Release Day: A Murder of Mages

Fans of High Fantasy: Join our celebration as adored Thursday Word-Whore Marshall Ryan Maresca releases his second book in the intensely magical world of Maradaine.

A MURDER OF MAGES
A Novel of the Maradaine Constabulary

Satrine Rainey: Former street rat, ex-spy, mother of two, and wife to a Constabulary Inspector who lies on the edge of death, injured in the line of duty—has been forced to fake her way into the post of Constabulary Inspector to support her family.

Minox Welling: A brilliant, unorthodox Inspector and an Uncircled mage—almost a crime in itself. Nicknamed “the jinx” because of the misfortunes that seem to befall anyone around him, Minox has been partnered with Satrine because no one else will work with either of them.

Their first case together—the ritual murder of a Circled mage— sends Satrine back to the streets she grew up on and brings Minox face-to-face with mage politics he’s desperate to avoid. As the body count rises, Satrine and Minox must race to catch the killer before their own secrets are exposed and they, too, become targets.

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Optimistic Reasons To Write

Last weekend I got to hang out with Stina Leicht at the Writers' League of Texas Agents & Editors Conference.  The WLT organized these "genre meet-ups" for writing hopefuls, so they could talk to published writers in specific genre.  So Stina and I were there to represent Sci-Fi/Fantasy.

We had a packed room, and it really help highlight how vital and vibrant our genre is.  I was thrilled to help do my part to inspire these people in their journey.

So: five reasons why YOU SHOULD BE WRITING.

1. Because you have an awesome idea that is ALL YOURS and you just need to get it down.

2. Because you really don't like going out at night anyway. Now you have a good excuse to stay in.

3. Because you've told yourself that you'd "like to write a book someday".  Well, SOMEDAY IS TODAY.

4. Because no matter what they tell you about the odds, and how hard it is to navigate the system and get and agent, and then get a publisher to pick you up, or take one of those atypical routes to success-- it's still possible.  You can point to the fences and swing as hard as you can.

5. Because when you do it, after all the work and sacrifice and re-writes, you get to walk into a bookstore and see your work on the shelf in there... there's nothing quite like that.

And that's something I'll be doing in FIVE DAYS, when A MURDER OF MAGES comes out.  I'm really thrilled, and I hope you all enjoy it.

Three Tropes I'm Currently Using

I like to say that there really aren't bad cliches in writing, there are simply tropes that are easy to do badly.  It would actually be very hard for me to pick just three as favorites.  However, here's three that have been on my mind lately:
"One's an X.  One's a Y. Together, They Fight Crime!"
Action Mom
Great Detective
Why these three?  Because they're put into play in a book coming out on July 7th: A Murder of Mages.

Satrine Rainey—former street rat, ex-spy, mother of two, and wife to a Constabulary Inspector who lies on the edge of death, injured in the line of duty—has been forced to fake her way into the post of Constabulary Inspector to support her family.
Minox Welling is a brilliant, unorthodox Inspector and an Uncircled mage—almost a crime in itself. Nicknamed “the jinx” because of the misfortunes that seem to befall anyone around him, Minox has been partnered with Satrine because no one else will work with either of them.
Their first case together—the ritual murder of a Circled mage—sends Satrine back to the streets she grew up on and brings Minox face-to-face with mage politics he’s desperate to avoid. As the body count rises, Satrine and Minox must race to catch the killer before their own secrets are exposed and they, too, become targets.

Now, A Murder of Mages is not a sequel to The Thorn of Dentonhill, but it is also set in the city of Maradaine, and astute readers will see the threads of connection.  But it is its own story, that can be read independently of Thorn.  Of course, my utterly objective, unbiased opinion is that you should read them both. 

How 2014 Changed Me as a Writer

This year has been a really amazing, fascinating and oddly frustrating for my writing career.  It's been a year of growth, learning, and most of all, patience.
Of course, 2014 has been amazing for me: I SOLD TWO BOOKS, and my debut novel is coming out in less than six weeks.  So, yes, I leveled up, I unlocked achievements, however you want to call it: this is the year it happened.    And with that, being able to say to myself, "I am a professional novelist now", I took my writing game to the next level as well.  In addition to doing the required edits to Thorn of Dentonhill and A Murder of Mages, (and copy edits and checking proofs for Thorn), I've written, cleaned up and submitted the sequel to Thorn, as well as writing and cleaning the first third of Murder's sequel.  I also outlined some new ideas, cleaned up and finalized Way of the Shield, which is still waiting in the wings with Holver Alley Crew, and got back on track with Banshee, the Space Opera novel that got put on the backburner when the Thorn/Mages deal came through.
It's been fascinating, of course, because this year I've been learning more about being on the business end of being a writer.  It's been great working with the various people at DAW (namely Sheila, Josh and Katie, though I'm sure there are more people who did great work for me who I never directly interacted with), as well as the additional support from people at Penguin and Book Country.  I made contacts through SFWA, leading me to writing for WordWhores.  I did more conventions, and learned how to soft-pitch Thorn without ramming it down people's throats.*
And the frustration comes from learning the necessity of the pace of the industry.  I mean, I learned that the sale was going to happen a year ago, and the book doesn't come out for, well, another six weeks.  So I've had to learn to pace myself.  I've had to learn to not get too overanxious, and to be as zen as possible about the fact that Thorn is not out yet.  Especially at those conventions, where I would have to tell people about a cool book that they were not able to buy yet.  But now here we are, at the tail end of the Year of Patience.  If all goes well, at this point next year Thorn and Murder will be amongst the well-regarded books of the year, and Thorn II will be on several lists for hotly anticipated fantasy novels for 2016. 
Until then, I keep breathing, keep writing, and hope for the best. 
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*- Especially since I was apparently pitching WAY too soft at ArmadilloCon.  I ran into people at FenCon who I had SPOKEN TO at ArmadilloCon, who hadn't yet learned I had books coming out.   Of course, one of those people did say, "Hey, man, I had a lot of bourbon at ArmadilloCon."