Friends

17 December 2009 @ 07:26 am

Yesterday

coraa asked if anyone had ever seen a case where an author responded to a slammer review and came out looking good, and I remembered one linked to by

burger_eater a day or so ago.

When subsequent commenters say they are going to buy the book just because of the author's awesome response to the stinker review, I'd say that author came out lookin' good.

It also makes me wonder if the generally understood wisdom that authors should not respond to reviews is going to change, like so many other aspects of publishing custom are changing. I find myself ambivalent because there are instances where I would love to engage in dialogue with an author of a book. And people are talking to one another across the world via all these social network connections, from the lightning blips of Twitter (which I still refuse to engage in--I think it would drive me crazy. Ur, crazier) to longer discourses on things like LJ and so forth.

People Google on interests, old friends and family, towns they lived in, schools, workplaces, cons they went to, all kinds of things. And jump right into the discussion. Authors with more guts than I have Google their names every day, and many link to the tiniest mention of their names, in case their friends want to follow those as assiduously as they do. Yet the etiquette still states Thou Shalt Not Engage. It's relatively easy when the review is praise--do you thank them and seem like you are the stalker you actually are, or pass quietly on by and pretend you didn't see it? When it's a stinker, the question is tougher, especially when you know right down to your chitlins that the review is "unfair." Only . . . what's unfair?

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eugie

17 December 2009 @ 08:07 am

Stupid Novel Progress: Plugging Away

+300 and -200 (different) words on The Stupid Novel. Beginning to think I should start calling it something other than "The Stupid Novel."

Current Mood:

working

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varkat

17 December 2009 @ 08:41 am

Happy Holiday Insanity with Doranna Durgin

The fabulous Doranna Durgin, author of many, many fantasy and romance novels, particularly the Sentinels series for Silhouette Nocturne and the forthcoming Reckoners series from Tor Romance, takes time out of her particular brand of holiday insanity to guest blog for us!

Scrooge or Muse?

It always happens this time of year--everyone one does it. The little trade-offs to incorporate the holidays into our busy schedules. The decisions: what doesn't get done so we can have the fun?

Enya winter CD

I'm always determined to get those seasonal cards and letters sent. I want at least a small tree! And oh, please, some cookies! A party or two...some thoughtful shopping...the chance to gleefully examine my choices for a new holiday CD...

Did I mention cookies?

And, as it happens, to me, the very best holiday is one in which I have some silence time for writing.

Not that I want it all or anything.

Well, this year I have it ALL, all right.

Because this year, I'm also moving. Not actually on Christmas (my personal seasonal holiday), but all around it. (Because that's so much better, right?)

So instead of writing cards, I'm packing boxes. But hey, I'm *thinking* about cards...about what I would have said...about all those people who don't yet have my new address...oops...

Instead of decorating a tree--because, seriously, do I have the faintest idea where those decorations are, anyway?--the weekend before Christmas is scheduled for a big UHaul adventure--all the extra corral panels I can spare from the horse set-up, the agility gear (you really don't want to know how much an A-Frame weighs), and the various bulky barrels, pallets, hoses, dogloos, etc, that we can fit into the UHaul without...well, without hurting ourselves. Because we are but middle-aged writer and geek people, y'know.

On Christmas, we plan to christen the new home with a dinner event--three of us, family, pretending that the smart way to learn new appliances is to use them on a holiday feast.

Er. Feastlet. Maybe.

Duncan Stall
And then commences the packing in earnest, and shortly thereafter, while everyone else rings in the new year, we begin the process of tearing down the barn. It looks like this one, but is a little shedrow of two stalls, one of which holds the hay. I had it built when we moved to this state last year (over the holidays, but that's another story and I know, I know, you'd think we would have learned but it just happened, okay?) and now it will be unbuilt and moved, a week-long process.

Sometime during that process, Duncan the Lipizzan will be shifted from one property to the other, and I'll be camping in the new place with dogs until the weekend, at which point some fine strong movers with their fine strong muscles will load all remaining items into their truck and deposit them at the new place and we will then stare numbly at the boxes, and maybe giggle a little hysterically.

Are you still waiting for the part about the muse? Well, here it is, and you may laugh: I'm also finishing a book. Demon Blade, the first of a new Nocturne series. It's been an astonishingly fun book to write, fast and clean, with characters who know what (and who) they want. And yeah, I could be sensible and throw my hands in the air and say, "Well, I've got to PACK, don't I?" Or I could maybe manage seasonal cards, or get some fancier wrapping on those gifts.

But. I am greedy. And my muse is greedy. And we want this book! So I don't think of it as being Scroogish. I think of it as The Muse Wins.

But really, that's the way it should be, don't you think? My muse certainly does, and I have to admit...when push comes to shove, she's the boss.

PS Happy Holidays, Lucienne. I, um, don't think I'm getting cards into the mail...

Wolf Hunt PPS
Oh, and by the way...book on the shelves! But for some reason, I'm not sending out my usual postcards...

Tags: doranna durgin, holidays, moving, reckoners, sentinels

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sartorias

16 December 2009 @ 12:02 pm

STEAMPUNK--Review, Interview with Beth Bernobich

Ars Memoriae by Beth Bernobich.

Commander Adrian Dee (who is pestered by false memories) is sent by her Hibernic Majesty to investigate some mysterious political machinations in Austria and Montenegro, though the trouble might actually be treachery closer to home.

One of the elements of steampunk is clocks, and while this story does not contain an orrery, it has balloons and mathematical mysteries concerning the nature of time, as well as spies and action.

I compare it to Shostakovich's 11th--deceptively slow beginning, as Dee waits upon the young queen with whom he has some sort of past, and visits each member of her inner council. Then he travels to Europe, using disguises and code words set up according to diplomatic useage . . . which gets him into trouble. Somewhere along the line, he's been betrayed. He has no idea if he's been sold out locally--or back at the capital, so he can trust no one. Communicate with no one.

As he travels on, using his wits and experience, he's still pestered by weird memories. The story builds to a crashing crescendo, like the Shostakovich piece, which was inspired by politics at that very time.

There is easily enough material here for a full novel; readers might wish the climax was explored more fully, but overall I am left longing for more about this world, how it works, and above all, more about Commander Adrian Dee.

I asked the author some questions about this novella and about steampunk in general, in hopes that our exchange might spark off some discussion.

Smith: Why is steampunk sexy?

Beth: I've wondered that myself. I think it's because of the contrast between the strict, staid Victorian era and the exuberance of steampunk fiction. And the technology used in steampunk is so very rugged and physical and...

*pauses to fan self*

Smith: Heh! ‘Rugged and physical’ and stylish. My son was watching the Back to the Future Trilogy recently. I walked in just as the last film was ending—and there was the Doc and his teacher wife and their futuristic flying train. It hit me that that picture absolutely captured Steampunk—the immensely stylish retro clothing, the beautiful pre-art nouveau design work on the train, the combination of steam and magic.

BethYes! Trains and flying machines are both romantic images that frequently show up in steampunk. I think that’s because they combine science--the idea of progress which is another characteristic of the age--and great style.

Smith: My understanding is, steampunk is nor just about steam, but about fin de siecle styles, and nascent governments breaking the economic and political as well as cultural traditions of empire. It seems to me that breaking the hold of super-powers is relevant today. Same with the sense of the working man feeling helpless against those powers—and finding ways to harness it. And as for the sense that machines are one step from magic, as tech changes accelerate rapidly . . . well, I see parallels.

On the other hand, some say Steampunk is all about clocks. Gears. Wheels and time. One of the strong draws of your stories set in this milieu is how you use numbers and time. Did your exploration of mathematics and the limitations of time arise out of the setting, or did the idea come first, and you imposed the vaguely Ruritanian, pre-WW I setting?

Beth: As usual, the whole thing came to me backwards, and in pieces. I had
never heard of steampunk, and I had no grand ideas about addressing the limitations of time. I just had an image of a young woman whispering prime numbers. Eventually, after quite a few false starts, that image turned into the first Eireann story ("A Flight of Numbers Fantastique Strange").

Smith: That is one of my favorite stories of the past ten years.

Beth: It was Oliver Sacks’s book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, that gave me the image I described. There’s a chapter where Sacks tells about his encounter with two brothers, twins, who could visualize multi-digit prime numbers--and this was back in the days before supercomputers. I decided to write about a different pair of twins, mathematical geniuses who were obsessed by prime numbers, to the point where the sister was driven mad by them--or so her brother and the doctors believed.

At first, I set the story in the real world in England, but as I struggled through the first draft, a second image came to me--that of a red balloon drifting through the sky--which gave me the story of the queen and her lover. From there all the details of the alternate world just spilled out.

Smith: Purely for the fun of the history geek, did your timeline diverge around 1603?

Beth: Further back, actually. I decided that Henry II’s invasion of Ireland didn’t succeed because the Irish formed an alliance with the Danes of Northern England. They divided England between them, with the southern part of England becoming the Anglian Dependencies.

Smith: I so hope there going to be a novel about these people and this setting?

Beth: I am currently waiting for word about a proposal for just that. The plan is to base the novel on the existing three Eireann stories (“A Flight of Numbers,” “The Golden Octopus,” and Ars Memoriae), with a fourth, new segment that will finally address the problem of the Anglians, tie up all the loose ends, and bring Eireann fully into the 20th century.

Tags: interview, links, small press, steampunk

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sartorias

16 December 2009 @ 10:53 am

Steampunk and Edwardian-era Magical Reading

Shadow Conspiracy Offered by the Book View Café.

A group of authors with long and award-gemmed publishing histories put together a Steampunk idea and timeline. Basically, in the Year Without a Summer, the Shelley and Byron ménage halted in Geneva, hemmed by rotten weather, as we know. In addition to the days and nights of creativity this anthology has posited that early scientists, including John Polidori, who accompanied Lord Byron as his physician, are working on a radical invention that might preserve the soul of a diseased person—permanently. The result spawns secrets, destroyed lives, and hidden coded papers.

Years later, Byron’s daughter Ada Lovelace meets up with Charles Babbage, inventor of the analytical engine; she invents the “automatic sciences,” allowing the creation of machines that mimic human action, and even human thought. Once again, history has changed, as politicians and economic manipulators as well as adventurers all try to discover the secrets of Ada Lovelace—and she carries on her dreams.

The stories are quite different, ranging from Steven Piziks’ dark, tense “The Soul Jar” to Jennifer Stevenson’s lighter, mannered “A Princess of Wittgenstein.” I enjoyed them all, especially Sarah Zettel’s “The Persistence of Souls,” which captures the period tone, verisimilitude in period characters, and blends tension, scientific and emotional conflicts. Judith Tarr’s “The Sister of Perpetual Adoration” begins with what one would think (and enjoy, if you’re me) is a fairly predictable turn-the-tables tale. A young Victorian lady who is trying an experiment permits a really nasty rake to draw her off of a walking party, though she suspects he’s up to no good—though in truth she can handle herself. But when a storm overtakes them and they find themselves in a secluded monastery, things take some very odd turns.

The overall effect is a delicious world, if you like a fictional orrery powered by retro-Victorian style, science, and magic. The possibilities make me hope that there will be more stories using this setting.

Lovers’ Knot, by Donald Hardy.

Jonathan Williams has inherited an estate. With his best friend Alayne Langford in tow, Jonathan leaves London for the country to take possession, and learn what it’s like to live as the landed gentry. He’d been there fourteen years earlier, the hot summer days filled with wandering, swims in the sea--and the pleasures of discovering a new friend, Nat. That was also a summer of rumors and strange happenings, romantic triangles and wronged lovers. By the summer’s end, one young man was dead, and another haunted for life.

Now Jonathan is determined to start anew. Until he starts seeing the ghost of his former friend everywhere he looks.

Hardy is an experienced RenFaire and Shakespearean actor, which informs his ability to evoke mood and time. I read this story in beta, and thoroughly enjoyed the characters, the attention to detail, and the subtle way Hardy wove in magic before one was aware it was there. The central romance is delightfully done, and very much in period.

Tags: edwardian romance, links, small press, steampunk

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melindadansky

16 December 2009 @ 01:26 pm

Last-Minute Gift Ideas

Re-posted from

badger, who re-posted from someone else whose name I can't remember.

Tags: cool stuff

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wrathchylde

16 December 2009 @ 11:10 am

Alice in Wonderland silent film

Apparently no one died yesterday, so I've a bit of browsing time on my hands. The Dark Victoria community offered this.

On a related note, the syfy channel's remake of it was actually pretty good. I liked it, anyway.

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eugie

16 December 2009 @ 08:00 am

Stupid Novel Progress: 2.5K words

2.5K words on The Stupid Novel, to the detriment of my holiday to-do list. How is it mid-December already??

Current Mood:

working

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buffysquirrel

16 December 2009 @ 10:01 am

keeping up with the twits

12:51 Amazon trainwreck hits new low as author declares, 'We've established the book is a piece of crap.' tinyurl.com/yery77p #
15:43 'In English we say good morning.' #
21:25 my sister bought my dad a Kindle for Christmas. awesome! #
23:46 RC has just washed IC so thoroughly that his head is damp. Almost got rid of the black mark between his eyes that he's had since a tiny kit #

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pubd2b

15 December 2009 @ 09:06 pm

Catching up again

Hey everybody!

Today I realized that I haven't posted in here in a while. Well... it's been a busy December around my hacienda.

I had Wade Rouse on my show tonight. Wow. What an incredibly talented and fun man! Any one who is a fan of Erma Bombeck, is a fun person in my book.

So ... holiday stuff....

I have not put up any decorations to speak of.
I have only bought one present.
I am not cooking a big meal on the 25th.

Do I qualify as the Official 2009 Grinch?

Tags: holidays stink and radio shows rock

Current Mood:

silly

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ogre_san

15 December 2009 @ 05:45 pm

On the Banks of the River of Heaven

Saw the preliminary mockup of the cover today. It's going to be neat.

Current Mood:

enthralled

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sartorias

15 December 2009 @ 06:54 am

Mansfield's Mummery and humor

Reviewer Leigh Kimmel talks about why MANSFIELD PARK AND MUMMIES: Monster Mayhem, Matrimony, Ancient Curses, True Love, and Other Dire Delights works.

I was thinking about humor and how it works for me. The zombie mashup kept the characterizations intact because so much of the text was left alone, with sentences of zombie craziness inserted, after which the story reverts right back to Austen's early nineteenth century wit and situation. One reads along in the familiar text, which is left untouched for a page or two, then suddenly the well-known characters in the well-known quiet country town once again explode into zombie action and manic exchanges. It's as if someone took a well-known kiddie cartoon and inserted bits where the cute bunnies or whatever pull out kalashnikovs and blow away all the bad wolves--then revert right back to lolloping about the countryside sniffing flowers. For me it got old fast--no one seemed to have a memory of zombies attacking England--there were none of the what ifs that make alternate universes fun, and there was no effort, or little effort, to reproduce period language. Zombies in period would have tickled my sense of the ridiculous.

I suspect part of the great popularity is because it doesn't try for period tone, which makes it more accessible for modern readers who've heard of P&P and maybe sat through the Colin Firth film a time or two, but otherwise don't know the book.

The Seamonsters book was tedious to me because the writer took great pains to alter just about every paragraph, turning the south of England into a nightmare jungle of sea-related horrors . . . and so skewed the characters that none of them were recognizable, except for their names. The delicate interdependence of wit and irony balancing real emotion was totally gone, replaced by dripping grue, smells, and various agrossities. The characters distorted beyond recognition.

Vera Nazarian gets just as ridiculous what with mummies, werewolves, vamps and all the supernatural, but she managed to keep the voices recognizable, choosing a monster self that fits each changed character. Of course Mary Crawford is a vamp--she's very nearly an emotional vamp in the book. And Mrs. Norris a werewolf? Works for me. Lady B. is still vapid, but maybe under a spell. Edward becomes more of a willfully blind stick than he already is, and Fanny gets to take agency at last.

Comedy for me is a balance between ordinary people in extraordinary circs--or the converse, extraordinary people trying to cope with ordinary circs. The Mummies book begins with ordinary people in increasingly extraordinary circs, but gradually alters to extraordinary people trying to impose ordinary circs on escalating chaos. And that built the humor toward the payoff, for me.

Tags: austen mashups, links

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eugie

15 December 2009 @ 09:51 am

Guest blogging: Grasping for the Wind

John Ottinger invited me to join his panel of guest bloggers this week at Grasping for the Wind.

My post, "Creative Procrastination: Kanji, Word Families, and TXT SP3EAK," is now up.

And herein the schedule for the whole week:

Saturday
• The Book Smugglers Best Reads of 2009 by The Book Smugglers

Sunday
• Are We Post Genre? by Harry Markov

Monday
• Ramp Up Your Reading: More and Faster by Bill Ward
• Creative Procrastination: Kanji, Word Families, and TXT SP3EAK by Eugie Foster

Tuesday
• Ramp Up Your Reading: Do It Better by Bill Ward
• Book Buying: Telling Readers Where to Go by Jim C. Hines

Wednesday
• Ramp Up Your Reading: Expand Your Horizons by Bill Ward
• A Love Affair With Stories by Karen Miller

Thursday
• Working With Young Writers by Shaun Duke
• The Write Stuff by Stephen Hunt

Friday
• Science Fiction and the Death of the Human by Shaun Duke
• Shared World Fiction: Spinning Stories Out of Unmapped Bits by Rosemary Jones

Saturday
• Science Fiction Ain't Dead (So Shut Up) by Shaun Duke
• The Things An Author Does by Pamela Freeman

Sunday
• A Golden Age for Short Fiction by Joe Sherry

Tags: blog

Current Mood:

cheerful

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varkat

15 December 2009 @ 09:40 am

Calling all Gamers!

No point putting this all in my own words when publicist extraordinaire Elena Stokes has done it all so nicely! So, without further ado, an exciting announcement on the gaming front:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Elena Stokes, Wunderkind PR

Contact, cell: 917.887.0784

New gaming company, PassionFruit Games, launches with first of its kind romance casual game based on bestselling author Marjorie M. Liu’s Tiger Eye novel.”

New York, NY: Tuesday, December 15, 2009: PassionFruit Games today announced the creation of a new romance-themed casual game, Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box, based on the novel Tiger Eye (A Dorchester Love Spell paperback) by New York Times bestselling author Marjorie M. Liu.

Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box also officially marks the launch of PassionFruit Games and represents a unique moment in the history of gaming. Although a market for romance themed video games has existed abroad for years, these games are essentially unknown in the U.S. Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box will be one of the first romance casual games to hit the U.S. market when it goes on-sale in April 2010.

( Read more... )

For those who think that Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box will be the perfect gift for a loved one (or for themselves!), holiday e-cards are available at www.passionfruitgames.com. The game will be available in both Mac and PC versions.

Marjorie M. Liu is an attorney, and the New York Times bestselling author of short stories, novellas, and two ongoing series: Dirk & Steele novels of paranormal romance, and the Hunter Kiss urban fantasy series. She wrote NYX: No Way Home, for Marvel Comics, and is co-writing the ongoing bestselling Dark Wolverine series. Marjorie divides her time between the American Midwest, and Beijing/Shanghai, China. For a complete listing of all her work, please visit her website at: www.marjoriemliu.com

PassionFruit Games was founded by a group of individuals who had created several critically-acclaimed casual games together before establishing their own independent studio. Their mission is to bring stories and characters to life through lushly-painted interactive environments and captivating cinematics, while providing engaging, entertaining gameplay. The PassionFruit Games team also worked on the critically acclaimed Nancy Drew Dossier game, which was just chosen as the “Best Hidden Object Game of 2009” by Yahoo! Games.

Tiger Eye, The novel Tiger Eye, The game

Marjorie M. Liu For info contact: elena@wunderkind-pr.com

Dorchester Love Spell paperback, $6.99 cell: 917-887-0784

ISBN: 0-5-5-52626-3; 342 pages, available now Available April 2010

www.marjoriemliu.com www.passionfruitgames.com

Early concept art for Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box:

The face of the warrior, Hari, hidden in this image, will be revealed to those who pre-order the game

Advance Screenshot from Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box

Tags: bestselling, dirk & steele, marjorie m. liu, passionfruit games, romance, tiger eye, video game

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lingtm

15 December 2009 @ 09:00 am

National Zoo

Oh look, llama butt. What a surprise.

The last thing we did in DC (yes, we were there for a few days!), was go to the National Zoo. We didn’t get there until after lunch again. I know! It’s not that we were lazy, but that with four people in the house and one bathroom, that sort of extends your getting ready time by a little bit.

So the National Zoo is free, but the parking costs about $20 and is a total bitch. There are very few spaces to park. So take the train. Since we’d gotten there late and that we knew the zoo closed at 7, we decided to go see only the big ticket items. Namely, the pandas!

Except that none of them were outside.

And one looked dead inside.

But really, he was just sleeping. All they do is eat and sleep. They don’t do much else.

While we were watching one of the pandas eat. He got up and turned around. His tail lifted up a little bit and I said, oh no. It’s gonna dooky. And guess what? He doodied. And you know, people were all surprised. I said it pretty loudly!

And as a side note, World Market sells a product that enables you to re-enact the scene that I saw.

We ended up skipping a lot of the exhibits indoors (like the reptiles). And though we had time left in the zoo to see things, most of the animals had gone into their night-time abodes and we couldn’t see them anyway.

They were all this fat. Who knew you can store up that much fat eating hay!

Also, if you go see the pandas, make sure to go up the trail some more and take a look at this really cute guy.

It’s a red panda! My telephoto lens tends to distort the colors a bit when its extended like that and gets that milky haze. But the red panda had a really great color. This reddish coppery color.

You can see a few more of these photos over at smugmug.

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal

Tags: dc, national zoo, vacation

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buffysquirrel

15 December 2009 @ 10:01 am

keeping up with the twits

02:33 IC just threw up two strips of cloth, some tinsel, and a length of silver string. I can see we're in for an exciting Christmas. #
02:49 RC's only interest in Christmas trees was as a great place to lurk. Think IC may be different. #

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monissaw

15 December 2009 @ 08:53 pm

Question

Just as a matter of interest and certainly not any sort of research for any novel that I am definitely not writing:

If you were in a situation where you thought you were in danger of losing your sense of self and you tried recite statements about yourself in an attempt prevent this, what would you say?

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ogre_san

14 December 2009 @ 05:33 pm

The Muse Dialogues, Continued

CURTAIN rises, to reveal The MUSE, dusting. Picture a tall and lithe Greek Goddess in a babushka, dusting a library with an old-fashioned feather duster. Not that she's doing any actual work. It's more of a symbolic gesture. ME enters, stage right.

ME: "What do you think you're doing?"

MUSE: "Dusting. It's a symbolic gesture. Don't you read the stage directions?"

ME: "You know what I mean. I want to talk to you about that story you dropped on me
Friday."

MUSE: "What about it?"

ME: "What about it? The series was finished! What were you thinking, dropping a new
story on me at this point?"

MUSE: "What part of MUSE don't you understand?"

ME: "The story arc was complete! I put a lot of time and thought into that concluding
episode."

MUSE: "So what's your problem? You know the story you wrote Friday has no time
cues, so it fits in the continuity anywhere you want to put it."

ME: "That's not the point. This is the first time I've ever concluded a character's story
arc, for a series. I was rather proud of that."

MUSE: "I'm a MUSE, not a therapist. Don't tell me your troubles. Though I will
point out that you're a writer, complaining about having a story to
write. That's just stupid."

ME: "But I had it planned! I had told the character's story! I was done!"

MUSE: "Oh, now I get it. You're suffering under the delusion that you're in charge."

ME: "A writer should take charge of their career. I read that in a book somewhere."

MUSE: "A book. Right. Written by?"

ME: "Ummm. Some writer?"

MUSE: "You make my point. Besides, am I telling you how to market? How to do
readings or if? How to do signings or if? What venues a story fits best?"

ME: "Now that you mention it, I could use some help in that department."

MUSE: "Again, what part of MUSE don't you understand?"

ME: "I don't understand anything, apparently."

MUSE: "You understand that much, then. I call that progress."

ME: "What's the symbolic significance of you dusting my shelves?"

MUSE: "Something neglected has been refreshed, brought to good order. Think about
it."

ME: "Oh."

MUSE: "Honestly, what would you do without me?"

ME: "Damned if I know."

MUSE: "That's right. Now fetch me a new babushka. This one's dusty."

CURTAIN.

Current Mood:

awake

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varkat

14 December 2009 @ 11:13 am

Guest Blogs and Giveaways

I don't know how much blogging I'll get done myself this week, as I try to tackle a mountain of work before the holidays. (I know me, and if there's any work to do, I'll do it, even if I'm supposed to be "on vacation." The only way to actually relax is to make sure there's nothing to obsess about <g>.) However, The Knight Agency has exciting things going on all this week, including our virtual party on Thursday, December 17th, so I hope you'll check in frequently. Here's the intro from the TKA blog for today's guest post and giveaway by the ever-awesome Carol Berg:

Christmas Week Guest Blog and Giveaway: Magic on a Winter's Night by Carol Berg

First a little bit of introduction, and then onto Carol Berg's awesome post! This week we're celebrating the holidays with a line-up of guest bloggers, including Carol, Michele Lang, Michelle Celmer, Twila Belk and a very special mega-blog on Friday featuring New York TImes bestselling authors Marjorie M. Liu, Rachel Caine, Christie Golden and Nalini Singh! As part of the celebration ALL of the authors are giving away signed copies of their books and TKA is hosting a special scavenger hunt!

There are TWO ways to win. Each day this week (Dec. 14 - Dec. 18) a guest blogger will give away a signed book to one person randomly chosen from the comment section. Also, at the bottom of the post there will be a scavenger hunt question. The answer can be located somewhere on the author's website. Send in all 5 correct answers* to the scavenger hunt questions, and you will be entered in a drawing to win the TKA Suprise Christmas Stocking overflowing with books and holiday treats!!!

S.L. Wright at Star-Crossed Romance
In other guest-blogging and giveaway news, S.L. Wright has a free copy of her new urban fantasy CONFESSIONS OF A DEMON for one lucky commenter over at Star-Crossed Romance. Check out her killer cover!