Archive for Orbit US

Hawthorn Moon Sneak Peek Event with Gail Z. Martin

Gail Z. Martin, author of The Fallen Kings Cycle series (THE SWORN and THE DREAD), unveils her sneak peek of ICE FORGED  Book One in The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, coming from Orbit Books in 2013.

Gail’s giving everyone a first look at the cover art for ICE FORGED, as well as book excerpts, author Q&As and more as part of her Hawthorn Moon Online Sneak Peek Event.  She’s got exclusive goodies spread out across more than a dozen partner sites, and you can find out about it all on Gail’s site, www.AscendantKingdoms.com.

Here is the cover. Gail also answers some questions about ICE FORGED and about her writing life.

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Q:  Tell us a little about  how you came to write ICE FORGED.

A: I’d been playing with the idea of what if magic broke (as it nearly did in the Chronicles books), and what if we had a post-apocalyptic medieval world, and what if a world sent its convicts to the northern rim (instead of, in our world, Georgia or Australia)….and I had an idea of where I wanted to go.

I like stories that test the mettle of a character and reveal what he/she is made of.  In Ice Forged, the main characters have lost everything when they were disgraced and sentenced to a harsh prison colony.  When the magic dies and the Continent is destroyed in the war and the resulting apocalypse, the life they’ve made for themselves as colonists is jeopardized.  The discovery that Blaine is the only one who can restore the magic set him and his friends on a dangerous journey that will pit them against powerful immortal enemies.  The fate of their world rests in the hands of a group of convicts.  Succeed, and they win not only their freedom, but the ability to shape the future of the world.  Fail, and face the wrath of the gods knowing you have condemned your world to darkness.

Q:  What is your Hawthorn Moon Sneak Peek Event?

A:  I started doing the Hawthorn Moon Sneak Peek Event back in 2008, and it’s become something my readers have come to expect.  The solstice (aka the Hawthorn Moon) was an important event in my first book, The Summoner, and the name and timing just stuck.  It’s my online unveiling of the cover art for the new book, along with excerpts, interviews, all-new guest blog posts and lots of fun stuff spread out over a dozen or so sites.  To find out all the goodies and all the partner sites, please visit www.AscendantKingdoms.com.

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Behind the Cover Video: THE SPIRIT WAR by Rachel Aaron

Here in the Art Department, we work over a year in advance on our book covers, so it’s a thrill to finally be able to go back and share these process posts with you. Today we have a special treat, because last year when the fabulous illustrator Sam Weber was working on the Eli Monpress series for us, he invited us into his studio in Brooklyn to take a peek at THE SPIRIT WAR in progress.
I have really enjoyed working with Sam on this series because not only does he paint such gorgeous covers for us, he’s also a gigantic geek and loves to read the books as well. It really makes a difference in a cover when your artist really gets into the story and characters…especially in the case of Eli, master thief and scoundrel extraordinaire.

In the video below, Sam walks us through his process from thumbnails to final art. Even seeing him work up close, I still can’t believe he gets the amazing textures and luminosity he creates out of the watercolors. Let me tell you, if you are not an artist or have never tried painting in any medium, never mind watercolors, you have no idea how unforgiving a medium it can be.

I know the sketches and stages he shows go by pretty quickly in the video, so I’ll post a bunch of the cover stages so you can see what he’s describing up close. Enjoy! And look forward to part two, when we move past the process of physically creating the cover, and reveal how big of a geek Mr. Weber really is.

After the jump, see the process images up close and personal…
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Tempests have never been hotter!

TEMPEST’S FURY (US | UK | AUS) is the perfect name for this awesome new novel by Nicole Peeler. Jane True comes into her own as the champion and it has the trademark quirkiness, humor and the zaniness that only Nicole can bring to urban fantasy. People have been comparing her for years to Charlaine Harris and with her newest covers, I think she’s too fabulous to miss.

Jane’s not happy. She’s been packed off to England to fight in a war when she’d much rather be snogging Anyan. Unfortunately, Jane’s enemies have been busy stirring up some major trouble — the kind that attracts a lot of attention. In other words, they’re not making it easy for Jane to get any alone time with the barghest, or to indulge in her penchant for stinky cheese.

Praying she can pull off a Joan of Arc without the whole martyrdom thing, Jane must lead Alfar and halflings alike in a desperate battle to combat an ancient evil. Catapulted into the role of Most Unlikely Hero Ever, Jane also has to fight her own insecurities as well as the doubts of those who don’t think she can live up to her new role as Champion.

Along the way, Jane learns that some heroes are born. Some are made. And some are bribed with promises of food and sex.

Germline and Beyond: How my Short Fiction Links to the Subterrene Novels

Caution: this isn’t a blog post about fiction as much as it’s a post about a weirdo. Me. Because you’d have to be weird to (a) hammer out three books in 1.5 years, (b) write one that wins a major genre award, and (c) figure it would also be easy to also generate a short story and two novelettes to compliment the books’ universe. But that’s exactly what I did. Why? Because people fascinate me in the number of ways they can be ridiculous and murderous, and sometimes I wonder: where will war take us in the future and will people ever change?

Germline, my first book and winner of the Compton Crook Award, is a gonzo-like account of futuristic front lines — the way an outsider sees things, someone not indoctrinated to the military lifestyle and who feels like a teenage outsider going in, an adult alien coming out. But where Germline is a coming of age story, Exogene is something different. Truth be told: I don’t know what it is. Exogene goes deep into the mind of the artificial, a manufactured human-like creature whose path to existence includes brutality too bizarre to be fiction. Some readers dig it. Wildly. Others can’t relate, and that’s just fine. The characters are strong women who find it difficult to tolerate incompetence or cowardice. Looking back, the main character, Catherine, took over the story and I had to follow her lead, a mind that dragged me in some strange directions. I was listening to a lot of The Distillers and Spinerette at the time so Brody Dalle may have seeped in through the cracks.

Then there’s Chimera. If Germline and Exogene are character studies about a man who can’t handle war and a girl who rejects it, respectively, then Chimera is a study of someone for whom war is a natural habitat: Stan Resnick. I’ve seen this. These types of soldiers exist — ones who genuinely thrive in settings that would make most of us want to huddle under a rock and stay there until everything dies down. And by the time writing began for Chimera, a few silly comments regarding Germline came in, comments suggesting it was an Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket derivative (because anything that features a reporter from Stars and Stripes has to be channeling Full Metal Jacket, right?). Neither movie entered my thoughts in writing Germline. But to poke a finger in the eyes of these critics, I watched Apocalypse Now — over and over and over — and decided Chimera would address the enigma of Richard Colby.

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Assassins, dreamworlds and a plague of nightmares: welcome to THE SHADOWED SUN

The fantasy novel THE SHADOWED SUN by the multilple-award winning N. K Jemisin - featuring assassins, dreamworlds and a plague of nightmaresThere are books that come along that I don’t just thoroughly enjoy, but that I feel intensely, overwhelmingly privileged to work on. THE SHADOWED SUN is one of those novels.

I don’t need to tell everyone what a stunning high fantasy writer N. K. Jemisin is. Her talents are already widely acknowledged, given that her debut novel THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS (UK | US | ANZ) was nominated for pretty much every fantasy award out there.

But even so, I underestimated just how utterly captivated I would be by THE KILLING MOON (UK | US | ANZ) and THE SHADOWED SUN (UK | US | ANZ ), books 1 and 2 in the Dreamblood duology. I didn’t think anything could top the Inheritance novels, but if it’s possible I was even more intoxicated. I09 seemed to agree when they said:

The Dreamblood duology is sure to cement Jemisin’s place as one of the most exciting and innovative new fantasy authors of recent years.

There’s something beautifully poetic about a little girl’s dreams becoming a plague upon a city.

Both novels in the Dreamblood duology are based around a religion of dreaming. It’s a dual world, where the realm of dreams is as real a place as the realm of waking. Where a soul that wonders in the dreamworld can find peace or be lost to ever-lasting torment.

In the city of Gujaareh, the priests of the dream goddess are able to harness the magic of the sleeping mind. These priests are both revered and feared, as they can use this gathered magic to either to heal . . . or kill those judged corrupt. And they move silently across the rooftops of the city at night to administer the chosen judgements. (more…)

A Fork in the Road, by Giguhl

everybody's favourite demon cat
Sometimes a demon, sometimes a cat – Giguhl has something to say.

Editor’s note: this letter was found wrapped around a brick thrown through our office window last night. We’ve deciphered the contents (phonetic spelling, crude drawings, demons don’t go to school after all) in the hope of drawing the culprit out into the open. . .

Hello mortals. It’s me again – your favorite demon sex symbol, Giguhl. Orbit asked me to stop in again since my last visit was the most popular post in the history of this blog.*

This time I’m here to celebrate the release of BLUE-BLOODED VAMP, which is the epic conclusion to the series about my boss, Sabina Kane. A lot of people are talking about this book because they’re really worried about what’s going to happen to me now. I won’t lie, facing an eternity where I am not the star of an urban fantasy series is a bleak prospect. I’ve become so used to the groupies and piles of money. **

the fifth book in the Sabina Kane vampire series
Even though Sabina is on the cover, Giguhl says he's the star of this series. We

Luckily, in addition to being a role model for the youth of America, I am also an entrepreneur. Witness my resume, which includes being the champion of Demon Fight Club and managing a roller derby team. I am never one to sit idle, I have decided upon a new career now that my days as the savior of humanity are done.

I’m going to be an author.

I just blew your mind, right?

Look, I’ve been watching Jaye Wells do this gig for like five years now. From what I can tell all it involves is eating a lot of carbs, tapping away on a keyboard, cussing at the screen, punching the delete button and then drinking wine directly from the bottle. Easy peasy.

My first story will be an erotic coming of age tale about a changeling faery, who leaves home to find sexy adventure in the mortal realm with a billionaire CEO who likes silk neckties. It’s partially a memoir about my friend Pussy Willow combined with a little creative license I’ve gleaned from watching the Spice channel. I’m going to call it 50 SHADES OF FAE.*** 

Anyway, I’m still working on it all, but I’m pretty sure that I’m going to be a bestseller right away. Jaye tells me I’m deluded and that I should stick to be a sidekick. I think she’s just jealous of my good looks, brilliant marketing mind and impressive modesty.

While I wait for every editor on earth to fight over the privilege of paying me eight-figures for my opus, you should probably go ahead and read BLUE-BLOODED VAMP. Tell Jaye I sent you so she’ll put a good word in with those incredibly good looking and witty editors at Orbit. 

Giguhl out!

 *I’m probably lying about this. 

**What? I totally have groupies. Mortal ladies are suckers for a bad boy. The money I am totally lying about. But who needs money when you’re up to your pitchfork in adoring ladies?

***Don’t even try to steal that title, mortals. I mean it!

Books 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the Sabina Kane series 'starring' Giguhl.

The Bandit King – New Historical Fantasy Released Today!

the cover of The Bandit King a new historical fantasy by Lilith Saintcrow

THE BANDIT KING  is the eagerly-awaited sequel to Lilith Saintcrow’s ebook-exclusive historical fantasy THE HEDGEWITCH QUEEN, and it’s released today!

If you’re in the US you can purchase it from these retailers.

In the UK you can buy the ebook for one month only at a special price, meaning that should you fancy getting a bit closer to royalty after the Jubilee festivities, you can get both THE HEDGEWITCH QUEEN and THE BANDIT KING  at a great price.

Tristan d’Arcenne killed his King. Now he is faced with betrayal, war, and the mistrust of his Queen. She should mistrust him, for there is nothing d’Arcenne will not do.

The Bandit King approaches . . .

You can find a sample chapter of THE BANDIT KING here.

Ten Things I Will Never Do

THE SPIRIT WAR by Rachel AaronNow that the fourth Eli Monpress book, The Spirit War, is officially out, I feel the time has come to make some commitments. Three books is a long time, but four? That’s an investment. You, gentle reader, have stuck with me through two years, multiple covers, and an omnibus makeover, and for that you deserve something concrete. So, without further ado, here are ten things I swear to you on my still living mother’s grave that I will never do in the Eli series.

1. I will not place all power in an easily losable object

This is a classic, and better writers than I have fallen for its simple charms. But the Eli Monpress books have always been about personal problems on a global scale, and ain’t no one getting out that easily. So, despite the absolutely insane amount of epic magic flying around in the final Eli books, there is no Tesseract, One Ring, Sword of Omens, or Holy Grail. I know I’m killing my merchandising options here, but art requires sacrifice.

2. It will not end in a wedding or an awards ceremony

I couldn’t book John Williams or Hans Zimmer to do the music, so the plot had to be rewritten. Also, Eli refused to wear anything that might make him look respectable. A man has to think of his reputation.

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Wallpapers for CALIBAN’S WAR by James S. A. Corey

God, I love this series. So much so… I think all of you should titivate that calculator on steroids you have on your person with the absurdly cool art from CALIBAN’S WAR (US | UK | AUS) by James S. A. Corey by Daniel Dociu.

Bring it on.

BRING IT ON!!!

Below are all the wallpaper download links. If anyone needs a specific dimension… you’re on your own.

BA HA HA HA HA

Just kidding. Let us know and we’ll hook you up. :)

 

1024 x 768 | 1280 x 800 | 1440 x 900 | 1680 x 1050 |1920 x 1200 | iPhone | iPad | Facebook

Orbit at Book Expo America!

Come by the Orbit booth (#3633) at BEA for giveaways, free books, and exclusive signings!

Wednesday, June 6
1 PM: N.K. Jemisin signing The Killing Moon (while supplies last)
4 PM: Kate Locke signing God Save the Queen (while supplies last)

THE KILLING MOON cover GOD SAVE THE QUEEN cover

We’ll also have a limited quantity of galleys for Lilith Saintcrow’s The Iron Wyrm Affair and Amanda Carlson’s urban fantasy debut, Full Blooded. We hope to see you there!