Heart Song submitted! And a snippet of Heart Sense

So, I've finally submitted Heart Song, sequel to Heart Sense to Prizm. Cross your fingers! Heart Song tells Mikael's POV, and the aftermath of Heart Sense. The as-yet-unnamed third book will focus on Soren, Katjin's cousin, and bring about my final plan to take over the world. *cackles*

In any case, here's a snippet from the world of Heart Sense:

Springtime on the plains. Nothing could possibly be better, especially after a moon span in a dirty, crowded town. He'd never understand how anyone could live like that: on top of their friends and family in small, stone houses; the ghosts of thousands of fires blackening the ceiling and the smells of a thousand years clogging your nose. You couldn't feel the wind in those houses, even with the shutters opened. You couldn't smell the outside, the surroundings--not that the pisspot of the city, with its dirt and moldering rubbish were worth smelling. So many people cramped into one space, surrounded by those high walls. No wonder Apa always insisted on staying outside of town. No wonder Apa had never forced the life of the Lowlands on him.

Springtime on the plains meant the heady warmth of the sun beating down on him, the muscles of his horse's back bunching as he rode after Apa across the grasslands. It was the scent of sun-bleached and rain-damp fodder, just coming out of the months and months of winter rains. Even the wet-animal smell that their yer sometimes got after moons of rain was preferred to the smells of the city, especially if he was trapped inside the yer for a moon at a time on the edge of some city, as often happened when the rains came to the Lowlands. Springtime on the plains meant going home, back to Meke and Febe and the rest of their family for a much-needed rest. Even if it was only half a moon’s span of rest. He wouldn’t even mind an entire span, one full moon to the next, if he could stand his family for that long.

It was high time for it too; winter rains would soon enough give way to the humid heat of summer. At that point, Katjin would gladly trade the robe off his back for the cool, high pastures of Spring camp, a welcomed relief.

Katjin hummed softly to himself as they rode along, trying to keep the rhythm of the bells that were tied to the saddle and bridle of both their horses. He could tell it was annoying Apa, from the hunched shoulders and the tightness around his father's mouth. Even Apa's dark hair seemed to be pulled unusually tight, tied back from his dark-tanned face. Usually, his father didn't seem to mind Katjin's off-key humming. Half of the time, they even sang together. They were traders, after all, so it wasn't like they had to rely on stealth as they rode between the cities of the Lowlands and the grasslands of the Horse Clans. Apa even said that his and Katjin's singing probably drove the bandits away.

Not that Apa was a traditional trader, really. Not like the ones that moved between the cities of the Lowlands. They didn't haul wagon-loads of goods with them on their seasonal treks across the Empire. Sometimes, Apa might have a packhorse or two to carry their wares between the places they visited, but it was never more than just the two of them and their horses. Apa seemed to deliberately choose goods that were small and portable, like the infamous rugs that the villagers wove on the Lowlands/Clan borders. Katjin would’ve thought that carrying the occasional large item would look less obvious, since he’d had his suspicions for a while now about what Apa actually traded. The romantic in him sometimes wondered if Apa were some kind of spy for the Empire. Or against it, since Apa seemed to associate with those the Empire might deem ‘dangerous’ sorts. They seemed to stay a lot longer than most traders would, even traders who were wooing reluctant merchants. He and Apa could be in one town for up to two moons spans, which was longer than they even stayed on the plains.

When Katjin was younger, he hadn't really thought about their unbelievably good luck on the road. Now, he wondered sometimes if Apa had made some kind of a pact with a witch on one of his rare visits to the Highlands, since they'd never encountered bandits or anything like that. Or were questioned by the Empire. Not that there were many bandits, what with the Empire's 'path-led army hunting down anyone who ever had an evil thought or feeling in their lives, ancestors bless the Empire and their foresight for this. Empire citizens, from the smallest villages on the shore to the vast Horse Clan grasslands, never had to fear for their lives. Their thoughts, maybe, but never their own mortality. Not unless they had anything to hide.

(Net)working away...

Just popping in to say "Hi!" and "Working on Heart Song, I swear" and "Anyone want to read my book?". I got my copy a couple weeks ago, hugged it and squeed and didn't put it down for an hour. Every now and then, I take "Heart Sense" off the shelf and kind of marvel, like, wow, is that really mine? The family still wants to read it, and they're welcome to buy their own copy. Mine is mine own, my precious, my...erm, yeah.

A snippet will be posted sometime this week, as soon as I figure out how. I've read the first three chapters of the other Prizm books, by the way, and they are all absolutely awesome. I should get the whole set sooner or later. And I'm really looking forward to reading all of them. :) I'll post reviews as I read them.

For now, here's my 'official' logo designy art bit:



Note to self: fix the link-y bits and all that...

BEA and Other Things

Heart Sense is currently #42 in Books > Teens > Social Issues > Homosexuality > Fiction. Hee. Somehow, I think Douglas Adams would be proud. He (along with a bunch of penguins) was definitely a defining influence on me, not just for his wacky sense of...wackiness. But that's another post entirely.

BEA! Book Expo America, where you can hobnob with greats like Neil Gaiman and Judy Blume. Where free advance reading copies abound. And where you can thank Jane Yolen and Valerie Tripp for being such a defining influence on your childhood. *coughs* There was book promoting going on too. I met the fine ladies of Prizm Books, who made Heart Sense possible. I talked to some awesome librarians and booksellers and teachers, who seemed really excited about the books. And I might even get to do a reading/signing or two here and there in the SoCal area, which I look forward to.

All in all, it was an, dare I say, inspiring day that really cemented my decision to become one of the YA crowd. It is an incredible bunch of authors (and readers). And those books did so much for me in my life that I'm glad I can give back a story or two.

Note to self: get working on Heart Song...

Up on Amazon!

Funny how this gets more and more real as the days go by. On Friday, May 30th, I hit Book Expo America to meet with the ladies of Prizm Books to hold and cuddle Heart Sense in my hands and call it George.

A couple days ago, Heart Sense also got listed on Amazon, where it's currently in-stock. I might have to order a copy for myself. *g* And I have postcards, which are awesome in and of themselves. They list me as a 'world-traveled author' with a 'strong academic background.' Glad those two English degrees are finally paying off. :) :)

Are you excited? I am! I can't wait for Friday!

I's Ben

If you've worked in a bookstore (I have), you know what an "is-ben" is. You can probably rattle a few off, especially if they ever had anything to do with Oprah and a bookclub. An ISBN is the number that every store in the world uses to classify a book. It's the International Standard Book Number, and it's kind of like having your thesis on file with MLA somewhere. It's the SSN for your book.

And I have one.

Granted, the book's not listed for distribution anywhere, but it has gone to print. And I have seen the full cover and back blurb (hee), including a price and an ISBN. Nothing I've ever written had an ISBN before. This, the full cover PDF and the final proof (e-proof), is my real book. And I know I've said it before, but...

OMGWTFBBQ where's the polar bear?

I HAVE A BOOK! And you can all buy it in September.

It's even listed on the website! And I'll post the back blurb in the next couple days. Can't throw too much at you at once. *eg*

Cover! CovercovercovercovercoverCOVER!

I feel like a LOLcat. This iz MAH cover. DO WANT! DO WANT! Isn't it pretty? I love my cover artist. That's Katjin's robe! And it has horsies on it!

You'll pardon my acting like a 5 year old. I'm just so excited. I have a cover! And, in September, I'll have a book!

Just thought I'd share the love. :)

What's up with the world in her head?

So, I've got this world in my head. I've mentioned that, right? I like to call it my cat head world, after Dr. Seuss' cat head painting, "A Plethora of Cats." Legend tells that, when he had writer's block, he'd go to this painting and paint cat heads until the writer's block broke. Because there was always room for another cat head.

I guess the world in my head is kind of like that. It started off with a dream I had when I was nine and kind of grew from there. When Prizm Books mentioned launching a new Young Adult line, I thought, hey, I've got some teenagers in this world. Two in particular came to mind, with a story I'd once scripted out for a (rejected) comic script. And Katjin and Mikael's story was born.

What the hey is it about? Katjin's a son of the Horse Clans, and he wanders the Lowlands and plains of the Horse Clans with his merchant father. Mikael, born to a Lowlands family, escapes to the plains of the Horse Clans when he realizes he's a heart-sense (an empath), and meets up with Katjin. Or, as Mikael refuses to admit, is rescued by Katjin. Their lives from that moment are entwined, and they have to work together to keep Mikael from the Empire who wants to use him for his emotion-sensing abilities. Working together might be a bit of a problem, though, since they don't tolerate each other very much...

So, that's the story of Heart Sense. As the cover is released, I'll post snippets and things like that. I hope you enjoy your foray into my cat head world, because I know I've gotten a kick out of writing it. :)

I can has cover!

This is my first novel. Heart Sense is my baby, the product of living with a world in my head roughly since I was nine years old. Where most other kids made up stories about their action figures and their my little ponies and their GI Joes blowing up Barbie and helping take down the Empire, I made up stories about the people in my head. So Katjin and Mikael and Soren and the whole cast are very dear to me. The world means a lot to me, especially since it's kind of evolved over time. At this point, it looks a lot like the sub-alpine rainforest of New Zealand, combined with the steppes of Mongolia, and maybe some random mountains thrown in for good measure.

So, novel. I have a cover! Well, I have a form to fill out to decide what I'd like on the cover (suggestions, etc.). What the hell do you put on a cover? How do you condense the whole of your novel into one image? What do you think is the most important visual aspect of your story? My brain 'sploded, and all I could think was, I can has cover? (That, and, I was the turkey all along.)

So, someday, I will have a cover. With means I'll also have a cover blurb. And maybe an author quote. And an actual book. It's amazing how real this feels, now that I have a cover. I'm going to have a book. And a book is so much cooler than my Obi-Wan lightsaber.

Which reminds me, someday I'll tell the feverish tale of how I acquired the lightsaber. For now, I'm just going to drown in the thoughts of the fact that I, K L Richardsson, am an author. With a cover. And a book. And no, I will not squee like a little girl. I swear.

Avast, ye hearties, and welcome aboard

Not sure what the theme of this blog will be. Depends on the Sister and her daring dragoon designs for a logo/masthead type thing. Something about pirates just appeals to me. I know they're evil, I know they raped and pillaged, but they're pirates, and they kick ninja ass every time.

So, yes. *coughs* I'm K L Richardsson. I write. No, really, I do. I am a writer (apparently there's a distinction). My first novel, Heart Sense, is due out this summer/fall/September from Prizm Books. It's the first novel I've completed that was actually good enough to submit anywhere. No, there's no failed NaNoWriMos in the closet, really, I swear. *kicks closet door shut*

I'm a YA writer, focusing on GLBT teens. Why? Because they've got a story to tell, too. A 'happily ever after story' that just happens to be about a boy who likes boys. And because Katjin, the protagonist of Heart Sense, told me that he really liked the fellas better than the girls. Girls confuse him. I don't blame him. They confuse me too.

So, yes. I like books. I like to read them and write them. I like genre fiction, long walks on the beach, and my lightsaber. It's blue. I think it's Obi-Wan's. Unless someone can correct me on that. But yes. Welcome to the show! We'll find some dancing monkeys for you eventually...