Monthly Archives: August 2009
Done done done
| August 30, 2009 | Posted by annathepiper under Short Pieces |
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Cross-posting this, since it’s to announce a piece is done!
As of this afternoon I’m relieved to tell y’all that I have indeed finished “The Blood of the Land”, my Civil-War-era story set in the Faerie Blood universe. I think it’s safe to say that this has the highest body count of on-camera characters I’ve ever written, which is pretty impressive considering that this is only 7,107 words, and I killed off a total of five characters on camera, and had one start the story dead. I had to do some interesting thinking as well about who exactly had to die, and who would have to do the killing. gave me a nice listening ear on that, and after I explained my thoughts to her, she was all about the killing off. Even aside from her usual penchant for violence!
I didn’t call for beta on it because I wanted to go ahead and send it in to my editor, which has now been done. Now we’ll see what happens next with this thing! More on what happens with it when I have it.
Written in scattershot fashion over the last week: 659
The Blood of the Land final total (first draft): 7,107
After extensive cat-vacuuming
| August 24, 2009 | Posted by annathepiper under Short Pieces |
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… I have finally thrown a decent amount more words into “The Blood of the Land”. A few of these words are actually from Saturday, but that’s okay, I’m counting them now.
I have killed off poor Elias Sutherland, and I think I just got to a scene break, after which there will be a short epilogue in which Dorcas gets to flee along the river with Caleb, leaving behind a couple of Warder ghosts and a deeply confused foreman who I think will be running away from what just happened there as fast as he can go.
Written since Saturday: 546
The Blood of the Land total: 6,448
Go Team Kendis!
| August 22, 2009 | Posted by annathepiper under Faerie Blood |
So in a quick survey around the various ebook vending sites I’m aware of, I see the following things!
Over on Mobipocket I have apparently jumped back into the top 50 in the Fantasy section, on account of they have specials going on right now and Faerie Blood‘s one of the ones in the special offers list! So are several other Drollerie titles, for that matter, so if you’re interested in checking out other Drollerie authors besides me, and Mobi format is your thing, you may consider checking there.
On the Fictionwise set of sites (Fictionwise itself as well as Ebookwise and eReader.com), I seem to be holding steady at #2, right under Rachel Vincent! And at the EPIC bookstore, I’m hanging in there at #1. All of which is Category Awesome, particularly the Mobipocket thing, since jumping back up into the top 50 is pretty sweet; last time I’d checked, I was just over the 300 mark.
No sign of me on Barnes & Noble’s ebook site yet.
And again I say, to all of you who out there who may be contributing to these shiny positions, thank you very much and I hope you’re enjoying the book. ^_^
Hey Look I'm on SALE
Number TWO
Quota reached tonight
| August 19, 2009 | Posted by annathepiper under Short Pieces |
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I have just realized that as this story’s shaped up, it’s turned out to be as much Elias and Jenny’s story as it is Dorcas’s. This sits well enough with me, although I’m now getting to the bittersweet bit at the end. Which I hope will make other people go Sniff. It does me, a bit!
It satisfies me though to top 500 words, since I actually said I’d do that as I was leaving work today. And I did. Go me!
Closing in on 6K, and also closing in on the end. This thing may come in shorter than “The Disenchanting of Princess Cerridwen”.
Written tonight: 507
The Blood of the Land total: 5,902
Still climbing at Fictionwise! Up to #5!
| August 19, 2009 | Posted by annathepiper under Faerie Blood |
As of last night I’d jumped up to #6 on Fictionwise’s Fantasy list–but as of tonight? #5, baby! Now I’m in the box at the top of the page!
I am desperately, desperately curious about how many copies this means I’ve actually sold. I mean, let’s be realistic here–I’m an SF/F author and I’m selling in ebook form to boot, so my expectations here are not high. I’ll be stunned and pleased if overall I sell enough copies of this book to get that loverly, loverly Cargo guitar I’m swooning for (which, by the rough math, would require me to sell about 500 copies). For all I know, this ranking on Fictionwise’s list may mean I’ve sold 20 copies in the last twenty days and everybody below me is spread out all the way down to zip. *^_^*;;
I won’t know for sure probably until I get the pertinent royalty statement. Which may not be the first one; I don’t know what span of time that will cover. It may be royalty statement #2!
Till then, though, I’ll indulge myself with the egoboo. And again, anybody out there reading this who’s actually bought the book off of Fictionwise, thank you very much!
Climbing Fast
Meanwhile, a quick site update
| August 18, 2009 | Posted by annathepiper under Drollerie Press, Housekeeping |
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For those of you who might be paying attention, I took a little time to update most of the pages on the site tonight, to properly reflect recent developments in Faerie Blood‘s purchasability (i.e., holy crap you can actually buy my book on Amazon now!). I also updated my Contact page to point off to my personal non-writing blog, annathepiper.org, and to mention the various LJ-like sites that this blog and annathepiper.org both mirror to.
And, I added in the missing June and July Drollerie Blog Tour links on the Extras page. Speaking of which, there will be no Drollerie Blog Tour this month since I do have a deadline I’m trying to hit. However, my fellow Drollerie author Rachael de Vienne, who wrote Pixie Warrior, is hosting a couple of guest posts that you might enjoy, so go check her out. She also posts lots of lovely old vintage photos as well, which are fun.
The Blog Tour will resume as normal in September, and with a topic that is of course near and dear to my heart: music. All y’all who’ve read Faerie Blood, if you have any requests for music-themed character vignettes or specific characters you’d like to see show up in same, drop a comment and let me know!
Now we're talkin'
| August 18, 2009 | Posted by annathepiper under Short Pieces |
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All the gushing I’ve been doing about Faerie Blood spreading around the Net aside, I do still have other work in progress–and tonight I actually managed to throw a decent amount into “The Blood of the Land”. Well and thoroughly into the climax at this point, with pissed-off-and-dead Jenny Sutherland going postal on the slave hunters.
Not sure how many more pages I have to go. Ten, maybe; we’ll see if this rough ballpark estimate holds up. And once I get the initial draft done, I can think about whether Jenny is a ghost or more like a zombie. I can’t help but envision her right now as looking a lot like Summer Glau during the Reaver battle in Serenity, only, y’know, dead.
Written tonight: 521
The Blood of the Land total: 5,395
At last! At last!
| August 18, 2009 | Posted by annathepiper under Faerie Blood |
The Eludium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator is–
No wait, wrong cartoon. This “At last!” is to report that Faerie Blood is finally, finally, available on Amazon! So those of you who have been waiting for it to show up in the Kindle store, now’s your chance to pick it up.
Meanwhile I am holding steady at #13 on Fictionwise’s list of best sellers in Fantasy, and I’ve picked up some ratings there as well.
And! I have my very first review by somebody who didn’t know me beforehand. Which makes my heart glow, especially the part where she liked that Kendis does not give a flying damn about expensive clothes.
Man, this keeps up, I might start feeling like, y’know, a writer.
Back to the story
| August 16, 2009 | Posted by annathepiper under Short Pieces |
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I’m kind of surprised at myself; this thing may come out quite a bit shorter than I originally anticipated. Definitely under 10K, and possibly even under 8K. The ghost of Jenny Sutherland has made her appearance, and hoo boy howdy, is she pissed.
More tomorrow.
Written yesterday: 166
Written today: 583
The Blood of the Land total: 4,875
Whoa hey, Fictionwise loves me
| August 14, 2009 | Posted by annathepiper under Faerie Blood |
So according to this page over here, I’m currently #18 on the list of Fictionwise’s bestsellers in the Fantasy genre, based on data slurped up over the last 20 days. I have no earthly idea what this means in terms of actual hard numbers of copies sold, but still, it’s pretty nifty. And it’s causing me a bit of cognitive dissonance just to see myself appearing on a page that also includes the words ‘Best Sellers in Fantasy’, ‘Lilith Saintcrow’, ‘Mercedes Lackey’, ‘Charlaine Harris’, and ‘Rachel Caine’. *^_^*;;
This should make my first royalty statement interesting reading, anyway! It would seem to indicate that somebody out there is indeed buying my little book. To all of you who have done so, I thank you!
And, for posterity, got a couple of screenshots!
Fictionwise Loves Me
Fictionwise Loves Me, Take 2
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