Go forth, and comment! You can choose any edition of the book you want if you’re one of the TWO winners.

(Also, it doesn’t say this in the post, but if you’d prefer a signed copy of The Iron Witch I’ll gladly send that instead.)

Thanks for sticking with me on this exciting/crazy/stressful/fun publishing ride! I appreciate it.

5 days to go in Australia…

6 days to go in the UK…

12 days to go in the US…

Though of course, you may see it sooner as books often sneak out onto the shelves a little early.

And what am I doing to celebrate? I am putting the finishing touches to this *cough*rough*cough* draft of The Stone Demon so that I can send it into my editor on Monday. I got a little delayed thanks to a 2-day Migraine of Doom(tm). But even though I’m fed up about that, I will not complain because I’m so excited that I have another book coming out!

Next week I’ll be blogging at a super-cool website to celebrate the release, and also Giving Stuff Away. Because that’s how I roll.

For now, it’s back to the manuscript! Have a great weekend.

There is even a picture of monkey over there. Follow the monkey!

(It makes sense if you read the blog post.)

Am I tired, after all the words and revisions and rewriting I’ve done?

Undoubtedly.

But am I happy to be creating and producing and not fighting myself?

Oh, hell yeah!

I promised a few people on Twitter that I’d write a blog post about my recent realisations on writer’s block, fear and resistance – as they apply to me - in the hopes that it might help others. And also so that I can finish figuring that stuff out because I do my best thinking on the page. But I don’t have time for that post right now. I am too busy writing, and it’s wonderful.

I am terribly behind on email and other important things. I have a book coming out next month. My taxes are due at the end of this month (*groan*), but it will all have to wait for just a little longer. My job, when it comes down to it, is to write books.

Which is what I’m doing now, and I have a good feeling that 2012 is going to be my most productive year yet. (Though I hope I didn’t just jinx it!)

The first name pulled from the virtual ‘hat’ (I actually used Random.org and an Excel spreadsheet) wins the book plus a $20 Amazon gift card:

Bailey

And the two ‘runners up’ who just get a signed book are:

Melissa Baudler

and

Michelle

Congratulations to all! Please email me with your full name and mailing address: writerkaz AT gmail DOT com

I just wanted to say – sincerely – thanks for all the entries (both here and on Goodreads), Facebook posts, tweets, etc. I promise to run another giveaway soon, and I will also be doing a bit of promo around the interwebs for The Wood Queen, so I’ll make sure to link to those when they go ‘live’. I intend giving away lots of copies of the book over the next month, so stick around. You might get lucky next time!

Oh, and here’s a cool thing:

Flux have put up a widget on their website where you can read the Prologue and first chapter of The Wood Queen a couple of weeks early. Check it out! Be warned: if you still haven’t read the first book, there are spoilers from the very first line…

So, I am super busy in the Writing Cave at the moment, but I haven’t forgotten the Australian edition of TWQ giveaway. I’ll be announcing the three names tomorrow THURSDAY, so check back then (although I will be emailing winners directly, rather than waiting for people to email me). There were so many entries that I had to put everyone into a spreadsheet! It all got a bit complicated, especially for a Kaz of Very Little Brain.* Thanks to everyone for their wonderful enthusiasm. I also need to collect names from the Goodreads entries before I can pull winners.

Today I’ll leave you with a few snippets from The Wood Queen for ‘Teaser Tuesday’. Two of these have appeared on my Facebook page before, so I thought it would be nice to include them here – all in one place. The third is a new snippet. Enjoy!

A little bit of Xan:

Donna tugged her steaming mug of coffee closer and watched Xan – who was shirtless – working in the open-plan kitchen…

[redacted for spoilers]

…She looked up and found Xan watching her, casually sexy in a pair of low-slung jeans and bare feet. He was holding a bag of bread in one hand.

“How many slices?”

The smell of eggs made her mouth water. “Four.”

He did the single eye-brow raise she’d always envied in Nav. “I like a woman with a healthy appetite.”

And a little bit of Navin:

“What are you doing here?”

“Oh,” Navin said. “I asked Maker if I could be here for the verdict.”

Donna almost cried with gratitude. “Really? You wanted to be here to support me?”

“Actually, I was kind of hoping to see you hauled off in handcuffs. Handcuffs are hot.”

Aaaand, a little bit of Donna (with Aunt Paige):

Donna fixed her with a determined expression. “You’re really going to make me go through with this?”

Genuine surprise slackened her aunt’s face. “Of course. What did you expect? That I could just wave a magic wand and make it all go away?”

“Honestly? I was hoping that maybe you could show a little trust in me. Can’t you do that, just this once?”

Aunt Paige’s eyes became guarded. “How can I trust you? After everything you did…” Her voice trailed off, but not before Donna heard the thread of uncertainty running through it.

“What I did, I did to save Navin. And Maker. Why can’t you understand that?”

“I do understand, Donna.” She took a hesitant step forward. “That’s just it. It’s not that I don’t understand; the problem is that I think you were wrong.”

–
*Winnie the Pooh reference, ftw!

Here’s a Friday Five of Randomness to see you through until next week:

1. Following the exciting news that I’m writing a comic book script, we now have confirmation that Stephen Downey (the current artist) will also be illustrating my one-shot. I’m very pleased as I love his work! More news as I have it. And thanks again for all the good wishes – this time I managed to reply to everybody. Well, almost everybody…

(Art by Stephen Downey)

2. I am woefully behind on a number of things, but I’m going to try very hard to take some of Jane Friedman’s advice in 2012 and be less hard on myself:

Say good-bye to guilt and obligation.

This is the hardest thing of all, because we’re so attached to our guilt and obligation.

The whole article is brilliant: The Secret to Finding the Time to Write, Market, Promote, and Still Have a Life. Read it if you’re struggling to find balance.

3. Talking of balance, I’m giving Tumblr another try. *shifty eyes* What? Here’s me on Tumblr, and I’m devoting it simply to quick posts/images related to things I love.

4. Kirkus reviewed The Wood Queen and I’m relieved and happy that they seemed to like it quite a bit. You won’t be able to read the full text until two weeks before the US release of the book unless you’re a subscriber, but they say things like:

Readers of the previous book will welcome this addition and wait impatiently for the next book in the series.

5. Back to news of my first baby book, and it seems that The Iron Witch will be released in France – in actual French! – on 25th January.

How cool is that? I’m not sure I have fully processed it. I mean, of course I knew we’d sold the rights aaages ago, and I no doubt mentioned it on the blog then (heh)… But to see a cover appearing on French websites is pretty incredible. I am so lucky! The new title is L’héritage des signes which I guess roughly translates as ‘The Heritage of the Marks’. I love that they’ve put emphasis on Donna’s tattoos in a different way.

And while we’re on the subject of foreign translations, I think the Italian edition will be out in March (but I don’t have an exact date yet). In Italy, they’re calling The Iron Witch something else too: Il libro perduto dell’alchimista (The Lost Book of the Alchemist).

Publishing is magical.

Have a great weekend!

P.S. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway before Monday.

So, my Australian copies of The Wood Queen arrived today – they’re so pretty! It’s also the earliest I’ve ever received author copies, as the book doesn’t release until next month. With that in mind, I’d love to give you a chance to get your hands on Donna’s second adventure a little early.

There will be THREE (3) prizes, and all are open to anybody in the world:

ONE (1) winner gets a signed copy of The Wood Queen along with a $20 Amazon.com gift card (or whatever the equivalent is in £s from Amazon UK). I have to pick Amazon as it’s the easiest for me to order gift cards from while in the UK.

TWO (2) winners will each get a signed Australian edition of The Wood Queen.

This giveaway closes end of the day Sunday, 15th January. I’ll announce the winners & get your books out to you ASAP.

TO ENTER:

Just leave a comment on this entry.

If you link to the contest on any of your social networking sites – doesn’t matter which, whether it’s a blog, Facebook, Twitter, and so on – then you’ll get TWO entries. (Maximum number of entries is TWO, it doesn’t matter how many times you promote the giveaway!) Just let me know where you told people about it in your comment.

Please be patient waiting for your comment to show up if you do include a link to where you spread the word, as you may get stuck in moderation. If you just want to tell me that you shared the giveaway on FB or retweeted on Twitter, etc. that’s fine. I will take your word for it.

That’s it! Happy New Year to you!

I actually managed to – finally – figure out what it is that I love so much about the film. Yes, it is violent, so be warned. But… still. I’m crazy about it and will no doubt watch it many times in the future. It’s released on DVD, etc. soon, which makes me happy.

The taciturn protagonist, the unnamed Driver, is pretty much a superhero. No wonder I love it! He puts on that iconic scorpion jacket (his cape), along with custom driving gloves and shades; he chews a toothpick and… Shazam! He is magically transformed into a badass movie stunt driver by day, or super-cool getaway driver by night. But in his rare ‘off duty’ moments he removes the jacket, along with the other accessories from his utility belt, and we see him for who he really is – or perhaps who he’s trying to be: a better man.

Music track: College, feat. Electric Youth – A Real Hero

Hell, he even drives around the city in his own personal Batmobile. What more do you need?

–
*It’s a pretty good book, too.