THE KEVIN WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA. (Again.)

The last time I ventured out of the house was in October. I went to Woodstock, Georgia, to make up for missing Dragon*Con. Now I’m going back to Georgia in advance of Dragon*Con (I won’t be there this year either) and if you’re in the south at all, I hope you can make it, because it might (??) be my only trip in that direction for a while. I’ll be at the Dahlonega Literary Festival this weekend, March 28-29. It’s FREE! Check the schedule, show up, say hi, have a good time!

There are going to be other splendiferous authors there too! People who make me squee and write genius books, in fact, like Cherie Priest and Delilah S. Dawson.  Plus the delightful Molly Harper and Frances Mayes and many others—the list is on the site!

BONUS: On Saturday there is this doodad called Lunch with the Authors. The authors split up like a Scooby-Doo episode and go to different restaurants in town and you can join ’em! Delilah and I are going to be at Pueblos on Main Street. I have heard the margaritas there are ehhhhhhhhxcellent. So: Wouldja like to have a margarita with Delilah, the Monsignor of Margaritas, and a taco with the Tacopope? Make your reservation! Give Pueblos a call! (706) 867-7155

You’re welcome to bring your own books to sign at the festival or buy some on site from FoxTale Book Shoppe. Couple o’ things to note: FoxTale will have paperback copies of SHATTERED available for the first time—they won’t go on sale until the 31st nationwide but you can get ’em early there! Also? You can get Delilah’s new book, HIT, a bit early as well—it’s not supposed to be out until April! (GREAT book btw, I read an advance copy!) Also also: If you can’t make it, call FoxTale now and place an order with them for signed books from me or any other author. We’ll sign them while we’re there and they will ship them to you! FoxTale’s number is (770) 516-9989.

Huge thanks to the Dahlonega Lit Fest for inviting me. It’s gonna be fun!

Back in 2011 when the first three books came out, I did a few Iron Druid wallpapers for fun, featuring a quote and an image of some sort along with the IDC logo. But I’ve had four books, two novellas, and a few short stories come out since then, and I need a fun contest because the US paperback edition of SHATTERED comes out March 31 and I wanna give some away. I have five signed copies for super-spiffy entries and my publisher is throwing in a few extra for random winners so we have some pretty decent odds here for people who’d like to participate. This contest is US only, though you can enter overseas if you want as long as we have a US address to mail the book to—your friend Archie or Veronica or whatever.

Whatcha gotta do? Design an IDC wallpaper and email me a jpeg of it by Wednesday, March 25. It’s not that tough! You need:
1) An IDC quote from any of the novels, novellas, or short stories. Exchanges/conversations are OK.
2) Attribution for the quote including the character(s) and work it’s from (e.g. —Oberon, in Hexed)
3) The IDC logo.
4) Image should be 2560 x 1440 so that people can use it on their desktops if they wanna. EVERYBODY WINS A BUNCH OF SPIFFY WALLPAPERS WHEN WE’RE THROUGH. :)
5) Using pictures with the quote is optional. You can just design the type if you want. Oh, and my email is kevin (at thingie) kevinhearne dot com.

I realize that this is a tiny bit tougher than snapping a photo, but there is a method to my madness here: There are people in the world who enter contests just because they like free stuff and not because they’re genuinely interested in what they might win. I prefer to give my books to people who will dig them, so my contests always require a wee bit more effort than a mouse click on a Rafflecopter. But hopefully they’re fun too.

Here are a few examples of the wallpapers I did way back when—note that they include a quote, attribution, image, and the IDC logo:

I made these in Photoshop. Cut out the logo from the covers (which you can find on Amazon or B&N). Slap in whatever other art you want (or not), type your text and attribution, and boom.

I love this one because it amuses me to think those cows were shat there by a distressed Aenghus Óg.

 Heh heh.

Fun fact: I used a picture of the lead singer from Iron & Wine as the Slavic thunder god. :)

So have fun! Make something you would enjoy for yourself—you win no matter what! Looking forward to seeing your entries, and thank you as always for reading!

When you need stories in fun-sized snack packaging, I got you covered!

I’m so very excited to announce the release of Two Tales of the Iron Druid Chronicles! These two stories were previously available only as bonus material and attached to ebook editions in North America, which meant a lot of people have been missing out for four years. I wanted everyone to have access to ’em for cheap, plus make an audio edition for the audiophiles out there, so here we are. Two Tales will be out May 18 worldwide, available for preorder now on Amazon for 0.99, but will also be available on iTunes/iBooks and Nook! Audible will have the audio narrated by the legendary Luke Daniels.

I love, love, love the cover art by Galen Dara! (So much that I’m gonna post a bigger version of it down below for ya.) She did the cover for “The Chapel Perilous” too. I think she captured the first story, “Kaibab Unbound” perfectly. You have the squirrel! The witches!  Atticus in his owl form! And the sense that THERE WILL BE BLOOD!

The second story is “A Test of Mettle,” set concurrently with the events of book 3, Hammered, in which Granuaile discovers that Atticus doesn’t have final say on who gets to be a Druid’s apprentice.

Both stories have been somewhat revised from their original editions and contain some shiny new words. There won’t be print versions of these, very sorry—there’s no way to do that for cheap, so they’ll be ebook and audio only. I hope you enjoy them, either as an introduction to the series or as delicious fun for a longtime fan, and thank you so much for reading!

The embiggened version of the cover:

Galen is simply the best. Visit her site to see more gorgeous things.

Just so thou shalt know, in case ye may have wondered: The paperback edition of Shattered is coming March 31. There are completists in the world who appreciate having their series all in the same format, which I totally understand, and many peeps who’d rather not pay hardcover prices, which I also understand! Or maybe you’re a new reader and just catching up—whatever the case may be, the wait is almost over!

Two places you can get signed copies if you happen to be in the area when I’m slinging ink:

Dahlonega Lit Festival in Dahlonega, Georgia, March 28-29. Yep, you can get it early! Foxtale Book Shoppe will be selling them there and if you call/email them ahead of time, they will totally have me sign one for you while I’m there and then ship it to you!

Denver Public Library, Park Hill Branch, April 4, 2 pm: I’ll be chatting with peeps, taking selfies, and signing whatever you’d like. You’re welcome to bring your own copies with you or there will also be an indie store there selling shiny new copies.

You can pre-order the Shattered paperback here:

Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Books-a-Million

…or from your favorite indie store! If you don’t have one near you there are many of them out there willing to ship!  Many thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy!

Peace & tacos—
Kevin

I was nine years old when THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK came out. When Luke Skywalker was hangin’ upside down in the wampa cave and summoned his lightsaber to his hand using the Force, I thought, “Whoa! How’d he learn how to do that?” My nine-year old self who played with action figures, TIE fighters, and X-Wings never thought that someday I would get to write the answer and have it be canon, but that’s exactly what happened, and you can snag it today wherever you like to score books (or audiobooks)!

HEIR TO THE JEDI is standalone adventure, which means you don’t have to read any other Star Wars books to dive right in—a knowledge of the movies is all you need. It’s set in the period after the Battle of Yavin but before the events of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and it addresses at least some of those “How did we get here?” questions. (For those who might wonder, it’s also set chronologically before the Marvel Star Wars comics that just began last month.)

It’s also a story told for the first time from Luke Skywalker’s first-person point of view. If you check this out you’ll get a summary plus a bunch of handy links to various retailers if you’re an online shopper. There have been quite a few very kind reviews, but here are just a couple from Roqoo Depot and The Wookiee Gunner.

I’m not touring for this particular book but there are a couple different ways to get signed copies if you’d like one:
1) I’ll be at the Park Hill Branch of the Denver Public Library at 2 pm on April 4. You can bring in your copy or buy one there—a local indie bookstore will have copies. They’ll also have copies of the paperback release of SHATTERED, the 7th book in my Iron Druid series.
2) You can order one directly from me (US only) in Oberon’s Treat Shop. I ship them via US Media Mail.

Hope you dig it, and thanks very much for reading!

Bonus Silly Trivia!

My working titles for HEIR TO THE JEDI:
1. NERFHERDER APOCALYPSE
2. DAMN THE CANTINAS
3. NOODLE SCOOTER LUKE