a multitude of me

THE QUEEN’S BASTARD is out today. Fine bookstores everywhere should be selling it.

I talk quite a bit about the nerve-wracking aspect of this book over at Magical Words today, and Joshua Palmatier invited me to participate in his author introduction series…where, it turns out, I talked about the nerve-wracking aspects of this book, albeit in a *slightly* different way. :)

I should be less nervous, maybe. It’s my tenth book, which you’d think would settle my nerves some in and of itself. It’s gotten some really nice reviews (money shot from Booklist’s starred review: “…the first of what promises to be an outstanding series featuring a masterfully intricate dance of politics and intrigue in a world with parallels to the Elizabethan era., and Kate Elliott said it was really good, which means more to me personally than Booklist, because ZOMG Kate Elliott! o.o). It has, in fact, already gone back to print, thanks to a big library supplier order, which, y’know, bodes well.

Still. Nervous. Excited. Hopeful. Very hopeful.

I’d love to astound my editor by having the book go back to print again by the end of May. It only (only!) needs to sell about 15,000 copies to do that. So send people to read the excerpt and to drool over the cover and help me make a little noise about this one, please? *looks charming and hopeful* :)

My editor at Del Rey sent a couple copies of THE QUEEN’S BASTARD ahead of the contracted author copies so that I could see them soonest. Oh my god. This is a beautiful, beautiful, *beautiful* book. Ted, in awe, said, “This is *hot*,” and it *is*. I cannot *wait* for this to go on the shelves so people can get it, because oh my GOD it’s gorgeous. I ran around the house shrieking and doing the beauty queen thing and being all tearful. It’s *so* pretty.

And it’s the mark of a couple pretty freaking significant landmark for me. First, it’s my first non-Harlequin book. Second, it’s my TENTH FREAKING NOVEL! ZOH. MY. GOD.

And third, I now have one million words in print.

Not too damned bad for somebody whose first book came out in June 2005, eh?

*beams like a fool*

Email from my editor at Del Rey indicates I ought to be getting copies of THE QUEEN’S BASTARD pretty soon here. TQB is my tenth (including the novella, which I do) published novel. I feel like I should do something celebratory! But I don’t know what. I’d like to run a good contest, and…I donno! Ideas?

I’m featured this week over at Harlequin’s paranormal romance blog, where I talk about HOUSE OF CARDS and … mostly about HOUSE OF CARDS. Go forth, if you feel so inspired, read, comment and make them think I’m a really big draw to the blog. :)

P-Con starts tomorrow! I am GoH! I think it will be fun! …I’ll be an utter *zombie* on Monday, mind you, but it’ll be fun. And Ted is on a panel about what it’s like being married to a full-time writer, which I’m quite looking forward to attending. :)

Iiiii…am closing in on 100K on THE PRETENDER’S CROWN. About…well, 2K more, technically, because I’ve got a 2000 word scene that fits in later that’s not part of the actual current build-up of words and pages. 4K in straight beginning-to-end terms. I think I’ll go write for a while longer today, and maybe I’ll get up early enough to do some work before catching the train to Dublin tomorrow. (*Maybe* I’ll actually do some work over the weekend, but mostly that thought inspired a “bahahahahah!” in me, so probably not. So it’d be nice to hit 100K by tomorrow afternoon, don’t you think?)

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

Hey, everybody, I’m back again. Whew. :)

Fell down the stairs on a bus a couple days ago and am a seven-fingered-typist right now; I jammed the holy living crap out of my fingers and while it doesn’t hurt all that much, it looks just *awful*:

That was yesterday. It’s better today, but man, my 12K wordcount goal this week has been shot. *squinchy face*

Fortunately last week was a terrific writing week and I got 30,000 words–a little more than 1/4th of the length of one of the Walker Paper books, or pretty much exactly the length of “Banshee Cries”, for reference–written. I’m working on THE PRETENDER’S CROWN, sequel to THE QUEEN’S BASTARD (which is out in May), and had I not smashed my hand I’d have made the halfway point by today. Bah. Oh well, not much to be done for it.

Lots of people’ve asked questions in comments, but for today I’ll bring up the most recent and answer it (this is something I’m going to try to get into the habit of doing!).

Thelma H said:
Cate: Loved your Bombshell Books. Will you be writing anymore of that type?

Sadly, not for the foreseeable future. The Strongbox Chronicles were actually planned as a 12 book (or maybe 13 book) series, with 4 trilogies, each starring a new heroine and a new aspect of the Sicarii to face down (and then possibly one blow-out final book which would’ve been called THE THIRTEENTH CHRONICLE). However, with the combination of the Bombshell line being cancelled and my schedule of writing CE Murphy books being so very busy, any further development of the Strongbox Chronicles has been put on a very back burner. I’d love to go back to them someday, but if I do it’ll be years down the road.

-Catie

Wow, I’m really delighted people’ve been stopping by and leaving comments. Yay! Thank you! Sorry for the delay in getting them posted, sometimes–I’ve got moderation turned on in order to help catch spam, so I have to okay the first posting from people, but after that you should be able to post without a problem.

Not a heck of a lot to say here, really. Two of the, er, five, computers in the house have blown up in the last three weeks, though fortunately none of them were my writing computer, and we haven’t lost the hard drives, just power supplies and motherboards, which is annoying enough. But I’m feeling rather paranoid about making backups now, yes I am. O.O

I’m busy working on THE PRETENDER’S CROWN, having today reached 20% of its total (slightly over 100 pages, so far), and frantically trying to get everything organized for the comic book. Very very busy, and a little overwhelming, but apparently I’ve got a hard time understanding “stop” or “slow down”, so I expect I’ll chug along through it all and come out the other end blinking with surprise. :)

FAQ from the comments (and I must add this to the FAQ, I guess!): yes, there will be more Walker Papers! The fourth book is scheduled for May or June 2009, and I’ll be writing it as soon as I’m done with THE PRETENDER’S CROWN. :) I’m really looking forward to getting back to Jo–it’s been five books and one rewrite so massive it might as well have been a new book since I’ve written her!

All right, I’ve got another few hundred words to get written tonight, so I’m off to work again. Keep those comments coming! I love ‘em! :)

-Catie

Happy New Year!

It has been a very, *very* eventful year so far, here at the CEMurphy.net household (and you must keep reading until the end, because I’m saving the best bit for last!).

First, if not precisely foremost, I’ve switched CEMurphy.net over to blogging software, so it’s now actually possible to leave comments there to chat with me. (I’ve also just noticed that the comments are unreadable. Will fix that in a minute here…there. Fixed.)

Second, I’ve posted a teaser for HOUSE OF CARDS, second in the Negotiator Trilogy, which is due out in March 2008. That teaser is available here.

Third, I was interviewed by the League of Reluctant Adults a few weeks ago. The League is discussing HEART OF STONE as their January Book Club book. If you’d like to participate, go hang out there over the next few weeks. :)

Fourth (it never ends!): I’ve received the cover for THE QUEEN’S BASTARD, which is due out in May 2008. I luff it! Check it out!

Fifth, and finally!

I am *utterly* delighted to announce that I have sold my pet project, “TAKE A CHANCE”, the comic book I’ve been working on over the last three years. TAKE A CHANCE is the story of a woman who loses her son to gang violence and turns vigilante to save other children, and will be produced by Ernst Dabel and Les Dabel of the Dabel Brothers (dabelbrothers.com — for those who are also Jim Butcher fans, these are the guys producing the Dresden Files comic!)

The first issue ought to be on the shelves in May, we hope, and I am just *beside* myself with excitement over this whole thing. This is the culmination of years worth of work and hope, and I hope you’ll all find yourselves rushing out to the comic shop to buy copies. *grin*

So again, happy new year to all! I hope 2008 treats you well!