lishmcbride

Books!

As promised (in the short video you may or may not have watched) here are some of the books I've been reading. 

Encyclopedia of the Undead by Curran was my go-to research book this week. Those torn up little pieces of paper have been in there since 2008 (!) when I first wrote ...

Checking in post or Why I Haven't Posted Fun Things

Things I forgot to mention in this video--I have two friends visiting, got some freelance work on my plate I couldn't turn down, and it's almost my birthday. 

Not that it almost being my birthday impacts anything whatsoever, I just wanted people to know. Ha!

Hope your week hasn't...

BTLN Chapter 12

Well, I made it through last weekend somehow. I did the math--on Saturday I talked for 6 hours. That's a lot, even for me. But I met a lot of cool writers and had a good time.

I finally got the playlist post updated. Yay! You get to see an old...well, not friend, but a returning character i...

ECCC Panel

If any of you are there, come by and say hi!

I’m Teaching a Class!

Sometimes I teach writing workshops through Hugo House. The upside of this one is that it’s virtual, so anyone can attend if they’re so inclined. (Well, and if you pay the fee, I guess.) This one should be pretty fun and there are a few spots left! Pass it along to any writer friends you migh...

BTLN Chapters 10 & 11

This was just going to be one chapter, because chapter 10 is short, but I thought it worked better as two. I could have posted them separately I guess, but I figured if I had both of them finished, why not? So here you go!

Hope you're having a good weekend, wherever you are!

-Lish

BTLN Chapter 9

Finally! Delayed by lack of sleep for several days (thanks, dogs) and some fun mental health stuff, I finally got the chapter done! Wooo! At least it's on the longer side for you. Enjoy!

-Lish

Rough Around the Hedges Snippet

I'm working not he next Sam chapter--it's half done--and I wanted to get it to you before I took two days off to celebrate my anniversary. (Our anniversary was last month, but this was when we could get away.) Last year we did the same thing, spending two nights at a little hotel about an hour fr...

BTLN Chapter 8

Finally! New chapter! Enjoy!

BTLN Catch Up and Welcome!

We're had some new folks join us (thank you! Welcome!) and since I'm working on new chapters to post for Big Trouble, Little Necromancer, I thought I'd put together what I've posted so far so that the new folks can catch up and my regulars (thank you!) can refresh if they so choose. I tweaked a l...

Final NTS annotated reread!

We're at the finish line! This week has been brutal for most of us and it's only Tuesday. (Hahahaha--I found out today that my dog needs a 10-12,000 dollar surgery and we had to spend 1200 on tires yesterday, so I basically just want to melt into the ground now.)

The end is full of short ch...

NTS Annotated Reread Chapters 21-24

Things have been busy around here--I did a book fair at a craft brewery last weekend. Books and beer! It was a lot of fun and got to talk to a lot of lovely people. Plus a virtual event last week and this week I'll be at Brick & Mortar books in Redmond, WA with Kendare Blake. Very fun.

...

Yard Sale Cauldron

Yesterday I talked about how hard it has been for me to write. Then, as I usually do on Tuesdays, I finished all of my trivia questions, because I host a trivia night at a local brewery. I host trivia every Tuesday and it's a lot of fun. Anyway, as I was sitting at the bar finishing my beer, I ch...

Coping Mechanisms and NTS Annotated Reread Chapters 16-20

I actually read these chapters last week. I made notes. And then I...did nothing. I'm not quite sure if I'm dealing with creator burnout (I wrote a LOT in the last 2-3 years), general "I feel like the world is on fire" stuff, exhaustion from all the house stuff and life stuff I've been dealing wi...

Check in and NTS Annotated Reread chapters 13-15

I unpacked my books! I have...too many books. The last two-three weeks have been bananas. Packed everything up, painted many walls, had new floors put in, and now we're putting everything back. Oh, and my son had his tonsils out and I had a book come out. I'm tired.

The book coming out has ...

Mother's Day Text Exchange

I haven't been able to continue the reread because first I was slammed with my copy edits for A Little Too Familiar (Out next week!) and then I had to box up most of my belongings so we could paint before the builders came in to replace 3/4 of the flooring in our house. And my dog tore her ACL, a...

NTS Annotation chapters 8-12

Welcome back to the annotation! Let's get right to it, shall we?

Chapter 8--(Slow Ride by Foghat). Enter Minion! So Minion is obviously Keanu Reeves. Minion might give you the idea that I don't like or respect Keanu Reeves. This has never been the case. I love Keanu Reeves. (Have you seen A...

NTS Annotated Reread--chapters 4-7

The last two weeks have been a doozy. We decided on an actual release date for A Little Too Familiar (May 17, 2022!), which is great...but I still need to finish reading the pass pages (pass pages are the ones you get after the book has been formatted and designed and you read through them to cat...

Virtual Event

This is tomorrow (Thursday) and I wanted to give you all a head’s up because it’s a fun virtual event, a fundraiser, AND we’ll be giving away a super sweet prize pack!

NTS Annotated Reread

A few days later than planned, but I made it. Woo! Let's jump right in, shall we?

So the title and the cover:

NTS Only ever had the one title (except when it was being drafted in which case it was Necromancing 2: Electric Bugaloo which is how I title all of my sequels.), and ...

Annotated HMC,N Chapters 24-31

Cornered has the Frank origin story in it--as in how he met the crew. I haven't read it in ages, and I've always felt a little weird about it. I love Frank. He's the most vulnerable of the crew in some ways, and he's grown into himself, which has been great to see. But the premise of this antholo...

HMC,N Annotation Chapters 19-23

I know what you're thinking--Lish, that's not a HMC,N cover. It's not! I'm out of those. But this collection does include the short story Death & Waffles, which was the first ever appearance of Ashley. I wrote it for my writing workshop in my MFA, and I liked Ashley so much that I worked her ...

HMCN Annotated Reread Chapters 11-19

The paperback cover! I do adore this one. It was shiny once upon a time. I don't think it's shiny anymore. Authors generally have zero say in covers and I think I've been pretty lucky so far.

I lost several days to getting my taxes together. I don't even do them myself--mine are too weird--...

HMCN Annotated Read Through (Part 2)

I've been enjoying looking up the other covers of HMCN for this. The one you're looking at here was the ARC, or Advance Reader Copy that was sent out to librarians, booksellers, and so forth prepublication. I loved this cover a whole heck of a lot. Unfortunately, at the time, B&N didn't like ...

HMCN Read Through Fun

First, let's all enjoy the french cover of HMC,N. I don't know what's going on there, but I love it. 

I started reading through HMC,N so I can get back to writing more pages of BT,LN. At first I thought maybe we could do a read-a-long, but then thought, well, I need to get through thes...

A Snippet of A Little Too Familiar and early blurbs!

First, let's all enjoy the cookie I got to eat this weekend. I went to an interactive Alice and Wonderland cocktail experience with some fellow authors and we had a blast. It was nice to leave my house and see people--which is good because this week has been super busy with writing stuff, my olde...

A little bit about Crises of Faith and The Forky Phase

I've been talking to a lot of my writing buddies lately about what I've recently been referring to as the "Forky Stage." Now I'd like to be clear--this stage has long been a part of my process, it's just that until recently, I didn't have a good name for it.

There comes a time in any projec...

Feast or Famine

Writing is one of those "hurry up and wait jobs" where work is also either thin on the ground, or a flood. This week I was getting back to Sam and friends...and it was a flood. I spend the last month or so really head down getting those edits on A Little Too Familiar (adult comedic fantasy romanc...