FINALLY my website is back up! And so, just in case anybody missed it:
I’ve sold two books to Harlequin’s new action-adventure romance line, Bombshell! The first one will be out in late 2005, the second in spring 2006.
So, the story of it all: what I didn’t say in my Friday posting was that when Matrice called, she mentioned that she’d read the Bombshell proposal, people had passed it around and were excited about it, and that she had a call in to Jenn about it.
Obviously, I spent the whole weekend on tenterhooks. :) I mean, I couldn’t think of anything *else* other than “We’re going to make an offer” that what she said might mean, but who knows! Publishers work in mysterious ways! So every time the phone rang on Monday I was like, “EEE! Is it JENN!? Did my AGENT CALL?”* But it was not. Sniffle. Especially sniffle ’cause she’d said on her LJ that she’d had a deal go through, and a couple more ready to pop!
Tuesday morning, though, there was email from Jenn saying to call, and so I did, and lo! Matrice had called and they’d made an offer on two Bombshells! (Furthermore, apparently my offer wasn’t one of the ones she’d been expecting to pop: the first thing she said to me was, “I think God’s decided I’m going to have a good week.” :))
I proposed a timeline, got feedback, we nailed it down, and look! A book deal! The first book, currently titled OPERATION: CARDINAL, is due March 1; the second (OPERATION: FIREBIRD) is due July 1. I have a goal of writing the third, as yet unpurchased book, OPERATION: PHOENIX, while I’m at it. We’ll see. :)
These’ll be my first books written under another name, Cate Dermody, which was my grandmother’s maiden name. Given that I’m at the beginning of my career here, I don’t lose anything financially by writing under a new name, and it gives me an opportunity to create some brands: I want to develop the Cate Dermody name as an action-adventure/suspense/romance name, so people will know what they’re getting when they pick up a book with that name on the cover, as they’ll know it’s a fantasy when they pick up a C.E. Murphy book, or a young adult novel if they pick up a Catie Murphy book. That’s the goal here. (Now if Tor would buy Angles!)
The story concept for the series (again, if you missed it somehow) is that Alisha McAleer, CIA agent, writes a private, quasi-legal personal journal of her missions before doing her official CIA report. She takes the journal to a bank in whatever city she’s in, opens a safety-deposit box under her current alias, and leaves the manuscript there. The series, called “The Strongbox Chronicles”, tells some of Alisha’s adventures as she wrote and experienced them; later books will be chronicles about and left by Alisha’s protégés.
And I am *totally* looking forward to writing them. :)
So. Writing schedule for the next, erm. Several months. :)
BANSHEE CRIES: finish up my edits by Sunday (due Jan. 15)
THUNDERBIRD FALLS: finish revisions by Dec. 1 (due April 15)
HEART OF STONE: do MAW and mony’s edits ASAP (sheesh)
OPERATION: CARDINAL: Dec. 2004/Jan. 2005 (due March 1)
OPERATION: FIREBIRD: rough draft Feb/March 2005 (due July 1)
OPERATION: PHOENIX: rough draft April/May 2005?
COYOTE DREAMS: proposal due June 1; book due March 1, 2006
(Goodness.)
Hey! I wasn’t the -only- one in our family who came in the door and asked “Did my agent call?” My remembery of it is that every single one of us did, with the exception of Grandpa. AND I wasn’t the only one without an agent, either. So there!
Yes, but you started it! :)
The funny part for me in this story is that I had left a message for Mary-Theresa on Thursday about something entirely different, and then we played phone tag Friday and Monday. So, I honestly didn’t know until Tuesday that *she* had a reason to call me.
Can’t wait to read the books – congratulations!
Hooray for Catie! My plans to dominate the publishing world through the vast talents of my friends moves apace!
Crap. Was that my outside voice?
YAY!!!!! Holy crap, you’re awesome! Mary Anne and I were doing a happy dance in the bead store, which seemed to confuse the other folks shopping there quite a lot.
Is this multi-naming/multi-branding thing something you cooked up on your own, or did you run it by anyone in the industry (such as your dutiful agent) beforehand?
I’m just thinking of the extra effort that goes into forming and promoting three brands… and the possibly impaired name recognition that goes with being three people.
*laughs at Jenn*! Well, what an excellent surprise for you! :)
mony–yes, that was your outside voice. :)
Robert–I didn’t discuss it per se with my agent, although the topic’s come up in the past. But it’s not particularly unusual behavior, and it’s basically been my plan all along. The different names I’ll be writing under are all aimed at different genres, so there’s not so much worry about the name recognition. Everything will be copyrighted under C.E. Murphy (unless it’s under Catherine Murphy, I can’t remember), and all the domain names I register will redirect to cemurphy.net. I’m not too worried about the transparency aspect; people will learn the different names, if they like my stuff enough to read across genres. :)
*If* the like your stuff enough to read across genres? *If*? Don’t you mean when? :)
I think the multi-name thing is a good idea. Plenty of people who do it do just fine, and those who don’t have the annoyance of having lazy bookstores shelving all their books together, usually under the least generally applicable heading, where the genre fans won’t find them.
shelving all their books together, usually under the least generally applicable heading, where the genre fans won’t find them
That is a great deal of my thought process, too. I’ve watched a whole bunch of my Luna author friends get shelved under romance because that’s where they’re coming from, rather than under sf/f where the Luna books ought to be. And because category line romance (like Bombshell) comes out a lot faster than … er. Anything else, pretty much. :) I don’t particularly want to get C.E. Murphy associated with romance and thus shelved there, when those books are fantasies.