Archive for the ‘negotiator trilogy’ Category

A Closet Full of Books

The closet in my office is full of books I wrote. It’s ridiculous. The new mass market releases are the ones on top, but they got put back in their boxes after the picture was taken, so I could use the closet space a little more efficiently. What you can’t really tell from this photo is that all three shelves are stacked double-deep and the top is triple-deep…

Today is the official release day for WALKING DEAD, book four of the Walker Papers! As far as I can tell, everybody I know bought it two weeks ago, but still, today is the official release day!

Seattle’s a great place to live…if it weren’t for the undead.

No one’s getting out of there alive.

To go along with WALKING DEAD’s release, my web guru, Laura Denson, recently did a recording of “Rabbit Tricks”, the Walker Papers short story that fits chronologically between COYOTE DREAMS and WALKING DEAD.

My longtime friend and writing partner Sarah Palmero did a two-minute voice recording from THE QUEEN’S BASTARD. I think both of these are pretty damned cool (if utterly bizarre, because wow, really weird to hear someone else reading my words!), and would like to thank them both profusely for doing these and letting me post them publicly!

Fifth, I’m terribly smug to show off the (tiny–if you want to see it full sized you’ll have to buy the story) cover for “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight”, which was painted by manga artist Lanny Liu.

Along those same lines, “Hot Time” has debuted amongst its patrons today. (I wasn’t thinking, when I changed its due date to September 1st, that that was also the release date for WALKING DEAD. Oh well, everybody got WD early anyway, so “Hot Time” still gets to be a little bit special.) For those who didn’t join the fundable commission the first time through, the novella will be available to purchase in February 2010, after which it’ll go off the market permanently until it finds a traditional publisher.

And I just noticed several of my books have been nominated as contenders for 101 Best Fantasy novels. I have to admit that given some of the company (which ranges from Lloyd Alexander to Diana Wynne Jones with all points between), I feel my presence there is a bit ludicrous, but also quite wonderful and I wouldn’t mind making it onto somebody’s top 100 list, so if you wanted, you could go vote. :) And my thanks to whomever nominated me, how cool of you. :)

A FANTASY MEDLEY winner

I have to say this was a great deal of fun for me. Some of the story suggestions were perfectly wonderful, things I wouldn’t have thought of myself but which were terribly obvious as soon as they were suggested. Obviously not everybody can win the anthology, but *many* of these ideas will, I think, end up as the root idea for stories. Thank you all!

The winner is /blythe025, who said I would love to see a story told from the point of view of a priest.

For some reason this idea really caught me. Possibly because I like the priest in the Negotiator trilogy so much, but somehow there’s just a real romanticism to that idea for me. I actually feel like I could build a book around the idea of a priest dealing with the Old Races, though I’m already terribly torn on *when* I would set that story. Or whether it would have to be a longer story, a series of its own, just trying to deal with the religious and spiritual connotations of the Old Races’ existence, from a Western theology’s point of view. I’m just utterly enamored of this idea!

Other ideas, including exceedingly moderate spoilers, are behind the cut.

Read the rest of this entry »

A FANTASY MEDLEY give-away

The final tally for my two auction items was $375, not enough for me to write a new Walker Papers or Old Races short story, but *more* than enough to prompt a FANTASY MEDLEY give-away. I’ve got one last ARC (advanced reader’s copy, as opposed to the finished version) I can send to someone, so this is your chance.

THE CONTEST: tell me (in no more than 50 words) what Old Races story you would like to see told. It doesn’t have to be something that comes organically from the books; you can just randomly want “a story about the djinn” or something.

THE CAVEAT: I may make off with one or more idea and turn it into a story at some point. :)

THE OTHER CAVEAT: This contest is also running at my main blog at mizkit.com/mizkit.livejournal.com, so it’s possible the winning entry won’t actually show up in *this* comment thread. I will, however, post the winner’s entry at both locations, so everybody’ll know who won and for what story idea.

THE WARNING: I expect there will be spoilers for the Negotiator trilogy in this thread. If you don’t want to be spoiled, stay out of the comments.

THE WINNER: will be the person whose story idea I like best!

THE DEADLINE: the contest will end on June 9th. :)

THE OTHER CONTEST: My agent, the incomparable Jennifer Jackson (who apparently started agenting at the tender age of nine), is celebrating her 16th year of being an agent by running a contest for ARCs and books written by her clients. Go read her instructions carefully and participate! :)

TPC winner/A FANTASY MEDLEY contest

Only three people entered the TPC give-away contest, but they did a bloody fantastic job. In the end, I’ve chosen the one with my favorite suggestion for Belinda, although some of the other casting ideas were inspired. The winner is Thao Nguyen from Facebook, who gave the following cast for THE QUEEN’S BASTARD:

Belinda – Michelle Trachtenberg
Javier – Kyle Schmid
Lorraine Walter – Tilda Swinton
Eliza Beaulieu – Natalie Portman
Lord Drake – Eric Braeden
Marius Poulin – Henry Cavill
Sacha Asselin – Paul Walker
Sandalia – Orla Brady
Irina – Cate Blanchett
Akilina – Shirley Henderson
Rodrigo – Javier Bardem
Dmitri – Clive Owen
Gondola Boy – Jim Sturgess

The most interesting thing about this contest, for me, is that not one of the actors is somebody I’d thought of when I ‘cast’ this book in my mind–and TQB is about the only book I’ve ever cast anybody for. I *love* the choices people made, but it’s fascinating to see the different ideas!

Also:
I have received in the mail a small box of A FANTASY MEDLEY.

Many people said “Gosh, I could cast the Old Races or the Walker Papers”, and so, because there will be no more Negotiator books, I will give you the opportunity to win a copy of A FANTASY MEDLEY, which has a Janx & Daisani story in it, by casting the Negotiator trilogy. My favorite cast list gets a copy of the anthology. Major characters: Margrit Knight, Alban Korund, Grace O’Malley, Janx, Daisani, Kaimana, Cole, Cameron, Tony. Bonus points for casting any of the following: Margrit’s parents, Chelsea, Russell, Cara, Tariq, Biali, Malik, Ausra, Kate, Ursula, Sarah, Hajnal.

It isn’t necessary to cast all of them. It’s not even necessary to cast most of them. Just have fun with it. :) I’ll close the contest a week from now, at about noon Eastern time on Tuesday April 14th.

A FANTASY MEDLEY available for pre-order

Subterranean Press presents A FANTASY MEDLEY: four short stories by four fantasy authors.

In “Zen and the Art of Vampirism,” Zoe Takano, the only vampire in Toronto, a city filled with supernatural creatures of Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld, finds her place in the hierarchy threatened by two interlopers.

“Riding the Shore of the River of Death” returns us to the world of Kate Elliott’s Crown of Stars. Kareka, daughter of the begh of the Kirshat, hunts to take a man’s head. It is her last opportunity to prove herself as a man or else she will find herself restricted to the role of woman and wife in the clan forever.

Robin Hobb revisits her Farseer world in “Words Like Coins.” Mirrifen, a failed hedge-witch’s apprentice who has married to find security finds that threatened by a severe drought and the appearance of a pregnant female pecksie.

C.E. Murphy takes us to frozen Moscow in “From Russia, with Love.” Baba Yaga’s daughter is a barmaid at a dive when Janx and Eliseo Daisani walk in. They discover, as they compete for the girl’s affections, that Baba Yaga has plans for Janx and that her beautiful daughter had merely been the bait.

Limited: 200 numbered copies signed by the authors and editor
Trade: 3000 fully clothbound hardcover edition

Supplies are quite literally limited, so pre-order it now!

Online short stories added

The following short stories have been added under the Writing page;

A new Tale from Gryphon Beach, my collection of short stories for children

Glasslands, a prequel to an unwritten science fiction saga

A Compendium of Kitlings, a very silly story written for an anthology that never happened, in which, in turn-of-the-century Chicago, Mrs. O’Leary discovered that aliens (the sort from outer space) tended to pay their boarding fees more promptly than human boarders, and also in gold. This, then, is the story of one of her boarders….

Previously, on Take A Chance…, a prequel to my comic book TAKE A CHANCE, and also an audition script for any artist who’d like to try their hand at Chance

New York Hold ‘em, a story of the Old Races, and

Rabbit Tricks, a Walker Papers short story to tide you over until the release of book four, WALKING DEAD in September 2009.

My short story Ill Met by Moonlight–the story of a Hollywood starlet trapped on the wrong side of a mirror–is also once more being featured at eharlequin.com. I don’t know how long this one will be available, so if the URL isn’t working, sorry.

As it is (with apologies to Jane Austen) a truth universally acknowledged that a mid-list author in possession of good reviews must be in want of an income, if you enjoy the stories and have it to spare, I would be delighted if you wanted to send a few quid (as they say here) my way. You can use the button below, or if for some reason it doesn’t work, use the email address open AT mizkit DOT com. Thanks!

*laughs*

In an impassioned plea from comments, Heather writes:
I see with dismay and a tinge of mournful disbelief that your Negotiator series is billed as a trilogy. :( Only three? Could you so easily leave this fantastic world you’ve created? If it must be a trilogy, can you nevertheless continue with Margrit and the Old Races in another series? Oh, please!

Margrit’s story will be wrapped up with the third book. I do have about eight other ideas for stories set in the Old Races world, and she may be a supporting character in some of those, but writing them is a long way out: I’m planning to finish the Walker Papers before I go back to the Old Races, so it’ll be several years before I return to that world.

The good news is that there’ll be a Janx and Daisani short story in an anthology published by Subterranean Press released next year (I think released next year o.o), so there’ll be at least a hint here and here of more of the Old Races. :)

thank you for your concern :)

It is (truly, no sarcasm) very kind of everybody who’s told me that Amazon (and Fictionwise, and previous to this, Barnes & Noble) have got the wrong book data up for HOUSE OF CARDS. I’ve told my publishers, and they’re working on fixing it. That’s about all I can do, except pass on my thanks from my editor, who is laboring under the impression that I’m really on top of this stuff, when in fact it is my good and true and loyal readers who are on top of it all. :)

March 2008 newsletter/update!

Lots of things going in in my corner of the universe. First off, books!

HOUSE OF CARDS is out! Quick! Go forth! Buy it! Get me onto a bestseller list! *hopeful eyes* :)

I’ve posted a teaser for THE QUEEN’S BASTARD, first in my new series starting in May.

I’ve been invited to participate in a Subterranean Press anthology with three other authors (Kate Elliott, Robin Hobb and Kelley Armstrong. Wow, am I in good company!). My plan at the moment is to write a Janx and Daisani short story, tentatively titled “From Russia, With Love”. That’s going to be so much fun. :)

Second, comics!

We’ve moved the TAKE A CHANCE launch date to July, to give ourselves more time to get our legs under us and to give the comic the dazzling start we all think it deserves.

Third, appearances!

I’m the guest of honor at P-Con in Dublin, Ireland, March 29-30 2008. If anybody has a chance to make it over, please do!

I’ve been invited to be a workshop teacher at a writer’s conference in South Carolina this October. I’ll post more about that when I have more details, but it looks like a really exciting, intense weekend, and I’m looking forward to it.

I’ve arranged a bonanza signing at the Forbidden Planet in London, tentatively scheduled for 20 September. The entire Negotiator trilogy will be out by then, as well as THE QUEEN’S BASTARD, and of course all the Walker Papers that are currently available. There should also be three issues of Chance out at that point, so, yeah: a bonanza signing event. More as I know it on that, too.

Fourth, stuff totally not related to writing! :)

I’m running a poll on my livejournal page to tally votes for a photography exhibition project, and invite you all to go take a look and render an opinion. I think you have to actually be an LJ member to vote, but if you’re not, you can always email me at cemurphyauthor@gmail.com with your two cents. :)

Due to the response in the poll already, I’m looking at selling 5×7″ prints of each set of 6 for $50, and am likely to start with the graveyard set. If anybody’d like to pre-order a packet, or sees a specific image they might want at a larger size, again, please do email me. :)

And I think that’s about all for now. :)

-Catie

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