Winners of the German and Dutch edition giveaways offered in the previous post have been picked. I'll be e-mailing the two lucky recipients shortly to confirm - I got slightly more requests for these than I expected (i.e. more than zero or one), so if you asked for one but don't hear back from me in the next day or two: sorry, you weren't lucky this time around.

In the next few days I'll be starting another giveaway for fans on the Winterbirth facebook page (books in English, this time!). I may do one further giveaway after that, but can't confirm or deny that just yet.

Labels: Giveaways

I fully intended to make some very, very exciting and entertaining posts here in the last couple of weeks. But then I got ill. I'm better now, so no sympathy required - and to be honest, like most men beset with a temporary affliction of the flu or cold sort, I was able to generate more than enough self-sympathy (trending towards self-pity) to keep myself comforted. Regular updates of the moaning and groaning and whimpering sort were provided to those around me, to ensure that everyone understood just how much I was suffering, and how manly I was being in not just giving up and spending all day every day in bed. Heroic, I was. Man flu is a terrible, terrible thing.

Anyway, now that I'm more or less functional again, I plan to clear a little bit of shelf space by attempting to give away some signed books. Hurrah! This is going to be a staged process, and stage one is somewhat experimental. So ...

Would anyone like a signed (and dedicated, if you like) copy of:

Winterwende, large format paperback of book one of the Godless World trilogy in German.
or
Ondergang, hardback of book three in the trilogy, in Dutch.

Now I'm not, to put it mildly, expecting a tidal wave of requests for these, so here's the plan: if you are interested, e-mail me at the address on the Contact page, expressing your interest in one or the other. In the event that I get more than one request for each, I'll pick a winner at random and get back in touch asking for a mailing address, and how you'd like me to sign or dedicate the book.

Worry not, monolingual English readers - there will be additional giveaway action imminently for you too (though your chances of benefiting from it will be somewhat higher if you're signed up as a fan on the Winterbirth Facebook page).

Labels: Giveaways

So, everyone: welcome to 2010. (A week late, I know, but it's the thought that counts, right?) I hope you enjoy it, and that it delivers at the very least a respectable portion of all that you hope for.

Starting a new year with a new experience can't be a bad thing, I reckon, so you won't hear any complaints from me about the wintry onslaught that has subjugated the British Isles. There's been no sign of the grass on the lawn outside my window for over three weeks now, buried as it is beneath a gleaming white blanket of snow. Nothing remarkable for many of you, of course, including those living at the same latitude as Edinburgh (approaching 56 deg N, for the record - roughly the same as Moscow and the Aleutian Islands), but it's exceptionally unusual round here, where the peculiarities of climates both macro- and micro- mean most winters are all but snow-free. In fact, I don't remember seeing anything quite like it in my life.

I'm a big fan of the big freeze. Everything looks just that little bit unfamiliar and exotic. It feels like we've all travelled to some other place - one quieter, more beautiful and imbued with a faint, cold magic - without having to move. The sound of deep snow crunching underfoot seems to me vaguely romantic and wild and fantastical.

A new computer arrived in my house. I didn't really want one, but the old one was accumulating software glitches and idiosyncracies that nothing seemed to rid it of, and to be fair it was a few years old, so I bit the bullet and went shopping. Turns out PCs have got a whole lot better since I last bought one. Who knew? I mean, have you seen these flat screen things? They're all ... flat and stuff. Amazing.

Anyway, one consequence has been a big clean out and reorganising of my feeds, which gives me an excuse to flag up some new, newish or not new at all podcasts that might be of interest:

1. Tor.com has added a new podcast - the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy - to complement their existing audio fiction one. Both can be found here. The G's G to the G promises to cover a wide spectrum of geeky interests, so should be worth following. (First episode doesn't do much for me, since it's mostly about Left 4 Dead 2, and my gaming days are more or less behind me, sadly, but I'm not letting that put me off).

2. The iFanboy Pick of the Week podcast is my graphic novels and comics-related listening of choice. For any of you out there with a liking for that medium, it gets a great big thumbs up from me. (As does their video podcast, if you're a visually oriented sort).

3. Naked Archaeology offers monthly news and views on archaeological research and discoveries. Quite interesting, if you're into that sort of thing. It's a spin-off from the very well known and jolly good Naked Scientists podcast, as is the newer and potentially interesting (but I haven't actually listened to it yet, so don't blame me if it's rubbish) Naked Astronomy.

And lo, the new year brings a new look for Fall of Thanes. This is the cover for the US mass market paperback edition, due out very soon. And it is, IMHO, a thing of beauty. Possibly my favourite 'look' for any of the trilogy so far. And that's saying something, since all the way through, I've really been jolly well taken care of by the Orbit folks responsible for prettying up my books.

The new year also brings free pdfs of books. Free pdfs of 11,000 books to be precise, including quite a lot of famous ones (and a great many not very famous at all ones, I suspect). They're available at The Book Depository. Now, personally I can't read novel-length stuff in pdf form. Can just about manage a short story, but that's about my limit in that format (and even then, I'll be hoping it's a short short story). But you might be different, so go knock yourself out. It doesn't look that easy to actually find some of the freebies, admittedly, but even right there on the front page, there's links to free Oscar Wilde, Rudyard Kipling and others.

Labels: Covers, ebooks, Fall of Thanes, Giveaways, Podcasts

The book giveaway is over at BookGeeks: enter a draw to win not only a full set of my Godless World trilogy, but also a full set of Sean Williams' Astropolis trilogy. Closing date is 6th June, but note it's only open to UK residents. Sorry all you overseas types.

The new blog is Science Fiction and Fantasy Ethics, which is the brainchild of Andy Remic, and promises to be a seriously fun little corner of the sf/f/h webosphere. Not such a little corner, in fact, when you look at the long and still growing list of authors involved (including me, which I hope won't spoil things too much). Lots of info on what to expect can be found over there, but the 'SFFE Mission' puts it pretty clearly:

Our mission is to celebrate everything positive, funky and exciting in the Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror Universe.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Labels: Giveaways