Cyber Monday - Multiple Author Book Sale!

I'll admit, I'm not a "Black Friday" shopper. I like spending my holiday with friends and family, and I certainly don't want to deal with traffic, parking, or fighting someone for limited quantities of deeply discounted merchandise.

I am, however, a big fan of Cyber Monday.  And do almost all of my Christmas Shopping from the comfort of my computer.  This year, I and a few fellow authors, decided to to provide a bunch of books at holiday savings. So, what better time to let you know about this then...Cyber Monday!

I should note that since all of these authors are selling direct from their website, this is the way you can make sure they receive the highest income from their books. You see we're cutting one of the many organizations out of the chain - namely the retailer and distributors, and that means more of your hard earned dollars goes to the people who worked hard to produce the work in the first place.

So, what's for sale?  Let's take a look:

• Brad Beaulieu - The Lays of Anuskaya and 12 Kings in Sharakhai
• Brian McClellan - The Powder Mage novels and novellas.
• Jason Hough - The Dire Earth Trilogy and Zero World.
• Michael J Sullivan - The Riyria Revelations, Riyria Chronicles,  and Hollow World and t-shirts and coffee cups
• Wesley Chu - The Tao Trilogy and Timesalvager (with coupon code "DABLIGHTDAY")

The savings are set by each author, so they vary from site to site. All of my items are at a 15% and some come with free shipping. I even have some LIMITED EDITION copies of The Death of Dulgath which is releasing in print in just a few days.

So, if you've been thinking about starting any of the great series of these authors, click on their name and go to their sale site. You can get stuff for yourself and gifts for loved ones.  

Happy Cyber Monday!

Authors Helping Authors: SFFWorld Anthology Kickstarter

I love sffworld: an amazing site for fans of fantasy and science fiction to talk about their favorite speculative fiction. For the last four years, they've been producing some mighty fine anthologies edited by N.E. White.

The way they create these anthologies is pretty interesting. Generally, they have a few "anchor stories" from established authors, and then hold a contest to pick some up-and-coming authors to shine a spotlight on. I was pleased to be an anchor author for the 2012 anthology and they are currently working on the 2015 version.  Here's a bit about the projects:
 

The End - Visions of Apocalypse - featuring Michael J. Sullivan and Hugh Howey

Lucky or Unlucky? Thirteen Stories of Fate - featuring Mark Lawrence

Wars to End All Wars - Alternate Tales from The Trenches - featuring Elizabeth Moon

Ecotones - Ecological Stories - featuring Tobias S. Buckell, Ken Liu, and Lauren Beukes 

This year, they are using Kickstarter to raise the funds for the anthology and they have just a few days left to raise another $142 to reach full funding.  

If you want to check it out, just click here, on the Kickstarter logo, or the main picture. I backed it and I hope it gets the last 10% because I really want to read this stories.

Theft of Swords Paperback on Sale

I'm not sure if any other sites are matching this price but I saw that Amazon US has the paperback version of Theft of Swords for sale at $8.989. That's 44% off, so a huge discount.  Just wanted to let people know. If you have a friend or family member who has been thinking about starting Revelations...or if you need to stock on Christmas gifts.  Now is a great time to do so. I don't think the sale will be going for long.

Riyria is dominating the Top 100 Epic Fantasy Listens

The Riyria stories are dominating the heck out of the Top 100 Epic Fantasy Listens on Audible right now.  Here's what we have:

• # 14 - Professional Integrity (Free short story)
• # 24 - The Jester (Free short story)
• # 37 - Heir of Novron (Riyria Revelations #5 & #6)
• # 38 - Rise of Empire (Riyria Revelations #3 & #4)
• # 56 - The Death of Dulgath (Riyria Chronicles #3) - preorder releasing mid-December
• # 59 - Theft of Swords (Riyria Revelations #1 & #2)
• # 78 - The Crown Tower (Riyria Chronicles #1)
• #100- The Rose and the Thorn (Riyria Chronicles #2)

That's all the Riyria novels and two out of three of the short stories. Pretty amazing.  It's all due to the narration by the amazing Tim Gerard Reynolds. Early this week I went up to Audible headquarters in Newark and hung out with Tim in SoHo for dinner and in studio while he started recording The Death of Dulgath. It was a lot of fun.  

In other news.  The hardcovers are printed and I'm just waiting for them to be picked up and delivered.  The shipment weighs 15,000 lbs so obviously a pretty big truck is needed.  Also, for those who haven read Theft of Swords Amazon has the paperback on sale right now for $9 and change - that's 41% off the list price. At that amount I don't think it'll be on sale for long, so grab your copy while you can. 

2015 Goodreads Choice Awards Fantasy

Well, it was a long shot...The Death of Dulgath has only been out for a few weeks, so it doesn't have nearly enough reviews to make the first round nominations  Still, I'm hopeful it can get a few write-in nominees so it might yet make the list.  I was thrilled that Hollow World got in last year through that process.  In any case, congratulations to the 15 first round nominees!

For myself, I did a write-in for Twelve Kings by Bradley P. Beaulieu. This is the first book in a new series for Brad, and I really enjoyed it.  Here's a button for voting or adding your own write-in.

And here is a list of the first 15 nominees:

Title	Author	Rating	Reviews/Ratings
Aeronauts Windlass	Jim Butcher	4.28	4,651
Autumn Republic, The	Brian McClellan	4.35	6,074
Boundary Crossed	Melissa F. Olson	4.01	4,426
Darker Shade of Magic, A	V.E. Schwab	4.05	16,067
Dead Heat	Patricia Briggs	4.25	12,219
Fifth Season, The	N.K. Jemisin	4.40	1,863
Fool's Quest	Robin Hobb	4.57	5,452
Liar's Key, the	Mark Lawrence	4.36	2,936
Magic Shifts	Ilona Andrews	4.51	9,655
Recurve	Shannon Mayer	3.98	2,477
Shadows of Self	Brandon Sanderson	4.39	4,711
Skull Throne	Peter V. Brett	4.10	9,695
Trigger Warning	Neil Gaiman	3.95	15,696
ision in Silver	Anne Bishop	4.30	9,773
Yield the Night	Annette Marie	4.45	1,928

Unbound: Tales by Masters of Fantasy

I'm honored to have a short story included in the latest anthology by Grim Oak Press (edited by the amazing Shawn Speakman).  The subtitle of book is "Tales by the Masters of Fantasy" and while I won't presume to put myself in that category, I'm glad that Shawn sees me fit for such inclusion.

Like Unfettered, Shawn's previous anthology, this one has a pretty amazing line up.  Just how amazing?  Well take a look at the authors who have stories in this book: Joe Abercrombie,  Terry Brooks, Kristen Britain, Jim Butcher,  Rachel Caine, Harry Connolly, Delilah Dawson, David Anthony Durham, Jason M. Hough, Mary Robinette Kowal, Mark Lawrence, John Marco, Tim Marquitz, Brian McClellan, Seanan McGuire, Peter Orullian, Kat Richardson, Anthony Ryan, Shawn Speakman, Brian Staveley, Michael J. Sullivan, Sam Sykes, and Mazarkis Williams

Also like Unfettered, the writers were able to explore whatever theme or story idea they thought would make a good story.  A nice way to compile an anthology (in my opinion). As for myself, my entry has nothing to do with either Riyria or The First Empire. It's a completely standalone story that combines my love of computer games and some existential musings. It's called "The Game" and here's what I wrote in the way of an introduction for the piece.

I admit it, I’m a long-time gaming geek. When I started back in 1984, I played on a Compaq DeskPro outfitted with an 8 MHz 8086 CPU and an awesome monochrome display adapter. I said I was a geek, remember? During the golden age of computer gam- ing, otherwise known as the 1990s, each month brought quantum innovations, spurring a host of inventive game designs. For me, the pinnacle was reached with the invention of the MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-playing game), and my wife and I became lost in the world of EverQuest from 1999 to 2001. 

In the land of Norrath, we made many friends as we rose from a pair of pathetic magic users to guild legends, and I saw how the lines blurred between reality and the virtual world. People speak of how computer games are a waste of time. But a great many good things grew out of those days. One of them was a fertile seed of an idea that I pondered well over a decade ago . . . and still do. This story is the result.

And to give you a taste, here is the first page, courtesy Shawn Speakman at Grim Oak Press.

 I hope you are interested, and if you would like to pre-order a copy of Unbound, you can do so from Grim Oak Press.