Pirate Vishnu: The Treasure Hunt Begins in One Month! In the Meantime, Fun is Afoot

Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery #2, Pirate Vishnu, hits shelves in exactly one month, on February 11. Leading up to the launch, here's some fun: two giveaways, a free short story, and a book launch party two days before the official book release!

Two chances to win one of two signed copies of Pirate Vishnu along with an India wall-hanging that has a pocket to hold letters or magazines. 

Chance #1: Sign up for my email newsletter by February 10. All subscribers are automatically entered.

Chance #2: Like my Facebook page by February 10. All new Likes are entered, and all existing fans who comment between January 1 and February 10 are also entered.

Giveaway: Signed copy of Pirate Vishnu in a wall-hanging from India.

Download my locked-room mystery short story "The Hindi Houdini," available FREE for the month of January 2014. 

The story features Sanjay Rai, aka The Hindi Houdini, Jaya's magician best friend who plays a big role in Pirate Vishnu, so I thought you might like to check it out before Pirate Vishnu comes out. 

(Normally you can buy the story in Fish Nets: The Second Guppy Anthology, a mystery anthology full of lots of great stories.)  

 

And if you're local, join me at the book launch party!

Sunday, February 9

6 p.m.

A Great Good Place for Books

6120 LaSalle Ave., Oakland CA

(in Oakland's Montclair Village) 

The event takes place at the fabulous independent bookstore that hosted the book launch party for Artifact. That party was a blast, so I hope you can make it to this one! Drinks, snacks, prizes, good company, and you can buy Pirate Vishnu two days before its official release. 

More party details are on Facebook, where you can also let me know if you plan on attending. 

It's such a strange time leading up to a book release. I've only done this once before, so it still feels so new! I love this book, so I'm excited to share it with the world.

A Look Back at 2013

If 2011 was the year of cancer and 2012 was the year of recovery, 2013 was the year of seizing the day. I was looking over the blog, and wow did I jam a lot into 2013. Some highlights:

January: Showed my agent a book proposal for a new mystery series, a paranormal mystery featuring female alchemist Zoe Faust and her sidekick, a gargoyle accidentally brought to life by a French stage magician.

My own gargoyle: stuffed animal Dori.

February: Received my first royalty check from Henery Press (for Other People's Baggage). I knew I should do something fun with part of the money, so I bought this super-cute pair of glasses I'd been eying.

Cute new glasses!

March: Attended mystery convention Left Coast Crime, held in Colorado Springs in 2013. Had a great time both meeting readers and catching up with writer pals I only see once or twice a year. 

April: Wildside Press published Fish Nets: The Second Guppy Anthology, featuring my locked-room mystery short story "The Hindi Houdini." I love this story because I pulled off writing a true locked-room mystery like the classics I love, plus it features Sanjay from the Jaya Jones series in his first starring role.

The anthology includes "The Hindi Houdini."

May: This was the month that began to me wonder what my life had become -- in a good way.  Not only did I get to interview one of my all-time favorite mystery authors, but I also went on a last-minute trip to Europe, tagging along with the husband on a business trip of his (a business trip???). If you'd asked me about either of these things just a couple of years ago, I wouldn't have expected either of them to be in my future. (The surreal events of my life were to continue, especially in June and September.)

Attended Malice Domestic -- with a surprise highlight of being asked to step in for Barbara Mertz and conduct the Aaron Elkins Lifetime Achievement Award Interview!

Tagged along with the husband on a business trip to London with an excursion to Lisbon.

I can never resist a trip to the British Library.

Spent my birthday exploring Moorish castle ruins outside of Lisbon.

June:  Signed a three-book deal with Henery Press to publish the Jaya Jones treasure hunt mystery series!

Gorgeous new book cover from Henery Press.

July: Wrote an outline of Jaya Book 3 for Camp NaNoWriMo.

August: Henery Press published the new edition of Artifact.

September: Signed my second three-book contract of the year! After reworking the book proposal I gave my agent in January, the series sold in a three-book deal to Midnight Ink. The new series takes place in Portland, so I have plenty of excuses to visit.

October: Began 100 days of being a full-time writer, taking a sabbatical from my beloved day job to meet my writing deadlines.

November: Traveled to France on a trip that was half book research and half romantic vacation.

Participated in NaNoWriMo and attended the Night of Writing Dangerously.

December: Learned how to balance writing and life as a full-time writer.

It took a while, but I was finally finding my groove by December. My sabbatical ends at the end of January, coinciding with turning in The Accidental Alchemist to Midnight Ink. It's going to be a fun and intense January, but I'm also looking forward to getting back to my regular schedule. I've learned that I love having the structure of my day job (it helps that I love the job and my coworkers), which has been a wonderful thing to realize at this stage of my writing career.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Gigi