Toni Andrews
THE DAMES DISPATCH January 2012
Welcome to our first
Dame News Day!
A Short Collection of Dame Tidbits and Happenings
If you like this post and would like to see us do a monthly or quarterly update, please let us know in the comments. Oh, and if you have ideas for things you’d like us to include in the news, we’d love to hear that too!
RECENTLY FINISHED
Keri Arthur: I’ve just finished the copy edits on DARKNESS DEVOURS, the 3rd Dark Angels book.
Jenna Black: I’ve just finished writing the first draft of REPLICA, my next YA novel.
Rinda Elliott: I’ve just finished writing the proposal for new project.
Jackie Kessler: I’ve recently finished writing the Sekrit Project, which I can’t say any more about. But I hope I can soon!
Karen Mahoney: I’ve just finished the first draft of THE STONE DEMON (3rd and final book of THE IRON WITCH trilogy).
Devon Monk: I just finished revisions on TIN SWIFT, book two in my steampunk series, and the really, really, oh-so-rough draft of MAGIC FOR A PRICE.
Lilith Saintcrow: I just recently finished writing a zombie-killing cowboy trunk novel.
Rachel Vincent: I’ve just finished page proofs on BEFORE I WAKE, the sixth Soul Screamers novel.
ON THE DESK NOW
Toni Andrews: I’m currently writing a long-awaited book to follow up on the Mercy Hollings series.
Keri Arthur: I’m currently reworking an old project called WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE. It’s a little different from my usual stuff–more humorous, and features elves, trolls, ogres, dwarves and sirens.
Rinda Elliott: I’m currently writing CATALYST, the 3rd novella in The Kithran Regenesis series for Samhain.
Jackie Kessler: I’m currently writing BREATH, which is due March 31. (Gulp.)
Karen Mahoney: I have 3 weeks left to revise FALLING TO ASH (first book in my YA vampire thriller about Moth).
Devon Monk: I’m currently polishing the draft of the ninth Allie Beckstrom book: MAGIC FOR A PRICE.
Lilith Saintcrow: I’m currently writing the second Bannon & Clare book, THE RED PLAGUE AFFAIR.
Rachel Vincent: I’m currently writing OATH BOUND, the third and final book in the Unbound trilogy.
UP NEXT
Keri Arthur: DARKNESS DEVOURS, the 3rd Dark Angels book, comes out in July.
Jenna Black: My book DEADLY DESCENDANT is out in less than 3 months (April 24)
Rinda Elliott: My novella, REPLICANT, is out in March-hopefully. (See snippet of REPLICANT below)
Jackie Kessler: My book LOSS is out in 7 weeks, and I’m not at all terrified. I’m also lying. 
(See snippet of LOSS below) I’m doing a LOSS blog tour in March. Will be giving away LOSS cover posters!
Karen Mahoney: THE WOOD QUEEN (Iron Witch book 2) is released… this month! It sort of snuck up on me. 2nd Feb in the UK and 8th Februay in the US. Look out for giveaways around the interwebs – keep an eye on my personal blog for links to those. I’ll be doing a biggie at The Book Smugglers very soon.
Devon Monk: MAGIC WITHOUT MERCY, book 8 in the Allie Beckstrom series, comes out April 3rd.
Lilith Saintcrow: THE BANDIT KING, the sequel to THE HEDGEWITCH QUEEN comes out June 1st.
Rachel Vincent: SHADOW BOUND is four months from release, and I’ll be posting a sizable excerpt this month!
READING
Keri Arthur: I’m currently listening to the audio book of Matthew Reilly’s SCARECROW AND THE ARMY OF THIEVES (and loving every mad minute of it)
Jenna Black: I’m reading # 3 of my 8 RITA books (i.e., books I am judging for RWA’s RITA contest); I’d tell you the title, but then I’d have to kill you.
Rinda Elliott: I am reading PRINCE OF AIR AND DARKNESS by Jenna Black.
Jackie Kessler: I’m reading an ARC of Heather Brewer’s SOULBOUND, the first book in the Legacy of Tril. Fabulous!
Karen Mahoney: I have just started reading VANISHED by Kat Richardson. It’s the 4th in her Greywalker series (I’m two or three books behind) and I’m loving it already – in this one Harper Blaine goes to London!
Devon Monk: I’m reading an annotated collection of fairytales by Hans Christian Anderson, some Grimm tales, and also THE WHITE ROAD by Lynn Flewelling.
Lilith Saintcrow: I’m reading a lot about Victorian London and Jack the Ripper, as well as about bubonic plague and epidemics.
Rachel Vincent: I just finished reading: CATCHING FIRE and MOCKING JAY by Suzanne Collins.
WATCHING
Keri Arthur: I just ordered the second season of JUSTIFIED from Amazon US and SHERLOCK season 2 from Amazon UK and I’m anxiously waiting the arrival of both!
Jenna Black: I’m watching JUSTIFIED and DEADWOOD, because I’m on a Timonthy Olyphant kick.
Rinda Elliott: I’m watching LOST GIRL, SHAMELESS, and HOUSE OF LIES.
Jackie Kessler: I recently watched the UK version of BEING HUMAN. John Mitchell makes Angelus look like a pansy.
Karen Mahoney: I’m currently watching THE VAMPIRE DIARIES; it’s the third series and I am still really enjoying it. There was no episode last week, though. Boo! I’m also looking forward to the return of THE WALKING DEAD.
Devon Monk: I’ve caught up on all the HAVEN episodes (love!) and am watching DOWNTON ABBEY, BEING HUMAN (UK), and ARCHER.
Lilith Saintcrow: I haven’t had a chance to watch a movie in a very long time, but when I get one, I plan on watching COWBOYS & ALIENS.
LIFE AND OTHER DELIGHTS
Toni Andrews: I am teaching an online class in deep Point of View.
Jenna Black: I’m learning a new Argentine Tango routine for my dance studio’s spring showcase and just finished knitting a pair of wildly colorful striped socks for my husband.
Rinda Elliott: Unfortunately, a lot of my attention lately has been aimed toward recovering from a health issue. But I expect I’ll be at full speed ahead soon!
Jackie Kessler: I’m competing in two tae kwon do tournaments, because I’m training to be a superhero. (Superheroes, apparently, need ice packs. A lot.)
Karen Mahoney: To seal my total geekiness, I just signed up to attend the London Super Comic Con at the end of February – Stan Lee is the guest of honour! Excelsior!
Devon Monk: I’m three weeks into the Couch to 5K running program (or the sweating and swearing program, as I call it), and am finishing off a few knitted gifts I had hoped to have done *months* ago.
Lilith Saintcrow: I’m still running and climbing, and doing a bunch of housecleaning and purging. Spring is right around the corner, plus we’ve had some changes in our household recently, so it’s a good time to get things spruced up.
SNIPPETS
REPLICANT
by Dani Worth*
I wondered if they’d clued in to who I was now. It’s not like I’d kept my life as a Tracker hidden and specializing in hunting down Replicants had given me a reputation I’d earned righteously. Replicants were an alien species that could change form as long as they had the race’s DNA and the form was humanoid.
Taking a couple of steps away, I focused on the foot-tall black and yellow painted squares of the side paths. They held sensors that beeped when hover dollies got too close. I breathed in the fake air and remembered that this wasn’t a homecoming for me, this was a takedown.
“Damn, Jarana, it’s good to see you. And it’s nice of you to raise the temperature of this supply station with that outfit of yours.” Egan winked.
A frown pulled Lux’s dark eyebrows together. “She looks like the Sadistic Mistress of the Clan Ladybug.”
*aka: Rinda Elliott
LOSS
by Jackie Morse Kessler
…At the edge of the park, he sees a white horse. Not a merry-go-round horse, either, but a real live horse, about a million feet tall and so white that it’s like staring at the sun…
Billy blinked and the memory vanished, but the horse remained. Not his horse, no—that horse, the nightmare horse, the one that came with the Ice-Cream Man, was a blinding white, and the one dappled in moonlight outside his house was, if anything, leached of color. It made Billy think of the plant hanging in the kitchen: amid the lush emerald leaves were scattered bits of pale green, the color leaning toward off-white. The horse was the color of those dying leaves.
“Come on,” Death said, approaching the monstrous horse.
Billy’s feet refused to work. He opened his mouth to shout, but his voice died somewhere along the way. He watched Death pull himself atop the horse in an easy motion, watched him adjust the saddle bag that absolutely hadn’t been there a moment ago—for that matter, the saddle hadn’t been there a moment ago—but all Billy could do was stare, horrified, at the pale horse.
“Plenty of room,” Death said cheerfully.
Billy’s voice had betrayed him, but he could still turn his head. He did so, slowly, emphatically if silently saying, No, nuh uh, absolutely not.
The horse grinned at him. He knew that was crazy, because horses don’t grin, but he would have sworn on his life that the thing was actually grinning at him.
“Is there a problem?” asked Death.
Oh yeah. There was a gigantic horse with glowing red eyes and looking like it had maybe drowned standing right there in front of his house. There was a problem, all right.
“It’s my steed,” Death said fondly, giving the creature a pat on its thick neck. “It won’t harm you.”
Billy shook his head once more, and managed to take a step back. The door was flush against his back.
Now Death was gazing at him like he had the word LOSER written on his forehead. In a soft, cold voice, Death said, “What frightens thee, William Ballard?”
Billy thought once more of the Ice-Cream Man’s giant horse, screamingly white and yet somehow dirty, just like the Ice-Cream Man himself, and he heard the Ice-Cream Man tell him that he’s got something to show Billy…
No!
Shuddering, he looked away. No, he wasn’t thinking about the man in white. He wasn’t. That was a nightmare and nothing more.
“Even nightmares have elements of truth,” Death murmured.
Billy shivered again, and this time his voice didn’t fail him as he faced the Pale Rider. “I’m not riding a horse.”
It was a pivotal moment: Billy Ballard, the most bullied kid in school, had chosen to stand his ground. It wasn’t because he thought he could win. He’d reached his breaking point. Death could kill him, and that didn’t matter. There was no way that Billy was getting on that horse. Period.
Silence echoed as Death stared at him, considered him. Judged him. At last, the Pale Rider grinned. “No worries,” he said. “We’ll go the pop culture route instead.”
The horse snorted.
“Don’t be grumpy,” Death chided.
The pale steed snorted again, and then it wasn’t a horse at all but a yellow car, its engine already running. It looked like the love child of a Volkswagen Beetle and a Delorean. Death, in the driver’s seat, leaned his blond head out the window and said, “Well?”
Billy, stunned, said, “Your horse is a Transformer.”
“Technically, a transmogrifier. But hey, whatever floats your boat. Get in.”
Billy got in, pausing only to take in the name on the vanity plate. As he fastened his seat belt—which was purely habitual, because really, was he going to die when Death was driving?—he asked, “Um. What’s ‘Mortis Prime’?”
Death smiled, sighed, and said, “Dude, you’ve got to read the classics.” And with that, he hit the gas.
The Joy of Books!
By Dame Toni
I don’t have television.
That’s not to say I don’t have a television–as it happens, I have two. I just don’t currently have a way to watch them.
Since those darned publishers expect me to actually write the book before they pay me for it, and I still have a hundred or so pages to go, I find myself with what is euphemistically called “a temporary cash flow issue.” So, I am doing without a few things that are not absolutely necessary. And, in my house, when it comes down to a choice between premium cable and premium cat food, Simon and Sandy outvote me two to one.
I figured, “How bad could it be?” I turned off the cable.
I know many authors who claim not even to own a television, or to watch it so rarely that they are completely unaware of what’s on. But when you start a discussion about the effective use of morally ambiguous characters, sexual tension or sparkling dialog, they will happily jump in with examples from Breaking Bad, Castle and Harry’s Law.
I admit it – I love television. I’m from the first generation whose mothers gratefully used the TV as a pacifier. I found an old, grainy picture of me, circa 1960, propped in a walker in front of one of those tiny-tube-in-a-huge-box models, with the only light in the room coming from the television and its reflection on my face. My rapt expression is just short of hypnosis. Maybe not short.
But, until the last year or so, it was something I watched when it was convenient. I would rather be out and about and, if that meant I missed an episode of my favorite show, so what? With a couple of exceptions, I could not have told you which show was on which night. Then, something happened. I started looking forward to Thursday so that I could see (my fiancé) Simon Baker on The Mentalist. I planned Sunday evenings around The Walking Dead.
I got a real wake-up call when a question on a consumer survey asked me how many hours a week I spent watching television, and I really sat down to figure it out. I had a hard time making myself check the accurate box, even knowing the anonymous results counters would not know who I was, or give a fig if they did.
So I felt kind of virtuous about turning off the cable. It would be good for me. I’d have more time to read. I’d have more time to write.
And, after a period of adjustment, it worked.
Not so much for the writing–the number of hours I write a day has never been influenced by television. If I’m on a roll, I don’t stop for Grey’s Anatomy. If I’m not on a roll, I’ll take any excuse, up to and including cleaning the cat box, to stop.
As for the reading…total success. I am working my way through the NINE novels I agreed to judge for the Rita Awards and have finally made it past the sixth installment of The Wheel of Time (I had to start over at the beginning to avoid confusion. I mean, just how many characters can one series have?).
I am apparently the last Urban Fantasy author in the world who had not read The Hunger Games, and now I know why everyone is so excited about the upcoming movie.
I throw out magazines AFTER actually reading them. That backed-up stack of my friends’ books that I haven’t had time for no longer seems like the impossible dream.
Once my advance check comes, will I turn the cable back on? Probably. Oh, who I am kidding—DEFINITELY. But I don’t plan on ever having to check that embarrassing box on the consumer surveys again!
Three “A-ha” Moments
“Aha” Moment #1:
And, no, I don't mean the 80's band.
I heard a parable the other day.
The Devil decided to have a garage sale. He had a huge spread of curiosities and collectibles for sale, including lots and lots of tools.One of the browsers noticed that there was one tool that, rather than being displayed with the others, had been set off in a corner. He pointed to the item and asked the devil, “How much for that one?”
“That one’s not for sale,” the Devil replied.
“Why not?” asked the customer.
“Because it’s the most powerful tool I own,” the Devil replied. “I can do without the others, but that one I will never sell.”
“Really?” asked the customer, his curiosity buzzing. “What is it?”
“That,” the Devil replied, “Is discouragement.”
“Aha” moment #2
A few days later I was doing some reading and came across the following quote:
You can succeed at Almost anything for which you have limitless enthusiasm. The world belongs to the enthusiastic…Some people freeze in winter; others ski.
- John Mason
Aha moment #3. 
This morning, I was asked to do an exercise during which I wrote down a list of things that make me truly happy, and I included, “When I’m writing and get so caught up that I forget my surroundings and lose track of time.”
Together, these three “aha” moments combined to give me a simple resolution for 2013.
EVERY DAY, REMEMBER HOW MUCH I LOVE TO WRITE.
Thanks, Universe. I needed that.
Ask A Published Author
By Dame Toni
It’s my day to post, and my schedule has decided to bite me in the you-know-what. I only have a few minutes here and there to stop by – no time to write a full article. BUT, I can drop in from time to time and answer questions. So…
I’m the President of a local writer’s organization, and at each meeting we have a feature called “Ask a Published Author.” No question is too silly or naive, and we will admit when we don’t know the answers to the hard ones.
Ask me anything you want about writing or the publishing industry and I drop in and out over today and the rest of the weekend and do my best to answer.
I’m looking forward to seeing your questions….
Dame Toni
Bye-bye, Borders
By Dame Toni:
So it’s going to be ninety-something today in Connecticut. And I don’t have air conditioning, in my home, or in my car.
This is not as horrible as it sounds – I live about eight feet from a lovely spring-fed lake that, even though it is summer warm, is still in the 70’s and very refreshing. The problem is, although I have a number of wonderful examples of modern technology surrounding me, none of them works underwater (although I have been known to put my AlphaSmart in a big Ziploc baggie and take it kayaking).
Luckily, we only get a few days of the “Triple-H” (hot, hazy, and humid) weather each summer, but they always seem to fall on days when I am running behind on a deadline. I could go somewhere cool and write, I suppose. To get there I will have to get into the sauna on wheels that is my Toyota Corolla. But, it might be worth it, even if I do have to stand in front of an air conditioning vent for twenty minutes after arriving at my destination before getting down to business.
So, I took a look online to see what one of my local writers’ groups is up to today. This particular group is about 75% women who have teenagers at home, still young enough to entirely disrupt Mom’s attempts at writing, but old enough to be left without supervision. They get together at various bookstores and coffee shops, plug in their laptops and iPads, and work as a group. I’ve found this to be productive in the past, so I thought I’d see where they are working today.
Alas, they are looking for a home. Because normally, they would be at their regular table at Borders. And it’s closing. Today. (The café staff offered to help them steal the table on their last visit.)
What does this mean for writers? Will print runs get smaller? Will less people buy books? Is this a herald of the apocalypse?
My plan to move into a Borders store after the apocalypse may require some revision.
A lot of people who know a whole lot more about the industry than I do have chimed in on this. Some forecast gloom and doom, while others predict the resuscitation of the indie bookstore, since some people will always prefer to browse the shelves.
I don’t know which predictions will turn out to be right, but I know I’m sad to see Borders go. I remember when the first Borders opened near my home in California. It was an easy detour on my way home from work, and I made that detour a lot, as my credit card bills from that era will attest.
Then, when I was living in Miami, a huge chunk of my first novel was written in the café at the South Miami Borders near my office, where I spent most lunch hours pounding away at my keyboard.
My first book signing was at Borders.
I think I’ll just find a shady spot and work on my iPad between swims. Maybe tomorrow (supposedly even hotter) I’ll go somewhere else to write. But today, it just doesn’t feel respectful.
If you have a Borders memory you’d like to share, leave a comment. I’d love to see how other people feel about this event.
