The spam has won. I'm moving this blog to a new home effective immediately. The old posts will remain here as a resource for anyone interested in reading them, but going forward I will be blogging at Word Press: Writing and Rambling's new home. Thanks to everyone for reading here, and I hope to see you at the new digs!

Sorry to poke my head out only for blog business, but it's been a crazy couple of weeks. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm going to start screening all anonymous comments on this blog. Thank the endless Russian spam, which is driving me up the wall.

This does not mean you cannot comment if you don't have an LJ or some other identifiable log in (DW, Blogger, G-mail, etc.). It simply means your comment will be screened temporarily. I'll still get an e-mail notification, and I will come and unscreen comments from real people. I love hearing from everyone. I just don't love the spam situation on Live Journal. I may look into moving to a different platform at later time, but for now this is how I'm going to handle it.

Thanks for your patience!

Nalini Singh's tenth book in her Psy/Changeling series (and hardcover debut) hits shelves today! Congrats to Nalini on the release of KISS OF SNOW!!

Come hang out in The Knight Agency's chat room with TKA client Chloe Neill. We'll be celebrating the recent release of Chloe's book HARD BITTEN, the fourth in her Chicagoland Vampires series. There will be the usual shenanigans: games, prizes, and lots of chatting about books and publishing. To learn more about Chloe, check out her website.

Meanwhile, join us in the chat room tonight, May 26th, at 9pm ET. Full details over at the blog.

Sorry it took me a little while to announce, but there were A LOT of names to throw in the hat. :)

I'm pleased to announce that the winner of the ARC for Nalini Singh's KISS OF SNOW is Eva Sawin. Eva, please send me an e-mail at nephele[dot]tempest[at]knightagency[dot]net with your snail mail address, and I will get your ARC into the mail to you. Congratulations!

Thanks so much to everyone who entered and for all the lovely comments about Nalini's series. Stay tuned, as there will be more fun giveaways in the future!

I'm happy to announce that I will be giving away one ARC (advanced reading copy) of Nalini Singh's KISS OF SNOW, which is being released in hardcover on May 31. Simply comment on this thread if you wish to be entered into the drawing. A few quick rules:

* You must comment between now and Monday, May 23rd at 9 a.m. ET.

* If you are not commenting through your Live Journal account or some other open I.D. that includes your name/posting name, please include your name or a nickname in the comments. Anonymous posts will not count for the drawing.

***YOU MUST CHECK BACK HERE MONDAY TO SEE IF YOU WON!!***

I'm going to post the winner here on Monday the 23rd, with instructions on what to do next. I will NOT be chasing down the winner if that person does not come by and follow my contact directions, so mark your calendars or put up some sort of a reminder so you come back for the results. The winner has 30 days to come forward, after which they forfit the ARC and I will not be doing a runner up/second place or anything of that sort.

Okay? Thanks! And good luck to everyone who enters.

In case you were wondering, I'm a bit crazed right now. Lots to read, contracts coming and going, conferences to recover from/get ready for and so on. But I know you're all out there! Hope you're enjoying spring now that it seems to have arrived most places where it's supposed to be (and fall for those of you a bit south of here).

I have some fun stuff coming up next week, but in the meantime I leave you with an article about that bane of my current existence: Vampire Fiction. Yes, I love vampire books. But no more, I tell you! No more! I need a serious vacation from all things vamp.

Meanwhile: The long life of the vampire. Enjoy!

Most of you who frequent this blog know I'm a staunch supporter of the work done each year by Guys Lit Wire and Colleen Mondor of Chasing Ray with their annual book fair. Each year they pick a different worthy organization--previous choices have been prison libraries at correctional institutions for boys and school libraries on reservations in the Southwest--and host a book fair, working with the librarians to see what books these kids need and with Powell's Books to provide Wish Lists where generous individuals can go order the books and have them sent to these needy libraries. They've announced this year's project: the school library for Ballou Senior High School in Washington, DC. This school has a library of approximately 1150 books for over 1200 students, giving them a ratio of less than one book per child. The American Library Association recommends that school libraries should have a ratio of 11 books per student, so this library is sorely under stocked.

Guys Lit Wire and Colleen have posted a complete explanation of how the book fair works and information about the school that will benefit, including a video of the library narrated by school librarian Melissa Jackson. Please head on over and take a look, and if you can help out by buying a book or two for these kids, that would be terrific. If it's not something you feel you can work into your current budget, please help out by boosting the signal. They are aiming to provide these kids with 900 additional books to help stock their library, so every bit of help is very much appreciated. The book fair is officially open, and will run until Wednesday, May 18th. Pass the word!

Over at the Knight Agency blog. Go post your questions and I'll swing back around tomorrow morning to answer some of them.

Hey, all. Just a quick post to let you know that Penguin has finalized the dates/locations for Nalini Singh's book tour this summer in conjunction with the release of her first hardcover, KISS OF SNOW. She'll be arriving in the U.S. at the end of May and making the rounds for nearly two weeks, so head on over to her website for complete details. Note that even if she won't be coming to your area, provisions are being put in place for folks to order autographed copies, so don't forget to read the info following the tour dates. Nalini is so excited to be able to do this, so be sure to head out and say hi if you can!

RIP

Makes me want to go reread Howl's Moving Castle.

It's shaping up to be another bad year as far as losing people who have been cultural fixtures since my childhood.

Knight Agency client and USA Today bestselling author Katherine Garbera will be chatting tonight in the TKA chat room. Come by at 9pm ET/ 6pm PT to hear about Katherine's Miami Nights series and the secret to her career longevity--she's got more than 50 novels to her credit! Full details over at the agency blog. Hope to see you there!

Win a trip to Tybee Island,courtesy of Deidre Knight and Elle Jasper. Tybee is located near Savannah, Georgia, where both Deidre and Elle have set their series. So what's the deal?

Simply tell Deidre and Elle why you think you deserve this romantic getaway. Best answer wins! The prize includes 2 nights at the beautiful Lighthouse Inn, dinner at Wiley's Championship BBQ, and a travel voucher for $500. Head on over to the official contest page to get all the details and to enter. Good luck!

I talk about this a lot. It's a phrase I use in rejection letters and when I'm speaking at conferences. I see a great many manuscripts that show promise: good story, interesting characters, steady pacing that builds suspense. But all too often, the writers have jumped the gun and sent me a draft that still clearly needs rewriting.

So what do I mean when I say a writer needs to take something to the next level? I mean they have to make sure the prose on the page actually conveys what they see and imagine in their heads, and in a fresh, compelling manner. The sentences need to be both beautiful and workhorses. Pull the plow, sew the seeds, but still make the reader's pulse race or their throat close up. It's taking "show, don't tell" to its limits.

Writer Sherwood Smith has a fabulous post up on Book View Cafe about this. Go, read, absorb. Then maybe read it again.

Happy writing!

That's the publisher, not Dorothy Parker and friends. Anyway, they're having a live webcast on March 21st at 7:00pm ET, featuring Julia Alvarez in conversation with Edwidge Danticat. Talk about two powerhouse writers. Both of these women write beautifully and with great compassion and tenderness of their homelands and the resiliance of the human spirit. I suspect this is going to be a fascinating talk. You can get the full details here.

Just finished posting responses to everyone's questions over at The Knight Agency blog. Thanks to everyone who participated!

I'm answering questions today over at the TKA blog. Head on over if you'd like to participate.

Things are moving at a rapid clip here right now, a result of lots of inspiring travel and way more to do than time to do it. I'm on something of a reading wave right now, which sounds like something I probably always do but in reality I rarely have time to do a great deal of back-to-back reading. Other things get in the way, like contracts and phone calls and negotiations and the occasional night off for sleep. But I've been on planes and in airports the past couple of weeks, which is prime time for working my way through client manuscripts, submissions and even books with covers.

All of which means I'm a little light on brilliant, witty commentary to share with you all here. I'm going to do a reading wrap up in a few days, talking about some of the books I've read recently and what I loved (and didn't), but for now I'll just give you a few links and send you off to check them out. Hope everyone is having a good week!

The new issue of Bookslut is up. Lots of great stuff here.

Indie writer Amanda Hocking on the recent fuss over her success, and how hard it really is to become a best-selling author without the backing of a publisher. This is fascinating and very important to read for anyone thinking of going the self-publishing route.

Bill Morris at The Millions on the recent trend toward grief in literature.

Greetings, all. I'm back from a whirlwind of trips this week, back-to-back. Wanted to send up a wave and give you something fun to check out. Apartment Therapy Re-Nest has a great post up on small houses and sheds that writers have used for their "offices." I think Roald Dahl's is the cutest from the outside, but the modern girl in me prefers Michael Polan's interior.

Happy weekend!

I'm having a crazy, between-trips kind of a day, but I wanted to send out a quick hurray and congratulations to Shannon K. Butcher, whose new romantic suspense, LIVING ON THE EDGE, hits stores today! This is the first in a fabulous new series, and I'm very excited for Shannon.

Valentine's Day has come and gone, but romance is still in the air. Join us this evening in The Knight Agency chat room with the four authors whose work is found in ON THE HUNT, Gena Showalter, Shannon K. Butcher, Jessica Andersen, and Deidre Knight. They'll be in the chat room starting 9pm ET/6pm PT, talking about the anthology, their individual projects, and books in general. Plus there are going to be some fun giveaways, as always. Hope to see you there! You can log into the chat room from HERE.

I'm just going to let these folks speak for themselves.

Scott Turrow speaks to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Nora Roberts writes to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Yay! We have two winners in this weekend's giveaway. I'm pleased to announce that ARCs are going to [email protected] and o_apostrophe. Winners, please e-mail me at Nephele[dot]Tempest[at]knightagency[dot]net with your snail mail addresses, and I will get your copies out to you. Thanks to everyone who participated!

In honor of the release of ON THE HUNT, I'm excited to announce this fabulous contest. The winner will take home an iPod Nano mini-touch, and the second place winner will get 10 brand new titles from Signet. All you need to do is check out 5 websites and locate the hidden contest images. Winners will be announced February 17 at the TKA online chat. Full details are online here, so go check them out. Good luck!