Category: Marlaverse

This entry is going to have a slightly different tone than I’d anticipated…

Yesterday I launched a Kickstarter fundraiser for Grim Tides, the proposed sixth full-length Marla Mason novel. I didn’t do an entry about it yesterday because I just didn’t have time — I was at the doctor with the kid until early afternoon (he got a checkup for his glaucoma, and everything looks great), then playing catch-up at work. I figured I’d tweet about the fundraiser and write to my mailing list of past donors on the first day, and just do a journal entry on day two.

The fundraising goal was $6,000. (Not an entirely arbitrary number; it’s about what I could get for doing another work-for-hire book or pseudonymous novel, so it was the amount I needed to justify writing a Marla book instead of chasing down another job.)

I got fully funded in just about 13 hours. So the book is definitely happening; I hope to begin serializing chapters very early in the new year.

The fundraiser is running until September 15. (I did not expect to meet my goal in a single day.) I am still happy to accept donations, of course, and there are various neat prizes to be had, as you’ll see if you check out the Kickstarter page. So while I’ll still exhort you to tell your friends, and donate if you can, it doesn’t have quite the sense of urgency I’ve anticipated.

I get to write this book. It will be awesome. Full of monsters and heroism and betrayal and sand and sharks and lava and resort hotels and possessed people and dispossessed gods. Thanks to everyone who made it — who are currently making it! — possible for me to continue this series. I couldn’t be happier.

It’s been a busy year. I’ve written 210,000 words since January 1 — that’s two full novels (City of the Fallen Sky and a pseudonymous book), plus a story or two and some miscellaneous non-fiction. I can take off most of August without needed to feel guilty about it. Though in practice I don’t think I’ll actually be lazy for more than another week at most. I like writing; once my brain is less exhausted, it’ll start generating ideas again, whether I want it to or not.

Let’s see, some things on the horizon. I signed the sig sheets for the limited edition of Briarpatch — the most times I’ve consecutively signed my name in my life. The limited is no longer available, I understand, but the trade paperback is available for pre-order: you can get it at Amazon, or via Powell’s, or from a whole slew of places listed at the publisher’s website.

I also have a story coming out in newish online magazine Basement Stories at the end of the month. “A Void Wrapped in a Smile” is a standalone story, but it’s also sort of a Marla Mason story (though Marla appears in only one scene, and is a very minor character here). It’s a story about the villainous lovetalker Joshua Kindler. “Void” doesn’t necessarily make him seem any less villainous, but it does, I hope, make his villainy more understandable. (This story was originally written for a very generous Broken Mirrors donor who gave me a lot of money in exchange for writing a story about a character of their choice. They got a limited-edition-of-one chapbook containing the story. We were both pretty pleased with how it came out, and I’m glad the rest of you will get to read it soon!)