NEWS: Tricky Business

If you’ve tried buying a pre-order of Deadroads from Amazon in the last few days, you may have noticed what you thought was a glitch in the system. A weird message that read that the book was no longer available.

Do not adjust your screen. Or call Amazon.

Night Shade Books and I have parted ways. Our vision for the book started to diverge a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to make sure all the i’s were dotted before going public, so I apologize for the radio silence.

Other authors have described their goodbye with Night Shade more eloquently than I possibly could, most notably Bradley Beaulieu. 

Night Shade produces amazing books, and their authors are deserving of reader support. I am really sorry I won’t have the opportunity to work with them, particularly editor Ross Lockhart, who has recently left NSB as well.

So, what’s next? Well, rest assured, for anyone who has pre-ordered, money will be returned, first of all. As for Deadroads, it is awaiting a new publisher. My agent, Sandy, is such a huge supporter, and she works very hard on my behalf. I hope to have news soon.

I may take the same hybrid route as Bradley Beaulieu, depending on how things fall. This publishing business is changing all the time—how we find out about books, how we buy them, how we read them. Opportunity? Or challenge? Both? Both.

Also, I blogged

...but not here. I know!

I blogged over at the Qwillery, all about how I love my day job, which I could have happily strangled today, seriously. I love my clients, really I do. It's all interesting stuff, but there's too much of it. I am waiting patiently for April to arrive, because  everything will either be done by then, or not. And if it's not, I'm still off to the west coast for a visit to my aging parents, and then to NYC with my daughter and bestie, and then, oh THEN, I'm to New Orleans and I really just can't wait.

In the meantime, apparently there's a book out at some point.

Lookit, review!

"Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches." - Andy Warhol

Dead Roads is due out soonish, and in the lead up I seem to be in the middle of the busiest bit of museum-work that I've had in, oh, about five years. So I've been scattered like you wouldn't believe, in every way you can imagine.

I took yesterday off, first day off since January, but ended up going to the ER anyway, so it wasn't much of a holiday. On the other hand, I got to hang out with one of my paramedic friends for about 5 hours (and her new baby), so that was lovely.

As some of you know, the main character of Dead Roads is a paramedic, and really, I love the EMTs. They have such a great sense of humour and they love their jobs. I sing their praises! There's an advance review of Dead Roads up at Katy Sosaeva's Blog, Now is Gone. So, go read it already!

Debut Author Challenge? I'm in!

It's hard when you're just starting out. No one knows who the hell you are, and if your words are worth cash. If your words are worth time and effort and -- if you're lucky -- emotional investment. I like to think that Dead Roads will be worth all of those, but you don't know that, right?

So I'm truly thankful that blogs like The Qwillery exist. They take new authors under their wing, and try to get them noticed. It's a little like that really great person at a party who notices you standing in the corner, pretending to examine the African violet for water spots. They take you by the arm, judge who would most like to talk to you, and introduce you.

The Qwillery has put forward Dead Roads as part of their Debut Author Challenge. It's a great place for all of us to find out about who's showed up to the party.

My guest blog will be posted right around Dead Roads (omg, I just typed in "Dead Toads"...that's plain awful) release date (April 3, 2013), followed by an interview. And I haven't a thing to wear.

Name Origins

Dead Roads (now officially two words in the title, though remaining one word in the text, go figure) is now available at my publisher's, http://www.nightshadebooks.com/book/deadroads/#.UOoiDrZ59_k . You can, apparently, get it as an E-book too, which is quite thrilling -- all come April 2, 2013, which is not so far away.

In other news, the nice folks doing the audio book have contacted me, wondering exactly how I pronounce "Riopelle". Ha. That's the least of their worries. I hope someone there speaks French, especially some form of North American French (I'd settle for chiac, or even joual, or Cajun French...all good).

A word, then, on the origins of the actual name, "Robin Riopelle".

This is my birth name. The name given to me by my birthmother before placing me for adoption. I grew up with another name (which is why many of you know me as Liz), but Robin Riopelle has been part of my personal identity since I was around 13 (when my adoptive mum gave me my adoption papers). I've been on contact with my birthfamily for more than 20 years now, and everything is about as good as you could hope for. I love them, they love me, I know who my "mum" is (that would be the woman who raised me), but I also have an enormous, incalculable connection with the woman who gave birth to me, and who gave me my first name.

One of the characters in Dead Roads has been disconnected from her birthfamily -- I'm not saying that she's me, but I understood a lot of what she experiences, how she might react to situations, how she perceived nuances, because I've been there. I know what it's like to re-connect with birthfamily after years apart, how difficult and weirdly easy it is to forge bonds -- and how impossible it is to shake or even want to shake, the connections you have to the people who raised you.

So, Robin Riopelle. I've published under my adoptive name (mostly museum-related articles, etc.), but this is the first thing under my birthname. It seemed time.

p.s. for the record, it's pronounced "RIO-pel" or REE-a-pel", according to my sister and brother who were raised with the name.

Amazon Pre-Order!

So very, very exciting!

Deadroads is on Amazon: Order Deadroads here

It does seem more...real!

Headshots

Being Canadian, when I use the word "headshot" I realize most people think I'm talking about hockey. Since we have no hockey this year (I am a self-described cultural hockey fan...no, that's not an oxymoron), the "headshot" in this case is the photograph taken for promotional purposes.

Hopefully not to appear on wanted or missing posters.

My lovely friend and second reader, Lizz Sisson (of Studio Starling), flew up from Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with us this weekend past. We drove an hour or so south of Ottawa to celebrate with an overnight at a friend's farm summer camp. It wasn't a farm, because then Lizz would have had a hard time with customs. There are no animals at the camp -- just wild garlic. Okay, customs-man?

It's not easy getting photographs done. Lizz is really, really good, but she says that it's hard to take photos of your friends, because you know what they look like.

So it only took about seven hundred shots to get a usable four. Once the photoshopping is done (no, no, no, not so I look thinner or younger, but rather to make sure my neck doesn't just become part of my head, like Beaker on Sesame Street (see above), I'll send them to Night Shade Books and let them decide which one best represents the book.