Monday, April 28, 2014

Honor At Stake, and publishing

Cedar Sanderson

Last week, I announced the news: I've been picked up by a real, honest-to-God publisher. Notice I didn't say much about it. I'm not exactly excited about it. I'm not gushing about it.

Imagine if you just finished moving furniture for a whole day.  Are you going to go out to a party to celebrate by dancing, and getting more sweaty, or are you going to plop down on the couch and take a nap?

I've been moving this particular piece of furniture for ten years. And I tripped over it. That was it. Dumb luck, and an acquisition editor with a high reading speed and an empty in-box.

Do I regret the self publishing? Hell no. In fact, if I weren't trying to be social online, I wouldn't have tripped over this, so, saying that God works in mysterious ways isn't exactly true. Mildly annoying ways, sometimes, but not much on the mystery.

The book is a vampire novel entitled Honor At Stake, and it's going to be include all the usual vulnerabilities you ever read in a copy of Dracula, because removing the religious defenses against vampires is just bull. It allows vampires to be your standard overpowered enemies, and we only survive based on their good graces.

And, second, REAL VAMPIRES DON'T SPARKLE. Period.

Now that I'm going to be working with a "real publisher," who will help me market my book, pay for an artist to cover my book, get me into actual bookstores, what does that mean for The Pius Trilogy?

Well, the publisher, Damnation Books, part of Eternal Press .... yes, I now work for Eternal Damnation, Inc ... will not touch self published novels with a ten-foot pole. They might take the sequel to Codename: Winterborn, mostly because it won't be so tied to the sequel that you can't read one without the other.

If you've read A Pius Legacy, you realize that book three, A Pius Stand, isn't going to be that easy to read without the other two books.  So, yes, A Pius Stand will come to an Amazon shelf in short order.

Will I party that day? No. But I'll flop on the couch and take a nap.

But Declan, you ask, what does that have to do with the cute redhead on your page?

The cute redhead is Cedar Sanderson, a fellow author. This coming Saturday, her book, Trickster Noir, is coming out as a freebie on e-book

Cedar Sanderson is interesting. She's half-way through a degree in microbiology, "just getting to the interesting bits." A former military brat, she grew up in Alaska (when the family became nailed down to one place). She grew up learning to hunt, fish, trap, garden, forage wild edibles, prospect for gold and gems, survive in the wilderness, camp, can, butcher, cook, bake, paint, research, and blow stuff up along the way. After Alaska, her adult life, was spent in New Hampshire, before moving to Ohio.
So, she's got a colorful little background....AND she's a cute redhead.  Yes, I have a thing for smart women. And cute redheads. Shut up.

The book is described as follows.
Book two in the Pixie for Hire series, Trickster Noir picks up where Pixie Noir ended. Lom, the little pixie with the tough-guy mentality, has proposed to Bella. All should be well, but their happily-ever-after is in grave danger. Threats from both Underhill and the human realms are closing in on them, and the fairy princess raised Alaskan redneck has to learn on the job, and fast!   

So, while you're waiting on A Pius Stand, you might want to check out her stuff.  Seriously, you can't beat free, now can you?

1 comment:

  1. Well, thank you sir! I appreciate the kind words, and will note that the blue dress pictured is my special kind of cosplay at cons… I am eye-candy. Fortunately, my beloved First Reader doesn't mind.

    I will note that although you can read a significant chunk of Trickster Noir (and the first book in the series, Pixie Noir, as well) free on my site, to get the whole thing, you will have to pay. Funny how mercenary we writers are.

    I will go ahead and make my little red riding hood story free, though. You'll like it - she packs heat.

    ReplyDelete

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