Where Personal and Professional Life Collide...

PSA: looking for that last-minute downloadable gift? Something to read on the long trip to Grandma's House? Pick up some DRM-free fiction at BookView Cafe! Act now, and catch our Holiday Sale

(and yes, this is a sideways reminder that my DRAGON VIRUS, FROM WHENCE YOU CAME, and PRACTICAL MEERKAT'S 52 BITS OF USEFUL INFORMATION on sale!) are available direct from the publisher here.... but also books from Vonda McIntyre, Pat Rice, Judith Tarr, Chris Dolley, and many others...)

You can also get DRAGON VIRUS from B&N and Amazon....

Most of the folk here, if you know me as a writer, know me for my novels.

I also write short fiction. Some of it's similar to my novels, and some of it...isn't.

Many years ago, I wrote a story. It was called "End of Days," and it was, in a phrase, one fucked-up child of a story. And I loved it, because it was so fucked-up, and painful, and true. And because it asked me to do things, writing-wise, and write things, theme-wise, that I'd never done before.

And then, a little while later, with entirely different things in my head, I wrote a story called "Dragons." And it was only mildly fucked-up, and in a totally different voice and time and setting, and - and they were set in the same world.

And I realized that they were the start and end points of.... call it a story-cycle.

And Dragon Virus came into being.

In 2011, Fairwood Press published it as a limited edition, signed hardcover.

And now, in 2012, BookViewCafe is publishing it as an ebook.

DRAGON VIRUS:
a tragedy in six evolutions / an evolution in six tragedies

Words, even beautiful words, cannot explain what this project means to me.  It was the challenge to me-as-writer, and me-as-human.  It's the challenge to all of us, to look at our beliefs, our expectations, our presumptions and our prejudices, and our innate, bastard/angel, human impulses.

I won't say I hope you enjoy it.  I do hope it moves you.




(yes, it will go up on Amazon and B&N, for those who prefer those markets. Just...not quite yet.) And it's now up at Amazon and B&N!

"A gripping adventure from start to finish, DRAGON VIRUS is highly recommended." -- Midwest Book Review

*happywriterdance*


As some of y'all know, this project was a work of pure writer affection & determination - but I had NO idea what sort of reaction would greet it. So every positive review from reviewer or reader, just... yays me. Especially when the reader gets it, really hears what I was trying to say with these stories....





originally published at <a href=http://www.lauraannegilman.net/blog/?p=977>Practical Meerkat</a>

Today is the first day in nine that I don't have to be anywhere/making nice to people. It would be almost like a vacation - except all this WORK that has to be done, including signing the finished copies of DRAGON VIRUS that came - all three boxes of 'em.

I was looking at it and saying to a friend "it's such a little thing, to pack such an emotional punch" and said friend gave me a Look, like "are you talking about the book, Gilman, or...?"

Yeah, okay. :-D

[I love this project so much. After many 100,000+ word novels, remembering that a scant 20,000 words can be equally effective in moving people is... nice. Yes.]


Anyway, this morning before the work starts (and the temps increase), I took the bike down to the local Greenmarket, returning triumphant with greens and roots and cheese. None of the bread looked particularly must-have, tho, so I may be making flatbread this afternoon to have with the cheese.

And I discovered that wine-sellers at Greenmarkets are Very Crafty. They a) know that a 3-pack box will just exactly fit on the back rack of an adult bike and b) cunningly have a box of short bungee cords to loan, to strap said box to said rack.

I declined.


And now, there are words to polish and books to sign and material to edit and it all has to be done TODAY because Sunday and Monday really ARE a vacation. Yay!

How are y'all spending the (USAn-long) weekend?

and lo, we have the final cover for DRAGON VIRUS (June 2011), and it is not only pretty but chock full of Nice Quotes. So why haven't you ordered your copy? Remember, once pre-order ends, the discounted price goes away.....

(limited, signed edition - once it's gone there will be no more!)

Anyway. See the pretty!

( behind the cut for those who DGAS )

The body and the brain both seem to have recovered from the Onslaught of the Cold, for which I am thankful. Of course, looking at my Must Do Before Tuesday list makes me just want to crawl back into bed....


Why Tuesday, you ask? Because that's when I fly out to Los Angles for the RT Booklovers' Conference. If you're going to be there, sing out here and we can make plans, because I'm trying to stay organized this trip...

(stop laughing. I said trying.)


Also: a reminder that there's still one (1) day of bidding left for an ARC of DRAGON VIRUS - plus a piece of original flash fiction!

And now I must go hurl myself at that to-do list....

First, the Good Thing:

I can now confirm that the intro to my story collection DRAGON VIRUS will be written by Walter Jon Williams. *does Snoopy dance* (never say anything until it's handed in, that's the rule). And now I am all verklempt because he Got It. And said nice things he didn't have to (yeah, it's An Introduction, but you can intro and not Discuss, and he Discuses. And that is Praise.)

[and there's still time to pre-order DRAGON VIRUS and not only save $3, but get $1 of my share sent to Doctors Without Borders for their Japan campaign!]



And the Less-Good Thing.

A blogger-reviewer gave PACK OF LIES a good review. But I'm not going to link it. Why?

Because she refers to Laurie Ann Gilman.

*headdesks into eternity*

EtA2: and the blogger has responded to my email and corrected the error. I leave the following comment up because it is an on-going thing, along with people who insist that they have the family-and-friends right to shorten my name without asking. Names are important.

Yes, it really does bother me that much when you get my name wrong. It's not that difficult to spell, it's really easy to pronounce, and for fuck's sake it's right there on the book cover in front of you.....


EtA: before anyone else accuses me of being a horrible no-good person for being annoyed when my name is mangled, yes I did drop the blogger a note pointing out the error, and no, I don't think it was malice or stupidity but carelessness. But it's my name and being called "Laurie" is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.

Ah well.