All posts by Kevin Hearne

Blog, Publishing Stuff

It’s in da can! Sort of.

TRICKED got accepted today, so that gave me an excuse—if I needed one—to bust open some cider and quaff a proper flagon. This particular book was a tougher one to write and revise than the other three, from outline to end product, and I think it had quite a bit to do with the fact that it’s a “bridge book” as the good Dr. Nicole Peeler calls it: A book that ties off all the loose ends of one particular story arc while launching a completely new, batshit insane one. (That definition is mine, not hers, by the way. Hers would sound much more academic yet leave you feeling inexplicably titillated.)

This may inspire some of you to say, “Great! Ship it tomorrow, dude!” But oh, no. You don’t really want that.

I’m going to write a joint post on the revision process with my editor and post it in a couple/few weeks, because lots of people are probably unaware of how much revision goes into a book before it hits the shelves. And that brings me to the “sort of” part: “Accepted” doesn’t mean the book is finished and can be shipped tomorrow. There are still copy edits and then galley proofs to go through, and then there will be at least one, maybe two “cold” proofreads to do before they finally greenlight the text as approved for printing. And then, yeah. There’s OTHER STUFF. Like, the cover. I haven’t seen any sketches for the cover yet, though there’s still plenty of time. There is a completely über-nice lady at Random House who gets books ready for NetGalley and Amazon and Barnes & Noble and other electronic retailers. There are sales people who talk to buyer people over lunches drizzled in pork fat and they laugh heartily together and then decide how many copies they’re going to buy for their stores…which impacts visibility and sell-through numbers. (Is there a formula correlating the ratio of pork fat in these lunches with sales numbers? Only the mysterious people in Accounting know the truth.) There are people who smell of ink and paper and glue who print the books and pack them into boxes. Their fingers have fine white scars on them from years of paper cuts and for some reason, in my imagination, they all have mutton chop whiskers on their faces and tattoos high on their right shoulders. Anyway. There’s a lot of stuff to do still. And because there’s a lot of stuff, you’ll have to wait until April 24 to read this bad boy.

To make the wait happy: You will also get to read Chapter 1 of TRAPPED when you’ve finished TRICKED. Also, if I can manage it (emphasis on IF), there will be bonus content for the e-book version of TRICKED, just like there was for HOUNDED and HAMMERED.

Why can’t we print bonus stuff in the paperback version too? Excellent question! Well, it’s because getting stuff ready for print takes MONTHS, which is why you won’t see TRICKED until April 24 even though it’s close to being spiffy here in September. And it’s because I haven’t written the bonus stuff yet. :) I have, however, finished chapter 1 of TRAPPED, so it can be included.

That bonus story for HAMMERED, “A Test of Mettle,” told from Granuaile’s point of view while Atticus was in Asgard, wasn’t written until April of this year. I hadn’t even thought of it until then. By that time the book had been completely typeset, and there was no way I could include it in the print version. But the flexibility to include it electronically was so cool I couldn’t stand not including it, and the peeps at Del Rey were helpful with editing and formatting it for me. (I’ll include that story for free on my website in December, by the way.)

Someone asked me on Twitter why the bonus stuff wasn’t included in the audio versions—another great question! Again, it’s a question of timing, but also pesky things like money and contracts. When I slip that bonus stuff into the e-book versions, it’s truly a bonus for readers. I haven’t been paid diddly squat for those stories, and I’m cool with that because I just want to share some goodies about the Iron Druid world that wouldn’t get published otherwise. But if the audio company wants to include those stories in their releases, you can bet they won’t be able to get their reader to read it for free or get the studio to donate the studio time. That’s basically what it boils down to: e-books allow me to give stories away, but various realities of print and audio don’t.

Anyway—want to thank you for all the comments on the previous post regarding the store! I will be getting to work on those ideas soon. :) Thank you, too, for your patience waiting for the book! I’ve already started work on TRAPPED. You’ll notice the word meter over on the right-hand side.

Cheers!

Blog

Sketch Winner!

Congratulations to ROB, winner of the sketch of Atticus and the Morrigan! I did one of those sequence generator things on Random.org, and it looked like this:

Rob was comment number 30, so congrats, sir! Please send me your address immediately using kevin at kevinhearne dot com and I’ll get it in the mail to you!

In other news—remember I’ll be at the Velma Teague branch of the Glendale Public Library next Saturday at 2pm! Would love to see you there! You can bring stuff (books, babies, etc.) for me to sign or  you can buy books there! You can also just chill out and chat if you like. I’ll be talking a wee bit and more than happy to answer questions afterward!

In other, other news—I just got the UK version of HEXED in the mail. ‘Tis beautiful! I’ll probably run another contest soon for five signed copies. It will be US only because I can’t afford to send packages all over the world—sorry. But stay tuned for details!

Blog

Updates and a Sketch Contest

Stuff has been happening! Like, you know, life. Haven’t been able to blog as often since school has started, but I’ll still try to keep up with once a week. Here we go—

1. I’m going to make a personal appearance thingie soon. I feel weird saying it like that, as if my “appearance” is some kind of magical event. But no, it’s pretty mundane. People say, “Dude, can you chill with us for an hour or so on such a date and such a time?” and if I’m available, I’ll probably say heck yes, because I’m a nerd and extremely grateful when people want to chill with me. So that’s why I’ll be at the Teague Branch of the Glendale Public Library on Saturday, Sep. 17, at 2 pm. Full address n’ stuff here. I’ll talk a wee bit, and you can ask me whatever you want, and then if you’d like me to sign something I’ll do it. They’ll have copies of the series for sale there, but you can also bring copies you’ve already bought, have me sign your e-Book cover, whatever. Basically I’m going to be happy to see you if you take the trouble to come see me. :)

2. I just finished the third version of TRICKED and sent it off to my editor, Tricia. We’ll see how she digs it, but for you keeping score at home, this draft is 99,487 words; the first draft was 81,666. Tricia and I will be doing a joint blog post in the future about the revision process from a writer’s perspective and an editor’s, but the extremely short version of my perspective is this: I love revising, because I can see the book getting better.

3. My publisher, Del Rey, is on Facebook as Del Rey Spectra. If you “Like” them, then you’ll find that you don’t just get updates on books (though that is cool): they also do polls and discussions on various geeky topics and hold some pretty rad giveaways. They’re 10 away from 2,000 likes, and they’ll be doing some giveaways soon to celebrate that milestone, so there’s never been a better time to click Like.

4. I just got 1,700 likes on Facebook, so thank you to everyone—I appreciate the love. To let you know I love you back, I’m having a wee random contest to celebrate this rather random number. Open internationally, folks! The prize is a signed sketch of Atticus and the Morrigan, seen below. (I’m only a mediocre artist but people seem to like sketches for some reason, so why not, they’re fun!) To enter, just leave a comment about what roleplaying or video games you enjoy. I’m kind of curious what everyone’s into. I’m into a tabletop game called HORDES these days, but I also do Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. No video games for me right now—I’d never get my writing done!—but I used to play. If you don’t play games, you can leave a comment about what SciFi/Fantasy books you’re into right now, and that’s fine too. Rules: I’d like this to go to someone who’s never won stuff from me before, because I like to share the love. Must enter by 6pm EST on Friday, Sep. 9. I’ll announce the winner—chosen randomly—on Saturday morning on a new blog post. If you enter, please check back on Sep. 10 to see if you won, then contact me with your mailing address. Good luck, and thanks again for reading my books. :)

Poor Atticus. He’s in for a world of pain.
Blog

The Stairway to Sausage

Sometimes (okay, oftentimes) I feel the need to indulge the Urge to Silliness. You may have noticed this if you’ve read my books. Parodies amuse me quite a bit; I think Weird Al Yankovic is a genius. I like writing parodies of poems—especially “important” ones, like T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land.” I wrote a full parody of that complete with footnotes once, all focusing on teaching high school and making numerous allusions to 80s movies. Like, maybe twenty people have read it, and that’s fine, because it made me giggle, and if you can’t nerd out once in a while then what’s the point?

So here we are now: On Twitter and Facebook, I thought it would be funny to write some lyrics to “Stairway to Heaven” that Oberon would appreciate. The title instantly became “Stairway to Sausage,” of course. On Twitter, I got this excellent first bit from @Priscellie:

“There’s a wolfhound who’s brave
And so loyal and good
And he’s climbing
A stairway to sausage.”

I continued from there:

When he gets there he knows
If the brats all are gone
With a bark he can score
Some hot andouille.

Awooo oooh, oooh, ooh oooh and he’s climbing the stairway to sausage.

BUT time didn’t allow me to go any further. I left the rest up to the peeps on Facebook, and there’s some great bits in there that made me laugh, you should check it out if you haven’t seen it. But I have to give major props to Isaac Sher, who did the WHOLE SONG, and it deserves to be appreciated. With apologies to Robert Plant and the gang:

There’s a wolfhound who’s brave, and wears jumpsuits of gold
And he’s climbing the stairway to sausage.
When he gets there he knows, if the stores are all closed
With a woof he can get what he came for
Arooo, ooo, and he’s climbing the stairway to sausage.

There’s a fridge in the house, but he wants to be sure
‘Cause he knows sometimes sausage is turkey.

In a house ‘cross the street, there’s a neighbor who spies,
Sometimes dogs leave surprises in his yard.
Aroo, it makes me hunger
Aroo, it makes me hunger

There’s a feeling I get when my belly gets rubbed
And my bathtime is funtime for stories.
In my dreams I have seen Ghenghis Khan on the plains,
And the whimpers of poodles are calling.
Aroo, it makes me hunger,
Aroo, it really makes me hunger.

And it’s whispered that soon if he scoops meat with a spoon
Then the druid will fry us a patty
And a new meal with dawn for those who have stood long
And the desert will echo with munching

If there’s a raven in your storefront, don’t be alarmed now,
It’s just the rival of the Celt Queen.
Yes, she is scary and has red eyes, but in the long run,
She won’t take away my bestest friend.
And it makes me hunger.

Your tummy’s rumbling and it won’t go, in case you don’t know,
The druid’s calling you to join him,
Dear lady, we’ll go hunt sheep bighorn, and did you know
My sausage cooks on the sizzling pan.

And as we hunt on down the road
Our tummies fuller than our bowl
There walks a Druid that I know
Who makes me tea and wants to show
Fun movie shows that I can quote
And if you listen very hard
The quote will come to you at last
When Prime would say “Till All Are One”
Was in the old Transformers show.

And he’s buying a stairway to sausage.

Isn’t that fun? I think Isaac deserves a treat. Isaac, email me your address and I’ll sign something and send it to you for writing such a great parody. Thanks, man!

Blog, writing

The Vampire Derailment

Sometimes writing is like spelunking; you go down what seems to be a perfectly sound passage, there are cool little stalactites and bioluminescent organisms and micro-evolved blind fish and everything, and then suddenly it just gets too weird or it goes nowhere and you have to turn around.

That happened to me while I was writing Hammered. Thought I’d share this little episode for writers (and for readers, too) to illustrate how you can write something that sounds okay on the surface, but has to be jettisoned because it doesn’t work for the story.

WARNING: if you haven’t read Hammered yet, what follows is going to be full of spoilers! It’s best to actually bust out  your copy of the book to fully appreciate what’s going on here.

What happened is that I wrote 3,700 words that I had to chuck because the plot was going in a direction that made no sense for the overall book. I took bits and pieces of the material and worked it into the book later on—you’ll recognize some passages about the nature of vampirism, Atticus taking Leif to a baseball game, and even Oberon’s professed love for The Boondock Saints. Basically, when Leif asks Atticus to go with him to kill a bunch of vampires in the Phoenix metro area the night before they leave for Asgard, Atticus agrees instead of protesting that he needs to stay fresh for the coming journey. So here’s this story about Thor and Asgard, and I have my main character dropping everything for an extended session of vampire slaying, going out to University of Phoenix Stadium and laying about with Fragarach. The passage ends very abruptly, because that’s when I asked myself, “What the fuck am I doing? He’s supposed to be going to Asgard!” There were too many other things Atticus had to do before I could get him to leave and confront the Norse, and this was an unnecessary episode that I could simply have Leif report on later.

If you’d like to follow along, turn to page 84 in Hammered. Two thirds down the page, you’ll see Atticus say to Leif: “I see. And you’d like my help? As in, tonight?” Leif says “Yes.” Instead of continuing with “That was precisely what I’d been afraid of,” because that’s obviously what I wound up writing instead, continue reading from the PDF below. Have fun spotting the bits that made it into the book, but you’ll also see some more stuff about Phoenix that I’m kind of sorry I couldn’t work in somehow.

Vampire Derailment

Most writers (I can’t say all) have probably dealt with something like this—some of them many times, on a much larger scale. You can spend days and days on something and then realize that it’s not going to work, and you have to chuck it all and start over in the service of the story. Occasionally people get the impression that writers just sit down and the novel flows out perfectly from beginning to end, but that’s even a bigger fantasy than the collected works of Tolkien. Writing a novel is a never-ending series of cock-ups and happy accidents supervised by our own private collection of neuroses and occasionally our editors. You have to respect that process in order to produce something worth reading. And sometimes that process can take a while.

I’m currently revising Tricked and working through issues that I didn’t see as I was writing—my editor is brilliant and I’m so glad she can see all of my blind spots. We still have a way to go in the process, but right now it’s looking like Tricked will be a bit longer than Hammered. (A friendly observation: telling an author to “write faster” is akin to telling a baby to “gestate faster!” Novels and babies can only grow as fast as nature allows.)

If you’re in Arizona, please check out my Events & Appearances page. I’ll be appearing at the Teague branch of the Glendale Public Library on Saturday, September 17, so I’d love to see you there if you can make it!

Nerd Cred, writing

Origin Story

I get asked semi-often where I came up with the idea for The Iron Druid Chronicles, and I respond, quite truthfully, that it started out as a webcomic based around a guy who could talk telepathically with his dog. I was going to call it American Druid. It was always about Atticus and Oberon, and all the worldbuilding and mythology came into it much later. Until now, however, I’ve never been able to “prove it,” because the computer on which I was doing all my illustration died abruptly with no possibility of recovering a damn thing. Did I have backups? Nope. Damn damn damn. But I always figured, hey, it’s no big deal, because I abandoned that project anyway after six pages and started writing Hounded instead. BUT GUESS WHAT!

I was cleaning my house (I know, right?) and tucked away in a box were the paper-and-pencil layouts for my webcomic! It was such a trip to find them, especially since I haven’t seen them since 2008 and now here we are with three novels about Atticus and Oberon out on the shelves. For me, it’s fascinating to see what made it into the novel and what didn’t. The first four pages show Atticus and Oberon hunting bighorn sheep at Papago Park without Flidais. Page 4 is the big splash page, where Atticus shifts from hound to human and you see him standin’ there nekkid with all his tats on display. Page 5 is where we really get introduced to them as characters and see their relationship, so I’ve scanned it for you and included it below. You can click to enlarge. Be warned, however, that I kind of suck at drawing dogs, and even though I’m a bit better at it now, arrgh. It’s a good thing I didn’t try to pursue the comic any more after this! I think you’ll have fun recognizing some stuff from the books, though!

Fun, huh? On page six they kind of sneak into the kitchen and find Flidais there trying to figure out how to make a strawberry smoothie. So much of this made it into the book in one way or another—the story arc that I had planned for several issues of the comic just got absorbed into the novel. Keep in mind that this was drawn two or three months before I decided to write a novel instead; I did a lot more research once that decision was made, and obviously I chose to begin Hounded inside Third Eye Books & Herbs instead of at Papago Park. Different mediums suggest different ways to tell stories. I also don’t draw Atticus this way anymore; my image of him changed as I wrote the book. Anyway, I made a copy of page 5 and wrote some comments on it for funsies.

So glad I cleaned my house! I loved finding these old pages :)

Blog

Still Life with Fantasy and Fruit #13

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these: I haven’t been able to, quite frankly, bein’ so busy with trips here and there and finishing up TRICKED. If you didn’t hear it elsewhere, I’ve just delivered TRICKED to my editor and made a start on TRAPPED. There’s a new progress bar thingie on the sidebar and everything! Look!

TRICKED isn’t completely finished, of course; my editor and I will be working on it for a while, and after that the copy editor will take a hack at it and so on. But we’re on schedule for that April 2012 release, and I’ll keep you posted on developments like the cover and all that good stuff as it comes in. :)

I’ll be back to teaching again next week, so my summer’s pretty much over. My back-to-school meetings begin on Friday, so that means I have today and tomorrow to get all my summer reading in! Think I can do it? Here’s what I’m going to tackle:

Still Life with Fantasy and Fruit #13

These authors are all auto-buys for me. If they wrote “Get more beer” on a bar napkin, I would buy it. And then I’d probably follow the instructions on the napkin. L-R, we have Jim Butcher’s GHOST STORY, Kelly Meding’s ANOTHER KIND OF DEAD, Nicole Peeler’s EYE OF THE TEMPEST, and George R.R. Martin’s A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. Like many of the rest of you, I have been waiting for these for quite some time. Hope you’re enjoying your summer reads!

Blog, Nerd Cred

San Diego Comic Con, Days Two-Three

Sorry I didn’t get to update earlier, but you know. It’s tiring taking in so much awesome. Had to sleep a wee bit!

So, on Friday I got a lot of shopping done and checked out the floor. I got onto the floor early (my badge was special and shiny) and snapped a bunch of pictures without hordes of people in the way. Rather than post a buttload of those here, I’m going to do that in an album on my Facebook page, so please check over there after a wee bit. There were lots of miniatures and mind-blowing mega statues and of course cosplay costumes. But look, for me, there’s one costume that blew the others away—I’ve been wanting to see this ever since the release of The Phantom Menace:

Chef Vader serving Jar Jar on a platter

I got to meet David Petersen again, writer/artist of the excellent series Mouseguard, and got him to sign a couple o’ books for me plus a poster. Also scored a Con-only Hordes Trollblood warlock for my friend Alan, and got my daughter a Con-only Monster High doll called Ghoulia Yelps. Had a signing at 11 and met hundreds o’ people. Lots of them were new to the series, so hopefully Atticus and Oberon will snag a few more fans. Late that night, the Del Rey Spectra panel was well attended and the highlight for me was the art reveal of the comic adaptation of Game of Thrones coming out soon. But apparently I said some things there about Eternal Bacon that got people interested in me, so lots of them came by to see me for my signing on Saturday.

Before said signing, there was all kinds of awesome going on at the Suvudu booth. Like George R.R. Martin hanging out:

 

And then I got to meet so many folks. Lou Anders from Pyr Books, J.F. Lewis from The League of Reluctant Adults, and a couple of very nice editors from Ace/Roc. Fellow Leaguer Diana Rowland stopped by to say hello—her latest, My Life as a White Trash Zombie, is my favorite fun read this year—and I also got to meet Tor fantasy author Peter Orullian, whose debut, The Unremembered, came out in April. Here are we three happy nerds:

Peter Orullian, Diana Rowland, That One Guy

Peter and I were waiting around to meet Jim Butcher. Yes, Jim Butcher! He surprised me by knowing who I was and chatted awhile with Peter and I about LARPing and adventures in haircutting. He got his cut a while back, in case you didn’t know. I haz proof:

Jim Butcher's shirt is awesome, but I did not obey its command!

How did I get so fortunate as to meet him? Well, he was engaged in a Battle of 100% Concentrated Spiffy with none other than Patrick Rothfuss at the Suvudu booth.

After my signing, I went into the Gaslamp Quarter and hung out with my alpha reader and his wife and Jessica from The Spinecracker. Then I got to hang out with my editor a bit far from the madding crowd (Did you see that? Two points for alluding to Thomas Hardy!) and we were startled by a huge fireworks show. Since Lucasfilm was having a big shindig at the time, we decided they must have just destroyed the Death Star again.

It was a completely geektastic weekend, so glad I got to go!

Received two bits o’ news while there: I will be attending the Tucson Festival of Books next March, and I’ll be a guest at InConJunction (that’s in Indianapolis) next July 6-8. If you’re in the midwest and you’d like to say howdy, that would be an excellent time and place to do so! They’ll have my info on the site soon…I haven’t sent them a bio yet. :)

Oh! Almost forgot! I also got interviewed by Suvudu! You can laugh at my mannerisms here.

Blog, Nerd Cred

San Diego Comic Con, Day One

OK. Most of this day was a boring drive across a featureless desert. Seven hours of blearggh.

BUT THEN IT ABRUPTLY STOPPED SUCKING.

I honestly didn’t see much of the Con today. Not a single panel or event thingie. I just got to my hotel, then the Con, and made my way to the Random House booth and met a whole bunch of folks whose names I’d heard before but had never met in person. Super spiffy people like the publisher and my marketing dude and a couple of editors, as well as some lovely folks from Suvudu. I signed a buttload of bookmarks to hand out, and a few people who had heard of me actually stopped by and I got to meet them too. I got interviewed by a nice lady from a bookstore in Sweden (Yes, Sweden!) and her accent was adorable. I kept hoping she would ask me more questions and was sad that I was supposed to do most of the talking. I also saw a rather gigantic poster of my books, which was a really surreal moment. Wish my dad could have seen this. He would have enjoyed it very much.

I took an extremely brief  (like, a ten-minute) walk out on the floor and snapped a few costume pics. Here are a few:

The prosthetic makeup was awesome…not sure if the picture does it justice

(I’ll take more tomorrow.) Then the parties began. First, Brilliance Audio, where I finally met the guy who brought you the series on audio, John Grace. In case you haven’t heard, he’s also made sure the series will continue with Luke Daniels narrating, so incredible kudos to him for doing so—Luke has done a fabulous job. I also tried some unusual Scotch there and realized that I really need to stick to the Irish. Also had lovely conversations with a few people from other publishers and enjoyed chatting with them.

Then, the Del Rey party. Ye gods! I had no idea I would be meeting some of my favorite writers ever!

I met George R.R. Martin! Daryl Gregory! Christopher Paolini! And EEEEEE! Patrick Rothfuss!!

Gentle Friends, I love the Kingkiller Chronicles. For me, it is The Good Shit. My opinion (with which no one need agree, but which I suspect many will) is that Patrick Rothfuss and Neil Gaiman are the best storytellers walking the planet right now, and I told him that. He was very kind in dealing with my Effusive Praise. I did not actually squee at him—the squeeing happened afterward. And that is because he took a Crazy Eyes Picture with me. And Patrick’s Crazy Eyes are fabulous. Behold:

And not only does Mr. Rothfuss write epics, he lives them. On top of mechanical bulls. He rides epically. I jest not. PROOF:

Only at Comic Con. I’ve heard it’s infamously difficult to get tickets to this Con, and now I understand why. It’s turbo awesome and I haven’t even seen the stuff I’m supposed to see yet! By the way, Mr. Paolini also rode very well, but I was not quick enough with the camera to catch that. Anyway. I’ll give you another late night/early morning update tomorrow on Day 2. More pics! Promise!

May the Nerds be with you,
Kevin

Blog, Nerd Cred, Suvudu

San Diego and next April

So, the Glorious Geekout and All-Nerd Hootenanny is going to happen next week in San Diego. It will be my first huuuge Comic Con and I’m turbo-excited because I mostly get to walk around and be a fanboy. Not many people know who I am yet, and since I won’t be cosplaying, all eyes will slide off me and land on somebody’s tights nearby. I will be just another nerd in the herd, hoping to catch a glimpse of Patrick Rothfuss.

IF you are going or IF you know someone who is, here’s my schedule:
Friday, 11-noon, signing and giveaway at Random House booth #1515. Del Rey is giving away copies of HOUNDED, and I’m giving away my neato-schmeato bookmarks. I think Del Rey will probably help me give those away whenever, so please do stop by and say howdy whenever your schedule allows.
Friday, 8pm, Room 23ABC, Del Rey/Spectra panel with Kim Harrison, Harry Turtledove, and EDITORS! For one hour, you can ask us stuff and we’ll answer! Though that is pretty much how I operate all the time. What makes this special is that it’s okay to squee whenever you like, especially if Patrick Rothfuss walks in. We understand and support squees. You will be safe there.
Saturday, 4-5 pm, signing and giveaway at Random House booth #1515.

See? I won’t be that busy. Much of the rest of the time I’ll be boppin’ around doing my own thing, but I’ll also be doing some interviews and such, which will appear on Suvudu at some point along with a ton of other zany Comic Con content, so definitely bookmark the site and visit early and often!

Next: Progress continues on TRICKED. Wanted to let you all know that it’s now scheduled for publication April 2012, not May as originally reported when I announced the new deal with Del Rey. This is not because I am suddenly writing faster. This is because Del Rey is going to be speeding things up on their end, so major kudos to them! I’m delivering in August, and they’re getting it on the shelves in April. Nine months is pretty fast in this industry from what I understand. It takes six months just to get their poo together with online retailers and get an ISBN assigned. The cover artist needs time to work his magic, and I can tell you they’re already working on it though the book isn’t finished yet. Then there are several rounds of content editing, followed by copy editing, typesetting, proofreading, and presumably some beard grooming. It’s a Whole Lot of Stuff, and I thank you in advance for being patient. I also want to thank you again for your enthusiasm for the series and telling your peeps about it; it’s because of you I get to write more as fast as I can. :) Hope to see you in San Diego, or failing that…somewhere else!

May your sausage be fat and your pint glass full—