Quick, grab it for free! (You can thank me later.)

Raised in a prosperous family of 14th century Chinese merchants, Johanna has grown up on camelback, in bustling city marketplaces, and in the cool, shaded depths of Silk Road caravanserai, but now she's on the run from her evil stepmother, seeking sanctuary with the only family she has left--that storied adventurer, her grandfather, Marco Polo.

Kate Object #15

Check out the object the fans chose for A Deeper Sleep and suggest one for Whisper to the Blood in my ongoing feature, The History of Kate Shugak in 20 Objects.

On the first Wednesday of every month for a while now I've been doing a series of blog posts featuring one object from each novel in the Kate Shugak series, as suggested by the fans in the comments. Come play along!

Going Independent

I wrote this post on my experiences in moving from traditional to independent publishing at the request of Michael Stackpole, for an online lecture at DNRS, an annual writer's conference at Arizona State University.

"...We were crowd sourcing edits, and we got them, and we’re still getting them. The thing we find most interesting about this process is that every single reader is so astonished and grateful to even hear back from a publisher at all...."

No, they haven't fired me yet, I'm still the US Guest of Honor.

I'll be hosting a ride in a traditional outrigger canoe for my Author Connection. I'm donating a hard read of the first thirty pages of your novel for the live auction. And I'm bringing a bag of goodies (some I will have made myself, some not) for the silent auction. So, see there, all you people who thought you knew me so well, I will be spending some time not bellied up to the swim-in bar...so you should just give in and register now.