[Radthorne]

The Sands of Sabakushi is here! Well, at least I have a batch of pre-street editions. I took them with me to the Norwescon convention this past weekend (more of which in a moment). The new book looks great - Windstorm's current printer is doing a wonderful job on making the colors sharp and clear. The books are not yet up on Amazon (or even on Windstorm's own site), but if you're an eager beaver and want to be the first on your block to get your copies, you can still order direct from Windstorm. Just give 'em author and title and they'll be able to ship them to you.

The convention went pretty well. Lady Jayne, the bookseller that I use in the dealer room at most of the cons, sold some sets of both Sabakushi and Kotaishi. I had two panels (Self Editing Secrets and How Stories End), both of which had full rooms of people attending. I also did a reading from Sabakushi, attended an autograph session, and did a couple of critiques for the Fairwood Writers Group.

As soon as the new books are more generally available, I will post a note here to let everyone know.

[alison]

Congratulations, Kevin - such a great moment, I always reckon, that first holding of a new book! May she fly!

[Radthorne]

Thank you, thank you! Yep, it's pretty fun to finally hold the thing in your hand and say, "Wow, all that work ended up right here..."

[Radthorne]

By the way, in case anyone's noticed that all of my posts with a picture or a link have been edited by me today, it's because my website hosting service accidentally erased my site, and I've been trying to get it rebuilt properly. In the process I had to go back and change all of the links in all of my posts... what a pain! At the moment the site itself is still down, but hopefully it will be back up soon...

[alison]

Wow, Rad, that's some snafu. I keep backups of all my webpages, out of paranoia that something like that might happen...the best of luck in sorting it out! I hope your hoster is being extra special nice to you about it.

[Radthorne]

Yes, they gave me a free month. They were really having a bad day, and I ended up being the one most affected by it... But all is back together now. I had just recently updated the site, as you know, so most of the bits and pieces were already in one place on my hard drive. So once they got the site working, all I had to do was move it all back, and then track down the few pieces that I had left lying around elsewhere (like your faux avatar, which I had actually left in my c:/temp folder...)

[Radthorne]

Sorta news, I guess, but I posted up a new image over on my Cover Art and Computer Graphics thread. Just a "demo cover," still playing around with the new 3D tools.

Next big event is the April 13th reading at the University of Washington book store. John Kremer, the book marketing guru, ranks this as one of the largest independent bookstores in the country, so it's pretty cool to have an event there. This is my second reading with them (the first was last August, for Kotaishi). I'll be reading from The Sands of Sabakushi this go 'round, sharing the time with Ted Butler, another Windstorm Creative author.

If anyone's in Seattle that evening (it's a Wednesday, at 7:30 PM), feel free to drop in for a listen.

[alison]

I would if I could (there's that little foot massage frinstance - the biggest independent bookstore in the country wouldn't mind if you paused in your reading to help another author, surely?) :cool: The best of luck!

Btw, how do you find reading from novels? I find it a bit hard, because reading an extract always seems so unsatisfactory; how do you choose what to read?

[Radthorne]

"And then, with the blade mere inches from his neck, he... Excuse me a moment, I have to finish with Alison's right foot before moving on to her left..."

I actually like doing readings, as it give me a chance to really bring my words to life. Back in my school days (waaay back) I was involved in drama stuff, so I know how to do a bit of delivery. There are so many authors who read in a monotone that when somebody shows up with a bit of life in 'em, it tends to wake up the store staff, and then they invite you back.

As for what to read, I pick at least two scenes, and try to do several things with them. One is to make sure they're some of my best scenes; I want people to hear the best I can do (both the audience, and the store staff if it's at a store; since the idea is to get them interested enough to buy or stock the book). Another is to show both the contemplative side of my stories, and the action sides, so that they know I can do both. And finally, I try to pick scenes which won't give away too much story (this is always the hardest part). While people hearing something in a reading may not remember too much of what you actually said, if you mention that the hero actually found the secret thingy, then that bit of suspense might be ruined for buyers of the book.

For my first book, when I have an hour I've generally always read the same two passages, which total about 35 - 40 minutes (this leaves enough time for intro and wrap up). For the new book, I have two scenes that are about 25 minutes (these were for a 30 minute reading). I have a third one I can do for my upcoming UW reading, where I get an hour.

[alison]

You sound very well organised in how you approach it, Rad. I'm used to poetry readings (I like reading too) - but with poetry you get to read the whole thing. So it feels strange reading just an extract, and I often wonder how much people can get from it. Do you explain the context?