Monday, October 25, 2010

Thought for the Day

I hate a lot of strange things. Not that the things are strange themselves, but that it is strange to feel an emotion strong enough to name "hate" towards them. Yesterday, I added a new entry: People who use absolutes seriously in conversation with no intention of owning up to them.

For example, I watch Hoarders on A&E (warning, link has auto play) (If you have not seen this show, watch it, it will make you a cleaner person if nothing else!), a show about, well, hoarders, people who obsessively fill their houses with trash until they're climbing over piles of cat shit to get to their kitchen. I'm not exaggerating! In these shows, child protective services gets involved a lot, because several of these people have young children living in this filth. When this happens, the hoarder will always cry into the camera and declare that they love their children more than ANYTHING and they'll do ANYTHING for them.

Then, of course, when the crew tries to CLEAN their child's filthy room, which the hoarder made filthy by filling it with their junk and/or (mostly and) cats, the hoarder pitches a fit about their stuff getting thrown away an has a meltdown.

This is about where I hit the ceiling. How can someone stand there and say they love their children absolutely and will do anything for them, and then fill their baby's room with trash? How does that even get started? I know there's mental illness involved and I should be more understanding, but this is why I could NEVER be a therapist or a psychiatrist. If I was on that show, I would stand that hoarder in front of every piece of trash and say "This broken lamp or your child, choose." And when they started fighting back, I'd say "I thought you'd do anything for your child?"

Hoarder: "I would, but-"

Me: "There's no but in anything."

I guess I watch too much anime and read too much fantasy, because I think that, when you declare an absolute in seriousness, especially something like your dedication to your family, those shouldn't be empty words.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Amazon.com is my master now

I'm sick today. However, I am ruminating on how pleased I am to be sick in the age of laptops.

Couple more reviews popping up!


Civilian Reader had some lovely things to say, for which I was very pleased. Also, Atsiko, one of my book winners came through stunningly with a very in depth and thoughtful review. (If anyone else has posted reviews I'm missing, please let me know!) More reviews are showing up on Amazon, mostly positive ones, (and some from contest winners!) for which I am very grateful. There's something about Amazon reviews that make me freeze like a deer in the headlights. I think it's because I do almost all my book buying off Amazon.com and I often depend on their reviews to make that final purchasing decision. This makes me give my reviews on Amazon special weight.

Confessional of the Day
I used to day dream a lot about being an author, but one of the things I never thought I'd do is obsessively check my Amazon sales rank. I know it's meaningless, I know Amazon.com represents a pathetic sliver of the book market, I know I am wasting my life checking the page every hour, but I can't stop. It has become an obsession, because it's the only number I have. As someone who plays a lot of videogames, I have a tense relationship with numbers. They must always be moving higher, or in this case, lower, whatever direction is good. They can not be stagnating.

Every time I check my Amazon rank, my husband reminds me of this. But... but... OH GOD WHY AM I IN THE 100,000s? Wait, now I'm in the 10,000s! That's cool! I am not a failure and... NOOOOO, 40,000. X___X

Amazon, your power terrifies me.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Reviews and News

First up, a very, very nice and thoughtful review from Mihir at Fantasy Book Critic. I especially love the comparison of the League of Storms to a magical military. This makes me a very happy cat for reasons that will become more apparent as the books come out... and that's all I'll say about that :3.

Next, my lovely UK editor Anna emailed to let me know that The Spirit Thief has officially launched in the UK! Hooray! For all my readers across the pond, I very much hope you enjoy the lovely edition of the book Orbit's UK division has put out.

And finally, all the books from my 24 hour book giveaway have been shipped to the winners! Most went out on Monday, but I mailed the last 2 yesterday. Now everything rests in the hands of the US post office, take that as you will!

In totally unrelated news, WOW Cataclysm comes out on December 7th. The fourth Eli book is due December 1. This is lovely timing, because I want to gorge on Warcraft non-stop, and that need to play is the most powerful motivator to get the book on time done I could ask for.