All Things Aster

It’s an Aster kind of day.

PETERMBALL News & Upcoming Events , , ,

First, a public service announcement re-posted from the livejournal of my illustrious publisher:

(The reprint of) Horn failed to be delivered today but I have rescheduled for tomorrow and they should then be out in the post to the preorders in tomorrow evening’s mail.

If you’ve been holding off buying your copy of Horn til they were back in stock, as of tomorrow they will be and you can buy your copy here. Again, whilst stocks last – I expect to have copies for sale at Worldcon but there were quite a few reservations for this second printing as well.

Which seems like as good a segue as we’re going to get to talk about the current state of the second Miriam Aster novella, Cold Cases.

Today I was full of virtue. I rose early, I took my daily dose of penicillin, then I settled down at the computer with a cup of coffee and a Bob Dylan CD and vowed to remain there until the problem of not having a finished version of Cold Cases  was finally solved. I have convinced myself this is doable by promising that a finished draft today means I can take tomorrow off and prepare my next D&D game before we play on Thursday.

That was about seven hours ago, and since then I’ve heard Bob sing Everybody Must Get Stoned about twelve times. It appears to be working too, but I suspect seven hours of Bob Dylan is my limit.

The upside is that I’m finally tackling the pacing problems at the end of the novella, which is a very stop-start process where I build a scene and then figure out what still needs to be done to connect it to the finale. I figure that gives at least a 60% chance of hitting the end some time tonight (the end, of course, being an arbitry stopping point where I look for beta-readers who can point out where I’ve done stupid things that need fixing).

Deathmarch, Day Ten

PETERMBALL Works in Progress , ,

And lo, what a difference a few days makes.

Today I have run out of steam on the deathmarch. My eyes hurt, my brain hurts, I’m altogether skittish about going near the keyboard. The very act of writing a blogpost seems daunting, since it’s the thing between me and getting back to work. If I don’t blog, I don’t march. If I don’t march, I don’t have to face the fact that the next stage of rewriting is upon us. If that happens, I don’t have to solve the next plot-problem.

This death march is all about solving plot problems, figuring out how to make the novella work on a really basic level. It’s not one of my strong points. It makes me stubborn. I hate having to figure out what needs to be done next. The only upside is that I’ve finally realised that this is what I’m doing when I find myself flailing about, so I can at least recognise my hesitance as “I’m stuck, and something needs fixing.”

So now I go to figure that out.

Twelfth Planet Press Mother’s Day Sale

PETERMBALL News & Upcoming Events , ,

The folks over at Twelfth Planet Press have just upgraded their webstore and they’re celebrating with Mother’s Day Sale where you can pick up two or more books for a nice, cheap, wallet-friendly price prior to May 7th.

There is some bad news for those of you thinking you know, my mother really digs noir stories with a squicky unicorn filling* and looking for a copy of Horn as a result – it’s out of stock at the moment, and while I don’t know the particulars of when the reprint will happen I’m pretty sure it won’t be in time to show your appreciation for the maternal figure/s in your life on mothers day itself. Of course, you can pre-order yourself a copy of the second printing and pick up a copy of either the Siren Beat/Roadkill double (which delivers Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Hobart noir novelette with a tentacle-squick filling and Robert Shearman’s novelette of desperately uncomfortable, captivating weirdness in one convenient package) or Dirk Flinthart’s Angel Rising (which includes warrior nuns – need I say more?) to cover Mother’s Day itself.

Or, you know, you could just pre-order a copy of Horn and give it to your mum when it’s finally released. Because you don’t actually need mother’s day to tell your mother you love her, dig?

In any case, there’s more details below. Go forth and do with this information as you will.

*Mine doesn’t, for what it’s worth. She hasn’t read Horn at all, and I’m at peace with that**.
** My grandmother, on the other hand, really enjoyed it. That surprised me a little.

*************** 

TPP Mothers Day Sale!

1. Preorder Glitter Rose* and/or Horn and buy Roadkill/Siren Beat or Angel Rising for $6 plus postage.

OR

2. Buy any 3 books** and buy Roadkill/Siren Beat or Angel Rising for $6 plus postage.

Offers till May 7, 2010

* All prior preorders of Glitter Rose will be honoured.
** Cost of postage will be corrected on payment.