anna katherine

Anna Katherine turns in a fun, fast-paced paranormal romance in Salt and Silver, serving up a worthy heroine in Allie and a hot love interest in Ryan, along with the requisite complications (the wandering Door) and a potential rival (Roxie), not to mention some very serious mistakes–as when a friend is bitten by a werewolf–and some big problems to deal with, such as a trip into Hell itself. She also provides a great supporting character for Allie in the form of Amanda, whose train wreck lifestyle masks a depth of compassion and love for her friend.

Perfect for fans of dark urban fantasy, Salt and Silver is an interesting, quirky book with an awful lot to say in nearly 360 pages. (more…)

Thanks, SFRevu!

(This, and other review links, can be found on our blog’s review page — if you know of a review we haven’t linked to, or you’ve written one yourself, drop us a line and we’ll add it.)

Hey everybody — did we mention that we’re writing a sequel? Here’s what’s going on in Kat’s head:

I’ll say it straight out: Writing a sequel is significantly harder than I realized. For one thing, we can’t just make stuff up like we did before. Sure, the Anna Katherine Co-Op of Evil had a grand old time throwing our brains at the page the first time around — but now we’re faced with having to actually remember the events and worldbuilding of Salt and Silver; remember, and build upon it.

I’ve got a copy of the book sitting beside me right now, ready to be flipped open to make sure that, for instance, we never said vampires had to always be goth — but trying not to contradict ourselves is the simpler part of the problem. The world’s a different place at the end of Salt and Silver; that’s got to have repercussions. Big ones. And while it’s easy to think of all sorts of horrible things that could happen (zombie apocalypse! the sky turns to jelly! a giant buzzard appears and eats everyone!), whatever happens needs to work within both the bounds of this new story — and with Salt and Silver. At the very least, that cuts out the zombie option. No such thing, as the reader might recall. So there’s that.

The other difficult thing comes down to one thing: Nerves. When we were writing Salt and Silver, it was a joy and a rush all at once. We could do anything! The worst that could happen was that someone wouldn’t like it. But with the sequel, I find myself worrying about disappointing those who did like the first book; I’m worried about being one of those sad flash-in-the-pan newbie authors who never really has much to say after one book; I’m worried that maybe whatever alchemical magic we worked with Salt and Silver will absent itself forever, and all that will be left is a mishmash of word vomit and regrets.

(Pro tip: These are what we call Author Crazies, everybody. And they aren’t your friend.)

I’ve got a couple of ideas about how to work through these difficulties — keeping S&S by my side, like I said, is one of them. And the other is really having faith in my own abilities and the fantabulous abilities of Anna — more faith in us than in the author crazies, anyway. Eventually we’ll have a book in our hands; that’ll be worth it all over again.

We’re not the best people at updating, but we can say a lot in 140 characters or less — try following Anna and Katherine on Twitter. The best questions we get there, we’ll talk about here!

The blog’s been on temporary break while Exciting Life Changes occur, but we’re back and excited to spread the news:

Salt and Silver Receives Starred Review from Publishers Weekly!

This lively tale of demons and gods, the debut effort of Katherine Macdonald and former Tor editor Anna Genoese, opens six years after witty, sarcastic Allie, a trust fund baby turned Brooklyn diner manager, inadvertently generates a door to hell in the diner’s basement[...]. Genoese and Macdonald mix multiple mythologies into a charming, biting cautionary narrative about taking responsibility for one’s actions. (more…)

Hurray! This, and other review links, can be found on our blog’s review page — if you know of a review we haven’t linked to, or you’ve written one yourself, drop us a line and we’ll add it. And while we’re at it: Have a question about Salt and Silver, magic, or the fascinating (and possibly imaginary) life of Anna Katherine? Send it in! You never know what we’ll decide to write about next…

This went up a couple of days ago, actually, but we have a lovely guest post and contest up at Literary Escapism — it’s about telling lies as a writer:

One of the big writer maxims is: Write what you know.

It’s advice that usually works. Do you want real action, real emotions, real consequences? Remember what you’ve done in your own life, and write it out. “Write what you know” is a classic for a reason: pour all that lust for your midnight lover into your sex scenes, add the tiny details about what it’s like to live in Boise, Idaho, and use the uncomfortable memory of what you saw a friend go through in high school for a surprise plot twist to make the reader weep. Nothing sounds more real than what is actually real.

On the other hand we do sometimes run into problems. After all, how many of us have really faced down a demon? (more…)