My thoughts on the new Kindle

I'm a die hard Kindle geek. Ever since I got my Kindle 2 on my 21st birthday, I've been attached to that thing like we're conjoined twins. I call him Stevie. Yeah, like Stephen King. Think of the evil pen name in The Dark Half and you might be coming close to our relationship. (Although I don't think my Kindle goes around killing people behind my back...)

So when I hear there's a new Kindle coming, I go into spasms of glee and jealousy. See, my Kindle 2 is still perfect. Works fabulously. There's no reason for me to replace it.

Then they released the Kindle 3, and it was black. And it had the most amazing contrast ratio. And international downloads became available, which was exactly what I needed on my vacations! But those reasons weren't enough for me to drop money on a new Kindle, no matter how hard I lust for them.

But now... oh Amazon, you're trying to kill my wallet, aren't you?

First, there's the ad-supported Kindle for only $79. It's not quite the ad-supported Kindle I was expecting Amazon Prime members would get for free this holiday season, but it's getting closer. Going so far below the $100 mark puts this well within the price range of even more casual readers. Totally killer.

Then we've got the Kindle Touch, which is exquisite. Losing the keyboards does a lot of favors for your figure, honey. ;)

My main problem with these is that the steel gray against the gray e-ink screen looks bad. Just plain awful. It washes out the whole thing and makes it look like it came from the 1980s. I appreciate simplicity, but they should have gone in a total different direction with the look. These don't tempt me to upgrade all that much, although they're pretty cool. (The black "Kindle Keyboard," as they are calling it now, is still available.)

The Kindle Fire, on the other hand...

I've been sorely tempted to buy a tablet but putting it off. The idea of being able to watch my Amazon video library on it almost tips me over the edge, since that's where I get most of my TV shows. It looks like it would be awesome for reading comic books. And it's only $200!

As a tech geek, I'm a little dubious about their "Silk" browser (I was hoping for an Android tablet better than the Nook). I'm also bummed about the eight hour battery life. Being able to read on my Kindle for ages without charging it is almost my #1 must-have feature. I feel like the Kindle Fire couldn't replace Stevie for me... but it could certainly supplement. ;)


I was planning on asking for a pony this Christmas. I think I might need to write a different letter to Santa instead.

Hey, I'm a writer! I need these devices! It's for research!

...Right?

Death's Hand cover revisited

Super modesty powers... ACTIVATE.

I'm actually quite pleased with the effect of moving the title up a teensy bit, since it balances out the titles on the cover much better. I'm also very pleased that you can actually, you know, see what's on the cover. You can even tell there's a sword when it's thumbnail sized:

Whereas before, it was a murky black mass.

Keeping some of the dark, interesting contrast of the original cover while brightening it enough to see what's happening is tricky. I might still fiddle with the colors a little bit. (Although, honestly, I could fiddle with covers until the end of time and never be satisfied.)

You might also enjoy seeing the wraparound for the paperback, just for funsies. Click to embiggen:

I realize that the last post made it sound like my thought process on this cover was Book for Men = Cover With Boobs. That's not really what happened. As with all things, it took a heck of a lot more time, consideration, and about a jillion drafts. I've done a series on cover design before. I actually have another series like that planned soon, so I didn't want to go over it again with Death's Hand. Trust me when I say I do have faith in my male readers and their ability to think with the big brain.

In fact, as some guys pointed out, most men wouldn't be caught dead with a book that looks sexy. Who wants to be reading on a train and have everyone see that their book is apparently about a woman's midriff and shapely legs? Nobody, male or female. I used to get ridiculously embarrassed reading sexy romance novels in the break room at work. When I got a Kindle and people couldn't see rippling pectorals and plump woman thigh anymore, it was like a revelation.

What compels people to buy books on Amazon is very different than what compels people to buy books on the shelf at a store. What makes a cover effective (not necessarily good, but effective) is completely different, too. Go peruse the bestseller lists on Kindle and see what I mean.

So what do you think? A teeny bit less cleavage + a teeny bit brighter = a huge improvement? I think so.

Death's Hand and the Epic Boobage

The cover for my next book has been posted on Goodreads and the Red Iris site. I've done all three covers for this series. They look great, and feedback has been positive. The only thing I really feel I need to improve is the contrast so you can see the background and her sword better, since I sometimes forget that not everyone has the same monitor settings I do. (It also looks great in print, by the way.)

That said, Death's Hand does have one fairly significant feature that seems to be a conversation starter. Something that draws the eye. Something... uh... subtle.

Death's Cleavage

To understand why I decided to have sexy covers for these books, we're going to have to divert a little to discuss the nitty gritty side of publishing. There are more female readers than male readers, but there are more men published  than women, male writers are reviewed more often, and men are less likely to read books by women.

I'm not going to make any sweeping feminist statements right now. (I can control myself, I swear.) But the numbers do make me think that being a female author might make it harder to attract male readers-- and so far, men have been loving Death's Hand. They've been totally digging the action-oriented plot, the dark mystery, and the gore.

Since I have built a reputation as a writer of young adult fiction that appeals to girls, I worry about getting male readers to pick up a book I know they're going to love. I hope that having a bold, sexy cover will help advertise that this is something men will like.

This decision seems to confuse some of my female followers. I've gotten several polite, private messages saying that they are not fans of the sexy cover. It's possible they just aren't the target market-- but maybe I should be concerned about alienating readers who don't like the shapely female form as much as I do. I'm standing by this cover because I love it, but I am considering pushing the title up a teeny bit.

What do you think, folks? Too much boobage? Just fine the way it is? Throw your squishy, squishy opinions at me.

The future of publishing has arrived.

If you don't mind me quoting a Fergie song, ever since I was a baby girl I had a dream. Sentimental things. Crazy as it seems. Always knew down deep inside that there would come a day... where I would run a publishing company and deliver awesome books to the world. (Okay, that's not how the song goes, but we can't all be members of the Black Eyed Peas.)

The publishing world is changing. The future of publishing is not a nomadic world where we fend for ourselves in the terrifying wilderness, or giant metropolitan dystopias where big corporations care for us in little boxes. It's more like a bunch of small towns where everyone work together toward a greater goal. With food co-ops and artsy stuff and maybe some carriages because they don't pollute as bad as cars.

You know what, that metaphor made no sense. Let me backtrack a bit here.

What I'm saying is, authors getting together to collaboratively publish is the best way to provide quality control without sacrificing personal control of content. A hybrid publisher that performs some services for authors and fosters her career while allowing the individual to retain all rights is ideal in this New World, and if we all work together, we can make great things happen. 

So that's why I'm thrilled to announce Red Iris Books, a publisher of dark fantasy for teen and adult audiences. (Go take a peek. I'll wait here.)

Angela Kulig is helping me launch a small publishing effort. Angela doesn't need any hand-holding, but she's helping me break in the brand and try out some funky cool stuff to get started. And she's an incredible writer to boot. AMAZING books are in the works.

Did you take a look at Red Iris Books yet? Did you notice we're giving away a Kindle?

Yeah. You should go enter that contest. And then come back on October 21st, 2011 and start reading some awesome novels.

Just sayin'.

Something is coming... something HUGE.

First things first: Six Moon Summer is temporarily on sale for 99 cents on the Kindle bookstore. Amazon set the sale themselves, so I'm not sure how long it will last. You should pick up your copy right now before it goes back to the ridiculous, wallet-shattering price of $2.99!

Third things second: My next book release is coming NEXT MONTH. Yes. I'm already preparing to release another book. This is in a totally new urban fantasy series for adult audiences, but I can't talk about it... yet.

Second things third: I have another announcement (related to the one above) that I will be sharing next week. AND IT'S HUGE. Like, explosions and atomic unicorns huge. But I'm a massive tease, so I'm going to make you guys wait until Monday to hear about it! Mwahahaha cough ahem.

In the meantime, if you want to read a little special somethin'-somethin' by yours truly, you should go pick up Here Be Monsters. It's an anthology featuring one of my lovely (er, horrible) horror stories, and proceeds from sales of the book are going to go to charity. Pretty cool. Let me know what you think if you get it. :) There's a lot of awesome authors in that beast of a book.

Win paperback copies of Six Moon Summer and All Hallows' Moon!

The All Hallows' Moon book tour kicks off today! For the next week, Rylie, Seth, and I are going to be hopping from blog to blog to talk about werewolves, the new school year, and the weird things that happened last summer at camp.

Here's where you can catch us on each date:

Monday - Ivy Reads
Tuesday - Coffee Table Reviews
Wednesday - Magical Urban Fantasy Reads
Thursday - Me, My Shelf, and I
Friday - Burning Impossibly Bright

Stop by, chat with Seth and Rylie (I'm much too busy to post, personally), follow us all on Twitter, and WIN! It's pretty simple. :) Ooooor you can just enter the giveaway with the widget above, easy peasy! But you'll miss some pretty amazing guest posts, if I do say so myself.

All Hallows' Moon is available now!

Get it now!

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

CreateSpace

Goodreads

I am SO RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED to announce that All Hallows' Moon is available now! If you liked Six Moon Summer, I think you'll like this one EVEN BETTER-- so much that I'm writing EVERYTHING IN CAPSLOCK! (Okay, sorry, I'll stop it.)

Here's the blurb off Goodreads:

The good girl has become a very bad werewolf...

Rylie survived her transformation. She moves to her aunt’s ranch in the hopes she can enroll in a new high school and quietly continue her life-- except that she transforms into a monster every new and full moon and struggles to control her murderous urges. 

Without many werewolves left, it’s hard to stay in hiding. A family of hunters -- Eleanor, Abel, and Seth -- recognize the signs and follow Rylie to her new home. They want to stop her before she murders someone, and the only way to do it is with a silver bullet. Seth soon realizes the werewolf is Rylie, the one monster he failed to kill. Worse yet, he’s still in love with her. 

Torn between family and love, Rylie struggles to reconcile her feelings and control the wolf within while Seth fights to do what’s right. But what is right-- obeying desire or duty?

Any help you can give me spreading the word on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog would be SERIOUSLY appreciated. You can enjoy this book without having read Six Moon Summer, so you should totally recommend it to anyone you think needs a little werewolf for their weekend! :)

Be sure to come back and visit next week-- Rylie, Seth, and I are going on a little blog tour, and you're going to have chances to WIN free copies of the book! :D

The night I became a werewolf. Kind of.

As a child, I aspired to grow up as a velociraptor. When puberty struck and didn't bring leathery skin and a giant toe-claw, I quashed my disappointment and set my sights on a more reasonable goal: Becoming a werewolf.

To someone who uses their brain for thinking and doesn't subsist on a strict entertainment diet of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "An American Werewolf in London," this sounds completely stupid. To a pubescent daydreamer whose main exposure to the wider world came in form of the literary works of Christopher Pike and Animorphs, this sounded completely reasonable.

While other middle school students set their sights on high school and college, I set my sights on the full moon. I wrote out a list of tasks I felt I needed to complete in order to accomplish my career goals. Although that list has been mercifully lost in the annals of history, it was something like this:

• Find a werewolf
• Get bitten
• Change

Since I had already become quite an adept witch in seventh grade (another story for another time, trust me), I was well connected to the "paranormal" students at my junior high. As it turns out, there are quite a lot of twelve and thirteen year old vampires in my small town. Who would have thought?

My "contact" to the seedy underworld (which happened to hang out behind the cafeteria, where it's always shady and they had ready access to frozen burritos) was a vampire named Brianna. She had gorgeous pale skin, red hair dyed black, and a penchant for dark nail polish and lipstick. And she was a creature of the night.

Confident that the teachers would try to interfere with my transformation if they knew, I arranged for a clandestine meeting with the Vampire Brianna during phys ed. We met up behind the cart of rubber balls in our blue and gray uniforms (which we only grudgingly wore to prevent detention, since we were both Dark Preternatural Entities) to discuss my serious issue.

"What do you require of me so urgently, Sara?" the Vampire Brianna asked in a breathy, mysterious voice.

"I need... a werewolf," I replied. "To bite me. So I can become a werewolf too."

Unfortunately, despite the whole gang of immortal blood-drinkers that attend middle school, there were no werewolves. "But there is Drake." The Vampire Brianna covered her mouth as if shocked. "I shouldn't have said that!"

Of course, once she dropped the name Drake, I had to learn more. Coach Gertrude made us get up and play dodge ball, but we both got knocked out really fast, so we returned to our conversation on the bleachers about six seconds later.

"He matriculates at the high school, but the rumors say he is very dangerous. You shouldn't interfere with his proclivities," said the Vampire Brianna, who liked to read almost as much as I did and wasn't afraid of using her vocabulary.

"I need to meet him. Can you help me?"

She reluctantly agreed, but only after I promised to lend her my Backstreet Boys CD.

All week, I was twisted up with anxiety and excitement. I marked out the days until the full moon on my Sailor Moon calendar. I practiced my growl in the mirror.

My meeting with Drake finally arrived after school on Friday, the day of the full moon. He was a ninth grader. He had long hair, a terrible complexion, and feet that were way too big for his body.

"Are you..." I paused dramatically. "The werewolf?"

He nodded gravely. "Are you sure you want to become a werewolf? It's something you should think about a lot first."

"Don't worry. I've thought about it. I'm completely ready to become a werewolf."

"Very well," he said.

We tried to figure out how to position ourselves for the bite. Drake tried to go for the neck first, but that was too weird (he smelled bad) and he gave up when I insisted that only vampires bite on the neck. Instead, he grabbed my arm, and I held my breath in preparation for... the bite.

His mouth closed on my wrist awkwardly. He kind of slobbered a little. His teeth weren't very sharp.

I wiped my arm off on my jeans. "Um."

Drake looked like he got a lot more out of the bite than I did. He was breathing heavy. "So you want to go see a movie or something?"

"No... that's okay."

I escaped to my house and resisted the urge to scrub my wrist with soap.

When night fell, I made my excuses and went in the back yard. We lived in a cute little brick house in the old part of town, and our yard was tiny-- maybe an eighth of an acre. It was mostly ivy and huge trees, so the grassy part was a circle just big enough for me to stand in. I hoped it would be enough room for me to become a werewolf.

Coming off my disappointment from the awkward bite, I found myself starting to get excited again. The moon looked huge over the hills.

This was the night! I was finally going to become a werewolf!

I felt the change come over me. My whole body shook with it. I growled at the sky, got on all fours, and started to twist and writhe like I'd seen in so many movies. I could totally feel the wolf!

I tilted my head back, sniffed the air, and tried out a howl or two. (I needed practice.)

Ripping off my shirt so that The Transformation wouldn't tear it, I rolled in the dirt and clawed my hands at the ivy.

My growling, rolling, and howling must have been pretty loud, because my mom stuck her head out the back door. "Get inside, Sara. It's cold and you have to brush your teeth for bed." She noticed my state of undress and paused. "What are you doing?" I responded with another growl. She sighed a long-suffering sigh. "Use your words, Sara."

"Uh," I said. "Becoming a werewolf?"

At this point, my mom had tolerated my dinosaur aspirations, as well as the time I became a powerful witch, so she didn't even blink at this pronouncement. "Well, don't take long."

She let the screen door slam shut behind her, and the mood was totally dead.

I had not become a werewolf.

It's been ten long years, so it's not like I can ask "Drake" if he didn't bite me properly, or if he and Brianna were lying about that whole werewolf thing. Or maybe there's this little issue where werewolves are a mythological creature that exist only on the page and the TV screen. The jury is out on that one.

Even though that full moon turned out to be a disappointment, I didn't give up on my dreams of becoming a preternatural creature. I could tell you about the time I decided to become a shamanic shapeshifter instead, or the time I decided to become an exorcist (and actually succeeded!). But I'm such a grown up now that I should really leave silly stories like that in my past, and go focus on more... adult things.