General authorly buzz and link pimpage

Every once in a while I do feel the urge to do a general bloggish report of my own authorly doings. Most of the time I try to avoid blogging about my own stuff unless there's big new (because there's only so much wankage one can tolerate), but yeah, perhaps today I will because there's some newsworthy happenings occurring.

To start, I've got the SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment event happening in a week's time at the Book Lounge. This is the third year in a row that I've arranged the shenanigans there, and I'd like to take a few moments to say thank you to everyone who's so far helped make this possible. So, a VERY BIG thank you to the folks at the Book Lounge. They put a lot of effort into promoting a culture of bookaholics (which gets my wholehearted approval). If you're ever in their vicinity in Cape Town (71 Roeland Street) do stop by. (PS, you can also buy really good coffee and cupcakes there). Now go check out our event line-up and spread the word via your networks... here. Oh, and if all goes well, we'll have copies of this year's anthology in print, on sale during SA HorrorFest (Chaos willing).

Then, I recently got my rear in gear and sorted out my Amazon Author Page thing. What you can do to help me is go click on the "like" button for my page and books. I will adore you forever and feed you cupcakes. Go check it out here.

I'm still often overwhelmed by some of the reviews that have cropped up for my most recent release, Inkarna. This review had me feeling both awed and humbled that my book had made such an impact on readers; this is the sort of feedback that makes all the anguished hours worthwhile.

Picture by Leon Visser

For those who've read Inkarna, yes, the sequel is taking shape. All I can say at this point is that we're past the halfway mark and winding up to The Very Horrible Thing that happens before the excrement hits the fan, and it's a very harrowing scene that I'm building up to and possibly one of the most difficult one I've ever had to write so far. Which is possibly half the reason why I've been procrastinating. Yes. I don't want to write this scene. It is horrible beyond all belief. But it has to happen. I'm hoping to have the first draft of Thanatos done by the end of the year, before it goes out to my beta readers. Now go share this link for me, and help me get more sales.

Part of the reason why my writing is so erratic at the moment is because I'm busy with edits for Camdeboo Nights, a YA urban fantasy novel I wrote between Khepera Rising and Khepera Redeemed. It has quite a story attached to it, and has mostly been languishing on my hard drive because it spent at least two years on the submission mill before I almost mothballed it. I sold it to Lyrical Press a year or so ago, and we're sort of nearing the end of the editing cycles. It was also part of the Amazon ABNA/CreateSpace competition, and made it as far as the quarter finals a few years ago. I forget which. So it's not a bad little story (she says), and eventually I'll get round to writing its sequel. A hint: it features little people (like Tyrion), vampires, witches and mages, and it's set in contemporary South Africa. The novel also features a vintage car. My inner petrol head insisted.

Oh, and speaking of my Khepera series. The rights to both novels reverted to me a few months ago, and I'm busy preparing them to return to circulation (albeit with a bit of sprucing up). Yes. New covers. Done by one of South Africa's best illustrators. The novels will be available in both print and assorted electronic formats. So, yeah, it's kinda a case of watch this space for further details.

If you're not already stalking me on Twitter, I'm @nerinedorman ... now go buy my books, okay?