Whew! Release day was fun! I visited eight bookstores and two Irish pubs! Met many cool booksellers and raised a flagon to Atticus n’ Oberon, my editors and my agent, and my readers. Thanks very much to those of you who have been sayin’ howdy on Twitter, Facebook, and here on the blog; I appreciate it sincerely and am glad you’re enjoying Atticus n’ the gang.

Thought I’d share with you a couple o’ new Nerdscapes with the NERDS INCLUDED! First one requires a wee bit o’ setup.

Last weekend I went up to a secluded cabin in Pine, Arizona, the kind of place where Kathy Bates can tie you up in a bed and knock off your feet with a hammer and no one will EVER KNOW. I was there with The Confederacy of Nerds, comprised of the following: two IT guys who routinely say things like “I don’t want to migrate that to my cluster” and “Fu** Microsoft”; one guy who started out in the A/V Club in high school and somehow translated that into a career where he makes videos and double entendres like “I know how to coil my cable”; and one guy who speaks two languages other than English—Calculus and Klingon. We were there to play games and conduct gastrointestinal experiments.

We played this game called Zombies. It’s simple: You have to make it from the town square to the helipad. The problem is that all the other players are trying to stop you and of course the zombies want to snack on your braaaaaains. So here’s a Nerdscape with zombie action figures from the game, Goldfish and a random pineapple for the food, an ARC of Ari Marmell’s forthcoming release, The Goblin Corps, Longboard Lager and 90 Shilling Ale, and a genuinely excited nerd named Andrew:

Next Nerdscape features an author who walked into Changing Hands bookstore and discovered a little display thingie they’d created for him in advance of his signing party on May 9:

Heh! I am amused. But now that I’ve introduced the subject, I hope I can meet some of you if you’re in town. I’ll be at the LepreCon at the Tempe Mission Palms on Saturday, May 7, sittin’ on a UF panel with Seanan McGuire and Gini Koch at 2 pm, followed by an autograph session afterward. I also have a reading at 11 am that day. Then, as the picture says above, I’ll be having my own little event at Changing Hands on Monday, May 9, at 7 pm. Hope to see you there!

If you’re in northern AZ, I’ll be at the East-West Book Exchange in Payson on Sunday, May 15, at 12:30. Then during Memorial Day weekend, I’ll be at the Phoenix Comicon. See their website for details on my appearances.

Thanks again for all the support n’ well wishes! :)

Well, I’ve only waited twenty years for this day. What shall I do first?

Coffee! Ahhhh.

Right. Next, how about a handy-dandy list of all the places I’ll be on the Internet(s)?

1. John Scalzi’s Whatever blog, where I’ll be featured on The Big Idea sometime today.
2. Many o’ my friends in The League of Reluctant Adults graciously let me guest blog in their spaces about various doodads, and the next six are they: first, I’m at  The Biting Edge talkin’ about the query letter that got me my spiffy agent. That’s the blog of Mario Acevedo and Jeanne Stein, both of whom write excellent vampire series.
3. Over at the blog of urban fantasy author J.F. Lewis, I share my looong path to publication to give toiling writers hope. If a day like this can happen for me, it can happen for you.
4. Some time ago, author Kelly Meding challenged me to insert something into a book of mine and I manfully made it happen. I return the challenge on her blog and she has NO HOPE of meeting it. Mwah-ha-ha-haaa!
5. I discuss my back-to-back-to-back release schedule at Stacia Kane’s blog because she went through a very similar schedule last year with her Downside Ghosts series.
6. I want to start a flagon revolution. Jaye Wells, author of the Sabina Kane novels, shares this passion, so I’m talking about it over at her blog.
7. Because I’m a nerd, I’ve been working on a card game based on the events of my books. It’s the kind of thing that makes nerds happy. I spill the beans and give a sneak peek at the game over at the website of Dr. Nicole Peeler. She’s also doing a giveaway for me, so check that out!
8. I think I’m supposed to be on the blog of The Guide to Literary Agents today. If not, oh well, it’s a cool blog anyway!
9. I have an interview up today at the spiffy book blog called The Qwillery. There’s a giveaway going on there too! I think. I’m having trouble keeping track of this stuff.
10. My run at Babel Clash continues with Chris Wooding. Have you seen this yet? We started on April 26.

In all likelihood I’ll be elsewhere as well. I think I’m supposed to have something on the RTBookReview blog, but, um…not sure. Some reviews might pop up too, and I’ll do a roundup of those in a couple o’ days. Aside from the web, I’ll be tweeting more than usual today. Part of what I’ll be tweeting is my manic drive around the valley going into bookstores and signing whatever they have in stock.

Something else I will most likely tweet is a 140-character SQUEE! HOUNDED is finally published! To my editors, Tricia and Mike, I give you an uncomfortably long virtual hug! Thank you so much for your expertise and your enthusiasm for the Iron Druid! And to my agent, Magic E, you are the disco to my fries.

To the book bloggers and reviewers who have been so kind to me with your reviews n’ interviews—Jessica, Kristin, Mihir, David, Gail, Sally, Kat, Joanne, and more—can I just say how grateful I am that you take the time to promote genre fiction? I didn’t realize how many bloggers were out there or how awesome they were until I kind of got into this gig. I hope I get to meet you someday. Literate people rock.

For the celebratory dinner, I’m headin’ to Rúla Búla, the best darn Irish pub an Irish lad could wish for, either real or fictional. I go there in real life, and Atticus goes there in fiction—often. You should too, if you can! Cheers, my dears; my flagon runneth over. I hope you enjoy the adventures of Atticus n’ Oberon. :)

As I suspected, this was a ridiculously fun contest. I had a blast laughing over these and I can’t resist posting up a few o’ my favorites in case you missed them in the comments. I applaud your creativity and envy your action figure collection! And I am very glad you’re not too old enough to play with them! Thank you all so much for entering!

Check out this one from Hillary: I love the Mystery Science Theater stand-ins watching Terminator. “Have You Seen This Boy?”

Kristin over at My Bookish Ways, who is Three Kinds of Spiffy and has a Ninja Bird, sent in this Amphibious Nerd Assault:

Evie sent in two really beautiful photos and I suspect she Knows What She’s Doing with a camera. Here is her Nerdscape, and you have to check out the reflection in the sunglasses!

Synde sent over this beautifully dark photo with primo vodka, skull action, and a weeping angel (don’t blink!):

Random Winners Chosen Randomly from Randomizer Thingie

VVB for Zombies n’ Nutella on a copy of FEED

Candice J. for “Dwight’s Hike to Mt. Doom”

Winner of the Kevin Thinks That is Balls Rad Award:

Teri C’s Dinosaurs and Disney. I don’t know why, but this just cracks me up every time I look at it. There are so many Disney characters I would love to feed to velociraptors. I admire the depth of field here. There’s bonus beer in the background, too!

So! Teri C, Candice J, and VVB, please contact me using kevin at kevinhearne dot com with your snail mail address and tell me how you’d like to have your books personalized! Congratulations, and thank you for entering!

Please come on back on Tuesday, my release day (SQUEE!), for a rundown of all the shenanigans I’ll be up to—I’ll have, um, six or seven posts up? I think? And by the way, if you weren’t aware, I’m doing a Babel Clash thingie with Chris Wooding until May 9, and we’ve been talking about filling in the space between sci-fi and fantasy, Insanity Points, and so on. It’s a good time.

Thank you all again for your awesome nerdiness!