Too Cheap for Hardbacks

The Read: Sunday, the number 1 son (actually, the only) said he saw Patricia Briggs Bone Crossed in mass paperback.  Now, I've been salivated over the hardbound for what seems forever.  With my inclination to dive into worlds I know and enjoy, you can imagine my dilemma.  My cheapness and and lack of shelf space ruled.

Monday, I bought the book with the intention of maybe reading it by Tuesday.  Finished it Wednesday night because I really am concentrating to trying to do a rough outline for Maren (not title in sight).  Can't say I "loved" the book, but I sure read slow while I savored it. 

On the cover, Charlaine Harris says:  "An increasingly excellent series... I love these books."  The "increasingly excellent" comment got to me.  The books so far are mining a rich lode of werewolf, walker, vampire, fae lore with non-duplicating plots.  What I liked about Bone Crossed is the plot within a plot with two villains chasing Mercy -- one she'll fight with another day (the local vampire master) and one she didn't kill, but caused to be killed by a wooden fae staff who follows her around wielded by a oakman (a type of fae) victim.  Hey, there's only so much a 30 pound coyote can do.

Guess others would latch onto the progress of her romance with the local alpha werewolf (which also added an additional complication since not all the werewolves welcomed a coyote into the pack).  I'm more intrigued by the 2" diameter oak tree that suddenly appeared by Mercy's trailer -- especially since the next episode in the series features a fae book (grimoirie?).

So back to salivating.

 Progress:  Bone Crossed made it more difficult to outline Maren.  I was thinking I only had problems figuring out where to start it.  (I've some 4,000 words of mostly backstory ... or beginning which seem to be retarding my writing speed (lack thereof, actually).  Now I have to complicate my plot.
 
Already did that once with the shifter who followed her into our world being captured by the bad guy and have a section where she rescues him against her better judgment.  But I still have to comb my research for a unique combination of traits and powers for the ultimate villain who controls the people who were going to be my first villains.  That doesn't make much sense, but I'm still working out the details.

Emma.  One rejection down.  Super fast in two days.  Ain't email wonderful?

Trivia:  The New York Times had an article about readers complaining about the new pricing agreement between Amazon and Macmillan.  Kindle users are complaining about paying more than $9.99 (a loss leader price) for a book.  They've taken to leaving lousy reviews of the book in protest.  While I don't like the rigidness of the Kindle/Amazon paradigm, I think the readers are being more ossified than Amazon.

Actually, the readers are just showing their own ignorance.  They were quoted as calling the writers greedy for setting the price of their books so high.  Granted I haven't published a novel, but I didn't realize I got to price my book if I ever do.