Twenty Palaces

Reviews of Child of Fire, part six

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Black Friday Non-Shopping and Leftover Contest Winner (Exclamation point!)

And the winner is…

(drumroll)
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Book too short?

I don’t often give out writing advice here on my blog (seems pretty presumptuous at this point in my career[1]) but on message boards you can’t shut me up. So instead of writing something original this morning, I’m going to link to a post I made for people who find they need to add plot to a novel that came out too short in the first draft.

Feel free to tell me I’m wrong, there or here, or offer additional ideas.

[1] Holy crap I just called it a career.

Game of Cages on Amazon.com

Game of Cages has an Amazon.com listing already. The publish date is listed as August 31, 2010, which is a month later than I’d heard. It’s not surprising, though, considering how late Man Bites World is.

There’s no cover art yet, but jeez, there it is.

Randomness for 11/28

1) Can this be true? It sounds like an urban legend. Peruvian gang spends 30 years murdering people and extracting their fat for use in European cosmetics. Where was *your* makeup made? via lilaschow

2) Now, a palate cleanser: Freelancer funny. Via autopope.

3) Evil kisses? I think I’ve found my first “Nick Biter” title.

4) Ten percent off King Tractor Press comics until Christmas!

5) This link is a serious one: Patrick Stewart describes his personal history growing up with domestic violence. Heart-wrenching stuff. via James Nicoll

According to Google

According to Google, the search term:

“Nick Biter” vampire

gets no hits. Yes! If the Twenty Palaces books don’t take off, I know what I’m writing next!

(Yes, work is dead slow today and I’m getting antsy.)

The most boring Turkey Day report ever

You know what’s interesting? Conflict, crisis, disaster, and unhappiness. That’s why this will be an incredibly boring post.

Everything I made turned out. My wife and son made an apple pie that was a little too wet, but it still tasted wonderful and the boy ate almost a third of it that day. The stuffing could have been more moist, but that’s my personal preference for clumpability; it certainly wasn’t dry by any standards. Our oven has been a little wonky lately, but the turkey was very nice and juicy. Even the last minute decision to make dinner rolls after all turned out beautifully.

My wife and I had Alton Brown’s sweet potato pie, which is fantastic for breakfast the next day, and made me feel like a Yankee. I’m going to have a lunch break in a few minutes, and a turkey/cranberry sandwich (on yesterday’s roll) is waiting.

It was a simpler year, with simpler recipes and a smaller spread. Even though we brought out the large plates (we usually eat our meals on small lunch plates to discourage binges) I took moderate helpings and left the table feeling full but not mistreated. And the giblet gravy was fantastic.

I even managed to do a little writing, play a board game with the family, and take a nice walk around the neighborhood to admire some of the fancier houses up the hill. I wish we could have more days just like it.

Today I’m at the day job, and things are very quiet. I guess everyone’s buying Lego Rock Band or whatever instead of refilling their meds. It’ll be nice to sit down with my lap top and get more writing done.

If you missed the Black Friday Leftover contest in my previous post, check it out.

Black Friday Non-Shopping and Leftover Contest!

I’m scheduling this post for early Black Friday morning, when I’m going to be sound asleep. (At least, I hope I will be.) So I’m writing this just after eating a sizable but not gluttonous Thanksgiving dinner.

So! Have a friend who likes urban fantasy? Want to have a gift sent to them at no cost to you? You’re in luck: the prize for this contest is a signed, inscribed, giftwrapped copy of Child of Fire, which I will mail to your friend/family member/loved one/mortal enemy anywhere on the planet Earth.

I’ll inscribe it any way you like (within reason), and the gift wrap will be nice but non-denominational. I’ll also include a nice but non-denominational card, too, with “Do not open before [date you choose]!” written on the envelope. And don’t worry, my wife will do the actual wrapping; that ensures the package will not only look nice, but it won’t be sloppily cocooned in scotch tape.

This lets you cross someone off your gift list without spending a cent! How do you win the prize? Well, we have the remains of a 20 lb. turkey in our fridge, and we’re looking for recipes for the leftovers. Suggest something. You can give the recipe in detail, describe it in a general way, or just drop a link to something you like. On Sunday morning, my wife, son and I will look at all of the suggestions on my main blog, LJ, and Facebook, and together we’ll choose a recipe to try. If we choose yours, you win!

Helpful tips for folks thinking of entering: soups, sandwiches and pot pies will have to be really unique or special, since we make a lot of them already. Cheese will be a tough sell (we’re open-minded, but cheese and turkey?), and any sort of hot sauce or spicy pepper will get an immediate veto by the child. And, if we find two recipes that look great, we may have two winners.

At any rate, we’ll make the winner’s recipe and I’ll blog how it turned out.

You didn’t want to go shopping on Black Friday anyway, did you?

It’s late.

The stuffing is in the fridge, the pies are cooling in the chilly part of our apartment [1], and my brilliant “starfruit only” strategy failed to win the “Last Stand” minigame in PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES.

Damn, I need to get to bed.

For everyone out there celebrating Thanksgiving in the morning, may you have a joyful one, and may you have twice as much to be thankful for next year.

[1]Which part of our apartment is the chilly part? The inside.

Turkey Day preparation

The turkey is in the brine as of 6 am this morning, along with plenty of ice. The pork roast has been ground and mixed with spices for the sausage stuffing. The cranberry sauce is finished (with extra sugar this year to appeal to the boy–but not too much extra). I probably should have made the sweet potato pie last night, but the fridge had an awful lot of turkey in there and I was worried about the space. At least the dough for the crust is ready.

I’ll do today’s writing at lunch, then tonight I’ll make the pie and the stuffing. That leaves very little for tomorrow: taters, glazed onions, and whatever else I’m forgetting. My wife isn’t keen on dinner rolls, mainly because they take a lot of time, but we have the stand mixer now, and jeez, they make great sandwiches, so maybe I’ll toss those in the oven.

I have a lot of things to be thankful for this year, and maybe tomorrow I’ll make a full accounting. Today I’m just grateful that I seem to have stopped checking my Amazon.com sales ranking every 45 minutes.