(no subject)

[rantingmule.livejournal.com]

TWO BLOGFLOGS, for the price of one!!!

Flog number one: http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/2006/10/comic.html

Jon in italics, me in normal font...

Its out.

Go buy.

......................WOW. THAT IS THE BEST ANNOUNCEMENT EVER. By "best" I mean "WORST."

Seriously, that does not inspire me to buy something. It says he doesn't care, doesn't have time to try and push the product.

That...WAS THE ENTIRE BLOG, right there. Oh, except for a really, REALLY bad photo that looks like it was taken with a cellphone. :P

Now, for the next blog: http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/2006/10/comics-strange-candy-and-dark-horse.html



As you can see from Jonathon's post yesterday the comic book is out.

Yeah, see, if I were her I'd be apologising to my blog readers for his FOUR WORD announcement that was FULL OF FAIL. :P

It looks great, and the dialogue is dead on. It really, truly is GUILTY PLEASURES, not just based on the characters, or based on the book even, but taking the book and turning it into a comic book. So cool.

Okay, one? Having read a sampling of the comic? It...is so NOT dead on. It's BAD. Good christ, the sentence fragments!!!

Two? Uhhhh...do I even need to point out the stupidity of her statement? "It's like they took the book and turned it into a comic book when they made a comic book out of my book!!! Like a book comic to book thing! Book comic book comic book comic book comic book comic book comic, so cool!"

Make the stupid stop. *massages temples*

On other cool news, STRANGE CANDY, my anthology of short stories is number 8 on the New York times list. It's number 5 at the Wall Street Journal, and 5 at Publisher's weekly. STRANGE CANDY was 36 over all in sales at USA Today.

Could someone please check and see? As I'm curious to see if she's basing that on REALITY.

Short story collections are something a publishing house does to make an author happy, that they want to keep happy.

Uhhhh, whut? O.o No, really, whut???

One of the V. P.'s of publishing said, she knew it would do well, because my name was on it.

Sadly this much is true. Right now I'm sure LKH could do what I just did a moment ago, and C&P "book comic" a hundred times, then sell it as a Novel-lite (AUGH NOT A WORD, IT'S NOVELLA!!!!) and it would be an instant bestseller.

I'm pretty sure that she could wipe her ass with blank paper and it'd be a bestseller. :P

Thank you all for liking my little stories.

You're not welcome, since I haven't read it yet.

Comments

[pith]

She's making it blazingly clear that she's immensely insecure. That doesn't justify her wankery by any means, but... again, one of those things that can only be taken in small doses. I know I'm insecure about my writing, but I also don't overcompensate in every damn blog entry I write.

I wish I had the proper quotation for the following, but I don't. Basically, a more "indie"/not-popular artist said something like "Sure, maybe I only sold 20,000 albums and Nickelback sold 20 million—but in 20 years, I want to be the artist are people are seeking out. I don't think anyone's gonna give a damn about the Nickelbacks of the music world in 20 years." In other words, quality over quantity.

[pith]

(Also, completely offtopic, iconlove! I used to have my hair like that and I miss it.)

[troubleinchina.livejournal.com]

In reading the essay she submitted to Powells... dude, I've never *met* anyone that insecure. My god.

[misora.livejournal.com]

I have no idea where LKH is getting her "NY Times Bestseller" listing, but she's not even in the top 15 for paperback fiction, according to here (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/239338/ref=ed_nytbs_pbf/104-3866989-4436728).

I'm not sure whether Strange Candy was released in hardcover or paperback, but she's not in the top 16 of those, either.

o_O Where is she getting this information?

[electra310.livejournal.com]

Sorry, your list is out of date by at least a couple weeks. She's at Number 8 for hardcover fiction on the NY Times site itself, sad to say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/22/books/bestseller/1022besthardfiction.html

[misora.livejournal.com]

Hmm, that's odd. The list on Amazon said for "week of 10/15", but maybe they forgot to update it. D'oh.

[electra310.livejournal.com]

I noticed that Nora Roberts newest book wasn't even on it, and that's been on the list since it came out week before last. That's what I was basing my estimate on. Because I love Nora Roberts far too well.

[karmyn75.livejournal.com]

I didn't see Strange Candy listed on today's USA Today list. I did see both of Nora's Roberts's Circle books listed and even Beverly Lewis's new Amish romance, but no Strange Candy. I really need to get reading the Circle series and Beverly Lewis's new Amish romance series.

[electra310.livejournal.com]

Strange Candy is hardcover fiction, it won't be on the paperback list at all.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Oh good laird.

I'd call it ego masturbation, but I agree with pith - her insecurities are showing. I don't know if it's because reality is seeping in and she's seen what the Haters have written with their Mean Wurdz about her, or if it's because she really can't get over the bad reviews on Amazon and what-not.

Then again, I'm the wrong type of person to pay attention to this sort of thing. Maybe for a day or two, but then I'd focus on my current/next project.

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

So the comic is actually out. Great. They realy seem to care about informing the readers over at LKH and Co. Four words? Seriously, where is the press release? Where is the big announcement on her site? Where is the fan fare?
I'm interested in the comic, I like comics and I think it looks like it has potential. However, am I going to go to any great lenghts to track it down? No. LKH obviously isn't particularily interested in it and they can't really be bothered to put up some sample pages that are easy to find and coherent(if this is wrong correct me).

There is a promo video on youtube, but really if I hadn't been directed there by a friend I would never have found that. Plus it doesn't give a very good sense of what the actual comic will be like.

[rantingmule.livejournal.com]

I saw a preview someone linked me to, the first few pages of the comic. Now...don't get me wrong, the artist(s?) are very naturally talented folk...but...it takes more than talent. Their use of colour is deplorable, they have NO sense of composition...and whoever "adapted" the book into comic book form in the text needs to learn how to speak/write English first. :P

Of course the preview was on some other site altogether...NOT on LKH's site and not even linked from it. Jon's AMAZING post about it is...wow. I'm almost insulted.

It reminds of the song "Hooker with a Penis" by Tool, except where that is making a statement about how every artist has sacrificed and "sold out" in some way or another if they've ever made money off of their art...this reminds me that some have sold out to the point where what they're churning out is no longer art. I know professional artists create to make money...I do it, LKH does it too. But her literary art has become a monstrosity...she's OKAY with slaughtering her creations, crucifying her characters to make a quick buck. Jon's four-word announcement just further proves that nobody cares any more about the work itself, just the money they can make by whoring it out.

It suddenly makes me feel ever so dirty for taking money for my art. :P

[pandorasblog]

I love Vertigo, though I got into comics because of X-Men. What I really hate most about this, on reflection, is the fact that some people (particularly her new fans, who I think in many cases don't come from a strong background of geeky reading) are going to buy the comic because it's Anita stuff, and will get the wrong idea about comics from it, period. And they'll never reach out and discover The Books of Magic or Concrete or anything half as lovely.

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

LKH is no longer making art, she's punching out formulas and changing the colours. Making art for money is making art that people want to buy. LKH is making things but demand is dropping like a stone, so no, not art.

[cicipsychobunny.livejournal.com]

Dammit, I meant to flog Jon's post, but posted it to my own journal instead.

My response:

My brain spent about a minute mourning the poor abandoned apostrophe before I went, "WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?"

Go buy, mindless sycophants! March forth and purchase the Holy Comic as your Lord commands!

Fucking hell, LKH isn't deluded at all - she KNOWS that the only fans left are brainless automata who'll just do what her Biggest Fan say.

Jesus, this just annoys me SO MUCH, I can't explain it.

Doubly annoying because I am, in fact, purchasing the damn comics - for the sake of laughter and because my flatmate, poor_toms_acold, keeps performing the sacrifice of buying the novels.

Mega-snarkage is so going to ensue.

How hard would it have been to type, "Hey guys, the comic's out, ain't that swell?"? It's like picking a chick up in a bar, fucking her, then rolling over and saying, "Wow. I was great. You were there." DO WE WARRANT NO MORE RESPECT THAN THIS, ASSTARDS?

[randomsome1.livejournal.com]

Nooo, don't buy! Don't encourage the beast!

[cicipsychobunny.livejournal.com]

Well, someone in the comm has to.

[randomsome1.livejournal.com]

Na, this is where we make friends with the comic store workers. :)

[cicipsychobunny.livejournal.com]

Ah, well that's where poor_toms_acold comes in, but her store wouldn't be ordering the thing at all if someone didn't specifically request it.

[randomsome1.livejournal.com]

Christ, the man can't even type four words without an error.

[randomsome1.livejournal.com]

*runs screaming from Jean Auel, too*