Going home.

I am no longer sure why I am writing this blog. I don’t know who I’m writing it to, or who it’s for. It isn’t for me. I know that. I suppose it’s so that someone knows what happened, but that means nothing to me, either. Who are all of you, anyway? Who am I to you, or you to me? I have lost all perspective to say whether it matters or not.

My wife and I have been fighting nearly constantly in the past days. I’ve been sleeping on the couch. We’d fight about things I don’t even understand. She would talk of events and times that had no meaning to me. And when I tried to talk about better times, times I want things to be like again, she’d stare at me as though I was insane.

Then today I got several voicemails from Dan. His voice was raspy and strange and distant, as though the call was coming from far, far away. On the other side of the world, maybe. It was hard to tell what he was saying, and often it sounded like he was trying to keep his voice down. At the start of the first one it sounded like he was running, maybe running from something. (more…)

Random Lovable Things

I love it when aliens with giant veiny foreheads come down to tell us how inferior we are and how they’re going to blast us into dust because of their superiority.

I love it when someone spontaneously evolves into a future being with a giant veiny forehead, and then proceeds to threaten humanity with his awesome future intellect.

I love atomic brains from outer space.  Y’know the kind I’m talking about.  They’ve grown beyond the need for a body and just float around, causing all sorts of cosmic mischief.

I love radiation.  Radiation is always sure to be fun.  If it doesn’t kill you, then maybe you’ll get superpowers!  Isn’t that swell?
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Double Cover Launch: GRIFFIN MAGE TRILOGY

Neumeier_Lord Changing Winds (MM) Neumeier_Land Burning Sands (MM)Today, lucky readers, I have not one but TWO covers to launch: Lord of the Changing Winds and The Land of Burning Sands by Rachel Neumeier, Books I & II of the Griffin Mage Trilogy. I am launching them together because they are releasing back to back in May and June 2010, and the final book will be out in December 2010. (We know you guys love it when we do a quick publishing schedule so you can get the whole epic, right? We’re geeks too, we know waiting for book 2 is the worst.)

Anyway, back to the books. The author has a fresh take on griffins, much more raw, and dangerous than the traditional fantasy griffins — and I wanted that to show through in the covers. These griffins are animal creatures first, and I think that’s never been explored before, so I have focused on those details of the griffins, and then just added touches of the story – in the first book you can just see the reflection of Kes in the griffin’s eye, and then in the second book you can see the role the desert will play. (more…)

Bite Marks is out!

And just in time for Halloween….

Rardin_Bite Marks (TP)

I’m very excited to tell you that Bite Marks is out today! Yeah! This is Jaz Park’s newest adventure. And this time, she’s in a bit deeper than before with gnomes trying to bring down NASA and a demon bent on dragging a friend’s soul to hell.  But to top it off, she’s also hearing voices in her head – and they’re not all hers.

It’s a wild ride. I hope you’re as excited as I am to check this book out in the bookstores. And I’m over the moon because the next book just delivered into my greedy wittle hands! Which you’ll be seeing next fall…

And be sure to check out Jennifer’s post on “The Ick Factor.”

The Ick Factor

Recently I read a kickass review of my new book, Bite Marks, in the December 2009 issue of RT Book Reviews magazine. I’m not going to quote it here (because it’s a great publication and you should all run out and buy ten copies) except to say my reviewer noted that Bite Marks has a rather intense “ick factor.”

Can I just say how delighted I am, not only by that phrase, but by the fact that it’s being used to describe the sixth book in the Jaz Parks series?  It’s not like I’m into gratuitous ick.  Or gratuitous anything for that matter.  In my books I want everything to happen for a reason.  Except, maybe, for humor.  Which has its own beanbag chair and an outfit we’d all giggle wildly about after seeing while secretly wishing we had one just like it.  Possibly something in pink chiffon, with army boots, and those headbands with springs attached to eyeballs that should go “boingggg” but–sadly–don’t.  However, I digress. (more…)

The Day After Tomorrow

One of the things that intrigues me as a writer is the question: “And then what happened?”

That’s one reason why I’m so excited to be writing The Fallen Kings Cycle for Orbit, carrying my characters and world from The Chronicles of the Necromancer into all-new adventures. It gives me the chance to ask, and answer, my favorite question and to share that answer with readers.
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Cover Launch: THE UNIT

OR-001 Unit cover artThe Unit by Terry DeHart has a pretty straightforward concept: it’s about a family fighting to survive the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse. It’s a very violent, gritty book, and it reads like an action movie, so we wanted to give the cover a very cinematic look. The “Unit” of the title is a bit of a play on words, as it’s a family unit that must turn itself into a military unit in order to survive. I could go on about the “nuclear” family having to face “nuclear” holocaust but then you’d all groan and go read someone else’s blog post here. (sorry, couldn’t resist)

The cover is a collaboration between the fabulous designer Chad Roberts and myself. He really gets all the credit for establishing the look and typography, but the original had more graphic, as opposed to photographic, figures of the family. After the final manuscript came in we realized the book was a little more gritty than the graphic look communicated, so yours truly took the template for the characters Chad had designed and found more realistic images we could then backlight and do fancy photoshop magic on to make them look like they were totally all standing together in front of a big fireball waiting to spring into action. (A.K.A. “Designer Magic”)

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The Alternates and the Thin Places

I woke up today to my wife shouting my name. Apparently my nose had begun bleeding in the night and my pillow was soaked through with it. It was all very upsetting and very messy. She wanted to drive to the doctor’s office in the morning, citing my previous maladies (all of which occurred so long ago that I couldn’t remember them), but I managed to talk her down.

My nose did not bleed again. But I thought I would talk to Dan about it, so I walked next door. (more…)