Is posting your publications for the year a sign of insecurity? Like, "Look, everyone, I wasn't just sitting around counting my thumbs all year, I was typing with them."

2009 Sales & Publications

Novels published:

• NORSE CODE (Ballantine)

Novels Sold:

• KID VS. SQUID (Bloomsbury Children's USA), scheduled for release May 11, 2010


• LAST (Bloomsbury Children's USA), scheduled for spring/summer 2011

New Stories:

• "The Holy City and Em's Reptile Farm" - in Other Earths (DAW)


• Last Son of Tomorrow - Tor.com


• "Temp" in Tumbarumba

Reprints and Podcasts:

• Taco - Escape Pod


• Carnival Park - PodCastle


• Change - PodCastle


• Chi - Drabblecast


• Frequent Flier Miles - Drabblecast


• "Far As You Can Go" - 9 (Greek)

I don't know why I think I have the right to grump about what other people post on their LJ's, especially when all I post any more is writing stuff.

I wiped down all the kitchen counters yesterday, including beneath and behind the microwave. There was a lot of red onionskin down there. That wasn't writing-related.

Last night at the coffee joint there were some super-duper old farts planning some kind of musical event, and they were going on and on about these dusty old songs from their youth, and of course the music they were talking about was stuff from my high school days. And, yeah, okay, I still really do like Dire Straits (the Brothers in Arms tour was one of my first concert experiences), and "Save a Prayer" really is a good Duran Duran song ...

And, actually, I was at the coffee joint to write, so the preceding was technically writing-related.

Anyway, what I actually came here to say is that Kid Vs. Squid has an Amazon listing and a release date now: May 11, 2010.

Here's the product description:

The citizens of Atlantis are stuck selling cotton candy on the boardwalk, and only our hero can help

Thatcher Hill is bored stiff of his summer job dusting the fake mermaids and shrunken heads at his uncle’s seaside Museum of Curiosities. But when a mysterious girl steals an artifact from the museum, Thatcher’s summer becomes an adventure that takes him from the top of the ferris wheel to the depths of the sea. Following the thief, he learns that she is a princess of the lost Atlantis. Her people have been cursed by an evil witch to drift at sea all winter and wash up on shore each summer to an even more terrible fate—working the midway games and food stands on the boardwalk. Can Thatcher help save them before he, too, succumbs to the witch’s curse?

With sharp, witty writing that reads like a middle-grade Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Greg van Eekhout’s first book for young readers is a wild ride packed with as many laughs as it has thrills.

Working on an October 1 deliverable. The stuff in the cup is a triple-shot Americano. It is my favorite office mate today. It is my personal assistant.

From Last

Sleeeeeep!! I need sleeeeeeep!

But I'm at the airport, waiting for the first leg of my flight to Blue Heaven (it's a novel workshop on Kelley's Island, Ohio).

Since I have an electrical outlet for my laptop machine, I've decided to video blog my entire Blue Heaven experience.

Or at least the part of it where I eat breakfast at the airport at five in the morning.

Finally broke through Chapter 8. It was such a pain in my butt that I was thinking of just not having a Chapter 8. People would say, "Hey, where's Chapter 8?"

And I'd roar back in their faces, "Write your own dang Chapter 8 if it's so important to you!"

But now we can all stay friends.

From Last

I had this brilliant idea that I could sit on these steps and get some work done. There was even wifi! But the glare was just too much. I'm thinking maybe I should get an umbrella. Also, there are some houses around there with nice, furnished decks and expansive views. I'm kinda thinking of house-jacking one of them. Might need some muscle for backup, though. Who's with me?

From Last

It's good to have options for places to buy books, and now there's a new one: The Tor.com Store. They're "publisher agnostic," meaning they're not only selling their own Tor books there, but stuff from other publishers, including mine. Full disclosure: My book is a featured title at the store (at least it was today), but I'd think it was an interesting idea and worth pointing out regardless. New ideas, new business models.

***

A reader reacts to Norse Code from a Christian perspective.

***

Heading out for Arizona tomorrow, because I miss it so much that I have to go back. No, of course that's not true! I'm going to a workshop in Flagstaff, and I've got some business in Phoenix to take care of first, by which I mean Four Peaks Brewery and Carlsbad Tavern. I used to get the nachos at Carlsbad on Friday nights after Kenpo class. And, yes, I actually do miss those nachos.

Life is all about taking chances. Or eating dinner at San Diego Chicken Pie Shop. Maybe I just said the same thing twice.

San Diego Chicken Pie Shop has been around for more than 70 years, but I think it went under modernization around 1974.

From San Diego - 2009

I like a place that's prepared to kill bugs.

From San Diego - 2009

In case the zappers don't get them, the gravy will. I like gravy. Drowning in gravy would be okay with me. In fact, this evening, it was. The difference between a chicken pot pie and a chicken pie is that the latter cannot be bothered with vegetables and potatoes. Fortunately, there was some of each among my fellow drowning victims.

From San Diego - 2009

And without segue, there were little flowers at yesterday's writing venue.

From Last

Oh, hey, I can't remember if ever mentioned it, but I sold this book last year? And it's out and stuff today? If I recall, it's called Norse Code, and in addition to the valkyrie in the leather pants on the cover (who actually only wears jeans in the book, plus a sensible coat, cuz it's Fimbulwinter, which means it's quite brisk out), there're gods and wolves and a Malamute and an eight-legged horse and farmers from Iowa. It's a hoot, lemme just say that.

You can find some preview chapters online: chapter 1 at Tor.com, chapter 2 at Suvudu, and chapter 3 at Suvudu.

And over at John Scalzi's blog, I've got a Big Idea column up. How'd that happen? Because I put a grenade down Scalzi's pants and threatened to pull the pin. "Get your hand out of my pants," John said. "Wait, no, don't! Wait ... Oh, fine, you can have a Big Idea column."

And that's how you make things happen in this business. You be a freakin' professional, people.

Thanks for all the kind words posted in the comments yesterday and dozens and dozens of previous days. As it says on the acks page, I appreciate all the "awesome folks who have kept me company by leaving thousands of funny and lovely comments on my silly blog."

That means you.

From Final Norse Code cover

Had a great time in Solana Beach last night with Lisa and colleenky and a bunch of her friends at the Jonathan Coulton show. I've been a Jonathan Coulton fan for all of two weeks and am now pretty sure I'll continue along those lines. And I thought opening act Paul and Storm were at least as entertaining. I even got to throw a pair of panties at them. Apparently it's the thing to do at such gatherings.

Otherwise, writing, things in motion, nothing to report.

From Osteomancer's Son

No hype today, but I will link to the podcast of my story Frequent Flier Miles (originally published by my friends at Flytrap), which was posted on The Drabblecast a couple of days ago. Cat Rambo graces the story with her reading. (I'm confident she does, though I confess to not having listened to it yet, so it's something I'm still looking forward to.)

"Frequent Flier Miles" appears to be another one about the consequences of immortality. That's largely what my story coming soon at Tor.com is about, too. And it also pops up in NORSE CODE, too. I'd say it's becoming an obsession of mine, but it's possible the obsession has less to do with immortality itself than it does with Highlander.

But who knows? I've been having a lot of vivid and unsettling dreams lately, and when motifs and scenarios appear in my dreams again and again, it seems rude to my subconscious to ignore it when it might be trying to tell me something. Writing stories is usually such hard work and full of deliberate choices that sometimes I forget my typing fingers are getting their orders from more than one source.

Heh. I just remembered that OSTEOMANCER'S SON is full of characters going to great lengths to achieve immortality. So, there it is again, right on the screen in front of me.

From Osteomancer's Son

This, I hope, is the draft my agent sends out to market and makes me boogillions of dollars. It's got pichurs and everything!

From Flotsam Novel Progress

Two good things:

1. I sold a short story, "Last Son of Tomorrow," to Tor.com. It's about immense power and immortality and how they don't necessarily make everything super.

2. I have vicodin.

This morning's coffee joint was almost a little too hip, so full of young creative-types that I was lucky to get a table. But I did, and here's a pic of what was on it. I did not take a pic of the cute barista in the fishnets reading Watchmen on her break. This isn't that kind of website.

Oh, and I got around to adding a soundtrack to my How I Wrote Norse Code YouTube movie. It's not Rush. It is obnoxious.

From Flotsam Novel Progress

Obviously, it sucks. Publishing companies restructuring, magazines folding, bookstores cutting back on orders, people losing their jobs ... it sucks. I would have much preferred to release my first book under more stable and prosperous circumstances.

So, what can we writers do about it?

First, keep writing.

Second ... there is no second.

Just do the first thing.

Unless you don't want to be a writer anymore, in which case it's okay to stop. It's always okay to stop. That's a legitimate choice and you shouldn't be faulted for it, ever.

But if you still want to be a writer, just do the first thing.

The edited and copyedited manuscript has been reviewed, and I know this: Editors and copyeditors earn their pay.

From Cup & Page pics

1. Copyedited Norse Code manuscript
2. Mulberry pencil
3. Pencil sharpener
4. Americano (in a ceramic mug, as is proper)
5. Bagel with what looks like a cephalopod on top

From Cup & Page pics

I wrote the following on Friday but didn't get around to posting it:

Mere seconds ago the FedEx guy handed me my copyedited manuscript of Norse Code. I'm sure in a few days I'll be gritting my teeth and burning in embarrassment at my utter incompetence with spelling, punctuation, grammar, logic, consistency, and respiration, but right now, with the big padded envelope still sealed, I'm going to take a moment and enjoy the idea that I just took delivery on the copyedited manuscript of my first novel.

Life is an accumulation of small pleasures. This is one of them.

And now, Monday morning, all is exactly as I said it would be.

Spent a fun weekend in Vegas, the highlight of which (competing with a rather perfect breakfast at Bouchon) was seeing Nine Inch Nails from the third row. I don't know how Lisa scored those tickets, but even the usher who pointed us to our seats was impressed. I'm only a casual fan of Trent Reznor, but he and his band put on a visually and musically powerful performance, and it's always fun for me to witness the enthusiasm of an audience full of Nine Inch Nuts.

Did I mention I hung about 400 Christmas lights around our small living room? They produce enough light to read by and cast the apartment in the glow of Christmas miracle. I love it so much I can barely stand it!

A few recent short story appearances to mention.

First up is "The Temp" in Tumbarumba, a collaborative project by Ethan Hamm and Ben Rosenbaum and a bunch of writers. This was one of those things that when Ben told me about it in email I just sort of nodded and thought, "I honestly have no idea what he's talking about but it sounds cool."

ETA: Now that I think on it, I don't think Ben really explained it to me. I think he just described it as being something transformational or transitional or about change and surprise and maybe something to do with hybrids.

Anyway, here's an explanation:

Tumbarumba is an add-on for Firefox web browsers. It quietly sits in the background, occasionally inserts a fragment of a story into a webpage that is being viewed. The result is an absurd sentence that is reminiscent of the surrealist exquisite corpse game. If the inserted fragment (we call the fragments "tumbarumbas") is spotted and clicked upon, the entire story will emerge and eventually take over the page.

And once I understood that, I said to myself, "Why would I ever want to complicate my internet experience with such nonsense???" But then I turned the add-on on and forgot about it and one day I was reading a news story about Sarah Palin and the paragraph started telling me about how the wires in her head were giving her headaches when she jacked in and it was a surreal moment and then I went, "Oooh. Okay. I get it now. Cool."

Next up is "Frequent Flier Miles" in Flytrap #10, which will be the last issue of Flytrap (at least for the foreseeable future), since editors/publishers Tim Pratt and Heather Shaw have a kid and jobs and writing careers and lives and didn't want Flytrap to become a source of pain and obligation rather than one of pleasure and fulfillment. And who can blame them? I'll miss Flytrap, though. It's been one of my favorite markets to read and to appear in, and I'm proud to have been in the first issue as well as the last issue, and also one in the middle there somewhere.

Finally, "Shadow of Myself" in The Exquisite Corpuscle, an anthology edited by Jay Lake and Frank Wu, featuring interleaved fiction, poetry and illustration, available at Amazon or directly from Fairwood Press.

And now I release you from this infomercial.