Sail On

We all take journeys in life for which we have to rely on a spiritual compass; the short film explains why with a man and a canoe (background music, too, for those of you at work):

Spirit Canoe from Symbols of the West on Vimeo.

MD SF/F Contest

While I've lived in Florida most of my life I'm actually a native of Baltimore, so I thought I'd give a nod to my birthplace by posting this writing contest for Maryland residents:

"To promote the creation of quality genre literature in the state of Maryland, we're holding the annual Baltimore Science Fiction Society Amateur Writing Contest and encouraging everyone to enter. Anything that falls into the "speculative fiction" genre--science fiction in all its forms and fantasy in all its forms. Urban fantasy, hard science fiction, dark fantasy, it all counts. That is to say, the work must have a speculative element." Length: 1-5.5K; Prizes: "1st place is $250; 2nd place is $100; 3rd place is $50. 1st place winner will be published in the BSFSFan (our convention guide at Balticon) and invited to Balticon to do a reading of either a selection of their winning story or the entire story (depending on length and the availability of time and the wishes of the winner). The top five entries will all receive free memberships to Balticon." See contest page for more details, deadline: "The 2014 BSFS Amateur Writing Contest will begin accepting submissions April 1, 2014, and close June 15."

BAM Ten

Ten Neat Things I Found On My Latest Trip to Books-a-Million
(All prices shown are after application of my 10% BAM card discount)


#1 -- All of the remaining 2014 wall and desk calendars, like this lovely Secret Garden edition, were marked down to $3.00; I got it for $2.70.

#2 -- Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen is out! Hardcover, $23.39.

#3 -- Adorable bookmark and pen set featuring Grumpy Cat of Internet fame, $3.59.

#4 -- "Keep Calm and Type On" bookmark featuring an old typewriter, perfect for writer pals, $2.65.

#5 -- Joyful Abundance pad of cookbook page flags, which work equally well on other books and are the perfect size for carrying in my purse, $4.49

#6 -- Novelty Ninja Pen that makes the coolest sword sound when you press a button on the hilt, $4.49

#7 & #8 -- The Mind/Body/Spirit and Travel editions of Mini-Marks, sets of 6 themed magnetic mini bookmarks, $4.49 each.

#9 -- Don't Forget elephant-shaped sticky notepad, $4.49.

#10 -- Hmmm, this looks very familiar . . . $7.19.

The Wolf Arrives

Today is the official release of The Clockwork Wolf, the second novel in my Disenchanted & Co. urban fantasy series. Also, if you missed it last week, here's the video for the book:



I think that's all the promo I'll throw at you this time. Besides, I have to talk about some people who helped:

My editor, Adam Wilson, deserves much for every wise and amazing thing he did to bring the world of Toriana to publication. I also wish I could name all of the other folks at Pocket Star who put so much creativity and wisdom into the series production, because they did a fabulous job, too.

I am very grateful to author and filmmaker Jeff Somers for creating yet another superb video trailer for Kit and her crew; it was everything I wished for and then some.

Last (but never least) I must somehow thank NYT bestselling author and my dear friend Darlene Ryan for her nonstop support and generous encouragement during this entire adventure. Until I can think up something better, Bubba, know that you are the best writer friend on the planet.

Places where you can purchase The Clockwork Wolf (click on them to do that and keep me writing this series):

Barnes & Noble

Books-a-Million

iBookstore

Indiebound

Nook

S&S.com

Amazon

Kindle

Find Someone a Job, Win $1K in Books

I'm going to back-burner today's ten list for a neat offer from Library Thing as an incentive to help them hire a new programmer:

"We need to find a kick-ass PHP programmer, so we’re offering $1,000 worth of books to the person who finds them. Think of it. $1,000 in books. What would you buy? Everything.

Rules! You get a $1,000 gift certificate to the local, chain or online bookseller of your choice.

To qualify, you need to connect us to someone. Either you introduce them to us—and they follow up by applying themselves—or they mention your name in their email (“So-and-so told me about this”). You can recommend yourself, but if you found out about it from someone else, we hope you’ll do the right thing and make them the beneficiary."

For more details go to their blog and read the job post here.

Test Your Typing

Do you know how fast you type? This fun online test gives you a short fable to type and calculates both your speed and accuracy while you do so (it includes typing sounds and background music, which I think is what made it fun.) Here are my results:



I'm definitely getting slower, but I'm happy that I maintained decent accuracy despite my snail's pace. Take the test and post your results in comments.

And You Are . . . ?

Since I'm reading my own book at the moment (yes, I know, but I'm updating my series bible) this would make me Charmian Kittredge. Who are you? Let us know in comments.

See the Wolf

I won't be posting the usual Friday video here at PBW today but I would like to send you elsewhere to see one you might like. RT book reviews is hosting the online debut of the official video for The Clockwork Wolf, which they've also selected as one of their Top Picks for their March issue*; to have a look click here.

Added 2/25: I've finally seen the issue myself and turns out the info I was given is wrong; RT gave the novel 4-1/2 stars but it was not selected as a Top Pick for March. I'm quite happy with the rating, however, and my apologizes for passing along the misinformation.

Steampunk Sub Op

I am taking off today to be sick in bed. So that your stop here was not entirely wasted, here's an interesting listing from the marvelous assortment of markets at Ralan.com:

Inventive Press is looking for "Truly inventive speculative fiction. Steampunk, both adult and young adult. Historical fiction. Contemporary young adult novels. Inspirational non-fiction." Also: "We love spec fic, but there are hundreds of micropresses and major publishers taking spec fic submissions. Yours has to be unique, or we can’t help you be more than another face in the giant crowd. We’re particularly interested in steampunk and alternate history. For spec fic in general, your synopsis needs to convey a sense of 'this is different.'" Length: Less than 130K (fiction); less than 80K (YA) and 40-150K nonfiction. Payment according to Ralan: "ebook=50% net; print=40% net; profit sharing bonuses; possible advance for established authors." Query on reprints, electronic submissions only, see guidelines for more details.

Get the Wolf

I'm getting a late start today because I nursed my guy through a bad sinus infection and promptly caught it myself. I always kid about my head exploding; last night I thought it just might.

The good news is I can still buy real Sudafed, the only OTC decongestant that works on me, although it's been a while since I have. Thanks to abuse by drug dealers the local pharmacy now keeps this medicine locked up behind the counter, and they had me show my license and sign a register before they handed over the pack of ten pills I purchased (I shudder to think what they'll do the next time I want a bottle of Nyquil.)

On the bright and less sniffly side, The Reading Cafe is offering a print copy of The Clockwork Wolf along with some other neat reads for some lucky reader. If you'd like a chance to win them, head over and enter their giveaway.

Math Under Pressure

Take this online quiz to find out how well you can perform simple maths under pressure. My results:



I don't know that I'd call the math involved especially simple as the time calculations nearly did me in a few times. Post your results in comments and let us know how you did.

Not a Dime Ten

Ten Things You Can Have for Free

Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.

Anki is a "program which makes remembering things easy. Because it's a lot more efficient than traditional study methods, you can either greatly decrease your time spent studying, or greatly increase the amount you learn. Anyone who needs to remember things in their daily life can benefit from Anki. Since it is content-agnostic and supports images, audio, videos and scientific markup (via LaTeX), the possibilities are endless" (OS: Win 98/ME/NT/2K/XP/2K3/Vista/7/8)

Bandizip is a "lightweight, fast and 100% free All-In-One Zip Archiver. Bandizip has a very fast Zip algorithm for compression & extraction with Fast Drag and Drop, High Speed Archiving, and Multi-core compression. It handles the most popular compression formats, including Zip, 7z, Rar, and so on" (OS: Windows XP/2003/Vista/7/8 [32-Bit/64-Bit])

Buddi is a "personal finance and budgeting program, aimed at those who have little or no financial background. In making this software, I have attempted to make things as simple as possible, while still retaining enough functions to satisfy most home users" (OS: Designer notes: "If you have a modern operating system with a copy of Sun's Java Virtual Machine [version 1.5 or higher], it should work fine. This includes most recent versions of Windows, Macintosh OS X 10.4, most Linux distributions, Solaris, and possibly more. Please consult the help files for your given operating system if you are unsure whether it supports Java 1.5 or not.")

GanttProject is a "project management tool" that is "very usable for small to medium size projects, with a surprisingly good depth of features and accessories for a free product. As its name suggest, it's excellent for making Gantt charts, great for making logical and easy-to-understand development plans" (OS: Windows, Linux and Mac OS X)

Pencil is a "free drawing program that helps users to create mockups on their PCs. Its friendly graphic user interface provides ready access to a collection of built-in shapes that can be used to create interfaces for both mobile and desktop platforms" (OS: "The prototyping tool is available for all platforms")

Scribus is an "open Source program that brings professional page layout to Linux, BSD UNIX, Solaris, OpenIndiana, GNU/Hurd, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp 4, eComStation, and Windows desktops with a combination of press-ready output and new approaches to page design. Underneath a modern and user-friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as color separations, CMYK and spot colors, ICC color management, and versatile PDF creation." (OS: Complete download list and links here)

SSuite My Money Portable is a "simple to use personal finance manager that is also portable. SSuite Office - My Money – Portable is a cross-platform utility that allows users to keep an eye on their accounts, income and expenses, and to generate financial reports. New accounts can be added by specifying the type and balance, and you can give details about transactions, such as description, date and amount. Thanks to its built-in search engine, you can quickly find the accounts in the list; they can be edited or deleted. Furthermore, it is possible to specify the income description, date and amount, as well as provide information about the inter-account transfers and expenses. SSuite Office - My Money – Portable allows users to create financial reports by selecting a report type and fields that are included (account number, type and balance), specifying the report title, number of columns on each page and page orientation (portrait or landscape), and picking the font style" (OS:Windows All [32-Bit/64-Bit])

The free trial of TaxSlayer Books is a "complete, online accounting software for your small business needs. Includes payroll, and bookkeeping software." It also "allows you to import bookkeeping information from Quickbooks, making setup a snap" (OS: Windows XP, Vista)

Tomboy is a "desktop note-taking application" that is "simple and easy to use, but with potential to help you organize the ideas and information you deal with every day" (OS: Linux, Unix, Windows, and Mac OS X)

Tonido "allows you to set up and run your own personal cloud storage" (OS: Linux, Mac OS X 10.5 or later, Windows 2000, Windows 7 [32 bit], Windows 7 [64 bit], Windows 8, Windows Vista [32 bit], Windows Vista [64 bit)], Windows XP)

Sub Op

Weird Bard Press has an open call for their upcoming Torn Pages antho: "Given the title, Torn Pages, the ideal submission will deal in issues such as religion in the science classroom, censorship, historical revisionism, chilling effect, book (media) burning, net neutrality, or Orwellian concepts like Newspeak and Thoughtcrime. Watching the recent Nye/Ham debate we were reminded of Burrough's assertion that language is a virus. Think books. Think classroom. Think logical fallacies, partisan politics, and education standards in the balance. Acceptable as well are stories related to a real-life wrong so great or insidious that the issue must be told, though it may not relate directly to books or the classroom, such as abuses of political or social power. Pussy Riot, Occupy, or Anonymous may be good starting points, but refrain from propaganda for or against any one of these. Inherent in this project is an interest in stories from under-represented points of view, be they ethnic, gender, cultural, sexual orientation, or others we have not considered. The person who comes from what they perceive as a mundane background may have an equally important story to tell." Length: 1-5K; Payment: 2¢/word. No reprints, electronic submissions only, see guidelines for more details. Reading period opens March 1st, 2013; do not submit before that date. Deadline: March 31st, 2014 or when filled.

Unlikely Inspiration

I like to reward myself for finishing difficult projects, and most often I gravitate toward something that I love but don't indulge in too often. Some examples would be art supplies, fabric, or other such materials with which I can experiment but that I have no particular purpose in mind. It might seem strange that I celebrate completing work with more work, but it's really more like play. It also helps refill the well to do these things, so that when I do tackle the next project for work I feel creatively rested, if that makes sense.

Kathy Uhrig, the proprietor of Strange Notions on Etsy.com, is one of my favorite sources for this type of thing; she puts together wonderful little tin kits and packs of trims that always provide me with hours of creative fun. In one of the kits I recently purchased from her I found this very interesting textile:



The image is a Picasso -- you can still see a fragment of the artist's signature down at the bottom right corner -- and the piece probably started out as a scarf. While it's thin the colors are still quite bright, and there are no major snags or stains on the piece, which make it perfect for repurposing into a quilted project.

I can honestly say that I've never worked with a Picasso; I've always thought of his art as pretty bizarre and somewhat alien. Still, something about this particular piece is very compelling. I like the colors and the strong lines, and the lady's face is both tranquil and mysterious. Making this into something else presents an interesting challenge for me.

It's not my usual thing, but sometimes it's good to get completely away from that. Creatively speaking, every time you step outside your comfort zone you open yourself up to new opportunities. You explore unknown territory, discover unfamiliar ranges within yourself and regularly encounter other, unexpected surprises. Sometimes this also means making mistakes and finding out something really new is not for you. I might work on this piece for weeks and hate it by the time I finish. The thing about this kind of creative playing is that it doesn't matter -- success is not the objective.

I'll post updates on the Picasso project as it progresses; I think it'll be a lot of fun to see what I can do with it. I'll also include any screw-ups that happen along the way and what I learn from them.

How do you challenge yourself creatively? Let us know in comments.

Elsewhere for Valday

First, Happy Valentine's Day to everyone -- I'm hoping that those of you in the storm zone are staying safe and warm at home.

As for me, I'm spending the day over at Under the Covers book blog to talk about some alternative gifts for your Valentines who (like me!) can't have sweets. Stop in if you have a chance and enter to win this nifty tote packed with goodies and signed print copies of Disenchanted & Co. and The Clockwork Wolf ARC.

Steaming Along Elsewhere

Today I'm over at XOXO After Dark, my publisher's blog, to talk about some of our technology that might be improved by adding steam power. Stop by if you have a chance and enter to win a print copy of my latest release, Disenchanted & Co.

New Hunter Kiss Novel

I have an FYI for all the other Maxine fans out there: Labyrinth of Stars, Marjorie M. Liu's new Hunter Kiss novel, is being released on February 25th. Here's the gorgeous cover art:



I've pre-ordered my copy, but if you haven't you can get your order in at these online retailers:

Barnes & Noble

Indiebound

Amazon

Writer by Word Choice

Take this short online quiz at Oxford Dictionaries blog and they'll decide what kind of writer you are based on your word choices.

My results:



Eh. I wouldn't mind winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, but I don't hate women or gay people, and I can metabolize iron. Just not on Tuesdays.

If you take the test, post your results in comments. Added: Test link now works!

Shiloh's Ten

Ten Things That Happened When I Went to See Shiloh Walker

With zero prior warning I crashed the Coastal Magic Conference and they did not kick me out. On the contrary; Jennifer and her ladies were very welcoming, and helped me sneak up on Shiloh, and let me sit with her for their charity booksigning with no fuss whatsoever.

Before I shanghaied Shi I met up with wonderful steampunk jewelry-maker Leslie from Aunt Matilda's Jewelry Box to do some personal shopping. While I was depriving her of inventory I bought another of Kit's pendants to give away to one of my readers (this week ~ stayed tuned to the blog for details.)

I met and chatted with the lovely and charming USA Today bestselling author Carrie Ann Ryan, who can be described by many other words; the next that comes to my mind should be awesome as she gave me this gorgeous tote to hold all the books I bought. Her assistant Charity was so sweet and helpful, too, and I think somehow moved at the speed of light.

Author Gini Koch may have as many pseudonyms as me and was giving away e-book freebies, which was way cool (she is a rather amazing powerhouse when it comes to presentation, too; she should be teaching classes in how to promote your books in person.)

Author Sarah M. Ross was a delight to talk to and quite gorgeous in person; among other things she has that perfect hair I will never attain (sigh.)

Author James R. Tuck is a handsome devil with a wonderful voice and a neat sense of humor, too; I think every gal at the conference was falling in love with him.

I did not get around to all the tables, but I bought books from every one I visited, so it was probably good for the bank account that I didn't make it around the room.

Some people asked me and Shiloh to pose for pics and we did for two, I think; Tori from Smexy Books has one of them. Please note if you happen to see it that I am not dead, a man, or Stephen Leigh.

After the booksigning I dragged Shiloh out to dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, where I made a complete pig of myself over the delicious spicy fish and rice dish I ordered. We also talked shop, families, ordnance, explosives and plotted the overthrow of the online writing community. Kidding. We really didn't talk shop that much.

After many, many years of being cyber colleagues and blog pals I finally met Shiloh Walker, who is just as wonderful in person as she is online. Of all the people I've wanted to meet in the biz, she was the one I drove 500 miles (much of that in the pouring rain) to see, which should give you some idea of how much I care for her.

Strangely Funny Sub Op

Mystery and Horror LLC has an open call for their upcoming Strangely Funny II antho, and describe the project as: "An anthology of humorous paranormal/supernatural stories. All stories must contain paranormal or supernatural elements (ghosts, witchcraft, vampires, etc.) and be funny. Think Addams Family, Zombieland, or Love at First Bite. These stories should not contain gratuitous violence, gratuitous sex, or excessive foul language." Length: 2-6K; Payment: Ralan says "shared 25% net royalty ($5 advance) +print copy." Query on reprints, electronic submissions only, see guidelines for more details. Reading period opens February 10th, 2014; do not submit before that date. Deadline: May 1st, 2014 or when filled.