Excerpt
Food was love for Auntie Vi and this morning everything in the refrigerator and the cupboards was out on the counter. She always had a bowl of dough rising for fry bread and oil was already heating in the largest cast-iron frying pan. A Ziploc full of flour and salt and pepper sat next to a plate of caribou steaks. At the sink Auntie Vi was mashing an egg, chopped onions, minced garlic, and breadcrumbs into mooseburger, a buttered loaf pan at the ready nearby.
There were usually one or two or ten Park rats gathered around the table at Auntie Vi’s, who were this morning conspicuous by their absence. Maria, Anna, and David, Auntie Vi’s adopted family, were nowhere to be seen, either. The storm warnings were out. Mutt’s ears went back and she tiptoed around the kitchen table and down the hall to the living room, where there was always a dog bed with a bone on it.
I takes my inspirations where I finds them
Where the idea for the plot of Kate23 came from. Well, part of it.
We heard you
And because we did, Aries Fiction is bringing the first nine Kate Shugak novels back into actual print! As in paperback, as follows:
- Kates 1-3 in January
- Kates 4-6 in February
- Kates 7-9 in March.
All leading up to the big event in April (see above). After twenty-plus years in print purgatory, it was time. (You're welcome.)
I'm also excerpting the Kates one at a time every Tuesday on my website here.
And Aries had me write a character study of Kate, on my website here. That was fun.
Due to superhuman efforts on the part of Your Author...
The first three novels in the Eye of Isis series are now available!
If you haven't yet dipped your toe into this series and are wondering WTH, they are set in Alexandria in the time of Cleopatra and feature Tetisheri, the Eye of Isis, whose job is to clean up every dirty job Cleopatra hands her. Julius Caesar walked into the first book on his own and it turns out I really don't like the guy, so I'm looking forward to the Ides of March. In the meantime, I'm working on the next four in the series and trying to figure out how Tetisheri can be present at the battle of Thapsus without getting trampled by one of Metellus Scipio's elephants. Fun.
The first of many
Andrew Gray (ahem, that's Representative Andrew Gray, currently serving in the legislature in Juneau) invited me onto his podcast for what was less an interview and more a conversation, which we agreed should be continued one day over a beer.
Soon to be followed by appearances on About the Authors TV, The Inside Flap, and Turn the Page. Anything for Kate. (I must say I love podcasts--I could be wearing my pajamas and you would never know.)
Some of you will remember a little series of blog posts I did a while back called "The History of Kate Shugak in 20 Objects." See the post for the object from A Cold Day for Murder right here.
After that I invited the Danamaniacs to suggest objects for the rest of the books, and they weighed in with enthusiasm, right up through Less than a Treason, aka Kate21.
So I think it's probably time to name an object for No Fixed Line, aka Kate22, don't you? Watch the blog and Facebook for where and when and to read previous posts in the Object series. Later, gators--
