Vixen in Paperback, Plus Odds and Ends

First, because I'm very excited about it, I want to show you this:

Yes, it's the proof for the paperback version of Vixen!

You can get your very own copy from Amazon, in trade pb size (that's the larger 9x6 inch size). So far it only seems to be available in the US Amazon store, but it should show up in the others shortly. We'll also be enabling expanded distribution, so you'll eventually be able to buy it from other stores and even order if from your local bookshop. Updates on that as I have them.

There are a few small differences from the e-book version (aside from the cover). Some typos have been corrected (I'm sure there are still some lurking in there, but I hope we got most of them this time), and a small problem with tenses I discovered in one paragraph have been fixed. There's also a sneak preview of the first chapter from book two, Hexen! We'll be updating the e-book version soon to match, but we want to make the Kindle version, at least, look as nice as the print book, so we have some InDesign plug-in wrangling to do. Updates on that soon, too. And in a couple of weeks, the e-book will also be available on other platforms.

Odds and Ends

I'm swamped with dayjob work this week, so I'll continue my look at defining UF next week. I'm also planning to do more reviewing here. I just finished Patricia Briggs' River Marked, so I'll have a review of that up soonish.

And if you're a writer of UF, PNR, or something similar and you'd like me to review your book, get in touch. You'll find my email on my profile page (link over the the right and down somewhere). I may not be able to get to it quickly, but I will eventually, and any review I write will also get posted to Goodreads and LibraryThing, and maybe also Shelfari (and possibly the Amazons).

If you like free books and haven't tried Vixen yet, it'll be free on Amazon Kindle March 22 and 23 (I'll post a reminder next week here and on Twitter). Also, sign up for my newsletter (form in the top of the right hand column), and be the first to read an upcoming short story about Cara, a witch Su meets in Charleston's research complex. Finally, I'll be doing a giveaway for a paperback of Vixen sometime soonish, so if you want to make sure you hear about it, sign up for my newsletter, follow me on Twitter (link over there to the right somewhere), or follow this blog via Google.

I'm pretty sure there was something else I was going to say, but I've forgotten what it was.

Defining UF: It's the "Urban"

A recent post on Fangs for the Fantasy got me thinking about my quest to define "urban fantasy" and its related terminology.

Now, I’m actually go out on a limb here and say that the “urban” part of Urban Fantasy is actually a misnomer – since urban merely suggests the presence of a city and a lot of Urban Fantasy does not contain an Urban setting while a lot of Classic or High Fantasy can, indeed, be city based.

I think this has been the core of the problem with the label "urban fantasy" right from the beginning (yes, even back in my day, when Charles deLint was UF). It is also, perhaps not entirely coincidentally, the main problem with the phrase "urban legend" (I mentioned this interesting parallel in folklore/fiction labelling a couple of posts ago).

In both cases, the word "urban" was chosen for its connotations of modern, new, having to do with the here-and-now. And in both cases, it doesn't fit because neither urban fantasy nor urban legend necessarily occurs in an urban (which is to say "city") setting. And in both folklore and fiction, the word "contemporary" was suggested to replace "urban."

So we end up with "contemporary fantasy" and "contemporary legend." Neither of these is in much use among the general populace. Folklorists prefer "contemporary legend" to the more common-in-popular-use "urban legend" (at least people aren't saying "urban myth" any more). And some writers and readers, realizing that for many people "urban fantasy" is tough women (or sometimes men) fighting vampires and werewolves, have adopted "contemporary fantasy" as something that includes both that and something that maybe could be called "magic realism" (which is a genre with its own rich history, and thus a term that maybe should not be appropriated to a new use--but more on that in a future post).

The issue with using "contemporary fantasy" to refer to this kind of fiction (urban fantasy + magic realism + whatever else) is in the meaning of "contemporary." When someone says "contemporary literature," doesn't it make you think of literature written recently, as opposed to literature set recently? So for someone not familiar with genre distinctions, "contemporary fantasy" probably carries strong connotations of something written by a contemporary author, and not necessarily something with a contemporary setting. And the other issue is that some works that could be included in the same genre (or sub-genre) aren't set in the here-and-now, but may be set in the recent past or the recent future (or possibly even the not-so-recent).

Then there is the whole other issue of overlap with the horror genre (not to mention paranormal romance). Another term I'll look at in a future post is "mythic fiction," but for now I'll leave this here. I hope by the time I've looked at all the various terms and words and sub-sub genres surrounding this type of book I like so much, I'll have come to some sort of conclusion. Or at least organized my thoughts into a less rambling form.

On The Mechanics of Writing

Instead of the post I intended to write, continuing my quest to define this genre I write in, I'm giving you this one: a thing about why I write longhand. It's because I haven't had enough sleep, and I have to teach later, so my brain is a bit rambling.

I once wrote an article about longhand versus typing for composing creative writing. It presented both sides of the issue (if you can call it an issue), and had examples from actual writers that people have heard of, and it was all very neat and organized. This one is going to be less organized (and mercifully not as long) and is not about other writers at all, but only about me.

So, a confession: I write longhand.

Actually that's not entirely true. I freelance a variety of non-fictional stuff as my "dayjob" and that I pretty much always type right into a word processor, though I may make longhand notes. And some of my fiction I do compose on my computer, in Word, or more recently in Scrivener (if you write, you should get the trial version and check it out). But writing as Nic Silver, I compose longhand.

I've thought a lot about why (I think, a lot, which is why I often don't have enough sleep--my brain just won't shut off). I don't really write any differently when I write longhand, and I don't really write any better. I could argue that the longhand version is a draft, and then I'm sort of doing a not-quite-second draft as I transcribe, which improves the flow a little and lets mecorrect minor problems as I go. And that would be true.

But it's not the real reason. The real reason I compose longhand is much simpler. It's less precious. And it's easier to get myself to curl up on the couch with a notebook and pen at the end of the day than it is to sit for another couple of hours at the computer.

Yes, I still have to do the sitting at the computer later, but by then I have something I'm excited about, and I want to know how many words I've actually written, so it's not that hard to get myself to work.

But some days, no matter how much I love writing, I just don't want to face the blank page. But scribbling in a dollar-store notebook while sipping tea with my cat purring at my feet is relaxing.

Plus, I write a lot faster longhand than I type, and most of the time it's hard enough to keep up with the story as it is.

Towards a Definition of Urban Fantasy

I almost want to start this post with "Back in my day ..." like a grumpy old man. Because, when I first started reading urban fantasy, it was the kind of stuff Charles deLint wrote. Or it was Bordertown, or Emma Bull's War for the Oaks.

There days, there seems to be an interesting division in what, exactly, "urban fantasy" means. There are the old codgers like me, for whom it includes anything set in the here-and-now with a hint (or a wallop) or magic, and for whom Charles deLint pretty much started the whole thing. Then there is the other bunch, who mostly seem to be younger, or at least more recent, readers, for whom urban fantasy is primarily the "tough supernatural chicks kicking ass in the city" type, with some male protagonists thrown in to round things out.

For that second group, the sort of fiction Charles deLint and Terri Windling and Emma Bull (and a long list of others I'll get to in a future post) write/wrote is something called "contemporary fantasy." And for them, one is a sub-genre of the other. Usually it's UF is a sub-genre of CF, but a few people have it the other way around.

Now I'm the first to admit that language changes, and definitions change, and generally that's not a bad thing. Because when things stop changing, they die. But I'm also a scholar (never got a PhD, but I do have an MA), and for scholars, precision in definitions are important. You can't talk about something if you don't define what it is you're talking about. So over the next few posts, I'm going to look at "urban fantasy" and "contemporary fantasy" and see if I can come up with definitions that work. At least for me. I wouldn't dream of insisting anyone else use what I come up with, but if you want to know what I'm talking about, you'll be able to refer to my definitions.

One aside before I shut up: I find it interesting that the world of folklore scholarship also has a similar dilemma in the use of the terms "urban legend" and "contemporary legend" only in that case, they're not debating what is included in each, but only which term to use. Though I haven't kept up on the scholarship in recent years, I think scholars went with "contemporary legend" (because many of them aren't urban), while popular culture went with "urban legend" (replacing the really, really inaccurate "urban myth").

Urban Fantasy References and Useful Stuff

As part of making this blog actually, you know, useful to readers, I'm starting to collect websites, groups, articles, and other stuff related to urban fantasy (and to some extent paranormal romance, where the genres overlap). Below is what I've got so far, and much of it will be added to the sidebar over time. If there's anything you know of, whether it's an online source or an offline one, do please leave a comment.

Blogs

• All Things Urban Fantasy
• Book Faery
• Dark Faerie Tales
• Fangs for the Fantasy
• Goldilox and the Three Weres
• Literary Escapism
• Parajunkee's View
• Smexy Books
• Urban Fantasy
• Urban Fantasy Writers
• Wicked Little Pixie
• Wicked Scribes

Groups and Forums

• Goodreads has urban fantasy and para-rom related groups
• Shelfari has urban fantasy and para-rom related groups
• Urban Fantasy Fans on Livejournal

Articles and Commentary

• Adore--An Urban Fantasy
• Angry Chicks in Leather
• Carrie Vaughn: Carrie's Analysis of Urban Fantasy Part I, Part II, Part III
• MLN Hanover on Urban Fantasy
• Urban Fantasy 101
• Why Urban Fantasy?
• Wikipedia: Contemporary Fantasy
• Wikipedia: Urban Fantasy

Experimenting With KDP Select

When we had trouble recently adding me to the White Raven Press account on Smashwords, I decided in a fit of wanting to do something to try signing Vixen up for the KDP Select program for three months. What this means is three things (or so):

1. Vixen will be available exclusively on Amazon for three months (I believe the end date is March 24, 2012).
2. Vixen will be available to Amazon Prime members to borrow for free during that time.
3. Amazon has given us five days in which we can set Vixen as free for promotional purposes.

Of those points, the first is an annoying necessity to comply with the terms of service. But since it's only three months, it's not a big deal. I hope. It won't affect the paperback, which should still be out later this month.

Point two is of no particular interest. In the unlikely event that a gazillion people borrow it, I'll get a little bit of money, but when people can borrow $9.99+ best sellers, why would they waste a borrow on less expensive books? It would be cool if someone borrowed my book, but I won't be crushed if no one does. I expect no one will.

The main reason I signed up was for the promo free days. It's possible to get your book set to free on Amazon by having it free elsewhere and then reporting it to the Amazon price-checking bots, but you can't actually make it free otherwise. And there's no way for micro-publishers using KDP to discount a book temporarily. But using the free KDP Select days lists the book as free, but shows it as discounted from the regular cover price (which, for Vixen, is $4.99).

So, for the first three days of the new year, we made Vixen free on Kindle. We gave away over 1200 copies on Amazon US (I assume this includes Amazon Canada, but I'm not sure), more than 400 on Amazon UK, and 4 on Amazon Germany (and White Raven Press has never sold anything on any of Amazon's sites other than the US and UK ones, so that was a nice surprise).

Vixen spent part of the first day and all of the second and third days in the top 20 (in other words, on the first page) of Fantasy > Contemporary. In the free books, of course. For a while, it was at #9. It might have gone higher, but I tried very hard not to check every five minutes.

So what does this mean for the book's future? Possibly nothing, but I hope it's given Vixen a little boost into better visibility. The fact that a copy sold today at cover price is a good sign (it hasn't even been up a month, and I've done no promo outside this blog and Twitter (find me @liesthrusilver). The fact that two people I don't know added Vixen to their "to-read" shelf on Goodreads is also a good sign. I think.

I'm hoping, too, that a few people leave reviews once they've read it. Assuming some of the people who downloaded actually read it.

Now I'm going to try to stop looking at numbers for a while and concentrate on finishing Hexen. My plan now is to use my last two free promo days for Vixen when Hexen is released, so it might give both books a little boost, and encourage folks to give the series a try.

It's Out! Vixen is Out!

I'll write a little about why I changed the title of the new novel (and the typefaces on the cover) later on, but for now holycrapit'sinthekindlestore!

Ahem. Yes, well.

My new novel Vixen is now available for purchase from Amazon for the Kindle. We're getting error messages on Smashwords, trying to add a "ghost" profile for me under the White Raven Press account, so it's not available there yet, but it will be soon. It should also be available direct from the WRP website sometime in January, once the site overhaul is complete (I won't link there for now, since there's not much to look at).

The paperback will also be out next month. It's being formatted now. (Well, probably not right now, since it's early Boxing Day morning as I write this, but soon.)