Coming Soon: Of Flesh and Bone

It's almost here, folks! Of Flesh and Bone, the final book in the Touch trilogy is coming in July from Falstaff Books. And that means.... a brand new cover. (And it's especially shiny.)

Are you ready?

Delaney Green may have found her way back to the living, but her new body isn't going to last. Without magic, and still separated from Percy, she is forced to rely on the tangled memory of what might be to find a way to reclaim her bones. With the help of an old ally, and the reluctant assistance of new enemies, Del takes the final steps down a long road home. 

I will at LibertyCon this weekend (Jun 30 - Jul 2), but stay tuned for more details and some exciting announcements coming soon. 

Coming Up For Air

Every now and then you get a year that's just full of stuff - both good and bad.

This spring I've managed to deal with the flu, a lingering (think 2+ months) cough, a head cold, and a fractured rib.

I also finished up two drafts Of Flesh and Bone, the final Touch novella. Plus managed to crank out 13k in a week on the Monster Society novella that will be featured in the forthcoming anthology with Eric S. Brown and Robert Waters, in order to get it turned in a month early. (In addition to a brand new, never-before-seen novella, the anthology includes all of the short stories about the Monster Society previously published in The Grantville Gazette.)

I had a point, shortly after finally getting over the flu which knocked me out for two solid weeks, where I was frustrated because I felt like I hadn't gotten anything done. And then I sat down and looked at what I had written and realized that I already had almost 80k under my belt between Christmas and the middle of April.

(Oh, yeah. Did I mention finishing up revisions on the Epic Not Fantasy? There was that too and I am waiting on pins and needles for it to find a home so you can all read it because it might just be my favorite book yet.)

But, as we head into Memorial Day weekend - and near the middle of the year - I am trying to take stock of what I've accomplished and what's still to come.

My remaining big conference of the year is LibertyCon at the end of June. (I know, I know. I would love to make it to more cons too, but finances don't currently allow me to travel very far.) The plan is to be able to share both the Monster Society anthology and the completed collection of the Touch trilogy with y'all by then. And if that doesn't happen, then they should be available shortly afterward. (And Of Flesh and Bone will also be available as an individual ebook as well for those that have been buying the novellas as they have been released. The advantage of the collection is that it will be available in print, for those that don't like reading on a screen.)

In addition to both of those novel-length collections, I have two novelettes coming out end of June and early July. I've been teasing the cover of the first (Jacquelyn and the Sparkly Emo Vampire Goat) on Twitter and my Facebook author page, but I'll be doing a more detailed write-up here in a few days. [SparkleGoat is currently available for preorder on my Gumroad page, but I'm still finishing up some details on the second book, Mothers Last Child, and would like to put them both up here together.]

Suffice to say, if you are looking for more of my work, it's coming very soon. But, due to the repeated health issues and the sheer volume of work I've been tackling, I've not had much of a chance to talk about any of it here. Or much of anything else.

That's about to change though as I am working on getting all the pertinent covers and links, etc together. So, please stay tuned.

There's a lot of great stuff coming.

Make an Author Happy on Her Birthday

Hey, folks. So, today I am celebrating 38 years on this planet. If you want to celebrate with me, you can make me very happy by buying one of my books.

"Eleven stories about love, survival, and the depths of the human heart. Eleven worlds – some remarkably similar to our own, some dramatically different. From the clammy dungeons and mysterious rooftops in "The Spider Thief and the Sorcerer" to the muddy, voodoo protected shores of Lake Ponchartrain in "Legacy" to the highrise slums of Venus in "The Weather's Always Fine in Paradise", this collection of short stories will take you out of the everyday world and into the realm of 'what if'? What if magic and knowledge were things that could be leased and reclaimed? What if voodoo could open a woman's heart to the possibility of love? What if the things that mattered most were not things at all? Explore the possibilities in this collection of eleven stories from A.G. Carpenter."

Paperback available through Gumroad  or Amazon

Kindle version through Gumroad

Nook/eReader version available through Gumroad, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo

 "Delaney Green is one of them that don't burn. Possessed of the Touch - with the ability to not only see the future but manipulate it - she's been kept in an institution for most of her life. When the Salesman, a murderous entity with a connection to Delaney's past, starts burning girls to death, FBI Agent Percival Cox gives her the chance to leave the asylum behind. But he presents an even greater threat and she must risk flesh and bone in order to keep him from becoming a Power more destructive than the Salesman. "

Available on Amazon for Kindle

Nook/eReader version available through Kobo, and Barnes & Noble

"Delaney Green might be dead, but she don’t mean to stay that way. As she searches for a way back to the realm of the living, and the man she lay down flesh and bone for, Percival Cox and his team investigate a series of deaths and stolen souls. But Percy is not the man he used to be. If Del can’t find a way to stop him from waking his past, he could destroy everything, including himself."

Available from Amazon for Kindle

Nook/eReader version available from Barnes & Noble, and Kobo

Cover Reveal: Of Shade and Soul

I am so very pleased to share the cover for Of Shade and Soul with y'all. Are you ready?

This is the second book in the Touch trilogy and we are working hard to bring it to you in January of 2017. It will be available on Amazon, Kobo, B&N.com, and other fine retailers of ebooks.

In the meantime, enjoy that shiny cover. (And, if you haven't bought a copy of the first book, Of Lips and Tongue, you can check out the opening pages on Amazon.com HERE.)

Something Witty (Update 10.23.16)

After spending the last six weeks struggling with carpal tunnel, last night I finished up the main draft for Of Shade and Soul. This is the sequel to Of Lips and Tongue, and continues the story of Delaney Green. I'm very excited about this novella and can't wait to share it with you all, but the release date is likely to be sometime in early January.

In the meantime, Of Lips and Tongue is eligible for nomination for the Bram Stoker Award. If you are an HWA member and would like a copy for consideration you may contact my publisher - john (at) falstaffbooks (dot) com - and he will be happy to provide you a copy for free.

If you are not an HWA member (or you just want to help support a starving author) you can always purchase a copy through Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Kobo.

Continue to watch for updates. I'll be revealing the cover for Of Shade and Soul before long. (I think y'all are going to love it.) Plus there will be some "behind the scenes" posts on how I tackled writing and pitching a series.

New Release!

Today I have good news. Of Lips and Tongue, the first novella in the Touch trilogy, is available on Amazon.

Delaney Green is one of them that don't burn. Possessed of the Touch - with the ability to not only see the future but manipulate it - she's been kept in an institution for most of her life. When the Salesman, a murderous entity with a connection to Delaney's past, starts burning girls to death, FBI Agent Percival Cox gives her the chance to leave the asylum behind. But he presents an even greater threat and she must risk flesh and bone in order to keep him from becoming a Power more destructive than the Salesman. 


 

LibertyCon Schedule (July 8-10, 2016)

The full schedule for LibertyCon is live on their website, but here are the specific panels and events I'll be participating in.


Friday, 8
2PM Dangers in the World of Steampunk (Gallery A) - Paul Boberg moderates this panel on the dangers of steam and other inventive ways to kill off your Steampunk villain.
5PM Opening Ceremonies - Centennial Theater
9PM Author's Alley - Come by the Author's Alley to chat, buy a book or get an autograph!

Saturday, 9
12PM Weird Wild West (Centennial Theater) - Rod Belcher moderates this panel on the wild west as envisioned with aliens and Ghost Riders in the Sky!
2PM Autograph Session (Dealer's Room)
6PM Southern Gothic (Cent. Theater Foyer) - Leia Barrett-Durham Powell moderates this chilling panel on all frightful things Southern Gothic!
9PM Author's Alley - Come by the Author's Alley to chat, buy a book or get an autograph!

Sunday, 10 
10AM - Kaffeeklatsch (Roosevelt Room) - Have coffee / continental breakfast and chat with the pros 
11AM - Reading (Victorian Lounge) - Come out and have a seat as our author guests read passages of their works

I'll have copies of The Weather's Always Fine in Paradise available. (Convention discount too, so it's a great time to pick up a copy if you haven't already.) And I'll be reading from Of Lips and Tongue, the first book in the Touch trilogy.

I hope to see you there! 

2013 In Review

2013 was a year that felt like I spun my wheels. A lot.

I was deep in the query trenches for the bulk of the year, trying to find an agent for The Steampunk Novel. That search also led to two different R&Rs (one in June and one in November), taking even bigger bites out of my limited writing time and reducing my short story output drastically.

In fact, this is my slowest year to produce new shorts since I started W1S1 in 2011. In fact, by my count, I only finished two new stories this year. (Although, I did revise several things, including two which sold. More on that in a minute.)

So, lets look at my submissions stats for the year. (These numbers cover micro-fiction through novella length. The numbers on the agent quest are larger. Much larger.)

Submissions: 44
Rejections: 37
Acceptances: 4 (There are still a few out there that haven't come home yet.)
Publications: 4

The acceptances were:
"The Spider-thief and The Sorcerer" (forthcoming, Crowded Magazine, April 2014)
"Vessels for Destruction" (forthcoming, Nature Magazine's Futures)
Brass Stars (Eggplant Literary Productions, November 2013)
"Love Like Dysphoria" (Southern Gothic, New Lit Salon Press, October 2013)

The publications were:
"Caught" (Stupefying Stories Showcase, June 14, 2013)
"In the Cool of The Day" (Abyss & Apex, July 2013)
"Love Like Dysphoria" (Southern Gothic, New Lit Salon Press, October 2013)
Brass Stars (Eggplant Literary Productions, November 2013)

The two new stories written for the year were "Made" (a contemporary fantasy with a cowardly vampire) and "Kraken" (creepy flash about a man becoming a monster). And I revised "The Spider-thief and The Sorcerer", Brass Stars, and The Steampunk Novel. (I've also been working on "All That is Precious" and "Damsel", but those are not done yet.)

Looking back I think it was a productive year, but more time was spent on improving my craft by refining existing work and less on creating new work. And that's okay. But this year... this year I want to start putting more out on submission again. Which will mean not only refining my work, but getting new words on paper in the first place.

(More on how I intend to accomplish that shortly.)

Happy Twelfth Night, folks! 

Goals

Last December I proposed the following goals for myself during 2013.


1: Find an Agent Who Can Sell The Steampunk Novel
2: Finish the Novellas I started This Year but HAVEN'T FINISHED
3: Write another Novel or Two
4: Sell my Short Stories

Two of those (#2 and #3) were things I could control. And with that thought in mind I finished up BRASS STARS and put some good effort into ALL THAT IS PRECIOUS and SURVIVOR. I've also revised The Steampunk Novel (and am currently delving into another revision round) and started work on the rewrite of THINGBREAKER (a magic-punk thriller).

#4 was one that required a combination of doing the work I could to ensure I met the goal, and waiting for the alignment of the stars that ensured my story hit the right desk at the right time. (Remember, the best way for that to happen is to make sure that a story is on someone's desk to be read, rather than sitting in a drawer gathering dust.) I used the fantastic Submission Grinder over at Diabolical Plots to help me tackle the short stories, sending each one out to a new market as soon as it got booted from the previous one.

In addition to a handful of short stories I wanted to find homes for, I was still trying to meet the goal of selling a longer work (novel or novella) that I had set for myself in 2012. So, I did pitch contests on Twitter, summarizing both The Steampunk Novel and BRASS STARS in a microscopic 130 characters. I got requests for both, but ultimately they turned into rejections.  

I dug in deeper, researching publishers that took novella length, speculative fiction and submitted the MS for BRASS STARS to Eggplant Literary Productions.

In the meantime, I was having some success with the shorter work. I placed "Love Like Dysphoria" with New Lit Salon Press in their Southern Gothic anthology. And later in the year, I sold "The Spider-thief and The Sorcerer" to Crowded Magazine. (And last week I sold "Vessels for Destruction" to Nature Magazine's "Futures" column.)

I'd also been working hard at goal #1. Starting in December of last year, I'd been querying agents with The Steampunk Novel. Dozens and dozens of queries sent out over nearly eight months. Hours worth of mindnumbing research on AgentQuery and QueryTracker trying to find every single agent who might be a good fit for my alternate history/fantasy/steampunk/murder mystery mashup.

I got requests to see more. And a lot of rejections - most from the initial query and some after partial or full requests. A lot of rejections.

Then I got a letter from Raechel Henderson of Eggplant Literary saying "Yes! I love this and here's a contract." (Okay. She didn't quite say that, but it's close.) And suddenly BRASS STARS was scheduled for publication. Only a few days later I got a phone call from an agent who'd been looking at the full MS of The Steampunk Novel. He was interested and wanted to know if I could do some more revisions.  

Hell, yes, I could do some more revisions. So we talked and brainstormed and I started in on those just this past weekend. Along with still working on The Magic-punk Thriller. And all the "OMG! I have a book coming out Monday!" madness that precedes a release day.

"And this is all great, but what is the point here?" you say.

The point is this. I'm sitting here, realizing that I have successfully accomplished one of the things on my List of Things To-Do. (Admittedly, the Sell a Novella goal was for 2012 so I'm almost two years behind, but it has been done.) I'm also realizing that the list never gets any smaller.

Writing goals are not destinations, they are mile-markers. It's not like saying "I want to visit Australia" and then going and being like "Well that was hot and those koalas sure were cute but now I've DONE that so cross it off the list." Every goal I reach reveals a new one. 

Every story written makes room for a new one. Every sale is a step up to the next. Every goal achieved gives way to another one down the road.

The list never gets any smaller. It just gets different.  

P.S. My SF Western novella, BRASS STARS, is available now from Eggplant Literary Productions: http://eggplantproductions.com/e-books/brass-stars-g-carpenter/

Southern Gothic Now Available

(I should have posted this earlier in the week, but I've been scattered.)


Southern Gothic: New Tales of the South, an anthology that includes my own flash piece "Love Like Dysphoria" is now available for purchase from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and Google Play 


In addition to over 15 stories and poems the book features original artwork by Nathan Mark Phillips.