Tag: Talon of the Hawk

Let’s Talk About TALON!

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

the talon of the hawkWow – I can’t believe we’re almost to release day for THE TALON OF THE HAWK!

I’ve had this date in my calendar since my agent sold the trilogy in late 2012. It’s kind of like finally getting to go on an amazing vacation I started planning three years ago.

The most fun aspect is finally having people read the book – and talk about it! Here’s two great posts from the last couple of days.

Mala Bhattacharjee did an amazing First Look at Heroes and Heartbreakers.

And Veronica Scott has a terrific interview posted at the Sci-Fi Encounters column on the USA Today HEA blog.

The News You’ve Been Waiting For!

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

THE TALON OF THE HAWK ARCsBeen champing at the bit for Ursula’s book? It’s heeeerrre….

That’s right! I have ARCs (Advance Reader Copies, for those not in the know) of THE TALON OF THE HAWK, book 3 of THE TWELVE KINGDOMS. I’m really excited for you all to read this one. It gutted me to write and I’m still a more than a little obsessed with this one. (I may have faxed 94 pages of corrections on the galley proofs – my production editor actually called me “Nutbar,” which she insists it a term of affection. Fortunately she does love me and promised to make as many of the changes as seemed within the realm of sanity.)

ANYWAY.

So, I have ARCs! Want one? Let me know! Ping me in the comments or elsewhere. You all know where to find me. I’ve already got a growing list, so let me know soon! I don’t know if it’s up on NetGalley yet – can anyone tell?

ALSO!

I really thought I’d posted this already, at least as a news item, but when I found out I was focusing on the release of UNDER HIS TOUCH and so I guess I missed putting it here. All y’all who’ve written to ask about Dafne’s book??

YOU GET DAFNE’S BOOK!!

Yay!!!

(Apparently this is all caps day at JeffeKennedy.com)

Here’s the official announcement, which is not easy to read, I know:

Jeffe Kennedy's THE PAGES OF THE MIND, the first in a new series set in the world of THE MARK OF THE TALA, a woman finds herself trapped in a foreign land by a warrior king who cannot understand her clever words, to Peter Senftleben at Kensington, in a two-book deal, for publication in Summer 2016, by Connor Goldsmith at Fuse Literary (World). Dramatic rights: Brandy Rivers at ICM Partners.If you don’t want to squint, it says:

Jeffe Kennedy’s THE PAGES OF THE MIND, the first in a new series set in the world of THE MARK OF THE TALA, a woman finds herself trapped in a foreign land by a warrior king who cannot understand her clever words, to Peter Senftleben at Kensington, in a two-book deal, for publication in Summer 2016, by Connor Goldsmith at Fuse Literary (World). Dramatic rights: Brandy Rivers at ICM Partners.

The “woman” in question there is, naturally, our favorite librarian. This story is going to be SO fun! You see, Dafne is going to have to go on a quest, because of all the shiz that goes down at the end of TALON. Because of what Ursula – oh, wait. That’s right. You guys haven’t read it yet!

Hee hee hee.

~waves to Ericka~

The point is, you CAN! So let me know if you want an ARC to read and review! Happy Friday everyone! 🙂

 

 

Can Books Be Like Music?

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

B6sf4_dCQAAzIS-This time of year in Santa Fe, we can get gorgeously warm days. On Tuesday we ate lunch on the patio in shirtsleeves and the kitties stalked the restless gophers. Good times were had by all. Of course, today it’s cold, stormy and overcast, but I’m ensconced in my cozy chair with a teapot on the warmer and life is still good.

A funny thing – I use Tweetdeck to sort my Twitter feeds, to help manage the flow of information. I also have columns devote to searches for mentions of my name or of my book titles, so I can see when people are talking about them. A couple of my titles overlap with album titles – particularly THE TALON OF THE HAWK and COVENANT OF THORNS. I think this is kind of cool, that I title musically, in a way.

The upshot is I see conversations – and fan enthusing – about these, especially Talon of the Hawk by The Front Bottoms. I’d never heard of this band, but I impulsively bought the album so I could listen, since we have this serendipitous artistic overlap. I like it. And wow – do other people love, love, love this album! People tweet about it all the time, say how he listened to it over and over, sang all the song with her sister on a road trip and expressing all the love. They discuss how awesome this album is. And tons of them want to get tattoos of the knife on the album cover.

It just makes me think.

Readers do this to an extent, but not nearly so many and not to the same extreme. I think there are a few reasons for this. A lot more people listen to music than read books. In 2013, 76% of American adults had read at least one book during the year and the typical American reads five books a year. Compare that to the stat that the average American listens to four hours of music a DAY. An enormous difference, huh?

Also music is social in a way that books tend not to be. Listening to music can be a gregarious event, from singing while road-tripping with your sister to attending a massive stadium rock concert. Books, even if we discuss them at length, tend to be a fairly solitary experience with a huge internal involvement.

Still.

I clipped this quote from Kurt Cobain once, which I have not been able to find. It’s probably floating aimlessly around in some forsaken file folder. At any rate, it’s amazing because he’s talking to an author about how he imagines readings are like rock concerts, with screaming fans and a mosh pit. It’s kind of adorable, how mistaken he is – and also enlightening. I read it and thought, why CAN’T it be like that? Wouldn’t it be great if it was?

I dunno – maybe I’m dreaming. What do you guys think?