Blogflog - We're #2 & #5!

[blogfloggery.livejournal.com]

Link: We’re #2 & #5!
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's blog. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.

A Shiver of Light is #2 on the New York Times List combined fiction & e-books list! Yay!

A Shiver of Light is #2 on the New York Times List on the e-book list! Yay!

Apparently my fans buy a lot of e-books! Thanks everyone!

A Shiver of Light is #5 on the New York Times List of adult hardback fiction! Yay! Not so Yay!?

A Shiver of Light is the #7 best selling book in the country on USAToday list! Very yay! Thats fiction, nonfiction, children’s, young adult, old, new – books out the door regardless of when published. Example the book ahead of me on the list when I last checked was, Dr. Suess’s “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” Apparently, there’s a preschool reading program that just started across the country featuring Dr. Suess’s wonderful books. It was fun for, A Shiver of Light, to be rubbing literary elbows with Dr. Suess. At the beginning of the school year you’ll have all the regular required reading books near the top of this list.

Am I upset that I didn’t get #1 on the Times List? Yes, I’m not even going to bother with all that, “It was an honor to be nominated crap . . .” Yes, it’s an honor to be duking it out at the top of the New York Times List, and I am happy to be on it and up so wonderfully high, but . . . if anyone on the List would really prefer not to be #1, I haven’t met them yet.

Congrats to Stephen King who is #1 this week! He maybe #1 on all the lists, but honestly I haven’t checked.

Is there a chance that I’ll rise higher next week?
Yes, but generally that’s not been my pattern.

How could I move up the list?

• If enough people got super excited and went out and bought even more copies of, A Shiver of Light, maybe I’d go up the List.
• If I could be involved in some juicy and major news worthy scandal in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours, then maybe I’d hit higher on the List.
• If I was part of some major tragedy, I might move up the list.

But I see no scandals on the horizon, I have no desire to be involved in a tragedy, and most of the people who are are likely to be really really excited about A Shiver of Light, have already purchased their copy and have read the novel. At least once. Some of you are waiting for pay day, hardbacks are expensive, or having some major life event that is keeping you busy. (I’ve been reassured by a number of you that you will get my new book as soon as your life is not at sixes & sevens. Good luck and Godspeed!)

I’d planned on doing this blog Sunday, today, and only realized as I started to type that it’s Father’s Day. The first Father’s Day since Merry had her babies, so in her fictional world it’s the first one for the men in her life. I know her timing in months isn’t the same as ours, but I like the idea of her planning that first Father’s Day for all the new dads’ of her triplets. By the way, I did my research and it is possible for a woman to have multiple babies with different father’s in one pregnancy. All you need is to have sex with more than one man in the same night, and the woman to have multiple eggs waiting to be fertilized. Its even possible to have different genetic parentage of the same baby, though even the scientists aren’t entirely sure how that works, but Google Chimerism. Make sure it’s the genetic variety, not the fictional entries, because I’m apparently not the only writer to be fascinated by this real life topic.

Happy Father’s Day to all you real life Dads!

Our daughter, Trinity, is off on her post graduation trip, so it’s just Jonathon and myself to celebrate. I never had a father so the holiday was never that important to me. Actually it, like Mother’s Day, was just a reminder that all the other kids had parents and I didn’t. My grandmother would eventually allow me to get her cards and presents for the second holiday, but when I was very young she was adamant that she wasn’t my mother.

And below are some of the wonderful interviews that I did while I was on tour. I found some of the questions made, even me, think hard before answering – Enjoy!

This one is from, Searching for Superwoman. http://searchingforsuperwomen.com/superspeak-an-interview-with-laurell-k-hamilton/

Here’s Barnes & Noble interview with Paul Goat Allen. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/no-going-back-an-exclusive-interview-with-laurell-k-hamilton/

Comments

[apep727.livejournal.com]

Okay LKH, your book has sold very well since release. Good for you, I'm sure you're very pleased. Now, on to nit-picking.

First: that comment about Oh, the Places You'll Go! - does she honestly not know that that book is kind of a popular gift for high school graduates? Because it's kind of perfect in that sense. Considering that her daughter also just graduated, how does she not know this? Also, is it just me, or does she sound a little bitter about it? Like, how dare a book by Dr. Seuess out-sell her latest masterpiece! I mean, they're only classic works of children's literature - she wrote a book of fairy erotica!

Second: I can kinda get thinking of characters as real people. I won't question that. What I will question is actually acting like they are real people. They're fictional characters - unless you're actually going to write a Father's Day story about them, the fact that so many of them are now fathers has absolutely nothing to do with anything.

Third: Just because something is technically possible doesn't make it feel like any less of an ass-pull to avoid inconveniencing your characters. I know you pride yourself on not letting anyone your Mary Sue self-inserts care for get hurt, but that's probably the worst mistake you made as a writer. If you were so damn uncomfortable having major characters die, maybe you should have written in a different genre. [/tangent]

Fourth: Yes, I'm sure your life was just so horrible not having parents and having to live with your grandmother instead. Because it's not like there aren't a whole lot of children that don't have any relatives to care for them and have to live in orphanages. No, Ms. Hamilton, yours is indeed the most darkity-dark of lives.

Finally: What is with that pic? Berries, chocolate book, tiny print out of the cover? Why? Just, why?

[ravens-shadow.livejournal.com]

That picture is actually sort of intriguing. Chocolate, berries, candied ginger, macaron, and a chocolate book--all very fancy. Oh! I think the book is a box with more macarons inside. Did someone do just that one as a gift to her, or did she go to an event and they had those? (Did she order it for herself?)

[jessica collett (from livejournal.com)]

its even possible to have different genetic parentage of the same baby, though even the scientists aren’t entirely sure how that works, but Google Chimerism.

That is NOT what Chimerism is in genetics. Basically, it's when multiple fertilised eggs combine into one - usually, for humans, a person started out as a pair of twins but their cells became one. There have been famous cases in proving parentage or proving gender for sporting competitions (which is a dodgy area anyway) because humans with Chimerism have two separate sets of DNA in their bodies.

It has NOTHING to do with different genetic parentages. I think she's trying to argue that the 'twins' could be two separate zygotes, fertilised by two different men, and that they could combine. I would think that this would cause severe genetic problems with the resulting child because there would be a lot of chromosomal pairs that wouldn't be matched up and there would be far too much genetic material. Way back in the day, I did coursework essays on the genetic structures of zygotes and the effects of Chimerism. The historian who hasn't studied biology in six years should not be able to lecture you on your scientific failings.

LKH, you should know what Chimerism is. It was in an episode of CSI, after all.

Plus the whole 'blah blah I could be higher on the list if you'd just buy more of my books but I don't really mean that!' wank is pissing me off. Be happy that people are still willing to put up with your crap.

[ravens-shadow.livejournal.com]

So, if I am understanding correctly, genetic chimerism would be as if Merry had had quadruplets, and then quad A and C merged into one (Twin A), and quad B and D merged into one (Twin B) early in the pregnancy, and she gave birth to twins? Because that could actually be sort of interesting, since, well, magic. A few years down the road, one kid starts astral projecting, but the projection has a very different personality, and eventually they learn it's the non-dominant, subsumed quad B or D.

Instead, it's like LKH took her 'don't want to hurt my characters' too far, to the point of not wanting to hurt their feelings if someone isn't the father, and now, when people says it's unbelievable, she plays the "But it's a real thing," which is a defense I am never a fan of. It can be impossible, as long as it's plausible, but it doesn't matter if it's plausible, when it sounds impossible.

[jessica collett (from livejournal.com)]

Yes, that would work.

OHMYGOD you have to write that astral projection story because that would be a fantastic horror story.

She plays the 'It's a real thing' card while... not actually getting the real thing right in the slightest.

[nekojita.livejournal.com]

Wow, pathetic attempt to guilt trip increased 2nd week sales since you missed out on the #1 spot, LKH.

And for having a 'post graduate' yourself, I am gobsmacked (well, rather gobsmacked at this entire post, to be honest, but nothing new there) that you don't get the whole 'why people buy mass quantities of 'Oh, The Places You Will Go!' this time of year. I have a copy myself from my high school graduation. It's 'tradition'. Try googling THAT. (think you'll get a more correct response this time.)

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

Dude I know. "BUY MOAR FANS. EASE MY PAIN."

I don't know that Dr Seuss thing but then I don't live in the US and have a daughter graduating....

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

For some reference-

Skin Game sold more hard cover books in it's second week, than Shiver of Light in its first, SoL sold about 10K in hardback per the PW tally. We do not have solid numbers for the e-Book side however. But the excellent e-book numbers now are going to result is rather paltry paperback numbers down the road.

DM released in 2009 was one of the best sellers of 2009, released in December and sold about 166K in hardbacks for 2009.

And the hard back numbers for SoL, are about 40% less than the numbers for Affliction during it's first week last year.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

Why does she care if it's possible for one baby to have multiple different fathers or not irl? Here are some impossible things:

* A ring that makes someone invisible when they wear it
* Telepathic horses that are actually reincarnated heroes
* Vampires
* Werewolves
* "Avada Kedavra"
* A cauldron that animates corpses
* Healing someone with a spell
* Telepathic/magical/"metaphysical" mind rape
* An army of dragons
* An army of orcs
* Fire spiders

LKH doesn't seem to know that what she writes is fantasy.

[apep727.livejournal.com]

I think it's because that's the solution she used in the book to justify Merry not having to pick just one of her many beaus to spend the rest of her life with. Because Reasons (and their stupid, but you already knew that). And someone probably pointed out that one child having multiple genetic fathers, let alone twins both having multiple fathers sounds a bit improbable.

So she decided to prove that it can happen, completely disregarding the fact that it still sounds like a gigantic ass-pull (then again, this is LKH, so that sort of thing is par for the course by now.)

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

And I don't see why she even felt it was necessary in the first place. Why did she need Merry to have to pick only whatever dude fathered the kids? Even if Merry's supposed to marry only that one, so what? The queen of fairydom doesn't need some kind of weird justification for having multiple boyfriends. LKH's prudishness and discomfort with the subject matter of her own books is showing.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

Yeah exactly. Merry and her men are FAIRIES, it's completely legit for them to have wankity magickal reproduction.

[dagonista.livejournal.com]

SUPERFETATION. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfetation) I'd never heard of it before I started reading ASoL, but it took me ten seconds to look it up when Merry started waffling about how super fertile she was.

And who cares anyway? She's a faerie princess descended from a billion fertility gods, blessed by the supreme goddess. I really don't need a real-life biological explanation for her magical triplets.

[cryptaknight.livejournal.com]

Jesus. with the quality of her writing, she's fortunate to still be ranked. She needs to stop complaining and trolling for higher numbers and start letting someone edit her work.

Sorry, for whatever reason I decided to subject myself to Affliction and while it's not terrible, plot-wise, it is desperately in need of editing or at least a beta reader.