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...