Tag Archives: black blossom

Book Launch: Black Blossom

Posted by on December 10, 2012 No comments


Kindle | Other e-book Formats | Paperback | Unabridged Audiobook

You asked for—and paid for—the posting of The Aphorisms of Kherishdar, and through those stories met the Calligrapher. You did it again for The Admonishments of Kherishdar, and I introduced you to Shame. And then you asked for What Happened Next… and I wrote you Black Blossom. I mean that: I wrote this book because you asked for it, and so you enriched my world. Hopefully I have given back to you in some kind what you have given me with that request. The third volume of the books of Kherishdar is now available in all three of its planned editions, print, e-book and unabridged audiobook.

The high priest of Shame in Kherishdar is shattering—

—and the only thing between him and his ruin is the gentle Calligrapher, Farren Nai’Sheviet-osulkedi. When they are dispatched by the god of Civilization to Qenain, the House of Flowers, they find it in disorder, having fallen prey to a mysterious influence… an alien influence… a human one. Can one man heal Shame in time to save him and Qenain both? Or will they both fail? And what will happen in—and to—the House of Flowers?

A genteel, conversational fantasy of society, culture… and the perversions that threaten them.

Here then is my fantasy of manners, and certainly my most ambitious work to date, a novel of culture and language and conversation, a deep and quiet story with little violence, moved only by the good intentions of its many inhabitants. There’s something to recommend every edition: the e-book is embellished with hand-drawn flowers here and there, and is one of my prettiest e-book conversions; the print edition is a piece of art executed by my graphic designer, who took all my flower drawings and crude ideas for the calligraphy and made them real and elegant and lovely; and the audiobook is a masterpiece of acting, such that I really couldn’t believe only one person did all the many voices in it. Whatever your taste, I personally vouch for the quality and attention to detail of all the craftspeople who put their hands to it.

So, then. A return to Kherishdar, which you requested, and for which I thank you. We will return again! In the mean-time, enjoy this offering. And, as always, if you like it… pass it on, or drop a review or Like.

Kickstarter E-Book Rewards Sent!

Posted by on October 6, 2012 No comments

Tonight I sent out all the e-book rewards for the Black Blossom Kickstarter. This takes care of over half the people who backed the project, leaving me with a little less than half to send rewards to. Of those people, three of them need substantial new work for me to get back to them: Cynthia (*waves!*) needs her guidebook, which is about half done, and the two other high-level backers wanted the new covers on the Aphorisms and Admonishments: probably another three or four nights’ work. But those three folks are old hands in these parts; they know I’m going to deliver, so I’m not as anxious about what they’re thinking!

So, I am feeling a bit more relaxed now. I’m just a touch ahead of schedule, even! I can see the email notifications coming in as people use their Smashwords coupons, and it’s all good. :)

Nicely, Amazon’s already linked the two editions of the book so you can read the reviews on both. And again, thank you for those reviews! If you’d like to review the book, Amazon or Goodreads tend to be the best bets, in terms of number of eyeballs that see them.

Also, if you end up reading “Less-Than-Human” I am curious what you think! Very different, huh. :)

Anyway, for now, a little rest, a little more work on the Jokka sequel (approaching 50 pages now!). Next week I’ll start printing out mailing labels and packing books for shipment. If I’m mailing overseas and haven’t gotten extra shipping from you, I’ll be asking about it at that time.

Thing of Beauty

Posted by on September 27, 2012 No comments

Accordingly, I have ordered 75 and they are on their way now.

Beautiful but Ever-so-Slightly Imperfect

Posted by on September 21, 2012 No comments

Createspace shipped my proof within three hours of me ordering it, and got it to me in two days!

The verdict: it is one of the most gorgeous book layouts Dave Bryant has designed for me. But it is ever-so-slightly imperfect. In the sense that I’d like the text blocks moved 1-1.5 centimeters down, and the cover needs to be ever-so-slightly less saturated, and the back cover review pull-quotes need to be shifted about two centimeters up.

Yes, that’s the level of nitpick I am committed to. Otherwise I don’t sleep well at night. So, tonight, I will be fixing those issues. Then tomorrow, ordering a new proof. And then, probably, as I originally scheduled, I will be approving it next week sometime…!

I so just wanted to click “YES” but… no. It must be as close to perfect as I can get it. I want it to take my breath away, without reservations. So it has a chance at taking yours.

…Just… Epic

Posted by on September 18, 2012 No comments

If I had to pick the chapter in Black Blossom that cost me the most to write, it was certainly Chapter 15. It’s not that I didn’t nitpick some of the other scenes in the book… there were a lot of scenes where I stared at sentences for a while, then removed a word and stared at them a little longer… rearranging paragraphs to make sure readers were pausing in the right place, putting commas in places I wanted them to take breaths because I wanted the pacing to be right even at the mental recitation level.

But most of the time, that was at the scene-level, here and there, scattered throughout the book. Chapter 11 had a lot of them, I remember. And Chapter 19, with the events in “Catastrophe. ” But it wasn’t like Chapter 15, where I threw out the fine-tooth comb and brought out the mono-molecular-level tools. I spent several days on that chapter, which is… eons for me. Staring at paragraphs. Staring at lines. Removing things so small a bonsai master would chide me for overmuch fussing.

In addition to artistic wreckage, that chapter was emotionally grueling. I think when I finished it I recall feeling like a sack of water someone had knifed. Everything all drained away, leaving me looking wan and pathetic and floppy. -_-

So, yes, probably the most harrowing chapter in the book, and it didn’t really occur to me until I started getting audiobook chapters to vet that I had no idea, no earthly idea how the narrator was going to pull it off.

…and it is, absolutely, utterly, the most epically brilliant thing he’s turned in to me.

Seriously, I was agape through most of it. I think when I finally finished it I sat in the car and just stared at the dash, torn between falling over and dancing for sheer something. Glee, glory, the need to just move before my body exploded.

Even now a few hours removed from the initial listen, I am thinking back on it and I can’t actually believe how well he nailed it. My head feels like a bell that’s been smashed with a hammer: I can’t think past the ringing.

This might sound hyperbolic, but this process has actually been incredibly educational for me, about the way art transforms when it moves between media. It will probably be a while before I have anything coherent to say about it, but the audiobook process has schooled me but good. I now know things I didn’t before, and things I used to dismiss or scoff at, I have realized are really, seriously important.

So, yes. Absolutely amazing. I almost wish I could sit with all of you who are getting the audiobook while you’re listening to so I can share the experience with you when you go through it. (And isn’t that part of what’s so novel about the movement of art between media? Suddenly, your experience of sharing it with people changes.)

Phew. I… am probably wrecked for any more work today. I think I will stare at the rain and try to move through all the thoughts in my head.

Cover in Progress (with Discussion)

Posted by on September 17, 2012 1 comment

Trusty old copy of CS3 in hand… currently working on the Black Blossom cover:

Until I started really studying book covers, I never realized how many elements they had. They’ve got logos all over the place, they have blurbs and spines, they have ISBNs and barcodes and URLs, they have pull-quotes and review quotes, they are full of italics and letter treatments and dingbats… and the art, really, is the least of the cover, though it’s the thing you remember when you look at it…!

My list of layers on book covers grows to about 30 long. That’s more than I ever had when working on digital art. o_O

I paused a moment to eyeball it at this stage:

I have a lot left to do. Author photo/info. Finessing the back cover. Writing the blurb—how do I not have a blurb for this book??—and finishing the front cover graphic. Deciding what I want the front cover to say in addition to the title. Etc.

I’d say I’ve got another hour and a half to two hours of work in this thing, still. For serious.

This is also the first cover I’ve built at my standing desk. I worried that I wouldn’t be able to do nitpicky graphical work while standing, but I was wrong. The only difference is that now the result of my hyper-focus on the screen means that when I walk away my back has a “discussion” with me about forgetting to change position/rest my foot/shift from foot to foot. :,

The interior book block is uploaded. The cover’s the only thing between me and ordering a proof of the physical book! Onward!

Creative News for a Labor Day Monday

Posted by on September 3, 2012 No comments

Just to put this all in one place:

Kickstarter News: 50 Hours to Go!
The project concludes on Wednesday around lunch time, and it looks like we’re at $5100ish! I wonder if we’ll get some last minute backers? We shall see! In the mean-time, I finished the front cover last night and the last of the interior art (in the form of little flowers, and that map from Chapter 3). So things are proceeding there. Today’s update asks your opinion on a table of contents for a travel guide to an alien planet…

The Faerie Farmer
I am still planning to start this serial this year! But I have decided to delay the launch until Octoberish. I’d like to get most of the Black Blossom work off my plate before I move into new things. While I won’t be able to issue everything until the audiobook narrator gets in his work before Christmas, I want to at least have the physical books in hand and the e-book coupons sent out before I launch Elijah. So, yes, that’s looking like sometime in October.

Random Con Stuff
My next few cons: NecronomiCon in St. Petersburg in late October (I’ll have an author’s alley table), and then Megacon in Orlando in March 2013 (at an artist’s alley table). I am not planning at this point to do any out-of-state travel in 2013 unless something comes up (like a Guest or Guest of Honor spot, or some big windfall of money). If something like that comes up, I’m totally up for it. :)

Random Art Stuff
I am doing a lot of random fluff art? The latest on the space marine kimono jaguar!

A Black Blossom Kickstarter Gift: Always Always, Never Never

Posted by on August 28, 2012 No comments

Here is the other cut scene I promised as a gift for reaching one of our stretch goals: the scene in which Thirukedi speaks with the lord of Qenain and his lovers. I have cut it after the first break, for length. Enjoy!

Always Always, Never Never
Andrew Clarke Speaks: A Scene from Black Blossom by M.C.A. Hogarth

      In the inn, while Jaran was gone washing up, I sat across from Lenore and tried to find the words that would make that look in her eyes go away. She’d been my aide for… oh, I lose count. Years, years now, since they assigned us to the mission together, a little before. I loved her like a sister, and I wanted to make the hurt go away.
      I knew there would be no making the hurt go away again. There was no way out of this, not without someone suffering.
      “Hey,” I said, soft. “Lenore.” When she didn’t look up, I said, “This audience. How do you think we should handle it?”
      As usual, appealing to her love for the work helped. It drew her out of herself for a minute, anyway. “With… the Emperor? I… guess we’ll have to wait to speak until spoken to.”
      “You think you should translate, or should I use the software? The earbud’s pretty discreet but I know they think technology’s gauche, and knowing them they’d notice. Would having you talking into my ear be more disrespectful or less than bringing gear into the chamber?”
      “I… don’t know,” she said, eyes distant. “But I think they’d be more comfortable with a person doing the job. They’re just… more personal that way. And I have to hope they’d make allowances for you not knowing the language perfectly. Or me, for that matter.” She looked at me, and the pain came back, and I swore. To myself. She didn’t like to hear it when she was already feeling fragile… Lenore and words, God. When she’s around, even I understand, a little. That words can be magic, good magic and bad.
      But even words weren’t enough, sometimes. So I used what Jaran’s been trying so hard to teach me and offered her my hand. It still felt awkward, but not as much as it used to.
      She curled her fingers around mine then let go. Just that one touch.
      “We’ll come out of the other side of this,” I said.
      “But will we like who we are when we do?” she murmured, head down. And then Jaran came back in, and we put it all aside to go to him, while we still could.
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That Kiss, Part 4, Final.

Posted by on August 16, 2012 1 comment

And here’s the final part. Tomorrow we’ll get the reading of it on livestream! 9:30 PM EST, be there!

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That Kiss, Part 3

Posted by on August 15, 2012 No comments

And Part 3. Looks like there’s only one more part after this tomorrow (Thursday), and then we get the reading of it on Friday night’s livestream!

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