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Today marks the release of my fourth professionally published short story, “The Hammer of Artemis” in the collection CAST OF CHARACTERS. It’s a very special antho for me, as it’s a project I did with other members of Novelists, Inc., a multi-genre organization of published novelists.
Now, because the publisher of this antho does POD (that’s “print on demand”) for this paperback, that makes the paperback of this REALLY LONG book (483 very tightly printed pages) very expensive. But the good news is, it’s downright cheap if you buy it as an ebook. At the Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook stores, it’s only $6.00. That’s about $0.21 cents per story, or a little over one cent per page. At other e-retailers, you can get it for only $6.99.
(UPDATE: Apparently, the price is changing as we speak — as of this writing, it’s only $5.80 at the Kindle store. Better and better!)
And that’s not all! There’s also a free volume of “set pieces” from upcoming books by Novelists, Inc. Authors available.
And what is “The Hammer of Artemis?” I’m glad you asked. It’s a killer unicorn short story, set in the Renaissance, and it follows the most unlikely member of the Order of the Lioness ever: a man.
Buy CAST OF CHARACTERS TODAY!
 TWENTY-EIGHT LEADING VOICES IN FICTION – INCLUDING ELEVEN NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHORS – JOIN TOGETHER IN A CELEBRATION OF GREAT STORYTELLING
We love fiction. It’s in our blood and it’s in our souls. Great stories thrill us and inspire us in a way that nothing else can. If you’re like us, then we invite you to revel in this anthology of all-original stories we’ve created for you.
In Cast of Characters, you’ll meet a collection of unforgettable personalities. The devoted wife who discovers her husband’s devastating secret. The Black Death survivor who reinvents herself. The woman who finds love in the arms of a dark, dangerous artist. The devoted scientist faced with a daunting ethical dilemma. The woman who hears ghosts. The gorgeous but fated young man. The small-town beauty queen with a world-class mean streak. The inventor who fears his invention. The man seeking a reunion decades later with his first love. The stalker who understands too late who he is stalking. The dreadful athlete who gets one opportunity to win. The man who loves a woman society will not allow him to love. These are only a few of the figures who will leap from the page and take residence in your heart.
In addition, Cast of Characters is highlighted by several “events” you won’t want to miss:
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#1 New York Times bestselling author Victoria Alexander delivers her first short story with a contemporary setting – as does New York Times bestselling author Tanya Anne Crosby.
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New York Times bestselling author Jo Beverley brings back the hero of her novel Forbidden Magic.
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New York Times bestselling author Angie Fox creates a new Biker Witches story.
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New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham writes her first story with her son Jason.
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New York Times bestselling author Katie MacAlister tells the story of one of her most beloved teen characters as an adult.
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National bestselling author Julie Ortolon tells the beloved Pearl Island story her fans have been clamoring for.
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National bestselling author Diana Peterfreund offers the origin story for one of the most important magical items in her “killer unicorn” series.
A huge volume of twenty-eight stories ranging from romance to suspense to fantasy to comedy to poignant character pieces, Cast of Characters is a must-have book for everyone who loves fiction.
Contributors include: CATHERINE ANDERSON, VICTORIA ALEXANDER, JO BEVERLEY, BARBARA BRETTON, JULIE COMPTON, TANYA ANNE CROSBY, CAROLE NELSON DOUGLAS, ROSEMARY EDGHILL, ANGIE FOX, HEATHER GRAHAM AND JASON POZZESSERE, GREG HERREN, VICKI HINZE, MARIANNA JAMESON, WAYNE JORDAN, KATE KINGSBURY, CJ LYONS, KATIE MACALISTER, ASHLEY MCCONNELL, JODY LYNN NYE, JULIE ORTOLON, DIANA PETERFREUND, LAURA RESNICK, PATRICIA RICE, DEB STOVER, VICTORIA STRAUSS, KAREN TINTORI, DIANE WHITESIDE and STEVEN WOMACK.
Novelists Inc. is the only writers organization devoted exclusively to the needs of multi-published novelists. This is our first fiction anthology.
Today I am interviewed for the SPOILED! Column at RT Magazine. (There aren’t any serious spoilers, though.) If you want to know more about For Darkness Shows the Stars head on over!
Today at Genreality I’m talking about revising my latest manuscript and what I’ve learned about my relationship with revisions over the years. Check it out!
A Few Upcoming Events:
WSFA First Friday Reading
When: April 6, 2012; 9 p.m.
Where: Greenbelt Maryland (directions here)
What it is: Diana will be reading selections from her upcoming novel, For Darkness Shows the Stars. (Diana is super nervous about it, for the record.)
Book Expo America
When: June 6, 2012; 1-1:30 p.m.
Where: Signing area, Javits Center, NYC
What it is: Diana will be signing copies of For Darkness Shows the Stars
More to come when I receive final confirmation. I’ll also be a guest at Dragon*Con (yay! The whole family is already thinking up costume ideas — Sailor Boy wants to tote Queenie around dressed as Bran and Hodor) but we’re a long way from anything resembling final scheduling on that.
Meantime, I have two new anthologies coming out in the near future:
The one on the left is insanely expensive in paperback (it’s POD), but a cool $6 as an ebook, which isn’t bad for twenty-eight stories. The one on the right is going to be a free ebook. They both contain killer unicorn stories. More info on both, to come.
Today’s post at Genreality is (rather fittingly) about Writing Battle Scenes. Check it out.
Sailor Boy finished the book just last night, we’re headed to a matinee this afternoon, and I am off to sidebraid my hair. If it works out, I’ll take a pic.
So since I’m getting lots of questions about For Darkness Shows the Stars (and seeing the ones I’m not getting personally floating around) I thought I’d take this opportunity to answer a few of the most common. Here goes.
Q: Is this book post-apocalyptic?
A: Yes, that’s why I used to call it “post-apocalyptic Persuasion.” (PAP) The book is set many, many generations after the end of a society we would be more familiar with.
Q: Is that the same thing as dystopian?
A: I honestly couldn’t tell you. The current trend is to call pretty much anything that deals with the breakdown of society as we know it or a futuristic society “dystopian”, whether or not that’s accurate. When I was in school, I learned that a dystopia was the opposite of a utopia — i.e., an evil society. I suppose then, this qualifies. Marketing terms are kind of a mystery to me. They seem to be dependent on whatever the current trend is, less than on an intrinsic part of the book.
It’s a futuristic science fiction story.
Q: Oh, it’s sci-fi. That means it’s set in space, right?
A: No.
Q: But there are stars on the cover! That means it’s set in space, right?
A: No. Stars are also visible on Earth. At night. When it’s dark.Thus, the title. However, I can see the confusion, because we, as readers, have been trained to respond to certain coded images on book covers. Like a boy and a girl on a cover is supposed to say romance. And a drawing instead of a picture on a cover is supposed to say “younger.” And pastel colors on a cover is supposed to say “chick lit” whereas purple and black and red is supposed to say “paranormal.” Sometimes, stars on a cover says “space.” Sometimes, though, it doesn’t. In my case, it doesn’t.
Q: Whatever. So in your book, the guy is a spaceship captain, right?
A: Sigh.
Q: Is this a standalone?
A: Yes. Mostly. Almost entirely?
Q: I kind of wish this book was a standalone, since I’m so sick of series.
A: See above.
Q: Do I need to read/reread Persuasion first?
A: Though I will always advise the reading of Persuasion, since it is one of my very favorite books, you do not need to read Persuasion, see the Persuasion movies, or even have heard of Persuasion to read and enjoy FDSTS. It’s like Clueless. When I first saw Clueless, I did not know it was based on Emma. I’d never even heard of Emma. (I know. It was a long time ago.)
Q: I’m a big fan of Persuasion, and I read one of the excerpts, and I want to know what part of the story that supposedly comes from.
A: It’s entirely possible the paragraph or scenelet doesn’t come from anything at all. This isn’t a shot-for-shot remake of the original. Though many of the scenes and characters you love are present in my book in forms you’ll recognize, some aren’t. To go back to the Clueless/Emma thing: Christian is gay, Mr. Churchhill is not. In West Side Story, Anita, the young, gorgeous lover of Maria’s gang leader brother, performs many of the plot functions held in the original Romeo and Juliet by the aged Capulet Nurse. And also, Maria survives. Things change in retellings. I lovelovelove my source material, and all the changes I’ve made were in service of making my version of the story as powerful and right as possible.
Q: So what kind of changes did you make? If you took out [insert favorite part of Persuasion here] I’ll be really upset.
A: Sorry. That part’s TOTALLY gone. 
Any other questions for me?
Today at Genreality I talk about the kinds of things i’ve spent most of my time reading since Queenie came along (hint, they tend to have fuzzy insets and feature lifting flaps), and why I’m totally terrified of Goodnight Moon.
So you know how I have five anthologies coming out this year? No? Maybe you don’t, because I’m super behind on blogging and such.
Anyway, I do. This is a big year for short stories. (Because you guys don’t even know about all of them yet. Mwahaha.)
The first of these to hit the market was Brave New Love, with my story, “Foundlings.”
Here are two of the others:
Cast of Characters, ed. by Lou Aronica (The Story Plant, April 3, 2012)
TWENTY-EIGHT LEADING VOICES IN FICTION – INCLUDING ELEVEN NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHORS – JOIN TOGETHER IN A CELEBRATION OF GREAT STORYTELLING
We love fiction. It’s in our blood and it’s in our souls. Great stories thrill us and inspire us in a way that nothing else can. If you’re like us, then we invite you to revel in this anthology of all-original stories we’ve created for you.
In CAST OF CHARACTERS, you’ll meet a collection of unforgettable personalities. The devoted wife who discovers her husband’s devastating secret. The Black Death survivor who reinvents herself. The woman who finds love in the arms of a dark, dangerous artist. The devoted scientist faced with a daunting ethical dilemma. The woman who hears ghosts. The gorgeous but fated young man. The small-town beauty queen with a world-class mean streak. The inventor who fears his invention. The man seeking a reunion decades later with his first love. The stalker who understands too late who he is stalking. The dreadful athlete who gets one opportunity to win. The man who loves a woman society will not allow him to love. These are only a few of the figures who will leap from the page and take residence in your heart.
A huge volume of twenty-eight stories ranging from romance to suspense to fantasy to comedy to poignant character pieces, CAST OF CHARACTERS is a must-have book for everyone who loves fiction. All stories are by members of Novelists, Inc., the only writers organization devoted exclusively to the needs of multi-published novelists. This is our first anthology.
A note on Diana’s contribution: “Hammer of Artemis”: Epistolary. Renaissance Rome. Killer Unicorns. Need I say more? Okay, fine: this one’s about a guy.
» Pre-Order Now (Available April 3)
Foretold: 14 Stories of Prophecy and Prediction (Random House, September, 25, 2012)
 Have you ever been tempted to look into the future? To challenge predictions? To question fate?
It’s human nature to wonder about life’s twists and turns. But is the future already written—or do you have the power to alter it?
From fantastical prophecies to predictions of how the future will transpire, Foretold is a collection of stories about our universal fascination with life’s unknowns and of what is yet to come as interpreted by 14 of young adult fiction’s brightest stars.
Heather Brewer
Meg Cabot
Matt de la Pena
Simone Elkeles
Kami Garcia
Michael Grant
Malinda Lo
Lisa McMann
Richelle Mead
Saundra Mitchell
Diana Peterfreund
Carrie Ryan
Margaret Stohl
Laini Taylor
A Note on Diana’s Contribution, “Burned Bright”: This one is a bit of a departure for me. It’s about a girl and a guy and the end of the world.
>> Pre-Order Now
So because a lot of folks are getting For Darkness Shows the Stars “in their mailboxes,” I’ve been seeing a lot of you tube videos where they say my name. Or attempt to. It’s funny the way it always goes down.
“This is the new book by Diana, uh, ::looks at book cover:: Peter, uh, fruhnd?” (Or froond. Froond is another popular attempt.)
And I totally get it. My name is not an easy one. It has dogged publicists, booksellers, book cover designers, award ceremony MCs, the dean of my college at my graduation ceremony, and almost every teacher I’ve ever had. (There was a really embarrassing moment in high school when I ran for secretary of the ninth grade student council and the student body president called me Diana Perfunderfunder and the principal thought that was so hilarious he called me that for the rest of high school.)
I also get it because no one in my family pronounces our name the same way.
Peterfreund is a German-language name that is simply the compound of “Peter” and the German word for friend, “freund.” It’s not a particularly common name here in America, but it was a not-particularly-uncommon name for Ashkenazi Jews living in Europe before World War II, which is what my father’s father’s side of my family were.
My paternal grandfather, an immigrant, just translated it from the German and pronounced it like that: “Peter-friend.” In fact, since publishing my first book, I’ve gotten letters from folks named Peterfriend (spelled that way, because their immigrant ancestors decided to translate it on paper too) asking if we could be related. (Chances are no.) Other members of my family say “Peterfriend” or, in deference to that “u” hanging out there, say “Peterfrund” or kind of elide over that last vowel altogether.
I had a German-speaking teacher in high school who, probably to counteract the yuk-yuks of the principal, used to call me “Miss Peh-tur-froind.”
“Freund” in German is pronounced “froind.” Think of it like Freud, but with an N in it. Freud is a name everyone knows how to pronounce and spell. I think if my name were just “Freund” (as some junk mailers seem to think, because I get letters all the time directed to “Peter Freund” then maybe people would have an easier time of it. It’s all those extra syllables that trip people up. They start with Peter, which is, you know, relatively simple and then they’re smacked in the face with this whole mess of letters they have no idea what to do with.
I usually say “Peter-froind.” It gives people a hint of the correct spelling.
But you have my sympathy. It’s a lot of name. It doesn’t even fit on twitter, which is why my Twitter name is @dpeterfreund instead.
So, how to pronounce my name? Your guess is as good as mine. Most of the people in my life here in DC and at my publishers say Peter-froind, because that’s how I say it. When the narrator of the BRAND SPANKING NEW Rampant and Ascendant audiobooks says it, she says Peterfroind, because that’s what I answered when they asked me how.
Oh yeah. I have audio books. See?
 
Aside from my short stories, these are my first audiobooks. I heart them. I’d pet them, but they’re digital only. You can buy them or listen to a sample of their excellence here.
The narrator, Luci Christian Bell, is best known for her work in anime (I particularly liked her turn in Appleseed Ex Machina as a futuristic cop in a post-apocalyptic world where they gave her a new partner cloned from her ailing cyborg lover — and yes, it’s as angsty as that sounds) and makes an excellent Astrid. I was very concerned that Astrid would be too cutesy. She is not. She is very warrior, but Bell also captures her vulnerability.
Gah, I almost don’t even want to post this. February was such a sucky month guys. SUCH A SUCKY MONTH. I mean, at least Rio didn’t almost die, so that’s something. Oh, no, wait, she DID almost die. AGAIN.
PSA: DO NOT LET YOUR DOG EAT RAISINS. RAISINS AND GRAPES ARE PHENOMENALLY POISONOUS TO DOGS. IF YOU THINK YOUR DOG MIGHT HAVE EATEN EVEN A TINY 1.5 OUNCE BOX OF RAISINS MEANT FOR YOUR TODDLER, CALL YOUR VET RIGHT AWAY.
I cannot stress this enough. Time is of the essence when it comes to inducing vomiting, etc.
Let’s see, what else?
Um, there was the childcare that was supposed to have started up again after a one month hiatus, but mostly didn’t, due in part to sickness and other emergencies on the part of my childcare provider, and in part on the sickness of Queenie (stomach flu followed by killer cold, which I think she must have given to her childcare provider). So… that was great for my schedule, too.
Then there was the book that wouldn’t die. At this point, it’s 30k longer than I’d originally planned, which is why the draft ended up being turned in over two weeks after I told my editor she could have it. In all honesty, this book could probably have been two books, but I can’t tell you how much I’m not going there.
And then there’s all kinds of stuff that’s not even fodder for blogging about, but it’s weighing heavily on my mind.
So I want to cry when I look at my goal check in for last month and realize I haven’t done a single solitary thing on that list. Nothing. It’s almost halfway through March and I haven’t even started on my garden.
Okay, pity party done. Hopefully I’ll be really hardcore these next two weeks.
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TWENTY-EIGHT LEADING VOICES IN FICTION – INCLUDING ELEVEN NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHORS – JOIN TOGETHER IN A CELEBRATION OF GREAT STORYTELLING
