Covers, Lovely Covers
I’m going to blame this post on Pinterest. If you haven’t tried this cool site, might I suggest you give it a click? Basically, it’s a place to share all the neat stuff you see online, from DIY arts, crafts, architecture, photography, recipes, fashion, and more.
I’ve just started posting a few things there (like my knitting, and some photos that I used as inspiration when I was writing TIN SWIFT) and I hope to continue making “boards” (kind of like photo albums) of the things that catch my eye.
So other than knitting and writing inspirations and recipes and books I love and other cool stuff, I also want to make one board that has all my book covers on it. To make them look nice, I need a decent resolution on the covers. I suddenly realized the resolution of my covers are sort of hit-and-miss, even here on my own blog. (the horror!)
Therefore, I’m posting my book covers, so I can link to them on Pinterest. I know that sounds kind of silly, but well…there it is, lol.
And hey–if you’re on Pinterest, let me know, and I’ll totally follow you! But, you know, not in a creepy stalker kind of way….unless you like that sort of thing. 
Edited to add: Click here to follow me on Pinterest.
Excerpt Wednesday: Magic Without Mercy
Wow! That week went by quickly. I’m happy to say I finished the copy edits on TIN SWIFT and sent them in last night, beating the deadline by several hours. 
TIN SWIFT (which comes out in July) seems to have shaped up into a pretty fun book, a statement my editor and beta readers agree with me on. (whew!)
BUT today is Wednesday, and Wednesday means an excerpt from MAGIC WITHOUT MERCY, which comes out April 3rd. Here’s a super-quick clip:
Excerpt: MAGIC WITHOUT MERCY
Zay parked the car and we sat there for a bit.
“Plan?” Shame asked. “Storm the castle?”
“Walk in nice and slow,” Zayvion said. “Maybe buy a cup of coffee.”
“I’d kill for a cup of coffee,” I said.
“What, like use a gun on someone? The horror.” Shame swung out of the car.
“Maybe I’ll start with him,” I mused.
“You’d have to get behind me,” Zayvion said.
I promise the excerpt will be longer next Wednesday!
A Wildflower Wish
I suddenly realized it’s been over a year since I’ve gone to my local library. To be fair, last year was very, very busy for me, and my “free time” was usually the hour between 12:00-1:00 am (my mornings started at 6:00 am). So, yeah, not a lot of extra time to do stuff.
This year, I’ve been trying to better schedule my days. Work will always keep me busy (hope, hope!) and that’s as it should be. But I want to have a little “living” time too, and I’m doing what I can to see that it happens.
For one thing, I will be attending Emerald City Comic Con at the end of March. I’ve been meaning to go for years, but I’m actually going to do it this year! I’m going just to have fun and see what a comic con is all about. I’ll try to take plenty of pictures.
I know I’m not the only one who forgets to make time to do the things I love. Are you like that too? When was the last time you went to the library (assuming you love going to the library)? Or took a day trip? When was the last time you picked up some hobby you’d set aside and thought, “oh, right. NOW I remember why I loved doing this so much”? Or tuned into your favorite show, or took a walk in a park?
If it’s been awhile, well, I’m sending you a little wish in hope that you can do a fun little thing again soon. Life goes by pretty quickly. I wouldn’t want any of us to miss out on smelling the wildflowers* growing by the road.
*unless, of course, we’re allergic to them. In that case, we will just admire them from afar.
Excerpt Wednesday
First, a hearty “thank you!” to readers who pointed out that the Allie Beckstrom books had incorrect dates on Amazon (and were therefore un-orderable). I am happy to say my awesome publisher, Roc, fixed that the glitch, and the books are once again back in their own time zones (and orderable!)
Since MAGIC WITHOUT MERCY will be out in just over seven weeks, I thought it might be fun to start posting snippets. This is a tricky book to pull excerpts from without going all spoilery everywhere, since it’s the second-to-last book in the series, but I shall try my best.
Let’s start things off with something light:
Excerpt: MAGIC WITHOUT MERCY
Shame strolled in with a shoe box. “Here we are.”
“You put them in a shoe box?” Maeve asked. “Shamus, these are invaluable. Heirlooms.”
“Which is why I stuck them in a shoe box. Safekeeping.”
He placed the box on the coffee table and lifted the lid. The soft scent of roses filled the room.
“I didn’t know you’d kept these, Maeve,” Victor said. “Hugh did fine work.”
“Yes, he did,” she said wistfully. “But as you can see, I didn’t keep them. Shamus did. So then, do they still work?”
“I think so.” Shame reached into the box and pulled out a long string with square black metal beads strung on it. “We have enough for”—he quickly counted—“six of us. So one of us will go without and buddy up. Draw straws?”
“Let’s see if they work first,” Hayden said.
Shame unstrung the beads and handed each person twelve beads and a silver bracelet with a channel carved into it so that the beads could slide into the channel.
Everyone got busy slipping the beads, apparently in a specific order, into their bracelet. Shame looked at Zayvion and me. “Which of you wants to wear it?”
“Allie,” Zayvion said quickly.
“No,” I said, “not Allie. If it’s got magic in it, I’ll probably break out in a rash or worse. And even if it doesn’t, I have no idea how it works. Is it like a phone?”
“Not at all,” Shame said with a grin.
“It’s a code,” Zayvion said. He stepped over so that he was right in front of me, head bent, the bracelet he was threading the beads into between us. “The beads represent numbers and the numbers represent letters or sentences in a book.”
“What book?” I asked.
“Winnie-the-Pooh.”
“And you’re not joking,” I said.
His lips quirked into a smile. “This isn’t magic, Allie. This is a little trick Shame’s dad put together when Shame was a kid. They actually run on batteries.” He tipped the bracelet so I could see the inside of the band where a little watch battery was inserted. “And the signal is on a frequency that gets boosted by magic. If you can recite Winnie-the-Pooh, you can decipher the coded messages sent and received.”
“Can you recite Winnie-the-Pooh?”
“In my sleep.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “You know I’ll find every way possible to tease you about that, right?”
“I have no doubt.”
Three Gifts
Rinda Elliott (awesome writer and fellow Deadline Dame) mentioned she’d love a pair of fingerless gloves some day. I told her since I knit for fun, I’d be happy to make her a pair.
I finally finished them! (It may have taken me over a year to knit these in my snippets of free time. Thank goodness Rinda was willing to be patient!) I ended up making three pairs, because I was worried the wool in the first two pairs would be too scratchy. The last pair are super soft.
Rinda just got the gloves today (and says she loves them! Yay!) which means I can share photos. Links to the patterns are also included.
Rasen by Izumi Ouchi
Pattern in Fibertarian (Japanese)
Helix by Kira K Designs
Fire and Ice by Roz Marcotte
The whole kit and kaboodle:
What do you think? Pretty good patterns? I like the green pair (Helix) so much, I might knit myself a set someday. You know. In my free time.
