Friday, May 25, 2012

Official Announcement: MetaWars Continuation

I've made off-hand remarks and left hints over the last few months, but now that contracts are signed and sent to the appropriate parties, I want to make the official announcement.

Pocket Star will publish two more books in the MetaWars series in 2013.  TEMPEST (MetaWars #3) will be told from the point-of-view of Ethan "Tempest" Swift, as he deals with a decades-old vendetta against the former Bane who murdered his mother, as well as a personal secret he's been keeping from his friends and teammates.  CHIMERA (MetaWars #4) will follow, wherein a lot of different shit hits the Meta World fan.

For folks who missed it, Pocket Star is a shiny new imprint at Simon & Schuster that will specialize is Digital First books. This means that as of now, there will not be mass market paperback copies of TEMPEST or CHIMERA--just e-books.  They only way that *might* change is if sales of the series books really take off and a print run makes financial sense.

So there you have it. And don't forget to grab a copy of CHANGELING on June 26!

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

MetaWars Fun and a Giveaway

Every time I look at the calendar, I'm amazed to see how quickly this year is flying by.  May is almost over, and it feels like it was just March.  Which means that CHANGELING's release is right around the corner (35 days, oh my!).

Speaking of CHANGELING, it received 4 stars from Romantic Times! I admit, I was crazy nervous when I checked for this review.  CHANGELING takes our intrepid superheroes in a few unexpected directions, and when you get to the end...well, all I can do is ask that you trust me.

The review:

The second title in Meding’s MetaWars series is an admirable follow-up to its highly regarded predecessor. The series features a wholly new approach to superheroes and how they interact with our world. The author throws some fantastical sci-fi and thriller elements into the story, and the result is fast-paced and exciting with a good dose of intrigue. It’s a fun read that will have you reaching for the first book if you haven’t read it already, but it still adds new layers for those who have.
 
When empty human skins are found around Los Angeles, the police ask Dahlia “Ember” Perkins and her superhero teammates to help solve the grisly murders. The case takes a dangerous turn when a bullet meant for Dahlia hits one of her fellow MetaHumans. Then coincidences start piling up, after she gets romantically involved with an old friend, and Dahlia realizes that she has a unique connection to the killer — or killers. (POCKET, Jul., 384 pp., $7.99)


The MetaWars books were also featured in a nice little article on RT about superhero novels. With the monumental success of The Avengers (which I'm going to see again tonight), we can only hope that there is a renewed interest in this very small niche of novels.

Red Hot Books is doing an Author's After Dark Feature on my books, as well as an interview and giveaway.  There are only 13 hours left to enter, so pop on over to win any book from my back list.  You can also find links to reviews of the entire Dreg City series.

I'm going to leave you with a tiny snippet from TEMPEST (MetaWars 3). It isn't easy finding snippets on a book that's chock full of spoilers from the previous two (especially since CHANGELING isn't even out yet), but I have a few sentences that really summarize one of the themes of TEMPEST.  It's part of a longer telephone conversation between Teresa and Ethan.  Enjoy!


"Ethan, I know you," [Teresa] continued.  "You think of other people before yourself, sometimes to a fault.  And I know how the need for revenge can eat at you, but you aren't a murderer.  You wouldn't let a personal vendetta ruin what we're trying to do."

"Which is what?" I asked, because I'd be damned if I knew anymore.

"Correct the mistakes of the past whenever possible.  This is about the future of all Metas, new and old.  We can't keep killing each other if we're going to survive."


Sunday, May 13, 2012

Celebrating Moms

Since my day to blog at the League of Reluctant Adults fell on Mother's Day, I thought I'd do a post around the topic of mothers. I've been lucky enough to have had a good relationship with my mother for my whole life. I haven't always lived close by, but I know I'm loved and that I can depend on her (and in case you were curious, I'm tight with my dad, too, but this is about mothers). It's funny, though, that the majority of the characters I write about either have absentee mothers, bad mothers, or dead mothers. Evangeline* Stone's mother died when Evy was a kid, and before that she was a pretty terrible mother. Wyatt's mother is dead, too. The only genuine mother/child relationship I can think of in the Dreg City books are Aurora/Ava.

(*On the other hand, we haven't had a chance to look at the relationship between Chalice Frost and her mother, which was supposed to be part of book five….)

In MetaWars, all of the main characters are orphans. Although you could argue that Dahlia Perkins had a great relationship with her mother—except her mother died a few years before….well, you'll learn all about that in CHANGELING (June 26, 2012). The Sekrit Project I've been mentioning here and there follows the same pattern of dead mothers (although for variety, there are some fantastic father/son relationships in that series). One of these days I'll write something with a healthy, solid mother/child relationship, I swear.

Since today is supposed to be about celebrating Mom, I want to list some of my favorite mothers in books, movies and television. In no particular order:

 JOYCE SUMMERS. "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer." She rocks it as a mom. Smart, funny, protective of her only child. Her death was one of the saddest moments of that entire series (admit it, you cried, too).

CAROLINE INGALLS. "Little House on the Prairie." As a little girl, I used to play Little House with my neighbor. Because I was younger, I got to be Laura a lot. I wanted to be Laura, and I wanted Ma Ingalls to make my dresses and braid my hair.
 Photobucket CHARLIE MADIGAN. The "Charlie Madigan" series, by Kelly Gay. A single mom urban fantasy novel protagonist. You don't see many, and Charlie handles both her professional life and her role as a mother with a deft hand. If you haven't picked up this series, grab it now!

MRS. BRISBY. "The Secret of NIMH." This movie is part of my childhood, and I still adore it to this day. No one can touch Don Bluth's animated movies, and NIMH is my absolute favorite. Mrs. Brisby faces her fears and finds courage she never knew she had in order to save the lives of her children.

 FAITH YOKAS. "Third Watch." I adored all six seasons of this show, which few people seem to remember. Yokas was a fascinating character to watch grow. She was a patrol cop, but she was also a wife and mother, and those relationships developed over the course of the series in very complex ways.

KAREN SANDERS. The "Shifers" series by Rachel Vincent. She's the wife of the Alpha. She's Faythe's mother (really, enough said right there). She protects her family with a quiet strength, and when she's angry? Look out.

EVELYN O'CONNELL. "The Mummy Returns." She's a bookworm turned action heroine. She's also a reincarnated Egyptian princess. She trades blows and sarcasm with equal finesse. Plus she's just plain funny.

HEROINE. "Feast." Probably the most clever horror movies in recent decades, Heroine is a mama on a mission. She's not afraid to violently kill a bunch of radioactive monsters if it means getting to her daughter.
Photobucket MARILLA CUTHBERT. "Anne of Green Gables/Anne of Avonlea." Do I really have to explain why Marilla is, like, the most awesome mom ever? Anyone else who adored the Anne movies as a girl will understand.

So that's my short list, and I'm certain I've forgotten some awesome mothers.

 Who are some of your favorite fictional Mom's?

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Change and Stuff

I don't like change. I'm a creature of habit and I like things to be familiar. Nu-Blogger makes me a little crazy, as does Firefox 12. Plus, when things update there are inevitably bugs and other issues to be fixed. No thank you. Anywho, that baby vent about change ties into why I've been so quiet on the blog lately. My old boss at my day job transferred to another store. So I got a temporary promotion to a full-time position--so temporary that it's been going on for the last five weeks, and there is no actual end in sight. Working full-time again has, in a way, been a godsend right now, with things so uncertain in the writing side of my life. But it's also been a drain on my time and energy, so my blog has been suffering. So has my social media time. And for all of that, I apologize. The good news is that I've finished a first draft of TEMPEST (MetaWars #3). I really had fun writing this book. It's from the POV of Ethan "Tempest" Swift, and he's one of my very favorite characters from the MetaWars series. You'll learn a few new things about him in CHANGELING (June 26) that I hope pique your interest in his story. TEMPEST and Metawars #4 will both be part of the newly revamped Pocket Star imprint, which is digital first content. Once I have release information beyond "in 2013" I'll let you know. Along the lines of other new things, the "Sekrit Project" is now on submission. Keep your fingers crossed for good things. This project is a closed trilogy, and it's something I'm very excited about. Oh yeah....GO SEE THE AVENGERS!!!! It was all kinds of awesome.