Tuesday, March 1, 2016

A Note About The Long Goodbye

A few things to note before I get to the post: during Samhain's close, books will be for sale! So if there's a book you want, go ahead and buy it. Samhain will let everyone know when the books will no longer be available, and believe me, so will the authors. Also, the authors will continue to get paid, so don't worry that we're getting shafted. We're not. I would trumpet it if we were, believe me.

Now to the post:



All right. By this time everyone knows that Samhain Publishing will be closing its doors. And some of you are probably wondering why I haven't commented on it much.

Shock. Sheer, unadulterated shock. I didn't see it coming, and part of me is still reeling.

See, Samhain was my first publisher, the one who took a chance on me when everyone else said "no". So for that alone they had my loyalty.

Dana's first-ever book.

Add in the wonderful editors I was always lucky to have, like Angela James and Tera Cuskaden, the awesome artwork on my books, and the fact that problems, if any, were explained and fixed without leaving us, the authors, in the dark for very long, and you had a wonderful publisher to work for.

So, yeah. I'm kind of in mourning for them. I can't even imagine what Christina Brashear, the owner, is going through. She put her heart and soul into her company, so to have it begin to die has to have her in mourning hell. I think all of us who worked for them will, to some extent or another, mourn the loss of Samhain.

But I have no doubt Chris Brashear will come through this. She's strong, that lady. (Don't tell her I said this, but she kind of scares me a little. But in a good, "Where's my book?", hovering over me sort of way.) And she's making sure Samhain goes out as classy as possible, by taking care of her authors and making sure we're in the loop as she, and her company, go through this rough time.

In the meantime, there's work to be done.

For me, it means that I have a little time to decide what I'm going to do next. And I do have some ideas. The first ones involved a lot of chocolate and some sobbing, but I'm over that now. Mostly. The rest of my plans involve possibly finding an agent (I've never had one before), subbing elsewhere and, if necessary, looking into self-publishing. I'm not going to stop writing any time soon, so don't be afraid that your favorite stories are going to abruptly stop. They won't. They'll just have new homes.

Needless to say, most of the Coming Soon stuff I posted isn't going to happen, not yet anyway. I'll be changing that by the end of the week, probably with more chocolate, sobbing and dog kisses to make me feel better (and steal my chocolate. Don't worry, I won't let her have any.)

However, I will continue my series for Carina Press over the next few months while I research my options and figure out where to go from here. That means I plan on finishing More Than Words and starting work on The Hour of the Wolf, the next Maggie's Grove book and the last of the inner dryad circle. (The one after that involves a bunny and a dragon. Heh.)

It also means that covers will change, damn it. I'm sorry about that, but I don't own the artwork that's on my covers. I only own the content of the book. Wherever the books wind up, I'll do my best to make sure they get the best artwork I can.

God damn it, Julian. I love you('re cover).
There's not much more to say, other than It's all about the story. And that story was wonderful while it lasted. Like all good stories there's an end, but hopefully a sequel will come down the pike. We all know how much I love a good sequel. So please remember: we, the authors, we're not down, and we're certainly not out.

We're just preparing for the sequel.

P.S.: Those who wrote to me to let me know they loved me, thank you. I love you guys to. You're the reason I keep going, even on the bad days. And knowing I've brightened someone's day makes mine, so thank you.

Favorite Quotes

"I had the right to remain silent, but I didn't have the ability." Ron White

"So let me get this straight. You want me to kill the little guys, kill the big guys, crowd control those I can't, buff the team, debuff the boss, keep myself alive, AND keep you alive, all while waving a stick and dressed in a towel?" - Anonymous Role Playing Gamer

"I think that statue over there is a statement on modern life. The statement is, "Well, shit." - Varric, Dragon Age II

"Why is it all claws and guns? Can't we piss off a fuzzy planet? Still dangerous, but hey. Bunnies." - Joker, Mass Effect

"Last night, I lay in bed looking up at the stars in the sky and thought to myself, "Where the heck is the ceiling?" - Dilbert


"Aim at the high mark and you will hit it. No, not the first time, not the second time and maybe not the third. But keep on aiming and keep on shooting for only practice will make you perfect. Finally you'll hit the bull's-eye of success." - Annie Oakley

"It is only when you fall that you learn whether you can fly." - Flemeth, aka The Witch of the Wilds, Dragon Age 2

"The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, 'You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.'” - George Carlin

"I hear there's a wild bridge tournament down the street. And you know Bridge. It's a lot like sex. If you don't have a great partner, you'd better have a good hand." Barry Weiss, Storage Wars

"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." - Marcus Cole, Babylon 5, "A Late Delivery From Avalon"

"I aim to misbehave." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." - Albert Einstein

“If you think you can or think you cannot, you are correct.” - Henry Ford
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