Author: Kelley

So much for deadlines!

Deadlines? A thing of the past. Unless you are packing for the Rapture, in which case you had best get your skates on. Because apparently the Rapture is coming this Saturday!

Potential offense warning to readers: I support your right to worship any way you choose, but this is my little corner of the internet and I think the Rapture is a deeply silly concept.

For those of you who are still here: do go read the article and give a psychic hug through the ether to the Seattle Atheists who are collecting Rapture Relief Funds for those of us who will be left behind in the “horror and chaos” that will precede the official End of the World (on October 21). And look what they are going to do with the funds if the Rapture doesn’t happen…. is that the Best Idea Evah or what?

Sometimes I just love people.

Enjoy your day.

Queen of Kings

It’s a great feeling to bask in glory. And then there is the special thrill of basking in the joy and glory of a friend. So here is a great big internet hug to Maria Dahvana Headley whose novel Queen of Kings releases today!

Queen of Kings is the story of Cleopatra — from the moment of her death onward. Because what if Cleopatra didn’t die? What if instead she embarked on a new kind of existence that embraced magic and monsters, that led her into death and back for love and honor? What if she began as a queen and then became a woman whose destiny was to change the world?

I love books about strong, fierce women. I love stories of passion and love. I love high stakes and urgency, big choices and big consequences. I love ancient history, and I’ve always loved the story of Cleopatra. Queen of Kings took me on a dizzy, dangerous ride in the heart and soul of a queen as she struggles with kings and generals and gods, and with a monster inside herself.

This book is already getting So Much Buzz. Quotes from Neil Gaiman and Peter Straub, blogosphere and print reviews (and more on the way!), and this Cool Book Trailer….

Maria, I love you. You rock. Congratulations. Go forth and conquer.
 

 

Join me at Norwescon this weekend

I’ll be at Seattle’s Norwescon this coming weekend (April 21-24), doing panels and a reading. I’ll also be at the banquet on Thursday night.

My big hope for the weekend? The chance to meet Patricia McKillip and tell her how deeply I love her work and how much it means to me.

Here’s my schedule. If you’re planning to attend, please find me and say hello!

Thursday, April 21, 5pm
Banquet

Friday, April 22, 3pm
Editing the Novel
Editing a 5,000 word short story is one thing – how do you edit a 100,000 word novel? A panel of professional editors discuss their own experience in editing the novel – how to keep a work that long consistent, how to maintain energy and enthusiasm, how to liaise with the author over the long haul, and how to decide how long or short a novel should ultimately be.
Kelley Eskridge (moderator), Shannon Butcher, Lou Anders, Nick Mamatas, Jana Silverstein

Saturday, April 23, 1pm
Building Character Using Any Method You Can
How do writers make their characters seem real—what techniques work best? Do characters have to be complex, and how do you get them that way?
Mary Rosenblum, Ted Kosmatka, Nancy Kress, Jack Skillingstead, Kelley Eskridge

Saturday, April 23, 2pm
Kelley Eskridge reads Solitaire
A young woman convicted of a terrible crime is sentenced to eight years in solitary confinement — in a virtual prison cell within her own mind. Solitaire is a New York Times Notable novel and was a finalist for the Nebula, Spectrum and Endeavour awards. Rated PG
Kelley Eskridge

Sunday, April 24, 1pm
The 10% Solution: How to Edit Your Work
Stephen King said says that your final draft is your first draft minus 10%. We’ll discuss how to cut passive voice, unnecessary words, and anything that else slows your fiction down.
Patrick Swenson, Renee Stern, Ted Butler, Craig English, Kelley Eskridge

Mystery drive

A mystery drive is when I get in the car and follow my nose somewhere I haven’t been before. No particular plan, no final destination. I did this often when I was younger; now, not so much. But today Nicola and I did a mystery drive. We had a good time.

One feature of mystery drives is that I must balance an absolute disregard for getting lost with an absolute certainty that I can always find my way back. This is called “sense of direction.” I like having it in this way, and wish it were a blanket talent I brought to everything. Because so much of what’s good in life is a mystery drive.

It’s been too long since I shared music, so here are some songs to drive by.

Enjoy.

To use the E-Phonic MP3 Player you will need Adobe Flash Player 9 or better and a Javascript enabled browser.

News and reviews

Catching up on word-spreading…

If you’re in the Seattle area, please join me and Nicola on May 8 at a reading of Lambda Literary Award finalists at Elliott Bay Books. Nicola will be MC’ing the event, and we’re looking forward to an evening of great fiction and poetry, and a chance to spend time with readers and writers. It’ll be fun!

It’s been three months since Small Beer Press re-published Solitaire, and I’ve been thrilled by the response. When the book first came out in 2002, blogging wasn’t as widespread as it is now, and bloggers certainly weren’t as influential in building buzz. I adore bloggers. Adore. And I’m most grateful to everyone who has taken time to read the book, think about it, and talk about it online.

Here’s an interview at The Daily Monocle, which I very much enjoyed doing — it includes a question I’ve never been asked before!

Edited to add, in the spirit of completeness: you can also find recent interviews at The Big Idea and Lambda Literary.

Enjoy your day.

In which the editor sits in the sun

It has been winter, my most silent season.

I am not a fan of cold weather, my four years in New Hampshire and five in Chicago notwithstanding. Winter is the time of short dark days and old hard anniversaries, the time when it seems people are more likely to turn in and turn away. Being cold is such a functional metaphor for me: I am more likely to freeze in place, to become frosty in a moment, to hunker down and pull the blankets over my head, to breathe more shallowly.

Cold is a meta-metaphor! Oh my, and see what happens? Spring arrives and I get punchy.

And in fact, yesterday, spring sprung. Of course we have sunny days in winter, but they’re, you know, cold… And then came yesterday, and the well of sun on our kitchen deck filled with light warm enough to sit in for a half hour. And so I did. I edited my current Sterling Editing project (*waves at client — it’s all going fine!*) and drank a lovely cup of tea and listened to birdsong in the ravine.


 

 
Blankets off. My internet door is open. I hope all is well with you whether you are coming or going from winter to summer, and that you enjoy your day at whatever temperature you may find it.

Interview at LambdaLiterary.org

Many thanks to Diana Denza and LambdaLiterary.org for the chance to do this interview about Solitaire. I enjoyed it. If you like it, please feel free to leave a comment over at Lambda Literary.

    And if you read the interview and came here to find out more about me, welcome! Help yourself to free fiction here on the site:

  • The first chapter of Solitaire

Enjoy.