Angela Benedetti's Blog - Posts Tagged "new-release"
Next Sentinels Book Coming
Emerging Magic is due to be released on 25 July, less than two weeks away. I know a lot of people have been looking forward to it, including me. :) It picks up shortly after A Hidden Magic ends.
==========
Rory's mother took him to psychiatrists, let them circumscribe his life, let them give him drugs, while knowing all along there was nothing wrong with him. When Rory finds out, he's angry and confused and just wants to get away for a while. His mother's betrayal plus another kidnap attempt make a visit to the father he hasn't seen in ten years seem like a great idea.
When Rory, Paul and Aubrey get to Seattle, though, it's obviously not going to be just a normal family Christmas. Someone north of San Jose tried to kidnap Rory twice before they left, and to Paul, it's too much of a coincidence that Nathan, Rory's dad, has magic talented friends. While Rory tries to reconnect with his only other family, Paul is trying to figure out whether anyone in Nathan's group is after Rory. They definitely have secrets, and at least one of them has been playing around with things he doesn't understand; the local fey are after him, and elves aren't known for caring too much about collateral damage.
And there's a master wizard in the area who's up to something big and would really like to have Rory's help....
==========
Rory's mother took him to psychiatrists, let them circumscribe his life, let them give him drugs, while knowing all along there was nothing wrong with him. When Rory finds out, he's angry and confused and just wants to get away for a while. His mother's betrayal plus another kidnap attempt make a visit to the father he hasn't seen in ten years seem like a great idea.
When Rory, Paul and Aubrey get to Seattle, though, it's obviously not going to be just a normal family Christmas. Someone north of San Jose tried to kidnap Rory twice before they left, and to Paul, it's too much of a coincidence that Nathan, Rory's dad, has magic talented friends. While Rory tries to reconnect with his only other family, Paul is trying to figure out whether anyone in Nathan's group is after Rory. They definitely have secrets, and at least one of them has been playing around with things he doesn't understand; the local fey are after him, and elves aren't known for caring too much about collateral damage.
And there's a master wizard in the area who's up to something big and would really like to have Rory's help....
Emerging Magic is Available
My new Sentinels novel, Emerging Magic, was released today, and is currently available on the Torquere Press site and through ARe. Amazon and B&N aren't showing it yet, but should be soon. It'll also be available in paperback (along with a paperback edition of A Hidden Magic, the first novel in the series) through Amazon; I'll post when those show up.
Emerging Magic picks up shortly after A Hidden Magic wraps up, with Rory discovering something that changes his perception of the last decade of his life.
==========
Rory's mother took him to psychiatrists, let them circumscribe his life, let them give him drugs, while knowing all along there was nothing wrong with him. When Rory finds out, he's angry and confused and just wants to get away for a while. His mother's betrayal plus another kidnap attempt make a visit to the father he hasn't seen in ten years seem like a great idea.
When Rory, Paul and Aubrey get to Seattle, though, it's obviously not going to be just a normal family Christmas. Someone north of San Jose tried to kidnap Rory twice before they left, and to Paul, it's too much of a coincidence that Nathan, Rory's dad, has magic talented friends. While Rory tries to reconnect with his only other family, Paul is trying to figure out whether anyone in Nathan's group is after Rory. They definitely have secrets, and at least one of them has been playing around with things he doesn't understand; the local fey are after him, and elves aren't known for caring too much about collateral damage.
And there's a master wizard in the area who's up to something big and would really like to have Rory's help....
==========
Paul, Rory, and Elizabeth strolled along the sidewalk, between pools of moth-filled light and patches of murky darkness. It was after eight, but the sidewalks were still pretty crowded; it might be a Thursday but it was a Thursday within two weeks of Christmas and the shoppers were swarming. The downtown shopping area wasn't as insane as the malls -- Paul wouldn't go near Valley Fair at gunpoint until after New Year's -- but there were enough people around to slow progress down the street.
So when Rory suddenly stopped, Paul's first thought was that someone ahead of him was blocking the way for a moment. But then he saw that Rory was peering into the darkness down a walkway, a narrow, bricked area where a restaurant had outdoor seating when the weather was warmer. It was currently unused and unlit, and apparently empty.
When he paid attention, though, Paul could hear a noise, something like a dog crying from behind some bushes spilling out of a planting area, back in the shadows.
Rory glanced at Paul as though checking that he'd heard something too, then started off toward the bushes. "It sounds like something's hurt. Maybe a dog got hit by a car and dragged himself back in there?" he said over his shoulder.
Paul was about to agree when Elizabeth said, "Rory? I don't hear anything, baby. You're having another one of your episodes. Let's find a place where you can sit down and meditate for a few minutes." She hurried after him and took his arm, trying to tug him away, glancing toward a bus stop bench up the street, but Rory stood his ground.
"No, it's a dog, Mom. I just want to go check. Paul hears it too." Rory looked up at Paul for support, but Paul held up a hand in a "wait" signal and switched to magesight, frowning into the darkness.
There, behind the dark confusion of foliage, magic glowed a dim blue. The central shape was humanoid. It was stocky in build, and looked like it might be short for a human, but it was crouched down and Paul couldn't quite tell.
The sound of the crying dog faded away and a blob of magic swelled blue-green, then pulled back slightly. Paul got an image of an arm winding up to throw.
He called, "Down!" and spun around, grabbing both Rory and Elizabeth by the arms. He shoved Elizabeth down onto the pavement, used a quick jerk of leverage to get Rory down next to her, then threw himself over them both while activating a bronze pendant shaped like a shield.
A blue-green flash reflected off the pale pavement, and a cluster of moths, perfectly immobile, fell to the ground around them in a rain of gentle pattering.
Elizabeth was squawking in outrage and Rory was struggling to get up. Paul ignored them both and raised a binding spell, invoking the magic in one of his pins -- a tiny pair of handcuffs piercing his jacket near the collar -- and then focusing all his attention on directing it at the small, stocky fey thing that was swirling blue-green magic again in a clear attempt to prepare another spell.
Hurrying would be incredibly stupid at that point, so Paul didn't. He ignored the two people protesting beneath him and cast the binding just a moment after the fey threw something at him. It crackled. The back of his jacket flared with heat for a moment, then he smelled something burning.
He muttered, "Fuck!" under his breath and smacked out his smoldering hair with both hands. It'd been barely two weeks since a salamander had taken an inch or two off the back the same way; he was going to look like an eighties reject if the back got much shorter while the top stayed long.
Burning hair distracted Paul long enough for Rory to squirm out from under him and stagger to his feet, then help his mother up. Elizabeth was still squawking, and Paul took a moment to pay attention to what she was saying. Then he stopped, rolled over and stared up at her in shock.
"--one of those magic people! I knew you were no good, sneaking around Rory, pretending to be his friend, making him think you actually like him! You're just using him, you lying bastard! You just want his magic, trying to seduce him into helping you with whatever plan you have for power or riches or whatever it is you're doing that'll get him killed while you slip away to find some other victim!"
She actually whacked Paul with her purse, something he'd never seen outside a movie, but he was too stunned to even duck. The sturdy bag hit him a good crack in one cheek, and the pain startled him out of his shock. He rolled to his feet and backed out of range, ready to fend off any more physical attacks.
Rory had stepped back too, and was staring at his mother with his eyes wide and his mouth partially open. When Elizabeth paused to take a breath before continuing with her harrangue, Rory said, "You knew."
Elizabeth stopped, then turned and stared back at Rory in dismay. "Rory, baby--" She raised her hand to Rory's face and moved toward him, but Rory dodged away.
"You knew." The pain and shock and betrayal in his voice stabbed into Paul like a spike.
"Rory, no--"
"Yes. You knew all along. You knew it was real, you knew, and you let me think I was crazy! All those years! You took me to doctors, let them poke and question and give me thousands of pills, and all along you knew it was bullshit, that what I saw was real!" Rory's voice got louder as he went, and by the end it was raw with fury. "You bitch! You ruined my whole life, let them convince me I was crazy, and for nothing!"
==========
Get the whole book at Torquere, ARe or Rainbow eBooks.
Emerging Magic picks up shortly after A Hidden Magic wraps up, with Rory discovering something that changes his perception of the last decade of his life.
==========
Rory's mother took him to psychiatrists, let them circumscribe his life, let them give him drugs, while knowing all along there was nothing wrong with him. When Rory finds out, he's angry and confused and just wants to get away for a while. His mother's betrayal plus another kidnap attempt make a visit to the father he hasn't seen in ten years seem like a great idea.
When Rory, Paul and Aubrey get to Seattle, though, it's obviously not going to be just a normal family Christmas. Someone north of San Jose tried to kidnap Rory twice before they left, and to Paul, it's too much of a coincidence that Nathan, Rory's dad, has magic talented friends. While Rory tries to reconnect with his only other family, Paul is trying to figure out whether anyone in Nathan's group is after Rory. They definitely have secrets, and at least one of them has been playing around with things he doesn't understand; the local fey are after him, and elves aren't known for caring too much about collateral damage.
And there's a master wizard in the area who's up to something big and would really like to have Rory's help....
==========
Paul, Rory, and Elizabeth strolled along the sidewalk, between pools of moth-filled light and patches of murky darkness. It was after eight, but the sidewalks were still pretty crowded; it might be a Thursday but it was a Thursday within two weeks of Christmas and the shoppers were swarming. The downtown shopping area wasn't as insane as the malls -- Paul wouldn't go near Valley Fair at gunpoint until after New Year's -- but there were enough people around to slow progress down the street.
So when Rory suddenly stopped, Paul's first thought was that someone ahead of him was blocking the way for a moment. But then he saw that Rory was peering into the darkness down a walkway, a narrow, bricked area where a restaurant had outdoor seating when the weather was warmer. It was currently unused and unlit, and apparently empty.
When he paid attention, though, Paul could hear a noise, something like a dog crying from behind some bushes spilling out of a planting area, back in the shadows.
Rory glanced at Paul as though checking that he'd heard something too, then started off toward the bushes. "It sounds like something's hurt. Maybe a dog got hit by a car and dragged himself back in there?" he said over his shoulder.
Paul was about to agree when Elizabeth said, "Rory? I don't hear anything, baby. You're having another one of your episodes. Let's find a place where you can sit down and meditate for a few minutes." She hurried after him and took his arm, trying to tug him away, glancing toward a bus stop bench up the street, but Rory stood his ground.
"No, it's a dog, Mom. I just want to go check. Paul hears it too." Rory looked up at Paul for support, but Paul held up a hand in a "wait" signal and switched to magesight, frowning into the darkness.
There, behind the dark confusion of foliage, magic glowed a dim blue. The central shape was humanoid. It was stocky in build, and looked like it might be short for a human, but it was crouched down and Paul couldn't quite tell.
The sound of the crying dog faded away and a blob of magic swelled blue-green, then pulled back slightly. Paul got an image of an arm winding up to throw.
He called, "Down!" and spun around, grabbing both Rory and Elizabeth by the arms. He shoved Elizabeth down onto the pavement, used a quick jerk of leverage to get Rory down next to her, then threw himself over them both while activating a bronze pendant shaped like a shield.
A blue-green flash reflected off the pale pavement, and a cluster of moths, perfectly immobile, fell to the ground around them in a rain of gentle pattering.
Elizabeth was squawking in outrage and Rory was struggling to get up. Paul ignored them both and raised a binding spell, invoking the magic in one of his pins -- a tiny pair of handcuffs piercing his jacket near the collar -- and then focusing all his attention on directing it at the small, stocky fey thing that was swirling blue-green magic again in a clear attempt to prepare another spell.
Hurrying would be incredibly stupid at that point, so Paul didn't. He ignored the two people protesting beneath him and cast the binding just a moment after the fey threw something at him. It crackled. The back of his jacket flared with heat for a moment, then he smelled something burning.
He muttered, "Fuck!" under his breath and smacked out his smoldering hair with both hands. It'd been barely two weeks since a salamander had taken an inch or two off the back the same way; he was going to look like an eighties reject if the back got much shorter while the top stayed long.
Burning hair distracted Paul long enough for Rory to squirm out from under him and stagger to his feet, then help his mother up. Elizabeth was still squawking, and Paul took a moment to pay attention to what she was saying. Then he stopped, rolled over and stared up at her in shock.
"--one of those magic people! I knew you were no good, sneaking around Rory, pretending to be his friend, making him think you actually like him! You're just using him, you lying bastard! You just want his magic, trying to seduce him into helping you with whatever plan you have for power or riches or whatever it is you're doing that'll get him killed while you slip away to find some other victim!"
She actually whacked Paul with her purse, something he'd never seen outside a movie, but he was too stunned to even duck. The sturdy bag hit him a good crack in one cheek, and the pain startled him out of his shock. He rolled to his feet and backed out of range, ready to fend off any more physical attacks.
Rory had stepped back too, and was staring at his mother with his eyes wide and his mouth partially open. When Elizabeth paused to take a breath before continuing with her harrangue, Rory said, "You knew."
Elizabeth stopped, then turned and stared back at Rory in dismay. "Rory, baby--" She raised her hand to Rory's face and moved toward him, but Rory dodged away.
"You knew." The pain and shock and betrayal in his voice stabbed into Paul like a spike.
"Rory, no--"
"Yes. You knew all along. You knew it was real, you knew, and you let me think I was crazy! All those years! You took me to doctors, let them poke and question and give me thousands of pills, and all along you knew it was bullshit, that what I saw was real!" Rory's voice got louder as he went, and by the end it was raw with fury. "You bitch! You ruined my whole life, let them convince me I was crazy, and for nothing!"
==========
Get the whole book at Torquere, ARe or Rainbow eBooks.
Emerging Magic and A Hidden Magic out in Paperback
Amazon has copies of Emerging Magic in paperback. The paper version is 390 pages long, and costs $16.95, free shipping if you have Prime.
I also have to laugh -- there are three companies offering to third-party sell you a new copy already, all with a $3.99 charge for shipping, which is doubtless how number one, who's charging $16.94 (Ooooo, discount!) is making money. Number two is charging $17.19, and number three (who's got to be seriously delusional, is all I can say) is charging $57.87. Good luck, dude. :)
I've heard some other writers griping about this, but so long as I get my royalty, they can sell the book for whatever retail price they like. I'm certainly not going to stress out over a business whiz who thinks he can sell a sixteen-something dollar book for almost sixty dollars, on the same page with a [Buy] button for the (identical) sixteen-something dollar version.
Anyway, I'm sort of boinging over here, because this is my first paperback book. I turned in the EM galleys ahead of the HM galleys, so I'm assuming the paperback Hidden Magic will show up some time soon; I'll definitely post about it when it does.
[ETA: Charisstoma found the A Hidden Magic paperback. It's not linked to the Kindle edition yet, so I didn't see it -- stealth paperback! It's 248 pages, and costs $14.95 with Prime shipping available. Thanks to Charisstoma for pointing it out!]
Angie
I also have to laugh -- there are three companies offering to third-party sell you a new copy already, all with a $3.99 charge for shipping, which is doubtless how number one, who's charging $16.94 (Ooooo, discount!) is making money. Number two is charging $17.19, and number three (who's got to be seriously delusional, is all I can say) is charging $57.87. Good luck, dude. :)
I've heard some other writers griping about this, but so long as I get my royalty, they can sell the book for whatever retail price they like. I'm certainly not going to stress out over a business whiz who thinks he can sell a sixteen-something dollar book for almost sixty dollars, on the same page with a [Buy] button for the (identical) sixteen-something dollar version.
Anyway, I'm sort of boinging over here, because this is my first paperback book. I turned in the EM galleys ahead of the HM galleys, so I'm assuming the paperback Hidden Magic will show up some time soon; I'll definitely post about it when it does.
[ETA: Charisstoma found the A Hidden Magic paperback. It's not linked to the Kindle edition yet, so I didn't see it -- stealth paperback! It's 248 pages, and costs $14.95 with Prime shipping available. Thanks to Charisstoma for pointing it out!]
Angie
New Release -- Captive Magic [Updated]
Captive Magic releases today, and is available at the Torquere site. UPDATE: It's currently available on Amazon, Amazon UK, ARe, Rainbow eBooks, Smashwords (with a 38-page sample), and Bookstrand. No B&N or Kobo yet, and the paperback isn't up yet at all.Also, to go along with the new novel release, all my older books on the Torquere site are 20% off. This is a great time to catch up on the Sentinel series, or anything else you might've missed.
I love new release days. :D
Angie
Looks Like Astroturfing, Quacks Like Astroturfing...
I got a book recommendation in my e-mail from someone I have friended on Goodreads. Okay, that happens occasionally. I click through to check out the book.
What I see is that only one other person I know has reviewed it, and they're just boinging because it's out, rather than talking about the book itself. There are a bunch of reviews from people I don't know. Okay, I can work with that, usually, and with a 4.65 average rating with over 50 ratings, that usually means a pretty awesome book.
Except there's a weird sort of uniformity about these reviews. The very first one has links to a bunch of vendor pages where you can buy the book -- who besides the author ever does that? -- and some animated GIFs, and a lot of generic squee. And hey, there's another review a ways below that with... links to a bunch of vendor pages. Same format. o_O Lots of generic squee, and quite a few "OMG I got my ARC!" type comments. Some mentions of a coming blog tour. Very little actual discussion of the book itself, of parts people like or dislike -- you know, the useful stuff that shows up in a useful review.
Huh, smells like a street team.
Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with a street team. My understanding is that the term came out of the music business, where a street team is a group of people who hit the streets in a town where a band is coming to play a gig soon. They talk up the show, put posters up everywhere, make it look like there's a lot of buzz and excitement about the band, make people want to come hear them, make it feel like the show's going to be awesome fun and everyone should be there. Street-level marketing. Oh, and the street team is usually paid, even if it's just in T-shirts and show tickets and stuff.
A lot of writers are using street teams now to build up buzz about a new book. They form a group of fans who are willing to go out and generate buzz when a new book comes out, fans who are usually paid in free books and maybe some swag. And seriously, if a writer has enough fans to form a street team, that says something about their writing right there, so that's cool so far as it goes. Having a bunch of people read your book early and post reviews right away, whether on Goodreads or Amazon or their blogs or anywhere else, can certainly help build buzz, and that can be a good thing.
But I read Goodreads for reader reviews. Information about the book, posted by readers who've read it. When I see that the whole first page of reviews looks like it was written by people who are all focusing on the squee rather than the useful info, when I see a bunch of readers who put up a great rating with "review to come," when I see a bunch of not-really-a-review reviews that look like they were all written from the same press release...? I get the feeling that these aren't actually reviews. They feel like coordinated buzz put up by a bunch of people who are all following the same set of instructions. (Seriously, how many individual reviewers put up multiple links to a book's buy page on multiple vendors? And to see that twice in the first handful of reviews...? [eyeroll])
Having a bunch of individuals -- not Capitol-R Reviewers who own or contribute to a review site, but just-folks type readers -- put up reviews is valuable because readers like me like to see what individual readers have to say about a book. People go to Goodreads for grassroots book reviews, written by individuals who've read a book and are reviewing it. When what we find is a bunch of cookie-cutter reviews that sound way too similar, with lots of squeeage but very little info about the book, reviews that all seem to be cribbing from the same info packet? That doesn't look like a grassroots response -- that looks like astroturfing. It feels fake, it feels manipulative, and it doesn't make me want to dash out and buy the book, or even put it on my to-buy list.
I'm ignoring that book I was recced. If I hear about it again in the future, if I see people I know -- who've actually read it -- talking about it, saying what they think, discussing bits they liked or disliked, then I might buy it later. For right now, though, all I know is that a bunch of people were handed some kind of crib sheet and instructed to go out and squee. My immediate response is negative, though, and any future buzz I run into about it is going to have to overcome that.
I can see street teams working. And heck, maybe there are readers who'll see someone they don't know post, "OMG this book is awesome! I heart it so much!! Five stars!! Everyone has to buy it!!!" and will immediately run out and get it. I'm not one of them, though, and I suspect there are a lot of readers like me. If I had a street team, I'd ask folks to actually read the book, discuss what specific parts they liked (and even disliked, if any), and maybe throttle back on the squee some. Because new-release grassroots buzz should at least look like a spontaneous outpouring of enthusiasm, rather than a carefully coordinated release of marketing push. In my opinion, anyway.
No sale. Try again next time.
Angie
What I see is that only one other person I know has reviewed it, and they're just boinging because it's out, rather than talking about the book itself. There are a bunch of reviews from people I don't know. Okay, I can work with that, usually, and with a 4.65 average rating with over 50 ratings, that usually means a pretty awesome book.
Except there's a weird sort of uniformity about these reviews. The very first one has links to a bunch of vendor pages where you can buy the book -- who besides the author ever does that? -- and some animated GIFs, and a lot of generic squee. And hey, there's another review a ways below that with... links to a bunch of vendor pages. Same format. o_O Lots of generic squee, and quite a few "OMG I got my ARC!" type comments. Some mentions of a coming blog tour. Very little actual discussion of the book itself, of parts people like or dislike -- you know, the useful stuff that shows up in a useful review.
Huh, smells like a street team.
Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with a street team. My understanding is that the term came out of the music business, where a street team is a group of people who hit the streets in a town where a band is coming to play a gig soon. They talk up the show, put posters up everywhere, make it look like there's a lot of buzz and excitement about the band, make people want to come hear them, make it feel like the show's going to be awesome fun and everyone should be there. Street-level marketing. Oh, and the street team is usually paid, even if it's just in T-shirts and show tickets and stuff.
A lot of writers are using street teams now to build up buzz about a new book. They form a group of fans who are willing to go out and generate buzz when a new book comes out, fans who are usually paid in free books and maybe some swag. And seriously, if a writer has enough fans to form a street team, that says something about their writing right there, so that's cool so far as it goes. Having a bunch of people read your book early and post reviews right away, whether on Goodreads or Amazon or their blogs or anywhere else, can certainly help build buzz, and that can be a good thing.
But I read Goodreads for reader reviews. Information about the book, posted by readers who've read it. When I see that the whole first page of reviews looks like it was written by people who are all focusing on the squee rather than the useful info, when I see a bunch of readers who put up a great rating with "review to come," when I see a bunch of not-really-a-review reviews that look like they were all written from the same press release...? I get the feeling that these aren't actually reviews. They feel like coordinated buzz put up by a bunch of people who are all following the same set of instructions. (Seriously, how many individual reviewers put up multiple links to a book's buy page on multiple vendors? And to see that twice in the first handful of reviews...? [eyeroll])
Having a bunch of individuals -- not Capitol-R Reviewers who own or contribute to a review site, but just-folks type readers -- put up reviews is valuable because readers like me like to see what individual readers have to say about a book. People go to Goodreads for grassroots book reviews, written by individuals who've read a book and are reviewing it. When what we find is a bunch of cookie-cutter reviews that sound way too similar, with lots of squeeage but very little info about the book, reviews that all seem to be cribbing from the same info packet? That doesn't look like a grassroots response -- that looks like astroturfing. It feels fake, it feels manipulative, and it doesn't make me want to dash out and buy the book, or even put it on my to-buy list.
I'm ignoring that book I was recced. If I hear about it again in the future, if I see people I know -- who've actually read it -- talking about it, saying what they think, discussing bits they liked or disliked, then I might buy it later. For right now, though, all I know is that a bunch of people were handed some kind of crib sheet and instructed to go out and squee. My immediate response is negative, though, and any future buzz I run into about it is going to have to overcome that.
I can see street teams working. And heck, maybe there are readers who'll see someone they don't know post, "OMG this book is awesome! I heart it so much!! Five stars!! Everyone has to buy it!!!" and will immediately run out and get it. I'm not one of them, though, and I suspect there are a lot of readers like me. If I had a street team, I'd ask folks to actually read the book, discuss what specific parts they liked (and even disliked, if any), and maybe throttle back on the squee some. Because new-release grassroots buzz should at least look like a spontaneous outpouring of enthusiasm, rather than a carefully coordinated release of marketing push. In my opinion, anyway.
No sale. Try again next time.
Angie
