Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Breaking News...

Wow, two posts in one day from me? Geez, that has to be some sort of record.

But I had to tell you that I'm also over at All Things Urban Fantasy today! 

I mean, Ciel is. Or rather, her diary. You know the green suede diary that went missing in In a Fix

The breaking news? The diary has been found! And now you can have a small peek into it just by clicking here

While you're there, you can enter to win a set of my books. That's right, both In a Fix and Quick Fix. Tor is offering up a two-fer! (Don't worry if you already have In a Fix. You can always give it away.)

That's it. That's all my news. Oh, except I went to the doc for my physical today, and found out I'm still alive. Low cholesterol, solid bones, good blood sugar, my boobs are fine, and no thyroid problems or vitamin D deficiency. My joints still ache from time to time, but apparently that's normal. Thank God I have my rheumatiz medicine when I need it. ;)

Cheers! 


Mind Melds, Free Stuff, and Fraud, Oh My!

Today I'm over at SF Signal (the 2012 Hugo Award winner for best fanzine), along with a bunch of really cool authors. 

We're answering the "Mind Meld" question "What authors are on your Auto-Read List?" Click here and scroll down a bit to see my choices. 

Also, I'm giving away a free signed copy of QUICK FIX over on Facebook! The deadline to throw your name in the hat is Thursday, Aug. 1, at noon East Coast time. 

Just click on the following link, scroll down to the pertinent post, and leave a comment:

https://www.facebook.com/LindaGrimesAuthor

Ta-Da! You're in. Of course, if you wanted to "like" the page while you're there, far be it from me to deter you. But it's not a requirement. 


In other exciting news, I am about to become rich! 

You are probably wondering how this happy fact came to be. Well, I'll tell you. It is via the following message I received on GoodReads:

FROM THE BRANCH MANAGER
ECO BANK PLC.
ACCRA BRANCH GHANA

Hello Dear.
My name is Mr. Samuel Adjei I am the manager of the Eco bank Accra Branch Ghana. I am a Ghanaian, married with two kids. I am writing to solicit for your assistance in the transfer of funds valued at $4,500,000.00 (four million five hundred thousand United States Dollars.) This fund is the excess of what my branch in which I am the Manager made as profit during the last annual audition. I have already submitted an approved end of the year report for the year to my head office and they will never know of this excess.

As an official of the bank i cannot be directly connected to this fund, so this informed me of contacting you for us to work for mutual benefits. I want you to assist in receiving this fund into your bank account for us Meanwhile you will have 40% of the total funds. Note there are practically no risks involved as it is going to be bank to bank transfer. All i need from you is to stand as the original depositor of this fund who made the deposit with our branch so that my Head office can order the transfer to your designated bank account.

If you accept to work with me, i will appreciate it so much. As soon as i receive your response, i will give you details on how we can achieve it successfully. You can contact me immediately via my email for the details, (redacted) thank you.

Regards,
Mr.Samuel Adjei.

I KNOW! I could hardly believe my good fortune, either. What a truly amazing world we live in, where such amazing opportunities exist. And from such a polite man, too, if a little familiar ("Hello Dear"? Really?) for someone I've never even met. 

I have no words. Fortunately, I did find a camel that expresses my real opinion of the above:







Happy Hump Day, everyone! 

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

EEK! (AKA, Fears, Phobias, and Things that Freak You the Eff Out)

I like to think of myself as a strong person. If there's something I have to do, I do it. Generally without dilly-dallying, because dilly-dallying never makes anything easier. 

But there are some things that Freak. Me. The. F***. Out. 

For instance (in no particular order):

1. Spiders. *shudders* I was going to post a picture of one, but I (you guessed it) freaked the f*** out looking at them. Yeesh. You want to see spiders? Go Google them yourself. And then do me a favor--don't link to them. 

2. Cockroaches. (See above. Cockroaches are almost as bad as spiders. But somehow grosser, so there's the ick factor to consider. I'm fine with ladybugs, ants, silverfish, etc., so it's not creepy-crawly phobia in general.)

3. Long bridges, especially over water. I tend to hold my breath as I go over them, which is why I don't like the long ones. Holding my breath for long periods makes me light-headed. This is especially troublesome if I happen to be driving.

4. Extreme heights, especially when viewed from an edge of any sort, even one with a rail. (I'm okay with moderate heights. It's when the people below start looking like ants that I tend to hyperventilate.)

5. Small, enclosed places. (Yeah, I'm claustrophobic. So now you know where Ciel gets that from.)

6. Cranes. (Not the birds. The machinery.) Part of me is just sure one of those things is going to drop an I-beam or something on my car as I drive by one day.)



Apparently I'm in good company with my irrational fears:



Who knew a plastic bin could be so terrifying? 

Special thanks to Jen Stayrook (aka @JentheAmazing) for the gif. I can always count on her for a good camel connection. 


So, what are you afraid of? 


Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Happy CHOMP Day!

I don't know about you, but I like to include food and drinks in my books. "Eat, drink, and be merry"--an excellent motto for real life, in my humble opinion--apparently spills over into my fiction. 

A few years ago, I showed you some of the things Ciel eats and drinks in In a Fix (click here if you're curious). 

Well, she's still eating and drinking (and *ahem* "merry-ing") her way through Quick Fix

For instance, she enjoys some yummy Thai food, including Drunken Noodles, with friends and family at her D.C. condo...

By Elliot from Castro Valley, California, USA (Drunken Noodles) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


Has a few too many Manhattans at the Come as You Aren't Party...

By Hayford Peirce at en.wikipedia [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

And finds out stale popcorn is not the hangover remedy she hoped it would be...

Photo courtesy of MorgueFile.com
She has a moment with a frosted strawberry Pop-Tart...

By Scott Ehardt (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Pickles...

By Renee Comet (Photographer) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

...and raspberries

By www.bluewaikiki.com (originally posted to Flickr as Summer Raspberries) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
...also come into *cough* play. 

Obviously, I think food is a great prop in a book. Food is fun. It engages the readers' senses, which is always a good thing. 

This guy obviously agrees with me:

By Syed Abdul Khaliq from Shah Alam, Malaysia (Unta@Camel  Uploaded by russavia) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
So, how about you? Do you like to use food and/or drinks in your writing? If so, what kind?

If not, what's your favorite food and/or drink in real life? 


Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Things Aren't Always What They Seem

So, George Takei shared this photo from National Geographic on his Facebook feed:

https://www.facebook.com/natgeo?directed_target_id=0

Looks like a bunch of camels, huh? And it is, though maybe not exactly the way your eyes were telling you at first glance.

In case you can't read the small print in the picture (and if you can, I'm seriously impressed with you eyesight), here's what it says: 

"This is a picture taken directly above these camels in the desert at sunset. It is considered one the best pictures of the year. Look closely, the camels are the little white lines in the picture. The black you see are just the shadows!"

Cool, huh? And it also makes you (and by "you" I mean "me") think. How much of what we "see" in other people is real? 

Especially the people we see on the internet all the time. Do you ever wonder how much of their real selves your cyber buddies reveal online? Do they--intentionally or not--display some innate inner truth, or are they just pixel-ated cyber shadows? 

My guess is, those of us who participate a lot in social media--whether it be through blogs, Twitter, Facebook, GoodReads, Google+, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc.--show a lot more of ourselves than we might think, to people who read between the lines. But not everything. 

People who know me online probably think of me as a wisecracking, camel-loving smartass who enjoys a good cocktail and has an aversion to cooking. Which isn't necessarily untrue, but trust me, there's a bit more to whole picture. I do have a serious side. 

(Maybe even a dark side. Bwah-ha-hah! Wouldn't you like to know?) 

It just doesn't happen to be what I choose to put on display for the world. Frankly, I'd rather make people laugh. (Which is probably revealing in its own way.)

How about you? Is your online persona the real you? The whole you? Nothing but the you? 

Or are you a pixel-ated cyber shadow?

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

HUZZAH! Ciel lives on. (With Gratuitous Drinking Camel)

Okay, so you know that good news I've been hinting at for the past few weeks? Well, I can finally announce it officially! 

*Ahem*

By Glenn Brunette (IMG_8878) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
(That's a picture of a trumpet fanfare. Goofy, I know. Just be glad I didn't put in a GIF with a sound mashup. I mean, that would have been annoying.)

Anyway, Publisher's Marketplace should soon, if not already, be carrying something akin to this nice little announcement my super-fantabulous agent, Michelle Wolfson, put together:

IN A FIX and QUICK FIX author Linda Grimes's THE BIG FIX, which continues the adventures of Ciel Halligan, aura adaptor extraordinaire, who takes on a job for an action superstar whose snake phobia prevents him from completing his latest Hollywood blockbuster, only to find that when the superstar's wife turns up dead, Ciel may have unwittingly provided the perfect alibi, to Melissa Frain at Tor in a two book deal by Michelle Wolfson at Wolfson Literary Agency (World).


Yep, Tor bought the next two books in my series!!!

I'm thrilled to get to keep playing in Ciel's world for a while longer. She still has stories to tell me, and I can't wait to share them with you. 

I'll drink to that! And so will my friend here:

By Iflwlou at zh.wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], from Wikimedia Commons
Cheers! :D