The Revenge of Shaken & Stirred

Well, since my second novel is titled The Woken Gods, out later this year, and is about just that, I have thought a great deal about what appeals to me in stories about the mythic (and what doesn’t). There were two big things that inspired The Woken Gods: my love for Lewis Hyde’s Trickster Makes This World and my desire for more stories where gods were threatening or dangerous. I wanted to explore a more ambiguous morality, with gods that were not anything like oversized humans. I also have a real soft spot for stories that feature more than one pantheon; though, having undertaken one, I now understand why it’s more usual to see people pick Greek or Norse or Egyptian and stick with it.

I participated in a new Mind Meld posted today. Read more at the link — as well as lots of contributions from other wonderful peoples like Chuck Wendig, Mike Underwood, Adam Christopher and Tessa Gratton.

Let me first start this post by saying I know a little about book packaging, but purely from the outside in—through knowing authors who’ve done it as work-for-hire and people who worked at packaging houses and as a general “watcher of the industry” and articles that get written about it. None of that makes me an expert. But. The most interesting thing about watching heads explode this morning on twitter over the new announcement that Amazon has reached licensing agreements with Alloy/WBs (with more in the works) to allow writers to sell fanfic set in the Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl…

Over at the other place, I talk about what packaging is in light of the discussion around the fanfic news today.