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The Dark Deeps blog tour is at Cynsations today! Join me and learn how to write steampunk and make millions.
>Dark Deeps Blog Tour Day 2
>The Dark Deeps Amazing Blog Tour Begins!
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Today’s the day that I’ll be pulling on my aquasuit and diving into The Dark Deeps blog tour! The virtual excitement is palpable. It’s all part of the Sept. 14th release of the American version of the novel. I thought, like all trips, I’d start off here at home on my own blog then splash, zip, fly, glide and telegram my way across the steam-powered interweb for the next week.
My topic is one I know you’re all dying to hear about. Yes, I'm going to let you have a peek into the secret world of an author and answer that age-old question: “What’s it like to receive all those free author copies?” If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been asked that question I’d have two nickels! Yes, two of ‘em. I might even rub them together.
I tell you, the day my author copies arrive is a glorious day. And my publisher pulls out all the stops. First, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie drop off the boxes of books. I know they’re busy people, what with movies to star in, diapers to change, and paparazzi to avoid, yet they still take the time to generously deliver books to authors. They say hi, btw.
Here are some snaps of the boxes filled with author copies. See their carboardy goodness? See the on sale date? Is there nothing more exciting than an author taking pictures of cardboard boxes?
Then I open the box. You’ll be surprised to know that Random House uses bling as packing material: jewels, money, and free movie tickets! It’s very kind of them to do that (though I usually throw it away, after all kid-lit authors already have natural bling).
Finally I get to hold the very book in my hand. That’s right someone somewhere took all those words out of my electronic file and put them on flattened tree pieces and ta dah--it’s a book! A miracle, I tell thee! And yes, I always wear a suit to work.
I got a big surprise when I opened the next box, though! Inside were more books! They practically leaped out. And there was a stuffed puppy (toy puppy, that is). This is in case there’s a bad review of the book. It’s for the author to hug, obviously (they used to send Dr. Phil to comfort dejected authors, but it got too expensive to fly his audience around with him). You may also notice the key to the Jaguar--I get a new car whenever Random House publishes one of my books. I now have four Ferraris and a Jaguar. Oh, and an iPad and an iPod were used as packing material (I just throw these out because I already have twelve of them and only two hands).
And that’s it! Well, not entirely. You may not know it but authors often recreate famous scenes from movies with their free author copies. Here’s an example:
Does it look familiar to you? It’s the scene in The Lord of the Rings where the orcs are scaling up the wall to attack Minas Tirith! I knew you’d get it.
Oh, and the rumor that the American version of The Dark Deeps hired puppets to attack the foreign editions is not true. Unless you believe in photographic evidence.
And there you have it, just another day in the glorious life of a children’s author. Swell, eh?
Cheers,
Art
Please feel free to join the rest of my tour.
On Saturday I'll be at Cynsations discussing how to write steampunk in two easy steps.
On Sunday I'll zip over to Free The Princess and answer a few Q&A's.
Monday you'll find me at Steamed. Here I'll discuss the creation of the book trailers for The Hunchback Assignments.
Tuesday I'll airship over to Steampunk Tribune to discuss villains! Villains! Villains. Eeek!
Wednesday I'll take the steam train to Suvudu to let you all know the playlist behind The Hunchback Assignments.
Thursday I'll be heading over to Steampunk Scholar to wax on about steampunky things.
And Friday the blog tour will end at Looking Glass Review where I'll attempt to define steampunk. Ha, good luck!
>How to Write A Novel and Lose Weight
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Writing a novel is a great way to lose weight. I recently finished a deadline a week late (or perhaps it's more correct to say that I asked for an extension and met the new deadline). Anyway, it was about two months of concentrated work. I added about 20,000 words to the first draft and did all the usual rewriting. But I do believe it's my treadmill desk that pulled me through this latest deadline. In that time I walked for 167 hours, travelling 266 kilometres (165 miles,) and lost 4 pounds. See, writing novels is the newest weight loss program! I just need a celebrity spokesperson and I'll be off to the races.
>Dark Deeps Released in the US of A!
>Well, yesterday The Dark Deeps was released in the US. It's making a big splash! It's going full fathom five! It's going all Davey Jones' Locker on the charts...err, that last one doesn't sound so good. There was a big Book Birthday Bash on Twitter, always lots of fun. The virtual cake was delicious! I especially enjoyed the oceanic Horse Doovers...ordervers, 'orsderves. Ah, I should just give up on talking fancy.
Starting Friday I'll be doing a "steampunkalooza" blog tour. It'll begin right here on my blog, where I'll talk about the joy of receiving author's copies. Mmmm. Free copies.
On Saturday I'll be at Cynsations discussing how to write steampunk in two easy steps.
On Sunday I'll zip over to Free The Princess and answer a few Q&A's.
Monday you'll find me at Age of Steam. Here I'll discuss the creation of the book trailers for The Hunchback Assignments.
Tuesday I'll airship over to Steampunk Tribune to discuss villains! Villains! Villains.
Wednesday, I'll take the steam train to Suvudu to let you all know that music is the real inspiration for the Hunchback series. Yes, that question everyone wants to know about everyone else...what is on your iPod?
Thursday Ah, I feel scholarly. I'll be heading over to Steampunk Scholar to wax on about steampunky things.
And Friday, the blog tour will come to a stop at Looking Glass Review to try and do the impossible. That's right I'll attempt to define steampunk.
Then I'll take off my goggles and snooze...
Art
>Another Jolting pic!
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I recently received another cool "book" pic from Tu Loan Trieu, a Teacher Librarian in BC. My books get to go to the greatest places! Though, I must say that she's amazingly brave reading a novel about lightning on top of a mountain. Rumours are that the abominable snowman took the picture.
Cheers,
P.S. Actually the picture is part of a "get caught reading" promotion that her school is doing. The idea is to take books to picturesque places then take pictures of them. Lucky books!
>One of the Coolest Pics That I've Received
>Every once in awhile some cool things come your way. 
I recently received this photo from Eric Walters, a fellow writer and a friend of mine. It's a photo of two students in Kenya reading my novel DUST. You just never know where your book is going to end up once you release it to the world.
Eric sent the pic because he has been working tirelessly on a project called Creation of Hope that involves a children's residence in Kikima, Kenya. They recently opened a library there 
named after Eric's grade five teacher. There's a lot more going on than I can describe here and help is always needed, so if you're interested click the link and read all about it.
Cheers,
