Friday, September 28, 2012

Orange County Children's Book Festival

This Sunday, September 30, I'll be at the Orange County Children's Book Festival with my amazing Coliloquy colleagues Heidi Kling and Jessica Koosed Etting.

We'll be on at panel at 2pm on the Teen/YA Stage: "Ebooks: Keeping it Interactive."

There'll be a Q&A and sneak peek readings from our upcoming books, plus signings and giveaways afterwards at the Coliloquy booth. Hope to see you there!

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Breaking News on Parish Mail Book 2: Title, Release Date, and More

This week I turned in my completed manuscript for the second in the Parish Mail series of interactive YA ebooks, which makes this the perfect time to answer a few questions I've been getting about it.

Enough of this Book 2 vagueness! What's it called?

The official title of my new book is Post Mortem - Parish Mail 2. You read it here first!

I got way too excited when I told Lisa and Waynn from Coliloquy the title at brunch a few months ago: "Post Mortem. See?" I crowed. "It's a pun!" "Yeah, yeah, we got it," they replied with smiles of great patience. I'm such a dork.

In addition to being a mail pun, the title does relate to the central mystery of the book, which contains some of the creepiest scenes I've ever written.

When is it coming out?

Post Mortem is scheduled for release mid-January 2013! Just in time to try out that spiffy new Kindle, Nook, or Android device you may be getting for the holidays. Of course, publishing schedules are flexible things, especially for digital books, and the release date is subject to change. I'll keep you posted.

Do I need to have read Parish Mail Book 1 first?

Post Mortem picks up right where Dead Letter Office ends, but the first chapters contain all you need to get up to speed with Celia, Tilly, Donovan, Luc, and the rest of the Parish Mail characters and world.

That being said, because Parish Mail is a series, there are story threads that carry over between books and the experience will be much richer if you're along for the whole ride. There also are plenty of hints and teases in DLO that pay off in Post Mortem, so if you haven't downloaded a copy yet, I suggest you grab one and check it out.

Did you learn anything from Dead Letter Office that influenced Post Mortem?


Oh boy, did I. I wrote a whole post on what I discovered about the choices readers made in DLO, and how I'm using that learning in PM.

Any chance of a sneak peek?

I'll see if Coliloquy's down with posting an excerpt in advance of the release. If you're a reviewer, ARCs should be available toward the end of this year, and you can contact Coliloquy directly about that.

In the meantime, if you're in Southern California, come to the Orange County Children's Book Festival on Sunday, September 30. Coliloquy's holding a panel at 2pm on the Teen/YA Stage about interactive fiction, and I'll be there with several of my fellow Coliloquy authors. We'll all be reading from our upcoming books, plus doing signings and giveaways. It should be a lot of fun -- hope to see you there!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Parish Mail Book 2 News Coming Soon!

I've got some exciting news to share shortly about the second book in the Parish Mail series, including when it's coming out and how you can get a sneak peek! Stay tuned...

Monday, September 10, 2012

ALPHAS Tonight!

I wrote the episode of ALPHAS, "Gods and Monsters" that airs tonight on Syfy! It'll be on at 8pm/7c, with an encore at 10pm.

Every episode of TV takes a village. My sincere thanks to the cast and crew, including the ep's fantastic director Mairzee Almas, Steve Welke and the rest of our post-production team, Co-Executive Producer Matt Hastings, Executive Producers Todd Sharp and Bruce Miller, and especially my wonderful colleagues on the writing staff. Y'all rock my socks.