Tag Archives: Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Proof Copy Yamada Monogatari: Troubled Spirits

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Today the paperback proof copy of Troubled Spirits arrived, just in time for Halloween. I was fairly certain I’d gotten the book into presentable form as an actual, physical object, and so far I haven’t found any egregious errors. I did have some concerns about the gutter margins, but they look fine.

Frankly, I’m amazed to get it right the first time. Regardless, and unless I stumble upon something awful, the pb should be available within a few hours. I’ll include the link once I have one.

Yesterday First Reader and I went to cast our early votes. It was a Sunday, and according to the poll workers, they had been busy. I’ll take that as a good sign.

And we’re now live! Links below:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon CA

Something Brighter than Dim

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Now that the contracts are signed I see no reason to keep anything secret. Paula Guran has picked up “The Fox’s Daughter” from Beneath Ceaseless Skies #344 for the first issue of her new Year’s Best Fantasy series from Pyr Books. It’s nice to be working with Paula again. She was my line/copy editor for most of the Yamada Monogatari series when I was with Prime Books.

There have been a lot of YBF series over the years, and I’ve managed to appear in a few, but this is the first in a while. I remember the David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer Year’s Bests fondly, so it’s great to see a new one getting started. I’ll put up links as soon as Paula’s is out and I hope it does well. The field always benefits from a diversity of sources.

Links and Such

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First thing, The Ghost War and A Warrior of Dreams are now and finally available in print editions. Also, for those who missed it, “A Minor Exorcism,” is now online and free to read at Beneath Ceaseless Skies #313, 12th Anniversary edition. This is the most recent Goji Yamada story. There will be one more, plus a short original to cap the (final?) Yamada Monogatari book. I’ll make an announcement at the appropriate time, which will likely be a year or so from now. Wish us all luck getting there.

Next up, I realize some people just don’t like that Mighty River online book portal. So, for those who fall into that category, here are a few links to alternative sources for the Bergstryker ebook. I can’t do this for every edition, but I have plans for at least one more formerly exclusive work, probably next month.

Apple Books

Kobo

Barnes & Noble

Scribd

I apologize for the commercial interruption. I normally try to keep such things to a minimum, but lately these keep piling up, and I’m egotistical enough to think that at least some of you might want to know. So if you do, now you know.

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Ringing the Changes

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Not inaccurate but incomplete. I’m thinking more of an addition rather than a change (although I’m likewise considering some tweaks to the website. Lord knows it could use a refresh).

Ahem. Excuse the tangent. The point I’m getting to is I’m seriously considering starting an email newsletter. And by “seriously considering” I mean yeah, it’s very likely going to happen. Not today, but not the distant future either. Such things require planning to do right which requires time which you’d think I’d have tons of, being largely confined to the house except for necessary errands, and you’d think wrong. There’s always something else I need to be doing aside from what I want to be doing. So it goes…

Sorry. Tangenting again. So here’s the thing: Why a newsletter? What’s wrong with the blog?

Well, lots of things, but that’s not the point, even if the blog isn’t going away. There are advantages to a private email list that a blog doesn’t have, and not just for me. For a start, what if I want to give actual readers a heads-up on a special promotion or giveaway or preliminary book cover, but am not ready to or don’t want to broadcast it to the world? That’s a newsletter’s job.

I’ll give you another example. When I sold “The Fox’s Daughter” to Beneath Ceaseless Skies, I announced it here and over on FB. One of the biggest fans of the Yamada series didn’t see the post, even though we’re FB friends (FB is like that). It took a share from another reader to bring it to their attention. Whereupon they were somewhat put out that they weren’t immediately informed, and can’t say I blame them. When I mentioned a newsletter? They demanded to be signed up first, and when the time comes, so I shall. People are less likely to miss stuff that might interest them that way.

Frequency? Probably once a month or so, at most. And when I say “private” email list, I mean exactly that. I will not sell it and I damn well won’t share it. This is just for you and me, for however many iterations of “you and me” there are. That’s for you all to decide.

There will likely be some bonus for signing up. Haven’t decided what yet. Likely an original work before it’s available anywhere else, that kind of thing. Something else to think about.

So what do you think? Hate newsletters? Love them? What’s a newsletter? Speak now or I’ll likely just do what I want. Very dangerous, that.

Lady Kuzunoha’s Daughter

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I’m pleased to say I’ve just sold a new Yamada story to Beneath Ceaseless Skies, “The Fox’s Daughter.” It mostly concerns what happens when circumstances force Lady Kuzunoha to entrust her daughter Kimiko to Yamada’s family temporarily. Yamada has quite a bit of experience with kitsune, but less so with the sullen teenager equivalent. Fortunately, Tagako-hime is there to pick up the slack. All that said, Yamada will still have his hands full sorting out one Kimiko-induced crisis after another.

This makes the third new Yamada story following the events of The Emperor in Shadow, after “Uzumaki of the Lake” in BCS #300 and “A Minor Exorcism,” the latter of which should be out from BCS in the next few months. There’s actually a fourth already written, a flash piece I plan to expand and include as an original in the eventual new Yamada collection. After that, who knows. I’ll be sure to post when “The Fox’s Daughter” is scheduled.

It’s easy to tell that the first book in the series, Demon Hunter, is out of print now in pb, considering that the only sources listing it are selling it for $47 and “new” copies for $128. Well, they can list it for whatever they want, I suppose, but I can’t imagine they’re selling very many.

And before anyone asks, yes, I’m still working on the concluding volume of The Laws of Power series. It’s just not the only thing I’m working on.