Unpublishing and New Challenges

With the closing of publisher Eggplant Productions, my sci-fi novella LAST NIGHT IN GHOSTTOWN is officially out of print. While I hope to make it available again down the line, the specifics of how and when are still very much undecided.

Which officially makes me an unpublished author once again. I'm not sure what the future holds for me as a writer, and it's likely my activity on this blog will be sparse for the time being. So I thank anyone who's stopped by to read or comment, along with everyone who supported me in my journey to share LAST NIGHT with the world.

Because everything is better with kittens

Publishing: One Step Forward...

… and two steps back.

By now the news that Eggplant Literary Productions is closing has spread around the internets. Which means that my novella, LAST NIGHT IN GHOSTTOWN, will be out of print sometime within the next month.

Needless to say, this has come as quite a shock. It's stirred up a lot of hard questions within myself which I thought I'd finally answered. I'm a slow writer - what if I can't get new works written quickly enough to stay afloat in this biz? What if LAST NIGHT was just a fluke, and I never write anything good again? What if I'm just wasting my time?

So now, I'm not quite sure about anything. I know I'd love to find a new home for LAST NIGHT once Eggplant's doors are closed, but that's all very much up in the air right now.

In the meantime (by which I mean the next few weeks) if you have even the slightest interest in reading gay romance with an Indian-inspired, futuristic sci-fi setting, please take a look at LAST NIGHT IN GHOSTTOWN before it vanishes:

Amazon • Barnes & Noble

Giveaway: LAST NIGHT IN GHOSTTOWN Cover Art!

Like free stuff? Who doesn't!

Like the gorgeous cover art for my sci-fi novella LAST NIGHT IN GHOSTTOWN? How could you not!

If you've ever wanted a copy of the super-shiny cover art by Diogo Lando for your very own, now's your chance!

You know you want it!

From Wednesday, July 9th through Thursday, July 24th, I'm holding a giveaway for autographed LAST NIGHT IN GHOSTTOWN postcards and bookstubs. You can enter by any of the following:

- Commenting to this blog entry
- Emailing me at kathryn_mckade at yahoo dot com (subject line "Postcard Giveaway")
- Tweeting #PostcardGiveaway to @KathrynMcKade

For every 5 entrants I'll give away one postcard and one bookstub. Winners will be chosen randomly, and announced here on my blog on July 25th. The goodies will be sent via USPS shortly thereafter. No purchase necessary, one entry per person, stay in school, eat your vegetables, etc etc.

And on Friday July 25th, be sure to check out my guest appearance at the Femme Fatales blog. My wonderful host Kris Neri will be giving away an ARC of one of her fabulous mysteries.

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LAST NIGHT IN GHOSTTOWN is now available from  Eggplant Productions, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo

In the Maharajah’s Consortium every aspect of citizens’ lives is monitored by the GRID. Throughout the galaxy, on every planet: money, property, even lives are tracked by General Resource Interactive Display. Everywhere, that is, except for Ghosttown. Ghosttown: slum, theme park, holy city, the city that time forgot.

Enter Dev. In five days he leaves for Misra 7, a planet entrenched in a war so deadly it’s known as The House of Death. So it’s one last hurrah before he ships out.
Despite being on a strict time table, Dev allows a would-be thief, Rishi, talk him into handing out expensive med-gems to the sick and needy. What Rishi gets out of this, Dev doesn’t know. What he does know is that he keeps putting off his departure date, and he can’t deny that Rishi is the reason.

Does Dev stick around for Holi, help the people trapped in Ghosttown, and risk getting branded a deserter? Or should he clear out before he gives up his heart to Rishi?

LAST NIGHT IN GHOSTTOWN Release Day!

My scifi novella LAST NIGHT IN GHOSTTOWN is officially available!

In the Maharajah’s Consortium every aspect of citizens’ lives is monitored by the GRID. Throughout the galaxy, on every planet: money, property, even lives are tracked by General Resource Interactive Display. Everywhere, that is, except for Ghosttown. Ghosttown: slum, theme park, holy city, the city that time forgot. 

Enter Dev. In five days he leaves for Misra 7, a planet entrenched in a war so deadly it’s known as The House of Death. So it’s one last hurrah before he ships out. 

Despite being on a strict time table, Dev allows a would-be thief, Rishi, talk him into handing out expensive med-gems to the sick and needy. What Rishi gets out of this, Dev doesn’t know. What he does know is that he keeps putting off his departure date, and he can’t deny that Rishi is the reason. 

Does Dev stick around for Holi, help the people trapped in Ghosttown, and risk getting branded a deserter? Or should he clear out before he gives up his heart to Rishi?

*

It's been a long, strange journey for this tale. I've said before that when I first started it, my only goal was to finish it. And here I am today announcing its debut to the world!

My eternal gratitude goes out to my amazing beta readers, Claire and Shannon, for believing in LAST NIGHT even when I didn't. And of course huge thanks to Raechel Henderson of Eggplant Productions, for giving a new author her first break.

Official page • Buy it from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, Tomely

LAST NIGHT IN GHOSTTOWN Cover Reveal!

I'm thrilled to present the cover of LAST NIGHT IN GHOSTTOWN, by the talented Diogo Lando:

Dev is a soldier, come to Ghosttown to drown his sorrows for one night before deploying to a war zone across the galaxy. He didn't expect to meet Rishi, a fugitive with a shadowy past, or get drawn into a whirlwind of colorful festivals and even more colorful strangers, of mysterious gemstones and missing princes. And his last night in Ghosttown will leave him forever changed...

Learn more at the official page from Eggplant Productions:
http://eggplantproductions.com/e-books/last-night-ghosttown-kathryn-mckade/

Or add to your GoodReads shelf!

Can't wait? Here's a taste:

Ghosttown: slum, theme park, and holy city all in one. The last place in the galaxy I should've been. I was due on base today--a flashing notice in the bottom left corner of my vision told me so, like I could forget it--and I could still make a transpod back if I hauled ass. If my CO and the other brass decided I'd gone AWOL, they'd hunt me down and have this new arm off me before I could blink.

Turn back now. Only smart thing to do. Instead, I stepped into Ghosttown.

Many thanks to Diogo Lando for the amazing cover art! Check out more of his work at his website: http://www.diogolando.com

Links and Check-In 3.8.14

Are You Living Your Dream? ~ Jami Gold
An excellent post that I think every writer on the planet can relate to. It can sometimes feel insurmountable trying to balance writing between real-world distractions (bills, jobs, day-to-day life) and personal obstacles (finding time with/away from family and friends, writer's block, and that demon self-doubt). Though ultimately it is one of those journeys that only you can discover your truth, Jami's ideas on reclaiming the dream are very helpful and encouraging. (Warning: don't watch the video if you don't want that Lego song stuck in your head for the rest of eternity!)

Is Fear Driving You Forward or Dragging You Under? ~ Kristen Lamb
A sister post to Jami Gold's, and also a very timely examination of the fears that dog us both as writers and as human beings. I've said before that I never expected my first novella, LAST NIGHT IN GHOSTTOWN, to go any farther than my hard drive, yet here I am two months away from its release by Eggplant Productions. And as amazing and exciting as this is, at times I find myself struggling - with the fear that LAST NIGHT is a fluke, and perversely with the fear that my writing will go on to require more from me than I have or want to give it (i.e. at the expense of my artwork). Fear is a funny thing, attacking from all angles if we let it. Lately I've been reminded of the famous quote from Marianne Williamson:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us… As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

~ ~

As for the check-in, all of my writing time this week was focused on edits for LAST NIGHT IN GHOSTTOWN. Still researching for the mermaid story (though the dystopian fantasy keeps trying to cut ahead of it in my mental "ideas" line). I've been letting the short story simmer in the meantime, though the other night I had a really great idea on something to add into the mix. Now if I could only remember what it was...

On writing, and dreaming big

I never set out to be a writer.

I've always loved reading, so wanting to create my own stories came naturally. And I did make up my own stories over the years, when the mood struck me. But my first love has always been art - and since 2005, specifically watercolor paintings.

Art is who I am, and how I see the world. Which pigments would best capture the exact shade of blue of an Arizona sky? What kind of brushstrokes would best express the needles of a pine tree caught in the sun? When I see shadows on a white car, I study how the shadow changes from grey to blue to purple as it curves along the car, away from the sun. I live and breathe art.

So to keep a long story short (too late): although I've been drawn to storytelling for as long as I can remember, it was never my go-to mode of expression. Whereas art came naturally to me, writing has been a challenge. Oh, not the basic, high school English class stuff. But the nitty-gritty of plotting, structure and the like just doesn't come naturally to me. In a lot of ways, learning to write has been like rewiring my brain to function in Mandarin - utterly foreign to me.

All this to say I've never been the most prolific writer. Or the most dedicated, if I'm going to be honest. Many ideas have come and gone over the years - some I plan to revisit, some are probably best left in the past. In the spring of 2010 I got the spark of yet another idea, for the story that would become Last Night in Ghosttown. And somehow, my interest in it never waned. Sure, the writing always went on hold when I'd get inspired for another painting. But I kept going back to LNiG, and plugged away on it for over three years. My ultimate writing goal when I started my little novella was to finish it. (Nothing like dreaming big!) Despite a long journey filled with lots of self-doubt, hair-pulling and trips to the library, I finally finished it in the summer of 2013. And to my great surprise, I actually liked it quite a bit. Frankly, this was more than I'd ever hoped for.

So imagine my complete shock when I received an offer to publish Last Night in Ghosttown. It's so far beyond the scope of what I would have ever dreamed that I still can't quite believe it sometimes.

I don't know where my writing will take me next. There are far too many characters, and their stories, bouncing around in my mind for me to stop now. I can only hope that my next project doesn't take me three and a half years to finish! Talk about dreaming big.

2013: Looking Back

2013 was, in most respects, an awful year. Personally, I was sick a lot. Artistically, my alter ago was very productive, creating 15 paintings last year. And as a writer, I started with an all-but-trunked WIP, Last Night in Ghosttown... and closed the year with a sale for LNiG to be published in 2014!

When 2013 started, I hadn't touched Last Night in Ghosttown in seven months (blame my alter ego for taking over my limited attention span). I decided 2013 would be the year I'd finally finish that poor thing, after starting it waaay back in 2010 (why yes, I am the world's slowest writer). Somehow I managed, in fits and spurts, to finish the third act until I reached the pivotal ending scene - and got completely stuck. The ending I’d intended for years just felt... stale, somehow, and I didn’t know what to do. LNiG probably would have languished in Unfinished Hell forever if not for the friendly, much-needed prodding of my wonderful beta readers. With their metaphorical kicks in the butt, I finished it... and with their encouragement, I took a chance and subbed it, expecting absolutely nothing to come of it. And on the last day of 2013, I received a contract offer. Happy New Year indeed!

And now, thanks to the amazing people of Eggplant Productions, Last Night in Ghosttown will be making its debut to the world in a few months time. So to everyone who has helped me in this long and unpredictable journey, I thank you. You’ve all helped me to achieve more than I ever would’ve hoped for. Group hug!

Intro

Welcome to my blog, wherein you'll find ramblings on writing, fantasy and sci-fi, and whatever else comes into my mind. Any resemblance to coherency is purely coincidental!

My sci-fi novella "Last Night in Ghosttown" will be released this May by Eggplant Productions:

Last Night in Ghosttown by Kathryn McKade explores love, loss and hope set in a far-flung, future Bharat empire. 

In the Maharajah’s Consortium every aspect of citizens’ lives is monitored by the GRID.  Throughout the galaxy, on every planet: money, property, even lives are tracked by General Resource Interactive Display.  Everywhere, that is, except for Ghosttown.  Ghosttown: slum, theme park, holy city, the city that time forgot. 

Enter Dev. In five days he leaves for Misra 7, a planet entrenched in a war so deadly it’s known as The House of Death.  So it’s one last hurrah before he ships out. 

Despite being on a strict time table, Dev allows a would-be thief, Rishi, talk him into handing out expensive med-gems to the sick and needy.  What Rishi gets out of this, Dev doesn’t know.  What he does know is that he keeps putting off his departure date, and he can’t deny that Rishi is the reason. 

Does Dev stick around for Holi, help the people trapped in Ghosttown, and risk getting branded a deserter?  Or should he clear out before he gives up his heart to Rishi?

More info coming soon! I can't promise I'll be the most frequent blogger, but I will do my best not to let this blog languish in cyberspace.