With the publication of The Edinburgh Deadnow looming, it seems a sensible moment to mention that, as with my previous books, those who want to get their hands on a signed (and optionally dedicated etc.) copy of the tome can do so through Edinburgh’s finest emporium of booky speculative fiction, Transreal Fiction.
At the modest cost of cover price plus shipping, anyone can obtain my elegant signature upon a copy of the UK paperback or, I believe with slightly more limited availability, the US trade paperback. The details of how it all works are right here for your perusal, so if you’re interested, don’t delay, get your order in today!
Item 1: First winner of the Facebook signed Fall of Thanes giveaway has been duly selected. One more chance to win – this coming Friday – so there’s still time to sign up as a fan and thereby get yourself entered in the prize draw.
Item 2: According to this review of Fall of Thanes, it appears I might have made someone cry. Good. I mean that in the nicest possible way, obviously.
Item 3: I did an interview at a slightly more unusual venue than my usual online habitat of sf/f book blogs: Grinding to Valhalla, which as far as I can tell is a sort of mass interview site for mmo bloggers/podcasters. As a result, there’s a little bit more in there about my gaming habits/history than is usually the case.
Item 4: And finally … well I’m not really sure what to say about this (found via CBR), other than that I am at once strangely fascinated and strangely repelled:
So, the plan is this: everyone signed up as a fan on the Winterbirth page on Facebookgets entered into a couple of draws – one next Friday, the 8th, the second the following Friday, 15th – and the lucky winners get themselves a free signed, and optionally dedicated etc., hardback copy of Fall of Thanes shipped off in the post to them by my own fair hand. If you like the sound of that, and aren’t already hooked up with the rest of the Godless World fans on Facebook, get yourself over there and join up.
Or, if you’re allergic to social networking, or just want to short-circuit the system and be 100% certain of getting yourself a signed, personalised copy, get in touch with Transreal Fiction and tell them what you want (click on my name at top right of home page to see how it all works). It won’t be free, but nor will your ownership of it be reliant on the whims of the gods of chance!
Oh, and for those who like these things, there’s a fairly chunky extract from Fall of Thanes to be found here.
Does it betray some weird psycho-sexual dysfunction (phallic insecurity, perhaps?) that my first reaction upon receiving the huge box containing my author copies of Fall of Thanes was to pile them all up into a tower and take a photo of it? Probably not, though I wouldn’t dismiss the possibility entirely. Behold my mighty book tower! See how it … towers.
Clearly, since these have shown up on my doorstep – and looking very fine at that – publication of the third and final part of the trilogy is now unavoidable. Early May, in a shop near you (or online if there’re no shops near you, of course). For those thinking of putting in an order, a reminder: should you be tempted by the thought of a signed, dedicated etc copy of Fall of Thanes all of your own, the place to go is the Transreal website. Click on my name at top right for all the details, but the most important point is that it’ll only cost you cover price plus shipping. Bargain!
While on the subject of books, I have been rectifying a shocking gap in my genre reading. Until this last week or two, my sole experience of Conan the barbarian was the long ago and rather dubious movies featuring a certain US politician in the title role. Now, I’m pleased to say, I’m making up for lost time by working my way through this gorgeous book – close to a thousand pages of pulpy, politically incorrect sword and sorcery merriment. I’m enjoying it considerably more than I thought I might, and for all the lack of ‘polish’ that occasionally crops up in the writing (these stories were being turned out incredibly quickly, after all), I’ve been struck by what an effective writer Robert E. Howard really is. There’s some seriously vivid and atmospheric work going on, alongside all the vigourous hewing and hacking and thumping. Great fun. How come I never read this stuff before? Idiot.
And finally, to the person or persons responsible for ms antispyware 2009, I have only this to say: may your toenails shrivel and crack, and turn yellow and crusty and stinky, flaking off into your socks bit by bit until they are all gone, leaving only a suppurating blisters where once they lay. And if your stupid little malware gets on my PC again, I hope the suppuration spreads up your legs until it reaches areas more vital than toes. So there.
So, the great big signedBloodheir giveaway on Facebook has drawn to a close. To be honest, until I actually signed up for Facebook I was a bit of a sceptic about the whole social networking thing. I still don’t think I’m really quite on the right wavelength, but I’m starting to ‘get it’ a bit more. I’m prepared to concede that they do actually offer a new kind of dynamic and structure to the whole internet thing that nothing else does in quite the same way. Anyway, now that the giveaway’s done, I should mention, as I traditionally and predictably do at such moments, that signed and dedicated Bloodheirs are available to all sundry – socially networked or not – from Transreal Fiction. I quite like stopping by to sign them, so don’t you worry about putting me to any trouble. It’s a pleasure, really. So you’re buying yourself a signed book, and me a little bit of pleasure. Everybody wins.
The latest must-read blog for sf/f bibliophiles: Enter the Octopus. Lots of good content, most significantly the huge, more-or-less daily, round ups of book-related links.
Pre-release reviews and rumours about this suggest that something interesting is on the way, and I’m gradually allowing my expectations to get high enough that I’m virtually inviting disappointment to come and stomp all over me:
Rumours abound that this chapis being lined up to be the new Dr. Who. Like him very much indeed as an actor, but Dr. Who? Maybe, so long as they went the not-too-manic route. Guess we’ll see in due course. Or not, these being rumours of the plausible but entirely unconfirmed sort.
Strange Maps, which is one of those sites that pretty much justifies the invention of blogging software all by its lonesome if you ask me, has an interesting post on a wildly silly proposal to drain the North Sea, put forward in 1930. It kind of sums up everything I like about the blog: fun maps and loads of semi-obscure geographical and historical info.
Funny/Clever (via SF Signal, which unlike Enter the Octopus is a long-established must-read site for sf bibliophiles):
I’ve been interviewed at mighty length over at A Dribble of Ink. Go have a look, if you like.
Plus, we’re now in the final week of the great big Bloodheir giveaway on Facebook. Three lucky winners have already been picked out of the hat (actually, rumour has it they’re being selected using an old set of D&D dice, but I don’t know how credible such rumours are …). One more chance to win, this Friday, so if you like the idea of getting your hands on a signed, dedicated hardback of Bloodheir, go sign up as a fan at the Winterbirth page on Facebook. You’ve got to be in it to win it. Or something like that.
Just to add, further to last post about the Facebook giveaway: I should perhaps mention, for those who don’t already know, that if you’re not on Facebook, but still have a craving for a signed, dedicated etc. copy of the Bloodheir hardback, you can get one (but I’m afraid you’ll have to pay for it). I can sign, inscribe or otherwise vandalise as instructed any copies ordered from Transreal Fictionin Edinburgh before they’re shipped out to you. It costs cover price plus post and packing. Not as good as a free competition, I know, but a good deal more certain in outcome and it doesn’t require you to join one of those pesky social networks if you’re allergic to them …
Post title kind of says it all. Further details are here, but it all boils down to this: each week in June, everyone who’s signed up as a Fan on Winterbirth‘s page on Facebookgets entered into a draw to win a signed, dedicated or otherwise personalised copy of Bloodheir. Sounds like a bargain to me. (And there’s not exactly a gigantic army of fans on there at the time of writing, so if you go join up now you’re in with a fighting chance. Not that we’re actually going to make the fans fight each other, obviously. Though that might be worth bearing in mind for future competitions …).
My trusty test reader enjoys a quiet moment with the finished Bloodheir. He’s smiling, so presumably happy, even though the only reference to bears occurs on page 161 and involves poking a sleeping one with a stick. Not much to engage the ursine reader, you’d think. Still, it’s probably an improvement on Winterbirth, in which the main bear involvement was getting wheeled around in a cage and shot full of crossbow bolts. Contrary to appearances, I have nothing against bears.
Big box of hardbacks and the UK trade paperback turned up on my doorstep last week. One of those moments that I suspect never quite loses its appeal, no matter how well-established and megastarish an author becomes. Orbit have done a lovely job with the book, methinks. It’s a very fine package. Seeing the cover art up close and in situ it’s striking what a fine piece of work it is. Given that my artistic skills are on the wrong side of non-existent, this kind of thing leaves me not a little impressed. And jealous. The illustration is by Gene Mollica, much more of whose diverse work can be admired here.
There’s a Bloodheir review up at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist. It contains the succint and pretty accurate line: ‘Aeglyss is a complete basket case.’ Yep. Can’t really disagree with that. The guy’s got issues, you know.
And I’ll just insert the customary reminder here that anyone who wants to buy a signed copy of Bloodheir can do so via Transreal Fiction. It’ll cost you the cover price plus post and packing. Dedications, inscriptions and so on can also be included, but not, sadly, any cute little drawings, as my artistic skills … well, see above.
The programme for Alt.Fiction, the one day sf/f/h extravaganza in Derby in April has been published. It amounts to a seriously packed day of genre goodies, with so many authors crammed into a few hours and a few rooms that it makes you wonder how they find the space for anybody else. If you like your fiction speculative, it’s definitely the place to be on April 26th.
Me, I’ll be talking worldbuilding in the afternoon, and then I’m apparently launching a book. That’ll be Bloodheir, then. Means a little reading and signing, I guess, so hopefully the printing presses are gearing up even now. What it also means is that if you’re at Alt.Fiction, you might get the chance to acquire a copy of Bloodheir a whole six weeks before it turns up in the shops. Bargain. UPDATE: No, Bloodheir won’t be available on the day. Too soon. Oh well.
Anyone else who wants one can also have a signed copy of Bloodheir, mind you. Transreal Fiction will take orders for signed (and optionally dated, dedicated, inscribed, whatever) hardbacks and post them off to you as soon as it’s published. As far as I know, the cost is just cover price plus whatever packing and postage costs are to your part of the world.
On a wholly unrelated subject, if you’ve got a couple of minutes to spare, turn your sound on and go try this awareness test. It’s not easy …
With the publication of The Edinburgh Dead now looming, it seems a sensible moment to mention that, as with my previous books, those who want to get their hands on a signed (and optionally dedicated etc.) copy of the tome can do so through Edinburgh’s finest emporium of booky speculative fiction, Transreal Fiction.
Does it betray some weird psycho-sexual dysfunction (phallic insecurity, perhaps?) that my first reaction upon receiving the huge box containing my author copies of Fall of Thanes was to pile them all up into a tower and take a photo of it? Probably not, though I wouldn’t dismiss the possibility entirely. Behold my mighty book tower! See how it … towers.
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