Year-End Sale

 Evidently there's a year-end sale going on at Open Road books. Today, US and Canada, $1.99 apiece, digital: Those Who Hunt the Night, Dog Wizard, Walls of Air, Armies of Daylight - by George Effinger, Fire in the Sun and Exile Kiss.


Mind you, none of the many covers that have appeared on Dog Wizard or Armies of Daylight look like what they look like in my head - not that any of that will make a difference, in a digital edition. The one on Exile Kiss is nice - the third book of George's Budayeen trilogy. I've never seen that one before.

Happy New Year everyone.






Comments

  1. Historical Fiction/Mystery FanJanuary 2, 2022 at 10:27 AM

    I don't see another place on your website to ask you a question so I will do it here.
    I just finished Patriots Hearts and loved it. One part that especially fascinated me was the election of 1800. Sent me right to my computer to learn more about it. The more things change, etc. The entire book made me hopeful that if in those 20 difficult years after 1789 we managed to "keep our Republic" that we will do so in these fractious times.

    I have also enjoyed your mystery series starring Abigail Adams. I would love to read more of them, any chance of you writing some more?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Barbara HamblyJanuary 2, 2022 at 12:52 PM

      This is indeed the place to ask me a question. (My website guy has been ill and when he feels better I need to ask him about a Q & A board on this site).

      I'm glad you liked Patriot Hearts. I wrote it at a publisher's suggestion, and it was from that story that I decided I wanted to try a "famous historical sleuths" series with the Adamses as detectives.

      I would LOVE to do at least three others in the series, but I've been told by several publishers that it "isn't commercial." That is, the first three didn't make enough money. Eventually, I hope to be in a financial position that I can write those three - and a number of other "it-isn't-commercial" projects - for self-publication via Amazon Kindle and Smashwords (the way I write novelettes about the characters from my fantasy serieses). Writing is an odd way to make a living, a combination of genuine love and business decisions, particularly if there is no second income in the household.

      But sometimes these things come through. (A fantasy that went seven years without a buyer suddenly came to life last summer, for instance).

      So the answer is yes, I hope, in time and with luck. I will say, I loved writing a detective story whose sleuths are hard-core Puritans so the investigation comes to a screeching halt every Sunday - and researching what the New England Puritans actually believed was a valuable addition to my world-view.

      I'm glad you like that series. Thank you.

      Delete
    2. Historical Fiction/Mystery FanJanuary 4, 2022 at 5:29 AM

      Thank you so much for getting back to me. I will hold out the hope that Abigail will reappear. I finished the last chapter of Patriot Hearts last night. And now I am wondering if there was a historical figure that Sophie Hallam was based on (even though you said she was a fictional character) .
      My best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year.

      Delete
    3. Barbara HamblyJanuary 4, 2022 at 10:23 AM

      No, Sophie was purely my own invention. If I was writing a story about the first 3 First Ladies (+ Sally) I needed a through-line character to tie them together - although Abigail and Martha really knew each other, and Abigail knew Sally, and Martha and Dolley really were good friends, and Dolley really knew Sally. But, I did a good deal of research about the fate of the Loyalists (and Aaron Burr would go to bed with pretty much anyone...)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Even More Fun With Research

Image
Here's an old one, to remind me that I really do need to get back to painting. Having turned in the manuscript for the next Hollywood murder mystery just before Christmas, I've been putting together outlines for what I hope will be the next Ben January book (# 21!) and the next Hollywood book (which will take place mostly in the film industry in New York, which was just as much a center of motion picture production in the mid-'20s as Hollywood was, and a lot more fun after hours). Writing up an outline is like pre-writing the book. I, at least, have to figure out what happens, and how; who's the villain, who gets killed, and why. Any murder mystery is actually two stories: the story of the crime itself, and then the story of how Mr. Holmes or Lord Peter or Professor Tamar figures out whodunnit. And, in my case at least, to give a picture of the world, the society, in which such events take place, which is a large part of the fun. It's one reason I love historicals. ...
Read more

Sample Post

Image
     A girl once went to the fair to hire herself for servant. At last a funny-looking old gentleman engaged her, and took her home to his house. When she got there, he told her that he had something to teach her, for that in his house he had his own names for things.      He said to her, "What will you call me?"    " Master or mister, or whatever you please, sir," says she.      He said, "You must call me master of all masters . And what would you call this?" he said pointing to his bed.      "Bed or couch, or whatever you please, sir."     " No, that's my barnacle . And what do you call these?" said he, pointing to his pantaloons.     "Breeches or trousers, or whatever you please, sir."     "You must call them squibs and crackers . And what would you call her?" he said pointing to the cat.     "Cat or kit, or whatever you please, sir."     "...
Read more

Entirely Too Much Fun With Research

Image
  My apologies for the long hiatus, once again. In addition to finishing the usual round of line-edit + copy-edit on the next Hollywood book, Saving Susy Sweetchild, a lot of things to do: minor health fixes, the Gallifrey One convention, and the Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Book Collectors Show (and a couple of truly lovely evenings with friends). The Paperback Show is always entertaining. In addition to a staggering number of old paperbacks - many of which I remember reading in the '60s (there was a bookstore on Holt Blvd in Pomona that I'd bike down to on Saturdays: we referred to it as "Dirty Earl's" because of the goods on offer in the store's back room) - there are dealers specializing in the cover-art of the 1940s-1970s era. And, the show (and especially Tom Lesser - Thank you, Tom!) makes sure it has a day-long rotation of authors to sign those paperbacks. In addition to chats with fan and writer friends, I found such things as English translations of...
Read more