by Cassie Alexander | Jun 6, 2013 | Uncategorized
There should be the Flight of the Bumble Bee playing as I type this, since I just took an Ambien to flip back to nightshift tonight — but before it hits, I really wanted to show you all this fantastic Santa Muerte portrait that I got recently. (There’s still a box on the corners because I knew we were going to move soon, so I didn’t want to take them off — she’s definitely coming with me to a prime spot on our new walls, wherever they may be.)
Santa Muerte plays a big role in Shapeshifted, and I’ve been in love with her iconography ever since I heard about her. The Catholic Church came out against her worship recently and I can see their point, that people who’re praying to her aren’t spending time and money inside of Catholic churchs — but I can see how people who feel disenfranchised from the people running the faith and whose socioeconomic situations don’t seem to meaningfully change might want to take the risk of praying to someone else just in case they’re listening too and could change things — and who better, and possibly more kind, to pray to than Saint Death incarnate? Angels and Saints don’t visit everyone, but Death certainly does, especially when you live in an area where gang violence is rampant.
The first time I heard about her I knew I needed to write her. And the image of a nurse fighting with an incarnation of death — because it’s so often what we actually do at our jobs — was too grand to pass up. I hope I’ve done right by her. She’s a glamorous skinny lady, I wouldn’t want her on my bad side.
Let me also share some reviews Shapeshifted has gotten! In no particular order, other than I’m going to stop when the ambien starts moving the letters around on me ;)
Angie over at Angie-ville loves it. I don’t know what charmed google alert led me to sending her review copies long ago, but I’m so glad they did.
My friends at Under the Covers let me do an interview where I told them the four weirdest things I’ve been asked at work –– and they’re running an international giveaway for a signed copy of Shapeshifted now! They also reviewed Shapeshifted and loved it :D
I did a fun release day interview with Evie at Bookish, and she’s also got a set of signed books up for grabs!
And Maja at the Nocturnal Library loved Shapeshifted! (Which was nice for me, because she didn’t love Moonshifted so much — I’m sooooo glad she liked Shapeshifted, sooooo glad!)
And Kara-Karina at Nocturnal Book Reviews loved Shapeshifted in English and in Greek! (Someday! I hope! *shakes fist at the publishing sky*)
This is only about half of what I’ve got! But the words are swimming and my typing is getting worse — so more reviews and chirpyness in a few hours when I get up! :D
by Cassie Alexander | Jun 5, 2013 | Uncategorized
So imagine my surprise while checking the internet this morning when I see someone on a website asking for a full copy of Shapeshifted, and being willing to ‘pay’ in the form of payment for that site.
It’s not the first time, nor will it be the last, but it did sort of depress me, so I responded — and thought y’all might like to see it too:
Hey there — this is Cassie, the author of Shapeshifted.
While I appreciate your enthusiasm, and understand that you might live in a country where Shapeshifted isn’t out yet — dude, my book just came out yesterday.
I know everything gets pirated eventually, but only the first few weeks of sales really count as far as publishing houses go, especially towards their willingness to buy more books from the same author so that the author can keep on writing.
I’m a nurse in real life. I get bled on, spit at, kicked at, etc, in my night job. I’ve been hurt so bad in the course of my work that I myself have been hospitalized.
So I think you can understand that I have dreams of someday being able to just write, instead of having drunk people literally fling bags of urine at me.
I’m not asking you to not look for my book, and you’ve probably already gotten a copy, so hey. I hope you enjoy the hell out of your read. It’s a good book, if I do say so myself.
But if you could give me a window of a month, say, before posting it all over the world, so that I could get a chance to get decent numbers for my publishing house, that would be nice.
I work hard at writing, and I work hard at saving lives (even the people who throw things) — it’d be nice to get a little window of respect, and the breathing room of future writing employment.
Thanks,
Cassie
by Cassie Alexander | May 28, 2013 | Uncategorized
Shapeshifted is coming out in a week! Or a little less than a week, considering that it’s almost midnight someplaces ;)
I want to panic. I am panicking. I would be panicking more if I hadn’t taken an ativan earlier on today, when due to cruel daytime errands after a nightshift on, I couldn’t calm down enough to go back to sleep for a nap. (Which is, in retrospect, why I’m so chill about things now. Though I did know today was going to be a write off day.)
Even though there’s nothing to panic about, really. I’m really proud of Shapeshifted. I tried my hardest and I wrote my guts out.
I’ve got two go-to metaphors for book writing — the one I use most often (because it’s less gross) is that writing is like building a cocoon around yourself. You stand in one place and you spin the book all out of you, all around you, it takes the shape you want it to on the outside, the fantasy, SF, romance, etc — but at the same time, it’s also taking your shape on the inside, the person who you are while you’re writing it.
And when you’re done, you break out of that cocoon and go on to building your next one. Which is one reason why it’s sometimes hard to edit books — you’re not just stitching up words you left behind, but pieces of yourself, the thoughts and attitude you had at that time. If you wait too long and become a radically different person it can be hard to go back to the shell of one you used to be, to be fair to that book and give it a chance.
The second metaphor is the guts thing. (You didn’t think I was going to leave the haruspex comment hanging, did you? Never fear, fellow Latin nerds, never fear.) A lot of times writing is like taking a knife to yourself and seeing what’s there inside of you, in all its awful icky musty glory, like the haruspex of old inspecting entrails for updates on the weather. Except instead of trying to make sure you’re going to get a good crop this season, you’re trying to find the words. Words isn’t a strong enough word for it really, and life-experiences sounds far too cheesy. But you’re in there trying to find out what’s real — what’s real for you, because that’s the only way you can make it real on the page for someone else. You have to dig around until you find truth — honest, earnest, sincere emotions and motivations — and sometimes it feels awesome, and other times it’s the most frightening thing you’ve ever done. Picking up your liver and looking at what’s underneath isn’t for everyone…which is usually why I only tell people the cocoon metaphor and leave the guts ones in my head, because it sounds pretty serial killery when people walk by at the coffee shop ;).
My point is that I didn’t write Shapeshifted with silk, I wrote it with blood. For better or worse. I’m sure I made some mistakes along the way, but I dug around deep and tried my hardest. I feel good about it. I hope other people like it too.
I was going to schedule this post to post in the morning because I don’t post ‘often enough’ during the normal hours of the day, but now that it’s taken this earnest woo-woo turn, I’m glad it’s going up late at night, heh.
Anyhow — my body’s hopelessly out of whack today, so I’m going to do laundry and watch all the episodes of The Devil is a Part Timer on Hulu that I haven’t seen yet, and then tomorrow I’ll be back to my normal machine-like self and get out to edit Bloodshifted some in the sun!
by Cassie Alexander | May 24, 2013 | Uncategorized
It’s the XXX part that’s going to get me all the spambots shortly ;).
Bloodshifted is done! This is the fastest I’ve ever written a first draft I think — four months? But there were some serious diversions into other projects there for a bit, which really dipped into writing time. This is also the fewest drafts I’ve ever done of anything ever in my life ever. Usually my books get up to 7-15 revs, which I retitle the word.doc after each major change, but this time there’s only 2. That’s right, just twooooo versions.
How on earth did I do that? Well, I let go of a lot more stuff this time around. I felt much more free to put my place-holder XXX in where ever I knew I’d need to go back and choose a character’s name, fix geography, flesh out a scene, or indeed even put a scene in, there’s a ton of “xxx emotional beat” placeholders in the current text.
There’s 224 of XXX’s to be replaced, in fact. Which is why I’m pretty confident that going into the second draft, and rev 3, will add 15k of text to the book, no problem. And I’m fine with that :D. What counts is that the bones are down right now and the plot flows — the action parts are so actiony, and the emotional stuff is super emotional — I almost wish I could keep rolling on and write the next book!
But I’ve got a long weekend at work coming up (complete with holiday pay, yo) so I’ll be taking a short break, and then restarting in from the beginning, now knowing everything I need to juggle for the end. I was melancholy about finishing this whole evening, but now I’m really excited about going back and starting in again :D.
And oh, yeah, Shapeshifted is coming out less than two weeks from now! *facepalm* I almost forgot, ha! Deep calming breaths, Cassie, it’ll all get done! ;)
by Cassie Alexander | Apr 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
So I heard a lovely rumor that Shapeshifted ARCs were on the way to me! (Sorry that this posted yesterday, I meant it for today!)
There’s a contest up on Dark, Deadly, and Divine right now for a full set of Nightshifted, Moonshifted, annnnd…Shapeshifted! And also, some very cute medical related socks ;).
I’ll have a few more giveaways once I know how many copies I’m getting, but I’m sure I’m getting at least one — so if you want to see it before anyone else, go enter!
Secondly — I spent most of yesterday watching the news in Boston, as I’m sure many of you all did.
I strongly believe in the work the Red Cross does (which is why I volunteered out for two weeks with Hurricane Sandy last year.)
Did you know that blood only keeps for 42 days? You may not know anyone in Boston, but I can guarantee you they’ll be needing blood there. Here’s where you can find out how to donate near you.
I also feel very affected by watching all the EMS and police run towards the injured. Not everyone will get a chance to run towards danger in their lives, nor should anyone ever be put in a position where they have to. But for those who do, thank you.
