We are having what is for Portland bitterly cold weather! It got down to 12F last night. This is a problem for me; my heart condition is such that breathing cold air can bring on angina. Happened on Friday.

So I broke out the bunny hat! This is me (on the left)and my fellow bunny-wearing friend Ima. We are the Bunny Hat Gang. Hand over the chai and no one gets hurt!

Wherever you are, I hope you're warm!

I'm in the hot seat at Eden Baylee's blog in her regular "Get Inside the Mind of" series:

What quality do you most admire in men and women?
In both it’s the same: empathy. So many people have trouble recognizing the struggles and suffering of others.

What is your greatest regret?

For those of you unfamiliar with my BPAL reviews, every Friday the 13th the company puts out a new limited edition scent, available just for that day and no more. I bought a decant rather than a whole bottle.

Generally speaking, I like the 13 series; it's usually based on a chocolate note of some kind. I don't always get a decant of the series, though, since I have a lot of them already, more than I can use in a lifetime for sure. This one has allspice and nutmeg, though, and boy I love spices. (My desert-island BPAL is Mama-ji, which is spice spice spice Neil Gaiman and spice.) Here's the description for this one:

Tomorrow I'm sending a chunk of book three to my newsletter--if you're not a subscriber, subscribe now or you'll miss it. The piece I'm sending out is the beginning of chapter one; it's a draft, mind, so I hope you cut me a little slack.

Patrons have already seen it. Actually, patrons have seen the prologue, too, which I can't send out via newsletter since it's a little NSFW. This is IHGK. People have sex in it. That's what makes it the "intimate history" and not just the "history." Patrons will also get the next bit of chapter one tomorrow.

Whee! I love showing you guys bits of book, even if the writing isn't polished. That's what we've always done, no?

The Machine God, my steampunk fantasy novel in the Drifting Isle Chronicles collaborative series, is on sale today and tomorrow at Amazon for 99 cents! So if you've been thinking about it, now's the time; a full-length book for a buck is an offer that's hard to refuse.

I've started posting draft writing in book three of IHGK, something many if not most of you have been waiting for. It's only for patrons, though I'm going to give newsletter subscribers little tastes along the way. Remember this is "alpha" writing. You will note typos, editing artifacts and inconsistencies; I'm not going back and revising earlier bits if the plot changes or I foreshadow stuff. But it's an insight into the making of the sausage.

Sad announcement: As it turns out, I'm not Amanda Palmer after all, which is okay because I suck at the ukulele, I look terrible in lingerie as outerwear, and as much as I like him, waking up next to Neil Gaiman doesn't appeal as much as waking up next to Velvet Ackbar. The free model isn't working for me any more and hasn't for some time. I can't keep up the pace and deliver quality that satisfies me, and even when I do the return on my time investment isn't there. With the advent of ereaders, the age of the reader-supported webserial, except for those serialists long-established, is past. Serials themselves can make it in ebook, but not free on the web, at least for me it seems.

I will not be serializing the third book, nor the next book in the Drifting Isle Chronicles. I was even going to pull book two of IHGK and book one of DIC, but on consideration I will leave those books currently up for all to read. As I find time to write more Scryer's Gulch that will also remain free.

This decision makes me extremely sad. It's been my business model since I started this site in 2008. It worked then--I made half our household income thanks to my wonderful readers. But now I make almost nothing off anything but advertising here. No one donates, I hear more and more that people don't want to pay when they don't have to--they devalue my work. So I've reluctantly made this decision. My books will always be Creative Commons and DRM-free, though. That will never change, nor will my love for those of you who've been with me since the beginning and those who've just joined us on this exploration of the Greater Kingdom and the Drifting Isle.

Ok I'm getting teary now...

(Hey, you guys: We writers got this awesome page about the new book and I'm just gonna give it to you as-is--I can't improve upon it!--MLM)

Get the Allegories of the Tarot Anthology in on Amazon (non-US: search on ASIN B00G6S9EYI), Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Smashwords.
Add the Allegories of the Tarot Anthology to your Goodreads to-read shelf!

Swing by the Allegories of the Tarot Facebook page and enter the release-day giveaway of a custom Tarot box--complete with Tarot deck!

Who hasn't been fascinated by the mysterious Tarot, writer and reader alike? For centuries, fortune-telling by the Tarot has caught many an imagination, but nothing like what will be presented here.

22 cards... each an individual splinter of the human psyche.

22 writers... honing each splinter into a story of triumph and decay, arrogance and humility.

Stories of the brightest lights and the darkest corners of the weirdest minds.

22 cross-genre worlds.

22 portals into the Universal.

Only one way to get there.

Come with us. Cross the portals. The Universal awaits.

About the book

Once upon a time, there was an editor with a fascination for the Tarot.†She was struck one day by a crazy idea. "Hey," she said. "What if twenty-two writers each wrote a story about the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana of the Tarot and were fashioned into an anthology?"

The idea would not leave her alone.

And thus, the Allegories of the Tarot was born.

Crowdfunded by a campaign on Indiegogo with the help and support of an amazing group of writers, twenty-two stories were crafted around the mysteries of the Tarot. The group includes a Pushcart Prize nominee, a Pulp Ark nominee, a former Bigfoot researcher, a journalist, an award-winning YA author, and a Rhysling Award winner. Professional writers, new talent, and a range of genres boggling the mind:†Horror, Speculative Fiction, Bizarro Fiction, Erotica, Mystery, Humor, Paranormal, Epic Fantasy, Literary, Romance, and Historical Fantasy.

What has emerged is an outstanding collection of fiction, unique and mysterious. Stories that will make you cry, make you laugh, and make you think. Stories that make you feel the touch of the Universe.

Dare to step through the portal to shadowy realms and emotional journeys.

Early readers have fallen in love with the†Allegories of the Tarot

"Allegories of the Tarot Anthology is a magical book. Magic that will keep you turning the pages. There are muses, demons, †psychics,†evil,and more! I shivered, I laughed and I even cried. Magic, I tell you. Magic." -Julie Affleck

"Reviewing an anthology is slightly more difficult than discussing a book or comic because the tone varies from author to author. However, Allegories somehow flowed together as a well-matched whole. The project ended up feeling like several beads strung together to form a beautiful necklace that were more amazing for being paired together." -Jodi Scaife

"All twenty-two stories in this volume are, in a word,†superb. I found myself scouring the Internet as I read it; every story made me want to go find more work by its author.†The ultimate compliment I can give†Allegories†is to say that when I finished it, I thought how I envy those who havenít read it yet." -Lisa Millraney

Get the book!

Allegories of the Tarot is available in e-book and paperback format on Amazon(non-US: search on ASIN B00G6S9EYI), Barnes & Noble, Kobo and in multiple formats on Smashwords..

Don't forget to add†Allegories of the Tarot†to your to-read shelf on Goodreads.

Connect with the†Allegories of the Tarot†Anthology on its†website,†Facebook, and†Twitter.

Starting today, if you buy my paperbacks at Amazon--Machine God, Lovers and Beloveds and Son in Sorrow--you get the ebook free via the Matchbook program. I'm planning on implementing that here as well--automatic download of the ebook with the paperback--but I don't have time right this minute. If you have already bought a paperback from me, drop me a line via the contact form and I'll get you the ebook.

Jodi Scaife has an interview with me up on her site. An excerpt:

Thanks, Jodi!

I'm working on a new cover for Accounts, and as part of it I mocked up a page from Maleen Polls' ledger. The full page is only available to patrons. It tells some rather harrowing stories...

I have a little collection of Tremontine fairy tales coming out this week! It's four short stories, some of which have appeared here: "The Fisherman's Teeth," "Winter's Girl," "Little Snowflake"...and a new one, "The Clever Boy." Here's the cover, I just finished it:

I'm happy with the way it turned out. I'm releasing this tomorrow--99 cents here and at all fine ebook retailers near you.

It's Jim's birthday! Cake all around!

I kind of buried the lede in my "what I'm up to" post, so I thought I'd better unbury it.

New subscribers to my email list now receive a little gift: a compilation of my answers to "Ask a Tremontine," a forum available only to patrons. Patrons have asked me questions about the world of the Intimate History, and I've answered them. This ebook comes in PDF, ePub and mobi formats, and you can't get it anywhere else--you can't even buy it. All you have to do is enter your email address and you'll get a copy:

Hello, my dears. I am sad not talking to you, so I'm going to talk to you.

So! This year has been kinda sucky. I've spent a good three months of it flat on my back, and not in the fun way. First I had pneumonia, then I had labyrinthitis as a result. It's an infection of the inner ear, makes you dizzy as hell. I still have it, a little. When I first lie down and when I first get up, the room spins like I'm on the Tilt-a-Whirl. It's kinda like being drunk for free. Oh, and pneumonia is horrible. I've never had it before and I hope I never have it again. I'm getting close to the age where I'll have to get vaccinated for it in the fall. Not quite there yet. Velvet Ackbar has gotten it the last two (three?) years in a row--he's definitely getting the shot.

(Related: Do you get a flu shot? I've just started getting it in the last couple years.)

And then there was the capper: heart surgery.

Some of you know my various adventures. I won't go into a whole lot of detail. Suffice it to say I have a rare, probably genetic condition called Prinzmetal's angina that makes my heart go beserk now and again, especially on a particular blood pressure medication that everyone else in the known universe can take without side effects, so medical people often don't believe me and give it to me anyway. That's how I ended up in 2006 in the CICU for three weeks with uncontrollable angina. It stopped when my heart stopped. And that's why I have this internal cardiodefibrillator (ICD) box implanted above my left breast. If my heart stops again, zzap, it'll bring me back.

Except not long after it was implanted, like three months after, one of the wires leading from it to my heart was recalled. Eh, we'll leave it in, they said, the risk of it fracturing is less than the risk of more heart surgery.

Flash forward to 2013. The battery on the ICD is dying. They have to go in and replace it, and while they're at it, they decide to dig out the defective lead and replace it, too. Seven years has increased the risk of it breaking and delivering repeated, unnecessary shocks to my heart. Day surgery became three days in the hospital.

But now I'm out and mostly recovered, all new wiring, all new ICD. I have to go through the ICD replacement in seven or eight years, but I'll think about it then.

So that's why I haven't gotten much writing done this year! I'm working now, though. What on?

I've written two short stories that my editor Annetta Ribken tells me are very good. One of them is at a major SFF publication, where they are peering at it and poking at it and seeing if they want to buy it. It's made it past the first hurdle. That's raised the chances they'll buy it from less than 10% to about 50-50. If they do, you'll hear about it and how to read it.

The other story? Annetta bought it herself. It's called "Vista Bridge" and it will be appearing as part of the Allegories of the Tarot anthology as the Wheel of Fortune card. More on that story later.

I'm working on an erotic romance that I'll be putting out under my Aria Afton pen name. I'm moving any erotica writing I do onto that name, in fact, I wish I could take "The Mage's Toy" and "The Amber Cross" and put them under that name, but too late.

I have a new episode of "Scryer's Gulch" written but don't want to release it until I have at least one other to release as well.

During the Kickstarter for Son in Sorrow I promised a short story collection based on a set of stories I wrote a long time ago about Temmin and Jenks when Tem was little. I've been working on the main--and possibly only, it's coming out long--story, "Standfast," for some time now and may be seeing daylight. That will be going out free to Kickstarters and I'll make it available to the rest of all y'all somehow, either for purchase or as a gift for signing up for my mailing list, which you should do, because things are about to get interesting over there.

I have the next Drifting Isle book outlined and will be working on it for NaNoWriMo. It's called Songbird, and it's about Johanna Diederich and Simon Ritter, characters mentioned in The Machine God.

Aaaaand, yes, I'm working on book three, working title Queens. It's being an absolute booger, seriously, I've rarely been this stymied. But I will wrestle it to the ground! It or me, and it ain't gonna be me!

What have you guys been up to? Which of these projects are you most excited about seeing? I really want to know!

#rewire2013 was a success, though I ended up staying a second night for pain management. I'm home now and Velvet Ackbar is taking care of me along with a bunch of wonderful friends. I'm very tired and won't be doing much for the next week at least but sleeping and hanging out. Thanks for all the good wishes people have sent.