Location visits, the new book, and more...

Been a very busy week, as I have been attending to the final polishes of the new Fires in Eden Book, while keeping up with Swordbearer tasks, and attending to my tasks as a technical director for the broadcast of the very prominent Keeneland Thoroughbred September Sales going on right now in Lexington.

It is kind of a surreal climate, when you begin to regard a $250,000 sale as being "run of the mill", lol. We've seen a 4 million dollar sale and another for over 2 million, and overall it seems to be going fairly well. The horse industry has taken a real pounding in the last couple of years, and I am really hoping that this sale goes well as Keeneland is a first class place that has been outstanding to work with. They take great care of those who come in to work with them. The dynamics of the sale is fun to observe. It is a massive undertaking with hundreds upon hundreds of horses being housed and moved on a daily basis. By the end we will have seen a few thousand thoroughbreds with prime pedigrees move through the arena, and the sales totals will exceed a couple hundred million dollars.

I must say that it would be nice to bounce into someone who was wanting to get a movie going as much as they want to get a horse!

Swordbearer preparations are falling into place. We have the big scene on the 25th in Frankfort KY, involving the sword fight between Al Snow and Benjamin Wood. We will then have our final two shoots on October 4 and 5 in Bourbon County Kentucky. I don't think it will be all that long until we have at least a teaser trailer to show.

I am really excited about the new Fires in Eden book. Similar to the situation with the release of The Storm Guardians in the Rising Dawn Saga, this is the second book in the series. With the foundation and parameters set in book one, book 2 can really accelerate with events and action. It contains some huge revelations for the series, and has loads of high-octane action and an absolutely epic battle in it. I cannot wait to get this one out.

Matt will be very immersed in the artwork for this one shortly, and I have no doubts that it will turn out amazing, as all of his work has been in the past. Once the artwork is finished, we will also be rather speedy in getting the first book trailer up for this new release. (and if you haven't seen the trailers for the other three books, they are all up on YouTube or watchable on my own site at stephenzimmer.com )

This week also saw The Exodus Gate and The Storm Guardians pop up in Apple's iBookstore. The price for the eBooks is the same as the Kindle titles, $2.99 for The Exodus Gate and $3.99 for The Storm Guardians. Crown of Vengeance should be available any day now, and the three titles will be appearing the new prices in a slew of other eBook outlets.

I hope to have more soon regarding the new announcement involving an ongoing writing project that I will be doing. I think fans of Fires in Eden and The Rising Dawn Saga will be very pleased with what this project is, hint, hint...

anyhow, that's it for the moment. time to get back to business, and get ready for going to visit the location we are using for the 4th and 5th of October. I'm heading that way later today!

and on a personal note, my mom is doing much better healthwise. At least she's maintained a fairly steady blood pressure since coming back from the hospital. I hope that the new medication approach helps to keep it managed, but we will be watching her closely. The doctors cannot explain why she had the severe spike in blood pressure prior to being taken to the emergency room. I really appreciate all of the kind emails and messages that I received, and I did pass on all the well wishes to mom, which she was very touched by.