Julia at All Things Urban Fantasy has posted the first professional review of Geekomancy (as in not from a blurbing author, family, etc.)
http://allthingsuf.com/2012/06/early-review-geekomancy-michael-r-underwood.html
Thanks to another great Saturday last week and diligence writing during lunch, my wordcount total for this week was 6123, almost 1K better than week one. Total wordcount for the sequel stands at 26,053.
The story is really heating up, and I found the right time to bring back my favorite secondary character from Geekomancy — though his and Ree’s dynamic is now quite different than when it started. Writing this sequel is much harder than writing the first one, as the stakes are higher, but I’m also a better writer now, and I’m expecting more from myself, while still allowing the first draft to be a first draft.
Also, we are now 10 days out from the Geekomancy pubdate. Get ready for a promotion explosion, folks. It’s going to be awesome.
My friend, screenwriter and Hollywood insider Megan Christopher interviewed me about Geekomancy for her blog. While you’re there, you should check out her delightful web series “Quest for Comic-Con.”
http://meganchristopher.net/the-power-of-nostalgia-interview-with-the-author-of-geekomancy/
I’m very happy to have three bookstore events scheduled so far, where I’ll be doing readings, signings, trivia contests, and more.
“But Mike, this is an eBook? How will you sign copies for people?” you might ask. I know I did. But I think I’ve got a pretty good solution cooked up. My tablet lets me take snapshots of pictures and then draw on them with a stylus, so I can create images of the Geekomancy cover, sign them to readers, and then send them by email. It’s not quite the same as a signed paper book, but I think it’s pretty cool. I have also made up book plates (aka business cards), which I can sign with a sharpie. I will also sign other things, as requested (character sheets, RPG books, T-Shirts, etc.) because hey, why not?
The Official Book Launch Party will be on Saturday July 21st, at my friendly local Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Bloomington, IN. I’m very happy that the Bloomington B&N is hosting the launch party, since I used to work at the store, and my time as a barista and bookseller was the start of my career in publishing. I’ll be doing a reading, signing (see above), and hosting a geek trivia contest and a Geeky T-Shirt contest.
I’m also very honored that a couple of my independent bookstore friends will be hosting me for events during my traveling season for work this summer.
Here’s the current list of events!
July 13th, 7:00 PM at CoffeeTree Books in Morehead, KY. Postponed for now. Stay tuned for details.
July 17th, 7:00 PM at McLean and Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, MI.
July 21st, 6:00 PM at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Bloomington, IN. Facebook page for the event is here.
Thanks to a strong start last Saturday, my wordcount for week one of the 2012 Clarion West Write-a-Thon is 5217, more than half of my overall 10,000 word pledge.
I’m hoping to continue this success and keep up the momentum for another five weeks. 5K a week for these six weeks would be phenomenal, since I’m at just over 20K words in the sequel to Geekomancy. Keeping this level up would get me to 45K by the end of July, way ahead of schedule.
I’ll be putting in another afternoon of writing today, so I’m crossing my fingers for another 2K+ Saturday. The fingers will of course have to be uncrossed to type, otherwise I’d have to type quite slowly.
My publisher, Pocket Star, has approved a very cool offer for Geekomancy. Starting with the release day and going for a couple of weeks (exact time frame to be determined), Geekomancy will be available for a special sale price of $1.99! That’s a 66% cut for your benefit! The idea with the sale price will be to get more attention for the book and make it very easy to hand-sell at San Diego Comic-Con. If food and drinks cost as much at SDCC as thy do at BEA, then you should be able to buy two copies of Geekomancy for the same price as a Coke Zero. I mean, two bucks! My book will be cheaper than a pack of Magic: The Gathering and give more entertainment hours than two movies (depending on how fast you read).
For a new author, exposure is nearly as important as raw sales (though sales are always important), and this is a great way to get more attention for the book. I will be waving the flag for the sale a great deal, as will Pocket. Getting a lot of sales in a limited time pushes a book up the sales rankings and gets it in front of a lot more buyers as they browse casually, which leads to more chances to sell and more chances for those readers to recommend it to other readers.
For those of you who have already pre-ordered the book (thank you!), you should get the book at the special price rather than the normal $5.99. Your early adoption will be rewarded, as is only proper.
When I know exactly how long the promotion will last, I’ll be sure to post that as well, so we can do everything possible to give people the chance to get in on the ground floor with my first novel.
Quick Made-up FAQ:
Q: But Mike, what will this do to your royalties?
A: I will get the same percentage of sales, but the revenue will be lower per sale. Since eBooks don’t get returned from shelves, there is less of an impetus for an eBook to sell OMG ALL THE COPIES RIGHT NOW!!! like there is for paper books placed into physical bookstores. Simple math says I’ll need to sell 3x as many books at the sale price to make as much in royalties, but since it is a limited-time offer, all sales after that introductory push will be at the normal price ($5.99), barring other promotions that Pocket might decide to run.
Q: Where can I buy Geekomancy again?
A: Geekomancy is available on Barnes & Noble.com, Amazon.com, iBooks, and will be available on other platforms like Google eBooks.
Q: I don’t have an erader. Can I still enjoy Geekomancy?
A: Of course! Most of the eBook platforms have downloadable programs to read their books on a PC/Mac/Laptop.
Almost halfway through Week One of the Clarion West Write-a-Thon, I have gotten off to a great start with 3893 words, mostly from a great session of writing on Saturday (technically before the Write-a-Thon, but I’m counting it since I wrote on Saturday that weekend and not Sunday.
Here’s my participant page (where you can sponsor me — hint, hint) http://www.clarionwest.org/writeathon/michaelrunderwood
The Write-a-Thon is taking sponsorships/donations through the end of the workshop, so you have a bit over five weeks to sponsor me. I initially pledged 10,000 words in these six weeks, but I hope that my strong performance so far will let me annihilate that goal and keep going. Word count will likely slow down when travel gets more intense for my day job and when Geekomancy comes out, but I need to keep making words so that there can be another geek-tastic adventure with Ree next year.
Check in soon for a big announcement about Geekomancy‘s release! Excitement! Adventure!
For those of you who don’t know, I attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop in 2007, and it was a huge boost to my writing career. Clarion West allows writers to focus on craft and critiquing for six weeks. Most writers are urged to write a story each of the six weeks as well as critiquing 3-5 short stories by their classmates each day during the week. It’s often described as Boot Camp for writers, and while I haven’t done a military boot camp, my Clarion West experience was certainly a crucible. I’m still applying and re-interpreting lessons learned at the workshop, and Clarion West also gave me a community of peers, most of whom I’m still in touch with and some of whom I see once or twice a year at conventions, keeping up and basking in one another’s successes.
Digression for plugs — Success like Cassie Alexander’s NIGHTSHIFTED, first a three book (and counting!) series about a nurse that works in the paranormal ward of her local hospital; David Constantine’s PILLARS OF HERCULES, a Roman Steampunk action-adventure novel that includes Steam Engines, a Possibly-Divine Alexander, and the secrets of Atlantis; Melinda Thielbar’s MANGA MATH series of manga about kids in a dojo that have to use math and martial arts to solve mysteries; and others!
I wrote my first salable novel after Clarion West (though it hasn’t sold yet), and I’ve tried to keep some connection to the workshop by participating in the Write-a-Thon most of the summers since.
For more info about the Clarion West Write-a-Thon, head here: http://www.clarionwest.org/writeathon
I’ve pledged to write 10,000 words and am hoping to raise $150 this year. My participant page is here, in case you feel like sponsoring me. 🙂
I’ve been enjoying the Geek & Sundry YouTube channel, especially the Sword & Laser video show, but today, I want to talk about the awesome that is Tabletop.
I’ve been a gamer nearly all of my life, but I became a Gamer at the tender age of nine, when classmates at school invited me to play D&D with them. My first character was a Barbarian with a Dune Buggy, and it was all downhill from there.
Like many geeks of my generation, large portions of my teen years were spent in front of dining room tables, consoles, and PCs, playing games of all types: video, board, collectible card, strategy, miniatures, and so on.
Wil Wheaton had a distinctively different upbringing than I did, having been a child star and all, but this thing we have in common: a great love for tabletop games. Wheaton brings this love to Tabletop, a web series where he invites friends and colleagues to hang out and play board games, card games, and strategy games. Wheaton has taken up a role of advocacy for these games, touting their ability to train critical thinking, strategy, teamwork, and to strengthen social connections. But rather than doing it in a Suzanne Somers “Please adopt this hungry d12. Just a quarter a day can help it get the crayons it needs to have clearly defined numbers…” kind of way, more a “this is really fun, let me give you the jist and then we will show you!”
The gameplay shown in Tabletop is intentionally heightened, as the players are clearly ‘ON’ in terms of giving a performance to maximize watchability, but it is usually not a huge stretch from an animated game between good friends.
One of the benefits of the show for me (and I hope many others) is the chance to introduce loved ones to the joy of tabletop games. I’ve bought several of the games featured (at my friendly local game store, of course), and shared them with my girlfriend, who is very gracious about sharing my passions, and whom I hope to turn to the Dork side of the Force (at least a little, if she wants).
I’ve embedded the first episode here to give a sense of the show.
What are some of your favorite tabletop games? Anything you think would be especially good for the show?
I’m honored to have three blurbs from fellow authors and advance readers of GEEKOMANCY , which we’ll get to use for the initial release of the book (including one on the book’s cover, perchance).
Underwood’s Geek Fu is strong–and he’s not afraid to use it. GEEKOMANCY is fun, fresh and full of geek culture references that will have you LOLing to the very last page. This book is one hundred percent pure awesomesauce and totally FTW.
— Mari Mancusi, award winning author of The Blood Coven Vampire series
Modern, sleek, and whip-smart, GEEKOMANCY is a wonderful blend of geek and pop culture — you’ll find yourself grinning knowingly at least every other page. And Ree is the perfect protagonist to navigate Geekomancy’s world — geek enough to hold her own, yet human enough for me to be deeply invested in her struggles. I can’t wait to read the next one!”
— Cassie Alexander, author of NIGHTSHIFTED
If Buffy hooked up with Doctor Who while on board the Serenity, this book would be their lovechild. In other words, GEEKOMANCY is full of epic win.
— Marie Lu, author of the Legend trilogy
Now back to doing my authorial happy dance. We’re less than one month out from GEEKOMANCY’s release, and I am reaching the stage of excited where it requires deliberate effort to calm down at times. I’m also hard at work on the sequel, so that there can be another adventure with Ree Reyes to share with readers next year.