BREATH OF EARTH is out today!
Today is the day! Breath of Earth is officially out in the world. YAAAAAY!
Alt history. Steampunk. Magical creatures. Cataclysmic earthquakes. This book has it ALL. (FYI: If you want to join the Fenris Fan Club, contact Lexie Dunne. She’s president.)
You can buy the book anywhere. If you request it from your local bookstore, that’s awesome because they might get extra copies. All the usual places around the internet are stocking it, too! Trade paperback and ebook, whatever suits your fancy.
- Amazon
- Barnes & Noble
- Powell’s
- Books-A-Million
- Poisoned Pen (the place to get signed copies!)
- Changing Hands
- Mysterious Galaxy
Thank you for your support. Really and truly. I hope you enjoy the book!
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Read MoreBreath of Earth signing at Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ tonight at 7PM
Breath of Earth is officially out tomorrow, but if you’re in Scottsdale tonight at Poisoned Pen Book Store, you can get your copy a day early and get it signed, too! They’ll have my Clockwork Dagger books as well–or you can bring copies you already own. I’ll be happy to sign them.
Rumor has it there might be cookies available.
You can find out more details about the event here. If you live far away, you can even order signed copies and they’ll ship’em right out!
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Read MoreBreath of Earth: Creating a new map of 1906 San Francisco
This post is part of a series on the research and worldbuilding for my new book Breath of Earth. The first part, on actual film footage of San Francisco before and after the quake, can be viewed here.
Countdown to Breath of Earth‘s release: FIVE DAYS.
When modifying a map, it’s sure nice to have a template as a base. Many historical maps are available online, but it can be quite a challenge to find ones that are high res. I was lucky when it came to my research on the city of San Francisco. It was such a large, famous city–and there is so much interest around it before and after the earthquake–that I was able to find a fantastic high res map at a genealogy website.
Breath of Earth is alt history, but I still want it as accurate as possible. That meant I also wanted cable car lines to drive down the correct streets. I found maps to depict that as well.
I took my base map and printed it across six sheets of paper. I mounted those together on a poster board and had it laminated at Fed Ex Kinkos. The lamination gave me a surface on which I could use dry erase markers.
This is when my brain almost broke.
See, my base map is at a very weird angle. It actually views San Francisco from the southeast–and the streets aren’t at the correct angles, either. ARGH. I had to try to combine these two maps while not giving myself a migraine. I also referenced Google Maps quite often to help me orient myself.
Once that was done, I had to figure out where to place other landmarks in the book like the Cordilleran Auxiliary, Cy and Fenris’s workshop, and the houses of important characters like Ingrid and Mr. Sakaguchi, Warden Calhoun, and Warden Thornton. Again, Google Maps–especially Street View–were essential here, and as I edited as well. If Ingrid was described as walking uphill, I wanted to make sure she was actually walking uphill! I also added an important element of my book world: airship mooring masts. I blocked off important neighborhoods like Chinatown, Nob Hill, Russian Hill, and the Barbary Coast.
This map has adorned my office for over three years now.
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Breath of Earth: Real San Francisco Film Footage, Before and After 1906 Quake
This post kicks off a series on the research and worldbuilding for my new book Breath of Earth. There is no avoiding the fact that a major earthquake happens in the book, but the cause is quite different. That said, I still intensively researched the actual earthquake. These are some of the interesting historical tidbits I discovered along the way.
Countdown to Breath of Earth‘s release: ONE MONTH FROM TODAY.
As a native Californian, I grew up with earthquakes. I have seen major devastation firsthand. That’s why I have been drawn to reading about the 1906 quake since I was a kid. I felt the 1989 Bay Area earthquake from some 200 miles away. It made the news footage of that distant destruction all the more eerie and personal.
That, however, was on a small scale compared to what happened in 1906. Below are two films in stark contrast. One is a somewhat posed scene following a mile of Market Street in 1905. The other is footage right after the earthquake in April 1906. These are images I kept in mind as I tried to recapture the horror of what happened 110 years ago.
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B&N Gives Breath of Earth Some Love, And Other News
Breath of Earth is out in about two and a half months, and it’s time for the buzz to really kick in. Publishers Weekly recently said nice things, and now Barnes & Noble’s SFF Blog is chiming in:
Her latest novel, Breath of Earth, out later this summer, takes place in an alternate San Francisco in which geomancers keep the San Andreas faultline in check—and institutional sexism and racism keep Ingrid Carmichael from achieving her full magical potential. Cato weaves a compelling tapestry of clashing cultural values, bringing much-needed diversity to the genre.
Read the whole list of books they loved in May–lots of great titles on there!
My Clockwork Dagger story Final Flight also garnered some love over at Reading Reality. Yay!
The big Elevengeddon signing event at Poisoned Pen was a smashing success last week. They did a wonderful write-up with loads of pictures.
I have a new poem out: “A Sip of Starlight” at NewMyths.com.
One of the big local papers, the Phoenix New Times, included me on their 2016 list of 100 Creatives in Phoenix.
I was also interviewed over at SFF World about the Decision Points anthology along with Mike Resnick and Kate Corcino.
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Publishers Weekly enjoyed Breath of Earth!
Breath of Earth is out three months from today, and that means it’s time for the major trade reviews. Publishers Weekly said especially nice things: “Cato cleverly brings her colorful Barbary Coast–era San Francisco to life, highlighting the neglected perspectives of the outsiders and the dispossessed who made up the majority of its populace.”
Read the whole review over here!
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