My new book, Catacombs, launches today!

I'm excited about it for a few reasons. I have a new publisher, Sourcebooks, which recently hit some list or other of top ten publishers in terms of sales. Since I came onboard, Penguin Random house has bought a 45% stake in Sourcebooks and they're the largest publisher in the world, I think. I'm hoping for good things.

It's getting a good reception, with Publishers Weekly using words like "nail-biting," "richly textured," and "character-driven," so that's good.

It's got an Oklahoma City setting, complete with the unbelievable-but-true backstory of a community of hundreds of Chinese immigrants building an underground network of rooms where they could escape poor living conditions and racism on the surface. (Check out OKC on the cover.)

And, for the first time, I got the attention of law enforcement after I chatted with city engineers about how my villain might set off a bomb under the city. I got a phone call from a very nice gentleman making sure that I didn't intend to draw a road map on how to do that and publish it for all to see. I assured him that I had no such plan.

Having seen it it person, the cover is GORGEOUS!

(And the book itself is better.) .

Sourcebooks reportedly has a goal to re-cover some or all of the backlist books to give the series a unified look.

I've already got a draft of the cover of the next one, Fathoms, and it continues this theme of two worlds, above and below. I think that ties in so well with the archaeological theme of the series. The Fathoms cover has an underwater image with a scuba diver where the catacombs are in...well...Catacombs. The existing cover for Rituals has that above/below splitscreen look, and I think all of the others could be configured that way.

And thank you, dear.

First of all, congratulations!!!

Second,

quote:

the unbelievable-but-true backstory of a community of hundreds of Chinese immigrants building an underground network of rooms where they could escape poor living conditions and racism on the surface

Wow! I had no idea! I googled, and I typed in "Oklahoma city Chinese" and it suggested "tunnels" as auto-fill! Wow!

Exciting!

Mazel Tov.

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
Wow! I had no idea! I googled, and I typed in "Oklahoma city Chinese" and it suggested "tunnels" as auto-fill! Wow!

It's not currently accessible, but we actually have a 1921 health department report documenting an inspection down there, as well as photos from 1969 when a portion of it was temporarily uncovered while the conference center was being built.

Congratulations!

I was up past midnight, and realized it was August 13! So I fired up my kindle and downloaded my pre-ordered copy. Took it to the hospital (took a friend for endoscopy) but didn’t get a chance to read. So now it’s ready to rock and roll, but I have some housework to do first, before it gets too warm.

It will be my reward!

So proud of you!

Ordered mine
Faye has moved to Oklahoma?
Saw an article and pictures about Ghost Orchids in Florida that are pollinated at night by large moths.
Thought the orchids might be good in one of Faye's stories, but they would not fit into Oklahoma.

No, Chas, Faye hasn't moved. She just moves around.

This is the second book where she's gone to Oklahoma for work and to visit Joe's dad. The one I'm working on now will take her back to Florida.

quote:

Originally posted by Mary Anna:
No, Chas, Faye hasn't moved. She just moves around.

This is the second book where she's gone to Oklahoma for work and to visit Joe's dad. The one I'm working on now will take her back to Florida.

Missed a book. Probably in the stack on my nightstand.
Yep, Burials even has a signature OK tornado on the cover.

Congratulations!

Off to get my copy...