Scarlet Letters

It's early! THE COLD ONES is now available on GenreMall. It looks very shiny! I don't know that it's going to be available on Amazon, so if you're not buying from me, buy it from them! If you're excited about it, go to their blog post and thank them for carrying it! And spread the word! Anywhere and everywhere. Let people know it's available! Yes, I get paid if you buy it from them, so feel free. Support small press, buy THE COLD ONES and aim for the head!

Before I had this blog, I had the Scarlet Letters. I wrote a regular column in college and later for my first paper. Then I went online, writing my own webzine with a weekly column, news roundup, quote of the week... sound familiar? :) Anyway, I recently found the Scarlet Letters. Wow, I was YOUNG. Because I live to humiliate myself, I think I'll share some of my columns from the dim dark years of my youth. Dr. Mom, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Rain (c) 1998 Rain makes me think about my mother. Whoa! Stop, don't run away yet. I swear, this isn't a whiny, Freudian, weirdo-on-the-analysis-couch rant about my mom. I have a point here. Bear with me. When I was a kid, I noticed that my mom was always in a good mood when it rained. I'd be sitting at the kitchen table after school, staring out the window with that woe-is-me expression that can only be mastered by bored kids, and she'd be baking something and humming perfectly in key (Mom is a musician) an...

One of my least-kept secrets is that I am a former actress/singer. Back in the dawn of time when dinosaurs walked the earth and I was a young lass, I had stars in my eyes. I fell in love with the theater when I was thirteen. Because I had a deep voice, they always cast me as the mother, the adult in the crazy crew. But I really wanted to sing and dance and fall in love and die tragically on stage. Preferably all at the same time. In retrospect, I think I always wanted to tell stories. Sing and dance them, write them, true or false, just so long as I could spin the story for you. My love affair with theater was genetic - my parents met on a production of "Arsenic and Old Lace," and my family's history with music and the stage goes back generations before them. I grew up listening to my mother's piano downstairs, and would make up stories to match the music. (Which was inconvenient when she stopped mid-song and I had to rewrite quickly.) I tried out for every play in ju...

Let me be clear right up front: I've never self-published and never thought I would. The closest I've ever gone is the short story I write once a year to raise money for the American Cancer Society. It's hard enough to get a shred of respect in the publishing world as a) small press, b) a woman and c) a horror writer who dared to put sex in two of her books. Every time I've pitched a bookstore on carrying my stuff I've had to prove (practically by blood oath) that it wasn't self-published. I've had my bio changed to call me an "aspiring author" after I had two books on the shelves at Borders, I've been sneered at and mocked to my face at conventions, and naturally, I'm broke. But there was a panel at Dragoncon that has been weighing on my mind lately (and yes, I know I'm almost a month late in doing a DC write-up; I was deathly ill, sue me). It was the panel on the future of publishing, and I was going into it yawning because at every s...

Because there have been questions... If you ordered DREADMIRE and indicated you wanted the first edition, you should have received it by now. If not, please contact us at booksales@elizabethdonald.com so we can spank the postal service and get you a new copy. If you ordered DREADMIRE and indicated that one or more copies should be the second edition, however, your order has not shipped. The second edition has not yet been released by the publisher. As soon as we have the books in hand, your orders will ship. We have not forgotten you! If you had other things with that order, we have been holding them. If you would prefer we send them right away, please email us and we'll get that done. I appreciate your patience with the second edition. I've seen the cover art, and hopefully it'll be worth your wait. I love that book and I know you guys will enjoy it when it finally comes out. I'm in contact with the publisher and keeping tabs on its availability. Regarding THE COLD ONE...

Sometimes memes are nice, when they work as writing prompts instead of lists. There's one running about selling your first short story. Mine is weird. I belong to Writing.com, only back then it was Stories.com. Back then you could still get quality critiques of your work, because the site wasn't the size of MySpace. I got a lot of critique that helped build me into a better writer. And it happened, the way people think it might happen and it almost never does. Someone stumbled across my portfolio, found a piece I'd written and asked to buy it. It was the New Jersey Self-Assessment for eleventh-graders. You know those reading comprehension tests, where you read something and have to answer five questions about it? That year, the New Jersey juniors read my piece. I was paid $75. Not bad for a first sale. I photocopied the check before I cashed it, intending to frame it, but of course I lost the photocopy. I keep thinking it'll turn up someday... Two years later I sold NOC...

Whew. Not bad for 45 days. That's an average of 912 words per day, which isn't Nano speed, but I'll take it, particularly since that included two conventions, three illnesses, four parental crises and a partridge in a pear tree. I forgot what this part was like. The part where you can't stay away from the book, where everything (including food, sleep and the company of other humans) is a distraction from THE BOOK. Can't sleep, book will eat me. Come to think of it, did I eat dinner today? Last Friday I got amazingly, catastrophically sick. And you know what pissed me off the most? That it hit in the middle of a really good scene. I don't know if the book is Good Enough yet. But I've always known this was the book I was meant to write. Whether anyone else in the publishing world will agree with me, whether the readers will find it as fun and heartwrenching and exciting and goddamn fantastic as I do, whether it will ever become the book I want it to be - I don...

Okay, I've (barely) survived the latest round of travel fun, and I'm so pleased with the responses to THE COLD ONES! Special thanks to the fine folk who hung in there at my Dragoncon reading for an hour and a half - they didn't even fidget. :) I'm pleased to announce that THE COLD ONES will hit shelves on Oct. 2, courtesy of Sam's Dot Publishing. I'm further pleased that it will cost all of $6. That's just a titch more than a venti Frappuccino, folks. Because we've had some difficulties with preorders this year, we're doing things a little differently this time. You may reserve a copy of THE COLD ONES in advance, but you don't pay until shipping. Send an email to booksales@... and you'll get your copy reserved. You'll get a bill in your inbox before shipping, and you can choose your method of payment. But please, do reserve your copy! I need a headcount so I know how many to acquire for my readers. Naturally, it will be available from the...

There have been some changes! Here's where to find me in the week o' crazy: FRIDAY 4 pm Autographs in Marriott 301-304 Show up! I'll sign whatever you've got. Trust me, it'll be the shortest line you'll stand in all weekend. :) 10 p.m. Little Deaths in Hyatt (Montreal/Vancouver) The ubiquitous sex-and-horror panel. SATURDAY 2:30 p.m. Reading in Hyatt (Marietta) Reading from THE COLD ONES! There will be chocolate and prizes! BE THERE! 5:30 p.m. Vampires vs. Zombies in Hyatt (Montreal/Vancouver) I'm not sure which side I'm supposed to be on in this one... I for one welcome our new undead overlords. 8:30 p.m. Undead in Dixie in Hyatt (Montreal/Vancouver) I want to suck your blood, y'all. Watch me try to hide the New England accent as I talk about infesting Memphis with vamps. 10 p.m. Zombie Prom (My presence has been requested. I do not dance in front of humans, so I can only assume I am to be zombie chow.) SUNDAY 11:30 a.m. The Sacred & The Profane...

We just changed formats here, and I didn't realize I had to actually click to approve comments. The comments for the last few days have been approved. I never claimed to be all that bright. Once again: abusive and wildly off-topic comments will not be approved. Feel free to vent in your own space; this is my living room, and I expect people to behave as if they were actually sitting in my home. If you have criticisms, I'll approve them - as long as they're polite. Anonymous comments will be allowed again if everyone plays nice. I love to hear from my readers. But there's only so much nonsense I'm going to take in my own space. Say what you will elsewhere, but here, let's remember the kindergarten rules: speak to others as you would wish to be spoken to.

God-damn. I could use more days like this. It's a cautious joy, writing something I love and knowing it's what I really wanted to do. Joyful because I love this story, love these characters and I think I'm making it better. Cautious because as much as I love this book, it's never right, and there's no one to buy it. I wish I had the security of established contracts. I hate writing on spec. And yet most of my work is on spec. Is that because I'm small press? Is it because I have yet to land with one solid publisher - poly-published? Is it because I suck like a Hoover and nobody loves me? Ah, the reasons writers drink. :) Still, I'm having so much fun I don't want to stop even though my fingers are numb, my wrist is sore and it's midnight with work in nine hours. It's been a long time since I felt this way. And I didn't even kill anyone today.

My preliminary schedule for DragonCon is as follows: FRIDAY 4 p.m. - autograph session (books will be available for sale) 10 p.m. - Little Deaths: The strange relationship between eroticism and horror (a.k.a. the Ubiquitous Late-Night Sex Panel) SATURDAY 2:30 p.m. - reading (I'll be doing THE COLD ONES - be there!) 5:30 p.m. - Vampires vs. Zombies (hey, I can be a double agent!) 8:30 p.m. - Undead in Dixie (southern vampires, y'all) SUNDAY 11:30 a.m. - The Sacred & The Profane (religion in dark fantasy; I bet I'm the token Christian) MONDAY 10 a.m. - Challenges for Today's Writers (the oh-shit-we're-all-gonna-die panel) I'll be in the exhibitor's hall hawking books any time I'm not doing this stuff, or perhaps wandering about mugging people in the hallways. Buy books!

ME: Woof, when you get a moment, can I bother you? WOOF: Yes dear? ME: Magazine or clip? WOOF: What do you want to do with it? ME: Shoot people. WOOF: Who are you? ME: Military. WOOF: Magazine. ME: When is it appropriate to use "clip"? WOOF: When you're a civilian. ME: Noted. This is why a writer must always have friends. :)

Ye gods, it's my life. Quasi-seriously, folks? If you want to see something other than the latest TWILIGHT clone in books, if you want to see artists and artisans thrive, if you value those snarky buttons and funny T-shirts that make up such a part of convention culture... bring the cash to the dealer's room. Every show for the last eighteen months has been thinner and the eyes of the dealers become more desperate. Keep them in business, or you'll be stuck with Hot Topic. Oh, and buy my books. :)

For those who knew her, today is a bittersweet day. It would have been Jennie's 26th birthday. Jennie died in March. I intended to link to the column I wrote about her for the paper, but it seems those links only last for a few weeks and then they expire. For those who don't know or who weren't with us, Jennie was our friend. She had cystic fibrosis. She received a lung transplant, but it didn't hold. She was on the transplant list when she died. For her mother Selena, today was especially difficult in a manner I can't even begin to contemplate. My own son is so very dear to me, and I feel his absence even when he's just away visiting his father or my mother. I cannot comprehend the depth and breadth of Selena's loss. But it seems an appropriate day to remind all who don't know about STEAMPOSIUM. There's a connection. Bear with me. As Jennie was entering her final battle, Conflation had a particularly successful year with a steampunk theme. In fact,...

Artist Janet Chui talks about the process for developing this lovely Dreadmire image: Shiny, isn't it? I really think it captures Alesia particularly well. Anyway, read all about it on Janet's blog .

A friendly reminder that you only have until July 15 to preorder THE DREADMIRE CHRONICLES! It's first-come, first-served for those who want the limited first edition - I have absolutely no idea how many of those will be available after Babelcon, guys. Depending on how popular it is at the show, there may not be any. So you must preorder AND PAY before July 15 to be guaranteed a book! While I'm hopeful I'll be able to get future shipments, "hopeful" isn't the same thing as "positive." The books are $18 plus $5 shipping, and if you order more than one book shipping is free. I have all my titles in stock at the moment, though a snag with the printer is making SETTING SUNS a little scarce. Order now! Don't let the swamp boat sail without you! :) P.S. Since there was confusion on this... order by emailing booksales@elizabethdonald.com, not by posting here. Yes, we're working on a smoother method. Possibly by the fall, more likely next year. Paypal...

Okay, folks, here's the way it's gonna go: There will be a special first edition of THE DREADMIRE CHRONICLES available only at BabelCon in Baton Rouge, July 17-19. This will be an extremely small print run, and I don't have the price yet. However many are left at the end of the show - and I have no guarantee any will be left - I will snag for you guys. The trade release will be out August 1. The cost is $18 plus $5 shipping. You can preorder now, and I strongly urge you to do so, because I don't know how many copies of either edition I'll be able to acquire. That's if you want a copy signed by me. If you don't care, you can wait and order from the publisher. We'll take preorders starting now through July 15. If you prefer the special first edition, say so in your order, but keep in mind you're reserving a copy without knowing the price. However many I can snag at the show, that's how many I'll have, first come first served. As before, if you ...

Okay, normal people do not have these dreams. I dreamed that I met with an agent who had brokered a deal for another collection of short stories. She had everything in place, including a cover, and I had a week to get the stories together. "But I don't have enough short stories for a collection!" I protested, but she didn't care. "Write them," she insisted. Then I talked Steven Shrewsbury into writing the introduction on the horror short story as an art form, probably because my subconscious is still intimidated by Shrews' 350 published stories. Dream-Shrews was very agreeable. Less agreeable were nameless editors I was contacting to get rights back to some of my short stories so they could be reprinted in this collection. Which is funny, because I actually have the rights to much of my stuff by now. I think. I spent the whole dream in a panic attack about getting this thing together by my fictional agent's unrealistic deadline. When I awoke, I was r...

SUNDAY My wonderful minions (I even bought them MINION buttons) were so understanding about letting me free from booth duty. The first panel of the day was on constructing a space combat game that actually follows Newtonian physics. Now, I'm not constructing a game, but I am constructing space combat. So I attended the panel with Professor Rob Knop, designated physics nerd, and took notes on how Newtonian physics would apply to space travel and combat. It's always humbling to be the dumbest one in the room. Everyone knew more about physics than me, including the teenager in the back. I took Physics for Dummkompfs in tenth grade and passed, fleeing it for molecular biology as fast as I could manage. I got about 80 percent of what Rob was saying, mostly because he was patient with my stupid questions. I still don't quite get why we can't go faster than light, because I don't get how space and time are tied together, because I'm not fuckin' Einstein. But I thin...