what Dames are reading
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!
Something new…
When it was suggested we start a new feature here at the Dames, I volunteered straight away to be chief organizer. Why? Basically, I’m brain dead at the moment, and it saves me having to actually think about a blog topic once a month.
And the new feature is….. what we Dames are currently reading. Once a month, I’ll list the books that have snagged our attention, be they fiction or not (with blurbs, links, and the occasional side comment), just so you can see how varied Dame reading choices are!
Dame Jackie – Currently reading GHOST STORY by Jim Butcher. So worth the wait!
When we last left the mighty wizard detective Harry Dresden, he wasn’t doing well. In fact, he had been murdered by an unknown assassin. But being dead doesn’t stop him when his friends are in danger. Except now he has nobody, and no magic to help him. And there are also several dark spirits roaming the Chicago shadows who owe Harry some payback of their own.
To save his friends-and his own soul-Harry will have to pull off the ultimate trick without any magic…
Dame Devon – Just cracked open THE IRON DUKE by Meljean Brook. Looking forward to it!
After the Iron Duke freed England from Horde control, he instantly became a national hero. Now Rhys Trahaearn has built a merchant empire on the power-and fear-of his name. And when a dead body is dropped from an airship onto his doorstep, bringing Detective Inspector Mina Wentworth into his dangerous world, he intends to make her his next possession.
But when Mina uncovers the victim’s identity, she stumbles upon a conspiracy that threatens the lives of everyone in England. To save them, Mina and Rhys must race across zombie-infested wastelands and treacherous oceans-and Mina discovers the danger is not only to her countrymen, as she finds herself tempted to give up everything to the Iron Duke.
Dame Jenna – I just finished THE MARBURY LENS by Andrew Smith. Easily the darkest YA I’ve ever read, but completely riveting.
Sixteen-year-old Jack gets drunk and is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is kidnapped. He escapes, narrowly. The only person he tells is his best friend, Conner. When they arrive in London as planned for summer break, a stranger hands Jack a pair of glasses. Through the lenses, he sees another world called Marbury.
There is war in Marbury. It is a desolate and murderous place where Jack is responsible for the survival of two younger boys. Conner is there, too. But he’s trying to kill them.
Meanwhile, Jack is falling in love with an English girl, and afraid he’s losing his mind.
Conner tells Jack it’s going to be okay. But it’s not.
Dame Rachel – I’m currently reading The DEMON”S LEXICON, by Sarah Rees Brennan. But I’ve been reading it for a while now. I’m planning to finish it and do a total reading binge when I finish this rough draft.
Nick and his brother, Alan, have spent their lives on the run from magic. Their father was murdered, and their mother was driven mad by magicians and the demons who give them power. The magicians are hunting the Ryves family for a charm that Nick’s mother stole — a charm that keeps her alive — and they want it badly enough to kill again.
Danger draws even closer when a brother and sister come to the Ryves family for help. The boy wears a demon’s mark, a sign of death that almost nothing can erase…and when Alan also gets marked by a demon, Nick is desperate to save him. The only way to do that is to kill one of the magicians they have been hiding from for so long.
Ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse, Nick starts to suspect that his brother is telling him lie after lie about their past. As the magicians’ Circle closes in on their family, Nick uncovers the secret that could destroy them all.
Dame Rinda – I’m reading RED-HEADED STEPCHILD by Jaye Wells.
In a world where being of mixed-blood is a major liability, Sabina doesn’t really fit in. And being an assassin – the only profession fit for an outcast – doesn’t help matters. But she’s never brought her work home. Until now.
Her latest mission is uncomfortably complex, and threatens the fragile peace between the vampire and mage races. As Sabina scrambles to figure out which side she’s on, she uncovers a tangled political web, some nasty facts about her family and some unexpected new talents. Any of these things could be worryingly life-changing, but together, they could be fatal…
Dame Toni – I’m reading THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett (which is BRILLIANT, btw)
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
Dame Keri –BURN THE FAT, FEED THE MUSCLE by Tom Venuto (I’ve been subscribed to his newsletter for a while now, and he’s actually one of the few out there who makes a whole lot of sense. So I’m now reading his book, because I want to lose the last 10 kilos!)
Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is a fat loss program that focuses heavily on retaining lean muscle tissue to retain the shape and form that men and women tend to aim for while burning the fat off. The process then leaves the sought after toned / athletic build underneath the fat loss.
The Burn The Fat system isn’t a quick fix. It it’s not designed to drop 20lbs in 20 days , if you’re searching for a quick fix/ holiday coming up , type solution, you won’t find what you’re looking for with Burn The Fat – Feed The Muscle. Throughout the manuals 300 pages it’s clear the author has no interest in the “quick fix” type market.
The books focus is on re-training how people think about food and exercising. The manual focuses on assisting people into making a mental commitment to change their poor dietary habits, to eat in a way that’s sustainable permanently, not just for a few weeks.
