The Year in Review

'Sup, folks? I hope everyone had a good holiday. Mine was much better than last year, and I got some nice things (new slow cooker, some gift cards, jewelry). We even had a white Christmas, and it got even whiter yesterday. The winter storm dumped about a foot of snow on us, which killed the big after-Christmas sales up and down the eastern seaboard. Right now the wind is gusting up to 45 mph, which is making it hard to keep the roads clear.

It's been an interesting weekend.

The year is winding down, and it's hard to believe that it's only five days until 2011. The new year is almost upon us, so I've been thinking a lot about the year that's almost over. After checking back through older posts, I realized I never did post my goals for 2010 here. I did post them over on Absolute Write, so I brought that list over.

1. Sell at least two more books in the Dreg City series to my editor
2. Submit a second adult series (if my current editor decides not to take it on)
3. Discuss and prepare with agent a YA project
4. Continue writing short stories and submit to short story markets
5. Promote the hell out of my July '10 release
6. Continue blogging
7. I hit my goal of reading 100 books/novellas this year, so I'm putting next year's goal at 115.
8. Write, write, write to keep those muscles limber

So how did I do?

1. Sold. ANOTHER KIND OF DEAD releases 7/26/11 and WRONG SIDE OF DEAD sometime in 2012.
2. Did that. Sold it to Pocket. The first book, WARDEN'S TRANCE, releases 11/1/11.
3. Did that, too. Details forthcoming.
4. Er, not so much. I've fiddled with a few shorts, and I suppose my chapter of A GLIMPSE OF DARKNESS counts.
5. Did that. My readers are awesome.
6. I didn't blog as often as I would have liked, and it's something I hope to do more often next year.
7. Epic fail. As of yesterday, my Read List is 40 books. It'll probably be 41 before the year ends.
8. Definitely did this. I wrote Dreg City #4, a spec novel that's currently in limbo, finished the aforementioned YA book, and dabbled in a few other side projects. Not to mention the rewriting/editing of some other works.

So 2010 was definitely a productive year for me. I haven't written up my 2011 goals yet. Turning in the second book in my Pocket contract is the only outstanding thing I have to do in the new year. I also hope to do a few more conventions this year, so stay tuned for those details.

How did 2010 treat you?

Cover Art: Another Kind of Dead

I can now unveil the cover for Dreg City #3, ANOTHER KIND OF DEAD. And can I just say how much I love this? I have truly been blessed with some amazingly awesome covers, and this one is no exception.



The background is a train yard, which see a little action this time around. And the super-cool lightning is a fun plot point, as well. Evy looks particularly bad-ass in this one, and the tag line says it all: She was born for this fight--no matter how many times it kills her.

Love. It.

Release Day: A Glimpse of Darkness

A GLIMPSE OF DARKNESS, my collaborative short story with fellow Del Rey/Spectra authors Lara Adrian, Harry Connolly, Stacia Kane and Lucy A. Snyder, is now available as an ebook! You can get the entire adventure for just 99 cents!

To help celebrate the release, each of us briefly blogged on the Kindle Daily Post about our experiences writing a collaborative story, as well as submitted questions to each other about the process. Check out the first post by Lara Adrian here.

In other news, I finished page proofs for ANOTHER KIND OF DEAD. It's always an exciting step to see what the actual book pages will look like. Couple that with having seen cover art, and it's starting to feel like a real book! I'll share the cover as soon as I can, promise!

Food Court Serenade

If this doesn't put you in the holiday spirit, I don't know what will.



How come I'm never at the mall when cool stuff like this happens?

Thanks to SciFiGuy for the link.