Nikki Kimberling's Log

From now until November 20, we will offer free shipping on all Strange Fortune pre-orders. Plus you get a cool Blind Eye Books tote, also for FREE!


What are you waiting for? Go and take advantage of our great offer!

And to get a free digital goody bag from Josh Lanyon, remember to hit "return to Blind Eye Books" at the completion of your Paypal order. This button will take you to a link with instructions.

It's a good news/bad news situation. The bad news (for me, anyway) is that World Fantasy Convention and Yaoi-Con are scheduled on the very same weekend this year. The good news is that they're only an hour's drive apart so I will be able to split my time between them. I'll be in San Jose at World Fantasy Convention from Thursday, October 29th to Saturday October 31st. Late Saturday I'll be going to San Mateo to catch the dance party at Yaoi-Con. I'll be manning the Blind Eye Books table all Sunday, November 1st.

So if you're going to be at either of these events I hope to meet you there!

Blind Eye Books has a new website!

Our webmaster makes such pretty sites. You should go look.

Every now and then I’m contacted by a writer whose manuscript I have passed on who still wants my honest opinion of their work. They want to know, essentially, if their story sucks. And that's fair. From time to time we all wonder if we've just gone crazy and lost perspective on our own work. We want feedback.

 

But the question, “Does my story suck?” is nearly impossible to answer, because once a writer has mastered basic prose writing, sucking is completely subjective.

I wish, years ago, that someone had explained the position of an editor to me. It would have made it easier to understand all those rejections that said things like, “well-written, but not to my taste” and “try me again with something else”.

I used to think that these lines were some kind of code. A brush off that secretly meant, “you are a sub-literate lunatic”. Now that I actually read slush and acquire stories, I’ve realized that there is no secret message in the words, “shows a lot of promise, but not my cup of tea” – at least not when you’re talking to an editor.

 

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Do drop by and see what Josh and I talk about when we're hunched together at the end of the bar.

I was interviewed quite recently by Shaun Duke. Drop by and leave a comment, if you like.

And I think you should go see it too!

Here's the website.

And, because I just can't stop loving Guy Maddin, here is the trailer for his amazing documentary,

My Winnipeg.

Okay, it's probably old news, but one of my very favorite manga has been made into a Korean live-action film.

Below is a subbed trailer for...

Antique!

an adaptation of Fumi Yoshinaga's Antique Bakery.

(Me.) Today I'm going to be talking with Josh Lanyon about writing fantasy and fantasy world building. Imagine that the two of us are on a sunny patio in the south of France, shucking raw oysters and drinking white wine. Perhaps we also have some bread, some cheese, some ridiculously strong French cigarettes. I'm wearing a sundress and shades and I've abandoned my shoes. It's a nice conversation on a summer afternoon...
 
(JL) Ah yes. Le sand through your hair, le wind through your toes. How I love the south of France!

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That's right. My new novella, Ghost Star Night, is now available to purchase. Do write and tell me what you think of it.

Yep. That's the headline on the weather website. It is, apparently, 103 degrees here in Bellingham. Now, for those of you dwelling in, say, Phoenix, Arizona, 103 aint all that bad. But before you scoff our Pacific Northwest misery, consider that all dwellings here are made to trap and retain heat, not to repel it. And hardly anybody has air conditioning. It's 97 degrees in my living room and there's not a damn thing I can do about it. Upstairs in the Blind Eye office (read:attic) it is 106 degrees. Our stalwart designer is slaving over a hot CPU trying to finish the Strange Fortune book cover. God help her up there.

This is a longish essay so you will find it ( Read more... )

Today I'm the guest blogger at Reviews by Jessewave. I talk a lot about making interesting fantasy characters then challenge the audience to go ahead and make one up. Come over and see how it went.

(Oh, one note: this site is very image intensive and takes a while to load. Also, did I mention it's image intensive?)

Hello all, Astrid Amara and I will be reading from our Blind Eye Books novels at Village Books in Bellingham, Washington tonight at 7 o'clock. If you happen to find yourself in the City of Subdued Excitement, drop by and say hello.

Well, let's hear it for sequels!

Hell Cop 2, the sequel to Hell Cop has been available from Loose Id since yesterday. Three sequential novellas written by Astrid Amara, Ginn Hale and myself. We return to Parmas City and bring our friendly Hell Cops with us.

but I thought this wall was worth commemorating. It's in the Museum of Natural History. Apparently Teddy Roosevelt had strong feelings about "Manhood."

I won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror for my novel Turnskin.

I was so shocked that I forgot every single thing about what I was supposed to be doing except to thanking my wife and not falling down on the stage in front of all those people. I forgot how to speak at all.

Un-fucking-believable.

Wow.

I just remembered I wrote an article for the May edition of The Samhellion newsletter. It's called "Crashing into the Sun" and talks about the value of integrating real-life experiences into fantastical fiction. Go over and give it a read and tell me what you think!

All right, I admit it. I've let the New Year's Resolution slump a little, but honestly, there hasn't been much to post about.

I'm right this very second in the midst of editing Josh Lanyon's Blind Eye Books release. As for the Ginn Hale project, I am editing part three of ten and expect to be able to release The Rifter this fall. I am also rising from my desk periodically in order to do more laundry.

Why am I doing laundry? In preparation to go to New York on Wednesday in order to attend the Lambda Literary Awards. I shall try to remember to post at least once from the City.

And on the "author" front I have turned in the Hell Cop 2 manuscript to Judi and Loose Id while the Ghost Star Night manuscript has gone to be with Anne at Samhain Publishing. This leaves me time to work on my newest project: an unfinished and unsold series of linked novellas called Ghosteye.

Ghosteye started out as a short story that was slated to appear Kellie Lynch's ill-fated anthology, Queer Magic. It follows a couple called Zane & Jim. Zane is a daytime television-loving psychic private detective and Jim is the firefighter who can't help but love Zane, no matter how weird he is. I just red the file again and realized that I really liked the characters a lot and would like to expand the stories. I concieved of two additional stories in the series-- one sequel and one prequel-- in order to expand the story into a novel-length work and started to write them. I'm halfway through both. (I write out of order.)

I've also decided to write at least one mystery set in contemporary Japan. It's possible that I could write two... depending on how much I can remember about the peculiarities of the Land of the Rising Sun.