I Make ArtZ!

In the Albuquerque, New Mexico area this Thanksgiving weekend? Looking for a fun place to shop, without the Black Friday lunacy and a way to support small business?

Look no farther, it's the Corrales Holiday Art Fest, featuring 40 artists, including yours truly. Admission is free. Most of the artists will be participating in a 10% off coupon program. (At our booth, Adobe Dragon, the coupon will apply to any purchase over $50.)

I will also have copies of my book, The Music of Chaos on hand. (On Saturday, November 26, I will be at a group book signing at the nearby Old Church from 1pm to 5pm.)

Come on out to Corrales, New Mexico, November 25-27, for art and fun.

The Music of Chaos, Free Book Contest

Free urban fantasy book! Free art! That right, free.

Win a free copy of my quirky urban fantasy, The Music of Chaos. It's easy. Just click this link to go my contest page over on Romance Junkies. There, you'll see the following question:

"What is the name of ...'the brave soul who had dared the displeasure of my company'?"

The answer can easily be found in Chapter One of The Music of Chaos. (Seriously, you can just skim through the text. He is the only other person in the scene.)

The contest runs through August 31, 2011, so you have time to enter multiple times. While you're there, check out some of the other authors/books that are participating in this contest.

***The Music of Chaos***
***Back Cover Summary***

"My century long career as a Wolfe did bear a stronger resemblance to a blooper reel than a profession..."

Regan O’Connell has a PhD and a good job as a project manager with a consulting company. Unbeknownst to her human co-workers, she’s 130 years old, and has a magical pedigree that includes vampires and elven royalty.

Immature by the standards of immortals, she has little control over the magic that simmers in her blood. For more than a century, she has worked as a secret operative for the vampire syndicate the Grey Brethren. For just as long, she has hidden her magical disability, struggling with one paranormal misadventure after another. Tired of her shenanigans, the Grey Brethren station her in Albuquerque, far out-of-the-way by paranormal standards.

The arrival of a mysterious user of chaotic magic—a world destroying power—spells the end of Regan’s trouble-free existence. Soon after, her vampire employers issue an ultimatum: find and neutralize the chaotic magic user or find a new job. To make matters worse, she has inadvertently started a war and developed a surprising attraction to a human. Sorting the mess out will require a little help from her friends, some growing up, and acceptance that she will never be a practitioner of conventional magic.

*****

Available from Decadent Publishing and Amazon.

Also available in ebook format.

The Music of Chaos, Now in Print

Looking for a fun summer read? The Music of Chaos, my light urban fantasy about a not-entirely competent paranormal secret agent, is now available in print.

The pitch:

"Blind dates are always a train wreck."
By day, Regan O'Connell is a highly respected project manager. By night, she's a Wolfe, a paranormal agent working for a vampire syndicate.

Her two worlds collide when a co-worker sets her up with tall, dark and sexy Jason Lake. Jason is a Holder, a member of an ancient, all-human organization dedicated to policing the activities of things that go bump in the night. Things like half-vampire Regan.

Falling for the wrong guy is the least of Regan's problems. There's a murderer on the loose, and his favorite weapon is chaotic magic, an erratic force with the power to rip holes in the fabric of the universe. And the best way to catch the killer is to get close to Jason, the man who is not only her enemy, but her prime suspect.

Set in New Mexico, The Music of Chaos features a vampire who'd rather drink beer than blood; a pacifist dark elf; and a half-vampire heroine who is better at math than magic. You can read a chapter--Free--here.

Buy it now (please) at Decadent Publishing or Amazon.

For those who want instant gratification, you can download the ebook version: Decadent Publishing, Amazon/Kindle, and B&N/Nook.

Buy a book or I'll kick this cute little greyhound.
(Kidding.)

Dear Ginia Bellafante, You're a Moron

And a sexist one at that.

My response to Ms. Bellafante's mind-rapingly stupid review of HBO's adaptation of George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy, A Game of Thrones, can be found here, at my new blog, But It's a Dry Heat.

But the short version is as follows:
A) That's not a review, as it doesn't bother to discuss plot and characterization,
B) Women do read fantasy, including Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series,
C) The book, yes, the book, contains sexual content. It wasn't added in to pander to an audience (or to make puritanical reviewers like Bellafante clutch their pearls),
D) Romance, chick lit and other forms of so-called women's' entertainment are not inferior art forms.

The Music of Chaos, Read Chapter One

Oops. I forgot to mention that Chapter One of The Music of Chaos is now available online. Free.

In related news, yep, I am working on the sequel. I'm about more than 2/3 of the way done. It's clocking in at about 90K words, but with revision, I should get it back down into the 80K range. This storyline is very Talis-centric, although, yep, Jason is back, as is Breas Montrose, the beer-drinking, sports-obsessed vampire. And Lex the, uh, lusty fairy.

In related news, The Canvas Thief, a paranormal romance set in the same "world" as The Music of Chaos, has been accepted by Carina Press. (This isn't the official announcement as I'm still reviewing the contract.) Breas is a character in The Canvas Thief. Here, he's in the odd role of mentor. Well, not so odd, as his "protege" is a thief.

Despite the presence of Breas, The Canvas Thief isn't a vampire paranormal romance. It's more like a retelling of Pygmalion. Like The Music of Chaos, it is set in New Mexico; this time, Santa Fe.

Anyhow, go check out Chapter One of The Music of Chaos. Please?

Another Sally Field Moment

In which I say, "You like me, you really like me."

The Music of Chaos, my quirky urban fantasy novel, scored another nice review.

Regan O'Connell is a Wolfe, part of a supernatural police force. She spends her evenings killing rogue lesser vampires and her days with computers at a mundane day job. She is half vampire and the daughter of one of the most powerful vampires on earth. She struggles daily not to be a disappointment to him. Her current assignment is in Albuquerque, New Mexico, hardly a hotbed of vampire activity, which is until lately. Someone is producing lesser vampires at an alarming rate and to complicate matters, two Holders, the Wolves human counterparts have been assigned to the city as well. An old flame, Breas, an ancient and incredibly powerful vampire, suddenly comes to town as well; making her wonder what exactly is going down in her previously quiet city.

Ms. Kirby has created a vivid and exciting world that I hope to visit again soon. The characters are colorful, bizarre, and real at the same time. I had no problem picturing each and every one of them. She let us in on just enough of the back story of each of the characters; enough to picture and know them, but leaving a bit more to learn about each of them. Regan is an interesting character; a dyslexic demi-vampire who uses music and math to do her magic. Her best friend Talis helped her through school, but the cheating is starting to catch up with her on this mission. The plot of this story is exciting and has many layers, the detail is extraordinary, and I was unable to put this book down until I got to the last page, and I didn't want to put it down even then. Hopefully there will be another Regan O'Connell story soon; I can never get too much of my new favorite anti-hero Breas.

Silly "Squeee!" from me.

The Music of Chaos is available as an ebook from Decadent Publishing, Amazon, Smashwords and at other online retailers.

Ebook Publishing for the Lazy and Unethical

As I noted in my posting below, my blog got plagiarized. The thieving site, is the ironically named Write (Create) Your Own Ebook (write-your-own-e-book.info/blog/judging-an-ebook-publisher-by-the-covers). I'm not including a clickable linky, because they don't deserve the linkage.

The site is selling a book on how to write a book without actually doing any of your own writing. They [site owners] demonstrate this with their blog, which steals other people's blog postings, without giving clear, attribution to the author. (Burying a link at the end, is not clear attribution.) The blog allows no comments; there is no contact information included; and their Whois information is hidden.

Some say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but, me I'd prefer cold, hard cash, or at least correct attribution--My name (P. Kirby) on the article--of my work.

Blog plagiarism is theft.

Cross posted at But It's a Dry Heat.