Nuts?

The book is out. My faithful and wonderful family and friends are buying and reading. I had some concerns about this stage of the game. We writers are an odd lot - and I use the plural because I refuse to believe that I am alone in my neuroses. We obsess over getting the book finished, then over whether it's been tweaked enough to be sent out. Will anyone like it? Will anyone buy it? Lo and behold, an agent or editor picks up the book. A contract is signed. Much rejoicing ensues. Lots of magic (aka: hard work) happens betwixt contract signing and release day, some of it even performed by the author. As release day approaches, the same questions hound the writer, again. Will anyone buy it? Will anyone like it? The book comes out. People buy it. Lots of them, people you know. It's touching that your friends and relations want to participate in this massive event in your writing life.

This is where interesting stuff starts happening. A sister says, "It's really, really good! I was surprised!" A couple of friends confess they've never really liked science fiction, but they'll give it a try - so far they say they've been pleasantly surprised. The ones that have been hardest? The friends who don't care for romance novels. At all. They, as a group, have approached Enemy Within with the most trepidation. I've tried to assure everyone I know who's been kind enough to buy the book that it's perfectly okay to say, "wow, not for me."

Thus we come to my culinary tie-in for this week. Books are like walnuts in chocolate chip cookies. You either love 'em, are neutral on 'em or loathe 'em. There's no value judgement, unless you hate nuts in cookies, while your father loves nuts in cookies, so you lose and Mom makes the cookies with nuts. That *might* have been a value judgement. It's also possible that I took that sort of thing personally as a kid. Back to the book thing. My point, before traipsing through painful, walnut-infested memory, is that I've tried to assure my friends that I won't take it personally if they dislike my book - because Oprah books? SO not for me. I don't need help being cynical or depressive, thanks. I am humbled and grateful that anyone is willing to take a risk reading something they wouldn't normally. Like it? I'm thrilled. Discover it isn't for you? No problem! Thanks for giving me a few hours of your life!

Still. I'd like to note for the record: I'd rather be a chocolate chip than a walnut. Just saying.

All Grown Up

Here it is. Enemy Within is on bookstore shelves...at least it is until my dear and amazing friends find it. I've had a report from Erin that a downtown Seattle bookstore had seven copies of the book yesterday. They were down to one copy today. Louie, on the East Coast, went to three different bookstores before he found a copy. In one of the stores, he may have made a few forceful and colorful suggestions about the store getting the book into stock when they told him they had no intention of ordering any. Feedback so far has been kind. One of my Feline-L friends tried to put the book down at chapter seven last night so she could go to bed. She sent another email at midnight her time saying she was on chapter twelve.  Sure, the book has had a few so-so reviews. Goes with the territory. No one author can be all things to all people. What it does mean, however, is that Enemy Within is now legal - all grown up, and out there in the world. And yes. That's me holding said book and looking...glassy-eyed. I won't lie. This has been so much fun. But I am very tired. I'd like to climb back into geeky writer role and do nothing but pile up page count for a few days. And maybe vacuum up the crunchy fallen leaves one of the cats insists on dragging into the house for her amusement.

One final bit of amazing news. Enemy Within was nominated for best futuristic romance in the Romantic Times Book Reviews 2010 Awards. Here's the list of nominees: CLOSE CONTACT by Katherine Allred, ENEMY WITHIN by Marcella Burnard, MIDNIGHT CRYSTAL by Jayne Castle, REBELS AND LOVERS by Linnea Sinclair, BEYOND THE NIGHT by Joss Ware.  Some of my favorite authors are in this list and it's an incredible, geeky thrill to be nominated alongside them. Congratulations to each of the nominees.

Release Day!

Marty

 It's here! These are the first photos of people with the Real Live book! Marty stayed up until midnight her time in order to download a copy from the Apple Book Store. Her's was the first shot I received. Next in was a shot from Karin.



Karin



Diana was next . Point for getting Kismet in the shot.  Then Lizz provided the first photo of the paperback version of the book. That's Winston posing so graciously beside the book.  I'm collecting photos of the book 'in the wild' and posting them to my Launch Party Facebook event. Many of them will also end up here. One Friday, I'll pool all the names of the people who've sent photos and do a drawing for a tee shirt with the book cover on it (give me your name and location - just state or country is fine, email, too, if you'd like to be entered in the tee shirt drawing)



Diana and Kismet







Winston