lishmcbride

Books!

As promised (in the short video you may or may not have watched) here are some of the books I've been reading. 

Encyclopedia of the Undead by Curran was my go-to research book this week. Those torn up little pieces of paper have been in there since 2008 (!) when I first wrote Hold Me Closer, Necromancer. Curran also has a vampire book.

Putting the Fact in Fantasy edited by Koboldt is a fun book for fantasy writers. It's full of essays from a variety of write...

Checking in post or Why I Haven't Posted Fun Things

Things I forgot to mention in this video--I have two friends visiting, got some freelance work on my plate I couldn't turn down, and it's almost my birthday. 

Not that it almost being my birthday impacts anything whatsoever, I just wanted people to know. Ha!

Hope your week hasn't involved a single urgent care visit.

-Lish

BTLN Chapter 12

Well, I made it through last weekend somehow. I did the math--on Saturday I talked for 6 hours. That's a lot, even for me. But I met a lot of cool writers and had a good time.

I finally got the playlist post updated. Yay! You get to see an old...well, not friend, but a returning character in this chapter and the next. It's been fun to write. 

Hope you're having a good Wednesday! If you have any questions, thoughts, or feelings, feel free to share them in the comments!

-...

ECCC Panel

If any of you are there, come by and say hi!

I’m Teaching a Class!

Sometimes I teach writing workshops through Hugo House. The upside of this one is that it’s virtual, so anyone can attend if they’re so inclined. (Well, and if you pay the fee, I guess.) This one should be pretty fun and there are a few spots left! Pass it along to any writer friends you might have! More info here.

BTLN Chapters 10 & 11

This was just going to be one chapter, because chapter 10 is short, but I thought it worked better as two. I could have posted them separately I guess, but I figured if I had both of them finished, why not? So here you go!

Hope you're having a good weekend, wherever you are!

-Lish

BTLN Chapter 9

Finally! Delayed by lack of sleep for several days (thanks, dogs) and some fun mental health stuff, I finally got the chapter done! Wooo! At least it's on the longer side for you. Enjoy!

-Lish

Rough Around the Hedges Snippet

I'm working not he next Sam chapter--it's half done--and I wanted to get it to you before I took two days off to celebrate my anniversary. (Our anniversary was last month, but this was when we could get away.) Last year we did the same thing, spending two nights at a little hotel about an hour from our house. We realized that it was the first time we'd ever gone on vacation by ourselves--no kids or roommates or friends. It was our 20 year anniversary.

So.

Clearly we needed to do t...

BTLN Chapter 8

Finally! New chapter! Enjoy!

BTLN Catch Up and Welcome!

We're had some new folks join us (thank you! Welcome!) and since I'm working on new chapters to post for Big Trouble, Little Necromancer, I thought I'd put together what I've posted so far so that the new folks can catch up and my regulars (thank you!) can refresh if they so choose. I tweaked a line or two, but basically this is stuff I've already posted.

After rereading HMCN & NTS and the first 7 chapters of BTLN, I thought for sure I could shake loose ideas for what happens next.....

Final NTS annotated reread!

We're at the finish line! This week has been brutal for most of us and it's only Tuesday. (Hahahaha--I found out today that my dog needs a 10-12,000 dollar surgery and we had to spend 1200 on tires yesterday, so I basically just want to melt into the ground now.)

The end is full of short chapters, so I barreled through because this has gone on long enough and we all want to get back to Big Trouble, Little Necromancer. Some of these chapters don't have much in the way of Easter Eggs, so ...

NTS Annotated Reread Chapters 21-24

Things have been busy around here--I did a book fair at a craft brewery last weekend. Books and beer! It was a lot of fun and got to talk to a lot of lovely people. Plus a virtual event last week and this week I'll be at Brick & Mortar books in Redmond, WA with Kendare Blake. Very fun.

I also went back to Drag Queen bingo, which is at a local senior center. It's a fun event and raises a lot of funds for the senior center. This was my second time going and it was a blast. I won absol...

Yard Sale Cauldron

Yesterday I talked about how hard it has been for me to write. Then, as I usually do on Tuesdays, I finished all of my trivia questions, because I host a trivia night at a local brewery. I host trivia every Tuesday and it's a lot of fun. Anyway, as I was sitting at the bar finishing my beer, I checked Twitter. I saw a post from Fairy Tale Fragments (@fairytaletext) on there. The post was, "There once lived a swan maiden who had a magic cauldron."

And I though, "Ooooh, I like that one." ...

Coping Mechanisms and NTS Annotated Reread Chapters 16-20

I actually read these chapters last week. I made notes. And then I...did nothing. I'm not quite sure if I'm dealing with creator burnout (I wrote a LOT in the last 2-3 years), general "I feel like the world is on fire" stuff, exhaustion from all the house stuff and life stuff I've been dealing with, career frustration...but I suspect it's a delightful "all of the above" situation. 

All of which has made me want to hibernate. I've barely been writing. I have been reading a ton, but ...

Check in and NTS Annotated Reread chapters 13-15

I unpacked my books! I have...too many books. The last two-three weeks have been bananas. Packed everything up, painted many walls, had new floors put in, and now we're putting everything back. Oh, and my son had his tonsils out and I had a book come out. I'm tired.

The book coming out has been an interesting experience. I mean, really, I have no idea what I'm doing, publishing a book myself. I'm also a big fan of doing things I don't know how to do, because that's how you learn. Still,...

Mother's Day Text Exchange

I haven't been able to continue the reread because first I was slammed with my copy edits for A Little Too Familiar (Out next week!) and then I had to box up most of my belongings so we could paint before the builders came in to replace 3/4 of the flooring in our house. And my dog tore her ACL, apparently. So it's been a bit bonkers around these parts. I'm currently in my half-torn up living room. "It will be great when it's done" has become our mantra.

I wanted to thank you all for you...

NTS Annotation chapters 8-12

Welcome back to the annotation! Let's get right to it, shall we?

Chapter 8--(Slow Ride by Foghat). Enter Minion! So Minion is obviously Keanu Reeves. Minion might give you the idea that I don't like or respect Keanu Reeves. This has never been the case. I love Keanu Reeves. (Have you seen Always Be My Maybe? He's hilarious in that movie. I even have a Keanu Reeves coloring book.) I think my agent and I had been brainstorming famous people to turn into zombies, and he came up with James'...

NTS Annotated Reread--chapters 4-7

The last two weeks have been a doozy. We decided on an actual release date for A Little Too Familiar (May 17, 2022!), which is great...but I still need to finish reading the pass pages (pass pages are the ones you get after the book has been formatted and designed and you read through them to catch any formatting errors or last minute typos), line up events, and figure out a bunch of other stuff. Between that and the HMCN and NTS rereads...I'm so tired of my own words. Ha! I would really like...

Virtual Event

This is tomorrow (Thursday) and I wanted to give you all a head’s up because it’s a fun virtual event, a fundraiser, AND we’ll be giving away a super sweet prize pack!

NTS Annotated Reread

A few days later than planned, but I made it. Woo! Let's jump right in, shall we?

So the title and the cover:

NTS Only ever had the one title (except when it was being drafted in which case it was Necromancing 2: Electric Bugaloo which is how I title all of my sequels.), and honestly I thought I'd have to argue for it more. Marketing didn't fight me on this one. Titles are hard and I've always liked my Necromancer titles best and usually people like them...but the fun of ...

Annotated HMC,N Chapters 24-31

Cornered has the Frank origin story in it--as in how he met the crew. I haven't read it in ages, and I've always felt a little weird about it. I love Frank. He's the most vulnerable of the crew in some ways, and he's grown into himself, which has been great to see. But the premise of this anthology was stories of bullying and I was told that they knew I used humor and I should feel free to use that. Which is really difficult to do because bullying is really awful. Then again, humor is a copin...

HMC,N Annotation Chapters 19-23

I know what you're thinking--Lish, that's not a HMC,N cover. It's not! I'm out of those. But this collection does include the short story Death & Waffles, which was the first ever appearance of Ashley. I wrote it for my writing workshop in my MFA, and I liked Ashley so much that I worked her into HMC,N. No regrets there. It's possible you've read the Ashley story elsewhere--I think my publisher bundled it together with a partial of HMCN and packaged it as a novella which confused the hell...

HMCN Annotated Reread Chapters 11-19

The paperback cover! I do adore this one. It was shiny once upon a time. I don't think it's shiny anymore. Authors generally have zero say in covers and I think I've been pretty lucky so far.

I lost several days to getting my taxes together. I don't even do them myself--mine are too weird--but just gathering everything and mailing it off to my accountant is an undertaking. This year will be even more weird than most--usually it's me with several different W2s and whatnot, but my husband...

HMCN Annotated Read Through (Part 2)

I've been enjoying looking up the other covers of HMCN for this. The one you're looking at here was the ARC, or Advance Reader Copy that was sent out to librarians, booksellers, and so forth prepublication. I loved this cover a whole heck of a lot. Unfortunately, at the time, B&N didn't like illustrated covers on YA books and told us that if we didn't change the cover, they wouldn't stock it. Since I was a debut author, we decided not to fight it, which I regret a little bit, especially s...

HMCN Read Through Fun

First, let's all enjoy the french cover of HMC,N. I don't know what's going on there, but I love it. 

I started reading through HMC,N so I can get back to writing more pages of BT,LN. At first I thought maybe we could do a read-a-long, but then thought, well, I need to get through these fast, so maybe not. But I did think it would be fun to do a sort of annotation for you as I read. Behind the scenes, if you will. This might keep me from the despair of reading my own work. (It is v...

A Snippet of A Little Too Familiar and early blurbs!

First, let's all enjoy the cookie I got to eat this weekend. I went to an interactive Alice and Wonderland cocktail experience with some fellow authors and we had a blast. It was nice to leave my house and see people--which is good because this week has been super busy with writing stuff, my oldest kid randomly getting hives and having to take him to urgent care, my youngest getting into trouble in school again (and he might need glasses?) and last night one of the crowns on my molars just FE...

A little bit about Crises of Faith and The Forky Phase

I've been talking to a lot of my writing buddies lately about what I've recently been referring to as the "Forky Stage." Now I'd like to be clear--this stage has long been a part of my process, it's just that until recently, I didn't have a good name for it.

There comes a time in any project where I've worked on it so much for so long that I'm too close and I can no longer tell if the book is good or not. This isn't me being coy or fishing for compliments or even true despair over the b...

Feast or Famine

Writing is one of those "hurry up and wait jobs" where work is also either thin on the ground, or a flood. This week I was getting back to Sam and friends...and it was a flood. I spend the last month or so really head down getting those edits on A Little Too Familiar (adult comedic fantasy romance) done, which wasn't helped by my laptop dying and eating the last 30 pages of changes. I finally, FINALLY finished house and got them off to the copy editor, when I got a message from my agent that ...