WordPlay

Okay, I suppose I could have said length matters, but I’m not sure that would have been any better.

Story length, I mean.

Especially when things are busy-crazy, say…during a holiday season.  (Or say, if you’re me and all the crazy things are happening at once, between the repercussions of the recently totaled dog van, the intense snow and cold management that just descended on us, and one particular ConneryBeagle who just can’t catch a break.)

Lately I’ve been grabbing fiction of a shorter nature--little reading snacks that fit into my brain, my time frame, and my budget.  It’s nice, with all this turmoil around, to read something that resolves itself in one sitting, giving me a nice note on which to turn out the light and pull the covers up.  (Over my head.  Far over my head.)

In the spirit of such things, and because I am sadly desperate to continue spreading the word about The Heart of Dog, here are some short works to share.  From ME!  Also not bad as Christmas gifts, as it happens…

THE HEART OF DOG
Buy all Formats at Backlist eBooks
Sixteen stories, award-winning authors, and help for a sick dog…

Award-winning author Doranna Durgin has over 30 published novels and another 19 short pieces. Now her dog-themed stories are collected in THE HEART OF DOG, along with those by other award-winning authors: Jeffrey Carver, Julie Czerneda, Tanya Huff, John Mierau, Fiona Patton, Jennifer Roberson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, & John Zakour.

“If you’ve ever loved a dog, you will love this book…” 
~The Book Faerie

————————————————————————–

NIGHT OF THE TIGER

December ’11
Nocturne Bite e-novella
An installment in the Sentinels series

Nook
Kindle

Marlee Cerrosa turned unwitting traitor to the shapeshifting Sentinels, and Scott O’Brien paid the price. Now, with another traitor amongst them, Marlee hunts redemption, and Scott hunts what he lost…and it looks like they can only find the answers in one another.

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So many things!  All happening!

There’s the barking dog thing.  Jury’s still out–after three days of blessed silence last week, Thursday and Friday were nonstop barking.  Non.  Freaking.  Stop.  Barking.

Another neighbor thought she had an opportunity to touch base with Barking Dog Neighbor over the weekend.  I need to catch up with her so I have the scoop before I clip request #2 to the gate.

There’s the paddock footing thing–we have a line on some more shreddings, of much better quality than before.  Delivery imminent, we hope!

There’s the ConneryBeagle thing.  We’re still trying to find a balance of his meds and still trying to find ways to support him through this.  He’s looking a little stronger, if not quite himself.  Still, that’s GOOD–and the only reason I can measure it that closely is because of the agility, and my pretty highly honed awareness of how he runs when he’s feeling strong.  He’s pretty cheerful, and that’s great–and he certainly still thinks his agility and his tracking are great fun.

In fact–moving onto the next thing–he had a chance to do both this weekend.  He and Dart headed to a local UKI trial, our first real experience with this new venue.  The courses were European in style, and lots of fun, and the venue was small and friendly.  We ran our first Speedstakes courses, and our very first snooker.  Whee!

Dart grabbed a couple of Qs–and somehow kept enough brains to mainly stay inside the rings.  ConneryBeagle would have Q’d in all his runs had he not slipped in the thick, long and really wet grass to take down a bar.  So, yeah–fun!

Where, you ask, did the tracking come in?  Out in the trial’s huge off-leash play area, the grass and clover were equally thick and deep, and a friend’s small dog lost a couple of favorite toys in it–toys the combined efforts of the rest of us couldn’t find.  So Connery put on his tracking harness, played a few article indication games with the dog’s remaining toys, and made the conceptual leap to my request to search out additional toys.

Which he found.

SO PROUD!!

Oh, there’s the book thing: as of today, the second draft pass is done for Tiger Bound, the next Nocturne Sentinel.  There are a few more details to polish up, and then off it goes to my editor!

And then, finally, there’s the backlist ebook thing.  I’m having such fun with the covers, I’m still poking away at them in the midst of everything.  So without further ado, here’s Feef’s House!

$.99
First Released: 2003, DAW anthology Space, Inc.
Backlist eBooks Store: All Formats

Feef is a smelly, insecure little creature who calls the Toklaat Space Station home. Shadia is a tough, independent itinerant worker who calls no place home—until the day Feef needs help…and offers her something priceless in return.

“Durgin has a remarkable gift for inventing unusual characters doing incredible things.”
–Kliatt

[included in The Heart of Dog anthology]

Ready for some Wednesday Goodies?

Here’s a goodie to start with…for those of you who read Monday’s Barking Dog Blog (which was written late Sunday)…Monday was the first real test of the Barking Dog Response…that is, would Neighbor listen to the request in the note I wrote?

Monday, I am pleased to say, was quiet.

Tuesday, I am pleased to say, it rained most of the day–so basically, who knows if it would have been quiet or not.  But the rain was a major boon (and it came without the massive hailstorm that ripped apart this area last year at just this time), so either way…definite Goody.

Why, I might even risk riding Duncan on our north flat today!  (But, hmm…I think I’ll have earplugs, just in case.)

Otherwise, on the Goody front?  I got another short story out in the backlist offerings!

$.99
First Published: 2004, DAW: ReVisions
BACKLIST EBOOKS: ALL FORMATS

In Neil’s world, there are miniature seeing-eye horses, service pigs, stock-guarding llamas, and bred-up Siamese guard cats—because in Neil’s world, dogs were never domesticated, and never will be. But it seems no one’s asked the dogs what they think…

Originally published in the DAW anthology, ReVisions—an anthology of alternate history stories that consider what would have happened if scientific and technological breakthroughs–and challenges–occurred long before they did in real history.

[included in THE HEART OF DOG]

Definite GoodieFest day.  Got any to share?

Yup, it’s the last week of the sale.  So it’s one more chance to click through to the comments, where some of the members of Backlist eBooks have provided links to their sale books.  Because, yeah…the sale is over in five…four…three…
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(here’s the original post!)

Oh, it’s true.  I get a little incoherent about this sort of thing. Just too enthusiastic (and sadly lacking dignity).

Well, Smashwords is having its big summer sale, and so many of us in Backlist eBooks are participating…we loves us a sale, and Smashwords makes it so easy.  How can we not?  From 25% to 100% off (with some books sitting at 99c), a site-wide promotion.  Everyone wins!

Of course, we also want to make it easy for readers, and getting the word out on the short available notice is a trickier thing.  So here we are!  My sale books (and links) are listed in this post; in the comments, you’ll find a collection of Backlist eBooks authors with their own linked titles and genres.  Go ye hence and feed that Kindle/Nook/Sony/e-reading device of choice!

My Smashwords Author Page
Books on Sale:
The Heart of Dog (dog stories, specfic)
Seer’s Blood (fantasy)
A Feral Darkness (fantasy)
Making the Rules (Action-Romance)
Hidden Steel/Making the Rules boxed set (Action-Romance)
Hidden Steel (free!) (Action-Romance)
And one free story for treasure hunters…

I done did it.  I got HIDDEN STEEL listed for free at Amazon, as well as Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, and Sony whenever it catches up.

(Why not Nook, especially given that I’m a Nook owner my ownself?  ‘Cause I can’t find a way to work the system to get it done.  Nooksters can get an EPUB on Smashwords, though…and the book is marked down to 99c on B&N.)

And why do it at all?

The same reason anyone puts a loss-leader out there…for the exposure.  The word of mouth.  The alluring introduction to moi as an author.  *eyelash flutter*  And also because I can look at the rising download numbers and pretend it means that people are interested in the book as opposed to, “It’s FREE!  Grab it, quick!”

But hey, guess what.

IT’S FREE! GRAB IT, QUICK!

“Mow your lawn, finish doing the wash, and walk your dog BEFORE starting this book!” — B&N Reader

Smashwords
Kindle
B&N (99c)
Apple
Kobo

Sixteen stories, award-winning authors, and help for a sick dog…

[wp_cart:The Heart of Dog:price:3.99:end]
Nook, Kindle, PDF, EPUB
after payment, click on “return to ferragus@gmail.com” to complete the process/get your file

Award-winning author Doranna Durgin has over 30 published novels and another 19 short pieces. Now her dog-themed stories are collected in THE HEART OF DOG, along with those by other award-winning authors: Jeffrey Carver, Julie Czerneda, Tanya Huff, John Mierau, Fiona Patton, Jennifer Roberson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, & John Zakour.

“If you’ve ever loved a dog, you will love this book…” 
~The Book Faerie

[show_wp_shopping_cart]

The Freakishly Cool things of the day:

I found Jim Croce on iTunes. I am replete.

DuncanHorse is strong enough after his illness, the ground firm enough, and the weather nice enough so we went arroyo-hopping this weekend.

The Backlist eBooks sale has been blogged by Smashwords, picked up by eBookNewser, and tickled interest from [BIG IMPRESSIVE BLACKOUT MARK]. With over 80 authors on board and hundreds of books between us…yeah.  We’re reaching a great momentum!

AND.

There’s THIS. Just something to sneak into the market for now while the dust settles from the above sale, but I absolutely can’t wait to share this boxed set graphic.  I mean, WUH!  This is Pat Ryan Graphics, and is she AMAZING or what?

Here is the first very cool thing for May.

MR LIZARD!

This lizard was snoozing in the cool pile of cheapo wood shreddings we acquired for the desperate purpose of turning our new yard into something that *isn’t* an adobe mud version of quicksand.

(Mainly, we were worried that short-legged little Belle would take one step out there and…slowly…disappear…)

That was 18 months ago; since the initial application, we’ve been slowly whittling away at the pile, applying patch-jobs to the yard as needed.  One day it’ll be an archeological masterpiece, layers and layers of unevenly shredded yard brush, old pallets, and the occasional dismantled house compacted into the clay adobe soil and decomposed into a solid layer.  Pity the fool who ever puts a bulldozer to THAT.

But!

Back to Mr. Lizard. HE IS SO COOL.

And although his shreddings pile is now smaller than it used to be, I bet he’s still got plenty of room to call home.

YAY!  LIZARD!

Oh, but I promised TWO COOL THINGS and I have them. Thing number two is the Backlist eBooks Merry May sale.

There are fantastic sale prices on nearly 200 books by more than 50 traditionally published authors. Books start at 25% off and get better from there–it’s a great way to feed your ereading device!

To grab the sale books, head to BacklisteBooks.com for a list of titles and Smashwords coupon codes, identified by genre.

If you’d like a heads-up on these Backlist eBooks sales, here’s our newsletter sign-up.

YAY!  BIG EBOOK SALE!

We have been breached!

You know that wall? The Fourth Wall? Blooey! Gone!

That’s the wall that stands between the characters on a page and their readers–and the wall that every now and then, we peek through. Rarely in the actual book, but sometimes on the side. Sometimes we’re just having fun…sometimes we’re trying to offer a peak into our characters and our worlds.

As a reader, there are ways this works for me and ways it doesn’t. Character interviews, yes. Characters on FaceBook, a resounding no.

Letters from characters? Hmm. It depends! And it depends on whether it really feels true to character voice, or if it just sounds like the author doing a book pitch through the character. Maybe it’s not easy to do, at that.

Anyway, if you hate them, stop reading! Quick! Run away! Because here is is, Mickey Finn’s letter as presented by Eye on Romance. I have to admit, it tickles the muse quite mightily. But what I want to know, really, is how about you? Does breaching the wall work for you in any way? Yes, no, run away? And if it does, what do you like about it?

HIDDEN STEEL
Smashwords: http://tinyurl.com/3c4lncf
Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/3fhkdxm
B&N: http://tinyurl.com/3gs5dru

Yes, that’s right.  The days are longer, the days flirt with surprising spring temps, the ground grows achingly dry, and it’s all just a great big TEASE.

Dart is completely convinced.

Dart: SNOOOOOZE

Duncan is completely convinced.

A preliminary offering of spring horse hair

Never mind those singing birdies, the snow could come boiling over the Sandias at any time.  Never mind that balmy sun…the night temps are pretty frigid.

So keep the horse blankets ready, the trough water heater plugged in, and the winter coats to hand. Tease season, you are not fooling ME!

Dart Beagle: Oh yes you are.

Huh.  Guess I’ll just see if I can get under that hay pallet to rescue Duncan’s shedding blade from the resident pack rat.
~~~~

In other matters, it’s not tease season at all–it’s harvest season!  Because it’s Read an eBook Week, and there is a way cool sale going on at Smashwords.  The coupon codes are right there on the individual book pages.  And my books are included, along with some of the short stories!

Here’s my author page at Smashwords, from which you can reach any of the books/stories.

Here are the titles on sale:

Hidden Steel
Making the Rules
A Feral Darkness
Deep River Reckoning
The Scoria
A Bitch in Time

PS: Look what Dart found in the snow