Lots of updates...

Very busy time right now so I have a lot of updates on many fronts. I'll go through them in short form here and will expand them later.

• Short Story Contest - As you may know, I held a contest to give a "leg up" to writers by including one of their short stories in my next published book, The Death of Dulgath. I've gone through about half of the submissions an have eight "potentials" from that group. I'll be doing a more extensive report once I get through the submissions - and yes, everyone will hear one way or the other.

• Death of Dulgath Beta - is clicking along and it looks like the book is in real good shape. There have been a lot of good suggestions I've already implemented, but they fall into the category of minor tweaks rather than major reworks.

• Age of Myth Cover Artist - It's official, Marc Simonetti will be the cover artist for the new series coming from Del Rey. Marc was on my very short list (3 illustrators) that I wanted for the series, and I couldn't be happier with the choice. I've been working with Marc for several projects now and I'm so glad to have in on board with this next great adventure.

• Writer's Digest Class: Writing the Science Fiction & Fantasy Novel - Starts September 17th (my birthday) and will run through the end of October. I didn't create the class (it's a format Writer's Digest had developed and perfected for several course), but I will be the instructor and adding my own experiences in supplemental information. Over the course of the class you'll write a part of your novel (or a short story) and I'll be critiquing the results.

• Preorders - for Death of Dulgath should be going live soon - including the pre-order page for the audio version. Again, I'll keep you updated as the links start going live. Also, keep in mind that you can pre-order the hardcover, tarpaper back, and ebook directly from me which will take 30% - 55% of the money you pay into my pocket rather than the retail chain. Plus, you can have the books signed - which is a huge advantage.

• Author Video Diary (vblog) - One of the reward suggested by a Kickstarter Backer was a video diary. Episode #1 just went up. If you want to see it you can from here.

• Unbound  a new anthology from Shawn Speakman - is moving along. I submitted my story, "The Game" a few months back. Shawn has a great line up for it, and I'm excited about being included.

• Unfettered II - is another anthology from Shawn. Creating  a short story for it is my current project. I'm trying to make this a story related to my new series, The First Empire. The trick is enticing people into that series, but making it non-essential so the people who don't read the short will still have all they want. I have a story I'm really happy with so far, but it's not as "tied  in" with the series as I would like. Robin came up with a good suggestion yesterday that I'm going to see if I can work into it.

Well, I think that's it for now. Like I said - it's busy times...but I like it that way.