Lies and Prophecy

[swan_tower]

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and prophecy.

Kim thought majoring in divination would prepare her for the future. But even with her foresight warning her of trouble, she's taken by surprise when an unknown force attacks Julian, her enigmatic classmate and friend. Her gifts can't protect him against further attacks and an inexplicable string of disappearances . . . and if she's reading the omens right, Julian isn't the only one in danger.

Kim knows she isn't ready for this. But if she wants to save Julian -- and herself -- she'll have to prove her own prophecies wrong.

---

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present my Book View Cafe debut?

Lies and Prophecy is, as anyone who has been reading the "Welcome to Welton" scenes will know, an urban fantasy set in a version of our world where about half the adult population has active psychic gifts. (At least, "urban fantasy" is the short description for it. I have sometimes been known to refer to this book as "near future alternate history mildly post-apocalyptic semi-YA urban fantasy with some mystery and romance in and maybe a smidge of science fiction if you squint right." But they don't really have a category for that.)

It is also available for purchase! You can buy directly from BVC, in both epub and mobi formats, suitable for iPads and Nooks and Kindles and so on, or whatever your e-book reading device of choice may be. BVC is the best route to go, in terms of benefit to me-the-writer, but if you prefer to order from some other venue, you can get it through Amazon right now, and other e-book retailers in the near future. If you prefer a dead tree edition, there will be one of those, too, but that (alas) is going to take a little while longer to happen. I'll definitely announce it here when that becomes available, though, probably with pictures of me hugging it and squeezing it and generally acting like Gollum.

See, this is the first novel I ever finished. It's been through more revisions than I can count, over a period of (yikes) thirteen years, but it is still my first, and that means it is very near and dear to my heart. These are the characters that never quite left my head, the story I kept revisiting and refining. And now it is, at last, out there for other people to read. I am more happy than I can say, and I'd like to take a moment to thank the BVC crew in general, and those who produced this book in particular: my cover designer Amy Sterling Casil, my formatter Chris Dolley, my copy-editor David Levine, and most especially Sherwood Smith, who has been my BVC mentor since I first approached her at a con and said "I think I'd like to join your group."

I'll have more to say in upcoming days, but for now, I hope you enjoy the book. :-)

Comments

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool. I am so glad this is a bookthing and not a different kind of creative thing. And the manuscript archaeology is really, really neat.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

It is indeed a book thing. And also one of the Sooper Sekrit Projekts that's been eating my head for a few weeks now. (The actual prep took longer than that, but it had a distinct period of deadline crunch in there.)

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

Loved the snippets. And will definitely buy the dead tree version when it comes out. Looks like a really good refuge from current events.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked them! Hopefully it won't take long to get the dead tree version going.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Yay!
I am looking forward to reading this.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

To which I also say yay!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Happy book day! May it find lots and lots of homes today!

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

As I was saying to Vonda over e-mail, there's a part of me that now suspects the glacially slow pace of royalty reporting by publishing companies is not just an artifact of their old business practices, but a cunning move on their part to keep writers from wasting all their time making graphs of sales figures instead of writing the next book. Being able to watch this stuff in realtime isn't good for me . . . ;-)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Heh! So you check obsessively for a day or two, and then move on to the next book.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I can only hope it will last for a mere day or two. :-)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Oh I hope it's the first trickle of a flood! I meant, so you spend a couple days checking every five minutes. What's the harm?

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Oh, I followed -- I meant that I hope the obsessive checking only lasts for a day or two. :-) I am very sadly prone to that kind of thing, and may not kick the habit as quickly as I should.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

It's funny how that works in our heads--some feel they have more control, to be able to check day to day, and some less. One thing for sure, less chance of questionable accounting shenanigans.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

If I'm being honest (and why not), it isn't even a matter of control for me. It is, pure and simple, the neurotic desire for validation, like tracking hits or comments for blog posts. My life might be better -- or at least less distracted -- if such information simply weren't available to me.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

That actually might make a good con panel, or group topic--some count numbers, some troll the internet for mentions or reviews, some hunger for awards (and go so far as to poke friends to nominate them, even for awards so small no one has heard of them)--I guess we all have different markers for validation.

my particular one is letters from readers I've never met, and my highest hope is to come across someone reading one of my books. I don't know that it would change my life, but it would form one of those memories that I take out and relive during rough patches.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

It would make my day to find a total stranger reading one of my books (not at a convention -- out in the Real World somewhere).

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

I did get one through the 'Evil Empire' (aka Amazon) this morning so it should have shown up on your figures.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Woot! Many thanks for letting me know.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm so glad you found a way to publish this one! (Not least because it means I'll get to read it.)

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Change "I" to "other people" in that last sentence, and it's more or less exactly how I feel.

[shveta-thakrar.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! Both on the becoming an aunt and the book. :D Will it be out in paperback at any point (the book, not the baby)?

Your news, Rachel's/Sherwood's news, and who knows what else--so much to celebrate at Sirens!

[shveta-thakrar.livejournal.com]

D'oh! I should've finished reading the post before commenting. Then I would have seen that yes, there will be a dead-tree edition. My bookshelves are happy to hear it!

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Alas, I doubt I'll have the print edition in my hands before Sirens. But we should definitely still celebrate!

[(Anonymous)]

Happy first-book birthday (at long, long last) from Sabreman!

Still very near and dear to my heart, too. {g}

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Indeed, at long last. And I'm still grateful for the help and support you gave along the way.

[stfg.livejournal.com]

Hey, so I just finished it, and enjoyed it very much, though I trust there are more books planned? It seems like there is a fair bit of story left to tell.

As much as I enjoyed the action parts of this book, my very favorite parts are the mundane college scenes. I love hearing about Kim's classes and the small social interactions of dorms and dining halls and extracurricular activities. It makes me miss my small liberal arts college in much the same way Tam Lin did.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Earlier drafts of the novel had more of the hanging-out-at-college stuff, but alas, I ended up having to tighten that a lot in order to get the plot rolling sooner.

As for more books, I have two sequels in mind, and would love to write them. Whether or not I will depends on whether L&P sells well enough for me to justify squeezing them into my work schedule. I certainly hope it does!

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

Happy Release Day!

This one has been intriguing me.