So I just published my second novel, In the Shadows of the Mosquito Constellation. It's about love, politics and survival in a post-economic collapse world. I stop short of calling it dystopian or apocalyptic because although the world has fallen apart, my characters are surviving and trying to build a new local order. Terrible things happen, but there are also moments of happiness and hope, and the overall tone of the book is that in the face of total devastation, we could rebuild. There are no zombies, but it is kind of like the Wild West on amphetamines.
I am biased of course, but I think you should buy my book and read it! Here are my top ten real and tongue-in-cheek reasons why (in no particular order). Points to those of you who can tell which are which.
- It’s about important things – economic collapse, how we would live in a post-economic collapse world, our moral obligations to each other, and of course love and friendship.
- If you have even considered preparing for global economic collapse, or climate change, or some other apocalypse, my novel contains a lot of ideas with regard to what you should do. Of course, I have done none of them… and note – it will not help you at all in the face of a zombie apocalypse.
- I had a fun time naming the horses. You’ll see.
- My cover designer Andrew Brown of Design for Writers did an unbelievable job on the cover and my interior print formatter Shelley Ackerman is doing an amazing job on the interior. I don’t even need to read it. I’m just happy looking at it, and the print version would look lovely on your shelves.
- It has been called a “wild adventure ride” by a well-known Canadian author with great taste. Now you can go pick through the acknowledgements to try to figure out who said that.
- My main male characters are hot, nuanced, and real. I know that the current trend in male leads is towards billionaires with issues around sex and dominance, but I think it is time that we have some flawed but lovable men to yearn for.
- I spent seven – yes seven – years writing it. Lest you just think I am slow, it underwent some significant plot revisions during that time. Characters died. Characters came back to life. Sometimes I felt like I was on an episode of Dallas.
- I have a short story coming out in an anthology called Synchronic with a bunch of other super-fabulous writers, including Michael Bunker (who I rather suspect is better prepared for an apocalypse than I am). Okay, that was just a plug for Synchronic, but if you like my story in Synchronic (which apparently I still cannot spell – take the Synchronic challenge – type it three times fast – I guarantee you will not get it right), you will love In the Shadows of the Mosquito Constellation. They are both by me, and they both have the same amazing and fun editor David Gatewood – who thinks it’s funny that Canadians wear toques. Clearly I need to buy David a plane ticket to British Columbia in November.
- I won’t pester you to buy it on Twitter or Facebook. Not more than once a month anyway. This is in part because I’m just not sure if that works (see my blog post on this), but also because I have lots of great friends on Twitter and Facebook and I’m pretty sure they only want to hear about my book occasionally. The rest of the time I’ll just pester them with stories about my cats and my son with a broken leg. Oh heck, Twitter and Facebook pestering might sell books, but I am just not very good at it.
- Other people have really liked In the Shadows of the Mosquito Constellation. Some claim that they even stayed up all night reading it. They are perhaps being nice. But in my experience people who do not like your book say nothing. They hide behind the cauliflower in the grocery store… or they give you a bland toothy smile and talk about the cat photos you posted on Facebook.
Okay that’s it for blatant self-promotion for me. I might need to go and have some caramels or go for a long run to recover. Next week it is back to talking about marketing, as I just finished a Book Bub promo and sat in #2 in one of my categories for A Pair of Docks for over a week. I’m pretty sure I have my finger on the pulse of this whole book industry thing now!