Wait a minute, strike that, reverse it. Sorry it has been so long since I’ve given you folks an honest to goodness update. My life has been a wee bit insane of late. Oriech—my buddy, web master, and mystic overseer of the fickle whims of fate—got married last weekend. I’d congratulate him here, but I was the best man, so I my congratulations have been thoroughly handed out by now. He and his new wife are now on their honeymoon at Disney World. My role in the wedding seized an awful lot of my time and brain cycles over the last few weeks. I had to write and deliver a speech, which predictably was about twice as long as I’d intended. There were many pictures taken. There was much food eaten. I windexed the outside of wine bottles. You know, best man stuff. Anyway, that’s behind me now… until October 20th, when I do the whole thing over again for my older brother. The insanity has not ended. But you folks aren’t interested in the matrimonial duties heaped upon me of late, you want to know about book stuff, right? So let’s get to that.
First, the KBR contest. Some time ago, I mentioned I was up for an award, Best Indie Sci-Fi Book of 2012. Some time after, I realized I was going up against Hugh Howey, who is the author of “Wool”, a series of books that is currently the case-in-point when people talk about the sort of quality and success indie books can aspire to if the planets align just right. At that point, I knew I didn’t have a shadow of a chance, and sure enough, yesterday they finally announced him as the winner of the category. The mere fact that I made it to the final round was an awesome achievement. So congrats to Hugh on his continued success, and I’ll continue to work toward his standards of both quality and success.
Next, the cameo contest. If you purchased a StoryBundle in August, you may or may not be aware that you were entered in a contest to win a cameo appearance in one of two books by bundle authors. So far, six winners have been pulled, three for me and three for the other Joe in the bundle. To my knowledge, not one email has gotten a reply. We’re going to continue to send out emails until either Jason pulls the plug or we get replies. If the plug gets pulled, do not fear, I know there are plenty of you out there who are interested in that particular prize. I’ll resurrect the contest right here and try to work out the best way to pick my own winner. I’ll keep you apprized of any new developments, though my twitter feed will probably be the fastest way to find out. UPDATE: The winner has stepped forward. Congratulations to Louise Yang!
Let’s see, other pending stuff… Well, I believe the Bulgarian Edition of Book of Deacon (called “Marked” in their edition) officially released last Monday, and as I understand it, a pair of copies are coming my way. I’ll post pictures when I get them. I haven’t been paid yet, but that’s mostly because a combination of complex banking policies, a huge time zone difference, a language barrier, a very small bank, and mutual inexperience has stymied any attempts to do an international wire transfer. If only I had someone with years of experience in handling things like this…
Oh yeah! I’ll be meeting my potential agent face to face in a few weeks, and if things go well, I might actually have someone to talk to who knows what the heck they are doing. That’ll be handy!
Speaking of NYCC, it is getting close so I’ll ask once again if any of you are attending, and if so, do you folks want to meet me? I’ll be there Saturday, October 13th, as well as for press day on Oct. 11th and possibly another visit on Oct. 14th. Let me know and I’ll see what I can do.
Okay, more stuff. I’ve added an upgrade to the forum and the site that will allow you to censor your posts, so you can hide spoilers. I’ve also added a “fan works” section to the forum for people to post and discuss fan fiction and fan art. These upgrades were in response to a reader who has been working on an unofficial sequel. Cool, right? I’ve also reached out to the good folks at Fanfiction.net to see if they want to add a section for Book of Deacon. No news on that.
Now for the little stuff. Plush? No news. The artist is working and going to college, so the fluffy dragon is being postponed by real life, as so often happens. Jade audio book? Nearly ready to be made. I’ve picked a narrator, I just need to get the final revision of the manuscript and negotiate price. There may be more art from Nick Deligaris in a few weeks, assuming real life doesn’t force it aside for him as well. You might want to head over to the fan art page, there’s been some new additions there recently. Lots and lots of stuff going on, many good things on the way. Hopefully a few of them will have come to fruition by the next time I do an update!
Until next time, thanks for reading!