Compounded of Dust

I know "I'll Have What She's Having" has just come back from a lengthy hiatus, but given that I'm going on vacation for a couple of weeks, the blog will be off during that time as well. We'll resume the Writers and Success series next month.

In the meantime, I wanted to leave you with this announcement: I am so excited, proud, and honored to announce that my twin brother, Paul Lorello, has published his first novel, Compounded of Dust. Fans of Christopher Moore, Carl Hiaasen, Richard Matheson, and Neil Gaiman will find themselves in familiar territory. I've read this novel (and am reading it again!), and it is FANTASTIC, with prose as silky as fine chocolate, and a villain so diabolical he'll give you the shivers. (Ok, so I may be biased. Prove me wrong, I say with a smile and a wink.)


Here's the synopsis:

When Richard Garnier, thirty-four year old, tarot-loving milquetoast, wanders into Mothfield & Leech's Hardware Emporium and Thrift Store Annex, he has no idea that he will soon encounter blackmail, extortion, magic, murder, monsters, myths, and Mothfield—that would be Charles Mothfield, the dentally-challenged owner and proprietor of the eponymous shop. After Mothfield adds Richard's name to a list of clients stacked ever-so-neatly in his supernatural Ponzi pyramid of death, Richard finds the diabolical old coot will stop at nothing in order to perpetuate the evil that lies within, of all places, an antique icebox hidden in plain sight on the floor of the shop. Meanwhile, Richard Garnier's friends, his family—all are in danger of losing their lives, or worse, as Richard is to discover, their souls. 

Compounded of Dust is available on Kindle and Nook for the faboo price of $2.99. (Paperback edition coming soon.) You can also follow Paul on Twitter as well as on his blog, Curare Sundae.

Buy it. Read it. Love it. Share it. Post a review. "And may I say, Richard, that you've made an excellent choice."

Thanks, friends. See you in June.

blog tour: final week!

Happy Monday, friends and readers! We're in the final week of the blog tour. Today I'm appearing at Bleeding Espresso (yikes!) and once again show my optimism for a world in which print books and e-books can peacefully (and profitably) co-exist. Thanks so much to Michelle Fabio for hosting me.

Next week I'll resume my regular posts here. Thanks so much to my "tour groupies", especially to those who have left comments, re-tweeted or shared links to their followers on Twitter and/or Facebook, and supported me in so many other ways. There is no way I could have come this far without you.

Have a great day!

today's appearance

Today I'm at The Urban Muse, offering an answer to the question: Can print books and e-books co-exist?

Thanks to Susan Johnston and The Urban Muse for hosting me!

The blog tour isn't even a week old and already I'm getting a great response. Thanks, everyone!

why I love my manuscript

This weekend I took out the manuscript that's been neglected for months, mainly due to busy schedules. I had intended to do some writing for it, but here's what happened instead.

I read from page one. Laughed at jokes I'd forgotten about, cried at a certain scene, and found myself wanting to keep going, even as my eyes got heavy. Couldn't remember who wrote what most of the time-- the style was flawless and uninterrupted.

I tweaked a comma or a word change here and there, but nothing major (we've already done so much revision to what's already on the page). Didn't do any new writing until about chapter 16. Wrote a rough draft, 3-page backstory. Read up to about chapter 20 with at least 100 pages to go. And I want to read more.

The verdict? This book is gonna rock.

Seriously, I love this novel. I love its stories and its characters, and I've already written a post about wanting to live in its world. I love that it's a collaboration between my friend and me.

We both know we're at the point that any additional writing is really going to happen when we're both in the room together. That day is coming soon. (Yay!) Of course, I wish it was done now, all perfect and polished and published and on the shelves. We even know what we want the cover to look like. Patience, I have to tell myself. This is the manuscript we intend to query. This is worth waiting for.

At some point the conversation about self-publishing being so time-consuming (when do we have time to write what we intend to publish?) is likely going to resume on this blog. But for now, I'm savoring the moment. A good weekend of reading good writing.

Deep breath: Inhale. Exhale.
Nice.

Meanwhile, the FREE Ordinary World special preview ebook has gotten 130 hits, the blog interview has gotten over 75 viewings, and I've sold a half-dozen copies of Faking It, all since Thursday. (Not to mention the sales of the Kindle version since reducing the price to 99 cents.) Thank you to everyone who tweeted about it, posted something on Facebook, and downloaded a copy. Please post something about it on your blogs or elsewhere, if you can. I would be so grateful!