Writer's Grove

Last Tuesday I began a contest to win spiffy signed books & stuff with the goal of helping Syrian refugees. A lot of you responded, for which you have my heartfelt thanks! Happily, the contest is just getting bigger. If you haven’t entered, you still can. A veritable gaggle o’ authors came forward to offer what they could to encourage the effort, and those prizes are listed below. But also, the same day I posted my contest, John Green posted an excellent video explaining the refugee crisis.

You and I can’t do anything about ending the war. And we can’t make certain European leaders suddenly stop being xenophobic tools. But we can help people running for their lives.

You can donate to the UNHCR (the United Nations Refugee Agency), which is already on the ground and helping but in dire need of more funds to keep doing their work; or you can donate to Mercy Corps through Worldbuilders, which is also already helping (High five to Patrick Rothfuss & the Worldbuilders team for doing this; they are all turbo rad). Donate to either, let me know via email, and you’re entered to win goodies donated by authors.

Legal Disclaimer Doodad: I was informed last week that I was doing it wrong. Eek! Apparently if you are running a shindig like this you can’t require people to “buy” anything or spend any money to enter. Okay, fair enough. Apologies for doing it wrong. All ye peoples of the world, feel free to enter to win! Send me an email (kevin at kevinhearne dot com) with the subject Books for Helping Peeps and you’re entered. However, the reason we have these books is because we’re trying to help peeps (it’s in the title of the contest!) and your donation in any amount to either UNHCR or Mercy Corps via Worldbuilders would be greatly appreciated. Winners will be chosen at random on Sept 20 and notified via email.

Here’s where to donate should you be so inclined:

UNHCR (the United Nations Refugee Agency)
Worldbuilders (for Mercy Corps)

And here are the additional books you can win, donated by awesome authors:

A signed full set of the Prospero’s War series by Jaye Wells, one of my favorites:

• A signed copy of Jinn & Juice by Nicole Peeler!
• The Blud series signed by Delilah S. Dawson!
• A signed & doodled copy of The Emperor’s Blades and Providence of Fire by Brian Staveley!
• ML Brennan has generously donated a signed set of her series (Generation V, Iron Night, Tainted Blood, Dark Ascension).
• Something from Michael J Sullivan! (I just heard through an intermediary that he’s donating a signed book but I don’t know exactly which one yet.)

I don’t know if y’all have been keeping up with the news but in certain parts of the world there are humans being inhuman to other humans. (That’s most everywhere, yeah.) It’s especially heinous in the other hemisphere right now. Millions of people are leaving war-torn Syria and other countries because they feel their choices boil down to RUN or DIE, and while some of these refugees are being welcomed and sheltered, many are running into heartless immigration policies and authorities calling them “migrants” rather than refugees. The two words are not the same thing at all, and calling them migrants allows governments to turn them away rather than provide the aid they need and deserve by law. For more on that please see Neil Gaiman’s journal on the topic.

There’s little I can do about racist immigration policies except vote for kind people in the next election—people who realize that human rights means rights for all humans, not just the ones who look and talk and think and worship like they do. But as far as helping out people who are running for their lives from deplorable conditions, I can donate to the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR.  Here’s the link and what they do:

Donate to them at http://rfg.ee/RN3uy​ — and please, share the donation link:

With your support, UNHCR will provide assistance such as:

• Deliver rescue kits containing a thermal blanket, towel, water, high nutrient energy bar, dry clothes and shoes, to every survivor;

• Set up reception centres where refugees can be registered and receive vital medical care;

• Provide temporary emergency shelter to especially vulnerable refugees;

• Help children travelling alone by providing specialist support and care.

I can’t disagree with any of that. So I donated, and if you’re able, I encourage you to do the same, and to encourage your friends as well. When you do, you’ll get an email from the UNHCR with a PDF for charitable tax thingies, which looks like this:

So I’ll make y’all a deal. Donate to them. Whatever you can. I don’t care how much because it all helps. Send me a screen cap of their email to you like the one above—not the actual PDF with the amount listed, because again, any amount is helpful—and you’re automatically entered into a contest to win spiffy books & stuff from a buttload of kind authors who are on board with this. Please send your screen cap to kevin at kevinhearne.com with the subject line BOOKS FOR HELPING PEEPS. I’ll run this until Sep. 20 and announce randomly selected winners on the 21st. It’s open to international readers too—the UN accepts donations from everyone. Here’s what you can win:

One of three copies of Hit or two copies of Servants of the Storm by Delilah S. Dawson, complete with signed bookplates and assorted swag from Delilah!

One of three copies of Zer0es by Chuck Wendig. One is signed by both Chuck and me. Another is just signed and doodled by me and if you can find Chuck later and show it to him that would amuse me greatly. The last is a signed copy donated by Chuck and free of my shenanigans.

Two copies of Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig. One is just straight-up signed & donated by Chuck. The other is the copy that I bought and read and which I have annotated extensively. Here is just a sample of what you’ll see as you read:

And mature, academic commentary like this:

Excellent human, author, and beekeeper Brian McClellan has donated a rare signed ARC of Promise of Blood and a signed hardcover as well:

Stellar action god Jason M. Hough has donated a signed hardcover of his latest, Zero World, plus a short story no one has seen yet:

Also on the list o’ prizes, these donations from fabulous authors:

• A signed copy of Gemini Cell by Myke Cole
• A signed copy of The Eterna Files by Leanna Renee Hieber
• Two signed copies of The Clockwork Crown by Beth Cato
• A signed copy of Dead Things and Broken Souls by Stephen Blackmoore
• A signed copy of Revision by Andrea Phillips
• The entire St. Croix series by Karina Cooper in either .epub or .mobi format

And then you can also win spiffy Iron Druid art signed by Galen Dara and me. I have five prints like this to give away:

(That’s the cover art for THREE SLICES, featuring Mekera, Atticus, and Oberon.) Also, you can win a full signed set of the Iron Druid Chronicles to this point, books 1-7, and one of ten signed hardcover copies of Shattered.

Destroying is easy. Rebuilding is tough. My heartfelt thanks to you for helping people rebuild their lives.

Peace, Love, and Tacos,
Kevin

This fall I will be poppin’ up in Colorado, Arizona, and Utah for various shindigs. Here they are, hope you can make it to one of them and say hello: 

September 4: Denver, CO! Fiction Beer Company, 5:30 pm, tapping the first keg of Third Eye Library & Herbs, a caraway pear cream ale based on the Iron Druid Chronicles! LET’S HAVE AN IRON DRUID BEER TOGETHER! This project was set up by the Denver Public Library, and if you bring a library card or sign up for one at the event your first pint is $1 off! Plus I’ll be delighted to sign anything. There will be books for sale if you want but you’re welcome to bring what you have too!

September 12: Greeley, CO: Books and Brews. 6-8 pm, Zoe’s Café, downtown Greeley, Bel Air Room. 715 10th St, Greeley, CO 80631. This is run in conjunction with the High Plains Library District. We’re going to have 40 or so authors there! AND BEER. B&N will be there if you want to snag a book or of course I don’t care if you bring your own. Please come say hi if you can!

September 24-26: Salt Lake Comic Con! I don’t have my schedule yet but I’ll update my Events & Appearances when I do!

October 15: Prescott, AZ! Signing & hootenanny at Peregrine Book Company, 5 pm. I have never ever done a thing in Prescott. It’s turbo rare for me to do something in northern AZ so please come say hi if you can or let anyone you know up there I’ll be around!

October 18: Arizona Taco Festival!! I’ll be the guy with the tacos and margaritas. They will have Lucha Libre wrestling, a Chihuahua beauty pageant, 50 vendors selling $2 tacos of all kinds and competing for $10K in cash for the best taco, a TEQUILA TASTING TENT, and all kinds of shenanigans. You wanna go. So you should. As the Tacopope of the Holy Taco Church, attendance is mandatory for me. Here’s the link: Arizona Taco Festival

October 19: Hangout at Rúla Búla Irish Pub in Tempe! Yep, the place where Atticus bought a shot for Jesus. I’ll sign whatever you want to bring or the Poisoned Pen will have some copies for sale. Come have a beer and some fish and chips! Starts at 5 pm, but I’ll be there for quite a while. We have goodies for people who show up. Hope to see you there!

October 23-25: Milehicon in Denver! I’m the Guest of Honor so I expect I’ll have something to say. This is a spiffy wee con and author Carrie Vaughn usually attends too.

November 12: Talkin’ and takin’ questions at the Erie Public Library, 6:30 pm. Delighted to discuss writing or whatever you’d like!

After that I’ll be huddled up at home until it’s time to go on tour for STAKED in late January. If you can’t see me this fall I hope I’ll see you then on one of my stops!

It is no secret—or at least nothing I’ve tried to keep secret—that I like both beer and books. Coincidentally, the Denver Public Library likes both as well. And so does Fiction Beer Company in Denver. So we’re working together to make Third Eye Library & Herbs, a caraway pear cream ale inspired by the our collective love of stories and art and the Iron Druid Chronicles. We’ll be tapping the keg at a big ol’ hootenanny on Friday, September 4, at 5:30 at Fiction Beer Company. Hope you can join us for a pint! I’ll be there and delighted to sign anything you bring, and Broadway Books will also be there selling new copies if you’d like to pick up one for yourself or a friend. And Denver Public Library will be there too—if you bring your library card or sign up for one on the spot, you can get $1 off your first pour of Third Eye Library & Herbs! This collaboration is truly the brainchild of Denver Public Library and their BrewHa!Ha! for September. Turbo thanks to them for being the coolest library ever.

I went down to Fiction Beer on August 3 to help get the ale started. It was a geekout to be sure! They let me grain out the mash tun, which is a jargon-filled sentence meaning I raked the spent grains into tubs. I loved every second of it. See?

The grain is a barley and corn mixture that’s still edible & nutritious. In fact, Fiction Beer gives their spent grain to local pig farmers, thereby contributing to future bacon—which means brewing is even more holy & important work than I thought. I also got to add hops and caraway seeds to the boil kettle and that was fun too. “DO YOU TASTE THOSE HOPS? I PUT THOSE IN THERE. MWAH HA HA HA!”

If you’re wondering why an Iron Druid-inspired ale doesn’t taste like sausage or something like that, it’s because we felt it best to let sausage taste like sausage. Caraway seeds are a popular seasoning in Ireland and will give the ale a little spice, a little bite, and then the pear will smooth it out and give you a refreshing complement to whatever you’re eating. It’s a potion worthy of a brewmaster like Atticus. And the owner & brewmaster of Fiction Beer is a fine Irish lad named Ryan Kilpatrick. He does excellent work. I sampled his beers and dang they’re good. And they’re delightfully named through literary allusion, inspired by all kinds of works. “A Beer of Very Little Brain” is a Honey Wheat Common Ale inspired by Winnie the Pooh, for example. Ryan’s wife and co-owner, Christa, is the creative mind behind the beer names. She’s an English major who reads a lot and names beers, which may be the finest use of an English degree I’ve ever heard of.  Here’s me n’ Ryan happy about brewing:

Also in on the BrewHa!Ha! collaboration with Denver Public Library is Denver Beer Company, which is brewing a black currant sour ale and releasing it the night before, September 3, at their place on Platte. I’m going to help them get that started as well—tomorrow (Tuesday) morning, in fact! And the same rule applies—if you bring your Denver library card you get $1 off your first pint!

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE BOOKS & BREWS! On Sept 12 I’ll be at an event actually called Books and Brews in Greeley, CO, sponsored by the High Plains Library District! (I’m getting the idea that Colorado libraries are incredibly awesome.) I’ll be at Zoe’s Cafe from 6-8 pm with about 40 other authors, signing and sipping! Please come see us! 715 10th St in Greeley. You can bring your own books or Barnes & Noble will be there selling new copies.

One more thing: If you follow me on Facebook, there’s supposed to be this new thing where you can go to your settings and choose my Page to See First in your feed. That way their lame algorithms won’t filter me out if you want to see what I’m up to. I post nearly every day but only a fraction of my followers see everything due to their algorithms, so it’s nice now that you have a choice to ensure you see certain stuff. As always, thanks for reading! Hope to see you!

I’ll be in a few places in the west in September and October! Come say hi!

September 12: Greeley, CO: Books and Brews. 6-8 pm, Zoe’s Café, downtown Greeley, Bel Air Room. 715 10th St, Greeley, CO 80631. This is run in conjunction with the High Plains Library District. We’re going to have 40 or so authors there! AND BEER. B&N will be there if you want to snag a book or of course I don’t care if you bring your own. Please come say hi if you can!

September 24-26: Salt Lake Comic Con

October 18: Arizona Taco Festival!! I’ll be the guy with the tacos and margaritas. They will have Lucha Libre wrestling, a Chihuahua beauty pageant, 50 vendors selling $2 tacos of all kinds and competing for $10K in cash for the best taco, a TEQUILA TASTING TENT, and all kinds of shenanigans. You wanna go. So you should. As the Tacopope of the Holy Taco Church, attendance is mandatory for me. Here’s the link: Arizona Taco Festival

October 19: Hangout at Rúla Búla Irish Pub in Tempe! Yep, the place where Atticus bought a shot for Jesus. I won’t be selling anything but I’ll sign whatever you want to bring. Come have a beer and some fish and chips! Starts at 5 pm, but I’ll be there a while. Hope to see you there!

October 23-25: MileHiCon, Denver, Guest of Honor

Some reading suggestions for those who might want them—I’ve received some requests. Some of these are standalones, but fair warning: Some of these are the beginnings of series and you might get hooked like I did.

Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor (bought this today, it just released in the US! Very excited.)
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
A Thousand Words for Stranger by Julie Czerneda
Dirty Magic by Jaye Wells
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
Maplecroft by Cherie Priest, I Am Princess X by the same author if you’re looking for YA
My Life As A White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland
The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley
In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
The Clockwork Dagger by Beth Cato
Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn
Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler
Revision by Andrea Phillips
The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord
Hit by Delilah S. Dawson
The Eterna Files by Leanna Renee Hieber
Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear
Cold Magic by Kate Elliott

There. Lots of different stories to choose from. That should keep you busy until Staked comes out January 26! Happy reading!

DO YOU LIKE ACTION I MEAN YEAH WHO DOESN’T THEN BOY HOWDY YOU GOTTA READ THIS.

I’m a bit of a Jason Hough fanboy. He just entertains the heck out of me. I loved his Dire Earth Cycle, and ZERO WORLD does it again.

There are science bits! Aliens! An interesting accounting system involving beer! But mostly reading a Jason Hough book is like SKPOW BAM KABLOOIE then whoa wait holy shit dude no augggh BOOM SPLORTCH EEK I can’t find my legs what happened to my legs SPAK THUNK CRUNCH hey wait are they gonna kiss now all riiiiight oh but pardon me is that a Death Zeppelin or KRAKA-CHOOM WHUMP SHLIK oh gods it’s that thing I told you about! RUN! RUN!

And then it gets really exciting.

I did blurb this a little more professionally than SKPOW BAM KABLOOIE in case you’re interested: “One hell of an entertaining read. Hough continues to deliver white-knuckle books anchored by unusual and fascinating characters. Zero World is a giant cup of pure badassery that secures his place among the finest sci-fi action writers today.”

But seriously: SKPOW BAM KABLOOIE.

Best thing? You get a Dire Earth novella for free at the end, which will introduce you to his Dire Earth Cycle if you’ve never checked that out before. Pre-order, my friends—it’s out August 18! Hunt the man down and get his signature! Behold: Handy linky-poos!

Amazon Barnes & Noble iTunes Kobo

You can also enter my contest! I have two signed ARCs of ZERO WORLD to give away to US addresses only. Send an email with the subject line ZERO WORLD CONTEST to kevin at kevinhearne dot com, maybe write something awesome in there like SKPOW BAM KABLOOIE, and you’re entered. Contest ends Friday. I’ll pick two random winners and mail the book!

BUT ALSO I have other books to give away. A hardcover copy of Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey. (I ordered an extra one.) A bunch of slightly damaged copies of my books—nothing wrong with the insides, just slightly bent covers. I’ll sign those. Heck, I’ll sign Nemesis Games too. Anyway, if you don’t win Zero World you might win one of those.

Other great books to look out for/preorder: Lightless by C.A. Higgins and Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen. I read early copies of those too and loved them!

Hi NYC! I’m gonna be there this week! Me n’ the kid are going to check out some museums and take in a show. I don’t really have a new book release out so it’s kinda silly for me to try to arrange something formal, but on the other hand I rarely get to New York. Last time was three years ago, I think?

So let’s do a Ninja-Meet-n-Greet-and-dump-some-money-on-an-unsuspecting-indie-store. THIS IS A TOTALLY NORMAL THING TO DO.

Here’s where: Word Bookstore, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Monday, July 6, at 7 pm. Lots of the stores in the big city have super-duper important events going on already and I don’t want to stomp on them. Besides, there are MANY reasons to like Word!

1.) They carry my books.
2.) They have stationery. I’m kind of a stationery geek so I’m going to score some while I’m there. I have pen pals to keep happy.
3.) They ship fabulously. I ordered a signed copy of The Eterna Files by Leanna Renee Hieber from them and it arrived in perfect condition. They obviously love books. I was super impressed.
4.) They like doggies. They have a Word Doggie Tumblr where they feature pictures of customers’ dogs. I like doggies too!
5.) They are in Brooklyn and I hear that’s where I can observe wild hipsters in their natural habitat.

It would be awesome of you to spread the word about Word on your personal network(s). We might get two whole people there (me and my daughter) or we might have enough to start our very own hootenanny. You never know. We’ll see what social media can do. Mostly, I wanna 1) try to see you if you wanna see me and 2) support a spiffy indie store. They might not have a ton of my books in stock because, again, this is a ninja deal—so bring what you want but also see if you can snag something from Word to make their Monday awesome & because they are turbo supportive of authors.

And if y’all can’t make it, no worries! I know this is super-short notice. That’s how these ninja things go. Just wanted to make myself available since I’ll be in town. LOVE AND TACOS, NY!

If you somehow missed it, the cover for STAKED, book 8 of the Iron Druid Chronicles, is out there and it’s turbo spiffy! As luck would have it, it’s also here so you don’t have to go far to check it out.

PURTY, right? It’s out January 26 and you can pre-order now from wherever you dig buying your books. (Please do. Besides just spreading the word about a book to your friends, pre-ordering is honestly the best thing you can do for an author you’d like to see write more stuff. Doesn’t matter what format, it’s all good. If you don’t have an indie bookstore near you, here are some handy-dandy linky-poos to the big ones: Amazon B&N iBooks)

I’ll have tour info later on. Phoenix and Denver are for-sure stops! Everything else is still under discussion.

Ready for a smokin’ hot deal? I BET YOU ARE. Since Shattered is out now in paperback you can get a hardcover for dirt cheap. A sexy signed one! Fifty percent off when you order from Oberon’s Treat Shop and use the coupon code FIFTY at checkout. And the first forty people to buy a hardcover from Oberon will also get a promo code for a free audiobook download of Two Tales of the Iron Druid Chronicles. BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! I still have a few of these Oberon posters left. Lookit:

I’d like to get rid of them. So for people who order hardcovers of Shattered I’ll throw in a signed poster too until I run out! Let me stress that I only have twenty or so—it’s a first-come first-served thing.

Let’s see, what else? OH YEAH. I will be places later this year! Salt Lake Comic Con in September and MileHiCon in Denver in October! If you’re going to be at either one (or might decide to go soon) I hope to see you there!

A few peeps have asked about the Iron Druid ringtones recorded by Luke Daniels. Those are still coming—I just haven’t had time to get to them. Stay tuned for that!

What I’m writing now: A Plague of Giants, the first volume of my epic fantasy trilogy. I’m already more than half finished and I’m excited about getting to the end!

Thank you all for reading. Love & tacos for everyone!

I’m going to Supanova Expo in Sydney June 19-21 and in Perth June 26-28! So excited to meet all you Aussies & Kiwis!

I’ll be spending the majority of my time at the Booktopia area, which I’m given to understand is easily located on the venue map thingie. I will have some panels too, of course—see the event programme and then see me there! (Can I just say I love the bonus letters in UK/Aus English? Programme is so much fancier than program and favourite is my favorite.)

Apologies that I won’t be visiting other cities. I’ll be all business those two weekends of Supanova, but in between I’ll be hanging out with my family, fraternizing with koalas and quokkas, running from giant spiders, that sort of thing. My mom’s wanted to go to Australia since she was wee and now she’s finally going. And it’s also downtime for me; I just finished writing Staked this morning—I’ve been writing one thing or another nonstop since New Year’s—and I need a break. Not even taking my laptop with me. Bringing lots of books to read, though!

I’m reading two ARCs right now: Lightless by CA Higgins and Trailer Park Fae by Lilith Saintcrow. I also have Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht and Corsair by James L. Cambias, and I’m sure I’ll pick up additional goodies while at Supanova!

(By the way: Staked will be out Jan. 26. If you haven’t read Three Slices yet, that contains an important novella set in between Shattered and Staked—snag it for your Atticus & Oberon fix!)