Pretty new covers from my UK publishers, for the paperbacks available the end of June. (And thanks to all my friends at Facebook who tried to help me with converting to jpeg: it takes a village to raise a blog post!)
St Louis, Denver, & New York (Times)
Since Thursday, I’ve been in St Louis for BoucherCon, the World Mystery Conference, along with 1600 or so other writers, editors, publicists, future writers, and just plain fans. BoucherCon is a mixed conference, as much for fans as for people looking to learn something about the craft and the industry, and it’s often the only time of the year I see those friends that I met at…yes, BoucherCon.
This means that any thought I may have had of catching up on the sleep lost during the book tour went down the tubes the first night, when a party kept me awake until nearly midnight and a breakfast got me up before 6. And so it goes.
But it’s worth it, every minute. I’ve had a chance to catch up with a bunch of friends, had a very productive conversation with my editor and Les Klinger about A Study in Sherlock—and about a second volume for 2012, Another Study in Sherlock. I also had a one-on-one breakfast conversation with said editor about everything under the publishing sun, from sick puppies (okay, that was a little peripheral to the publishing world) to ebooks to my unusually strong (considering the market, which is generally down dramatically from 2010) hardback numbers. Sometime between coffee and the last crumbs, she came up with an entirely new project she thought would be good for me to do, which I promised to think about—after I get home!
And I got to meet new people. Colin Cotterill, with whom I’ve worked over the past year since he’s in the anthology, and who is a funny and thoughtful panelist. I met a quartet of authors over dinner: Carla Buckley, Chevy Stevens, Stephanie Pintoff, and Amanda Kyle Williams, a new writer whom I was glad to chat with a second time in the bar last night. Good people, all. Another new author, Taylor Stevens (no relation to Chevy, I don’t think) who wrote a thriller called The Informationist that’s getting a whole lot of buzz here, and which I’ve ordered already from my bookstore. Then, dinner with Les, two good Sherlockian friends, and writers SJ Rozan, Dana Cameron, and Harley Jane Kozak. I bought champagne for all, to celebrate being
#7 on the NYT list,
and Dana went on to win the short story Anthony award at today’s awards banquet, so a good time was had by all.
I’m up in my room at the moment, but I’ll return to the lobby in a while to participate in the gauntlet of leaving authors. I don’t leave until the morning, so this afternoon I plan on spending with the manuscript of the next book, half of which I dutifully brought with me, and haven’t so much as glanced at it.
Or maybe I’ll have a long nap…
Tomorrow is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and to celebrate I’ll be at Denver’s Tattered Cover. If you live in that part of the world, please dust off your three-corner hat and swashbuckle yourself down to the bookstore to join the party—I’ll be drawing a name for the Grand Prize, someone who has donated to the 826 Valencia page and who will be allowed to name a character (human, canine, or feline) in the next book. If you haven’t donated yet, or if you’d like to increase your chances of winning (there are thirty other prizes, too!) the page is here. Good luck—and tomorrow, change your Facebook language to “pirate”, give a parrot a biscuit, and don’t forget to Arrrgh!
Pirate King sailing the waves of love
Since Tuesday’s launch at Book Passage in the Ferry Building in San Francisco, I’ve been welcomed by some great and enthusiastic stores. (Visit the Events page to see if they have any signed books left.)
Today, the University of Washington Bookstore in Seattle put on a fabulous event for Pirate King, inviting the Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society to come and get us in the mood. And that they did:
Glenda Williams, Derek Sellers, Jon Thumim, Jim Francis, Wendy Woolery, Glenn Nielsen, and Rick Hodgson gave us a rousing rendition of “With Cat-Like Tread” followed by “Pirate King.” And the enthusiasm of their group proved contagious. The packed audience was great (there’s nothing like a roomful people who think you’re brilliant to make you, well, a bit more nearly brilliant) and even threw their hearts into the third song, the LRK version of the “Major-General’s Song,” which is here.
I am having such a good time.
And the tour’s not even half over.
If you live near Portland, Chicago, Minneapolis, St Louis, Denver, or Santa Cruz, come and join the jokes, the talk, and the fun. And—be prepared to sing!
Tomorrow we sail!
Okay, we’re all throughly sick of the Modern Major General by now, aren’t we? Which makes this the ideal day to post this poor gent’s version, I am The Very Model of a Psychopharmacologist.
If a copy of Pirate King would help your mental state better than a bottle of pills, the Poisoned Pen can fill your prescription, here.
Two days of singing left to the signing
Frankly, I’m not altogether certain what a Singularitarian is, although I’m absolutely positive that the Modern Major General would be able to tell me. And as we count down to Pirate King, here’s a hint:
To pre-order your Singularitarian, or indeed Pluralist, copies of Pirate King, the Poisoned Pen can help you, here.
Three days to the launch
Perhaps you require a second dose of explanation concerning the topics covered in the Major General’s Song? Well, here is another illustrated dictionary edition. The countdown is rapidly counting down, only three days left until Pirate King!
For a signed copy of Pirate King, without a dictionary, the information is here
- .
Thrillers and cartoons, with four days to go!
An interview on International Thriller Writers—talking about silent movies, driving Holmes mad, exotic locales, and the book I’d like to write.
(I live for driving Holmes mad…)
The interview is here.
****
Now, for a pleasant change from the tech of Google and Apple Major-General Songs, here’s a jolly cartoon version for you, as our Countdown to Pirate King continues:
For a signed copy of Pirate King, without cartoons, dance on over here
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Five day countdown: PaiKu winner and…gigaflops?
We have a PaiKu Winner! Well, we have a whole lot of winners, since I thought all the poems were a hoot.
Thanks to everyone who sent in their pirate haiku (and thanks, too, all of you who voted and saved me from having to judge!) All four of our top winners get a Pirate King movie poster, and the winner also receives a signed hardback of the book. Our runners—no, that should be rummers-up, and our official 2011 Cap’n PaiKu are:
Rummer up 3/Third Mate B.G. Ritts:
Sea, swells, rocking ship
sing a lullaby that calms
lawless buccaneers.
Rummer up 2/Second Mate Carey Bligard:
Grappling hooks applied
Haiku pirates up the side
End one rung short…Arrrrggghh.
Rummer up 1/First Mate Melissa West:
Damn parrot’s heavy
And prattles such nonsense. Oh!
For a cat instead.
And a big Arrrgh! for our winner, Captain PaiKu Jeannie Patton:
Peg leg is a pain
Reeling around deck in storm
Would kill for two feet.
Congratulations, all!
But now it’s time for the Major-General’s song of the day. Yesterday’s was a Google ditty, today’s is from…Apple? Really?
With many billion gigaflops and algorithmic mastery.
With many billion gigaflops and algorithmic mastery.
With many billion gigaflops and algorithmic mastery:
Does it help to know that Pirate King was written on a Mac? If so, you can order a signed copy, here.
2 for 1 countdown
One week to pub date, which makes this a bonus day: I also have a post over at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore’s blog, talking about Russell & Holmes, Gilbert & Sullivan, and hitting a series’ reset button. Join me here.
The Major-General, explained (sic)
Since not all of us have survived a proper Victorian public school education, here is the quick explanation of the Major General’s song. It helps to have had several cups of coffee before watching it: