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Spirit of the Century & ME!
So loads of you know that my friends, Evil Hat Productions (the good people who brought you the Dresden Files RPG) have also got an award-winning pulp fiction RPG called SPIRIT OF THE CENTURY. I mentioned their Kickstarter for their new fiction line a couple days ago. They’ve blown past the goals that will get subscribers the entire DINOCALYPSE trilogy by Chuck Wendig, and now they’re gonna go for The Big Stretch.
If they hit $15,000, they’ll be producing a stand-alone SotC pulp fiction novel by Atomic Robo creator Brian Clevinger. Brian will be writing about Benjamin Hu–think Sherlock Holmes from Hong Kong, running around like Indiana Jones as an olympic-class fencer.
And if they hit $20,000, I get to write the next one.
My character is Amelia Stone, the Spirit of Justice! She’s tough as nails, lives by her fists and her wits, and is so full of pulpy goodness I could squee. I’ve been desperately wanting to try my hand at crazy in-your-face no-holds-barred no-apologies-given pulp since I started reading the ERB Mars books, and this opportunity was too awesome to pass up. I cannot *wait* to give this a shot, and, well you guys aren’t going to let me down, right? You’re, er, going to go forth and, er, make me write another novel this year, right? You’re, um…
…I’ve done it to myself again, haven’t I. :)
No, really, I actually have the time to do this and I’m tremendously excited about the chance, so please! Go forth and help make it happen! There are loads of awesome rewards and exciting potential, and this is a crazy fun chance for me to do something I will probably never have another opportunity to do, so, um, I’m gonna be over here in the corner holding my breath while we wait to see what happens.
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A good day. O.O
Okay. So there’s the Chance announcement.
Then there’s news from my editor at Del Rey: THE QUEEN’S BASTARD has gone back to press for a fourth printing.
And then to ice the cake, it is my utter delight to announce that Del Rey has bought two more books from me: TRUTHSEEKER, a paranormal romance, and an untitled sequel, for mass market paperback release (probably) in 2010.
I believe this might just be a banner day.
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at long, long last…
Ladies and gentlemen, I am *exceedingly* pleased to announce, at long, long last, the official launch date of my comic book, “Take A Chance”.
Dabel Brothers Publishing, in conjunction with artist Ardian Syaf (“The Dresden Files”), colorist Jason Embury (“Hero By Night”, “Shadowhawk”), letterer Melissa S. Kaercher (“Dr. Blink, Superhero Shrink”), cover artist Scott Clark (“X-Men”, “Stormwatch”), and writer C.E. Murphy (“The Walker Papers”, “The Negotiator Trilogy”) bring you “Take A Chance”, a superhero comic series about Frankie Kemp, aka “Chance”, a woman who loses her son to gang violence and turns vigilante to save other children.
*Those of you who’ve been reading for a while know that “Take A Chance” is a pet project of mine that I’ve been working on for over five years, mostly for love of the game. Seeing it realized is one of the most mind-blowing things I’ve ever done. I’ve had the good fortune to work with some incredibly talented people over the last few years, and I very literally wouldn’t have been able to do this without them. I owe all of you guys–Ardian, Jason, Melissa, and Scott, as well as the Dabels and my agent–a huge debt of thanks.
Back when I started this, I said that if I ever got Chance published, that I’d turn first issue into a fundraiser for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Now I’m putting my money where my mouth is.
50% of any proceeds I make (after paying my phenomenal team what they deserve) from the first issue of Chance will go to the CBLDF. The remaining money will be turned back over into producing further issues of the comic book. When the first six are collected into trade format, 10% of my proceeds on that will also go to the CBLDF, which means at the end of the day, I’m making no profit at all on that issue. I would dearly love to see the CBLDF profit enormously, though, so I hope you’ll spread the word.
Issue #1 of “Take A Chance” will be out in December 2008. It’s in this week’s Previews and available for pre-orders. I’ll get an order form with all the relevant details already filled in so you can just print it out, but please do talk to your comic shop owners, your friends, even your big box stores, who might be convinced to carry an independent monthly comic if there’s enough interest shown in it.
A very large version of the Previews ad (complete with a typo I hope didn’t make it into the actual ad) behind the cut:
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I AM DONE!
I have just wrapped up CAULDRON BORNE (or whatever it’s going to be called) at an unusually short 103,000 words. This is the first time I’ve ever had a book come in short (the Walker Papers are supposed to be 110K), but it’ll no doubt grow a bit in revisions, and perhaps it coming in a little short makes up for PRETENDER’S CROWN being 180K. :)
This means I am *officially* done with the last four years of Insane Writing Schedule. My next book is not due until JUNE 2009. I am DONE DONE DONE DONE *DONE*.
…and you should see my list of potential projects. o.o
No. *No*. I have a few revisions to do to CB before I turn it in. I need to write the proposal for THE IMPERATOR’S HEIR over the next couple of weeks. But before I do ANYTHING ELSE I am going to read all the books on my TBR shelf. And I am going to SWIM. I have been watching Olympic swimmers. I lust in my heart for their form. I shall swim and swim and look like them when I am in the water. It will be lovely. Did I mention that I will READ? And I will go to MeCon and to London and I will READ, and I will eventually write the sixth Chance script, but I am going to READ. And writhe around in NOT WRITING.
It will be *good*.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
ZOMG. Done. Can’t believe it! ZOMG!
SQUEEEEE!
ytd wordcount: 308,600
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early morning blog entry
This is my early morning “warm up the fingers before I start the real writing” blog entry, where “early morning” means about 9:30, which really isn’t very early at all. And it won’t be posted until sometime tonight when I go over to my parents’ house to use their internets. Not the point. *squinchy face*
It boggles my little mind in a turrible way that today is the first of July, and the second half of the year has begun. It’s been an extremely chaotic half-year, and I wouldn’t mind it one bit at all if the second half settled down some.
To that end, let’s see what I’ve got on my plate:
– finish writing CAULDRON BORNE
– write a proposal for THE IMPERATOR’S HEIR (asap)
– finish my “From Russia, With Love” revisions (asap)
– go to ComicCon*
– launch Chance
– hopefully sell & write THE IMPERATOR’S HEIR
– get the next six Chance issues written
– go to MeCon
– go to the Nickelback concert :)
– go to London for a book signing
– go to Octocon
– go to South Carolina to be a teacher how to write
– hopefully go to WFC in CalgaryOh yes. That looks *much* less frenetic, doesn’t it? *rolls eyes*
While we were unpacking, I discovered pair after pair of cute pants which totally don’t fit me because I re-gained 25 pounds. It is a new month. It is a new house. It is a new town. It is my proclamation that I’m going to stop eating so much damned junk food (which really is my downfall: I love sweets, sigh) and get back into all those skinny pants. There’s a yoga class tonight. I’m going to go to that. So mote it be.
Today I need to write 4431 words, which will get me to 50K on this book.
Here I go.
(and, at the end of the day when i’m actually posting this…)
I only actually wrote about 3K, which isn’t enough, but, well, *shrug*, it’s what I wrote. I’ll try to make up the other 500 words tomorrow. We’ll see. I *did* go to the yoga class, which was invigorating, and…
…and I just got notification that TAKE A CHANCE should be in the July Previews at the end of the month for a September release. ZOMG. This might really be happening.
*If you’re going to ComicCon yourself, and we have not made arrangements to meet, please email me at cemurphyauthor@gmail.com so we can!
miles to Isengard: 61.9
ytd wordcount: 249,900