J.A. Pitts

Honeyed Words in mass market today

Huzzah!  Honeyed Words hits the shelves today in mass market.  New price point, new opportunities to find new readers.  All happy making.  I just completed a give-away on Goodreads and thought it was a success.  I’ll be mailing out 3 copies of the book in the next few days.

Having  a book launch is a lot like sending your children to school for that first time.  There’s very little you can do at this point.  You’ve done all the hard work and now they have to explore the world on their own.  Of course, with children, you usually get them home at some point that day, but with a book you just watch and hope it finds its legs.

Here’s hoping Honeyed Words finds its way into the hearts of readers.  The more the merrier.

Less than a month until Forged in Fire makes its debut.  June 19th.  This summer is going to be a busy one.

Delayed gratification – it’s a good thing

I’ve got a pretty good handle on delayed gratification.  Seriously.  Stop laughing.  Hey, I didn’t buy Skyrim nor Rage when they came out because I gotta wait on that kind of stuff until after I hit the NY Times Best Seller list, so maybe never.

Honeyed Words, the second book in the Sarah Beauhall series has been out almost a year and is doing well.  Not breaking any records or anything, but survivable.  The real kick in sales should come in a few days when the Mass Market is released.  May 22nd to be exact.  You can pre-order it now, of course, but it should hit stores in a few short days.  I know when Black Blade Blues hit Mass Market, sales spiked nicely.  I’m hoping for a better showing this time around.

The funny thing is there’s another book releasing on May 22nd that I am also looking forward to with great gusto.  Mira Grant’s Blackout.  OMG. I love this series so much.  I think Feed and Deadline were definitely the best books I read last year.  NO question in my mind.  And I read a lot of good books.

So, when you are considering your precious book budgets and what to spend your time on, I really hope you pick up Honeyed Words after you buy Blackout.  I’m just sick that I can’t read it the second I have it in my hot little hands.  I’m too busy.  But it will sit on my night stand as the absolute next thing I read, you know, as soon as I finish the novel crit I owe a wonderful friend, and the story critiques I owe for two different conventions.

Oh, and the novel I am dying to read for a writer I just met who I’ll be sharing a podium with in San Francisco on my upcoming book tour in June (more news to follow).

Then there’s the whole, finish the current novel I’m working on as well (Hearth & Home, book 4 in the Sarah Beauhall series where I’m currently waiting to see if I get a new contract from Tor).   And write the commencement address I give on June 12th, start making headway on my new chairmanship I’ve accepted (curriculum advisory committee for prison continuing education here in Washington).

Some of these I’ll be making separate blog posts about in the coming weeks.  Oh, yeah, I should be blogging more as well.  Sleep?  Who needs sleep?

When I type it out like this I get a little overwhelmed.

So far in June I have 16 days with events and only 14 days with nothing but the day jobbe, family and novel writing.

I need a vacation.

Another beautiful day

Got up at 5:30 this morning to row.  Makes the third time this week.  I rowed twice last week.  I’m starting to feel like it doesn’t totally suck.  Maybe by next week I’ll start enjoying it again.

It’s funny how quickly I lose the love of working out, especially when I’m overwhelmed with work and writing — the work I do where I don’t punch a clock.  But, eventually my brain recalls that when I work out I have more energy, not less.  Giving up some sleep in the morning, means I have more energy all throughout the day.  I’m not sure why I forget that and lost my momentum, but I guess it has to do with inertia and the universal thought that a body at rest wants to stay at rest, or something equally counter-productive.

So, I’m rowing again.  Plan to keep this up, but setting small goals.  I constantly get sunk by the big goals.  Too much risk, too much chance of failure. Little goals allow for small victories that can lead to large victories.

Another good night of writing last night as well.  The rowing is helping clear the cobwebs and exhaustion from my long days in the office.  I wish meetings and analysis work burned far more calories than I’m seeing now.  Also, while I’m wishing, I wish Mt. Dew was a health food and offered some sort of nutritional value.  As it is, I’ve given up the soda again as well.

I’m not an idiot.  Really, I’m not.  But I back slide into idiotic habits.  One of the things I’d tell my younger self if given the opportunity (besides buying Apple stock) would be to never start drinking Mt. Dew.  That stuff is horrible for you, but oh, so tasty.  I’m broken that way.

Novel is coming along well.  The outline is keeping me on track, now that I’ve totally rearranged it, and gutted about a third. On track to have my best writing week since the Rainforest Writers retreat in March.

Next week I go to Miscon.  Looking forward to this con.  Will be my first visit there.  I’ve heard excellent things.  I’m very excited that George R. R. Martin is the guest of honor.  I recently read the first book and watched the first season of Game of Thrones.  Very nice stuff.  The structure of the book aligns very well to the small screen.  Can’t wait to start the next season and the next book.

Now it’s time for a shower and the day jobbe.  Lots of good things in store today.  I truly love my jobs, both of them.