Release the Kraken!

Or: How a Promo Post Gets Sappy

So, here we are, release week. I had grand plans to do a big post on the actual release day, but between the Real Job(tm) and...well...life, it just didn't happen.

A lot of people have asked me how this release day differed from the first one. Well, more people congratulated me, for one thing. People I've never met, Twitter-folk I only know because they read Devil and loved it. So there was that.

I like to think I was a lot less obsessive about my Amazon rankings this time. Mostly because I've truly proven over the last year that they don't mean a whole lot. Do I like to see those low digits? Sure. I always do a little happy dance in my chair when I can tell that someone bought another one. But it's still just pixels, ghosts in the machine.

A lot of other people had great releases on the same day. Carolyn Crane summed it up pretty nicely over at The League, so I'll just say go check her post out, and just use it like a shopping list. I myself bought HOUNDED and HEXED by Kevin Hearne today (they were out of HAMMERED, the big goobers, so I had to reserve one from the next batch). I also bought MY LIFE AS A WHITE TRASH ZOMBIE, then sat down and devoured it in three hours. (devoured...zombie... get it? Never mind.) Even I, the confessed zombie-phobe, loved it.

For those who just can't get enough of me... (oh come, on that's all of you. There's what, four of you now?)

Over at The Other Side of the Story, I talk about writing description. And at Dark Faerie Tales, Axel gives his view of Kansas City, plus you can win my books! Definitely keep checking back at Dark Faerie Tales and at All Things Urban Fantasy for their Deadly Destinations event all through the month of July. Your favorite UF characters give you tours of their worlds and there are giveaways galore.

I'll be popping up in a few more places around the Interwebz, but I'll link those as they come.

There have also been some great reviews for A SHOT IN THE DARK, but I won't link them all here. (though a part of me wants to go buy each and every one of those reviewers a steak dinner) ((Seriously. I know good steak.))

I just want to thank everyone who went out and bought the books, who read them, who recommended them... I always say that I would have kept writing, even if I'd never been published, but when it comes right down to it, having people read what I write is the true reward. This would be a very lonely endeavor without all of YOU.

Yes, you. You there. No, not you. You. Yes.

Ahem. Anyway.

Still getting trailing feedback in from my betas on Book 3 (which is in DIRE need of a title, so if anyone thinks of one...) but I think I'm pretty settled on what changes I need/want to make. Mostly, my betas are confirming the weaknesses I already saw, bless them, and I think the end project will be a zillion times better. It always is, when my betas get involved.

So, a bit more work, and then I'll have officially completed this contract. People keep asking me, "Will there be more than three JJD novels?" Short answer: Gosh, I hope so. Long answer: Haven't talked to anyone about that yet. Hope so. Really really hope so. Y'all will be the...well, probably fourth or fifth to know, but you know what I mean.