance to win one.

Wife of Monobot/Little Bits

Twin Peeks Day

I know I am behind schedule with posting Rain Lashed, my first Kyndred free e-book novella and parallel story to Shadowlight, but I hope to have it wrapped up this weekend. Here's an excerpt from the story to give those of you who are interested a little preview.

For those who have been trying to bribe me for a look at Dreamveil, you might stop by the group blog tomorrow morning and see what I have posted there for my turn at Genreality Sneak Peek Saturday.

Now I'm off to write, edit, publish, pitch, schedule and decide some things, but so that your trip here was not all about me, check out this Dutch department store link I swiped from Gerard over at the Presurfer. Just click on the link and then wait a few seconds, it's amazing (there are also some sound effects and music so be careful if you're at work.)

The Times Pool

As you are by now doubtless exhausted of hearing, the first novel in my new Darkyn spin-off Kyndred series, Shadowlight, is due to be released next week. Okay, for all intents and purposes, it has been released, but next week's sales are what will determine if/where the book appears on the Times or any other lists.

I think Shadowlight has a decent shot at making the USA Today list; the last seven Lynn Viehl novels I've written have all made it there. But the New York Times bestseller list? I have no idea.

I think we should have fun with it and start a pool for Shadowlight. So here are the rules: In comments to this post, tell me if you think Shadowlight will make the Times list. If you don't, simply put "no" (and you won't hurt my feelings if you vote no.) If you do, put "yes" and guess at what number it will appear on the list or the extended list (that would be a number between 1 and 30.)

Once the Times lists for the week of October 6th are released, I will close the pool, announce how Shadowlight did (or didn't) do, and award the person who guessed correctly a BookWish* as well as a surprise. No, I'm not telling you what the surprise is, but my surprises are good ones. If more than one person posts the correct guess, I will put all of their names in the magic hat and draw one at random to be the winner.

This pool is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.

*A BookWish is any book of your choice available to order from an online bookseller, up to a maximum cost of $30.00 U.S. (I'll throw in whatever shipping is involved.)

Shadowlight E-xperiment Update

While dodging work taking a break from my latest round of edits on two novels, I thought I'd do a new update on the Shadowlight e-ARC experiment.

Silver of Silver's Book Reviews coaxed me into doing an interview at her place as well as posting a review of Shadowlight here. She makes me sound a lot more interesting than I am, btw.

More on the latest reviews I've read:

B&N.com reviews/Nemhain ~ harstan ~ Zeek319 ~ lxz ~ CatsMeowAZ ~ Chad ~ Pandababy

Blogging by Liza/Liza

Chocolate Reality/Steena Holmes

Items of Interest/Mad Scientist

Just Erotic Romance Reviews/Mireya Orsini

The Collected Ramblings of Keita Haruka/Keita

Library Thing reviews/miap45 ~zeek319 ~ csayban ~ Pandababy

Maryse's Blog/Maryse

A Multitude of Books/Milady Insanity

Pandababy/Pandababy (I think Pandababy was the first blogger to post a review; I just didn't get to the e-mail and linkage because of the inbox shuffling that sometimes happens when I hit the wrong sort key)

Reality Bypass/Jana

Smexy Books/Mandi

The Top 5 Reasons I Do What I Do/Sherri, also at Powell's and Paperback Swap

Welcome to the Strange Frontier/sakinah ; also at Symetry of Old Pain; Pomme de Sang and Good Reads

The e-mails that have been coming in have been almost unanimously friendly, supportive and helpful to me, especially the constructive criticism and the exchanges I've had with those of you who wanted to discuss some point(s) from the book. I know I don't volunteer a lot of info, especially when my editor's choices are involved, but I like to know what didn't work and why (especially as I'm finishing up the edits on Rowan's book this week.)

Some of the e-ARC readers were kind enough to post reviews on more than one site, and this is what I consider effort above and beyond what I asked in return for the e-book. I also appreciate all the booksellers out there who are handselling the book and/or are featuring the novel in Staff Picks, end cap displays or a prominent place in their stores. While my internet following is strong, the majority of my sales still come from the brick-and-mortar stores, and no one can help you there better than an enthusiastic bookseller.

To my knowledge there have been no bootleg copies of the e-ARC posted on the internet; I really doubt there will be. I think the readers and bloggers in the online writing community have a lot more integrity than they get credit for.

Some of you have asked me about how the book will fare on the lists given the absence of print ARCs and the way-early shipping. Don't worry about it. It's nice to have a book appear on the lists, but I'm paid according to my sales, and that's where you've all helped the most. I care about earning out. Besides, I made the top twenty last year with a book that shipped out late during a holiday week; I figure that was the one miracle I'm entitled to as an author.

And that's the latest. I'll do one more update after the print edition releases, and then I'll see if I can put together some useful stats on the results.

Shadowlight E-xperiment

Last month I committed to trying an e-ARC experiment for my October release, Shadowlight. I thought I'd provide some stats on how that's gone so far:

Distributed: 73 e-ARCs via e-mail.
Labor (preparing/converting the manuscript into the e-ARC, responding to e-mails): 17-1/2 hours

Reviews posted that I've read so far:

(Another) 52 Books/Bibliophile

B&N.com's Shadowlight sales page (Eight reviews)

Bellwood Farm/Laura

Beyond the Invisible/Soleil Noir

Blue Heron Creek/Debra Saturday

The Book Book/Chad

Chapters, Canada/Bookworm

My Writing Existence/Anne

One Book Away from Heaven/Pattepoilue

Stray Thoughts Of Margaret Fisk

There are definitely more reviews out there, and a bunch of links waiting for me to check out in my e-mail box. I do want to read them before I post them here, not to screen them but as a courtesy to everyone who took the time to request the e-ARC, read it and write them up.

A couple of people have e-mailed me about the possibility of e-ARCs resulting in lost sales of the print novel. While I don't expect everyone who received an e-ARC will end up buying the print version of the novel (nor would I), many of these readers had never read any of my books before, and several have commented via e-mail or in their reviews that they're going to buy or check out from the library more of my backlist. Basically what I lose in sales of the print novel I'll likely double or triple in backlist sales. Since all of the Darkyn novels are still in print, as well as most of the StarDoc books, this helps keep more of my books in print. I'll sacrifice a few current-release sales for that.

Most popular/universal comment so far: some form of "I loved Rowan!" Which is good, because originally I pitched Delilah's story, not Rowan's, as the second book in this series (and that is what ended up on the contract.) As I was writing Shadowlight, however, Rowan came out so strong on the page that I asked my editor if I could instead write book two about her. She agreed, I pitched a new synopsis, and wrote Dreamveil, Rowan's story, as book two. Which now seems like a pretty good decision all the way around (reason #999 as to why you should listen to your instincts.)

My thanks to everyone who is participating in this experiment. So far, so good.

Stunning

The only word I can use to describe the e-mail response to yesterday's post. You guys are just the best. Thank you.

e-Shadowlight

Thank you all for sharing your opinions yesterday on my idea to make e-ARCs of Shadowlight available. After much thought, I've decided to give it a go, although I will be imposing a time limit for e-ARC requests mainly to prevent this from going viral in the bad way.

So: readers and bloggers who are willing to commit to writing up a blog post or review of Shadowlight, the first novel in my new Kyndred series, can e-mail me at LynnViehl@aol.com to request a .pdf or Microsoft Word 2007 copy of the book before midnight EST on Saturday, August 22, 2009.*

As I mentioned yesterday, favorable opinions are not expected and there are no other strings attached; all I ask for in return are two things:

1) Everyone who receives the e-ARC agrees to write up a post or piece about the book on your weblog, web site, or appropriate forum (this includes forums like discussion boards or online bookseller sites for those of you who don't blog or have a site) before October 6, 2009.

2) Everyone who receives the e-ARC agrees not to sell, distribute, redistribute, post on the internet or otherwise pirate copies of the novel.

With the e-ARC of Shadowlight I've also included the initial draft of the first chapter from Dreamveil, the second Kyndred book, so you'll also get an exclusive preview of what's next in the series. Also, if this works out well, I will likely do it again with future novels.

I really appreciate everyone helping me out with this.

*Added: this e-ARC offer is now closed. Thanks to all my visitors who responded for offering your support for this experiment.

Opinions?

I'd like to ask for some opinions on my latest problem. Shadowlight, the first novel in my new Kyndred series, is due to be released in a few weeks. As far as my planned promo for the book goes, I have in the works a parallel e-book, Rain Lashed, which I'll be posting for free on Scribd next month.* Sasha was also nice enough to let me post an excerpt from Shadowlight over on the group blog, and I'll probably do the usual release day announcement here.

Still, I feel I should personally do something about the lack of ARCs. The publisher promised to send out bound galleys, but I don't think they'll get them out fast enough to make a difference. At the moment I have my hands full with finishing up the final book in the StarDoc series, so the time I can spend doing additional promo is severely limited.

One option is to make available e-ARCs of the book to readers and bloggers who would be willing to commit to writing up a blog post or review of the novel before the release date (no favorable opinions expected or other strings attached; just a write-up of some kind.) The e-ARC would be a .pdf electronic copy of the novel manuscript, formatted to look similar to the print novel, minus the DRM and accompanying B.S. I'd probably include some bonus material to make it extra tempting, like the first chapter from the next book, Dreamveil. Naturally the recipients would be on their honor not to pass around the e-ARC or post it anywhere on the internet.

Some writers think using electronic ARCs as promo is too risky, but I believe it's part of our E-Future; the only economically sensible alternative to continuing to print and ship paper ARCs. Readers are always saying that the industry should trust them enough to strip DRM from e-books; I'm willing to to extend that kind of trust (for one book, anyway) and see what happens. It would be an interesting experiment, I think.

What do you guys think? Good idea, bad idea, stupid idea, don't do it PBW, or other? Let me know in comments.

*Note 9/3/10: Since Scribd.com instituted an access fee scam to charge people for downloading e-books, including those I have provided for free for the last ten years, I no longer use or recommend using their service. See my post about this scam here. Rain Lashed can be read online or downloaded for free from Google Docs here.

Why No ARCs

A couple of people have written to me to ask for ARCs for Shadowlight, my October release, and I have some unhappy news. My publisher informed me this week that they did not print any for the novel.

As it was explained to me, moving the release date up four weeks on the schedule evidently made it impossible for them to produce any ARCs for the book. They have agreed to make up and send out some bound galleys, but they have not yet done that and I've not been given a date as to when that will happen or who will be receiving them.

Naturally I'm disappointed, as this is the first book in a new series for me, and there has been quite a bit of interest in getting ARCs for it. This also means none of the trades will get a look at the novel before they finish production on their October issues. But look at the bright side: at least no one will be selling them on eBay, right?

I have been promised a limited number of these bound galleys; if/when they arrive I'll e-mail the reviewers and bloggers who have requested ARCs from me and see if you all will settle for these instead. Allison, my very patient LB&LI winner of the Darkyn series set, you will definitely get one of them. I apologize for any inconvenience this causes anyone.

Bits & Pieces

My publisher has changed the release date for Shadowlight; according to my latest info the novel will be hitting the shelves sometime in October 2009 instead of November 2009. I don't have an exact laydown date yet, but it's usually the first week of the month. Since booksellers routinely ignore my paydown dates, if that holds true then I imagine some of you will be able to pick up the book at stores in late September.

Some of you have noticed that the sidebar is changing; it's actually under reconstruction. Tom and I are weeding out dead links, adding some new ones, and otherwise tidying up. Once we've dusted the knicknacks we're going to try to condense it so that it's not a mile and a half long like it is now. Your patience while we tinker, as always, is much appreciated.

Rhiannon passed along a sub op as well as a bit of background experience earlier this week in comments, and I want to repost in case you all missed it:

I know you like to give heads up to writers on open markets. I thought I would share the newest call for submissions from The Library of the Living Dead. I had a short story in the latest anthology "Zombology" and really enjoyed working with Dr. Pus (Dr. Mike West in real life).

"I'm going to put out a horror anthology that will contain only female penned stories.

Any horror genre will be accepted. Word count max will be 7K. I'm hoping to make this a huge tome.

Only female authors will be accepted.

Send you submissions to .... lohpress@yahoo.com ... and title the e-mail "Ladies".

Please send submisson in Rich Text Format.

You will be paid one cent per work word* and receive two copies of the book when it's published.

This is my way to thank you ladies for all of the cool stories I've received already from those of the "female persuasion."

Very nice -- thanks, Rhiannon.

*Added: corrected to clarify.

Scene Favorites

Of all the things I like to write, I think the dialogue in action scenes is the most fun for me. I rarely plan dialogue in advance, so it's the most spontaneous writing I do, but oddly enough when there is a lot of action going on in the scene it's also the easiest. People under stress or duress say the damnedest things to each other, and I never get tired of composing it.

Action scene dialogue between secondary characters or a secondary character and the protagonist or antagonist is also one of the better story opportunities to showcase the support cast and avoid them becoming mere window-dressings or sidekicks for the protagonists. Here's one such scene from Shadowlight that I had a lot of fun with.

I wish love scene dialogue were as simple to write; I find that the most difficult to compose. I can handle describing the action, no problem, but cooking up the appropriate lines for the lovers to say to each other is always a challenge. Love scenes with no dialogue aren't as interesting, though, so I try to create and incorporate the right words.

One thing that helps me with writing love scene dialogue is to read some romantic poetry first. I don't quote the poems in love scenes, but they put me in the romantic mindset. Occasionally I'll write a love poem or letter from one character to the other (that helped a lot with writing the dialogue in the love scenes from Evermore.)

What are you favorite scenes to write, and what are your least favorite? Do you have anything you do to help with writing the scenes that are difficult for you? Let us know in comments.

Shadowlight Cover

First look at the cover for Shadowlight:



Also, just a heads-up: today is one of those rare days when Tom and I will both be out of town, so new comments will probably not post today until after 7pm EST.