Michigan ComicCon report double-header: new book cover reveal too!

Posted on by K. M. Herkes

If you look really close at this post’s feature image of the Michigan Comic Con Bard’s Tower booth,  you can see postcards showing the cover for my new book. Since I’ve been passing them out like there’s no tomorrow here in Detroit, I guess it’s only fair to share the fun with the rest of the world.

I’m aiming to release The Sharp Edge Of Yesterday at WindyCon in November, but don’t go inking that date on your calendar just yet.  The manuscript is currently with the editor. I’ll hold off on a final countdown until I have revisions in hand. Meanwhile I can say with confidence, “RELEASING SOON,” and that means I can share the cover art!

Rest your eyeballs on this lovely, lovely painting by the talented Rhiannon Taylor. This will be the foundation for the paperback wraparound cover.SEoY WIP8

Here’s a detail of the front cover with text design:SEoY Postcard

What’s the book about?  Superpowers! Major disasters! Deep dark secrets!

Beyond that tagline? Errrm….I am having a hell of a time condensing the density of the story into a sales-worthy blurb. It keeps turning into a bad B-movie teaser in my head:

  • See!
    A single mother at the end of her rope, hiding from a terrible past and cursed with deadly powers! Marvel at her boundless courage as she fights for her life and holds her family together against all odds!
  • Watch! As a group of dedicated idealists band together to protect her from her enemies and herself! Cheer for their bravery, admire their ability to slash through bureaucracy and defend the weak from the powers of evil…

Yeah. I know, that’s awful.  The struggle is real.

Anyhow, so I don’t have a cover blurb yet. Bad author. No treat.

But! I do have glorious art, and an exciting fantastic story, and it will be a book this year. Celebration enough for one blog post, says I.

In other news, the convention was even more fun Saturday than Friday,  with many great conversations about books and writing and SFF in general (and fan-fiction, and art, and anime, and the fun of history research and…well. You get the idea) Plus quite a few readers went home happy with new books in hand. Hip-hip-huzzah!

Random pictures:IMG_4557IMG_4556IMG_4558IMG_4555

That’s a wrap on today. Onward to tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

A funny thing happened on Wattpad

Posted on by K. M. Herkes

I woke up to a ton of Wattpad notifications yesterday.  This was a puzzler, because I hadn’t posted there since last fall, and follow stats there plummet when nothing new goes up.

This caught my eye as soon as I logged into my profile:

9F9E377E-F968-4C58-82EE-8DDC3774340C

21? My big, ungainly mega-book about the past of my Restoration novels is at #21 on a Top 100 list? Sweet! But…it didn’t answer my main question: why now?

That’s where the message in my Wattpad inbox came in. Congrats! it declared, and went on to explain that Downrigger has been chosen as a Featured Book in a new Wattpad program called (wait for it) Featured Books.

For 21 days, Downrigger will be showcased to the Wattpad community at large. And I’m pleased to report a bunch of people are adding it to their lists–some are diving right into reading it.

Well, then. Color me happy, eh?

Edited to add: I’m told I need to provide a link to the book. No problem! Here:

Click here to open Downrigger on Wattpad.

I still don’t know why the book was chosen, but the whole “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth: thing comes into play. I’m delighted it’s getting attention. That’s the reason I put Downrigger out for public consumption after all.  I adore its main characters, and its weird twisty, sprawly plot is a thrill ride.

You might wonder why didn’t I buff it up and sell it, if it’s so good…well. Several answers:

  1. it is not professionally edited, and I’m reluctant to spend the necessary time & money on doing that for books in this series at this time.
  2. it’s much too big for one book but not big enough for two, and that would be another formatting headache I wouldn’t need on top of editing.
  3.  some of its concepts & continuity are outdated and would be hard to fix without rewriting from scratch. Which I’m definitely not interested in doing right now.

Despite all those obstacles, I have a deep-seated need to complete projects. Downrigger’s presence in my unfinished-books queue was a constant distraction and source of creative guilt. It needed a better home than my hard drive, a final destination  I could send it without feeling I should apologize for its unpolished, ungroomed condition.

Thanks to Wattpad, it now has a home. I was happy for that alone. Now it’s being featured?!   I’m grateful, entertained, and all around chuffed that it’s getting some reading love.

And in a total aside, I’m learning that Wattpad community members have the AWESOMEST names for their reading lists.

Thanks, Wattpad. Thank you, readers. May you enjoy reading about Hook, Doug & Misha’s adventures as much as I enjoyed writing about them.

Look, a cute cat! Also an important request.

Posted on by K. M. Herkes

Email newsletter sign-ups are vitally important to independent authors like me. Please click the link at the bottom of this post and join my mailing list. Don’t wait. Don’t tell yourself, “I’ll do it later.”  Don’t dismiss it thinking, “Oh, I don’t need that.” Don’t put it off.

Do. It. Right. Now. Please.

Why so emphatic?  I will explain. Spoiler alert: I am not big on persuasive rhetoric. I’m into raw data. Here ’tis, with bullet points)

It’s a free way to show your support

People who care enough to join a list want to be there. That’s no small confidence-builder. (And who doesn’t love free?)  If you’re on my list, I know I’m not bugging you when I talk about a great new release or announce a short story or show off a new cover. You asked to be included. Knowing I have an undeniably real audience waiting for things from me keeps me going on bad days. And good ones.

If you aren’t getting the newsletter, you WILL miss important book news.

Some of you follow me on other social media, but let’s get real.  Facebook & Twitter are great first contact points and excellent for connection, but for announcements and alerts? They’re a crap-shoot at best. It’s too easy to miss things. Trying to keep up with everyone and everything every day is impossible.

A newsletter comes straight to you. Can’t miss it. And it’s patient. It doesn’t disappear down the timeline or get hidden.

With the newsletter, even if  I–or you–step away from Facebook for a long break or delete social media entirely, we won’t lose touch.

Subscribers get exclusive gifts and benefits. Yes, for free.

It all starts with a subscribers-only Rough Passages short story. You get that just for signing up. There will be more.  I have raffle ideas in mind. I’m working on stickers, unit badges, and other awesome subscriber loot. I may even share an email address to subscribers for entering story errata, so all of you can share directly what I got wrong & need to fix. (and get entered in the Fix-it Raffle!)

Subscribers get all the fun news first.

I have to give my most loyal fans the best benefits, right? You’ll get to share in the excitement of new covers or other graphics before anyone except me, (and the artist) and if I’m seeking reader opinions on future decisions, I’ll consult with my email subscribers first and give their answers greater weight.

It’s easy.

Seriously. All I need is your email address. I do have the list set up for 2-step confirmation because consent matters, but it isn’t hard. You provide your email, you get an email asking you to click on things to confirm your interest and verify that you are not a Giant Robot. That’s it.

It’s easy to stop, too.

At any time you want, you can get off the list by clicking a link at the bottom of every newsletter email I send. For real. I’ve subscribed and unsubscribed a couple of times to test the feature.
In summary: I have a mailing list now so I can keep in touch with people who want to hear important news about my books and get exclusive fan perks. I would love for you to be a subscriber.

Here’s a direct link to the newsletter page: CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

And here are more pictures of my cranky ol’ cat:

He is just so darned adorable.

As always, thank you for reading.