The Great Book Hunt of 2012

Countdown, Day-9

We’re close now, very close. 

When I was in my teens I ran a road rally, which is sort of like a suburban form of scavenger hunt, in that cars are used. There are various types of the road rallies and scavenger hunts. Most gave you a list of items that you are required to find like a pinwheel, or a shoelace. Mine were a bit different.

I provided clues, verbal puzzles of increasing difficulty that would lead to the next clue. “Your next clue lies at the big M,” is an example, and it would indicate the McDonalds (we only had one in our town.) You would then race in your car to the McDonalds and since it said the clue was at the M, that meant you needed to look on the M sign itself. There you would find another clue taped to it. That would be the easiest sort of clue. They got a lot harder.

What might you call an eleven inch ruler? — Little Casear (pizza)

Some were just a series of numbers, other a jumble of letters, other poems, and some photographs or even a recorded song.

And I made the clues themselves challenging.

• I spray painted a giant clue on the surface of a parking lot that could only be seen by climbing a nearby tower.
• I took out an ad in the local paper for another.
• I taped one on a competitor car’s bumper. (Actually all of them, but they didn't know that.)
• One was buried in a forest.
• One taped to the moving handrail of an escalator.
• Another in a specific page in a book in a library.

I did this every year and became notorious as the popularity of the event grew and I had as many as twenty cars causing trouble around my little town, but surprisingly the police and security guards often joined in the fun—once they found out what was going on. And in the end I reserved the back room of a restaurant where I gave out the trophies.

I don't plan to do that again, but since we have the time, let's have a little fun, shall we? 

The release of Percepliquis and Heir of Novron are only days away. Exactly how many? The timing is a little funky due to the realities of the publishing business. This is not a flip-the-switch kind of thing. It is more of a general, it happens when it happens, kind of event. I'm confident Percepliquis will be released darn close to the 16th because stores aren't involved, so that isn't much of an issue however, Theft of Swords was officially supposed to be available on November 23rd , but on November 13th Bryan Young, a gentlemen in Houston, took this picture …

He was the first one to find a copy out in the wild. That was a full 18 days ahead of the scheduled release. Heir of Novron is scheduled to be officially available online and at stores on January, 31. We are now 23 days ahead and even I have yet to see the American edition of Heir of Novron—not even a proof. 

So here's the deal...

The first person to snap a photo of the American edition of Heir of Novron (no purchase necessary) and send it to me at michael.sullivan.dc@gmail.com, will win an exclusive Riyria t-shirt. This t-shirt was designed by me and is not available anywhere, not even by purchase from me. Thus far I have only given these shirts out as gifts to reward specific people, such as close friends who helped proof the original versions of the books, some folks at Orbit working on my books, and those people at One More Page Books who hosted my release party. 

Bryan got one—and you could too. (Starting to sound like an infomercial.)

The Great Book Hunt of 2012, will be the first national scavenger hunt I’ve ever run. You’ll have far less chance of being arrested, but you’ll get a prize you can wear.

Good luck!